Author Archives: The Voice

Well, actually, students still quite like the Liberal Democrats

By The Voice | Mon 30th June 2014 - 4:43 pm

So, 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

…

Posted in News | 32 Comments

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

By The Voice | Sun 29th June 2014 - 5:00 pm

Here’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 general election 2015 | 14 Comments

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

By The Voice | Sun 29th June 2014 - 3:58 pm

Many 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

Posted in Site news | Leave a comment

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

By The Voice | Sat 28th June 2014 - 6:15 pm

Today’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

…

Posted in News | Tagged hampstead and kilburn, maajid nawaz, quilliam foundation and the times | 19 Comments

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

By The Voice | Sat 28th June 2014 - 10:10 am

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…

Posted in YouTube | Tagged featured, LGBT, london pride, nick clegg, pink news and same sex marriage | 2 Comments

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

By The Voice | Thu 26th June 2014 - 5:55 pm

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 andrew chamberlain, centre forum, centre forum orange book 10 years on, david laws, orange book, paul marshall, rebecca hanson and stephen tall | 29 Comments

Vince Cable scraps exclusivity clauses in zero hours contracts

By The Voice | Wed 25th June 2014 - 1:13 pm

Vince 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

Posted in News | Tagged employment, vince cable and zero hours contracts | 15 Comments

Kirsty Williams calls for anti-extremism strategy for Wales

By The Voice | Tue 24th June 2014 - 4:46 pm

Kirsty 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:

Posted in News | Tagged kirsty williams and Wales | 29 Comments

What’s on in our Parliaments this week?

By The Voice | Mon 23rd June 2014 - 9:15 am

What 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 …

Posted in Op-eds and Parliament | Leave a comment

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

By The Voice | Sun 22nd June 2014 - 1:25 pm

Many 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

Posted in Site news | Leave a comment

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

By The Voice | Sat 21st June 2014 - 8:30 am

Jackie 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 alcohol concern and jackie ballard | 20 Comments

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

By The Voice | Thu 19th June 2014 - 4:30 pm

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 …

Posted in News | Tagged female genital mutilation, gender equality, julian huppert and lynne featherstone | 32 Comments

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

By The Voice | Wed 18th June 2014 - 3:23 pm

Portsmouth 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

…

Posted in News | Tagged mike hancock | 11 Comments

Clegg picks Farron and Farron picks Clegg

By The Voice | Mon 16th June 2014 - 5:15 pm

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 bbc, humour, nick clegg, sunday politics and tim farron | 4 Comments

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

By The Voice | Mon 16th June 2014 - 1:16 pm

Nick 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,

…

Posted in News | Tagged liberal democrat manifesto 2015 and nick clegg | 21 Comments

What’s going on in our Parliaments this week?

By The Voice | Mon 16th June 2014 - 10:42 am

What will be on our parliamentarians’ minds this week?

The Senedd

The most important thing from a Liberal Democrat point of view is the ending of the consultation period on Kirsty Williams’ minimum nursing levels bill which she wrote about here in March. If you have something you want to say on this, you have till close of business tomorrow. Here’s the information you need to respond.

Today sees an event to mark Welsh Refugee Week. Later in the week there …

Posted in Parliament | Tagged scottish parliament, welsh assembly, westminster and what's on in parliament | 6 Comments

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

By The Voice | Sun 15th June 2014 - 2:45 pm

Many thanks to the 14,800 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

Tales from the Federal Executive: The one where we discussed the Elections (228 comments) by Caron Lindsay

Nick and the Sun, a missed opportunity (153 comments0 by Caron Lindsay

Cambridge Lib Dems back Nick Clegg and reject leadership ballot (128 comments) by The Voice

Nick Clegg on the Liberal Democrats’ unique mission (67 comments) by The Voice

LibLink: Jeremy Browne: The Lib Dems must define themselves more clearly (73 comments) …

