Category Archives: Books

A Liberal Mind in Action: Essays in Honour of Richard Holme

By The Voice | Sat 4th October 2008 - 8:18 pm

An unashamed quick plug for a book just published in honour of the Lib Dem peer Richard Holme, who died earlier this year. Here’s the Amazon write-up:

A Liberal Mind in Action – Essays in Honour of Richard Holme is a varied collection of essays gathered and edited by Alison Holmes designed to bring to life the wide-ranging career of Richard Holme in the words of those who knew him well.A new kind of political biography, this book provides the opportunity for those who worked with Richard over many years to offer their views not only on the history of

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Book review: What should you be getting up to on the internet?

By Mark Pack | Mon 11th August 2008 - 2:55 pm

Should politicians blog? Does it matter if a local party has a website that allows comments or not? Is it a good idea for a councillor to stick a film of themselves up on YouTube? Is the local party organiser really doing something useful on Facebook?

Answering any of these questions requires more than a technical understanding of how you use the services. It requires instead an understanding of what your organisational and communication objectives are, and then how these technologies may, or may not, help you achieve them.

Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff’s Groundswell makes this point for commercial organisations. It sets out to help organisations answer the question of whether, and if so how, they should be making use of social computing – those tools which heavily rely on interaction between people, feedback and content generated by the public such as YouTube, Wikipedia, MySpace and blogs.

Also posted in Online politics | Tagged facebook, myspace and wikipedia | 1 Comment

Paul Walter’s shocking confession

By Paul Walter | Sat 9th August 2008 - 9:20 am

I have an appalling confession to make. I didn’t touch either of the books on my summer reading list on Lib Dem Voice last month. In fact, I didn’t even take one of them with me. I don’t even possess them!

Should I do some sort of penance? You know the sort of thing. Should I compile an encyclopaedia of Bob Shaw’s blog titles? Or act as Lembit’s celebrity appearance booker for a month?

In place of the two books I listed, I read instead Running Mate by Joe Klein, which I recommend. It was loaned to me by an …

Tagged paul walter | 8 Comments

Bloggers’ summer reading (Part II)

By Stephen Tall | Sun 13th July 2008 - 10:20 am

Imagine you were going on holiday this summer: which two books would you take with you? One should be a political book – whether you want to re-read it, or try something new you’ve been recommended. The other should be your own choice of summer reading – the book you’re most looking forward to reading (again, could be something new or something old). That was the question I put to some of the Lib Dems’ leading bloggers. And here’s what they said:

(Click here for Part I).

Jonathan Calder – Liberal England

The Killing of the Countryside
Harvey shows

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Tagged alex wilcock, doctor who, jo christie-smith, jonathan calder and philip pullman | 6 Comments

Bloggers’ summer reading (Part I)

By Stephen Tall | Sat 12th July 2008 - 10:20 am

Imagine you were going on holiday this summer: which two books would you take with you? One would be a political book – whether you want to re-read it, or try something new you’ve been recommended. The other would be your own choice of summer reading – the book you’re most looking forward to reading (again, could be something new or something old).

That was the scenario I put to some of the Lib Dems’ leading bloggers. Here’s what they said:

Paul Walter – Liberal Burblings

1. Asquith. by Roy Jenkins I have now read Jenkins’ Churchill (wonderful), his

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Tagged doctor who and paul walter | 13 Comments

If Brown is Heathcliff, who does that make Clegg or Cameron?

By Stephen Tall | Thu 10th July 2008 - 9:45 am

From today’s Indy:

Gordon Brown has likened himself to Heathcliff, the brooding, intense character in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. The Prime Minister is normally at pains to avoid being compared with other figures but his guard dropped in an interview with New Statesman, published today, in which the interviewer, Gloria De Piero, suggested to Mr Brown that many women viewed him as a Heathcliff-like figure.

