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Category Archives: Parliament

Anything connected with business in the Houses of Commons or Lords (eg, PMQs).

The Independent View: The Last Chance Saloon for Access to Justice?

By Des Hudson | Thu 8th March 2012 - 9:22 am

At the Liberal Democrat Conference last Autumn, Nick Clegg delivered a passionate defence of a liberal justice system. He concluded his speech by arguing that, although these were not easy times for the country, ‘our party has fought for liberal values for a century and a half: justice, optimism, freedom. We’re not about to give up now’.

Yet in its haste to cut 23% from the budget of the Ministry of Justice and tackle the perception of a compensation culture (a perception some members of the Government and parts of the media are only too ready to cultivate) the Government has …

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Also posted in News and The Independent View | Tagged legal aid | Leave a comment

Baroness Dee Doocey writes: Legal Aid and Welfare Reform, spot the problem

By Dee Doocey | Wed 7th March 2012 - 12:55 pm

As one of the Liberal Democrat peers engaged in the debate on the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill as well as the recent Welfare Reform Bill debates, I am pushing today for a vital amendment which I hope will mitigate the worst aspects of cuts facing the legal aid system– something that is proving to be a controversial issue for the Party.

The coalition agreement committed to reforming legal aid to reduce its costs to the public purse; it did not commit to abolishing it for whole categories of law. Chief amongst these excluded categories in Legal Aid, …

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Also posted in News | Tagged dee doocey, house of lords, legal aid, welfare reform and welfare reform bill | 6 Comments

Lords Reform: Nick Clegg faces the music…

By Mark Valladares | Tue 28th February 2012 - 8:53 am

Yesterday, the Draft House of Lords Reform Bill Joint Committee met for its last public session before retreating into report writing mode. And, as a special treat, they got an opportunity to savage the midwives of the proposed reforms, Nick Clegg and Mark Harper.

It was perhaps unfortunate that their evidence was somewhat overshadowed by an interview given by Lord Lee of Trafford …

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Also posted in News | Tagged house of lords and nick clegg | 8 Comments

PMQs: Tragedy, comedy and the Continuing Saga of the Family Bone

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 23rd February 2012 - 4:28 pm

I’m not used to learning anything from the weekly pantomime that is Prime Minister’s Questions. Sadly, though yesterday’s session brought me the news of the death of Marie Colvin, the veteran Sunday Times reporter whose often heartbreaking reports from war zones I’ve been reading most of my adult life. Both David Cameron and Ed Miliband paid tribute to her work, the latter calling her brave, tireless and an inspiration to women in her profession. More tragedy followed as Sajid Javid, the MP for Bromsgrove, asked the PM to join in with sympathy for those killed and injured in the bus crash …

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Also posted in News | Tagged alex hilton, david cameron, ed miliband, julian huppert, marie colvin, mike crockart, nick clegg, peter bone and PMQs | 4 Comments

Emlyn Hooson (1925-2012)

By Mark Valladares | Wed 22nd February 2012 - 3:21 pm

It is with much regret that Liberal Democrat Voice has received word that Lord Hooson, former Liberal MP for Montgomeryshire, passed away peacefully yesterday.

Emlyn Hooson was educated at Denbigh Grammar School and University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, before serving in the Royal Navy in World War II. By 1960, he had become the youngest ever Queen’s Counsel, whilst rising swiftly through the ranks of the Liberal Party, chairing the Welsh Liberal Party from 1955.

When Clement Davies died in 1962, Emlyn was selected to fight the resultant by-election for a Parliamentary seat which had been continuously Liberal since 1880, and he …

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Also posted in News, Obituaries and Wales | Tagged emlyn hooson | 1 Comment

Michael Moore MP’s Westminster Notes

By Michael Moore | Wed 8th February 2012 - 8:55 am

Referendum on Independence

Now that we know that a referendum will definitely be held on Scottish independence, I am committed to working with the Scottish Government to ensure we have one that is fair, legal and decisive. A few weeks ago I launched a consultation to seek views on how we could achieve this and I want to encourage Borderers to take part to make their voices heard on this incredibly important issue.

