Author Archives: The Voice

Check out Centre Forum’s Atlas of Variation on Mental Health

Phrenology head - mental health - Some rights reserved by evansvilleYesterday, Paul Burstow told us about the report published by the Mental Health Commission he chaired.

A few days earlier, Centre Forum produced a detailed and significant accompanying piece of work, an Atlas of Variation showing differences in prevalence, treatment and recovery from mental health conditions across England. The research, which you can read in full here,  shows huge variations in services in different parts of the country. Have a look and see where it’s a good place to have a mental illness and where you have to suffer unnecessarily as a result of poor provision.

Its conclusion shows that despite the Government’s strategy to improve mental health treatment and services, this isn t yet being felt on the ground in many places:

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Kirsty Williams condemns sacked Welsh Labour environment minister’s “smear campaign”

Kirsty WilliamsKirsty Williams, leader of the Welsh Lib Dems, has condemned Labour’s environment minister Alun Davies – sacked today by First Minister Carwyn Jones – for mounting a smear campaign. Mr Davies had asked for details of farm subsidies paid to five opposition AMs: Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies and Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams, Conservative AM Antoinette Sandbach, Liberal Democrat William Powell and Plaid Cymru’s Llyr Gruffydd.

Here’s Kirsty Williams’ response:

The actions of Alun Davies as a Minister are atrocious and completely unacceptable for anyone serving in public

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Posted in News and Wales | Tagged , , and | 6 Comments

What’s on in our Parliaments this week?

Senedd - Photo by Laurence EdmondsonA quick look at what’s going on in our Parliaments this week.

Holyrood

The Scottish Parliament is in recess. MSPs return in early August for 3 weeks before breaking again before the Referendum.

The Senedd

Some interesting events this week, not least a motion to create an independent investigator into breaches of the Ministerial Code. This is something that Liberal Democrats have been calling for for years but the rest of the opposition parties have finally caught up in the wake of the scandal over Alun Davies. He breached the …

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Mike Bell resigns as candidate for Weston Super-Mare for family and work reasons and Welsh Liberal Democrat councillor joins Labour

Libby - Some rghts reserved by David SpenderThe Liberal Democrat PPC for Weston-Super-Mare, Mike Bell, has resigned from that role, although he will continue as a councillor. The Bristol Post reports:

Dad of two Mr Bell, who lives in the town, posted on social networking sites his decision to stand down as parliamentary candidate for the seaside resort with immediate effect.

Mr Bell thanked his supporters said: “I have resigned as Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Weston super Mare due to work and family commitments.”

Mike was the party’s candidate at the last

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

7 ver 4 fullMany thanks to the 12,700 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

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Congratulations Ed and Russell! AKA The Lib Dem Wedding of the Year

ConffetiCongratulations from all at Lib Dem Voice to Ed Fordham and Russell Eagling, who were married yesterday, Saturday 5th July. Their happy day made the local paper:

Campaigner Ed Fordham, a beaten candidate in Hampstead and Kilburn at the 2010 General Election, married his partner of 17 years, the former Fortune Green councillor Russell Eagling. The ceremony took place at the Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel in Hampstead.

The pair got engaged in Parliament Square after Ed Fordham went down on one knee in front of a crowd of more than 1,000

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

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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Stephen Williams on Quentin Letts: “I’m gay, Welsh, bald, slightly disabled – he’s been a s**t, a b*****d”

Stephen Williams MPIt’s safe to say Quentin Letts is not on Bristol West MP Stephen Williams’ Christmas card list. Speaking to Total Politics, he talks candidly about his experiences on the campaign trail and the hurt of being ridiculed by the Daily Mail’s Quentin Letts about the effects of his neurological disability.

