Category Archives: YouTube

LDVideo: Stephen Tall reviews the Lib Dem year for BBC’s Daily Politics

Stephen Tall reviews the Lib Dem year – it’s ups and its down – for the BBC’s Daily Politics, recalling some of the questions on Nick’s weekly LBC radio phone-in, Call Clegg…

Also posted in Conference and News | Tagged , and | 4 Comments

RIP David Frost. Here’s the TW3 sketch I’ll remember him for

Sir David Frost – satirist, interviewer, writer – has died. Here’s my favourite That Was The Week That Was sketch, in which he and Willie Rushton excoriated Conservative home secretary Henry Brooke. It concludes with the brutal pay-off: “If you’re Home Secretary, you can get away with murder”.

Tagged , and | 1 Comment

Nick Clegg on Syria: Government “is not going to act outside the remit of international law”

Here’s Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg commenting on the Government’s actions on Syria:

Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged and | 28 Comments

LDVideo: Watch Spanish premier Rajoy’s “fin de la cita” cock-up

Spanish premier Mariano Rajoy has been having a tough summer. The country’s economy continues to contract, unemployment has soared, and — most personally damaging of all — he and his (very) right-wing Partido Popular have been embroiled in a slush fund corruption scandal.

A recent speech to the Spanish parliament was intended to draw a line under the affair. But Rajoy seemed not to have read his text in advance: after each quote, he also read out loud the words in parentheses, ‘(fin de la cita)’ — ‘(end of quote)’. He did this nine times, with varying intonations of intensity, triggering confusion among his peers in parliament and prompting guffaws among the public at home.


(Watch here on YouTube.)

It brings to mind the classic “As I look out over this magnificent vista” clip from The West Wing. It’s Sunday, so why not enjoy those four minutes once again…

Also posted in News | Tagged , and | 6 Comments

Jim Messina and “the single most infamous congressional ad in contemporary history”

The Conservatives have hired Barack Obama’s election strategist Jim Messina to advise on their 2015 general election campaign. The Guardian describes it as “a coup for the Tory team to have been able to hire a strategist who proved such a vital figure in Obama’s presidential campaigns in both 2008 and 2012.”

Those unfamiliar with Mr Messina’s work can watch an example of his kind of ad below. It’s from the 2002 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee race between Max Baucus and Montana Republican Senate nominee Mike Taylor, and has been described by Salon.com as “the single most infamous congressional ad in contemporary history”:

Renowned in political circles, the ad set porno music to 20-year-old footage of a video from Taylor’s cosmetics business. The video showed Taylor in a leisure suit rubbing cream into another man’s face. As the spot faded to black, it showed Taylor then seeming to reach for the man’s crotch as a voice-over said “Mike Taylor — not the way we do business in Montana.”

Also posted in LDVUSA | Tagged and | 2 Comments

LDVideo: Graham Norton meets Lib Dem councillor Paula Belford and her husband’s “little chappie”

Here’s Islington Lib Dem councillor Paula Belford starring on Graham Norton’s chat-show, with Steve Carrel among others looking on…

Tagged , and | 4 Comments

Lib Dems select Maajid Nawaz as candidate in ultra-close three-way marginal of Hampstead and Kilburn

maajid-navazIn the 2010 general election, Hampstead and Kilburn was a three-way marginal: Glenda Jackson squeaked back in for Labour by just 42 votes, polling fewer than 900 votes ahead of the third-placed Lib Dems.

This week, the local Lib Dems selected the candidate they hope will succeed Ms Jackson when she retires at the next election: he’s Maajid Nawaz, a former radical Islamist, author of Radical: My Journey from Islamist Extremism to a Democratic Awakening, and co-founder of the Quilliam Foundation. As the Ethnic Minority Lib Dems note:

He is the first visible minority so far to become a PPC for the 2015 general election in a constituency where the party has a realistic chance of winning. EMLD welcomes his selection as a step forward in BAME representation. He will take on Labour’s Tulip Siddiq who is seeking to succeed Glenda Jackson as MP. Jackson’s north London seat has a paper-thin majority and is regarded as a three-way ultra marginal. The Lib Dems were in third place in 2010 but have a realistic chance of success, particularly if we garner a sizable share of the BAME vote, which makes up over 30% of the local electorate.

And here’s how the Qulliam Foundation acknowledges Maajid’s selection:

Maajid Nawaz will run in his personal capacity, as a member of the Liberal Democrat Party. In running for the Liberal Democrats, Mr Nawaz continues his political journey from a former leading member of a radical organisation towards liberal democratic values. He will remain Chairman of Quilliam and is committed to its cross-party values and mission of countering extremism, promoting pluralism, inspiring change and seeding democratic culture.

