Category Archives: LibLink

For highlighting articles by Lib Dems that have appeared elsewhere in the media.

LibLink: Mark Pack – Which Liberal Democrat MPs have the media pulling power?

By NewsHound | Fri 4th May 2012 - 3:15 pm

Writing over on his work blog, The Voice’s Mark Pack has been crunching the numbers on the media performances of Liberal Democrat ministers ahead of a likely reshuffle:

No surprise that the top five places are taken by the five Liberal Democrat Cabinet members. Her push for equal marriage reforms has helped put Lynne Featherstone top of the list of non-Cabinet members, whilst Health Minister Paul Burstow’s mid-table ranking is a mixed blessing. He may be a minister in a hugely important area, but given the level of controversy attracted by Andrew Lansley and the Health and Social Care Act, keeping

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LibLink: David Laws – Borrowing to cure a debt problem is not the answer

By NewsHound | Fri 4th May 2012 - 1:51 pm

David Laws has been writing for This is Cornwall. He says:

When Bill Clinton fought to become the US President, one of his staff put up a poster on the wall of the campaign headquarters. The poster read: “It’s the economy, stupid!” It was a blunt reminder to his staff to focus on the big issue of the election, and nothing else. For the British Government, and for people in our region, it is still the economy which is the biggest challenge facing us.

Last week, we received the grim news that the UK economy shrunk in size in the first

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Tagged david laws | 32 Comments

LibLink: Stephen Tall – The Coalition’s mid-term blues: a problem shared (is still a problem)

By NewsHound | Wed 2nd May 2012 - 6:45 pm

Over at the Politics.co.uk website, LibDemVoice Co-Editor Stephen Tall looks at the party’s prospects in Thursday’s elections. Here’s an excerpt:

With the Lib Dems’ national poll ratings flat-lining at around 10-12%, the party faces the uncomfortable prospect of a classic pincer-movement: losing to Labour our hard-won gains in the urban north, and losing to the Tories the no-less-hard-won gains in the suburban south. How the party fares against Labour in Sheffield, Manchester and Cambridge – where there are sitting Lib Dem MPs, including Nick Clegg – and against the Tories in Eastleigh, Three Rivers and Cheltenham will be a crucial test

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Tagged local elections 2012 and stephen tall | 7 Comments

LibLink: Stephen Gilbert – This half-baked pasty tax is offensive

By Mary Reid | Fri 27th April 2012 - 3:31 pm

You really must follow the link to the Guardian to see what Stephen Gilbert, MP for St Austell & Newquay, is eating.

The pasty industry is rising up and marching, it seems.

He writes:

It’s just over a month since George Osborne presented his budget to the House of Commons but the uproar over the proposed “pasty tax” hasn’t subsided. The VAT extension on hot food, which would include the Cornish pasty, is not only politically unpopular, it’s also unworkable, unfair and based on a flawed logic.

…

Today, I’m joining hundreds of people from the pasty industry to demonstrate

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Tagged pasty tax and stephen gilbert | 25 Comments

LibLink: Paddy Ashdown – I understand why many voters on the progressive wing of politics are struggling with voting for Ken Livingstone

By NewsHound | Fri 27th April 2012 - 12:25 pm

Writing in the Evening Standard, former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown says:

I understand why many voters on the progressive wing of politics are struggling with voting for Ken Livingstone. His campaign has been sad, desperate and divisive. He has just one big idea — a seven per cent cut in Tube fares. It’s a perfectly decent policy at a time when fares have risen for years on end but the problem is he can’t do it and he knows it.

Transport for London knows it too, having worked

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Also posted in London | Tagged brian paddick, ken livingstone and paddy ashdown | 14 Comments

LibLink: Mark Pack – Which London Mayor candidates are saying the right things?

By NewsHound | Sat 21st April 2012 - 12:55 pm

Over on his work blog, Lib Dem Voice’s Mark Pack has been looking at the manifesto mailing for the London Mayor elections:

For all the value of the detail of the booklet, the reality is that most voters only glance briefly through such a publication. The initial, quick impression each candidate gives matters far more than the detail of what they say in third paragraph, fourth sentence. Those sentences only make it into wider prominence if an embarrassing typo makes them into diary column fodder or if policy naivety means a small detail can be turned into a tabloid front page

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Also posted in London | Tagged Mark Pack | Leave a comment

LibLink: Tim Leunig – I’d pay extra to fill my little girl’s paddling pool

By NewsHound | Mon 16th April 2012 - 7:35 am

In the Telegraph, Tim Leunig argues that the hosepipe ban falls unfairly on domestic users, and that there are other ways to use less water:

We are among the 20 million people in southern and eastern England affected by a crude prohibition that falls unfairly and disproportionately on domestic users. Drought orders are about to be extended to the Midlands and the South West. Yet there is a better alternative: why can’t those of us who want to fill up our children’s paddling pools, or turn on

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Tagged hosepipe ban and tim leunig | 33 Comments

LibLink: Steven Fielding on Scott Egerton, “gentleman, Liberal MP… and detective”

By Stephen Tall | Sun 15th April 2012 - 5:45 pm

Over at his personal blog, Steven Fielding, Professor of Political History at the University of Nottingham, takes a look at the work of Lucy Beatrice Malleson who, under the nom de plume Anthony Gilbert, wrote 10 books featuring the gentleman detective — and Liberal MP — Scott Egerton. Here’s an excerpt:

Malleson’s Egerton stories follow a clear pattern in that he usually intervenes on behalf of someone falsely accused of murder and proves their innocence by finding the real villain. … If Egerton closely follows the model of the amateur upper-class detective, one best exemplified by Dorothy L. Sayers’ Lord Peter

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Tagged steven fielding | 1 Comment

Liblink: Paddy Ashdown says Snoopers’ Charter breaches the Coalition Deal

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 12th April 2012 - 1:55 pm

Writing in today’s Times, former leader Paddy Ashdown, a key ally of Nick Clegg, has condemned Government’s proposals to increase internet surveillance and warned that we must not “part company with our principles.”

He wrote:

The Government claims that it will have unfettered access only to “data” (ie, sender, recipient, time and duration) rather than content, so this does not constitute “a communications interception”. That is sophistry.

It is one of our rights as free citizens to talk to whom we wish, when we wish and wherever we wish without the State knowing about it, unless there is good cause for it to

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Tagged communication service providers, database state, eu data retention directive, paddy ashdown, ripa, surveillance and the times | 4 Comments

LibLink: Pauline Pearce – After the riots, the Liberal Democrats stood by me

By NewsHound | Mon 9th April 2012 - 12:35 pm

As we reported last month, Pauline Pearce – the ‘Hackney Heroine’ – standing as Lib Dem candidate in May’s elections. And last week she explained to The Guardian exactly why she is standing for the party: “because I discovered their commitment to poor communities is genuine”. Here’s an excerpt from Pauline’s article:

I announced earlier this month that I am planning to stand for election as a Liberal Democrat councillor in Hackney, yet I’m still posed a common question by journalists and friends alike: why the Lib Dems? Following the riots, all the major political parties courted me. But when

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Tagged hackney council and pauline pearce | 1 Comment

LibLink: Nick Clegg – Don’t dally, I want big money out of politics fast

By NewsHound | Mon 2nd April 2012 - 1:54 pm

Writing in yesterday’s Sunday Times (£), Nick Clegg says:

Politics in this country was left in the gutter by the expenses scandal of the last parliament. Even with this government’s ambitious programme of political reform, it will take a long time for us to climb out. Unless we reform our discredited and distrusted system of party funding, we may never restore that public confidence and trust that is the lifeblood of our democracy.

Tagged party funding | 42 Comments

LibLink: Norman Lamb – Business can be a powerful force for good

By NewsHound | Sat 31st March 2012 - 9:50 pm

Over at PoliticsHome, Lib Dem business minister Norman Lamb says business can be a powerful force for good in society, and insists responsible practice is central to his vision. Here’s an excerpt:

Business is not just about turning a profit and creating wealth. It can, and should also be a powerful force for good in our society. Through responsible behaviour, business can help regenerate communities, develop people’s skills, and produce the innovative products and services that improve our wellbeing.

Tagged norman lamb | 6 Comments

LibLink: The Lib Dems’ policy shortage

By NewsHound | Fri 30th March 2012 - 12:06 pm

Lib Dem Voice’s ubiquitous co-editor, Mark Pack, has been writing for Total Politics.

He says:

Performers who make the leap from stage show to the TV very often run into a simple problem: TV eats up material at a fearsome rate. A stage show can be repeated around the country for months with only a few tweaks as events or audience feedback requires it. TV, however, requires completely new material each week.

