Category Archives: LibLink

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

LibLink: Are the Lib Dems Giving Up More Than the Tories in Government?

By Mary Reid | Tue 21st February 2012 - 8:03 pm

Louise Phillips, a former Lib Dem staffer, asks this question in the UK version of The Huffington Post.

There have been a lot of sacrifices from the Liberal Democrats in the past two years. Tuition fees (obviously); mansion tax; free schools. But, and this is the argument I make in the pub whenever someone finds out I used to work for the party, the Tories are giving up more. They have sacrificed long held beliefs on taxation to allow the Lib Dems to raise the tax threshold to £10,000, putting money back into the pocket of most working people in the

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Tagged huffington post and liberal democrats | 51 Comments

LibLink: Nick Clegg – Our example as well as diplomacy will make the world safer

By Paul Walter | Mon 20th February 2012 - 1:26 pm

Nick Clegg writes in the Independent today on international standards in the arms trade:

As always with international norms, the first, crucial step is laying global ground rules that can be built on over time. What is needed is leadership. The UK has spearheaded this agenda within the UN, for which former Foreign Secretary David Miliband deserves considerable credit. The baton has now passed to the coalition and we understand that credibility abroad rests on leading by example at home. Ours is one of the most rigorous regulatory regimes in the world, but there’s always room to do better. We

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Tagged arms trade | 2 Comments

LibLink: James Plunkett – Budget 2012: 20 minutes in, 1-0 Team Clegg

By NewsHound | Mon 13th February 2012 - 12:25 pm

Over at the New Statesman, James Plunkett, who is leading the Resolution Foundation’s Commission on Living standards, looks at what we’ve learned from the recent interventions by Nick Clegg (pushing for a £10k income tax threshold to help the lowest-paid) and Danny Alexander (urging this be paid for by ending higher-rate pension relief) — and what those interventions might mean for George Osborne’s budget this March…

If there’s one thing Alexander’s intervention confirms it’s this: the key question for the 2012 Budget is no longer whether the Lib Dems will get anything on personal allowances but how the next

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Tagged Danny Alexander, james plunkett, nick clegg, pensions and tax cuts (Lib Dem) | 3 Comments

LibLink: what to look out for at Lib Dem Spring Conference

By NewsHound | Sat 11th February 2012 - 12:00 pm

The Voice’s Mark Pack has a post over at Total Politics, discussing the issues likely to dominate the upcoming Lib Dem Spring Conference in Gateshead.

The first thing to note, says Mark, is that some of the most contentious political issues of recent weeks such as the reforms to the NHS and to the welfare system don’t appear on the conference agenda as it was drawn up some time ago:

There is a slot for emergency and topical issues to cover this eventuality, but with only time for one motion, not all of the controversies can be aired. Unless a

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Also posted in Conference | Tagged Gateshead 2012 Conference, health and social care bill, Mark Pack, NHS, total politics and welfare reform | Leave a comment

LibLink: how to achieve digital nirvana – inbox zero – by Mark Pack

By NewsHound | Fri 10th February 2012 - 4:08 pm

The Voice’s Mark Pack has published some useful tips on how to get to where every busy Parliamentarian, councillor, candidate and activist wants to be – Inbox Zero.

They include such gems as:

3. Stop using your inbox as a substitute for filing

Quite often there will be an email you have read, responded to but do not want to forget quiet yet. Perhaps you have made an order and don’t want to bury away the confirmation until the goods arrive. That is fine — but do not use your inbox for that. Create a “pending” folder to hold these interim messages.

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Tagged Mark Pack | 2 Comments

LibLink: Brian Paddick – London is increasingly policed by force not consent – thanks to its mayors

By Nick T | Thu 9th February 2012 - 5:17 pm

Lib Dem London mayoral candidate Brian Paddick had a piece on the Guardian’s Comment Is Free website yesterday on what is his undoubtedly his strongest issue – policing.

