Stephen Tall

Arise, Lord Paddick? 95 new Lib Dem peers set to be created

By Stephen Tall | Mon 17th May 2010 - 10:50 am

The Times reports today that one of the first moves of the new Lib Dem / Conservative coalition government will be to create up to 172 new peers in the House of Lords to create political balance and “ensure that controversial legislation gets through Parliament”.

The current composition of the Lords is as follows:

    Labour 211 (30%)
    Conservative 188 (27%)
    Lib Dem 72 (10%)
    Ukip 2 (0%)
    Crossbenchers 182 (26%)
    Lords Spiritual 25 (4%)
    Other 24 (3%)
    Total 704

In total, then, the coalition government comprises just over one-third of peers, and could be blocked on its legislative agenda – including of course the replacement of the Lords itself with an wholly or mainly elected upper chamber on the basis of proportional representation, as stated in the coalition agreement:

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Mark Pack

How general election vote shares have changed over the years

By Mark Pack | Mon 17th May 2010 - 10:20 am

This graph shows the UK-wide vote shares for each of the three main parties, along with the total Conservative plus Labour share. As you can see, the proportion of people voting for one of the two largest parties dropped again this time, hitting another record post-war low.

The combination of this and our voting system means that the Conservative Party’s share of the vote was sufficient to make the party the largest, but at any previous election it would have been a vote share that would have sent the party to defeat rather than 10 Downing Street. The Liberal Democrat vote …

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Posted in General Election | 25 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Chris Huhne – This is a crisis. A coalition is the only way

By NewsHound | Mon 17th May 2010 - 9:40 am

Over at The Independent yesterday, the secretary of state for energy and climate change, Chris Huhne, argued that a half-hearted deal between the Lib Dems and Tories would have appeared fragile and short-term. Our economic problems, he argues, call for tough decisions and certainty. And the constituional changes the Lib Dems have negotiated will endure:

… we face a prolonged period when we will be relying on the financial markets to lend the Government the money to bridge the largest peacetime gap between taxes and spending in our history. A fiscal problem of this scale is not resolved overnight. Indeed, no

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

Daily View 2×2: 17 May 2010 (with bonus ‘Prophet Steel’ video)

By Stephen Tall | Mon 17th May 2010 - 7:45 am

Happy Monday morning, everyone, and welcome to the first full week of Lib Dem / Conservative coalition government. Let’s get down to the news …

One Big Story

Lib Dem members give overwhelming thumbs-up to coalition government agreement

The Daily Telegraph has a fair-minded report proving that extraordinary things really can happen in the new politics (and in stark contrast to the snarkiness of the Grauniad):

… members voted “over-whelmingly” in support of the deal with no more than a dozen of the 2,000 delegates opposing the deal in a show of hands at the gathering in Birmingham. Speaking after the vote, Mr Clegg said: “It is a big step. There are lots of unknowns, there will be bumps and scrapes along the way”. He said the party’s special conference had taken a “very, very important decision” to approve the coalition “which is utterly new in modern British political history”. .. It is understood the while 100 members had quit the party since the deal was signed – a further 400 had joined.

The conference even earned plaudits from an unlikely source: ConservativeHome.com offered three cheers for the Lib Dems’ commitment to party democracy:

I take my hat off to the Liberal Democrats for the attempt to involve party members – the people who work so hard without expectation of office – in the decision to form a Coalition with the Conservatives. On a number of occasions Clegg met his MPs and party officers in a bid to hear their views and explain what he was doing. Today’s ratification of the deal will help bind the party into the fascinating Cameron-Clegg experiment. What a contrast with the Conservative Party where there has been next to no consultation of the party membership. Coming on top of Team Cameron’s various attempts to dilute Tory members’ role in membership selection it is all very disappointing.

Here’s how the BBC reported the day:

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Posted in Daily View | Tagged , , , and | 7 Comments
Stephen Tall

LibLink: Charles Kennedy – Why I couldn’t support Clegg’s deal with the Tories

By Stephen Tall | Sun 16th May 2010 - 8:20 pm

In The Observer today, former Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy has highlighted his unease at the Lib-Con coalition government, and explains he would have preferred to explore the possibilities of an alliance with Labour:

… drive a strategic coach and horses through the long-nurtured “realignment of the centre-left” to which leaders in the Liberal tradition, this one included, have all subscribed since the Jo Grimond era. It is hardly surprising that, for some of us at least, our political compass currently feels confused. And that really encapsulates the reasons why I felt personally unable to vote for this outcome when

…

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Posted in LibLink | 24 Comments
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Howard Keal

They thought it was all over – it isn’t now!

