Mark Pack

The party’s diversity dilemma

By Mark Pack | Thu 13th May 2010 - 9:20 am

The party’s efforts to have a more diverse Parliamentary Party have long suffered from the historic legacy of an all white and all male House of Commons Parliamentary Party. Whilst the gender balance amongst newly won constituencies has vastly improved, the overall balance of the party was kept heavily male by the party’s failure to ever select a woman to succeed a retiring man in a held Parliamentary seat. For the 2010 general election the party had finally cracked the problem – with half the retiring male MPs succeeded by female candidates.

But in a cruel twist, all of these women …

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Alex Foster

Daily View 2×2: 13 May 2010

By Alex Foster | Thu 13th May 2010 - 7:19 am

closeup view of velcroGood morning, and welcome to your super soaraway Daily View on this, the first full day of Liberal government in the UK.

Today in 1958, Velcro was trademarked before going on to applications in haberdashery and space travel.

Birthday boys today include Arthur Sullivan, Armistead Maupin and Stevie Wonder.

2 Big Stories

There’s no doubting from the papers that today is all about the new inhabitants of Downing Street. From a Lib Dem perspective, there’s wor Vince, about to wage war on the banks. Or is he? Does the update to the Guardian’s article, filed 90 minutes after the article itself, herald the first hint of trouble in Paradise?

City is right to fear Vince Cable

Make no mistake, Cable’s appointment matters. David Cameron could have given him another economic job that would have kept him well away from anything to do with City reform. Last night it was mooted that the MP for Twickenham might be made chief secretary to the Treasury, and thus responsible for the delicate negotiations with Whitehall ministries over spending cuts.

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Posted in Daily View | Tagged , , , , , , and | 9 Comments
Iain Roberts

Re-elect Danny Alexander to bring real change

By Iain Roberts | Wed 12th May 2010 - 8:44 pm

Private Eye’s Electionballs has this entry

The Conservatives weren’t the only ones using the “change” mantra whether it made sense or not. Highland Lib Dem Danny Alexander’s “local news” sheet made the bizarre plea: “Re-elect Danny to bring real change”.

Before Thursday, Danny’s constituents had a Labour government. Danny is now Secretary of State for Scotland, having been a member of the Lib Dem negotiation team that brought about the first government with Lib Dem or Liberal ministers in over sixty years.

Yep, I’d say that counted as “real change”.

Posted in Humour | Tagged and | 15 Comments
Chris Jones

Opinion: I’ve joined the Liberal Democrats

By Chris Jones | Wed 12th May 2010 - 8:17 pm

Last night I watched as the helicopter above central London followed and filmed the new Prime Minister David Cameron’s car as it drove from Buckingham Palace back to Downing Street. I watched as Mr. Cameron arrived at number 10, made a speech outlining the difficulties and challenges that were ahead for the country and announced a formal coalition with the Lib Dems. I watched as he walked into his new home, the door opened by an unseen minion as always, turned, waved and crossed the threshold into a new era for British politics. As I watched I was at the same …

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Posted in Op-eds | 149 Comments
Mark Pack

Further details of special conference published

By Mark Pack | Wed 12th May 2010 - 7:28 pm

As reported earlier today by Helen, the party is holding a special conference in Birmingham on Sunday.

More details are now available. First, here’s the explanation from Duncan Brack (Chair of the Federal Conference Committee) about why it is being held:

The Federal Executive has called this special conference to enable the party to debate the coalition agreement reached between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservative Party, and approved by the Federal Executive and the Parliamentary Party, on 11 May…

The motion endorsing the agreement – though not the agreement itself – is open to amendment … The amendments selected for
debate by

…

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Posted in Conference | Tagged and | 32 Comments
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Mark Pack

So, what do you make of this journalism?

By Mark Pack | Wed 12th May 2010 - 7:13 pm

Journalists from both The Guardian and Independent on Sunday have been trawling the online world explicitly asking Liberal Democrat members who are unhappy with the coalition to get in touch. Not asking for members to let them know their views. But only asking those with one specific view to get in touch. Hmm…

UPDATE: The Independent on Sunday says, “That’s just the viewpoint I was asked to find. Don’t worry, we have plenty of positive voices”.