Given that the character is famed for his vindictive side, the Prime Minister might have been expected to recoil in horror at such a comparison. But no. “Absolutely correct,” he replied, before adding: “Well, maybe an

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Also posted in News | 12 Comments

And the winner is…

By Stephen Tall | Tue 13th May 2008 - 5:57 pm

Thanks to those Lib Dem Voice readers who submitted entries for yesterday’s competition to win a copy Susan George’s book, Hijacking America – by providing a suitable epitaph for George W. Bush’s presidency.

The standard was extremely high – I heartily commend the comments thread to those who missed it – which has made judging the winner extremely difficult. (Not helped by the LDV editorial collective all choosing different favourites: typical bloody liberals.)

Among the best of the runners-up were:

GWB, we are forever in his national debt (Andy Mayer)

Daddy made me do it (Paul Walter)

2001-2009: (interregnum) (Bibliophylax)

We apologise for the

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Tagged paul walter | 1 Comment

Brian Paddick’s autobiography is out

By Mark Pack | Tue 25th March 2008 - 9:38 am

Following serialisation of the highlights in the Sunday papers, you can now buy Brian Paddick’s autobiography, Line of Fire.

The blurb says:

Now freed of the constraints imposed by his professional responsibilities Brian Paddick reveals the full extraordinary story of his life and career. From early days on the beat, including searing experiences such as the Brixton riots, he went on to gain successive promotions despite what many in such a traditional organisation would have perceived as the ‘handicap’ of his sexuality. And yet he himself would argue it was another

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Also posted in London | Tagged brian paddick | 2 Comments

Liberals: criminally insane

By Alex Foster | Fri 29th February 2008 - 4:02 pm

So says an American psychiatrist in his latest book The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness, sadly only available in the United States.

“Based on strikingly irrational beliefs and emotions, modern liberals relentlessly undermine the most important principles on which our freedoms were founded,” says Dr. Lyle Rossiter.

For a full, unbiased review, see the scary World Net Daily.

Rossiter says the kind of liberalism being displayed by the two major candidates for the Democratic Party presidential nomination can only be understood as a psychological disorder.

Sometimes I’m really glad British politics hasn’t …

Also posted in LDVUSA | 7 Comments

Liberal Voice’s “good read”

By Alex Foster | Tue 5th February 2008 - 5:27 pm

Shami Chakrabarti, voted by LDV readers as our Liberal Voice 2007, has just been on Radio 4’s “A Good Read” – a programme where a host and two guests nominate a paperback each and discuss whether they liked each others’ choices.

Chakrabarti’s choice was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, a book she said had many dark parallels to the war on terror, with kangaroo courts mirroring Guantanamo, owl intercepts getting perilously close to wiretaps and a generally unpleasant High Inquisitor making life uncomfortable for all at Hogwarts.

The book found favour with guest presenter Kate Moss …

7 Comments

Brian Paddick’s autobiography

By Mark Pack | Tue 5th February 2008 - 10:41 am

Brian Paddick’s autobiography Line of Fire is due out next month.

According to the publishers:

From early days on the beat, including searing experiences such as the Brixton riots, he went on to gain successive promotions despite what many in such a traditional organisation would have perceived as the ‘handicap’ of his sexuality. And yet he himself would argue it was another characteristic that led him to clash with superiors and ultimately made him conclude his career was over: his honesty. Full of colour, candour and cracking stories, this hugely compelling book

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Also posted in London | Tagged brian paddick | 2 Comments

Will Ming ‘sex up’ his memoirs?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 10th December 2007 - 9:50 am

That’s the demand of his publishers, Hodder & Stoughton, according to The Observer’s media diary:

Menzies Campbell has followed a path well trodden by political leaders past, settling down to write his life story, which should hit the shops in 2009. But we hear the first draft has already been sent back by publishers Hodder & Stoughton – because it is too boring. Editors were horrified to discover the former Lib Dem leader failed to reflect on the ousting of predecessor Charles Kennedy or the subsequent knifing Sir Ming himself endured. Since the twin defenestrations are the only newsworthy parts

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Also posted in News | Tagged charles kennedy and Ming Campbell | 5 Comments

Chris Huhne: the five books that have most influenced my politicial views

By Chris Huhne MP | Fri 16th November 2007 - 1:55 pm

Liberal Democrat Voice has asked both leadership candidates to list the five books that have most influenced their political views, along with an explanation for their choice. Nick Clegg’s piece appeared earlier today.