By Howard Keal | Sun 16th May 2010 - 7:20 pm

Thirsk and Malton Parliamentary Candidate Howard Keal appeals for help in his fight to win the delayed election in the seat, taking place on May 27:

Just under 25 years since Liberal Democrat Elizabeth Shields took Ryedale in a by-election we have the opportunity to snatch the new constituency it includes from the Tories.

It’s now called Thirsk and Malton and I need your help to achieve a sensational result – over the next few days we have everything to play for and all bets in this racing area are off!

This is a battle between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives and …

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Posted in Parliamentary by-elections | 13 Comments
Stephen Tall

+++ Lib Dem special conference overwhelmingly approves Lib Dem / Conservative coalition agreement

By Stephen Tall | Sun 16th May 2010 - 5:20 pm

Just minutes ago, the Lib Dems’ special conference in Birmingham – convened by the party to give members the chance to give their views on the decision to enter into a government with the Conservatives – overwhelmingly approved the coalition agreement.

Estimates in the hall, where about 1,500 Lib Dem members debated the coalition, suggested that about 50 conference representatives voted against the motion endorsing the agreement: the rest of the hundreds eligible to vote were all in favour.

Here’s some of what Lib Dem Leader and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, had to say immediately after the vote:

It is five

…

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Posted in Conference | 51 Comments
Ryan Cullen

Special #ldconf live tweet coverage

By Ryan Cullen | Sun 16th May 2010 - 12:30 pm

Due to the speedy nature of the calling of this conference, the unknown knowledge of how good mobile broadband will be in the hall, and if there is enough space to sit with a laptop, the team will be covering the conference via twitter.
The last 20 tweets should be below, to view them all visit Twitter

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Posted in Conference | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

PollWatch: first post-election polls show Lib Dems at 21%

By Stephen Tall | Sun 16th May 2010 - 12:25 pm

Two new polls out in today’s papers:

    ComRes, S.Indy/S.Mirror … CON 38%, LAB 34%, LIB DEM 21%
    ICM in the S.Telegraph … CON 38%, LAB 33%, LIB DEM 21%

Polls at this stage of the parliamentary cycle (apparently a full 5 years before the next election) are a little academic. Still, let’s give them their moment.

From a Lib Dem perspective, I’m moderately encouraged: our support is down, unsurprisingly, but it has not evaporated overnight. It’s at least arguable that our support might be lower still if Nick Clegg hadn’t struck a deal with the Conservatives: parties which have under-performed at an election tend to suffer in the immediate post-election polls.

There has also been more analysis of first reactions to the Lib-Con coalition government.

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Posted in Polls | 12 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: David Steel – Why we must make this coalition work

By NewsHound | Sun 16th May 2010 - 12:03 pm

Over at The Guardian’s Comment is Free website, former Liberal party leader Lord (David) Steel offers his reasons for supporting the coalition government of Lib Dems and Conservatives:

We have successfully injected parts of the Lib Dem manifesto into the government programme and outlawed parts of the Tory manifesto, most notably bringing tax reductions to the poor rather than the rich and allowing the electorate itself to improve the voting system in future elections. … Nick Clegg had only one other option as leader – to sit in opposition, watch a minority Tory government struggling with declining sterling and share indices,

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged | 12 Comments
Stephen Tall

Eastbourne Lib Dem campaigner smeared by Telegraph cleared by police

By Stephen Tall | Sun 16th May 2010 - 11:30 am

Just a day before polls opened the Daily Telegraph splashed with the sensational headline, Senior Liberal Democrat arrested over ‘sabotage’:

A senior Liberal Democrat campaigner has been arrested for allegedly trying to sabotage the Conservatives’ campaign in a key marginal seat in Thursday’s general election. The official understood to have failed to present himself at a police station in the south east of England. He is closely involved in the battle in Eastbourne against the Tories, where the Liberal Democrats held a 775 majority at the last election.

