Over at the Mail, Lib Dem MP Norman Baker writes about the imminent appearance of Tony Blair in front of the Chilcot Inquiry into the war in Iraq – and makes a plea for the Hutton Inquiry’s inadequate questioning of how government scientist and former UN weapons inspector Dr David Kelly really died. Here’s an excerpt:
… the fact that we, the British people, have had to wait seven long years for justice is a disgrace, and much of the blame can be firmly laid at the door of one man: Lord Brian Hutton. … when Lord Hutton finally reported in
Over at the Mail, Lib Dem shadow chancellor Vince Cable writes about Kraft’s takeover of Cadbury, arguing that government policy has failed in three ways: by ignoring the damage mergers do to the economy; by refusing to curb the company voting rights of short-term speculators; and by letting a state-owned bank lend the money which sealed the deal. Here’s an excerpt:
I feel for the Cadbury workers, but that alone is not enough explanation for the anger over the deal and the significance of the takeover. Nor is the fact that Kraft is American. Britain has long been open to foreign
Over at The Times today, former Lib Dem leader Lord (Paddy) Ashdown has an article arguing that the the Ministry of Defence is not fit for purpose, branding it sclerotic, inefficient, hamstrung by inter-service rivalry, and resistant to change. Here’s an excerpt:
While the American Army under General Petraeus has developed a culture of listening, and learning, to troops, whatever their rank or experience, the culture in the MoD is that you don’t take lessons from junior officers. The ministry needs to become a learning institution if it is to become effective.
The adaptation to counter- insurgency operations seems to have been
Lynne doesn’t exactly get an easy ride. Those questions which aren’t of the form “Why don’t the Lib Dems pack up and go home?” are all specifics about how much her expenses were:
Why did you think it reasonable to spend £22,000 of our money on stationery for your office?Hannah Farthing, London
When I was elected in May 2005 I promised to be one of the “hardest working MPs – ever”. If you look at my record, you will find I have delivered
Over at the Financial Times Nick Clegg has pledged to be straight with the British public about the state of the nation’s finances, and the public spending cuts the Lib Dems will make – called on the other two major parties to do likewise. At the moment, he says, Labour and the Tories are treating fiscal discipline like a “political football”:
Gordon Brown is determined to keep spending, whatever the risks, to create a dividing line with the Conservatives. David Cameron is determined to insist on immediate cuts, whatever the risks, to create a dividing line with Labour. It has become
LDV’s co-editor Mark Pack was one of three bloggers asked by Channel 4 News for their take on today’s extraordinary bid by two former cabinet ministers to unseat the Prime Minister. You can watch Mark’s minute-long clip here. Here’s a quick excerpt as a taster:
Today’s events have all the makings of a fantastic political farce because if you were to launch a coup against the prime minister now is just about the worst time to do it.
“I guess it’s just desperation because Labour know that under Gordon Brown they are facing a very heavy election defeat and they
It can be a tough job, leading the Liberal Democrats. The one question you are guaranteed to be asked is the one it’s impossible to answer: what would you do if there’s a hung parliament? Menzies Campbell, when he was leader, straight-batted it, refusing to budge from his mantra of “our sole
Over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free website today, Lib Dem shadow home secretary Chris Huhne argues that, if they are effective and available, body scanners at airports should have been rolled out by the government years ago. Here’s an excerpt:
No one wants to have full body scanners in airports. No one wants to be electronically strip-searched at the start of their holidays. It is an invasion of privacy we would all rather avoid. But the foiled bombing attempt on a Detroit-bound plane over Christmas demonstrates that terrorists still have an unhealthy addiction to air travel, and we have to
Over at The Times, Nick Clegg has penned an article setting out, perhaps in the clearest detail yet, exactly how the Lib Dems will respond in the event of a ‘hung Parliament’. He begins by noting the heat-without-light debate that the new year has brought:
Much of what we have heard so far is unsurprising: absurd pledges on spending, vitriolic attacks on cuts. But one development is new: both the old parties now claim to be almost identical to the Liberal Democrats. David Cameron and Gordon Brown are ostentatiously flirting with Liberal Democrat voters, clumsily trying to woo them —
Nick Clegg is a lead signatory for a letter in today’s Observer calling on the international community to exert pressure on Israel to abide by UN security council resolution 1860 and bring an end to the suffering of the people of Gaza. Here’s what it says:
One year on from Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli government continues to imprison 1.5 million Palestinians and prevent the rebuilding of its shattered infrastructure.