You can read more about Maajid on his Wikipedia page here, and see him in action on BBC1’s Question Time here:

Also posted in Selection news | Tagged , , , and | 15 Comments

The right to privacy: “in a country born on the will to be free, what could be more fundamental than this?”

With news today of yet further alleged intrusion into private citizens’ communications — GCHQ taps fibre-optic cables for secret access to world’s communications (Guardian) — here’s how The West Wing anticipated the past week’s furore…

Tagged , , and | 13 Comments

LDVideo: Danny Alexander on UK’s commitment to tax transparency and the unproven case for arming the rebels in Syria

Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander did the rounds of the TV studios yesterday to promote the Coalition’s actions to increase tax transparency. You can see his BBC News interview here. On Channel 4 meanwhile, he was also quizzed about whether he thought the UK should help arm Syrian rebels: he said the case was unproven that would help the country at this time:

Also posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged , and | 5 Comments

LDVideo: Nick Clegg and Simon Hughes comment on the Lib Dem performance in the local elections

The Lib Dem leader and deputy leader on the outcomes from Thursday’s elections…

Nick Clegg on the Lib Dems’ local election performance

Local elections: Simon Hughes defends Lib Dem result

Tagged , and | 6 Comments

Clegg defends Coalition: “We inherited from Labour an economy teetering on the edge”

Nick Clegg was interviewed while on the campaign trail in Lewes today for Channel 4 News by Gary Gibbon — here’s a 6-minute excerpt in which Nick explains the steps the Coalition has taken to rescue the economy since 2010:

Tagged , , and | 13 Comments

Nick Clegg grilled by Martha Kearney: Lib Dems “the voice of fairness” in government

Nick Clegg fared better than Ed Miliband in his pre-local election grilling today by Martha Kearney on BBC Radio 4’s World at One. You can watch the 18-minute interview here:

Also posted in News | Tagged , , and | Leave a comment

Steven Spielberg presents… President Obama: “I’m Daniel Day-Lewis.”

The 2013 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the annual event which disproves any notion the Americans can’t do irony…


(Watch it on YouTube here.)

And here’s the full 20 minute Obama routine:

Also posted in LDVUSA | Tagged and | Leave a comment

That was the day that was… 15 March (with added by-election good news)

Another day over, here at Liberal Democrat Voice, and a fascinating one it has been too.

There is good news to report from Arun, in Sussex, courtesy of Cllr Jamie Bennett;

To put the result in perspective, a Conservative majority of nearly 1,000 was overturned, with Liberal Democrats up from 16% to 34%. Congratulations to our successful candidate, Paul Wells, and all of the team in Aldwick East.

Elsewhere, Liberal Democrat proposals for press regulation have been published on the Party website. We’ll have more coverage of that over the weekend and early next week.

And finally, in keeping with my occasional attempts to bring culture to the masses, here’s a little something that I’d like to dedicate to our site’s resident Eurosceptic…

Also posted in Humour | Tagged | 4 Comments

LDVideo: Lib Dem spring conference round-up (2)

Missed the Lib Dems’ spring conference this weekend? Here are three clips to help you catch-up, or re-live, some of what happened… (You can see part 1 of our round-up here.)

Nick Clegg criticises Theresa May’s Human Rights Convention comments

Also posted in Conference | Tagged , and | Leave a comment

LDVideo: Lib Dem spring conference round-up (1)

Missed the Lib Dems’ spring conference this weekend? Here are three clips to help you catch-up, or re-live, some of what happened…

“Where we work we win” says Nick Clegg

Also posted in Conference | Tagged , , and | 2 Comments

Stephen Tall on Sky News comments on today’s Chris Rennard allegations

Lib Dem Voice co-editor Stephen Tall was interviewed on Sky News earlier today about the allegations concerning Chris Rennard — here’s what he had to say:

Tagged and | 9 Comments

Tessa Munt and Tim Farron on Chris Huhne’s downfall

Reaction to Chris Huhne’s shock decision to plead guilty to perverting the course of justice over a 2003 speeding case and to quit as MP for Eastleigh has been rolling throughout the day.

