Today I went to Wikipedia to see what happened today in history, and saw that it’s the birthday of the composer Edvard Grieg. Quick as a flash, the Kit and the Widow song “hundreds of Norwegians on the London Underground” to the tune of the Hall of the Mountain King rises unbidden in my mind – and with it, memories of the Brent East by-election, and Ed Fordham’s uncanny rendition of “Can you tell me please – where can Dollis Hill be found?” For many of you, this will mean nothing, but I’m hoping a significant number of …
Good morning, on this fine morning – Charlie Sheen’s birthday, and one of Nottingham Lib Dem’s “delivery days.” Here’s hoping for no rain for me and for Charlie.
Top stories
Unbeknownst to the rest of us, the Tories have carried out a coup:
The Conservatives have wrested control of Scotland Yard from the Home Office and now have its top officers working to their agenda, a senior aide to the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has told the Guardian.
Kit Malthouse, the deputy mayor for policing, has declared that he and Johnson “have our
Well, that’s it. August is over, nights are drawing in, it’s downhill to Christmas, and LDV’s daily 2×2 slot that’s more-or-less been on hold over the summer returns to its more-or-less 8am schedule to bring you two top news stories and two must-read blog posts from the world of Lib Demmery.
With just 120 days till the end of the year, 2nd September is the day the Great Fire of London broke out in 1666, the day Thomas Telford died in 1834, and Salma Hayek’s birthday. Happy birthday, Miss Hayek!
The rest of The Voice’s Daily View team may have decided to have a lie in each morning during August, but we’re made of sterner stuff here on the Sunday slot. And as it’s a Sunday, it’s also time for the now traditional bonus musical extra.
Big Stories
The release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi
The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation has blasted Scotland for releasing Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi saying the decision “gives comfort to terrorists.”
In a letter to Scottish Minster Kenny MacAskill dated August 21, FBI Director Robert Mueller said he was “outraged” at the decision to release Megrahi, who is dying of cancer, on compassionate grounds.
“Your action in releasing Megrahi is as inexplicable as it is detrimental to the cause of justice,” Mueller wrote. “Indeed, your action makes a mockery of the rule of law.
“Your action gives comfort to terrorists around the world who now believe that regardless of the quality of the investigation, the conviction by jury after the defendant is given all due process, and sentence appropriate to the crime, the terrorist will be freed by one man’s exercise of ‘compassion.'” (AFP)
Fraud allegations over Afghan elections
Reports of widespread and systematic fraud and intimidation continued to emerge amid delays in the counting of votes in the Afghan elections, raising the spectre of turbulence when the results are announced.
Allegations of ballot-rigging were particularly prevalent in the southern Pashtun belt. The region, which holds the key to the contest, also suffered from drastically low turnout due to Taliban violence and threats. There were accounts of the insurgents’ retribution against voters, including fingers being chopped off. (The Independent)
2 Must-Read Blog Posts
Paul Walter explains how his views of the party’s Real Women policy proposals are changing.
Simon Goldie’s post is probably the shortest that’s been highlighted in these round-ups, being basically just a link through to a provocative and thought-provoking article in the Financial Times.
(Both of these posts have been selected from those which appeared on Lib Dem Blogs on Saturday. To read more from other Liberal Democrat blogs, take a look at the Lib Dem Blogs website and to see what Lib Dems have been saying on Twitter, take a look at Liberal Tweets.)
Sunday Bonus
It’s Sunday. Ready your vocal chords. Hit play and sing along. You know you want to.
The rest of The Voice’s Daily View team may have decided to have a lie in each morning during August, but we’re made of sterner stuff here on the Sunday slot (for the moment). And as it’s a Sunday, it’s also time for another bonus musical extra.
Big Stories
UK death toll in Afghanistan reaches 200
A British soldier has died from wounds suffered in Afghanistan, taking the number of UK troops killed since operations began in 2001 to 200.
The soldier, from the 2nd Battalion the Royal Welsh, died in hospital in Birmingham. Family have been informed. (BBC)
The rest of The Voice’s Daily View team may have decided to have a lie in each morning during August, but we’re made of sterner stuff here on the Sunday slot (for the moment). And as it’s a Sunday, it’s also time for another instalment of singing.
The UK’s commitment to Afghanistan could last for up to 40 years, the incoming head of the Army has said.
Gen Sir David Richards, who takes over on 28 August, told the Times that “nation-building” would last decades.
Troops will be required for the medium term only, but the UK will continue to play a role in “development, governance security sector reform,” he said.