Posted in News | Tagged | 47 Comments
Stephen Tall

The upsides and downsides for Labour of the Lib-Con deal

By Stephen Tall | Wed 12th May 2010 - 6:45 pm

The decision by many Labour MPs during Tuesday to kaibosh any kind of ‘progressive alliance’ deal with the Lib Dems was doubtless motivated by many reasons: some good, some bad.

I’m sure some Labour MPs genuinely felt that, after 13 years of government, and having crashed to their heaviest election defeat in a generation, their party requires a spell in opposition to re-group and refresh. That’s a perfectly understandable and respectable position to hold.

Equally, it’s clear there were those motivated by less pure instincts. For some – the tribal partisans who cleave to the view Labour is always right …

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Posted in Op-eds | 45 Comments
Helen Duffett

Where’s the coalition of the sexes?

By Helen Duffett | Wed 12th May 2010 - 6:22 pm

With most of the key cabinet posts now announced, and other positions coming at a trickle, the new government so far looks overwhelmingly male.

The exceptions so far are Theresa May (Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equality) and Baroness Sayeeda Warsi (Conservative Party Chairman). Reports of a role for Caroline Flint are unconfirmed.

There’s been no word yet about any of the talented female Liberal Democrat MPs being offered a role in the new government. However, I can’t help noticing a correlation with the Lib Dem (all male) negotiating team, with all but Andrew Stunell getting cabinet posts.

I …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , and | 11 Comments
Alex Foster

Liberal Democrat policies in Government

By Alex Foster | Wed 12th May 2010 - 5:46 pm

Chris Fox, the Lib Dem Chief Exec, has circulated this helpful summary of which of our policies are included in the agreement. It’s slightly easier to wade through than the full text, which we brought you earlier.

A Fair Start for Children

  • Introduce a Pupil Premium to give all children a fair start.

Fairer taxes and Economic Reform

  • A substantial increase in the personal allowance from April 2011 with a longer term policy objective of further increasing the personal allowance to £10,000, making further real terms steps each year towards this objective
  • Reform of the banking system, ensuring a flow of lending to

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 8 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: James Graham – Refusal to enter Lib Dem coalition was Labour’s final failure

By NewsHound | Wed 12th May 2010 - 4:45 pm

Over at The Guardian’s Comment is Free website, Lib Dem blogger James Graham offers his take on the deal between the Lib Dems and the Conservatives. He describes his sense of betrayal by Labour:

Over the weekend, it would appear, Labour’s appetite for power evaporated … The fact that two of the things the Labour negotiating team would not even contemplate was dismantling the database state and ending the detention of immigrant children makes you realise quite how corrupted the party has become in office.

And his fears for the Lib Dems’ future popularity:

… as students of political systems where balanced parliaments

…

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Posted in News | 28 Comments
Mark Pack

Text of the Conservative / Lib Dem agreement

By Mark Pack | Wed 12th May 2010 - 3:21 pm

This document sets out agreements reached between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats on a range of issues. These are the issues that needed to be resolved between us in order for us to work together as a strong and stable government. It will be followed in due course by a final Coalition Agreement, covering the full range of policy and including foreign, defence and domestic policy issues not covered in this document.

1. Deficit Reduction

The parties agree that deficit reduction and continuing to ensure economic recovery is the most urgent issue facing Britain. We have therefore agreed that there …

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Posted in News | Tagged | 38 Comments
Mark Pack

Why didn’t the Liberal Democrat election result match the polls?

