Author Archives: The Voice

Julian Huppert talks about Lib Dem policies on Science and other things

SCIENCE Matters is a series of interviews organised by the British Science Association with six Science spokespersons. Here is Julian Huppert doing us proud.

Posted in News | Tagged and | 3 Comments

New Party Election Broadcast. Helen makes up her mind

The third Liberal Democrat election broadcast was shown this evening. It continues the theme in the last one, showing a woman, Helen,  driving around at night listening to the radio as she makes up her mind how to vote. Unusually, most of the callers to the radio show highlight the achievements of the Lib Dems on pensions, the NHS, protecting the schools budget, fantastic, trustworthy  Liberal Democrat MPs who care about their communities, cuts in income tax. Then it continues the theme of Lib Dems protecting against Labour recklessness & Conservative heartlessness. Will Helen turn right, left, or go straight on? Watch below.

Just as an aside, we love that the star of the video is called Helen. We are sure it must be a nod to the Divine Ms Duffett so beloved of party activists.

Posted in News | Tagged and | 27 Comments

Nick Clegg: We don’t think it’s fair to make the poorest pay for the wealthiest

Nick clegg on Last LegAs David Cameron rolled out another Tory tax cut for the wealthiest in society, Nick Clegg showed where the Liberal Democrat heart lies by setting out Liberal Democrat plans to deal with the deficit without causing more hardship for the poorest. On welfare, the party intends to make £3.5 billion worth of cuts but these will be targeted at the wealthiest pensioners with the withdrawal of Winter Fuel Allowance and free tv licences from households with a higher rate taxpayer. He said that you have to look at who pays to see where a party’s values lie:

So who is asked to pay is one of the most revealing things a political party can tell you about its values

Who wins and who loses, who will make the sacrifices and who will reap the rewards, tells you where a party’s heart really lies.

The Conservatives appear to believe in making the poorest and the most vulnerable in our society pay for the wealthiest.

Labour appear to want the next generation to pay for the mistakes of this one.

The party is keen to show itself as the compassionate, responsible adult in the room when it comes to balancing the books. They have come up with a detailed plan which should appeal to both Labour-leaning and Conservative-leaning voters in key marginals – and both in Scotland where there is increasing evidence of people being prepared to vote tactically to stop the SNP.

Also included are plans to make non-doms pay more which make more sense than Labour’s garbled plan announced this week, and to reform the Barnett Formula to make it fairer to Wales.

Here is his speech in full:

Posted in News | Tagged , , , and | 30 Comments

Nick Clegg on the Digital Rights Bill

Today’s campaign theme has been the Digital Rights Bill that the party wants to introduce to protect people’s rights against misuse of their data and protect them from unwarranted intrusion by the state. The Bill would introduce:

Prison sentences for companies conducting large-scale data theft and illegally selling on personal data;

Beefed up powers for the Information Commissioner to fine and enforce disciplinary action on government bodies if they breach data protection laws;

Legal rights to compensation for consumers when companies make people sign up online to deliberately misleading and illegible terms & conditions;

Code of Practice for online services who would by law have to correct information about members of the public where it is inaccurate or defamatory;

Enshrining in law the responsibility of government to defend the free press, including the rights of journalists and citizen journalists to express their views freely online;

Prevent government from watering down cyber-security and encryption measures used by British business.

Nick Clegg talked about why it is important

Posted in News | Tagged , and | 11 Comments

Two unmissable events tonight

Lynne FeatherstoneMost Liberal Democrats will be out campaigning in the early evening, but be aware that there are two very interesting things happening on radio and televisions. Typically they are both happening at roughly the same time, but that’s not so much of a problem in these days of modern technology.

First of all, on LBC, there’s a Women Leaders’ Debate. Our representative is Lynne Featherstone and she’s up against Conservative Nicky Morgan, UKIP’s Diane James and Harriet Harman for Labour.  It all kicks off at 7pm and you can watch here then or later.

Then at 7:30 pm on ITV (8pm on STV), there’s an in-depth profile of Nick Clegg where he and Miriam talk to Tom Bradby about the last five years.

Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 5 Comments

Mike Crockart retiring? Errr, no…

Edinburgh West Liberal Democrat candidate Mike Crockart, elected as MP in 2010, has been quick to emphasise that he is standing again for Parliament after a letter sent round by his SNP opponent Michelle Thompson, who was once his boss at finance firm Standard Life, referred to him as the “retiring MP.” She says she didn’t mean to imply that he wasn’t standing. The Evening News has the story:

But Mr Crockart – who worked under Ms Thomson at Standard Life around 15 years ago – said he would fight for re-election on May 7 and blasted the document as “misleading”.

It is the latest spat in a fight that has seen the contenders open campaign offices right next to each other – with Mr Crockart putting up a window display taunting his opponent.
He has also demanded Ms Thomson “correct the mistake” in her letter and ensure nothing else is published with similarly “inaccurate” information.

Mr Crockart was elected as constituency MP five years ago with a majority of 3803 over Labour. He said: “It has been brought to my attention that the SNP candidate for Edinburgh West recently sent a letter to voters across Edinburgh which twice referred to me as ‘the retiring MP’.

“I want to categorically state that I am not retiring. I am fighting this election and intend to be returned as the Member of Parliament for Edinburgh West on May 7.

“Whilst I am sure that this poorly chosen phrase has ­simply been misused, I am concerned that the many voters who received this letter could be misled into believing that I am retiring and standing down at this election.”

Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 3 Comments

Donate to Lib Dems today to be in with a chance of the funniest dinner you will ever have

The Obama campaign pioneered the online micro-fundraising that we see so much of today. Remember getting all those email inviting you to donate $3 to have a chance of dinner with Obama.

The Liberal Democrats have today taken another leaf out of their book, offering dinner with comedy legend John Cleese if you donate any amount of money to the party before April 17th.  From Python to Fawlty Towers to hilarious films like Clockwise and A Fish Called Wanda (which was on the other night), he has been making us laugh for decades. These things don’t really date, either. All these things are as hilarious now as they were then.

So, I think the phrase is donate early and donate often. And if you do, there’s a wee surprise for everyone. I won’t spoil it for you but it’s good. 

Posted in News | Tagged , and | 3 Comments

Miriam Gonzalez Durantez supports Lynne Featherstone’s campaign

Miriam Gonzalez Durantez went to Hornsey and Wood Green yesterday to campaign with Lynne Featherstone. Here they are putting up the 500th stake board.

It’s great to see two women who have done so much to help women and girls in this country and across the world together.

If you have been impressed with her work over the past five years, you might want to donate to Lynne’s campaign.

Miriam said of Lynne:

Posted in News | Tagged , and | 15 Comments

You don’t have to choose between the NHS and the Economy…

…as this infographic from Richard Morris reminds us. It definitely deserves a wider audience.

Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 84 Comments

Tributes to Sutton’s Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader, Colin Hall

We’ve heard the sad news that Cllr Colin Hall, the Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader of Sutton Borough Council, died last week after a short illness. He was only 53.

Tributes have been paid to him on the Sutton Liberal Democrat website. Go below the cut to read a beautifully crafted and heartfelt obituary by his old friend Ed Fordham.

Council leader Ruth Dombey said:

Colin was a wonderful colleague and a good friend. He was passionate about the borough and dedicated to his work as a councillor.

His particular interest was the environment and how to make Sutton a more sustainable place to live. He was highly respected across London for his knowledge and experience and tributes are flowing in from people who admired his work.

He was kind and generous and always ready to help and guide others.  Colin’s wife and three children are overwhelmed by depth and warmth of the huge number of tributes they have received.

He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

Tom Brake MP said:

It was very clear that he was totally committed to Sutton and he had a particular commitment and interest in environmental issues. His passing will be a great loss to Sutton and my thoughts are with his family at this very difficult time.

Posted in News | Tagged , , , , and | 4 Comments

Mayor of Deal Deryck Murray leaves Labour and joins Liberal Democrats

Deryck Murray joins Lib Dems

Good news from Kent as the Mayor of the Town, Cllr Deryck Murray resigns from Labour and joins the Liberal Democrats.