Following the launch of the consultation I have also met with the CBI, Scottish Engineering and others and I plan to meet with many other Scottish businesses, representatives of …

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Tagged ed davey, Michael Moore, post offices, Scotland, Scottish independence referendum and Westminster Notes | 1 Comment

Nick Clegg on being Nick Clegg in The House magazine

By Prateek Buch | Fri 3rd February 2012 - 3:00 pm

Deputy Prime Minister gave a wide-ranging interview to The House magazine, in which he discusses how it’s right for the two coalition parties to differentiate themselves once a stable government was formed:

In the run-up to the general election, you may remember, the tabloids were screaming, saying that if there was a hung Parliament locusts would descend from the sky and the sun would be blotted out, you know… so we needed for those first few months to show the most important thing of all, which is this is a government that works, and actually works rather well.

Of course,

…

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Also posted in News | Tagged coalition, lords reform and nick clegg | 1 Comment

The other issue Lib Dem peers can win on tomorrow

By Mark Pack | Tue 31st January 2012 - 4:25 pm

Moves in the House of Lords to amend the health and welfare bills have been getting the lion’s share of recent coverage, but this week sees a quartet of Liberal Democrat peers leading the charge on a different topic – the Legal Aid Bill.

Lib Dem Lords Thomas, Carlile, Clement Jones and Phillips have a set of amendments down for debate tomorrow to put right what Ken Clarke hasn’t got right in his zeal to end the so-called ‘compensation culture’. The amendments look to tighten up and improve the plans to ban so-called ‘referral fees’ in personal injury cases. Its these fees which …

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged alex carlile, ken clarke, legal aid, lord (martin) thomas, lord andrew phillips and tim clement-jones | 5 Comments

Council Tax – why not a premium for second homes?

By Annette Brooke MP | Tue 31st January 2012 - 9:23 am

In addition to the Government’s proposals to allow councils to charge full council tax on second homes, other Liberal Democrat MPs and I have tabled an amendment to the Local Government Finance Bill to give councils the discretion to introduce a Second Home Premium. Second home owners often ask why they should be ‘punished’ in this way just because they choose to spend their money on a second home or because they need a second home for work purposes. They may add, ‘we spend money in the area and we do not have the same call upon services as …

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Also posted in News | Tagged annette brooke, council tax and second homes | 24 Comments

PMQs: The importance of Doncaster, almost to the exclusion of everything else

By Paul Walter | Thu 26th January 2012 - 12:56 pm

At Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, David Cameron and Ed Miliband first clashed on the subject of economic growth (or, indeed, contraction). That entanglement was, more or less, a score draw. But Ed Miliband was much stronger during a later exchange on the NHS reform bill, culminating with this belter:

I shall tell the Prime Minister what is happening in the NHS: waiting lists up, morale down. What does the majority-Conservative Select Committee on Health say about his reorganisation? It says that it will be a “disruption and distraction that hinders the ability of organisations to” release savings.

Let us be frank: this

…

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Also posted in PMQs | Tagged david cameron, economy, ed miliband, eleanor laing, malcolm bruce, NHS and sir robert smith | 3 Comments

Opening up public sector procurement, creating opportunities for local enterprises

By Dick Newby | Tue 24th January 2012 - 3:24 pm

This coming Friday I will introduce the Second Reading of a Bill which has the capacity to permanently change the way in which public sector bodies procure services – whether local authorities, NHS trusts or Government Departments. It will require them to consider how what is being procured will improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of the area in which the services are being provided. This means that, whilst they will obviously still have to take price very much into account, they will have to assess the social value which different potential suppliers can add to their performance of …

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Also posted in News | Tagged public spending | 10 Comments

