Author Archives: The Voice

The Voice

In full: Nick Clegg’s immigration speech – “Successful immigration systems have to be managed”

By The Voice | Tue 5th August 2014 - 4:15 pm

Nick Clegg York Q&A Some rights reserved by Liberal DemocratsHere’s the full text of Nick Clegg’s speech today on the Lib Dem approach to immigration…

It should come as no surprise that I’m a believer in the benefits of well-managed immigration.

I lead, in my view, Britain’s only real internationalist party. For the Liberal Democrats this nation is always at its best when we are open and outward-facing. We draw immense pride from living in a country which, throughout its history, has always said: if you come here, if you contribute, if you play your part, Britain will give you a chance.

So I am never going to advocate pulling up the drawbridge because I think it’s what people want to hear. The Liberal Democrats are never going to mimic the likes of UKIP and others – the scaremongering, the immigrant-bashing, the seductive promise that all our problems will disappear if only we shut up shop and stick a ‘closed’ sign on the door.

We don’t meet every visitor with automatic suspicion. We believe everyone, no matter where they come from, should be treated with respect.

It wasn’t the Liberal Democrats who arranged for vans emblazoned with the words ‘Go Home’ to prowl around the streets of London. Had Jeremy Browne – the Liberal Democrat in the Home Office at the time – been consulted we would have put a stop to it then and there.

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Posted in News | 29 Comments
The Voice

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #384

By The Voice | Sun 3rd August 2014 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 384th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (27th July – 2nd August, 2014), together with a hand-picked quintet, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging.

As ever, let’s start with the most popular post, and work our way down:

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The Voice

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

By The Voice | Sun 3rd August 2014 - 12:30 pm

7 ver 4 fullMany thanks to the 14,400 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

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The Voice

Julian Huppert’s Tory opponent in Cambridge next May will be… an ex-Lib Dem London mayoral hopeful

By The Voice | Sun 3rd August 2014 - 10:55 am

chamali fernandoThe Cambridge News reports that Chamali Fernando has been chosen by the Conservatives to contest Julian Huppert’s Cambridge constituency:

A barrister and Liberal Democrat defector has been named as the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Cambridge. Chamali Fernando, 35, was adopted by party members to fight the 2015 poll at a special general meeting. She joined the Tories in 2009, two years after she unsuccessfully sought the Liberal Democrat nomination for the London mayoral poll. And it’s a case of second time lucky in Cambridge for Ms Fernando, who missed out

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 36 Comments
The Voice

In the next month 17 seats will short-list their wannabe Lib Dem MPs

By The Voice | Sat 2nd August 2014 - 5:15 pm

Lib Dems winning hereHere’s the full list of selection contests in the coming month available for Lib Dems on the approved parliamentary candidates’ list, together with the closing date for applications. They include Watford, on paper the 6th most winnable Tory seat for the Lib Dems, needing a swing of just 1.29%; and also Ludlow, a Lib Dem seat from 2001-05, held by Matthew Green.

The following seats have selections in progress and are currently advertising for candidates:

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Posted in Selection news | Tagged | 6 Comments
The Voice

Durham Lib Dems select Craig Martin as 2015 candidate

By The Voice | Sat 2nd August 2014 - 2:30 pm

Craig Martin headshotCongratulations to Craig Martin, selected on Thursday night by Durham Lib Dems to contest the seat, one of the most marginal in the North East, at the May 2015 general election.

The City of Durham is 27th on the unofficial list of top 50 targets, with a Labour majority of 3,067.

Craig, a 25-year-old teacher from County Durham, had this to say following his selection:

“Liberal Democrats in government have delivered for Durham: an £800 tax cut for 33,000 low and middle earners, £7.8m more in school funding for

…

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Posted in Selection news | Tagged , and | 4 Comments
The Voice

One way to ease your blood pressure when reading LDV comments threads

By The Voice | Sat 2nd August 2014 - 12:55 pm

Keep Calm and Comment PolitelyComments below-the-line are an integral part of LibDemVoice — it’s why our volunteer editors spend quite so much of their time actively moderating threads to encourage a debate that’s lively but respectful. However, readers may well have their own pet peeves: commenters who simply rub them up the wrong way, either with the content or tone of their replies.

Well, one reader has developed his own way of improving his enjoyment of the site, triggered by two recurring categories of comments which crop up regularly in discussions …

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Posted in Site news | 60 Comments
The Voice

What’s being debated in our members’ forum this week?

By The Voice | Sat 2nd August 2014 - 12:00 pm

members forum wordleLibDemVoice has two parallel sites. The first is our public blog, the thing you’re reading now. The second is our private members’ forum, which only current Lib Dem members can access.