The rest of The Voice’s Daily View team may have decided to have a lie in each morning during August, but we’re made of sterner stuff here on the Sunday slot. And as it’s a Sunday, this time by popular demand (sort of) there’s a special bonus social networking meets beards sing-a-long supplement.
2 Big Stories
Iranian protesters go on trial
Forcing critics of a government to recant in implausible public confessions is both a display of a regime’s power but also of a display of absurdity. If it makes people fear that power it strengthens the regime, but if it makes people ridicule that absurdity it weakens it. So far in Iran it seems to be doing at least some of the latter:
Iran’s biggest reformist party has dismissed the court appearance of 100 people, including leading opposition figures, as a “laughable show trial”.
The accused are on trial for alleged involvement in post-election violence, on charges including acting against national security and vandalism.
Pro-government media reported what they said were confessions by some of the leading reformists.
But the party, Mosharekat, said the “confessions” had been forced.
It said “even a cooked chicken” would laugh at the charges.
Kasra Naji, special correspondent for BBC Persian Television, says the timing and scale of the trial came as a surprise and suggests Iran’s leadership wants to send a message to stop any more protests.
But judging from messages on micro-blogging site twitter and the internet, our correspondent says, the move may have the opposite effect, with several people talking about the need for new demonstrations and calling those on trial “national heroes”. (BBC)
Welcome to this, the final summer edition of LDV’s Daily View – the feature will return again at the beginning of September, as will the various members of the LDV editorial collective.
The government’s plans for reforming the regulation of banks are “largely cosmetic” and “lack clarity”, MPs in the Treasury Select Committee say.
In its report on the banking crisis, the committee says that responsibility for strategic decisions and action remains “a muddle”. The report also says that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) “failed spectacularly” in supervising banks.
More importantly, here’s what Vince has to say:
This report rightly underlines the need for high quality and transparent regulation if we are to create a stable financial system. We must not create a regulatory system that just deals with the current crisis but one which is fit for all the challenges ahead.
“The cross party report also exposes the sheer folly of George Osborne’s proposal to hand all power back to the Bank of England. While it is true that breaking up the banks will be complex, it is also necessary. A bank which is too big to fail is simply too big.
“The secrecy in which the White Paper was created shows the extent of the deteriorating relations between the Bank of England and the Government and does not bode well for the future.”
The company responsible for the taxpayer’s stakes in ailing banks saw a leadership shake-up as chief executive John Kingman announced plans to step down. Mr Kingman, who has led UK Financial Investments (UKFI) since it was formed last November, will step down from the £143,000 post in “due course” for a career in the private sector.
Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable is worried by this upheaval at the very top of UKFI:
UKFI is one of Britain’s most powerful bodies and these changes at the top come at a very sensitive time. What is worrying about these changes is that Mr Kingman is leaving at a time when it’s clear the Government hasn’t really got a grip on the banks.
“This is the one person within the Treasury who knew where all the skeletons are buried and what’s going on. His departure at this time will leave a massive hole.”
He criticised the combination of ordinary banking, such as business lending and mortgage payments, and so-called casino banking.
“These two things should not co-exist in the same institution,” he said. “It is highly unstable. It means the British taxpayer is underwriting very dangerous high-risk activities, so for that reason alone they should be split up. In addition the European Commission has made the case that there is now far too little competition.”
He said increasingly concentrated ownership did not give the consumer a good deal. “It is dangerous in giving excessive market power and before these banks are returned to private ownership they should be split up,” the Lib Dem MP said. “This may mean reopening, for example, the whole issue of the Lloyds/Royal Bank of Scotland merger and possibly reversing it.”
The biggest story of the day is surely controversy over the Ministry of Defense’s efforts to reclaim money awarded to injured soldiers:
The Ministry of Defence will go to the Court of Appeal later to try to significantly reduce the compensation awarded to two injured soldiers. One, who was shot in the leg in Iraq, received £46,000, while the other, injured in training, got £28,750. “
Meanwhile, TV’s Esther Rantzen plans to follow in the feet of Craig Murray and stand as an independent candidate at the next general election:
MPs urge rail franchise reforms
A report by MPs has pronounced the rail franchise system a “muddle” and has called for its reform, including the nationalisation of East Coast trains.
From the BBC:
The Commons transport committee said operators were making profits in good times but forcing the government to step in when revenues fall.
And they charged “unacceptable” fare rises of up to 11% above inflation.