Compare that smear-without-substance with this more sober headline in the Rye …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 4 Comments
Iain Roberts

The Lib Dem vote was soft, it can be hardened

By Iain Roberts | Sun 16th May 2010 - 10:25 am

After the excitement of Cleggmania and the eventual disappointment of the election result, polling evidence suggests the Lib Dem vote was a good deal softer than the Conservative and Labour votes.

Overall turnout for the election, although higher than in 2005, was a few percent lower than predicted, and it seems likely that a big chunk of that were people who said they’d vote Lib Dem and then didn’t make it down to the polling station.

Though disappointing, it’s hardly surprising.  The 29% that Labour got can reasonably be described as their core vote – barely higher than they achieved in 1983.  …

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Posted in Op-eds | 11 Comments
Alex Foster

Liberal Drinks meeting at Special Conference today

By Alex Foster | Sun 16th May 2010 - 9:55 am

We had an extremely busy day at LDV yesterday with a lot of opinion articles scheduled from a wide spectrum of writers.

In all that, there’s a good chance we might lose sight of our early morning post proposing a Tweetup / Liberal Drinks meeting at the end of the special conference on Sunday.

Full details are here: http://ldv.org.uk/19520

To keep our discussion tidy, comments on this post are closed. Please comment on the first blog post from this morning.

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James Staff

Opinion: For those about to defect – we don’t salute you

By James Staff | Sun 16th May 2010 - 9:20 am

As the finishing touches are put to the coalition deal and the Laws-Osborne team begins to tackle public spending, what is becoming apparent is the Lib Dems will lose some members and voters who may never return.

Yet common sense must prevail, we are less than a week into a coalition Government and whilst there will be numerous concessions (nuclear power, the return of legal fox hunting and abstaining on tuition fees will disappoint the core vote), many are already turning their backs on the party now that it has secured the influence that it long campaigned for.

Indeed, it seems that …

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Posted in Op-eds | 126 Comments
Iain Roberts

Labour’s first PM gained power after a no confidence vote with no dissolution of parliament

By Iain Roberts | Sun 16th May 2010 - 8:20 am

Labour politicians and activists have spent the last few days merrily confusing motions of no confidence and dissolution, as I discussed on Thursday.

Many have stuck to the  easily disproven claim that the coalition government proposes a 55% threshold for a vote of no confidence.  It doesn’t: a vote of no confidence requires 50%+1 MP now and will continue to do so.

The other line of attack has been to suggest that 50% of MPs can currently vote to dissolve parliament.

Those who’ve taken the trouble to check their facts at least don’t claim that MPs can actually vote to dissolve parliament.  …

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Posted in Op-eds | 64 Comments
Stephen Tall

+++ 91% of Lib Dem members back Lib-Con coalition agreement, says LDV poll

By Stephen Tall | Sat 15th May 2010 - 11:00 pm

Lib Dem Voice has been conducting a survey of party members registered on our members’ forum asking them for their views of the coalition government agreement between the Lib Dems and the Conservatives. Over 600 have responded, and here’s what you told us …

LDV asked: If you were able to vote, would you choose to support the motion proposing the Lib Dems enter into a coalition government with the Conservatives?

91% – Yes, I would support the motion
9% – No, I would not support the motion
(excluding Don’t knows, 4%)

Our survey suggests there will be an overwhelming endorsement of Nick Clegg …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged | 37 Comments
Mark Pack

Nine amendments to be debated at Birmingham special conference

By Mark Pack | Sat 15th May 2010 - 10:51 pm

Sunday’s special conference in Birmingham will debate nine amendments to the motion about the party’s coalition agreement with the Conservatives (full text of motion here).

The amendments range over why talks with Labour failed, how the party’s policy process will now work, inequality, tuition fees, the Digital Economy Act, the Human Rights Act, lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans equality, PR for local government and PR for the Commons.

You can read them in full in the Conference Extra (pdf file).

UPDATE: All the amendments were passed at conference.

Posted in Conference | 9 Comments
Stephen Tall

The 11 Lib Dem shadow cabinet members who didn’t make it (yet)

By Stephen Tall | Sat 15th May 2010 - 10:35 pm

Mark Pack has blogged here on LDV the 14 Lib Dems appointed to ministerial poisitions in the Lib Dem / Conservative coalition government, in addition to the five cabinet members, including Nick Clegg as Deputy Prime Minister.