Here’s two of Chris’s backbench colleagues on today’s events. First, Lib Dem MP for Wells, Tessa Munt, who praised his work as a “fantastic constituency MP”:

Also posted in News | Tagged , and | 11 Comments

LDVideo: Clegg – “Overwhelming priority of the British people is jobs, growth and a strong economy”

Caron Lindsay reported here earlier today Nick Clegg’s initial reaction to David Camern’s announcement there will be an in/out referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union. Here’s what he told the BBC:

And here’s the transcript of his interview with Sky News:

Tagged and | 3 Comments

LDVideo: Liberal Democrats: coalition, polls and 2015 election

Today’s BBC Daily Politics looked at the Lib Dems’ electoral fortunes.

In clip 1, they interview Lib Dem peer Lord (Tony) Greaves, former Lib Dem turned Labour councillor James Allie, and Gareth Epps, of the Social Liberal Forum…

Tagged , , , and | Leave a comment

LDVideo: Tim Farron – It would be “completely mad to have a referendum now” on EU

Lib Dem party president Tim Farron — who resigned from the Lib Dem front-bench in 2008 to vote in favour of a referendum on the Libson Treaty — explained today why he thinks it would be “completely mad” to hold a referendum while the UK is tryng to get out of the biggest recession in living memory. You can watch the 2-minute video here:

Tagged , and | 5 Comments

Yes, Prime Minister returns

We know this is a blatant plug for the brand new series of ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ which will be showing on Gold at 9pm this evening – but we will all be watching it, won’t we?

Also posted in News | Tagged and | 10 Comments

LDVideo: Stephen Tall on the Coalition at the half-way point

LibDemVoice Co-Editor Stephen Tall reflected on the state of the Coalition at its mid-way point in an event jointly hosted by CentreForum and the Institute for Government, Half-Time Oranges (and Blues): How to renew the Coalition while Preparing for the Next Election. You can watch his 10-minute verdict on where the Lib Dems are at and where we should go next here:

Tagged , and | Leave a comment

A longer watch for the weekend: Mothers of Liberty

I blogged last month about the new pamphlet from the Liberal Democrat History Group, Mothers of Liberty: Women who built British Liberalism, a series of biographies of famous women liberals, which details the contribution of women to Liberal politics from the eighteenth century to the present day.

That was launched at a conference fringe meeting, chaired by Lynne Featherstone and featuring three excellent speakers:

Tagged , , , , and | Leave a comment

A longer watch for the weekend: Martin Lewis on tuition fees

24 minutes and 1 second of the financial advisor and consumer champion Martin Lewis talking about the tuition fees system, how it works and what people get wrong about it:

Also posted in News | Tagged , and | 78 Comments

LDVideo: Nick Clegg Entschuldigt Sich

I suspect Nick Clegg may well have had enough of spoof videos by now. But on the off-chance he hasn’t, LBC’s Iain Dale has re-worked that famous clip from Downfall… almost affectionately, I think. Judge for yourselves:

Tagged , and | 6 Comments

And so the ‘Romneyshambles’ rolls on…

Here’s the video footage of US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney addressing a private fundraising event:

Also posted in LDVUSA | Tagged | 8 Comments

LDVideo: Chris Davies MEP – MEPs’ kindness will kill the fishing industry

Speaking at a plenary session of the European Parliament yesterday, Chris Davies, European Parliament member for the North West, urged his fellow MEPs to look beyond the short term to vote to restore fish stocks:

Tagged and | 9 Comments

LDVideo: George Osborne booed at Paralympics

This was the scene last night when Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne turned up at the Olympic stadium to present the medals at the 400m T38 victory ceremony:

Tagged , and | 3 Comments

Lords reform: what the failure means for the Coalition, David Cameron and Nick Clegg

First up, here’s Nick Robinson’s take on yesterday’s events followed by myself, via the BBC News Channel:

Also posted in News | Tagged , , , , , , and | 10 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Nonconformistradical
    @Jenny Barnes "you go back to the last time they were sold, whenever that was, and increase by house price inflation since then." As far as I know not all p...
  • Jenny Barnes
    "Some properties may not be sold for several tens of years – how do you propose to rate those for tax purposes until they are sold?" you go back to the last...
  • Nonconformistradical
    "If yearly revaluations are too onerous, rerate on sale and increase yearly by inflation until next sold." Some properties may not be sold for several tens o...
  • Ben C
    Just revaluing & updating council tax bands doesn't seem particularly revolutionary. Why not push for a proportional property tax (or, yes, an LVT) and d...
  • nigel hunter
    Nothing wrong with having a trade or going to Uni. Port Talbot IS producing steel and will develop further with the electric arc system.I would think nobody wa...