A similar problem has befallen the Liberal Democrats when it comes to policy. In opposition sticking to saying only a few things repeatedly was an advantage;

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Tagged Mark Pack and policy making | 9 Comments

LibLink: Chris Rennard – how the Lords reminds him of Lesotho

By Mark Pack | Sun 25th March 2012 - 10:25 am

Writing for Public Service, Lord (Chris) Rennard has focused on just how unusual the House of Lords is:

In one of the many debates in the House of Lords about its future, I recently explained how, “like many noble lords, I take great pleasure in occasionally being able to show visitors around this place. Sometimes they are parliamentarians from other countries. Often they ask ‘How do you become a Lord?’ When you begin by explaining that perhaps your ancestors fought with the King in battle hundreds of years ago, or perhaps that they were what have been called ‘special friends’ of

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Tagged chris rennard, constitutional reform, house of lords and lords reform | 2 Comments

LibLink: Redressing the balance between the generations

By Mary Reid | Fri 23rd March 2012 - 4:43 pm

Chris Nicholson, Director of CentreForum, has posted his take on the Budget on Total Politics. He concludes:

It is often said that the best Budgets are usually those that get the immediate negative headlines. While the press has focused on the alleged “unfairness” of the Budget, history is likely to be rather kinder in suggesting that the budget has been much fairer than it at first sight appeared.

You can read the reasons for his optimism here.

Tagged budget, chris nicholson and george osborne | 1 Comment

LibLink: David Laws on the Budget in the Telegraph

By Mary Reid | Fri 23rd March 2012 - 10:49 am

David Laws penned his thoughts about the Budget in the Telegraph yesterday, under the headline “Budget 2012: Not so much a gamble, more a grand strategy”

He writes:

Despite its scratchy origins, this was a strong Conservative-Lib Dem Budget, reminiscent of the earliest days of the Coalition at its best. It was radical and combined both enterprise and fairness. It did not duck difficult decisions or end up with lowest common denominator compromises. At times, the run-up may have looked like Coalition politics at their worst. I would argue that what resulted was Coalition policy-making at its best.

The Liberal Democrats challenged the

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Also posted in News | Tagged budget and david laws | 34 Comments

Liblink: Duncan Brack on how to get green policies implemented in Government

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 21st March 2012 - 9:28 am

Until recently, Duncan Brack was Chris Huhne’s Special Adviser in the Department of Energy and Climate Change. He has written for the Green Alliance blog about the challenges of putting green policies into practice. As well as insight into the practical realities of Government, he has some interesting points to make about the importance of policy making within political parties and how it might need to change in the future:

The coalition agreement hammered out by Liberal Democrat and Conservative negotiators over five days of talks in May 2010 (with details added over the following two weeks) became, at least in

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Also posted in News | Tagged climate change, duncan brack, environment, government, green issues and policy | Leave a comment

LibLink: Mark Pack – I was wrong about the Budget

By NewsHound | Mon 19th March 2012 - 5:50 pm

Writing over on his work blog, Lib Dem Voice’s Mark Pack withdraws one Budget prediction and offers us three others instead:

Cunning negotiating strategy or basic mistake? Whatever the view you have of the tax motion at Liberal Democrat conference and Stephen Williams’s speech moving it, my interpretation of it was wrong.

Far from signalling the determination of the party’s leadership to see the 50p tax rate remain, it was in fact a sideshow and the rate will go. A kind interpretation is that standing by the 50p rate so publicly was part of a negotiating strategy to extract greater concessions

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Tagged budget and Mark Pack | 3 Comments

Thatcher papers show 25 Tory MPs considered joining early SDP

By Alex Foster | Sat 17th March 2012 - 4:11 pm

A number of things hit the headlines this morning as the Margaret Thatcher Foundation reveals papers from 1981.

The early morning BBC radio headlines focussed on a meeting between Thatcher and Rupert Murdoch around the time News International acquired:

Margaret Thatcher had a secret meeting with Rupert Murdoch at Chequers weeks before his 1981 purchase of the Times newspapers, newly released files show.

A note by her press secretary Bernard Ingham says the prime minister thanked Mr Murdoch for “keeping her posted”.

But the contentious issue of whether to refer the bid to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission was not raised.

