Stephen Tall

1992 déjà vu? Or can 2010 be different?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 26th April 2010 - 5:35 pm

If there’s one thing worse than being talked about, it’s not being talked about. That might be true normally, but perhaps not when the subject is hung parliaments and what the Lib Dems might do in the event thereof.

Nick Clegg made a perfectly uncontroversial point on Sunday: that it would be inconceivable for the Lib Dems to prop up Gordon Brown as prime minister if Labour came third in terms of votes cast on 6th May. Of course it would be, no matter what the constitutional niceties might say about the right of an incumbent prime minister to try …

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Posted in General Election and Op-eds | 12 Comments
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NewsHound

LibLink: Cable in Mail

By NewsHound | Mon 26th April 2010 - 4:34 pm

Vince Cable’s regular slot in the Mail on Sunday was out yesterday; here’s a brief extract:

I have been going on for ages about the way banks exploit the taxpayer guarantee. One simple step is to make them pay for it out of profits, and I was pleased to see the IMF recommend not one but two taxes: one to fund taxpayer guarantees for future support, the other on excessive pay and profits.

But I disagree with the IMF’s belief we must wait for other states. Britain is much more exposed to the risk of a fresh collapse, and we must

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged , and | 1 Comment
Sara Bedford

Vote Clegg – get Maggie’s support

By Sara Bedford | Mon 26th April 2010 - 3:29 pm

Yesterday both Mark Pack and I blogged about the Daily Mail and other tabloids paying paparazzi  to stalk Miriam Gonzalez Durantez as she shopped at Rigby & Peller. Today it appears that the Mail have had second thoughts and pulled the article from their web site – only to replace it with something even more odious – a Jan Moir poison special.

Ms Moir is obviously still preening from her nasty, homophobic character assassination of Stephen Gately last year, as this time she goes for a full house. In one page she manages to make snide criticism about women who have their own careers, mothers who like to spend time with their children, fathers who like to spend time with their children, wives who support their husbands in their jobs, wives who don’t support their husbands in their jobs, women who earn more than their partners, people with a religious faith, people without a religious faith, women who shop for their own clothes, particularly in any ‘upmarket’ shop and women who do a grocery shop for food for their family. Gosh, that doesn’t leave many of us unscathed!

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 11 Comments

Opinion: Free Zone Revolution

By S | Mon 26th April 2010 - 2:17 pm

In New Labour’s puerile and patronising ‘Animated Manifesto Film’ their first pledge is the desire to instigate a ‘new industrial revolution’. This is followed by no explanation whatsoever as to how precisely they are going to do this. If you look deeper, however, the reality is damning. It is an acknowledgement that after 13 years of power many urban areas, especially in the North of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and South Wales, are still experiencing crippling poverty and high unemployment.

The LibDems go one better; they at least acknowledge a truth that policy to tackle the state of the …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , and | 10 Comments
NewsHound

Clegg profiles across the pond

By NewsHound | Mon 26th April 2010 - 12:55 pm

As a sign of our new found success, it’s intriguing that some American blogs are starting to talk about Nick Clegg as well.

As an example, here’s the Daily Beast:

For good or for ill, Clegg is certainly different. Part of his distinctiveness stems from his family background. His mother is Dutch, his father half-Russian, a combination that led the reliably right-wing Daily Mail to describe him as “by blood the least British leader of a British political party.” His paternal grandmother, an aristocrat, fled Russia at the time of the revolution.

Clegg speaks five languages and once worked for the European

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged , and | 4 Comments
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Stephen Tall

‘Cleggmania’ sees surge in Lib Dem donations: have you given yet?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 26th April 2010 - 11:20 am

The Times reports:

The Liberal Democrats have benefited from a double-digit percentage surge in party donations since Nick Clegg’s success in the first television debate almost a fortnight ago.