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Paddy: Clegg “has had 17 buckets of s**t dumped over his head by the right-wing press”

Paddy Ashdown talks on "The global power shift" in Brussels March 1st 2012 -  Some rights reserved by PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE That’s the rather striking quote from Paddy Ashdown in an interview with Iain Dale on LBC radio. Here’s how the Herald reported it:

Speaking to LBC radio’s Iain Dale, Lord Ashdown insisted the party’s dismal poll ratings would recover as the “true Nick Clegg” was revealed to voters.

“The right-wing press in this country detest the coalition – detest it,” he said.

“If they want to destroy the coalition, what they do is

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LibLink: Charles Kennedy – European ‘federalism’ isn’t what you’ve been told it is

European Union flags - Some rights reserved by tristam sparksDoes ‘federal’ imply superstate, or would a federal Europe be one of ‘nation states wherever possible and Europe only where necessary’? This is the question Charles Kennedy addresses in the Guardian.

What struck me more than ever was the extent to which the political meaning of federalism has been twisted and caricatured out of all recognition in what passes for British political debate on matters European these days. The true (continental as well as North American) definition was well summed up

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Posted in LibLink | 39 Comments

Bearder elected Quaestor in the European Parliament

Catherine Bearder - Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0News reaches the Voice that Lib Dem MEP Catherine Bearder has become a Quaestor in the European Parliament:

Catherine was voted in as a Quaestor, a position responsible for helping to manage the day-to-day running of the Parliament and representing MEPs on its executive body, the Bureau.

She will be the UK’s only representative on the Bureau, which is responsible for overseeing the budget, administration and organisation of the European Parliament.

Catherine has said she will use the position to improve transparency, making more information available to MEPs and to the people they represent.

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++ Susan Gaszczak resigns from the Lib Dems over handling of Chris Rennard allegations

Susan Gaszczak and her family have quit the party over the handling of the Chris Rennard allegations. Earlier this afternoon, Susan tweeted this, including her open resignation letter:

Posted in News | Tagged and | 48 Comments

Nick Clegg wins out on EU referendum – but what will the party think?

EU Flag at the European Parliament at Strasbourg. Photo credit: Some rights reserved by European ParliamentToday’s Guardian reports that Nick Clegg has won the backing of MPs over whether to support a change in the party’s policy on an EU referendum:

The deputy prime minister, who has faced direct calls from ministers for a change of stance on the EU, won the agreement of the Lib Dem parliamentary party to stand by the current policy. This is to hold a referendum only if UK sovereignty is passed to the EU. The Tories

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Further progress on tackling revenge porn

UW-Madison Teaching Learning SymposiumIt’s good to see a commitment from Justice Minister Chris Grayling to do something to tackle the appalling practice of revenge pornography, where somebody posts a private intimate photograph on a public website as a means of causing distress to a former partner. As we’ve written many times recently, there is currently very little that the victim can do about it. Julian Huppert was the first to raise the issue in the House of Commons last month, and he wrote that he favoured a change in the …

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Charles Kennedy on the true meaning of the F word and the need for all pro-Europeans to put their heads above the parapet

Charles KennedyFeeling a bit bleak about the whole EU shambles at the moment? Think we’re headed for the exit? Well, if you want some good old fashioned common sense, listen to Charles Kennedy, here on yesterday’s Sunday Politics. Sadly, you have to listen to arch Eurosceptic Tory Daniel Hannan again, but it’s still worth it.

The most interesting thing is that Charles calls on those who see the value in the EU not just to leave it to the Liberal Democrats to make the case for staying in. They need to put their heads above the parapet, too.

There’s also a discussion on what federalism actually means. The Daily Fail and the Tory right think it’s all about creating a big European superstate. No, actually, it’s about making decisions at the lowest practical level. It’s about that most liberal of ideas, decentralisation. Watch and enjoy.

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Well, actually, students still quite like the Liberal Democrats

Bath Lib Dem studentsSo, students don’t hate us. There’s a surprise.

An article in the Financial Times highlights a poll which shows that support for the Liberal Democrats among students is still healthy, despite tuition fees.