Here’s a sample of what Brian had to say:

Crime will be far more of an issue in the election of the mayor of London on 3 May because the mayor is now the elected crime and police commissioner for London. He alone sets police priorities and the police budget and he alone will hold the Metropolitan police to account. Far from holding the police to account, to date

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Tagged boris johnson, brian paddick, ken livingstone, london mayoral election and policing | Leave a comment

LibLink: Ashdown – This 11-year exercise in self-delusion must end

By Paul Walter | Mon 6th February 2012 - 10:24 am

Paddy Ashdown has an opinion piece on Afghanistan in The Times today (£) in which he says:

We have repeatedly deluded ourselves about “successes” that never existed and thus took so long recognising that a victor’s peace was beyond our reach that we wasted the best opportunities for a negotiated one. We failed to understand that in these wars it is politics, not weapons, that counts most. Even if you win on the battlefield, you lose if you lose politically; which we have, painfully

Tagged afghanistan | 1 Comment

LibLink: Jeremy Browne MP on the Government’s actions to prevent torture

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 1st February 2012 - 10:58 am

Liberal Democrat Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne in the Guardian about the Coalition’s strategy to prevent torture throughout the World and about the independent enquiry which will investigate whether Britain was implicated in torture after 9/11:

We know that we face a long and difficult road ahead. But our vision is for people to be treated fairly and able to speak freely in every country. We should never be comfortable with a world where journalists, lawyers and activists endure ill treatment for criticising their governments. This is a core part of what this coalition stands for, and we will continue to

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Also posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged amnesty uk, europe, jeremy browne, torture and un | 2 Comments

LibLink: Simon Hughes MP – Students are not being put off university by tuition fees

By Helen Duffett | Tue 31st January 2012 - 8:53 am

Simon Hughes MP writes at Comment is Free, following the publication of the latest UCAS figures.

He acknowledges the top-line 8% decline in applications and the mass protest that followed the original decision, but points out that applications from students in deprived areas have barely declined at all:

…a more objective analysis of the data shows a clearer picture. Although applications were down by a significant number, the total number of 18-year-olds in England this year is significantly down as well. If you adjust the figures to take account of changes in demographic, the application rate in England – which

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Tagged simon hughes, tuition fees and ucas | 2 Comments

LibLink: Lynne Featherstone – Success so far of the body image campaign

By Paul Walter | Mon 30th January 2012 - 5:23 pm

In the first of a series of monthly posts on Huffington Post, Lynne Featherstone outlines the case for changing perceptions of body image, and the success of the campaign so far:

Every day people are confronted with images of the ‘perfect’ body that just don’t reflect the diverse society we live in. These unrealistic images set an impossible standard, potentially damaging self esteem and crushing confidence.

We need to challenge this culture of conformity and widen the definition of beauty to include all ages, shapes, sizes and ethnicities. And we need to help people recognise that their value goes beyond

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Tagged body image and lynne featherstone | 2 Comments

LibLink: Mr Clegg Goes to Peterbrook

By NewsHound | Sun 29th January 2012 - 5:55 pm

We’ve not often LibLinked through to the ‘Breaking News’ section of Peterbrook Primary School’s website. In fact we never have before. But their report of Nick Clegg’s visit, alongside local Solihull MP Lorely Burt, deserves a wide audience, and here’s a snippet:

Together with Solihull M.P Lorely Burt and an entourage of press and media broadcasters, Mr. Clegg came from London to see us so that we could share with him our curriculum developments using ‘Pupil Premium’ funding to support the learning and personal development needs of all pupils, with a specific focus at times, on those pupils who are eligible

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Tagged lorely burt, nick clegg, pupil premium, schools and solihull | 3 Comments

LibLink: Mark Pack – Nick Clegg turns media weakness into media strength

By Nick T | Thu 26th January 2012 - 4:23 pm

Over on his work blog, The Voice’s Mark Pack has a post looking at the extremely successful media coverage of Nick Clegg’s speech on tax policy, with the party using the fact that much of the media is still surprised by the idiosyncracies of coalition to our advantage.

Here’s a sample:

In a country used to coalitions, having the leader of one of the parties in government talk about their tax priorities a few months ahead of a budget would not be remarkable. With the British media habits, it had made today’s speech from Nick Clegg to banner news – lead story

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Tagged Mark Pack, media, neil stockley, nick clegg, tax and tax cuts (Lib Dem) | 2 Comments

LibLink: Tim Leunig – Housing benefit cap: can you live on 62p a day?

By Paul Walter | Mon 23rd January 2012 - 9:24 am

On Comment is Free, Tim Leunig reveals some alarming impacts of the government’s housing benefit cuts:

Imagine two sets of people, both renting from private landlords. One is an Islington couple who have never worked. The other is an Oldham family with four children, where the working parent has just lost his or her job. The Islington couple currently receive £250 a week in housing benefit, while the Oldham family gets only £150.

Times are tough, and the government wants to save money. Which family should have its housing benefit cut? George Osborne has chosen the Oldham family. He is cutting

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Tagged housing benefit | 26 Comments

LibLink: Chris Rennard – Integrity in ensuring that people can vote

By Nick T | Thu 19th January 2012 - 6:28 pm

Over on epolitix, Lord (Chris) Rennard has a piece calling for changes to the electoral registration system to place the burden on individuals rather than households following the news that at least 6 million people are unregistered:

All parties and the Electoral Commission are agreed in principle that the electoral registration system should change to put the responsibility on individuals rather than households.