Posted in Site news | Leave a comment

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

By The Voice | Sat 14th June 2014 - 1:00 pm

LibDemVoice 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:

Posted in Site news | Leave a comment

Seven Lib Dems feature in Queen’s Birthday Honours List

By The Voice | Sat 14th June 2014 - 9:10 am

Our congratulations to seven Lib Dems who feature in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

And please forgive us for starting with Mary Reid, one of this site’s volunteer editors. Mary was a Lib Dem councillor from 1997-2010 in Kingston upon Thames, serving on its executive board and as Mayor. She is named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) “For political service, particularly in Kingston upon Thames (London)”.

Posted in News | Tagged howard sykes, mary reid, paul tilsley and queens birthday honours | 8 Comments

Cambridge Liberal Democrats back Nick Clegg and reject leadership ballot

By The Voice | Fri 13th June 2014 - 10:50 pm

Cambridge Liberal Democrats have tonight rejected a resolution calling for a leadership ballot by 45 votes for 32. The Liberal Democrat Constitution makes provision for a leadership contest if 75 local parties vote for one at quorate general meetings.

The Cambridge News has the story:

Cambridge Liberal Democrats have decided to back Nick Clegg’s leadership.

Posted in News | Tagged cambridge liberal democrats, leadership, nick clegg and special general meetings | 130 Comments

It’s been a while since Liberal Democrats got 25% in a ballot…

By The Voice | Thu 12th June 2014 - 12:45 pm

That got your attention, didn’t it?

Actually, it wasn’t so much a ballot but a great big raffle. This morning the annual draw took place to select twenty MPs to select Private Members’ Bills. Five Liberal Democrats were allotted slots, with the top two places going to Andrew George and Michael Moore. John Hemming, Sarah Teather and Martin Horwood complete our quintet.

Posted in News | Tagged andrew george, john hemming, martin horwood, Michael Moore, private members bills and sarah teather | 12 Comments

New Liberal Democrat Mayor and Council Leader for Brentwood

By The Voice | Thu 12th June 2014 - 11:16 am

Brentwood Council has a new Liberal Democrat leader and Mayor after all the opposition parties formed an accord to remove the Tories from power. From the Brentwood Gazette:

Barry Aspinell and William Lloyd became leader and deputy leader of Brentwood Borough Council tonight at a packed council meeting, signalling the start of a four-party accord.

The annual council meeting saw the 19 of the 37 councillors present vote for the pair, who are members of the Liberal Democrats and Brentwood First respectively.

They form one half of the parties in “Brentwood Accord”, also

…

Posted in News | Tagged barry aspinell, brentwood council and karen shelvers | 11 Comments

Willie Rennie MSP: “I need you to get out and make our positive, sunshine case for a stronger Scotland which works together as part of the UK.”

By The Voice | Tue 10th June 2014 - 6:59 pm

Edinburgh Castle, stunning in the morning sun Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie sent this email to party members to spur them into action 100 days ahead of the Independence Referendum.

Dear Friend,

With 100 days until the referendum, Liberal Democrats have a golden opportunity to loudly state our case for home rule for Scotland in a federal United Kingdom.
We know that the majority of people believe Scotland has the best of both worlds as part of the UK family.

Posted in News | Tagged Scotland, Scottish independence referendum and willie rennie | 4 Comments

LibLink…Paddy Ashdown on the abuse against children in conflict

By The Voice | Tue 10th June 2014 - 4:45 pm

In a powerful article on Huffington Post, Paddy Ashdown writes in support of UNICEF’s campaign to end sexual violence against children in conflict. He writes:

During my years in Bosnia, both during the war and afterwards I heard and saw evidence of horrific stories of mass rape and sexual violence committed during the war. Thousands of women and children suffered terrible abuse and the physical and mental scars could stay with survivors for the rest of their lives.