Israel’s blockade of Gaza, described by the UN fact-finding mission as “collective punishment”, stops reconstruction materials and humanitarian aid from reaching those who so desperately require it.
Over at the Mail today, Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable anticipates a year of fevered political battle, and issues a call for a reformed political system and a grown-up debate. Here’s an excerpt:
Once the seasonal festivities are out of the way, the public will be on the receiving end of months of sustained political bombardment over the airwaves and through the letterbox until a General Election puts an end to it. As someone who will be firing a lot of the ammunition, I am ready for this battle but I am conscious that the old rules no longer apply.
At the start of the decade he was Liberal Democrat MP for Twickenham, a well-regarded if relatively unknown trade and industry spokesman.
By the end of the decade he was the party’s Treasury spokesman and deputy leader, the best known and most well-respected Lib Dem MP. …
When the Lib Dems’ “Orange Book” was published in 2004 Cable was more clearly identified with the pro-market wing of the party, denounced by the more state-minded left. He has since made “fairer taxes, not higher taxes” his talisman,
On 27 December last year, Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, an overwhelming exercise of military force aimed at silencing the Hamas rockets which had terrorised Israeli towns and villages. The immediate effects of the invasion are well known: 1,400 Palestinians dead, mostly civilians, with many more wounded or displaced; 10 Israeli soldiers and three civilians killed, dozens more injured; and thousands of families in southern Israel forced to flee to other parts of the country. The rocketfire from Gaza into Israel has slowed but
Never let it be said that the Lib Dems’ deputy leader is a one-trick pony, capable only of talking sound common sense on the economy – he is also, as we all know, a ballroom dancing prince, a man who knows his paso from his tango. So he’s on sure-footed ground in the Mail, when he questions whether the Beeb has runined the show that, in previous series, has entranced millions:
Britain is divided into two nations: those who watch Strictly Come Dancing on a Saturday evening and those who watch The X Factor. There are a few neutrals, but not many. I have been firmly in the Strictly camp from its early days but I worry now that the formula no longer works – that it is not just losing the ratings battle but is losing its way. A national treasure is at risk. …
More than any other show I can remember, it has brought together people of different ages and social backgrounds from different parts of the country – men and women. It has helped to create a national conversation and has given a big boost to dancing as a popular pastime.
Yet something has gone badly wrong. Millions of viewers voted with their feet for the other channel. Even diehard supporters like me became bored in the early rounds this year by very ordinary performances from an excessive number of unknown ‘celebrities’.
You can read Vince’s article in full here. And as an extra special treat on a cold Monday morning, you can enjoy re-living our shadow chancellor treading the light fantastic with Alesha Dixon:
Over at the Independent on Sunday, Lib Dem shadow home secretary Chris Huhne rails against the UK’s asylum system for combining ‘staggering bureaucratic incompetence with institutionalised cruelty’. Here’s an excerpt:
… It is one thing to stamp out abuse among asylum-seekers, but quite another to devise a system that combines staggering bureaucratic incompetence with institutionalised cruelty, for every year we are locking up hundreds and probably thousands of children, who have committed no crime, in prison-like conditions.
We do not know exactly how many, because the Government will not provide regular figures, but in June there were 470 such children, most of
Over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free blog, Lib Dem blogger James Graham argues that political engagement via entertainment is a failed model, and asks – shouldn’t we be talking about how to make politics less like the X Factor? Here’s an excerpt:
The public perception of MPs and X Factor contestants is remarkably similar: both are regarded as vapid, essentially interchangeable, only in it for the money and the glory, bitchy, having laughable hairstyles and as all coming from the same school. … In reality, the X Factor could only dream of having as many voters as we take
Lib Dem shadow home secretary Chris Huhne has an article in today’s Times noting that how much it costs the Treasury to borrow money depends on three ratings agencies … and asks the crucial question: are they fit to wield this power?