The Association of Train Operating Companies said four-fifths of passengers bought discounted tickets.
The MPs urged the government to run East Coast trains itself.
They said nationalisation could be a way of comparing
Welcome to the Sunday outing for The Voice’s near-daily Daily View series. As it’s a Sunday, today it comes with a special Twitter sing-along. Oh yes.
2 Big Stories
Let’s skip past the latest round of “No really, this time we mean it, we’re going to do something really very soon, honest guv” talk of Labour MPs plotting to oust Gordon Brown (see most previous Sundays for the last 18 months) and move on to, er…, a story of a beleaguered leader surrounded by resignations but promising to stay on.
Equality chief urged to quit post
Equalities and Human Rights Commission head Trevor Phillips is facing calls to step down after a fourth resignation over his leadership in eight days.
Ben Summerskill of gay rights group Stonewall is the latest commissioner to go. He said Mr Phillips was damaging the cause of equality by staying on.
Auditors have criticised the commission for spending almost £1m on re-employing staff after giving them redundancy.
Mr Phillips will not be resigning, the commission said. (BBC)
Kurdistan goes to the polls
About 2.5 million eligible voters in the Kurdish region’s three northern provinces of Irbil, Dahuk, and Sulaimaniya will elect their 111-seat parliament and next president…
Since 2005, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has maintained a secure region that has been largely free of the violence seen in other parts of Iraq. But a lack of government transparency, corruption, difficulty in delivering basic services, and political rivalries continue to plague the KRG. (CNN)
2 Must-Read Blog Posts
Neil Fawcett doesn’t beat about the bush in his view of what some people are saying about the Norwich North by-election: Bloggers talk balls about by-elections.
Meanwhile, outside politics the Tour de France nears its end, getting far less media coverage than the stunning performances of British cyclists Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish (only in his second Tour and already the winner of more stages than any other British cyclist has won in their career) deserve. So here’s Stephen’s Linlithgow Journal on Saturday’s crucial stage.
Yes, it may not have been a late night for the candidates contesting Norwich North, but it was almost certainly a fairly sleepless one. Every party is spinning desperately to manage expectations. Sky News is reporting a likely Tory victory, with a scrap between the Lib Dems and Labour for the runners-up spot:
A party insider said: “The Conservatives are trying to play down what is happening but I think the reality is that Labour is in a fight with the Lib Dems for second place. The turnout has been poor in traditional
Good morning. You join us here on LDV as we wish happy birthday to Philip Seymour Hoffman and Michael Foot, and as the nation of Egypt and the Rastafarians commemorate the birth of Haile Selassie.
It’s also polling day in Norwich North. Will April Pond become the 64th Lib Dem MP? Will we make our second by-election gain in the 2005 Parliament? Find out first on twitter – as the blogosphere’s reporter on the spot Nich Starling will report, live from the Norfolk Showground.
Two big news stories
Kingsnorth tactics criticised
The Guardian reports the report into police behaviour at …
Health Secretary Andy Burnham said the phone and website service will be able to provide flu diagnosis and access to drugs without the need to go to GPs.
He also defended the government against claims from opposition parties that the service was a month late.
He said the government had wanted to wait until the health service was under intense pressure before acting.
Meanwhile the MoD, under attack for the provision of …
Andy Burnham on “conflicting advice” about swine flu
There’s even conflicting advice on whether “conflicting advice” is actually conflicting…
From the Guardian:
“There isn’t conflicting advice. The advice has been clear all along that women who are pregnant should take extra precautions as they would anyway – they should really follow the advice about hand hygiene, they should consider avoiding crowded places. This is the advice we have given out all the way.”
David Cameron’s ‘new look’ Tory MPs are the most extreme for a generation
From the Mirror:
David Cameron’s claim to have modernised his party is today exposed as a
Welcome to the Sunday outing for The Voice’s near-daily Daily View series. As it’s a Sunday, today it comes with a special epic mustache bonanza. Not just any old mustaches you understand.
2 Big Stories
Iran: public criticism of senior figures is becoming the norm
Former President – and opponent of current President – Ali Akbar Rafsanjani has been speaking out. As the BBC reports:
By calling for an open debate about the election result, Mr Rafsanjani was almost openly challenging the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Four weeks ago, from the same pulpit, Mr Khamenei called for an end to discussion about an election result which he declared had been blessed by God.
Former President Rafsanjani played his trump card, by referring to his friendship with the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini.
He quoted Ayatollah Khomeini in ways that appeared to support the opposition’s right to demonstrate.