The Times has learnt that the bulk of the increase in political funds has come from individuals — especially through the internet — who typically give around £20 each. The Lib Dems have the highest proportion of individual donors of any of the three main parties. …

One senior Lib Dem told The Times that the party started with about £4 million to spend on running its general election campaign, but that the

…

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Posted in News | Tagged | 9 Comments
The Voice

Nick: our Armed Forces deserve better pay and homes

By The Voice | Mon 26th April 2010 - 10:30 am

Nick Clegg will today set out plans to improve family homes for the Armed Forces and make troops’ pay fair.

Announcing the plans, Nick said:

The brave men and women of our Armed Forces have been left under-equipped and under-paid by Labour. The Liberal Democrats will change this. Gordon Brown has failed to give our troops all the kit they need to do their job. And he has failed to give them a decent wage for the work they do and a decent home to raise their kids in.

“Someone spending six months fighting half way around the world to keep us safe should not have to worry about leaving their family in a shoddy, run-down home. They should not have to worry about whether they are paid enough to provide for their loved ones.

“The Liberal Democrats will bring forces family homes up to standard in half the time the Government plans, and we will increase the salary of our lowest paid troops by £6,000. We are committed to a fair deal for our Armed Forces. These changes are affordable because we have proposed £15bn of cuts and savings elsewhere in government each year, including cutting waste in the Ministry of Defence.”

Here’s the detail of the proposals from the party’s press release:

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Posted in General Election and News | Tagged and | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

3 to see: Lib Dem #GE2010 campaign coverage (26/4/10)

By Stephen Tall | Mon 26th April 2010 - 9:45 am

Want to keep up with what’s happening in the media but too busy campaigning? Here’s a handy guide to a trio of today’s most essential stories …

The media obsesses about hung parliament possibilities …

Nick Clegg used his appearance on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show to make the obvious point that the Lib Dems would not prop up a Labour government if it finished third in the popular vote but ahead in terms of number of MPs:

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Posted in General Election | 7 Comments
Mark Pack

Election timetable: this week’s deadlines

By Mark Pack | Mon 26th April 2010 - 9:10 am

The deadlines coming up this week are:

  • Deadline for submitting new requests for proxy votes (except for medical emergencies proxies) : 5pm on Tuesday 27 April
  • Publication of notice of poll for local government elections: Not later than Tuesday 27 April
  • Publication of version of electoral register used for determining entitlement to vote: Wednesday 28 April
  • Deadline for appointing counting agents and polling agents (local elections): Wednesday 28 April
  • BBC TV debate between party leaders: Thursday 29 April (8:30pm)

For a full timetable see General election and local election timetable, 2010.

Posted in News | Tagged | Leave a comment
Stephen Tall

Pollwatch Day 20 #GE2010 – Lib Dems back at 30%

By Stephen Tall | Sun 25th April 2010 - 10:00 pm

Just one poll published tonight (so far at any rate):

    YouGov in the Sun … CON 34%(-1), LAB 28%(+1), LIB DEM 30%(+2)

So much for the charge – led by its sister-paper – that the Lib Dem bubble had burst. The poll suggests the party is continuing to hover at the 30% mark, and continuing to push Labour into third place.

There was incidentally one other poll published we omitted to report last night: BPIX (the firm which refuses to comply with polling industry standards) showed CON 34%(+3), LAB 26%(-2), LIB DEM 30%(-2).

It does seems as if the party is heading into …

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Posted in General Election and Polls | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

Now the Daily Mail thinks election is about leader’s wife’s underwear

By Mark Pack | Sun 25th April 2010 - 9:23 pm

Elections used to about politicians. Then they became about politicians and their spouses. Now the Daily Mail introduces us to politicians, their spouses and their underwear choices with a “story” about where Miriam Gonzalez Durantez buys her underwear.

As Next Left points out, the story doesn’t have a name to it – just the generic “Daily Mail reporter” by-line. I wonder why?

UPDATE: As pointed out by several people on Twitter, the News of the World ran a similar piece first.

UPDATE 2: And as for Jan Moir’s contribution: sigh.

Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #166

By Stephen Tall | Sun 25th April 2010 - 8:45 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 166th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (18th – 24th April, 2010), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can now 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
Mark Pack

Lib Dem response to Labour’s letter to broadcasters

By Mark Pack | Sun 25th April 2010 - 7:34 pm

Nick Robinson has reported:

I’m told that Labour has asked the two other big parties to sign a joint letter to broadcasters criticising them for covering the debates and the polls too much and claiming that the news bulletins had “failed to deliver the usual specialist examination of specific policy areas”. The Lib Dems and the Tories have refused to sign. The BBC has yet to receive the letter.

Here’s the party’s official response to the request from Labour:

We have discussed your proposal, however, we do not think that it is appropriate for political parties to seek to dictate the nature

…

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Posted in News | Tagged | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

The problem for Labour and the Tories in attacking Lib Dem policies…

By Mark Pack | Sun 25th April 2010 - 7:26 pm

From today’s YouGov poll in the Sunday Times (one of the questions which I don’t think was reported in the paper, though I’ve not seen a hard copy):

The other parties have been targeting Liberal Democrat policies in recent days. What is your view of this?

It shows the parties are doing their job – the Liberal Democrats need to be scrutinised: 34%
It shows the other parties are rattled: 53%

This one also looks to have been unreported:

Newspapers have questioned Nick Clegg’s personal financial dealings. What is your view on the basis of what you know about this?

He has serious questions to …

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Posted in General Election and Polls | Tagged and | 5 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo Election Special (3): Vince is right, South Park Lib Dem stylee, Leaders’ Wives & The Weakest Link

By Stephen Tall | Sun 25th April 2010 - 6:35 pm

A special Sunday treat: ten of the top political videos from the past week. But, annoyingly, spread out over three separate posts to help you keep checking out Lib Dem Voice’s election coverage. Here are the final three …

Vince Cable is right about everything


(Also available on YouTube here).

The Lib Dems meet South Park:

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Posted in General Election and YouTube | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

Electoral Commission responds to misreporting of donation figures

By Mark Pack | Sun 25th April 2010 - 5:20 pm

Welcome news from the Electoral Commission who have agreed to make their reports of donations to parties clearer. As I blogged last week, the figures for donations to the parties during the first stage of the general election have been widely misreported. Media reports presented the figures as if they were the totals of actual donations received, but in fact:

The numbers are misleading for two reasons:

  • They are (only) for donations to parties. As I’ve previously pointed out, donations made direct to candidates during the election campaign period are excluded from these figures.
  • The figures only include donations which are

…

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Stephen Tall

LDVideo Election Special (2): Dave’s Mini-Me, The Indy gets my vote & #iagreewithnick

By Stephen Tall | Sun 25th April 2010 - 4:20 pm

A special Sunday treat: ten of the top political videos from the past week. But, annoyingly, spread out over three separate posts to help you keep checking out Lib Dem Voice’s election coverage. Here are the second three …

Dave Cameron – Nick Clegg’s Mini-Me

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Posted in General Election and YouTube | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

Welcome to the new bloggers…

By Mark Pack | Sun 25th April 2010 - 3:20 pm

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 | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

Still time for stranded travellers to apply for a proxy vote

By Mark Pack | Sun 25th April 2010 - 2:20 pm

Stuck in the wrong place due to the air travel disruptions? There is still time to apply for a proxy vote as the Electoral Commission explains:

Voting by proxy means appointing someone you trust to vote on your behalf. To apply, go to www.aboutmyvote.co.uk and print off the application form, sign it and send it back to your local electoral registration office by the 5pm 27 April deadline. You can also call our helpline on 0800 3 280 280 if you have any questions. Registration officers should accept faxed application forms or scanned copies by e-mail, as long as the details

…

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Posted in General Election | Tagged and | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

Election fraud concerns in Calderdale

By Mark Pack | Sun 25th April 2010 - 1:20 pm

The Evening Courier reports:

A convicted fraudster has once again been questioned by police over illegal voting claims.

David Ginley, who is hoping to be re-elected for the Conservatives in the Warley ward in next month’s Calderdale Council elections, has been arrested by police on suspicion of election fraud.

As reported in yesterday’s Courier, the 60-year-old and a 39-year-old man were questioned on Monday.