If you’re a member and want to chat with fellow party members about any issue that’s on your mind, then why not sign up? In addition, you’ll be included in our regular surveys’ of party members’ views.

Here’s some of the most active discussions this past 7 days:

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The Voice

Clegg on schools, post-Gove: “We need to reset the relationship”

By The Voice | Fri 1st August 2014 - 10:40 am

clegg - tardisNick Clegg has used a major interview in the TES magazine to signal a turning of the page in the Coalition Government’s relationship with teachers following the removal of Michael Gove from the Department for Education.

Clegg on Gove’s departure:

“It’s an open secret that Michael Gove and I did not agree on a number of important substantive issues … It’s an opportunity to turn a page on the somewhat acrimonious relationship that existed between the government – and the Department for Education in particular – and a number of teachers,” he said. “We need to reset the relationship. Not, I should stress, by summarily abandoning all government policy or reforms, but first and foremost by ensuring that, where there is debate and discussion between the teaching profession and government, it is conducted in a spirit and tone of mutual respect. And that we seek out every opportunity to celebrate, and not always seek to denigrate, the fantastic work that teachers do.”

Clegg on the teachers’ strikes:

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The Voice

Stephen Lloyd on the Eastbourne pier fire: “I am as shocked and heartbroken as everyone”

By The Voice | Thu 31st July 2014 - 5:45 pm

Eastbourne pier on fireStephen Lloyd, Lib Dem MP for Eastbourne, has posted the following message on his Facebook page to update people on what action is being after the fire which ravaged the town’s pier:

Dear all,

Thanks for the support posted here after the tragic fire at the pier yesterday. I am as shocked and heartbroken as everyone. The important thing now is to get this fixed; keep pushing out that Eastbourne is well and truly open for business and to do what we can to help the Pier owners and the folk who had concessions on the Pier. Some of the kiosk owners have lost their livelihood and it’s important we rally around.

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The Voice

Michael Moore MP to trek Tweed to raise funds for children and rescue charities

By The Voice | Thu 31st July 2014 - 1:03 pm

At the Voice, we are always keen to support our parliamentarians in their fund raising activities, whether it’s giving up booze for a month like Alistair Carmichael did last year or scale an Ecuadorian volcano like Greg Mulholland did in May.

Michael Moore has announced that he and Borders Council Leader David Parker will be undertaking a 97 mile fundraising walk along the River Tweed at the end of August. From the Borders Telegraph:

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The Voice

Liberal Democrat scientists tell Juncker to keep Scientific Adviser amid pressure from environmental groups to drop the post

By The Voice | Wed 30th July 2014 - 3:16 pm

New EI Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has had lots of conflicting advice about what to do about the post of the Commission’s Chief Scientific Officer. Environmental NGO’s seem to want to get rid of the post while research organisations want to keep it. The Guardian reports:

The NGOs called the role, which was introduced in 2012 by current EC president José Manuel Barroso and has been occupied since then by a biologist at the University of Aberdeen, Prof Anne Glover, “fundamentally problematic”. Their letter argued that the non-elected role concentrated too much influence in one person, undermining research by the

…

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The Voice

Nick Clegg’s Message for Eid-al-Fitr

By The Voice | Mon 28th July 2014 - 2:00 pm

We join Nick Clegg in wishing those of you who are celebrating today a very happy Eid-al-Fitr.

Here is his video message, with transcript underneath:

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The Voice

Some reminders about commenting on Liberal Democrat Voice

By The Voice | Mon 28th July 2014 - 9:06 am

One of the joys of a site like this is the lively, good-natured and well-informed discussion that can be found under perhaps not quite all of the posts.

A vital part of this is the respect that is shown for our comments policy which can be summarised as: be polite, be on-topic, and be who you say you are. We have this policy because we have to take some responsibility for what appears on the site, and because this is our place to talk, not our place to indulge the most abusive people on the internet. (They have many more sites than we do.) If you disagree with the comments policy, you can comment on a post like this one, but it would off-topic on the rest.

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Posted in Op-eds and Site news | Tagged | 50 Comments
The Voice

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

By The Voice | Sun 27th July 2014 - 11:30 am

7 ver 4 fullMany thanks to the 13,600 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

David Ward: “If I lived in Gaza would I fire a rocket? Probably yes” (75 comments) by Stephen Tall

Tim Farron’s Beveridge Lecture in full (37 comments) by The Voice

Opinion: Beware conflating offence with racism – don’t demand David Ward’s expulsion (39 comments) by Jonathan Brown

Good news: Voters places themselves and the Lib Dems in the centre. Bad news: that doesn’t mean they’re liberals (52 comments) by Stephen …

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The Voice

What’s being debated in our members’ forum this week?

