Author Archives: The Voice

The Voice

In the next month 6 seats will short-list their wannabe Lib Dem MPs

By The Voice | Sat 12th April 2014 - 5:10 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 Bristol North West, on paper the 26th most winnable seat for the Lib Dems, needing a swing of 3% from the Tories.

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

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The Voice

Jeremy Browne responds on Twitter to Times’s ‘pointless’ front page headline

By The Voice | Sat 12th April 2014 - 10:00 am

Three weeks ago, Lib Dem MP Jeremy Browne joined Twitter. He’s been putting it to use this morning to refute The Times’s front page headline that claims he said the Lib Dems are ‘pointless’:

As for those imagining that he’s about jump ships, Jeremy couldn’t be clearer:

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 37 Comments
The Voice

Daily Mail serialises ‘The Double Life of Cyril Smith’

By The Voice | Sat 12th April 2014 - 9:50 am

daily mail cyril smithToday’s Daily Mail begins the serialisation of a new book, Smile for the Camera: the Double Life of Cyril Smith, co-authored by Rochdale’s Labour MP, Simon Danczuk, who went public with allegations of sexual abuse by his Liberal predecessor in 2012:

The book, co-written by Matthew Baker, reveals that as far back as the 1950s, Rochdale police had their suspicions about the politician. Smith, MP for Rochdale between 1972 and 1992, was governor of almost 30 schools. In the 1960s, he helped to open Cambridge House children’s

…

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The Voice

How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

By The Voice | Fri 11th April 2014 - 5:00 pm

Why not join hundreds of other Lib Dem Voice readers in getting our latest headlines by email?

Some people like regularly visiting a site to see if there’s new stories of interest. Some people like subscribing to its news feed (RSS) and checking that way. But if you prefer email, you can instead sign up to get a daily early morning email with a summary of the previous day’s posts from Lib Dem Voice, complete with a note of how many comments each post has got and convenient links to click on if any take your fancy and you want to take a read.

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The Voice

Ben Nicholls selected to re-gain Romsey and Southampton North for the Lib Dems

By The Voice | Fri 11th April 2014 - 3:30 pm

ben-nichollsWe’re a bit behind the times with this one, but better late than never… Ben Nicholls was selected as the Lib Dem candidate for Romsey & Southampton North – the seat which Sandra Gidley won in a famous 2000 by-election – at the next general election. Here’s how the local party reported the news:

At a packed meeting in Romsey’s Crosfield Hall , Romsey and Southampton North Liberal Democrats selected Ben Nicholls to be their prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC). The General Election will take place in May 2015.

Ben, 26, is a

…

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The Voice

So where exactly were the UKIP peers during the Immigration Bill?

By The Voice | Thu 10th April 2014 - 9:47 pm

house of lordsNoticeable by their absence during the Lords debates on the Immigration Bill were the three Peers who are members of UKIP. A cross-party group of peers, including our Shirley Williams, Roger Roberts, Bob Maclennan, Jonathan Marks, Alex Carlile, Nigel Jones, David Chidgey and Mike Storey thought this was worth mentioning in a letter to the Standard.  This is what they said:

The report stage of the Immigration Bill concluded in the House of Lords on Monday April 7.

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The Voice

The Immigration Bill: 23 Liberal Democrat Lords rebel on “stateless” power, 12 on child trafficking guardian

By The Voice | Wed 9th April 2014 - 7:00 pm

immigrationThe Immigration Bill was back in the Lords this Monday where the Government suffered two defeats. The first was to overturn the power of the Home Secretary to deprive terror suspects who had acquired British citizenship  (note, suspects, not anybody who has been convicted of anything) of that citizenship even if so doing would render them stateless.

Of the 242 peers supporting Lord Pannick’s amendment, 23 of them were Liberal Democrats. And their ranks included more than the usual Awkward Squad.

