Author Archives: The Voice

Throughout the 12 days of Christmas, we’re bringing you the 12 most-read posts on this site of 2014. Here’s today’s offering…

Not everything you read on the internet about UKIP and Nigel Farage is true – Caron Lindsay | Tue 20th May 2014

There is no need to make stuff up about Farage and UKIP – there’s more than enough crazy stuff out there that is directly attributable to them. This has always been the way. Five years ago, just before the European election, I wrote about how they are really bad news. I could have written the same things today:

Throughout the 12 days of Christmas, we’re bringing you the 12 most-read posts on this site of 2014. Here’s today’s offering…

The Economist’s political map of the UK: the north/south divide revealed – Stephen Tall | Sun 21st April 2013

Four points:

The Economist map only shows results under first-past-the-post: it therefore exaggerates the extent of support for both Labour and the Conservatives.

The map nonetheless highlights the retreat of the Tories from the north and Labour from the south. This is dangerous for both parties, as there is a likely spiral effect, with each becoming more remote from the concerns of the

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Throughout the 12 days of Christmas, we’re bringing you the 12 most-read posts on this site of 2014. Here’s today’s offering…

We should support Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Maajid Nawaz in the face of death threats – Stephen Tall | Tue 21st January 2014

The Archbishop Cranmer blog has a good account of Maajid’s motivations:

The fact that the BBC chose to censor a T-shirt depicting this cartoon rather upset Muslim Maajid Nawaz, who was a guest on the show. He proceeded to tweet out the image to his followers with the message: “This is not offensive & I’m sure God

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Throughout the 12 days of Christmas, we’re bringing you the 12 most-read posts on this site of 2014. Here’s today’s offering…

Politics is losing people, especially young people – what do we do about it? – Andy Boddington | Tue 10th September 2013

This is not just a question of one generation being more interested in politics than those that came after it. A detailed look at the data shows three effects. Firstly, people across all age groups have become less politically aligned – again in the sense of “I’m a Tory” – and less interested in politics in recent years

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Throughout the 12 days of Christmas, we’re bringing you the 12 most-read posts on this site of 2014. Here’s today’s offering…

Ukip examined: who they are, what they stand for, and what it all means for British politics – Stephen Tall | Mon 28th April 2014

There is one off-note in Revolt on the Right. Ford and Goodwin dismiss the 1980s’ insurgence of the ‘radical centre’ when the SDP, albeit briefly, looked poised to win the popular vote: “in the end the SDP fell flat, barely denting the mould on the party system they had set out to break”. Except,

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Throughout the 12 days of Christmas, we’re bringing you the 12 most-read posts on this site of 2014. Here’s today’s offering…

Opinion: Why I was persuaded to back LibDems4Change – George Potter | Sat 24th May 2014

… I’m now backing LibDems4Change and have signed their open letter calling for a leadership contest. I’m not naïve. I don’t think electing a new leader would mean a clean break. I don’t think it will magically win us back loads of lost votes. But a new leader won’t start with the same trust deficit that Nick Clegg has. A new leader will be

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Throughout the 12 days of Christmas, we’re bringing you the 12 most-read posts on this site of 2014. Here’s today’s offering…

Opinion: Why changing leader now WILL save the party in 2015 and beyond – Jonathan Pile | Tue 24th June 2014

Could ditching Clegg this summer really help the party? Absolutely Yes. It would signal that we have listened to the voters – a fundamental requirement for a party that calls itself democratic. A new leader – be it Vince Cable, Tim Farron or anyone else known by the public to have agonised with the choices forced on

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Throughout the 12 days of Christmas, we’re bringing you the 12 most-read posts on this site of 2014. Here’s today’s offering…

Rochester & Strood by-election: Ukip win, Lib Dems lose 11th deposit – Stephen Tall | Fri 21st November 2014

For the Lib Dems… well, we’ve been here before, haven’t we? Ten times before, to be precise: that’s the number of lost deposits we’ve racked up so far. At £500 a pop it’s one other way the Lib Dems are slowly helping to slow down the spiralling national debt.

We were never serious players in this by-election. Everyone knew it,

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Throughout the 12 days of Christmas, we’re bringing you the 12 most-read posts on this site of 2014. Here’s today’s offering…

Clegg opposes ban on halal and kosher slaughter; now we need to hear his reasons – Nick Thornsby | Thu 6th March 2014

This issue is a classic liberal dilemma, requiring us to consider competing rights: on the one hand the right of animals not to be caused unnecessary pain and of society to impose regulations to ensure this; on the other the right of religious observants to cause pain to animals that, on their interpretation, religious texts require.

Given

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Throughout the 12 days of Christmas, we’re bringing you the 12 most-read posts on this site of 2014. Here’s today’s offering…

Time for Nick Clegg to ditch the “Great Britain not Little England” line – Stephen Tall | Sun 30th March 2014

I realise that what Nick Clegg refers to as ‘Little England’ is a catch-all term for the right’s “inward-looking and defensive agenda”. But, to many voters listening, it will more likely appear that their identity is simply being belittled by one of those Westminster elite politicians they feel so detached from. It’s the kind of language that fuels

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Throughout the 12 days of Christmas, we’re bringing you the 12 most-read posts on this site of 2014. Here’s today’s offering…

Newark by-election: Tories win well, Ukip falls short, Labour dips, Lib Dems collapse – Stephen Tall | Fri 6th June 2014

And then there’s the Lib Dems… It was another dire night, to cap a dire fortnight. We didn’t just lose our deposit, we came sixth. Our vote collapsed. Four years ago, 10,246 Newark voters marked a ‘X’ beside the Lib Dem box. Yesterday, just 1,004 did so. In contrast to the Tories, not a single Lib Dem MP

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