Paul Walter

PMQs: ++POT/KETTLE ALERT!++

By Paul Walter | Wed 23rd June 2010 - 4:50 pm

Prime Minister’s Questions started to get back to normal today. A question is asked and there is a bellow – not an answer – in reply. But sometimes it is a question of “ask a silly question – get a silly answer”. Take Harriet Harman’s opening sally: “Could the Prime Minister tell us how much has been set aside to relink pensions to earnings in 2011?” After Cameron spoke about the “triple lock” (we LibDems thought of that phrase first) on pension rises, Harman replied that the government haven’t set aside a single penny for the promise. What a remarkable …

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Posted in PMQs | 11 Comments
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Mark Pack

Parliament debates electoral administration

By Mark Pack | Wed 23rd June 2010 - 3:20 pm

On Wednesday last week Parliament had a Westminster Hall debate on the subject of electoral administration, triggered by Meg Munn, the Labour MP for Sheffield Heeley. Sheffield was one of the areas particularly badly affected by the problems with people queuing to vote at 10pm on polling day, and it was this issue which dominated her opening remarks. Citing the Electoral Commission’s views on the matter, she urged the government to change the law to enable those who are still queuing at 10pm to be allowed to vote in future.

This proposal received support from other MPs during the debate …

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Posted in Election law | Tagged , , , , , and | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

Party goes ahead with creation of new backbench committees

By Mark Pack | Wed 23rd June 2010 - 2:20 pm

One of the ideas floated by Simon Hughes to help sustain policy generation and keep a distinctive identity for the party during coalition was the creation of a team of shadow spokespeople. Shadowing a government you are a part of raises some obvious issues, and as a result the party has decided instead to create a series of new backbench committees, bringing together both MPs and peers. Their focus will be much more on policy generation, consultation and internal communication than on shadowing Conservative ministers. Parliamentarians are currently expressing interests in which committees they would wish to serve on, with the …

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged | 3 Comments
Elaine Bagshaw

Opinion: Budget Day, and the light at the end of tunnel

By Elaine Bagshaw | Wed 23rd June 2010 - 1:38 pm

It was never going to be an easy day. No-one enjoys having to make the kind of cuts the Coalition had to yesterday, but the consequences of doing nothing would have been far worse. I recall sitting in meetings of the Lib Dem Federal Policy Committee as we were costing the manifesto, and quickly realising that even on the generous economic forecasts of the Labour Government, it would be impossible to deliver every policy that we wanted, due to the incredible mess that the public finances had become.

There are a number of things we can take from the budget, Liberal …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 49 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Vince on the budget

By NewsHound | Wed 23rd June 2010 - 12:20 pm

Vince Cable writes in today’s Guardian with his thoughts on the emergency budget.

It should be no surprise that this is such a tough budget. Last summer, in pamphlets and speeches, Nick Clegg and I both prepared the ground for these difficult choices…

Now, to put it bluntly, Britain is much poorer than we thought we were two years ago but we have public spending levels that assume we are richer…

For me a key test of the budget is whether it is fair as well as tough. The budget is shot through with commitments my party fought for: a £1,000 rise

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged and | 5 Comments
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Mark Pack

Did you know that two-thirds of people don’t pay income tax?

By Mark Pack | Wed 23rd June 2010 - 11:20 am

No, I didn’t either.

But that’s what Polly Toynbee says:

… it does nothing for the 62% of adults who earn too little to pay tax.

Oh hang on, what’s this Lord Bonkers is saying?

It’s not that 62 per cent of people don’t pay tax, it’s that 62 per cent do pay tax.

How out of touch with the lives of ordinary people do you have to be to make a mistake like that and not spot it? It hardly encourages you to have faith in Toynbee’s judgement as a columnist.

You think someone at the Guardian would have spotted it though.

Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 28 Comments
Mark Pack

If Twitter is just another way of sending out news…

By Mark Pack | Wed 23rd June 2010 - 10:20 am

For some people and organisations Twitter has become, at least in part, simply another way of sending out timely news. Issue a news release? Check. Put it on website? Check. Send out tweet with headline and link back to site? Check.

All sounds fairly typical and unexceptional and if you’d asked me a few days ago I wouldn’t have added an exception or caveat to that sort of process, even if it didn’t involve a formal press release or link. If you treat Twitter as an outlet for official, timely news then that’s how you use it. I say “a few …

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Posted in LDVUSA and Online politics | Tagged and | 8 Comments
Mark Pack

How many people identify with each party?