But the Commission report shows that our existing system is not as good as we thought and there are clearly dangers in making any changes. The biggest dangers to the integrity of the process would be to suggest that

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Tagged chris rennard, electoral commission and electoral registration | 3 Comments

LibLink: David Laws – Reasons to be cheerful in 2012

By NewsHound | Mon 16th January 2012 - 11:54 am

In the Daily Mail, David Laws gives readers a tour d’horizon of the economy, ending with some optimisim:

The first good news is that inflation should fall – and steeply. Last year, inflation rose because of higher energy and food prices, and the rise in VAT.

Most of those increases are behind us – last week, energy price cuts of five per cent were trumpeted. Inflation, which peaked last year at 5.6 per cent (retail prices), should be down to about 2.5 per cent by May.

That will help hard-pressed household budgets.

The second piece of good news is that

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Tagged david laws and economy | 10 Comments

LibLink: “John Hemming is definitely a cat man”

By NewsHound | Sat 14th January 2012 - 2:10 pm

John Hemming, Lib Dem MP for Birmingham Yardley, is an unabashed iconoclast. The Independent this week sought to understand what makes him tick a little better. Inevitably there is some focus on his private life — most notoriously brought to public attention by his estranged wife’s stealing of a kitten from his girlfriend’s house — but also a lot of space given to his views on the UK care system and the economy. Here’s an excerpt:

Hemming is serious but funny, blithely overweight, and a stickler for detail. He sits surrounded by plenty of clutter, a frisky kitten and an inquisitive

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Tagged john hemming | 1 Comment

LibLink: Lord Trevor Smith – looking to the future of the Liberal Democrats

By Mark Valladares | Thu 12th January 2012 - 4:57 pm

Over on the Social Liberal Forum’s website, Lord Smith of Clifton has given a backbench peer’s perspective on political events and where the Party should be going, opening with a warning;

The Lib Dems are in a very serious state, possibly facing meltdown of the kind experienced by the Canadian Conservatives some time ago (though they managed a spectacular comeback), or the Canadian Liberals in last year’s elections. The burning question is how, at the very minimum, to limit the electoral damage and hopefully to revive the party’s fortunes.

For more of his thoughts, the full article can be found here.

Also posted in Parliament | Tagged lord smith of clifton | 17 Comments

LibLink: Mark Pack – Why David Cameron won’t be calling a snap general election

By NewsHound | Mon 2nd January 2012 - 5:11 pm

Over on the LSE’s British Politics blog, The Voice‘s Mark Pack has been explaining why commentators speculating about a snap general election have got it wrong:

Fixing the date of the next general election (and future ones) outside the control of the Prime Minister was a central part of the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition agreement because it was a way of guaranteeing the five-year deal. Otherwise the risk for the smaller party is that at any point the larger one can suddenly pull the rug out from under an agreement and call an election. No doubt it helped sweeten the pill for

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Tagged fixed-term parliaments and Mark Pack | 3 Comments

LibLink: Tim Farron – Fighting for jobs and health care – and against second-home council tax perks

By Mark Pack | Sat 31st December 2011 - 3:35 pm

It is the turn today of Liberal Democrat President Tim Farron for a personal reflection on the year in The Guardian:

In 2011 Westmorland and Lonsdale has had some of the lowest unemployment figures across the whole of the UK. On the surface this sounds like a fantastic statistic; however, it does not take into consideration the fact that we have among the highest rate of workers on minimum wage across the whole of Britain. The average salary in the South Lakes is just £24,928 while average house prices are over £250,000. We’ve gone someway to try and tackle this injustice with the

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Tagged tim farron | 1 Comment

LibLink: Mark Pack – 2011 was a year of treading water

By NewsHound | Wed 28th December 2011 - 10:25 am

Yesterday The Times ran a set of op-eds looking at how the parties did in 2011, featuring ConHome’s Tim Montgomerie, Ed Miliband biographer Mehdi Hasan and The Voice’s own Mark Pack.

Here is a flavour of what Mark had to say:

This year has certainly not been short of Harold Macmillan’s “events, dear boy, events”. Political and economic turmoil disrupted even the usually quiet periods deep in August and the final shopping days before Christmas.