By The Voice | Sat 26th July 2014 - 5:55 pm

members forum wordleLibDemVoice has two parallel sites. The first is our public blog, the thing you’re reading now. The second is our private members’ forum, which only current Lib Dem members can access.

If you’re a member and want to chat with fellow party members about any issue that’s on your mind, then why not sign up? In addition, you’ll be included in our regular surveys’ of party members’ views.

Here’s some of the most active discussions this past 7 days:

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The Voice

RIP Cllr Jo Stephenson, Lib Dem leader in Cumbria

By The Voice | Sat 26th July 2014 - 12:18 pm

jo stephensonJo Stephenson, Deputy Leader of Cumbria County Council and Lib Dem group leader, has died. The Westmoreland Gazette reports:

A LEADING Lake District politician who fell 30ft out of a window three weeks ago died in hospital last night, Cumbria County Council said today.

Liberal Democrat Coun Jo Stephenson suffered serious injuries including a broken pelvis, punctured lung and chest injuries following the incident in Windermere on July 4.

A statement released by Cumbria County Council this morning confirmed Coun Stephenson, who was the deputy leader of the authority, died in Royal Preston Hospital last night.

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Posted in News and Obituaries | Tagged , and | 1 Comment
The Voice

Lord Rennard: Lib Dems continue investigation into peer while party official apologises for lapse

By The Voice | Sat 26th July 2014 - 8:45 am

Chris RennardThe Guardian reports today on the latest developments in the Lord Rennard case, specifically:

  • A senior Lib Dem official has personally apologised to Lord Rennard “over the fact the party told the media an appeal against his suspension had been rejected before the peer himself was informed of the ruling.” (See LDV’s brief report, ‘Lord Rennard remains suspended’ (15th July).)
  • The party has abandoned its investigation into Lord Rennard for not apologising to the four women, who maintain he touched them inappropriately, as recommended by Alistair Webster QC’s inquiry,

    • …

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

    Ayoub Khan selected as Liberal Democrat candidate for West Midlands Police and Crime Commisioner by-election

    By The Voice | Wed 23rd July 2014 - 4:45 pm

    Police helmetA by-election is to take place on 21st August for the post of West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner after the sad death of the incumbent, Labour’s Bob Jones, on July 1st.

    The Liberal Democrat candidate will be Ayoub Khan, the 41 year old barrister and former councillor who fought the election in 2012.

    From the Birmingham Mail:

    The 41-year-old from Aston, who administered first aid to a gun-shot victim fifty yards from his house in 2002, was called to the bar in 2005.

    He was a Birmingham City

    …

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    Posted in News | Tagged , and | 5 Comments
    The Voice

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

    By The Voice | Sun 20th July 2014 - 4:45 pm

    7 ver 4 fullMany thanks to the 17,000 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

    …

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    Posted in Site news | 1 Comment
    The Voice

    Lib Dem MP Greg Mulholland becomes first MP to play rugby for GB

    By The Voice | Sun 20th July 2014 - 3:47 pm

    Greg GB 3Greg Mulholland, Lib Dem MP for Leeds North, made a little bit of history last week:

    On Saturday 12th July I had the huge honour of becoming the first MP to pull on the famous Great Britain white shirt with the red and blue ‘V’, and play for his country at rugby league. I was selected as part of the 20 man GB side who defeated Australia in the over 35s international in Warrington.

    How did he get on? Well, you can find out over at the party’s Ad Lib …

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    Posted in News | Tagged , and | 2 Comments
    The Voice

    Clegg refused to speak to Gove “for months”, told Cameron “life is too short” to continue rowing

    By The Voice | Sun 20th July 2014 - 2:00 pm

    Nick Clegg Q&A 19That’s the claim in today’s Independent:

    Nick Clegg has refused to speak to Michael Gove “for months”, according to a source close to the Deputy Prime Minister, revealing the extent of the breakdown at the heart of the coalition.

    Mr Clegg was involved in a number of vicious stand-offs with Mr Gove over his unpopular, reformist agenda before his shock demotion from Education Secretary to Chief Whip in last week’s reshuffle. The row escalated after the Lib Dems forced through a free school meals policy for five- and

    …

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    Posted in News | Tagged , and | 10 Comments
    The Voice

    Jo Swinson launches Lib Dem campaign to deliver equal pay in the workplace

    By The Voice | Sun 20th July 2014 - 12:00 pm

    jo swinson Alex Folkes/Fishnik PhotographyIn an email to party members, Jo Swinson, Lib Dem Minister for Consumer Affairs & Equalities, has launched a new campaign to deliver equal pay in the workplace:

    Shockingly, in 2012 women were paid nearly 20% less than their male colleagues. It is an unacceptable difference and one the Liberal Democrats are determined to tackle.