Chris’s credential for writing an article outside his brief? Well, he founded the sovereign group at Fitch Ratings, and was group managing director. Here’s an excerpt:
Last week Moody’s — one of the big three international ratings agencies — warned that the UK’s top bond rating would be under threat if Britain failed to sort out its public finances
In the Times yesterday, Nick Clegg had an article in the paper’s Think Tank strand arguing that, what he termed, ‘the usual suspects’ are preventing reform in politics and banking. Here’s an excerpt:
For two professions, 2009 has been a shameful year: politicians and bankers. Both had their worst vices and darkest secrets exposed to public view. Such is the disdain in which these two groups are now held, any rational observer would expect significant consequences: radical reform driven through by public outrage. And yet, as 2009 draws to a close, the stark truth is that both politicians and bankers are
Here’s the video response Lib Dem shadow chancellor Vince Cable recorded yesterday in response to Alistair Darling’s Pre-Budget Report yesterday. (It is him, promise: you can make out the outline of his hat in the evening gloom – it might be worth filming Vince nearer a street-lamp next time.)
Over at the Mail, Lib Dem shadow chancellor Vince Cable previews this week’s pre-budget report, says what the Lib Dems’ priorities would be, and and argues that the banks should pay back the taxpayer for saving their business. Here’s an excerpt:
This week the spotlight switches from bankers’ bonuses to government deficit. The collapse of the banks and the recession has devastated public finances. In Wednesday’s Pre-Budget Report, taxpayers will get the bill and the debate will begin as to who pays and how and when. … Unless painful budget measures accompany a fairer tax system, the public will be very angry. … There has to be a clear plan to bring the finances back into good order. Otherwise, there is a serious risk of a collapse of confidence leading to much higher interest rates and a weaker economy for a long time. It will not occur this side of an Election. …
I guarantee, on my party’s behalf, that we are prepared to take unpopular decisions – albeit with a commitment to distribute the burden fairly.
Timing is very tricky. Rushing into painful cuts or tax rises will plunge the country back into recession. … The Liberal Democrats and I have already indicated some of the programmes that could go: ‘baby bonds’, tax credit for high earners and identity cards. There will be defence cuts, providing these don’t affect the kit for our soldiers in Afghanistan; the Trident missile system is one item for the long term. Unless politicians spell out priorities, we shall get indiscriminate, damaging cuts to valuable services. …
Taxes should be cut for those on low and middle incomes by lifting the income tax threshold to £10,000
a year, £200 a week. This should be paid for by removing tax reliefs which enable the very well-off to avoid income tax. I am sticking with the idea of a mansion tax, a one per cent charge on property over £2 million. This is also a way of getting non-doms to pay tax; you can’t move a mansion to Monaco or the Caymans.
If we are looking for more tax money, the place to start is with the banks. Some are making very large sums on the back of a taxpayer guarantee and we should demand a fee for this – ten per cent of profits. These are the people who got us into this mess and splattered the nation’s account in red ink. They should get out of their pin stripes, roll up their sleeves and take the lead in cleaning up.
Compass, the left-leaning pressure group, has launched a campaign for a referendum on proportional representation. Music to the Lib Dems’ ears?
Lib Dem Voice’s own Stephen Tall explains today at Comment is Free why it’s not something we’ll be supporting as a party, this side of the General Election:
Labour has had 12 years in which to renew the democratic fabric of this country. They failed to do anything about it because, quite simply, they didn’t care enough about it. If they care now, it is only because it’s expedient to; and expediency is the worst possible motive for reform.
In today’s Telegraph, Nick Clegg writes about the opening of the Chilcot inquiry into the invasion of Iraq, and launches a broadside against Labour’s botched foreign policy, and calls on the Prime Minister – who as Chancellor signed the cheques for the Iraq war – to apologise for his part in the devastation that has unfolded. Here’s an excerpt:
The opening of the inquiry into the Iraq war reminded me that one of the greatest tragedies of Labour’s foreign policy is that they focused on Iraq, not Afghanistan. They focused on winning the argument for an unjustified war, instead of winning
Rather belatedly* The Voice is delighted to highlight an article by Lib Dem blogger James Graham over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free site, the subtitle of which is a neat, Tweet paraphrase of his argument: ‘The idea that the Lib Dems want to jump into bed with Cameron is a fantasy. But multiparty politics is likely to be the new norm’. But as ever with James the article is well worth reading in full. Here’s an excerpt:
There is no enthusiasm within the party for co-operation with the Conservative party, but working with Labour is almost as unenticing a prospect.