But as …

Also posted in News | Tagged counterfactuals, margaret thatcher, margaret thatcher foundation, news international, rupert murdoch and SDP | 10 Comments

LibLink: David Laws and Tim Farron – Budget 2012: Osborne must help the squeezed middle and tax the top

By Stephen Tall | Sat 17th March 2012 - 12:25 pm

Rumour a-plenty ahead of George Osborne’s third budget. Adding to theose rumours — or, more likely, giving us the inside gen on what’s likely to transpire — are the former Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury David Laws and Lib Dem party president Tim Farron in The Guardian. Here’s an excerpt:

Nick Clegg has made the Liberal Democrat priority very clear – a significant acceleration of planned increases in the starting point for paying income tax. This should be Osborne’s centrepiece – easing the pressure on household budgets, after the unprecedented recent squeeze. …

… whatever decisions Osborne makes on individual

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Tagged david laws, tax and tim farron | 1 Comment

Liblink: Michael Moore MP – “Rich must pay more to help poorest in budget

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 16th March 2012 - 3:56 pm

Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore has been talking to the London Evening Standard about such subjects as varied as beach volleyball, the independence referendum and taxes.

On the latter, he was clear where Liberal Democrat priorities for the Budget lie:

“The simple equation is that we think the priority is to help those on the lowest incomes to get as much support as they can,” he said. “Clearly that is going to have to be paid for and we think it is fair that those who have the broadest shoulders should be the ones who contribute to that. That is

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Also posted in News | Tagged budget and Michael Moore | 3 Comments

LibLink: Cllr Alex Folkes takes on the tobacco industry

By NewsHound | Fri 16th March 2012 - 2:56 pm

On the Local Government Association blog, Cllr Alex Folkes writes:

At a time when all councils are trying to save money, why should an authority be funding both sides of an expensive battle? That’s the case in Cornwall, and many other councils, in terms of the tobacco industry.

On the one hand, in our public health role, we have a duty to work to cut smoking rates. On the other we have pension funds, which are invested for the benefit of our former and current staff and for which members are trustees

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Tagged cornwall council and tobacco | 1 Comment

LibLink: Mark Pack – Public Budget disagreements are far better than the secretive norm

By NewsHound | Fri 16th March 2012 - 2:33 pm

Writing for Total Politics, The Voice’s Mark Pack welcomes public arguments over the Budget:

What would you do if you have a really important set of decisions to make? Decisions that will have a direct impact on the lives of millions of people, on the future of the country and – although of course you are too saintly to think of this – on your own future career prospects.

Locking yourself away in secret and deciding all the key decisions on your own before presenting them to the rest of the world as a fait accompli is not the route you will

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Tagged budget and Mark Pack | 6 Comments

Lib Link: Nick Clegg – my mission to make the ultra rich pay

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 14th March 2012 - 2:27 pm

Nick Clegg was interviewed in the Telegraph at the weekend. On the train journey to Gateshead, he covered how he wants to make the rich pay their fair share in tax, economic policy beyond the deficit, support for equal marriage and his relationships with his cabinet colleagues.

On taxing the rich he had this to say:

“It makes people so incredibly angry when you are getting up early in the morning, working really hard to try to do the right thing for your family and for your community, you are paying your taxes and then you see people literally in a different

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Also posted in News | Tagged nick clegg and Tycoon Tax | 8 Comments

LibLink: Lynne Featherstone – ‘Church stuck in dark ages’

By Paul Walter | Mon 12th March 2012 - 4:54 pm

In an interview in yesterday’s Sunday Times (£), Lynne Featherstone said plans for same-sex marriages are a ‘gentle measure’ but she will not bear intolerance.

Pink News reports the interview under the heading “UK Equality Minister: Church’s opposition to same sex marriage is ‘Dark Age’ homophobia”:

Lynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat minister for equality has said that the language the Church of England and the Catholic Church has used is homophobic and that the views that the leaders are expressing belong in the Dark Ages.

Mrs Featherstone told the Sunday Times: “This is about love and commitment and things that

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Tagged lynne featherstone and same sex marriage | 9 Comments

LibLink: Simon Hughes – The rich must be made to pay their share

By Paul Walter | Mon 12th March 2012 - 3:24 pm

In the Independent on Sunday, Simon Hughes writes:

Our economy will never recover if we continue to allow a privileged few to squirrel away increasing amounts of money into tax havens. But allowing people to take home more of what they earn both alleviates the squeeze on households and can boost spending where it is needed – on the high street, and in the community – creating demand and jobs.

We have already made great progress on making the tax system fairer. We have raised the rate of capital gains tax to 28 per cent, ending the scandal whereby people paid

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Tagged economy and tax | 4 Comments

LibLink: Nick Thornsby – The coalition was the best option in May 2010, and it’s the best option now

By NewsHound | Sat 10th March 2012 - 2:58 pm

Over at the New Statesman, Lib Dem blogger and Voice day editor Nick Thornsby has a piece setting out why he thinks the arguments for going into coalition remain as strong today as in May 2010.