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The Voice

Danny Alexander tells Bloomberg of Liberal Democrat contribution to fair recovery and plans for Mansion Tax

By The Voice | Wed 9th April 2014 - 2:22 pm

Danny Alexander by Paul WalterDanny Alexander gave a big speech at Bloomberg this morning. Interestingly, he mentioned several times that he was from the Highlands and credited his upbringing in a small community with forming his commitment to fairness and managing resources wisely.

It was a wide-ranging speech, which looked back at the almost four years since he entered the Treasury. He said that some of the detail of getting to grips with the economic crisis would have to wait for his memoirs which he hoped would be “some way off”.  His main theme was that the Liberal Democrats were, uniquely, capable of managing the economy fairly. It was another variation of the “stronger economy, fairer society” melody.

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The Voice

Jeremy Browne’s liberal regime to get Britain fit for the global race

By The Voice | Tue 8th April 2014 - 9:58 am

Jeremy Browne bookAs we reported last month, Jeremy Browne has been using his time since he left government last October productively, writing a book on what he sees as the challenges facing Britain over the decades ahead, and the liberal approach that her believes is necessary in response to them. The book, Race Plan: An authentic liberal plan to get Britain fit for The Global Race, is published today by the think tank Reform.

The conundrum facing Britain is outlined neatly in the book’s first few chapters and can be summarised thus: world power and economic strength is shifting, from the Western powers that dominated the last century, primarily east, to Asia, but also south, to South America and Africa. On a whole range of indicators — productivity, educational attainment, global influence — Britain is losing out or is danger of doing so to these ambitious, focussed countries.

How do we respond? Do we accept relative decline as an inevitable consequence of globalisation? Or do we rethink our approach and seek to maintain the competitive advantage and influence on the world stage that we have grown used to? Browne’s answer is emphatically the latter, and he is clear on what form that response should take: it should be distinctly, “authentically” liberal.

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The Voice

In full: Nick Clegg’s speech to Welsh Conference

By The Voice | Tue 8th April 2014 - 8:55 am

Nick Clegg speaking York Some rights reserved by Liberal Democrats“We meet on the eve of a new tax year” is no conventional beginning to a political speech. However, Nick Clegg spoke to Welsh Liberal Democrats as taxpayers were about to get a Liberal Democrat tax cut which they’ll notice in their pay packets in 3 weeks’ time. He went on about it for quite some time, as you would expect, given that it was a major pledge on the front of OUR manifesto. He said that Cameron and Osborne, who are …

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The Voice

The three things Nick Clegg would change about the EU

By The Voice | Mon 7th April 2014 - 1:17 pm

Nick Clegg York Q&A Some rights reserved by Liberal Democrats13 hours after leaving the debate stage last Wednesday night, Nick Clegg was back on his regular Call Clegg radio show. The show had been nominated twice in the Radio Academy Awards to be presented next month.

The first caller, Caron from West Lothian, (who might she be, I wonder?) made the point that she was highly amused by David Cameron trying to pretend that he was the voice of reason on Europe when his plan was to sell all our employment rights down the river and then give us a referendum.  Her question to him was that although he’s a powerful advocate of the EU, he acknowledges that it’s not perfect,

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The Voice

Norman Lamb: “As a Lib Dem, I want to eradicate gay conversion therapy”

By The Voice | Sun 6th April 2014 - 6:41 pm

Norman Lamb, Minister for Consumer AffairsNorman Lamb has told the Guardian that he will do all he can to eradicate referral to gay conversion therapy in NHS England:

Gay conversion therapy is abhorrent and has no place in a modern society, according to the health minister Norman Lamb, who has asked for assurances from NHS England that GPs do not make any referrals for such treatment.