Yet at the end of the year the political rollercoaster has left all three main parties in remarkably similar situations to those in which they found themselves

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Tagged mehdi hasan, nick clegg and tim montgomerie | 7 Comments

LibLink: From David Laws to Andrew George – The Lib Dem rebellion league table

By NewsHound | Mon 19th December 2011 - 11:55 am

Over on Left Foot Forward, Mark Pack has blogged an infographic analysing the patterns of rebellion amongst Liberal Democrat MPs:

Liberal Democrat peers used to be in a remarkably privileged position in the party. Not only because they have held office without the pesky need for elections but also because for many years the third party in the House of Lords has been the key swing vote when the government has been wanting to get legislation through…

helped by the primacy of the Commons, revolts by Liberal Democrat MPs which could cost the government its majority are now no longer the neglected,

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Also posted in Parliament | Tagged andrew george, david laws and Mark Pack | 9 Comments

LibLink: In defence of the Lib Dems

By Prateek Buch | Fri 16th December 2011 - 3:00 pm

Yours truly has a post on the New Statesman rolling blog The Staggers, responding to Mehdi Hasan’s rather provocative question, “What’s the point of the Liberal Democrats?”

Hasan pointed out five areas in which the Lib Dems had (in his view) “sacrificed their distinctive beliefs and principles and received little in return.”

I responded with my own 5 points, including:

1) Ask the nearly 1 million low-paid workers who have been lifted out of paying income tax altogether thanks to a Lib Dem manifesto commitment delivered in government. With the prospect of further significant reforms to come to make

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Tagged Lib Dems, mehdi hasan, new statesman, prateek buch, pupil premium and tax cuts (Lib Dem) | 4 Comments

LibLink: Mark Pack – The three stories that really matters – even to Britain

By Nick T | Thu 15th December 2011 - 9:56 am

Over on his work blog, the Voice’s Mark Pack has a post looking at three important stories which have been largely overshadowed by the domestic political ramifications of the prime minister’s veto.

Here’s the first issue Mark identifies:

The actual significance of the summit was the latest, most extensive and more desperate attempt to save the Euro. Judging from initial reactions by economists and the financial markets, this time a Euro summit may just have pulled it off. It has not already been written off as a failure which, compared to other summits on the same theme, already makes it more successful

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Tagged chris huhne, climate change, europe, Mark Pack and syria | 2 Comments

LibLink: David Laws – George Osborne must stick to austerity Plan A

By Nick T | Tue 29th November 2011 - 9:57 am

Over at the London Evening Standard, Lib Dem MP for Yeovil and former Treasury chief secretary, David Laws, has a piece urging the chancellor to maintain the coalition’s deficit reduction plan to avoid importing the debt-driven eurozone crisis to Britain.

Here’s a sample:

Before the general election, many people said that a coalition would be weak and unstable. They don’t say that any more. By comparison with the eurozone and the US, our Government looks strong, stable and united. It is set to stay that way.

The Chancellor will be able to report that borrowing has been falling as planned. Borrowing from April

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Tagged david laws, deficit, economy and george osborne | 7 Comments

LibLink: Mark Pack – The Graph May Be Boring; The Political Message Isn’t

By Nick T | Sat 26th November 2011 - 1:58 pm

Over at the Huffington Post, the Voice’s Mark Pack has a post examining some interesting – and surprising – polling data, complete with a graph (don’t say Mark doesn’t spoil you).

Here’s Mark explaining what the graph shows:

It comes from polling carried out by MORI, asking the same question over the years: “How interested would you say you are in politics?” The graph shows how many people gave one of the two positive answers (“very” or “fairly”) – and so also shows how the public’s interest in politics has been pretty consistent, at a high level. (You can get the

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Tagged Mark Pack, mori and Polls | 5 Comments

LibLink | Steve Webb fears poor rap for pensions

By NewsHound | Sun 20th November 2011 - 11:28 am

FTAdvisor.com reports:

Steve Webb MP has raised fears about pensions’ poor image and how low interest rates and quantitative easing have damaged annuities. The Pensions Minister, who said the government is going to use employers to promote pensions and auto-enrolment, described auto-enrolment as being like a Ming vase – “very precious, but very fragile”.

He added he wants to change perceptions and instil confidence in retirement planning to ensure that charges are not too high and that pensions offer value for money. He said: “We need to move from a system that’s fiendishly complicated, that still leaves millions of pensioners living in poverty, to one, ideally, where we have a single, simple, decent state pension on which people can build.” …

He also said quantitative easing has damaged pensions. When asked about concerns over annuity risk given low interest rates and quantitative easing, the Minister admitted to “an issue about volatility, not knowing what you are going to get and an issue about poor returns.”