By Mark Pack | Wed 23rd June 2010 - 9:20 am

Interesting figures from YouGov, who have updated their “party I.D.” figures, that is the proportion of people who say they are a supporter of a particular party as opposed to what their current voting intention is (e.g. they may be a Labour support but have a current voting intention of Green):

Labour 32.5%
Conservative 28.5%
Liberal Democrat 12%
Other 3%
Don’t know 24%

Posted in Polls | Tagged | 8 Comments
Mark Pack

Nick Clegg and Simon Hughes on the Budget

By Mark Pack | Tue 22nd June 2010 - 5:07 pm

Nick Clegg’s email to party members and supporters reads:

Yesterday I wrote to you about why we have to take difficult decisions to tackle the deficit and lay the foundations of a fairer society. These are not decisions that any government wants to take but we have no choice except to clear up the financial mess that Labour left us. Today’s Budget takes these difficult decisions in an honest and fair way and with the clear stamp of Liberal Democrat values running through it.

In the past, efforts to tackle a big deficit have always hit the poorest the most. The coalition …

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 74 Comments
Mark Pack

Tackling tax avoidance

By Mark Pack | Tue 22nd June 2010 - 5:03 pm

Thought I’d post up this news release from the Treasury as I’ve seen several people asking questions along the lines of ‘what happened to tackling tax avoidance?”

As set out in the Coalition Agreement, the Government is committed to making every effort to tackle tax avoidance.

The Government will take a more strategic approach to the risk of avoidance to prevent increasing complexity and reduce the need for frequent legislative change. In this context, the Government is tackling long-standing avoidance risks in a way that makes it clear what result the legislation intends to achieve. The Government will continue to shut down …

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Posted in News | Tagged | 10 Comments
Chris White

Opinion: don’t hammer the little people

By Chris White | Tue 22nd June 2010 - 2:20 pm

There were two articles in The Sun the other day on public sector pay. One was headed ‘£240k boss search axed’ and was a reference to the fact that the Government has vetoed the proposed salary package for a new Chief Executive of the Audit Commission.

The other much more substantial article was over the LGA’s search for a Director of Communications on £124,000 a year.
(As someone who receives a shilling or two from both organisations I must declare an interest.)

Meanwhile Nick Clegg has been applauded by the Daily Mail for his comments on public sector pensions, calling them ‘gold-plated’ and …

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Posted in Op-eds | 7 Comments
The Voice

The Budget: so, what did you make of it?

By The Voice | Tue 22nd June 2010 - 1:28 pm

The comments thread awaits you…

Posted in News | Tagged | 218 Comments
Mark Pack

Election 2.0: How did the internet shape the general election?

By Mark Pack | Tue 22nd June 2010 - 1:20 pm

The Yoosk website recently put together a panel of bloggers to answer questions about the impact of the internet, and social media in particular, on British politics. Alongside Iain Dale, Alex Smith and James Evans I answered a range of questions:

Was the UK 2010 general election an internet election?

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Posted in Online politics | Tagged , , and | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

30 things every would-be politician should do this summer

By Mark Pack | Tue 22nd June 2010 - 10:20 am

Inspired by Journalism Grads: 30 Things You Should Do This Summer and prompted by Stephen Tall, last summer I ran a list of 30 suggestions for would-be politicians, particularly those new to public office or seeking it in the next few years. As it went down well, here it is back for a new summer and a new Parliament, with a new lick of paint, a few updates along the way and my thanks to those who commented last year:

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 10 Comments
Jonathan Ellis

The Independent View: A fair, humane and effective asylum system can quite literally be an issue of life or death

By Jonathan Ellis | Tue 22nd June 2010 - 9:20 am

Last week, people across the UK celebrated Refugee Week – a time to reflect on the contribution refugees make to their communities around the UK, and celebrating that refugees are welcomed and valued here.

As we approach the 60th anniversary of the UN Convention for Refugees next year, it is ever more important that the new government honour our proud tradition of offering shelter to those fleeing persecution in their own countries. It is clear that the main countries refugees have been fleeing from over the last ten years – Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Zimbabwe, Eritrea – are countries where …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged , , , and | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

Nick Clegg: Why we have to do this

By Mark Pack | Mon 21st June 2010 - 6:39 pm

Nick Clegg has emailed party members and supporters about tomorrow’s budget (and it’s good to see him continuing to raise the point about Labour’s £44 billion of planned cuts which nearly everyone in Labour is acting as if never existed:

Tomorrow, the coalition government will deliver an emergency budget to bring order back to the public finances. It will be a difficult budget – but remember, as you hear it, why we have to do this.