J S Mill – “On Liberty”
This has to be top of any liberal’s list. Mill’s principle that we should be free unless inflicting harm on others encapsulates our respect for different choices. But the essay reveals an inner conflict, as Mill hints that a liberal society also requires the provision of public goods like education.

George Orwell – “Animal Farm”
Animal Farm has it all – biting …

Also posted in Leadership Election | 7 Comments

Nick Clegg: the five books that have most influenced my politicial views

By Nick Clegg MP | Fri 16th November 2007 - 12:55 pm

Liberal Democrat Voice has asked both leadership candidates to list the five books that have most influenced their political views, along with an explanation for their choice. Chris Huhne’s piece will appear later today.

I was lucky enough to grow up in a home filled with books. They’re a huge part of my life and shaped so much of how I think and feel. But if I’m honest, the biggest political influence in my life wasn’t Mill, Rawls or Berlin, however much I respect and admire them. I became a liberal not in a library, but over the dinner table, in the …

Also posted in Leadership Election | 4 Comments

Reinventing the State reviewed

By David Rundle | Mon 24th September 2007 - 11:20 am

So, here it is. The volume which will be written up as the liberal riposte to The Orange Book.

It’s going to tell us how we can regain the fervour and the achievement of our New Liberal forefathers – how, in the new millennium, we can protect the inheritance of the welfare state which our party and our thinkers created, and how we can best continue to strive for the fairer society all liberals want. Trouble is, Reinventing the State can’t live up to that billing.

It’s a heavy-weight contender, nearing 400 pages, and with 22 chapters from 21 contributors. It has some excellent chapters: pick it up, turn to the back and read the impressive, clear-headed conclusions by Steve Webb and Jo Holland. If you like your prose persuasively measured, be warmed by Chris Huhne’s liberal narrative, ‘The Case for Localism’. Or, if you prefer a text which is angry and splendidly strident, be converted by Paul Holmes on ‘The Limits of the Market.’ But, as a whole, Reinventing the State is both too sprawling and, paradoxically, too limited to hit the mark.

This is a problem of all books which are somewhere between political thought and political policy: they have to be a snapshot, a work of the moment with in-built obsolescence. They necessarily lack a longer perspective. This does not mean that they do not mention history – the liberal tradition, as defined in its fully-developed form of New Liberalism, effuses this book and, in particular, David Howarth’s knowledgeable chapter.

But what they find harder to do it is to appreciate their own place in that historical context. This matters because, in the case of Reinventing the State, it means what is being said is being undersold.

5 Comments

Opinion: Why Lib Dems Need To Reinvent The State

By David Howarth | Thu 13th September 2007 - 11:25 am

The new book Reinventing the State is an attempt to update social liberalism for the present day. The origins of social liberalism lie in the party’s re-creation of itself in the early 20th century as a party not just of political reform but also of social reform, when radical Liberals added a commitment to social justice and democracy to the older Liberal commitments to expanding civil and political rights. The question is what that tradition means now.

Unlike socialists, liberals never allowed the desirability of greater equality to undermine their …

Also posted in Op-eds | 8 Comments

Opinion: Lib Dems must support LVT

By Tony Vickers | Wed 12th September 2007 - 7:45 am

I’ve been asked to preview the conclusions and argument for my book Location Matters: Recycling Britain’s Wealth here. If you subscribe to Liberator or Challenge (the Green Lib Dems’ journal) you will get reviews by others of the book before Conference. In the current Challenge you will also see a piece by me about how the Liberal Democrats’ Tax Commission got in such a depressingly non-radical place with Land Value Taxation (LVT) – which is what my book is about.