Mr Rafsanjani even called for protesters who have been arrested to be released from prison.
Born in 1896 to an ironmonger’s wife in a corner of north-east London, the veteran, whose life spanned three centuries and six monarchs, was 67 when John F Kennedy was assassinated and 73 when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon…
He remembered spending a night in a shellhole in Flanders. “It stank,” he said. “So did I when I fell into it. Arms and legs, dead rats, dead everything. Rotten flesh. Human guts. I couldn’t get a bath for three or four months afterwards.”
2 Must-Read Blog Posts
Nich Starling continues to be the must-read blog for coverage of what’s happening on the ground in the Norwich North by-election. This time he’s got the tale of the Conservative campaign’s highly targeted approach to blogger outreach.
Readers of my blog will know of my views about the lack of media interest in Mark Cavendish’s sporting triumphs. (Equalling the British lifetime record for Tour de Franch stage wins, and still only being 24, wasn’t enough to get him into the top 95 stories on Sky News.) If he was getting the sort of coverage his successes deserve, yesterday’s controversial disqualification would be all over the mainstream media. Instead, head over to Stephen’s Linlithgow Journal for the Mark Cavendish disqualification story.
The head of the UK Army has said better equipment is needed to protect troops from roadside bombs in Afghanistan. General Sir Richard Dannatt told the BBC troops “needed more” and added that he would be compiling a shopping list of what was required. … The general’s comments will be seen as careful “parting shots”. …
In return for their service, he says more money needs to be spent on equipment for British forces in Afghanistan. Earlier this week, the general – on his last trip
BNP shunned at European Parliament opening The Times reports on the British National Party MEPs taking their seats yesterday at the opening of the European Parliament:
The new members, Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons, avoided the European anthem and were allocated places 780 and 781, towards the back of the Strasbourg chamber with kindred MEPs from the neo-fascist parties of Belgium, Bulgaria, France and Hungary.
They were immediately shunned by their fellow non-aligned MEP, Diane Dodds, the Democratic Unionist, who refused to take up seat 782 next to Mr Brons. It remained empty throughout the opening session of the
Fresh and refreshed from the weekend, here’s our picks for Monday morning.
Two big news stories
Two from the Guardian today: firstly most papers are leading with further details of the soldiers who died in the last few days with six new names and photos to illustrate – the photos serving as a stark reminder of how young so many of our uniformed personnel are. There’s in-depth coverage of their service and the wider questions raised by the recent British deaths in Afghanistan, including, in the Telegraph, praise from high ranking military officials for Nick Clegg’s contribution to …
Welcome to the Sunday outing for The Voice’s near-daily Daily View series. As it’s a Sunday, today it comes with a special bonus singing unhappy customer.
2 Big Stories
Afghanistan: troops numbers to go up or down?
The papers are agreed that, following the tragic and symbolic news of the number of British military deaths in Afghanistan now exceeding those in Iraq, Afghanistan is one of the major news stories of the day.
But there’s rather less agreement on what they think the Government is going to do.
Either “Thousands more troops could be sent to Afghanistan within months” (Observer) or “Ministers are secretly planning to cut the number of British troops in Afghanistan” (Independent). All clear I trust.
Rebel Conservative MPs plan to refer Andy Coulson, David Cameron’s chief spin doctor, to the party’s sleaze watchdog over his role in the illegal phone hacking row.
Some Tory backbenchers believe Cameron took an excessively tough stance on the expenses scandal. Now they hope to exploit the row over Coulson, the former News of the World editor who resigned when the paper was caught hacking into royal aides’ phones.
Yesterday, Lord Tebbit lent his voice to the Tory rebels. “Cameron has talked a lot about ‘detoxifying’ the Conservative brand,” he said. “Perhaps he should now think about a ‘detoxification’ of his own office.”
Nich Starling continues his close analysis of the Conservative campaign in Norwich North, this time highlighting the inconsistency between what their by-election leaflets say and how they’ve voted locally
Sunday Bonus
One man gets his revenge on United Airlines for bad customer service through the medium of song:
We don’t do a Daily View 2 x 2 round-up on Saturdays, so instead here’s an open thread. What stories have caught your eye? What issues are on your mind? What do you make of the Guardian’s exposure of Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers’ illegal activities? How well (or not) do you think the media has reported the allegations? Have you got any insights into the Norwich North by-election? Do you have suggestions for the next LDV party members’ survey? Discuss away in the comments below…
About 1,400 people are dying every week at the giant Manik Farm internment camp set up in Sri Lanka to detain Tamil refugees from the nation’s bloody civil war, senior international aid sources have told The Times.