13.4% of students back the party, compared to an average of 8.8%. Those levels need to be higher, but it’s an encouraging start.

The finding about Lib Dem support among students is likely to surprise critics who have long asserted that Mr Clegg’s party is disliked across Britain’s campuses.

“The core strategy with LDs have always been younger

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Posted in News | 32 Comments

In the next month 15 seats will short-list their wannabe Lib Dem MPs

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 Portsmouth South, where the incumbent MP, Mike Hancock, is currently suspended from the Lib Dems and is therefore ineligible to be selected for the party; and also the City of Durham, on paper the 27th most winnable seat for the Lib Dems, needing a swing of just over 3%.

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

Posted in Selection news | Tagged | 14 Comments

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

7 ver 4 fullMany thanks to the 12,400visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

Why changing leader now WILL save the party in 2015 and beyond (363 comments) by Jonathan Pile

Lord Storey on Nick Clegg: Not popular, nice guy, principled. What do the headlines report? Toxic (83 comments) by Caron Lindsay

Opinion: Tuition Fees not the crime of the century (142 comments) by Paul Walter

The Orange Book: 10 years on, 5 thoughts from me on its legacy (35 comments) by Stephen Tall

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The Times interviews Maajid Nawaz: “I am planning to become a quite respectable Liberal Democrat MP”

maajid-navazToday’s Times carries an in-depth interview with Maajid Nawaz, Lib Dem candidate for the three-way marginal London seat of Hampstead & Kilburn, and co-founder and chairman of the Quilliam Foundation, the counter-extremism think tank. (Readers may have caught Maajid’s excellent performance on BBC1’s Question Time on Thursday night.)

You can read it in full here (£), but here are a couple of excerpts for those who can’t read beyond the paywall:

Maajid Nawaz can understand why two aspirational Muslim brothers from Cardiff have ended up going on jihad in Syria. Born

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LDVideo: Nick Clegg – Let’s use Pride in London to celebrate advances in LGBT rights

Pink News reports that Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has released a video celebrating Pride in London, saying we should celebrate advances made for LGBT rights. It quotes Nick saying:

“It is quite fitting that on the eve of London Pride weekend we were able to announce the final, crucial steps to making equal marriage a reality. From 10th December those couples who are currently in civil partnerships but want to enter into a marriage instead, will be able to do so.

“It has been a long struggle to get here and many people have worked tirelessly to ensure true marriage equality, but it has been worth it. This weekend we will be able to celebrate the advances our society has made for LGBT people, their friends and families.”

You can watch the video here…

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LDVideo: David Laws on the success of The Orange Book, 10 years on

On Tuesday, Centre Forum, the liberal think tank, held a one-day conference in London to mark the tenth anniversary of the publication of The Orange Book (we have already run pieces on the event by Stephen here, by Andrew Chamberlain here and by Rebecca Hanson here).

David Laws, one of the co-editors of The Orange Book (along with Paul Marshall), delivered the key-note speech on the day, a video of which has now been put online by Centre Forum. You can view it below, or here on YouTube.

Posted in YouTube | Tagged , , , , , , and | 29 Comments

Vince Cable scraps exclusivity clauses in zero hours contracts

Vince Cable, Business Secretary at the launch of the joint government and UK automotive industry's automotive strategyVince Cable has introduced a Bill which will ban zero hours contracts that prevent people from looking for other work. These “exclusivity” contracts are particularly unjust. It’s one thing to not offer work in a particular week. It’s quite another to prevent an employee doing another job to supplement their income.

He spoke about this and other things that he had done to encourage fairness in the workplace in this video including increasing the Minimum Wage, enforcing it and curbing high executive pay, which is also available

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Kirsty Williams calls for anti-extremism strategy for Wales

Kirsty WilliamsKirsty Williams, the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, has spoken in the National Assembly today calling for an anti-extremism strategy for Wales. This was in response to the news that two men from Cardiff had appeared in a video designed for recruiting jihadists in Iraq and Syria.