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The Voice

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

By The Voice | Sun 6th April 2014 - 3:35 pm

7 ver 4 fullMany thanks to the  14911 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

Nick v Nigel: the polls call it for Farage. Disappointing, but don’t panic! Here’s 3 reasons why you shouldn’t… (56 comments) by Stephen Tall

Nick v Nigel Round 2, My second thoughts  (39 comments) by Stephen Tall

UKIP’s success masks its existential crisis (40 comments) by Caspian Conran

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The Voice

Stephen Lotinga appointed as Nick Clegg’s new Director of Communications

By The Voice | Sun 6th April 2014 - 12:45 pm

stephen lotingaReaders may recall the rather brief tenure of Emma Gilpin-Jacobs as Nick Clegg’s Director of Communications – she left after a few weeks in the job “because my strategic global, corporate-focused communications experience will be better utilised in a less day-to day-political operational role”.

Her replacement has now been appointed. Here’s how Nick’s chief of staff, Jonny Oates, announced the news:

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged , , , , , and | 18 Comments
The Voice

Liberal Democrat peers support asylum seekers’ right to work

By The Voice | Sat 5th April 2014 - 1:33 pm

Advocates disrupt transfer of asylum seekers from VillawoodThe Immigration Bill is currently going through its final stages in the House of Lords. On Thursday, Liberal Democrat peers, led by Roger Roberts, tried to amend it by inserting a clause which would have entitled asylum seekers to work after 6 months.

Roger told me that he was not able to press the amendment to a vote because it received no support from either Labour or Conservative front benches. This, he felt, was grossly unfair given George Osborne’s desire for full employment and Labour’s …

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The Voice

Lord Navnit Dholakia appointed as Chair of the Diversity Engagement Group

By The Voice | Fri 4th April 2014 - 5:55 pm

Some rights reserved by Keith EdkinsIt’s been announced tonight that Baroness Sal Brinton is stepping down as Chair of the Diversity Engagement Group. Nick Clegg paid tribute to her work in the role:

Her hard work and dedication have clearly demonstrated the commitment of the party to becoming more representative of British society, and ensuring that the targets set for increased diversity are met. The Leadership Programme is a significant and important part of that dynamic, giving outstanding candidates from under-represented groups the skills that they will need to win seats in

…

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Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | 1 Comment
The Voice

Liberal Democrat membership grows by over 500 in first quarter of 2014

By The Voice | Wed 2nd April 2014 - 1:56 pm

Lib Dems winning hereLiberal Democrat membership hit 44,000 in the first quarter of 2014, a rise of more than 1500 since the beginning of 2013. Parties in government tend not to increase their membership and last year’s results for the Liberal Democrats were the first time in recent history that this had been done.

This is in no small part down to new financial incentives to local parties if they increase their membership. If they have more members, they get more money to spend on their local campaigns. That means that they …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 29 Comments
The Voice

Congratulations, Jo Baker: Lib Dem Researcher of the Year!

By The Voice | Tue 1st April 2014 - 8:46 pm

Huge congrats to Jo Baker – researcher for Mark Williams, Lib Dem MP for Ceredigion – for winning The House Magazine and PoliticsHome.com’s Liberal Democrat Researcher of the Year!

Posted in Parliament | Tagged , , and | 1 Comment
The Voice

Strategic advances at Liberal Democrat Voice

By The Voice | Tue 1st April 2014 - 11:14 am

This week's Golden Dozen displayed via wordle.netWe at LDV towers are proud to announce a new strategy for Liberal Democrat Voice which will increase our influence within and beyond the party and leverage the capabilities of social media technologies to their full potential. This strategy makes full use of the unique placement we have as ‘our place to talk’ and premier online Liberal Democrat presence, as well as our regular authoritative members’ surveys.

The strategy has three essential, intertwined and synergistic elements:

1. We will be moving the site to the Nationbuilder platform …

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Posted in Humour and Site news | 12 Comments
The Voice

LDV Debate: Could One Member One Vote work for Liberal Democrat Conference?