Your LDV guide to rebel Liberal Democrat Peers

By Mark Valladares | Tue 24th January 2012 - 1:53 pm

To mark the largest rebellion by Liberal Democrat Peers, we thought that it was time we recognised those Liberal Democrat Peers most prone to rebellion, so here are the top five rebels of this Parliament so far…

1st – Baroness Tonge (26 votes against the Government)

…

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Also posted in News | Tagged house of lords | 11 Comments

Opinion: the Legal Aid Bill is worth a Lib Dem revolt

By Eduardo Reyes | Tue 24th January 2012 - 8:53 am

Day-to-day I can’t help thinking about the positions our MPs and Peers would have taken on issues were we not part of a coalition. I’m far from alone in that, but I also recognise the need to choose what we decide to block with care.

Right now, we need to block the main the legal aid provisions of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill (currently at committee stage in the Lords). In summary, unless amended, the Bill will take away legal aid from clinical negligence, personal injury, welfare/benefits claims, and claims under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme. …

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Also posted in News and Op-eds | Tagged house of lords and legal aid | 8 Comments

Yesterday in the Lords (part 1): let the banner of rebellion be unfurled…

By Mark Valladares | Tue 24th January 2012 - 7:45 am

In a dramatic fifth day of the Report Stage of the Welfare Reform Bill, Liberal Democrat cohesion amongst the Parliamentary Party in the Lords collapsed, with two of the three biggest rebellions in this Parliament ensuing. And, to be honest, it wasn’t difficult to see it coming. However, unexpectedly, only one of them led to a Government defeat.

Amendment 58D, moved by Labour peer, Lord Mackenzie of Luton, was a relatively opportunistic attempt to provide an exemption from the proposed benefit cap for “vulnerable individuals, and individuals and couples …

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Also posted in News | Tagged house of lords and welfare reform bill | 5 Comments

Lib Dem peers help inflict Lords defeat over Coalition’s benefit cap plan

By Stephen Tall | Mon 23rd January 2012 - 8:43 pm

The BBC reports the result of tonight’s defeat for the Coalition in the House of Lords over the controversial government plans to introduce a £500 a week benefit cap:

The government has been defeated in the Lords in a vote on its plans for a £26,000-a-year household benefit cap. Lib Dem, Labour and crossbench peers backed a bishop’s amendment by 252 to 237 that child benefit should not be included in the cap. Critics argued that imposing the same cap on all families, regardless of size, would penalise children. The government said it was “very disappointed” and the vote “clearly

…

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Also posted in News | Tagged benefits | 61 Comments

PMQs: Miliband hoist by his Balls’ petard

By Paul Walter | Thu 19th January 2012 - 8:24 am

Let’s start with what Ed Balls, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor said in the Guardian on January 14th:

My starting point is, I am afraid, we are going to have keep all these cuts. There is a big squeeze happening on budgets across the piece. The squeeze on defence spending, for instance, is £15bn by 2015. We are going to have to start from that being the baseline. At this stage, we can make no commitments to reverse any of that, on spending or on tax. So I am being absolutely clear about that.

So, it was something of a surprise when Ed …

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Also posted in PMQs | Tagged andrew george, david cameron, david hamilton, economy, ed balls, ed miliband, tessa munt and unemployment | 15 Comments

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 LibLink | Tagged lord smith of clifton | 17 Comments

PMQs: Opposition leader asks: “Can I agree with the Prime Minister”?

By Paul Walter | Thu 12th January 2012 - 9:25 am

2012’s first Prime Minister’s Questions started with a bit of a score draw about rail fares. It got rather heated as Ed Miliband said the government had allowed fares to go up by 11%. He said:

The last Labour government saw that the train companies were taking advantage of consumers…we took away that power from them

David Cameron retorted that:

The power (to increase fares well above inflation) was given to them to do that by the last Labour government.