Labour left our country with a mountain of debt. Every minute that goes by the government spends a staggering £80,000 on interest, that’s over £800 …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 55 Comments
Iain Roberts

Home Access scheme may do more harm than good

By Iain Roberts | Mon 21st June 2010 - 6:05 pm

The Home Access scheme is a well meaning Government-funded project to give computers to children from poorer families and so bridge the “digital divide”.

But, as The Register is reporting, new research from the US suggests such schemes may do more harm than good.

People often worry that such gaps will be enhanced as richer families acquire computers and internet connections and poorer households don’t, which has led to many initiatives by governments, charities etc designed to get digital technologies into the hands of even the poorest.

…a kid in a disadvantaged home given a computer and internet access will tend to

…

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Posted in News | Tagged | 14 Comments
Mark Pack

Ofcom rejects complaint from Lord Ashcroft over reporting of his tax status

By Mark Pack | Mon 21st June 2010 - 2:50 pm

Ofcom’s judgement summary reads:

On 17 December 2009, BBC Radio 4 broadcast an edition of Today, its early morning news and current affairs programme, which included an item looking back at the preceding day’s activities in Parliament and discussed questions put to Ms Harriet Harman MP (who was standing in for the Prime Minister) during Prime Minister’s Question Time.

Harbottle & Lewis complained to Ofcom on behalf of Lord Ashcroft that the programme wrongly and unfairly stated that during Prime Minister’s Question Time the Liberal Democrats had accused Lord Ashcroft of tax evasion and therefore implied that he was guilty of a

…

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Mark Pack

Former Labour MP sues Sunday Telegraph over expenses story

By Mark Pack | Mon 21st June 2010 - 1:50 pm

The Press Gazette reports:

Former Labour backbench MP Frank Cook has filed a libel writ against the Sunday Telegraph over a front-page story from May 2009 about his expenses.

He is demanding damages of up to £50,000 from publishers Telegraph Media Group over a front page story and two inside pieces in May 2009 in the Sunday Telegraph.

The stories, which he claims were defamatory, were headed “MP claimed £5 for church collection” and “I’m sorry church claim was unfair.”

Cook, who represents Stockton North, is also suing over a comment headed: “Now it is the people’s turn to be heard.”

He says the articles

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 3 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Cllr Richard Kemp on the Lib Dem Local Government conference

By NewsHound | Mon 21st June 2010 - 1:07 pm

Lib Dem councillors had their annual conference this week within the confines of Local Government House in Smith Square, London. Co-hosted by ALDC and the Lib Dem LGA group, the conference pulls together colleagues from across the country with our parliamentary team. This year, of course, our parliamentary colleagues have joined many thousands of Lib Dem councillors in actually being in charge of running things. Normally our councillors are more experienced at holding the reins of power than our MPs.

Cllr Richard Kemp has written a review for Total Politics:

Nick pulled no punches in telling us how difficult the decisions

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged , , , , , and | 1 Comment
Alex Foster

Weekly catchup:

By Alex Foster | Mon 21st June 2010 - 12:41 am

Dear LDV reader, you may or may not have noticed that we have discontinued our strand of writing that used to appear under the Daily View heading, following a decision of the team last week. All of us writing it found it took a great deal of time for little reward, and some of us thought the clunky title with its numbers and acronyms did little to help our site’s readability. What we’ll miss is Daily View’s helpful punctuation of the day, marking the passage of time, and the daily opportunity to spread the linky love through the …

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Posted in A weekly catchup | 1 Comment
Helen Duffett

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #174

By Helen Duffett | Sun 20th June 2010 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 174th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (13th – 19th June, 2010), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox – just click here – ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging.

As ever, let’s start with the most popular post, and work our way down:

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Posted in Best of the blogs | 1 Comment
Iain Roberts

Councils and communities must rise to the Coalition challenge

By Iain Roberts | Sun 20th June 2010 - 4:24 pm

People rather like to be able to blame someone else for the hard choices.  Speaking to that angry customer at work, isn’t it so much easier to blame management or “the rules” for not giving her a refund.  Isn’t it so much harder – and less pleasant – to explain to her that you’ve made the decision to deny her request and you could have decided otherwise, even though you’d rather like having that power.