Cllr Murray said:

I regard the Liberal Democrats as the sensible party with a conscience.  Family tradition kept me in Labour.  But we must look to the future and I think the Liberal Democrats are the progressive force that can make a difference locally and nationally.”

My political hero is Vince Cable.  He always makes sense and answers questions.  He listens patiently and wins the argument.”

The Liberal Democrats have had a fabulous influence on this government and made it more compassionate and humane.”

Locally neither Labour nor the Conservatives can make a difference.  Some Labour councillors rarely read the papers for council meetings.  Local Conservatives waste time and public money making silly complaints that aren’t upheld.”

The local Liberal Democrats have impressive, capable people and our town is worse off for not having more of them on the council.  I hope they will be on the council soon.

Posted in News | Tagged , and | 5 Comments

Condolences to Charles Kennedy and his family

The Lib Dems are more of a family than a political party. When one of our number is going through hard times, we all feel for them.

It was incredibly sad to see from Twitter this morning that Charles Kennedy is mourning the loss of his father. Ian Kennedy died last night.

We send our love, sympathy and thoughts to Charles and all of his family. I’m sure it’s a sentiment shared by all of our readers.

Posted in News | Tagged | 5 Comments

Nick Clegg’s Easter Message 2015

The full text is under the cut:

Posted in News | Tagged and | 12 Comments

LDV’s Sunday Best: our 7 most-read articles this week

7 ver 4 fullMany thanks to the whopping 23,400  visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

Candid, competent Clegg puts in good performance in debate that fails to break the poll deadlock (127 comments) by Caron Lindsay

Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats can be very proud of themselves (164 comments) by Paul Walter

38 Degrees get it badly wrong on Lib Dem funding for NHS but don’t do nearly enough to put it right (44 comments) by Caron Lindsay

Posted in Site news | Leave a comment

Mathew Hulbert: “The vast majority of the good things done in this government were as a result of Liberal Democrat influence”

Barwell Councillor Mathew Hulbert has not always been the biggest fan of the coalition, it’s fair to say. However, he was incredibly fair about it in a recent debate for young people in Leicestershire. You can see his one minute pitch here:

Posted in News | 5 Comments

This is everything a leaders’ debate should be – with one of the best put-downs ever

Last month, Scotland’s four main party leaders debated each other for Glasgow University’s Politics Society. Willie Rennie, Jim Murphy, Ruth Davidson and Nicola Sturgeon spent an hour and a half discussing everything from austerity to Trident to drugs policy. They did it with loads of thoughtfulness and bags of humour. It makes me very optimistic about the tv debate between these four on Tuesday night and the subsequent one with Greens’ Patrick Harvie later in the campaign. Unfortunately, UKIP will also be taking part in that second debate and given the horrid comments by their MEP about an SNP minister, that could really sour the atmosphere.

It’s actually a very good watch and relevant to people across the whole UK. Willie Rennie was very strong on the economy, highlighting how France had tried the sort of policies that Nicola was advocating and these simply hadn’t worked.  When Nicola Sturgeon implied that her party represented Scotland, he very effectively called her out. Another highlight came when he invited Ruth Davidson to write a joint letter with him to Theresa May asking her to release the drugs policy review that Norman Baker said the Tories had blocked.

That drugs question, by the way, saw an open admission that three of the leaders had taken Cannabis.

You can watch the whole thing below:

Posted in News | Tagged , , , and | 4 Comments

Something to keep you giggling on the campaign trail

Possibly not if you are going canvassing though. You can just imagine knocking an a door and then an image of Sky News’ mash up of Clegg, Miliband, Cameron and Farage singing Boyzone’s I Swear pops into your mind unbidden. By the time the voter opens the door, you are giggling, and possibly drooling. Not the best way to win votes.

The thing about this is that after Thursday night, it seems so dated with just the four of them.

Posted in News | Tagged , and | 3 Comments

New campaign poster highlights tax cut.