Channel 4 News FactCheck, as usual,has an excellent analysis of this spat, concluding that they couldn’t give either men a “Fact” or “Fiction” …

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Also posted in PMQs | Tagged david cameron, ed miliband, greg mulholland, mike crockart, railways and sir bob russell | 1 Comment

Coming up in the Lords… 10-20 January

By Mark Valladares | Wed 4th January 2012 - 12:47 pm

Welcome to Liberal Democrat Voice’s coverage of the House of Lords, where we’ll be flagging up some of the forthcoming events at the more reflective end of the Palace of Westminster. So, without further ado…

The House of Lords returns to work next Tuesday after its Christmas recess, with a heavy legislative schedule to be dealt with before the end of the Session, and the first fortnight offers a hint of what is to come.

Days 2, 3 and 4 of the Committee Stage of the Legal Aid, Sentencing …

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Tagged chris rennard, house of lords and roger roberts | Leave a comment

DPMQs: LibDem MPs enjoy an untroubled post-questions lunch

By Paul Walter | Thu 22nd December 2011 - 10:03 am

Time was when Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions was the closest you got to bloodsports in the House of Commons. The DPM would be tethered, red-faced and growling, to the dispatch box, as Labour MPs taunted him and propelled all sorts of bile at him, augmented by the odd tactical nuclear missile rear-launched by the Tory swivel-eyes.

We’ve come a long way in a few months. Now, DPMQs are relatively sedate affairs. The DPM is well in control and there is little mischief from the Labour benches. Well, none that would spoil LibDem MPs’ lunches.

Indeed, at least four MPs found it difficult …

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Tagged DPMQs, duncan hames, european union, john pugh, Joint Committee of the Draft House of Lords Reform Bill, mike gapes, nick clegg, peter bone and sadiq khan | 1 Comment

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 LibLink | Tagged andrew george, david laws and Mark Pack | 9 Comments

The weekend debate: Should former MPs get to keep their parliamentary passes?

By Carl Quilliam | Sat 17th December 2011 - 8:55 am

Here’s your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…

This week saw the revelation in the Independent that there are now 326 former MPs who hold Former Members’ Passes.

The passes allow them access to bring guests into the House of Commons and book restaurants with family in the Palace of Westminster. The Independent raises worries that former MPs may be using these passes to further there lobbying careers.

Former speaker Michael Martin introduced the scheme to allow former MPs to keep up with friends in Parliament but should former MPs have …

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged lobbying, michael martin and weekend debate | 16 Comments

PMQs: Miliband 1 Barn Door 1

By Paul Walter | Wed 14th December 2011 - 12:53 pm

It was the last pre-Christmas Prime Minister’s Questions today and we saw the return of Nick Clegg loyally sitting at the PM’s right-hand side.

Ed Miliband started on the economy, and the news that unemployment is up again. He quoted David Cameron’s words when he came to office, saying that jobs would be “uppermost”. “What’s gone wrong?” asked the opposition leader.

Cameron’s main thrust during the 2010 election campaign was that new private sector jobs should lead the economic recovery and more than replace lost public sector jobs. Miliband did a good job of exposing that this bright idea has allegedly failed. …

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Also posted in PMQs | Tagged adrian sanders, david cameron, ed miliband, european union, nick clegg, simon wright and unemployment | 10 Comments

PMQs: Penguin in the menage à trois

By Paul Walter | Fri 9th December 2011 - 10:45 am

The first big subject at Prime Minister’s Questions this week was Europe. Tory MP Andrew Rosindell asked if David Cameron would show “bulldog spirit” at the forthcoming summit. Later, similar points came from various Tory Eurosceptic MPs, including the Father of the House, Sir Peter Tapsell. He is always heard with great respect, despite his long-winded, rather pompous and, in this case, halting mini-speeches which have barely inquisitive constructions stuck on the end of them.

Ed Miliband started on Europe as well, asking if Cameron would fulfil his promise that treaty change might give the opportunity to “repatriate powers”. The Prime …

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Also posted in PMQs | Tagged david cameron, ed balls, ed miliband, european union, ian swales, john thurso and spending cuts | 4 Comments

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