So who does that leave from the Lib Dem shadow cabinet who has yet to find a position within ministerial ranks? Well, by my reckoning there are 11 Lib Dem MPs who might have some cause to be disappointed, including two of our women MPs, Jenny Willott and Lorely Burt:


    Previously in Lib Dem shadow cabinet, so far without position (11):
    Simon Hughes MP

…

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Posted in News | 8 Comments
Prateek Buch

Opinion: The counterfactuals seal the deal for a Lib-Con coalition

By Prateek Buch | Sat 15th May 2010 - 6:50 pm

Allow me to indulge the personal for a moment. I was brought up in Eccles, a solidly Labour-voting suburb of Manchester (the seat hasn’t changed hands in the post-war era), by Labour-voting parents, and even gave my first vote to the Labour party, although I stopped short of ever becoming a party member. I say this because I want the reader to appreciate that I come to the Liberal Democrats firmly from the left of the political spectrum, which may make what follows a little remarkable.

In recent days I’ve read so many diatribes against a perceived betrayal from those that have …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 64 Comments
Mark Pack

Updated list of Liberal Democrat ministers

By Mark Pack | Sat 15th May 2010 - 5:32 pm

Advocate General for Scotland – Lord (Jim) Wallace

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills – Ed Davey

Department for Communities and Local Government – Andrew Stunell

Department for Education – Sarah Teather

Department for Transport – Norman Baker

Department for Work & Pensions – Steve Webb

Department of Health – Paul Burstow

Deputy Chief Whip (Commons) – Alistair Carmichael

Deputy Chief Whip (Lords) – Lord (David) Shutt

Deputy Leader of the House of Commons – David Heath

Foreign & Commonwealth Office – Jeremy Browne

Home Office – Lynne Featherstone

Ministry of Defence – Nick Harvey

Ministry of Justice – Lord (Tom) McNally  (who, having worked in 10 Downing Street until 1979, must win …

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Posted in News | 7 Comments
Alex Foster

Tweetup / Liberal Drinks at special conference

By Alex Foster | Sat 15th May 2010 - 4:49 pm

We’re thrilled to be having such a busy day here at LDV with a lot of opinion articles scheduled from a wide spectrum of writers.

In all that, there’s a good chance we might lose sight of our early morning post proposing a Tweetup / Liberal Drinks meeting at the end of the special conference on Sunday.

Full details are here: http://ldv.org.uk/19520

To keep our discussion tidy, comments on this post are closed. Please comment on the first blog post from this morning.

Posted in News | Comments Off on Tweetup / Liberal Drinks at special conference
Jem Thomas

Opinion: Identity and narrative – ignored at our peril

By Jem Thomas | Sat 15th May 2010 - 3:50 pm

Policy, relationships, practicalities, even thinking about a little bit of governance and leadership – these will all undoubtedly all pre-occupying the minds of many senior LibDems (and no doubt Conservatives). But right from day one of this coalition, the LibDems, probably more than any other party, will need to keep two things clear in their consciousness – those of identify and narrative.

The LibDems for generations have enjoyed an easy identity – the third party, centre-left, progressive even maverick – even though it didn’t feature strongly on the radar of the general public. Well it does now – with …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 9 Comments
Terry Gilbert

Opinion: Silly me! How I was nearly suckered by the promise of Lords Reform

By Terry Gilbert | Sat 15th May 2010 - 3:46 pm

Last Saturday, just after we started to negotiate with the Tories, I asked on these pages:

Is their a grand gesture to Reform which will make a deal with the Tories acceptable?

I concluded by saying that, while Mr Cameron would not give way on Fair Votes for the Commons, it was just possible that, if his back was against the wall, he might be induced to yield ground on Reform of the upper House.

His MP’s own seats would thus, for the time being at least, remain ‘safe’ enough for them to be dragged into line to accept proportionality in the Lords, …

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Posted in Op-eds | 34 Comments
Tom Papworth

Opinion: Cold comfort for the Lib Dems in the dawn of the new politics

By Tom Papworth | Sat 15th May 2010 - 2:50 pm

On Thursday night we saw the dynamics of the New Politics unfold.