The party issued a new poster today to highlight the raising of the tax threshold which comes into effect on Monday. It means that every taxpayer is £825 a year better off thanks to the implementation of the pledge that was on the font page of our manifesto.

Tax cuts election poster

 

Posted in News | Tagged and | 52 Comments

New Party Election Broadcast: Look left, look right then cross

The new election broadcast being broadcast right now on BBC1 moves from the open doors theme of the last two to emphasising the moderating influence of the Liberal Democrats. It’s that centre ground theme again that we’ve seen in the posters launched last week. Remember that few of us reading this will be the broadcast’s target audience. There is a Scottish version with a different soundtrack to incorporate the SNP.

Posted in News | Tagged and | 26 Comments

Well, it is April 1st

We’re pleased many of you enjoyed our little prank today.  To maintain the joke we kept all most of the comments in moderation, but have now released them, so you can go back and see who fell for it.

For some readers the penny only dropped when they read our new comments policy for today.

Here is a round-up of some other April Fools that we liked across the media:

The Guardian tried to get us to believe that Jeremy Clarkson had turned environmental campaigner.

Pink News told us that Nick Clegg had joined Grindr for the duration of the election.

And scientists at Cern say May The Force be with EU.

Mark Pack had a beautifully crafted piece about how the party was using automated technology. The first part was almost plausible. we rumbled it at the robo-calling and the end is hilarious.

Posted in Selection news | Tagged and | 6 Comments

What’s happening on P-36, Wednesday 1st April?

Shared Parental Leave is the theme of the day as the big yellow battle bus heads for East Dunbartonshire and a nursery visit.Parents of babies due on or after this Saturday will be able to choose how they share 50 of the 52 weeks of parental leave. The only stipulation is that mothers have to take the first two weeks after the birth.

This is a policy that ticks all the stronger economy, fairer society and opportunity for everyone boxes. Nick will be visiting the nursery with the minister who introduced the measure, Jo Swinson, in her constituency.

Also in Scotland, Willie Rennie gives a speech to the Scottish Police Federation. Police officers in Scotland have suffered from the actions of their senior managers in recent years. Their Chief Constable and his colleagues have been caught out telling untruths to Parliament over armed police and stop and search on several occasions. Officers are also reeling from a target driven culture that places the emphasis on form filling and targets rather than just doing the job.

Posted in News | Tagged , , and | Leave a comment

Liberal Democrat Voice comments policy upgrade

crotpa20002Following the dissolution of Parliament on Monday, today the terms of the Representation of the People Acts come into force. To comply with those terms, Liberal Democrat Voice is upgrading its comments policy forthwith. The enhanced policy can be read here. There will be a brief, almost indiscernible, pause in comments today while essential technical adjustments are transacted.

From now until election day, as per advice in the ALDC Election Law Handbook and in the Agents Manual, all comments by a parliamentary candidate, or by anyone who has campaigned (including telephone canvassing)  for a parliamentary candidate, should contain the correct imprint for that candidate. If a commenter has campaigned for more than one candidate then s/he should provide a separate imprint for each one.

Posted in Site news | Tagged and | 26 Comments

P-37: What are the Liberal Democrats talking about today? Mental Health and the manifesto for the mind

We’ll be having daily deeper and more detailed look at the party’s main theme. Today it’s mental health. Nick Clegg and Norman Lamb this morning said that Liberal Democrats (or should that be Democats?) would invest £3.5 billion in mental health over the next Parliament.

Part of our record in Government includes securing £150 million to help young people with eating disorders. A new video shows Kat sharing her experience of living with an eating disorder:

The Party’s Manifesto for the mind outlines a wide-ranging suite of measures to improve mental health services:

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 22 Comments

LDVideo: Nick Clegg speaking in Oxford West and Abingdon today

Thanks to Daisy Benson for putting this on You Tube. If this was the West Wing, it would be Nick’s stump speech and every time he speaks in the next few weeks, it’ll be the “modified stump” that he delivers.