Years later, sexual violence still remains entrenched in conflict zones around the world and children are often the most vulnerable. Children suffering in conflicts are growing up in a world where they face the daily threat of rape and abuse and sexual violence is considered the ‘norm’.

Posted in LibLink | Tagged featured and paddy ashdown | 2 Comments

Sebastian Kindersley selected for South Cambridgeshire

By The Voice | Mon 9th June 2014 - 2:54 pm

Congratulations to Sebastian Kindersley who has been selected to fight the South Cambridgeshire constituency.

The selection was undertaken recently in the expectation that Andrew Lansley would be appointed as a European Commissioner, forcing a high profile by-election.

However, rumours today suggest that Lansley may not be appointed after all.

Posted in Selection news | Tagged Sebastian Kindersley and south cambridgeshire | 2 Comments

Nick Clegg on the Liberal Democrats’ ‘unique mission’

By The Voice | Mon 9th June 2014 - 1:44 pm

This is the full text of the speech given by Nick Clegg today at Bloomberg.

The recent local and European election results were incredibly difficult for the Liberal Democrats. It’s been completely gutting to see good friends, longstanding councillors, outstanding MEPs – people who worked their socks off – lose their seats.

I’ve spent the last two weeks talking to lots of my colleagues in the party, listening to what people say about what we should do next, and I want to take a

…

Posted in News | Tagged featured and nick clegg | 68 Comments

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

By The Voice | Sun 8th June 2014 - 11:55 am

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

Newark by-election: Tories win well, UKIP falls short, Labour dips, Lib Dems collapse (210 comments) by Stephen Tall

Lib Dems need to take every opportunity to get our message out there (94 comments) by Nick Thornsby

Newark by-election: what I told the BBC’s Daily Politics (80 comments) by Stephen Tall

John Pugh MP writes..Liberals must tackle rising social inequality and improve social cohesion (55 comments) by John Pugh MP

Posted in Site news | 1 Comment

In the next month 8 seats will short-list their wannabe Lib Dem MPs

By The Voice | Sat 7th June 2014 - 5:40 pm

Here’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:

Posted in Selection news | Tagged general election 2015 | 10 Comments

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

By The Voice | Sat 7th June 2014 - 4:35 pm

LibDemVoice 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.

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

Newark

Tory Facing Seats: the structure of

…

Posted in Site news | Leave a comment

Eddie Clein on ‘Falling off the Fence’, his memoir of six decades in Liverpool politics

By The Voice | Sat 7th June 2014 - 2:30 pm

Eddie Clein, a long-standing former Lib Dem councillor and former Lord Mayor of Liverpool, has recently published his memoirs of his six decades’ involvement in the city’s politics – from his first win in 1969 through to his final defeat in 2012, aged 77. Here Eddie tells LDV a little more about his life and what the book covers…

As a key player in Liverpool’s Liberal Democrat administration (1998-2010), I thought it was important to place on record some of the party’s achievements and some of the

…

Posted in Books | Tagged eddie clein and liverpool | 8 Comments

Op-eds

The government’s £1bn school sports revamp talks a good game on SEND inclusion. So why are disabled children being benched? (Jean-François Burford)
Don’t slam the brakes on Britain’s EV revolution (Mark Hofman)
“How will you pay for it?” – The reply I’d love to hear Ed Davey give (Jamie Dalzell)
The Lib Dems created the triple lock – we should be the ones to set the terms for its end (Adam Shaw)
We are being held hostage by the Tory voters who have lent us their vote (Theo Rodwell)

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Actually, this Summer of Strategy could be quite good…

Josh Babarinde writes…The Lib Dem Summer of Strategy

Alison Suttie writes: Thank you to our volunteers

What’s going on with party strategy?

Author Archives: The Voice

Well, actually, students still quite like the Liberal Democrats

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

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

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

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

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

Vince Cable scraps exclusivity clauses in zero hours contracts

Kirsty Williams calls for anti-extremism strategy for Wales