You can see Steve’s interview with Saga’s Director-General Ros Altmann below:

Also posted in YouTube | Tagged pensions, ros altmann, saga and steve webb | Leave a comment

LibLink | In praise of… Shirley Williams

By NewsHound | Sun 20th November 2011 - 10:08 am

One of this week’s Guardian leader columns, ‘In praise of…’, was deservedly dedicated to Shirley Williams, a Lib Dem peer, founding member of the SDP, and former Labour education secretary. Here’s a snippet:

Forever running late, but with a warmth that ensures she’s forgiven, Williams has great faith in reasonable compromise. She has pursued a more softly-softly approach towards the dreadful health bill than we have advocated. But survivors of the SDP’s internecine wars recall a wily chair perfectly capable of calling a crunch vote when an awkward customer had gone to the loo, and it is too early to judge

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Tagged shirley williams and the guardian | 6 Comments

LibLink | Starved by the Japanese: the Clegg family’s war

By Helen Duffett | Sun 13th November 2011 - 4:21 pm

Today’s Sunday Times has an interview with Nick Clegg in which he talks for the first time about his mother’s time in an internment camp during World War II.

As a child, when Nick Clegg heard his mother talk quietly about her time in “the camp”, it conjured up happy images in his mind of a Butlins-style summer vacation. The truth was very different, as he would later find out — a discovery that brought home to him the grim reality of war, he reveals in his first interview about his mother’s wartime experiences.

“My mother Hermance, her two sisters

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Tagged nick clegg, sunday times and world war II | 3 Comments

LibLink: Paddy Ashdown – Europe’s free ride on the back of Nato is over

By Nick T | Wed 2nd November 2011 - 6:53 pm

In today’s Daily Telegraph, former party leader Lord (Paddy) Ashdown writes on the challenges facing Nato and the future of European cooperation on matters of defence.

Here’s a sample from Paddy’s piece:

These are confusing times for supporters of Nato. On the one hand, the alliance has completed its mission in Libya without a single casualty. On the other, its future looks less certain than ever in the face of fiscal austerity, increasingly uneven burden-sharing between members, and America’s dwindling faith in its utility.

The fact that the US feels this way is understandable. In 2000, America’s share of Nato defence spending was

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Tagged defence, NATO, paddy ashdown and strategic defence review | 11 Comments

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Category Archives: LibLink

LibLink: Are the Lib Dems Giving Up More Than the Tories in Government?

LibLink: Nick Clegg – Our example as well as diplomacy will make the world safer

LibLink: James Plunkett – Budget 2012: 20 minutes in, 1-0 Team Clegg

LibLink: how to achieve digital nirvana – inbox zero – by Mark Pack

LibLink: Brian Paddick – London is increasingly policed by force not consent – thanks to its mayors

LibLink: Ashdown – This 11-year exercise in self-delusion must end

LibLink: Jeremy Browne MP on the Government’s actions to prevent torture

LibLink: Simon Hughes MP – Students are not being put off university by tuition fees

LibLink: Lynne Featherstone – Success so far of the body image campaign

LibLink: Mr Clegg Goes to Peterbrook

LibLink: Mark Pack – Nick Clegg turns media weakness into media strength

LibLink: Tim Leunig – Housing benefit cap: can you live on 62p a day?

LibLink: Chris Rennard – Integrity in ensuring that people can vote

LibLink: David Laws – Reasons to be cheerful in 2012

LibLink: “John Hemming is definitely a cat man”

LibLink: Lord Trevor Smith – looking to the future of the Liberal Democrats

LibLink: Mark Pack – Why David Cameron won’t be calling a snap general election

LibLink: Tim Farron – Fighting for jobs and health care – and against second-home council tax perks

LibLink: Mark Pack – 2011 was a year of treading water

LibLink: From David Laws to Andrew George – The Lib Dem rebellion league table

LibLink: In defence of the Lib Dems

LibLink: Mark Pack – The three stories that really matters – even to Britain

LibLink: David Laws – George Osborne must stick to austerity Plan A

LibLink: Mark Pack – The Graph May Be Boring; The Political Message Isn’t

LibLink | Steve Webb fears poor rap for pensions

LibLink | In praise of… Shirley Williams

LibLink | Starved by the Japanese: the Clegg family’s war

LibLink: Paddy Ashdown – Europe’s free ride on the back of Nato is over

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Josh Babarinde writes…The Lib Dem Summer of Strategy

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What’s going on with party strategy?

A strange but welcome feeling

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