She said:

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What’s on in our Parliaments this week?

Scottish Parliament 3What are our MPs, MSPs and AM’s going to be talking about this coming week?

Holyrood

It’s the last week of term for the Scottish Parliament this week until an earlier than usual return, on 3 August. MSPs will sit for 3 weeks before taking a further 4 week break for the Referendum.

One of the last items to be discussed in the Chamber this session will be a motion from Liberal Democrat MSP Alison McInnes, not on her usual justice portfolio, but on the BMA’s Your GP cares campaign. Her motion …

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

7 ver 4 fullMany thanks to the 13,300 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

Why a Lib Dem leadership election doesn’t look likely (131 comments) by Stephen Tall

Ashcroft battlegrounds poll: both Tories and Lib Dems down on 2010 but it’s the Tories who’d make gains (62 comments) by Stephen Tall

Sad news in the Liberal Democrat family (11 comments) by Caron Lindsay

Yes Scotland are a bit late to realise that Wings over Scotland is bad news (10 comments) by Caron Lindsay

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Former Lib Dem MP Jackie Ballard to join Alcohol Concern as CEO

License Some rights reserved by NCVOJackie Ballard was Lib Dem MP for Taunton from 1997 to 2001, winning her seat from the Tories before losing it after a single term – a defeat often attributed to her passionate opposition to blood sports, a controversial stand in the constituency. (Jeremy Browne re-gained Taunton in 2005.)

Jackie stood for the party leadership when Paddy Ashdown stood down in 1999, but came fourth out of five candidates. She didn’t look back after leaving parliament, and soon began a career in the charity sector, with …

Posted in News | Tagged and | 20 Comments

Lynne Featherstone on giving women “rights, voice, choice and control over their own lives”

Lynne Feahterstone visiting a Haringey primary school. Some rights reserved. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lynnefeatherstone/3010645357/It was International Development questions in the Commons yesterday. Lynne Featherstone was questioned about her work to end Female Genital Mutilation in a generation. She said that the subject should be a required subject on the school curriculum in areas of high prevalence. What I thought was most interesting was that in my young day, you didn’t get Tory dames asking questions about gender equality as Dame Angela Watkinson did. I liked Lynne’s choice of language in her answer. The whole …

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++Breaking: Mike Hancock apologises for “inappropriate and unprofessional” conduct

Mike HancockPortsmouth South MP Mike Hancock, whose membership of the Liberal Democrats has been suspended because of allegations concerning his behaviour towards a constituent, has this afternoon made a public apology for his behaviour.

From the BBC:

MP Mike Hancock has made a public apology over “inappropriate and unprofessional friendship” with a constituent.

Civil action against Mr Hancock, alleging he sexually assaulted a female constituent, was dropped earlier this month.

A statement said both parties had settled the claim on confidential terms.

Hancock said in the statement:

In October 2009 you first came to me

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Posted in News | Tagged | 11 Comments

Clegg picks Farron and Farron picks Clegg

We hear there’s some football tournament going on at the moment.

Yesterday’s Sunday Politics had a fairly puerile political sticker item yesterday. I really think there are better uses of Adam Fleming’s talents. Anyway, it was quite amusing to see how Nick Clegg and Tim Farron reacted to the stunt.

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

In Full: Nick Clegg’s statement from today’s Press Conference: Britain needs a new wave or energy, optimism and liberalism

Nick Clegg Q&A 12Nick Clegg gave his monthly press conference. This is the statement he had released in advance. We’ll deal with the press conference itself in another post.

Today I want to talk about the Liberal Democrats’ 2015 manifesto.  With just 325 days remaining in this Parliament, and the final year’s agenda of this coalition agreed and announced in the Queen’s Speech it is time to start talking about the future. It is time to set out our distinct Liberal Democrat vision for the next Parliament.  For a party in government,

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 21 Comments
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