What I want to do here is explain the conception of the book, its purpose and what I hope happens next. But first, as requested, in a single sentence: conclusions and arguments. If the Liberal Democrats do not go into the next General Election campaign with a pledge to retain some form of nation-wide property tax at the same time as scrapping Council Tax, they will have betrayed their forebears and – more importantly – future generations of British people and will not deserve the support of voters.

Also posted in Conference and Op-eds | Tagged charles kennedy | 6 Comments

Reinventing the State published

By Stephen Tall | Tue 11th September 2007 - 8:24 pm

Three years ago, it was the infamous Orange Book which became the talk of the Lib Dem conference. This year it looks set to be Reinventing the State, published yesterday. (And which includes a number of the contributors to the original Orange Book, including Nick Clegg, Chris Huhne and Steve Webb.)

On Thursday, Lib Dem Voice will publish an article by David Howarth, Lib Dem MP for Cambridge and one of the book’s three editors, in which he sets out why he feels it is necessary to update social liberalism for the present day. Today you’ll simply have to make do with the press release, below, to mark the launch. And, if you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the link to The Guardian’s report of Reinventing the State’s publication.

8 Comments

Opinion: Talking Coalitions

By Mark Oaten MP | Mon 10th September 2007 - 7:39 am

Some of you may know that I have recently finished authoring a book on coalition governments. I wanted to speak directly to Lib Dem members to explain my conclusions, having spent the best part of the past nine months researching and writing the book, and how and why I have come to them. It’s not easy to explain in a brief article but I hope it goes some way to illuminating why I have come to the view that for our party and the country, we need to be both prepared for and wary of sharing power.

For most of my 18-year career in politics, I have seen such a deal as an exciting prospect. For a third party in a majoritarian electoral system, coalition government is our quickest route to power, and perhaps the only way we will achieve proportional representation. But my study of the history of coalition governments has given me a new insight into coalitions and the myriad pitfalls that accompany them.

Also posted in Op-eds | 16 Comments

Book review: how to make people remember what you say

By Rob Blackie | Thu 9th August 2007 - 11:55 am

A friend of a friend was on a business trip to London. He meets a beautiful lady in the hotel bar, and the next thing he knows he wakes up in a bath of ice, with his kidneys missing.

We’ve all heard a version of that story. Made to Stick investigates why people remember some ideas regardless of whether they are true.

All of us who have been involved with the Liberal Democrats know the frustration of meeting members of the public who don’t know Lib Dem policies that we’ve been banging on about for years. Or we’ve met voters confused by smear campaigns against us by other parties. For this reason everyone in the Liberal Democrats needs to read Made to Stick.

Made to Stick outlines six things that made an idea memorable.

Tagged Ming Campbell | 5 Comments

Op-eds

Josh Babarinde writes…The Lib Dem Summer of Strategy (Josh Babarinde)
Mathew on Monday: “We need to be bold” (Mathew Hulbert)
As a party we must be better defined for the 2029 general election (Chris Bowers)
From national averages to local realities: inequality in our communities (Tom Walker)
We do have a two tier system, Part 2 (Neil Hickman)

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Josh Babarinde writes…The Lib Dem Summer of Strategy

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Category Archives: Books

A Liberal Mind in Action: Essays in Honour of Richard Holme

Book review: What should you be getting up to on the internet?

Paul Walter’s shocking confession

Bloggers’ summer reading (Part II)

Bloggers’ summer reading (Part I)

If Brown is Heathcliff, who does that make Clegg or Cameron?

And the winner is…

Brian Paddick’s autobiography is out

Liberals: criminally insane

Liberal Voice’s “good read”

Brian Paddick’s autobiography

Will Ming ‘sex up’ his memoirs?

Chris Huhne: the five books that have most influenced my politicial views

Nick Clegg: the five books that have most influenced my politicial views

Reinventing the State reviewed

Opinion: Why Lib Dems Need To Reinvent The State

Opinion: Lib Dems must support LVT

Reinventing the State published

Opinion: Talking Coalitions

Book review: how to make people remember what you say

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A strange but welcome feeling

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