Posted in News | Tagged , and | 18 Comments

LDV’s Sunday Best: our 7 most-read articles this week

7 ver 4 fullMany thanks to the  17,700 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

We’re heading for a minority Labour government supported by the SNP (101 comments) by Paul Walter

The attacks on Tim Farron need to stop – Vince Cable should know better (50 comments) by Caron Lindsay

Is David Steel right about the Lib Dem attitude to a future coalition (70 comments) by Caron Lindsay

Posted in Site news | Leave a comment

Wow, Labour really are pandering to UKIP, aren’t they?

Didn’t they once used to be the party that talked about international solidarity amongst workers? Didn’t they once used to at least say they stood for decent, liberal, progressive values?

Those days are gone. Look what you can buy in their shop for £5. 

Labour immigration mug

It’s one of their key pledges in this election. The way to deal with UKIP’s rise is to challenge them with evidence, not pander to them.

Posted in News | Tagged , and | 104 Comments

David Heath’s final speech in the House of Commons

David Heath
On Thursday a valedictory debate for retiring members took place in the House of Commons. Members whose service totalled several hundred years bade farewell to the Commons. Three of them were Liberal Democrats and we’ll be publishing their speeches in full. Today we have David Heath, MP for Somerton and Frome for 18 years. You can read the whole debate, with speeches from long-standing and distinguished MPs such as Gordon Brown, Joan Ruddock, Sir George Young and Elfyn Llwyd, here.

 

Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged and | 4 Comments

Sir Malcolm Bruce’s final speech in the House of Commons

Malcolm bruce glasgow 2014Today a valedictory debate for retiring members took place in the House of Commons. Members whose service totalled several hundred years bade farewell to the Commons. Three of them were Liberal Democrats and we’ll be publishing their speeches in full. First up is Sir Malcolm Bruce, MP for Gordon for the last 32 years. Today we have David Heath, MP for Somerton and Frome for 18 years. You can read the whole debate, with speeches from long-standing and distinguished MPs such as Gordon Brown, Joan Ruddock, Sir George Young and Elfyn Llwyd, here.

Posted in News | Tagged and | 4 Comments

+++ Lib Dem PPC arrested on historic child sex abuse allegations +++

According to Mansfield and Ashfield Chad, Jason Zadrozny has been arrested today over historic child sex abuse claims. Jason is a Nottinghamshire county councillor and also serves on Ashfield District Council. He has today withdrawn as the Parliamentary candidate for Ashfield, and has been suspended from the party.

Jason says:

I am in full cooperation with the Police and vehemently refute the allegations.

Comments on this post will be moderated. 

Posted in News | Tagged | Comments Off on +++ Lib Dem PPC arrested on historic child sex abuse allegations +++

LDVideo: Jeremy Browne MP’s final Commons speech – politics must seize the opportunities of the future, not preserve the past

Taunton Deane MP Jeremy Browne, who announced last year that he would not be seeking re-election having served in the House of Commons for nearly 10 years, took the opportunity of the debate following last week’s budget to make what was his final speech in the House. He used it to praise the coalition’s “vision” in its determination to solve the country’s weaknesses and to pay tribute to his constituency. He also returned to the theme of his book, Race Plan, calling for a less timid, more ambitious politics in order to prevent the UK becoming ever more irrelevant on the world stage.

You can watch Jeremy’s speech below or on YouTube here, and the Hansard transcript follows.

Posted in News | Tagged | 20 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • cim
    What part of the "triple lock" would you end, though? Allowing pensions to reduce below either CPI or average wage increases inevitably leads to pensioners stea...
  • expats
    Ed's first paragraph was a 'moan' about things are; his second was to promise to change it. What was missing was the "HOW" bit..* *Promising to call on 'exp...
  • Mick Taylor
    @Chloe. In a democracy. a majority of 1 is enough. How many elections have been won with a single or double figure majority? The plain fact is that the bill pas...
  • Mary ReidMary Reid
    @Jana - yes, of course we should treat people as individuals. But we have to marry that principal with the need to counterbalance past discrimination. Sometimes...
  • Mick Taylor
    Jason Connor is absolutely correct. Adam Shaw says that the gap has closed, but if you have only the state pension, even at the highest rate you have to live on...