Politicians are no different.  We want to have the power, but it doesn’t hurt if someone else can take the blame for those unpopular choices.

Labour are …

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Posted in Local government and Op-eds | 14 Comments
Iain Roberts

Daily Mail descends into fantasy over Huhne

By Iain Roberts | Sun 20th June 2010 - 2:20 pm

The right wing press has, once again, shown itself to be brazen in their vindictive hounding of Lib Dem MPs over their private lives, the latest victim being Chris Huhne who’s split from his wife of 26 years after a year-long affair with another woman.

The correct response is, of course, to ignore it – politics, like journalism, is a high pressure business and – regretably – politicians are no more immune to these things than the rest of us.  If we were to demand everyone who ever had an affair stood down from their job, the queues to sign on …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 46 Comments
Iain Roberts

Daily Express readers’ comments, a century ago

By Iain Roberts | Sun 20th June 2010 - 12:20 pm

Ever spent time looking at the online comments to a Daily Express or Daily Mail story?  Really, life’s too short.

But is this a new phenomenon?  The sheer volume of lunacy allowed by the Internet is a change, but beyond that it seems little has altered in the last century.

Here are some readers’ comments about suffragettes, from the Daily Express in 1913.

“These neurotic women clamour for the vote.  What they need is a fire hose.”

“Hard labour and salts and senna would soon quench the ardour of these notoriety-beating females.”

“The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world, but women who smash

…

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 7 Comments
Alex Foster

Hames, Swinson to wed

By Alex Foster | Sun 20th June 2010 - 9:13 am

I had hoped not to write this story immediately after the last, less happy one, but sometimes, them’s the breaks.

Not since Baroness Scott and the Lib Dem’s bureaucrat of choice Mark Valladares changed their facebook statuses to “engaged” has the Lib Dem online world been so charged with romance.

Now Jo Swinson and Duncan Hames used the medium of Twitter to tell the world of their engagement, to cheers of encouragement all round.

Every congratulation and wish for happiness from all your friends at t’Voice.

Posted in News | Tagged , , , , and | 8 Comments
The Voice

Chris Huhne confirms he is separating from his wife

By The Voice | Sat 19th June 2010 - 6:19 pm

From the BBC:

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne has confirmed he is separating from his wife and is in a relationship with another woman.

The 56-year-old Liberal Democrat MP for Eastleigh, Hampshire, has been married to Vicky Pryce for 25 years. They have five children and one grandchild.

“I am in a serious relationship with Carina Trimingham and I am separating from my wife,” he said in a statement.

Ms Trimingham works in PR. Downing Street did not comment.

You can read the full report here.

Posted in News | Tagged | 57 Comments
David Thorpe

Opinion: nationalising the railways is the only sensible option

By David Thorpe | Sat 19th June 2010 - 10:20 am

With the current scramble by the new coalition to find savings and reduce the size of government, it is perhaps a strange time to be proposing that, in one area at least, the state should expand its remit, but the case for renationalising the railways has never been stronger.

I am certainly not a fan generally of nationalisation of anything, and still think that the coalition should flog the Tote, Channel 4, the Channel Tunnel Rail Link etc, but think that the British Railways must return to public ownership, not for reasons of ideology or sentiment, but simply because there is …

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Posted in News and Op-eds | Tagged and | 35 Comments
Mark Pack

The Icelandic comic has the last laugh

By Mark Pack | Sat 19th June 2010 - 8:50 am

Jon Gnarr is an Icelandic comic. In late 2009 he started a political party – The Best Party – as a satire on Icelandic politics. In this month’s municpal elections in Reykjavik his party emerged the largest (with 6 of the 15 seats) and he is now Mayor. This was his campaign video:

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Posted in News and Online politics | Tagged and | 5 Comments

The Independent View: being fair isn’t so simple

By Matthew Whittaker | Fri 18th June 2010 - 7:16 pm

Nick Clegg has repeatedly promised in recent weeks that the coalition government’s deficit reduction plan will be fair. But it will not be easy to deliver on these words. ‘Fairness’ cannot be measured simple by considering the gap between the richest and the poorest: as the Institute for Fiscal Studies has shown, during the last three recessions, it was low to moderate income households who were hit hardest.

All the evidence so far suggests that it has been no different this time round. It is the working poor who are struggling most when it comes to the labour market, security of …

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Posted in Op-eds | 27 Comments
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