The death toll will add to concerns that the Sri Lankan Government has failed to halt a humanitarian catastrophe after announcing victory over the Tamil Tiger terrorist organisation in May. It may also lend credence to allegations that the Government, which has termed the internment sites “welfare villages”, has
Happy Independence Day, Argentina! And happy birthday to Paul Merton and Tom Hanks.
Two big stories
Murdoch Papers hack phones
The Guardian has the story of Murdoch titles doing dodgy things with mobile phones – and it backfiring on them to the tune of at least £1m. There are clear links to current Conservative communications chief Andy Coulson.
Labour backbench revolt over abolition of 10p tax rate is defeated
Big shock this one, I know… Labour MPs realise too late that their party’s tax changes are hitting the poorest hard in the pocket, threaten to mount a rebellion, and then – as per bloody usual – are bought off by the whips with a mixture of coercion and cheap promises. We’ve seen this story played out so many times before. Here’s The Times account:
Gordon Brown saw his Government’s majority cut to 43 in its defeat of an amendment to the Finance Bill that many thought would
US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have reached an outline agreement to cut back their nations’ stockpiles of nuclear weapons. The “joint understanding” signed in Moscow would see reductions of deployed nuclear warheads to below 1,700 each within seven years of a new treaty. The accord would replace the 1991 Start I treaty, which expires in December.
Nick Clegg welcomed the announcement:
This decision is a great moment and a promising step ahead of next year’s NPT talks. Britain must now play our own part
From the Guardian, Alistair Darling isn’t ruling out pay freezes for six million public sector workers: “Public sector pay has obviously got to reflect prevailing conditions and in particular inflation has come way down.” Serious Fraud Office to investigate collapse of car maker MG Rover
From the Daily Mail:
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has been asked to investigate the collapse of MG Rover after a four-year probe into the Midlands car maker’s demise, it was confirmed today.
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said in a written statement to Parliament that the SFO had
I’ll try and be charitable here. After all, spouses and partners do not choose their loved ones jobs. But, really, if you are married to the incoming head of MI6 there are certain things you just don’t do, such as provide details about your kids and the location of your flat on Facebook without any privacy protection at all – enabling any of the social networking site’s 200 million users to access her profile. Here’s the BBC:
Details about the personal life of the next head of MI6, Sir John Sawers,
We don’t do an LDV Daily View 2 x 2 round-up on Saturdays, so instead here’s an open thread. What stories have caught your eye? What issues are on your mind? Are you mourning Andy Murray’s Wimbledon semi-final defeat? Are you looking forward to the cooler weather? Or have you spotted an interesting political story, perhaps even one connected to the Lib Dems? And what do you make of Sarah Palin’s decision to step down as Alaskan governor? Discuss away in the comments below…
That’s the allegation from Labour cabinet minister Ben Bradshaw:
Ben Bradshaw has said “a deep strain of homophobia still exists on the Conservative benches”. Mr Bradshaw, one of three gay men currently in the cabinet, made the comments as a new poll suggested more gay people were turning to the Tories. Chris Bryant, another gay minister, said: “If gays vote Tory they will rue the day very soon.”
For what it’s worth I suspect that equality for gay people is the one area where the Tories have genuinely changed over the years …
David Evans This strikes me as a proposal for a very complex system that needs to be thoroughly thought out before it gets anywhere near becoming party policy. As a party ...
Paul Holmes Rif - "..taking on both Conservatives and Labour and challenging the Establishment." Yes I identify with those sentiments, which is why I joined the SDP in 1983...
Peter Davies @Peter Wrigley: The key word is option. The landlord has the option to let it fall down or bet it on a Lib Dem win in Makerfield. In either case, he will end up...
cim This is where Coalition comes in. Sure, you didn't make a lot of centre-left voters very happy by backing the Conservatives, but more importantly you went into ...
FS People Expats
If we are being “fair to the police” we need full facts:
A neighbour called 999 saying someone had been stabbed,
The brothers call contains signif...
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The shame of Liverpool Labour councillors taking their allowances but not turning up to do the work
Should Labour reconsider the Brexit red lines?
Raising a flap about letterboxes
Arriving at one of East Finchley's ghost platforms
Restrained
Chase Park fair photos
David Evans 
Paul Holmes 
Peter Davies 
cim 
FS People 