By Mark Pack | Wed 12th May 2010 - 2:20 pm

First thoughts from ComRes on why the Liberal Democrat vote share last week, although up for the third general election in a row, was much lower than the polls had been predicting:

We along with many others were surprised by the eventual Lib Dem figure; but that’s not the whole story….. our Conservative Party vote share was, in the words of the BBC’s analysis, ‘bang on the button’ while we understated Labour support to the tune of 1.14% (incidentally the first time the Labour vote share has been understated since 1983). Along with every other polling company we

…

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Posted in Polls | Tagged | 11 Comments
Helen Duffett

Liberal Democrat Special Conference called for Sunday 16 May

By Helen Duffett | Wed 12th May 2010 - 2:13 pm

Liberal Democrat Party President Ros Scott has announced a Special Conference for Liberal Democrat party members.

Note: advance registration is currently open only to those who are voting members of conference.

From Ros’s email to party members :

You will have seen from the news that the party’s Federal Executive and parliamentary party yesterday approved the coalition agreement negotiated with the Conservative Party.

Both bodies endorsed it overwhelmingly, by much more than a three-quarters majority. The provisions of the ‘triple lock’ procedure approved by conference in 1998 have therefore been satisfied, and there is no requirement for a special conference to endorse the

…

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Posted in Conference and News | 14 Comments
Stephen Tall

The five Lib Dems who will sit in the Lib-Con cabinet

By Stephen Tall | Wed 12th May 2010 - 1:40 pm

As at lunchtime, here’s what we know:

  • Deputy Prime Minister – Nick Clegg
  • Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills – Vince Cable
  • Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change – Chris Huhne
  • Secretary of State for Scotland – Danny Alexander
  • Chief Secretary to the Treasury – David Laws

No particular surprises here, all canny moves in one way or another.

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Posted in News | 31 Comments
Stephen Tall

I disagreed with Nick. And I was wrong. Maybe.

By Stephen Tall | Wed 12th May 2010 - 11:15 am

It’s two months since I wrote a post here on Lib Dem Voice with the self-explanatory title: 5 reasons Nick Clegg should rule out a coalition now. It’s interesting in the light of the last 24 hours to re-visit my reason number one: “A coalition is a non-starter, so let’s just rule it out now”.

So what’s changed?

The electorate have spoken

Well, the most obvious issue is the election result itself. The voters have spoken, and been quite clear that they don’t trust any one of the parties to govern the country alone. That in itself should give any …

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Posted in Op-eds | 67 Comments
Ed Maxfield

Opinion: A moment of transformation?

By Ed Maxfield | Wed 12th May 2010 - 9:50 am

My family are a difficult bunch to please. This weekend my mother threatened to give up on the Lib Dems if Nick Clegg kept Gordon Brown in power and my sister threatened to move to Greece if he did a deal with the Tories.

Me? I’ve been fighting the Tories all my adult life, but I’ve been working to get Lib Dems into government all that time too. I am immensely proud and excited that Nick Clegg is Deputy Prime Minister (pinch me!) But I also understand the anguish and pain felt by many in the party. After fifty years …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 55 Comments
Iain Roberts

Welcome to the new politics – risks and all

By Iain Roberts | Wed 12th May 2010 - 8:27 am

A few months ago we were waiting for David Cameron’s stately procession to 10 Downing Street as leader of yet another majority Conservative government. No point voting Lib Dem, we were told – they had no chance of getting power and putting their policies into practice.

And yet here we are, with a Lib/Con coalition after Labour decided they preferred to be in opposition. Those who voted Lib Dem look like they will get Lib Dem policies put into law. Not all of them, but a surprising number of the important ones.

Is it risky? Hell, yes. …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 62 Comments
The Voice

Statement from the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg MP

By The Voice | Wed 12th May 2010 - 2:33 am

This statement dropped into our mailbox shortly before 2am this morning.

“Tonight the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party and the Federal Executive of the Liberal Democrat party have overwhelmingly accepted my recommendation that we should now enter into a coalition government with the Conservative Party.”

“Before I say anything more about that coalition government I would like to express my thanks and admiration for Gordon Brown. He has been a towering figure in British politics for well over a decade. And the manner in which he has acted over the last few days has demonstrated immense dignity, grace and a profound sense of

…

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Posted in News | 93 Comments
Mark Pack

The deal is done

By Mark Pack | Wed 12th May 2010 - 12:36 am

The deal negotiated with the Conservatives has been unanimously backed by the Liberal Democrat MPs. It’s also been backed by the party’s Federal Executive with just dissenting voice in the end. Both decisions were significantly helped by not only the successes of the party’s negotiating team but also by very impressive and persuasive appearances by Nick Clegg.