By The Voice | Mon 31st March 2014 - 2:20 pm

Autumn 2012 conference - Some rights reserved by Liberal DemocratsSue Doughty and Gareth Epps discuss the issues.

Sue: During the consultation at conference and before conference there were many positive reasons to support this. For example, younger members who may not have a permanent address find it difficult to maintain links with a local party and so don’t get elected as voting reps and sadly some parties didn’t notify HQ of their voting reps.  Although conference can be expensive the work by Federal Conference Committee with York Local Party meant that there …

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

In Full: Alistair Carmichael’s speech to Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference

By The Voice | Mon 31st March 2014 - 8:59 am

rally carmichaelCarmichael went all Pythonesque as part of the party’s “sunshine strategy” on Saturday at Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference in Aberdeen. “What has the UK ever done for us?”, he asked, apart from providing peace, prosperity and a whole great big list of other good things that we can’t do without.

He also spoke about the importance of supporting business to create jobs and prosperity in our communities.

Here is his speech in full:

 It is good to be back here in Aberdeen.

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The Voice

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

By The Voice | Sat 29th March 2014 - 4:00 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

#NickvNigel: What the commentators say

By The Voice | Thu 27th March 2014 - 10:39 am

MicrophoneStephen Tall gave his first thoughts about last night’s debate between Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage. What’s the rest of the commentariat saying?

At the New Statesman, Rafael Behr reckons both men will go home satisfied and he got the point of Nick Clegg’s closing statement:

It is worth noting that in his closing statement, the Lib Dem leader quite explicitly asked pro-Europeans to lend him their votes in May’s European parliamentary election. This, ultimately, is the point of the exercise. His message: you may not like me or the Lib

…

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Posted in News | Tagged | 24 Comments
The Voice

Missed last night’s Nick v Nigel debate? Want to watch it again? Here it is…

By The Voice | Thu 27th March 2014 - 8:00 am

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The Voice

#NickvNigel Pre-match fun: Pick of the Tweets

By The Voice | Wed 26th March 2014 - 6:26 pm

In just over half an hour, the #NickvNigel debate will be on. There have been many amusing tweets throughout the day. Here are some of the best:

…

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The Voice

Three ways to watch #NickvNigel

By The Voice | Wed 26th March 2014 - 5:51 pm

It’s just over an hour to go until Nick Clegg takes on Nigel Farage to debate whether Britain should be in or out of the EU.

Here’s where you can watch:

It’s being streamed on both the Liberal Democrats’ website or over at LBC

If you have Sky News, you can watch the build up, debate and aftermath from 6pm.

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The Voice

Former Tory Council leader joins Liberal Democrats in Lewes

By The Voice | Mon 24th March 2014 - 2:23 pm

Lewes James Page Catherine Bearder Norman BakerJames Page, Tory leader of Lewes District Council until last month, has left the Conservatives and joined the Liberal Democrats. The council now has 19 Conservatives, 19 Lib Dems, 2 Ukip, and an Independent.

Cllr Page says:

I have become very disillusioned with the Conservative party, and impressed with the approach of the local Lib Dems. The Tory ideology of small state seems to have translated locally to small minds, small ideas and a blind obedience to doctrine and party message. By contrast, the Lib Dems have shown that they are genuinely interested in helping people, improving the district and where appropriate transcending politics to that end.

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The Voice

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

By The Voice | Sun 23rd March 2014 - 11:52 am

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

LDVideo: Vince responds to the budget (and takes on Labour “hubris” in the process)

By The Voice | Sat 22nd March 2014 - 6:17 pm

Business secretary Vince Cable was on his feet in the Commons on Thursday, providing his response to budget. His speech has already proved something of a hit, not least for his deft responses to point-scoring interventions by Labour MPs, including with the Voice’s Stephen Tall.

You can watch (and read) Vince in action below.

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 6 Comments
The Voice

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

By The Voice | Sat 22nd March 2014 - 3:30 pm

forum1LibDemVoice 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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