In today’s Times, Lib Dem deputy leader and shadow chancellor Vince Cable advocates a 10% tax on bank profits to fund a ‘safety net’ until finance houses can be broken up and are no longer too big to fail. Here’s an excerpt:
Some bankers might claim that they are doing God’s work. But the banks all owe their continued existence to the British and American taxpayer.
Some have been supported directly — RBS, Lloyds-HBOS, and the fully nationalised Northern Rock — but all benefit from the guarantee that they will not be allowed to fail. UK banks have received the equivalent of
It’s a Lib Dem-tastic edition of today’s Independent – in addition to Nick Clegg’s article calling for the Queen’s Speech to be cancelled so that Parliament can focus on the big issue of reforming itself, former Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy is the focus of the paper’s ‘You Ask The Questions’ feature, in which readers pose their own often sharp and pointy questions. There’s some straight-talking from Charles, along with some discreet evasion on issues such as:
the circumstances of his forced resignation as leader (“I’ve long since moved on and would continue to advise everyone else to
In today’s Independent, Nick Clegg makes a bold pitch – that Parliament should use the few months it has left before the election to try and actually achieve something to solve the big political issue of the year: restoring the public’s trust in Parliament. Here’s an excerpt:
On Wednesday, all the pomp and ceremony that Parliament can muster will be rolled out for the Queen’s Speech, setting out the Government’s list of new laws for the coming year. But the glitz and glamour will be based on a complete fiction. Parliament will find it difficult to pass any of the
Over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free, Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable argues that simply “bashing bankers” will not solve the inherent structural problems in the banking system, and urges a considered response to address the issues. Here’s an excerpt:
Of course people are angry, and they have every right to be, especially when so many are losing their jobs in a recession triggered by a banking collapse. There are, however, different types of banks. Bonuses are a big issue in investment banks from proprietary trading, but are rare in retail banks. Some banks over-reached themselves and have been nationalised
Over at The Independent, Ed Davey writes about the possibility of Tony Blair becoming the EU’s President:
It’s a long-standing gripe of pro-Europeans that historically Britain has played a poor hand in Europe. Too often disdainful, disengaged or domestically divided, Labour and the Tories have sold the country short. For different reasons, their posturing over Blair’s presidential ambitions is in danger of throwing away another golden opportunity for Britain.
Labour’s push for Blair is wrong on two counts. Firstly, he is simply too soiled for export. His disastrous decision to side with President Bush over the invasion of Iraq was horribly divisive
Over at The Guardian, the Lib Dems’ rottweiler-without-portfolio Norman Baker – the MP who was campaigning to clean up Parliamentary expenses long before it was fashionable – argues that Christopher Kelly’s report may help to restore parliament’s reputation, but the solutions it contains must be workable. Here’s an excerpt:
Kelly’s report is an important document and perhaps the most significant staging post in the long and painful journey towards restoring the reputation of parliament. Given the terrible exposures of their abuse of the expenses system, MPs have forfeited the right to decide their own pay and conditions. It was never a
David Allen Tristan,
You're right in the sense that you didn't specifically call for PFI. But you did say "if you can persuade private money to provide the funding on t...
David Garlick Touted as bringing power to people.
Power brought down from Govt sounds good but power still not reaching the lowest possible levels in our Communities....
Tristan Ward @ David Allen
"PFI won’t help stop the planet burning"
Who said anything about PFI - I didn't.
The private money that is building (not enough) house...
Joey Vimsante I think the EU and UK needs to support not for profit, social media platforms that put the interest of the public, vulnerable people, young people, and nation a...
Nick Baird With regard to client-side image scanning, the danger of mission creep are real, but I have other concerns. One is whether this is truly a practical and effecti...
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Brechtian television: Leo McKern in Galileo (1964)
Good news on political donations?
Conference booked
Are Labour going to cross another red line?
David Allen 
David Garlick 
Tristan Ward 
Joey Vimsante 
Nick Baird 