Here’s an excerpt:

A coalition with Labour and a number of the smaller parties in Parliament was never a serious proposition, both because of the numerical difficulties and because of Labour’s intransigence. In hindsight it’s clear that most in the Labour party weren’t interested in joining a coalition. They’d rather be in opposition.

A confidence and supply arrangement was another option, but in my view those who

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Tagged coalition | 2 Comments

LibLink: Ed Davey: ‘The night I pulled a woman from the tracks as a train hurtled towards us’

By Helen Duffett | Sun 4th March 2012 - 11:37 am

Ed Davey MP, the new Energy and Climate Change Secretary features today in a cracking interview by the Independent’s Matt chorley. Far from being caught in the headlights, Ed is revealed as a man of bravery and resilience, with green and Liberal principles from his youth.

Here’s an excerpt:

Covered in blood and carrying a stranger in his arms, Ed Davey turned to see the lights of a high-speed train hurtling towards him. A split-second decision to help a woman in trouble late one December night was about to cost him his life. “I decided that I had to go across

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Tagged department of energy and climate change and ed davey | 5 Comments

LibLink: Paddick – we are putting forward an innovative, radical Liberal Democrat agenda for Londoners

By Stephen Tall | Sat 3rd March 2012 - 8:25 am

The Lib Dems’ London mayoral candidate Brian Paddick was interviewed in The Guardian yesterday. It’s a revealing and candid piece in which Brian makes his pitch for the post the paper describes “an office whose holder enjoys the largest personal mandate in Europe – bar the French president”. Here are some highlights:

On the Lib Dems’ London campaign

“It’s quite obvious where I’m positioning myself and it’s to the left of the coalition,” he says in an interview with the Guardian. “What we are saying to Londoners is this has got nothing to do with national politics. We are putting forward an

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Also posted in London | Tagged brian paddick and london mayoral election | Leave a comment

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Andy Burnham’s speech was good: Here’s how Lib Dems can make the implementation better (Caron Lindsay)
Britain should be proud, but never afraid of the stranger (Anton Georgiou)
Where is that ‘Yesss’ moment going to come from? (Chris Bowers)

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Category Archives: LibLink

LibLink: Mark Pack – Which Liberal Democrat MPs have the media pulling power?

LibLink: David Laws – Borrowing to cure a debt problem is not the answer

LibLink: Stephen Tall – The Coalition’s mid-term blues: a problem shared (is still a problem)

LibLink: Stephen Gilbert – This half-baked pasty tax is offensive

LibLink: Paddy Ashdown – I understand why many voters on the progressive wing of politics are struggling with voting for Ken Livingstone

LibLink: Mark Pack – Which London Mayor candidates are saying the right things?

LibLink: Tim Leunig – I’d pay extra to fill my little girl’s paddling pool

LibLink: Steven Fielding on Scott Egerton, “gentleman, Liberal MP… and detective”

Liblink: Paddy Ashdown says Snoopers’ Charter breaches the Coalition Deal

LibLink: Pauline Pearce – After the riots, the Liberal Democrats stood by me

LibLink: Nick Clegg – Don’t dally, I want big money out of politics fast

LibLink: Norman Lamb – Business can be a powerful force for good

LibLink: The Lib Dems’ policy shortage

LibLink: Chris Rennard – how the Lords reminds him of Lesotho

LibLink: Redressing the balance between the generations

LibLink: David Laws on the Budget in the Telegraph

Liblink: Duncan Brack on how to get green policies implemented in Government

LibLink: Mark Pack – I was wrong about the Budget

Thatcher papers show 25 Tory MPs considered joining early SDP

LibLink: David Laws and Tim Farron – Budget 2012: Osborne must help the squeezed middle and tax the top

Liblink: Michael Moore MP – “Rich must pay more to help poorest in budget

LibLink: Cllr Alex Folkes takes on the tobacco industry

LibLink: Mark Pack – Public Budget disagreements are far better than the secretive norm

Lib Link: Nick Clegg – my mission to make the ultra rich pay

LibLink: Lynne Featherstone – ‘Church stuck in dark ages’

LibLink: Simon Hughes – The rich must be made to pay their share

LibLink: Nick Thornsby – The coalition was the best option in May 2010, and it’s the best option now

LibLink: Ed Davey: ‘The night I pulled a woman from the tracks as a train hurtled towards us’

LibLink: Paddick – we are putting forward an innovative, radical Liberal Democrat agenda for Londoners

On the Lib Dems’ London campaign

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