For the first time, advocates of the Lib-Con pact came face to face with opponents and the general public in a very public forum. On Question Time, Simon Hughes MP and Lord Heseltine defended the new government against a tirade of abuse from Lord Falconer, Mehdi Hasan and Melanie Phillips, while the audience expressed exasperation and dismay. Get used to it. This is the New Politics, and if Cameron and Clegg are to be believed, this is what we have to look forward to …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , and | 21 Comments
Mark Pack

Welcome to the new bloggers…

By Mark Pack | Sat 15th May 2010 - 1:50 pm

Seven blogs have recently joined Ryan’s Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator, continuing the recent spurt in both new bloggers and new contributors to this site. There was a previous burst at the start of the election campaign with this second one following the election result. It’s a welcome sign which compliments the news of rising party membership every day since the election; people are more interested in the party and wanting to take part and discuss politics.

Here are the new additions to the aggregator:

Good luck to all the new bloggers, and why not take a moment to pop over to their blogs, take a read and post a comment?

Whether you are a new or experience blogger yourself, you may also find our compilation of “how to blog” posts useful:

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Posted in Online politics | Tagged | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

Is it a progressive majority or a progressive minority?

By Mark Pack | Sat 15th May 2010 - 12:50 pm

Interesting thoughts from Peter Kellner:

During election week, YouGov asked people where they placed themselves on the Left, centre or Right. We offered three variations of Left and Right: “very”, “fairly” and “slightly”. At first sight, Labour and Lib Dem supporters look fairly similar, and very different from Conservative supporters. Labour supporters divide: 54% Left, 23% centre and 5% Right, while Lib Dem voters divide: 43%-29%-9%. Contrast those figures with the Tories: 5%-21%-57%. If that were the only evidence we had, then the conclusion would be irresistible: most British voters belong to one of the two tribes on the left bank

…

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Posted in News | Tagged | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

What Lib Dem members think about the coalition government: LDV poll results

By Stephen Tall | Sat 15th May 2010 - 12:30 pm

Lib Dem Voice has been conducting a survey today of party members registered on our members’ forum asking them for their views of the coalition government agreement betwen the Lib Dems and the Conservatives. Well over 550 have responded, and here’s part one of what you’ve told us …

LDV asked: How do you rate the perfomance of the Lib Dem negotiating team in reaching the agreement with the Conservatives?

59% – Very effective
36% – Effective
2% – Ineffective
1% – Very ineffective
2% – Don’t know

A whopping 95% of party members who responded to the survey, therefore, viewed the Lib Dem …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 19 Comments
Alex Foster

Tweetup / Liberal Drinks at special conference

By Alex Foster | Sat 15th May 2010 - 12:10 pm

We’re thrilled to be having such a busy day here at LDV with a lot of opinion articles scheduled from a wide spectrum of writers.

In all that, there’s a good chance we might lose sight of our early morning post proposing a Tweetup / Liberal Drinks meeting at the end of the special conference on Sunday.

Full details are here: http://ldv.org.uk/19520

To keep our discussion tidy, comments on this post are closed. Please comment on the first blog post from this morning.

Posted in Conference and Events | Comments Off on Tweetup / Liberal Drinks at special conference
Mark Pack

Welcome to our many new readers

By Mark Pack | Sat 15th May 2010 - 11:50 am

The election may be over but the influx of new readers continues apace, with well in excess of 100,000 individual readers so far this month. Welcome to you all.

A few tips and pieces of housekeeping that may be useful:

  • You can sign up to receive a daily breakfast e-mail listing our posts from the previous day, with individual links through to each of them. It’s the perfect way to catch up with all the content on Lib Dem Voice. See the sign-up form here.
  • Lib Dem party members are welcome to join our private discussion forum, which now numbers well

…

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Mark Clark

Opinion: Social media enhances our campaigns

By Mark Clark | Sat 15th May 2010 - 10:52 am

In one sense I’m disappointed the election is over.

Returning from my own self imposed wilderness at the dismalness of the political scene to the local fold in New Forest East has been a revelation to me to see how social media networks can re energise the election process, and importantly how it has engaged more of our local membership helpers during campaigns – and not just the under 35s. The more active are definitely the silver surfers who have taken to the new technology like a duck to water. So much so, that a regular evening briefing session …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 1 Comment
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