    Today we’re announcing plans to require large companies to publish the difference in pay between male and female workers. This will create pressure from staff and customers to close any pay gap and

    …

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    Posted in News | Tagged and | 40 Comments
    The Voice

    Tim Farron’s Beveridge Lecture in full: “Let’s say a huge yes to active, ambitious, liberal government and build a new consensus”

    By The Voice | Sun 20th July 2014 - 8:30 am

    Tim Farron MP speaks at the rallyLib Dem party president Tim Farron delivered the Beveridge Lecture at this weekend’s Social Liberal Forum conference. Here’s what he said…

    William Beveridge never led our country or our party. But he changed both in a spectacular way.

    He was a humble man, a good man and so I am going to make an assumption that he’d want to know what social Liberals plan to do next, rather than hear us eulogise about him.

    It’s a massive honour to be asked to give this …

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    Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 37 Comments
    The Voice

    Nick Clegg on Sunday Brunch this week

    By The Voice | Sat 19th July 2014 - 11:56 am

    According to Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch, Nick Clegg will be appearing on their programme on Sunday at 10 am.

    The programme tweeted about it today:

    Our slight worry is that they generally ask the guests to cook on this programme and we know that, shall we say, cooking isn’t Nick’s strong point. Not only that, but one of the other guests, Millie Mackintosh, was on Celebrity Masterchef recently and, in the opinion of some, …

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    Posted in News | Tagged and | 3 Comments
    The Voice

    Duncan and Andrew Hames make history

    By The Voice | Wed 16th July 2014 - 10:06 pm

    Last week Harriet Harman said a rumour had been put round that she’d – shock horror- taken a baby through the voting lobby:

    When I came back after having my first baby I was reported to the serjeant-at-arms for breaking the rules by taking my baby through the division lobby under my jacket.

    What a difference 30 years makes.

    Tonight, Jo Swinson tweeted:

    At least, we’re assuming that it …

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    Posted in News | Tagged , , , and | 2 Comments
    The Voice

    Lord Rennard remains suspended

    By The Voice | Tue 15th July 2014 - 9:02 pm

    According to the BBC, Chris Rennard’s challenge against his suspension from the party has been rejected.

    The former chief executive of the Lib Dems had been suspended amid claims that he had brought the party into disrepute by failing to apologise over sexual harassment allegations.

    …

    Lord Rennard challenged his suspension from the Lib Dems, saying it was against party rules.

    A Lib Dem source said: “His appeal against his suspension has been rejected. He remains suspended while the investigation continues.”

     

    Please note that all comments will be moderated on this post.

     

     

    Posted in News | Tagged | 8 Comments
    The Voice

    In the next month 28 seats will short-list their wannabe Lib Dem MPs

    By The Voice | Sat 12th July 2014 - 5:50 pm

    Lib Dems winning hereHere’s the full list of selection contests in the coming month available for Lib Dems on the approved parliamentary candidates’ list, together with the closing date for applications.

    The following seats have selections in progress and are currently advertising for candidates:

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    Posted in Selection news | Tagged | Leave a comment
    The Voice

    Julian Huppert: This is not Snoopers’ Charter. It’s what we had already plus additional safeguards

    By The Voice | Thu 10th July 2014 - 10:56 am

    Data CenterWe’ve been asked to reproduce Julian Huppert’s email with the details of the new legislation in a separate post so that people don’t have to go through the mammoth post to find it, so here it is. Now, because people are clearly wanting the debate to stay in one place, we’ve closed off comments. If you have a point to make, please do it on this post here.  We’re not doing it to be evil and awkward but because people have criticised us for having too many threads going …

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    Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | Comments Off on Julian Huppert: This is not Snoopers’ Charter. It’s what we had already plus additional safeguards
    The Voice

    Alistair Carmichael to co-host Scottish Fashion Awards

    By The Voice | Wed 9th July 2014 - 10:08 pm

    AlistairCarmichaelSomeone must have heard of Alistair Carmichael’s excellent skills at Ed Fordham and Russell Eagling’s wedding last Saturday. He’s only gone and got himself another hosting gig, at the Scottish Fashion Awards in September, just 17 days before the Referendum on independence.

    Fibre 2 Fashion has the story:

    The Scottish Fashion Awards have announced an impressive list of nominees and honourees for the 9th annual fashion extravaganza, which will take place in 8 Northumberland, London on 1st September 2014. The event will be co-hosted by The Secretary of State for Scotland Alistair Carmichael

    …

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    Posted in News | Tagged , and | 8 Comments
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