Talking shortly afterwards, Nick Clegg said,

I can your hopes and your aspirations with me … I want to assure you that I wouldn’t have entered into this agreement unless I was genuinely convinced that it offers a unique opportunity to deliver the kind of

…

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Posted in News | Tagged | 59 Comments
Alex Foster

Coalition ahoy

By Alex Foster | Tue 11th May 2010 - 11:57 pm

News trickling in that the Conservatives have offered the Liberal Democrats a coalition. The Lib Dem parliamentary party and Federal Executives, without whom a coalition cannot be ratified, are currently meeting to consider it.

There’s even talk of an emergency Special Conference this weekend which will mean conference representatives across the country pricking their ears up.

But the rolling news media are considering it a done deal already.

Amongst the headlines are that Nick Clegg will serve as Deputy Prime Minister, Danny Alexander as Secretary of State for Scotland, along with three other Lib Dems in the cabinet and a further …

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Posted in General Election | Tagged , , , , and | 98 Comments
Mark Pack

Labour weren’t serious about keeping the Conservatives out of office

By Mark Pack | Tue 11th May 2010 - 9:46 pm

So much for all the Labour rhetoric about how only a vote for Labour could keep the Tories out of power. Turns out Labour was quite willing to see David Cameron become Prime Minister as you can see from tonight’s statement from ‘a Liberal Democrat spokesperson’:

It is clear that the Labour Party never took seriously the prospects of forming a progressive, reforming government with the Liberal Democrats. Key members of Labour’s negotiating team gave every impression of wanting the process to fail and Labour made no attempt at all to agree a common approach with the Liberal Democrats on issues

…

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Posted in News | 177 Comments
Stephen Tall

Deal between Lib Dems and Conservatives imminent

By Stephen Tall | Tue 11th May 2010 - 5:50 pm

A quick round-up of where we seem to be at right now (with apologies for the slowness of the site loading: our servers are taking a bit of a battering right now!) …

Throughout the afternoon a succession of Labour figures ruled out any prospect of a Lib-Lab coalition deal. This morning people like John Reid, David Blunkett and Tom Harris dismissed the idea – this afternoon they were joined by serving ministers such as Andy Burnham, Jack Straw, Liam Byrne, Sadiq Khan, Diana Johnson and Peter Ainsworth. With the possibility of a Lib-Lab pact utterly dependent on unity within Labour …

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Posted in News | 113 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Mark Pack – We Lib Dems are pragmatic about how our policies get delivered

By NewsHound | Tue 11th May 2010 - 2:30 pm

Over at The Guardian’s Comment is Free website, LDV Co-Editor Mark Pack notes how united the Lib Dem membership has been, at least so far, in nervously watching and waiting to see how the balanced parliament negotiations develop.

There’s general recognition that Nick Clegg and the party face the toughest of choices – but also a determination to see electoral reform brought in. Here’s an extract:

Many have an instinctive preference or aversion to one of the other main parties, but what they all have in common is a commitment to the Liberal Democrats. Those in principle who would never touch

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged | 13 Comments
Sara Bedford

So almost no-one agreed with Nick – and he doesn’t understand why?

By Sara Bedford | Tue 11th May 2010 - 1:49 pm

It has certainly been a bad week for Nick Griffin. The party polled badly in the General Election, with Griffin’s much-hyped bid to win Barking constituency ending in a poor third place. The BNP’s already tiny local council base took a pounding, with total wipe-out in Barking & Dagenham, a council they hoped to control. Most damning for the future of the party itself, there has been huge damage from defections and scandal, resulting in the BNP main web site being taken down just a week before the election.

Nick Griffin has sent an email out to party members, attempting to justify the truly terrible results of last week’s elections to BNP members.

So the election dust has now settled, and from our point of view there are four key outcomes: First, the resulting hung Parliament and political instability will rapidly add to Gordon Brown’s economic disaster. The Bank of England prediction that whoever won this election will end up being “out of power for a generation” is now going to apply to two of the three old parties. That’s bad news for Britain, but good news for us.

So the British National Party doesn’t really care about Britain – just itself?

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 12 Comments
George Kendall

Opinion: Beware Mandelson bearing gifts

By George Kendall | Tue 11th May 2010 - 1:09 pm

The airwaves are full of siren voices: Ben Bradshaw calls for “a progressive coalition”, Peter Hain for “a new voting system, a new second chamber, a fixed term parliament”, the Prime Minister resigns to make a deal possible.

It’s heady stuff for a Liberal Democrat, so why isn’t Clegg beating down the door of number 10?

Years back I was newly elected to a hung council. The 25 Tories had gone into opposition, so we 24 Lib Dems tried to form a coalition with seven independents, themselves split into three small groups.

The Tories confidently predicted we’d fall apart in …

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Posted in Op-eds | 32 Comments
Mark Pack

Will it have been a case of “Vote Labour, get Cameron”?

By Mark Pack | Tue 11th May 2010 - 12:53 pm

Having said yesterday that Labour needs to seriously up its game if it wants to woo the Liberal Democrats, Gordon Brown most certainly did that. It’s clear also that many in the Labour Party are willing to consider a major offer that would include very substantial electoral reform. Many, but by no means all – which brings us to the irony of the situation.

Although Labour campaigned in many areas on the claim “Vote Lib Dem, get Cameron”, many in Labour are now willing to make it a case of “Vote Labour, get Cameron”. They are willing to see Cameron …

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Posted in Op-eds | 20 Comments
The Voice

As Labour MPs line up to reject ‘progressive alliance’, is a deal with the Tories back on?

By The Voice | Tue 11th May 2010 - 11:50 am

Two interesting snippets from today’s commentary …

Growing hostility within Labour to a coalition with the Lib Dems (FT)

Points out that senior Labour figures have been queuing up to denounce any prospect of a progressive alliance between their party and the Lib Dems: Jack Straw, John Reid, David Blunkett, Diane Abbott and Tom Harris have all argued it would be unworkable. The FT’s Jim Pickard notes:

I’m equally incredulous about the attempts to cobble together up to seven parties (including the Greens’ single MP) to hold off the Tories at any cost. Not least because one pro-coalition cabinet minister told me

…

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Posted in News | 63 Comments
Mark Pack

Welcome to the new bloggers…

By Mark Pack | Tue 11th May 2010 - 10:50 am

Four blogs have recently joined Ryan’s Liberal Democrat Blogs 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 | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Coalition politics: why the public is the winner

By Stephen Tall | Tue 11th May 2010 - 9:50 am

Amid all the chatter and speculation in the last few days, one point has been repeatedly uttered by those in the Labour and Tory parties opposed to electoral reform: that the fact that politicians have spent the past few days talking to each other to work out where they agree will mean the public will never vote for a proportional system which is likely to lead to regular coalition government.

I’m not too sure where they draw their conclusion from – most non-political friends I’ve talked to have been quite enjoying the spectacle, finding it all quite fascinating.

Now that might …

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Posted in News | 47 Comments
Sara Bedford

Daily View 4×4: 11 May 2010

By Sara Bedford | Tue 11th May 2010 - 8:00 am

Good morning and welcome to the most environmentally friendly 4×4 you will ever meet. It looks like 11th May 2010 could itself go down in history, but until then, here are a few fascinating facts from previous years.

  • 198 years ago today, Prime Minister Spencer Perceval was assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons.
  • One this day in 1985, 56 people were killed following a fire at Bradford City’s Valley Parade ground. This had particular meaning to me, as I had been at the ground for the previous home game.
  • Today in 2001, author Douglas Adams died suddenly at the age of just 50.

4 must-read newspaper commentaries

But hold on tight to your blood pressure!

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Posted in Daily View | 16 Comments
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