The 39-year-old is believed to be Mohammed Rashid, who is standing for the Conservatives in the Park ward.

Both have been released on police bail pending further inquiries.

You can read the full story here.

UPDATE: David Ginley was not subsequently convicted …

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

Labour set for worst share of vote since 1918: why isn’t that a big story?

By Mark Pack | Sun 25th April 2010 - 12:49 pm

Iain Dale quite rightly has queried why the prospect of Labour finishing third in the popular share of the vote isn’t a big story being talked about in the media.

But actually Iain is too kind to Labour.

Because the voting abyss Labour is teetering on the edge of is more than simply coming third. More than simply doing worse than Michael Foot. It’s on the verge of its worst share of the vote since 1918.

In 1983 Labour scored 28.3% and in 1918 it was 22.2%. (Both of these are figures for Great Britain, i.e. excluding Northern Ireland, as that’s the …

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Posted in General Election and Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 28 Comments
Stephen Tall

The flow diagram which shows you who to vote for

By Stephen Tall | Sun 25th April 2010 - 11:40 am



(Hat-tip: Andrew Sparrow’s Guardian live-blog, this chart originated on b3ta.com).

Posted in General Election and Humour | 22 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Lynne Featherstone calls for peace in Jewish Chronicle

By NewsHound | Sun 25th April 2010 - 10:35 am

Lynne Featherstone has a balanced piece in the Jewish Chron this week:

In Hornsey & Wood Green in North London, there is a strong pro-Israel lobby and a strong pro-Palestinian lobby. When Jenny Tonge made her disgraceful and ignorant comments in the JC, calling for an inquiry into Israel taking organs in Haiti, I got emails from the pro-Israel lobby saying that the Liberal Democrats were pro-Palestinian.

When Nick Clegg then rightly sacked Baroness Tonge from the front bench, I received emails claiming that he had only done so because the “Zionist conspiracy” had got to him. Both were symptomatic of the

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged , , , and | 17 Comments
Mark Pack

Daily View: the virtual poster special

By Mark Pack | Sun 25th April 2010 - 9:00 am

Posters matter in election campaigns, because they show people that a party has plenty of support. Knowing that a party has lots of support in turn encourages other people to vote for that party. So last Sunday’s Daily View was a poster special with one you can print off and put in your window.

Today it’s the turn of the virtual poster. Take this graphic – also at http://bit.ly/ldvirtual – and use it to as your Facebook profile picture / Twitter avatar etc. That way we can help turn the 49% who say they would vote Lib Dem …

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Posted in Daily View and Online politics | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo Election Special (1): Jarvis, Cleese & Nazis

By Stephen Tall | Sun 25th April 2010 - 7:45 am

A special Sunday treat: ten of the top political videos from the past week. But, annoyingly, spread out over three separate posts to help you keep checking out Lib Dem Voice’s election coverage. Here are the first three …

Cameron and the Common People


(Also available on YouTube here).

Cameron v Clegg (with a dash of Cleese)

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Posted in General Election and YouTube | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Big increase in voters trusting Nick & Vince to steer British economy

By Stephen Tall | Sun 25th April 2010 - 12:05 am

Some interesting details from tonight’s ComRes poll, as picked out by Andrew Hawkins, the firm’s chairman:

    · Overall it looks like the Lib Dems had a very modest boost from Thursday night although Gordon Brown’s performance has clearly boosted his party’s rating
    · Turnout looks set to be really quite high – 66% say ‘absolutely certain’ to vote, the highest registered of this campaign
    · The number of people who are ‘absolutely certain’ to vote but who are undecided

…

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Posted in General Election and Polls | 5 Comments
Stephen Tall

Pollwatch Day 19 #GE2010 – Lib Dem surge still strong (except for News of the World)

By Stephen Tall | Sat 24th April 2010 - 6:55 pm

Four polls for the Sunday papers have already been published – they are as follows:

    ComRes for Sunday Mirror / Independent on Sunday … CON 34%(-1), LAB 28%(+3), LIB DEM 29%(+2)
    ICM in the Sunday Telegraph … CON 35%(+2), LAB 26%(-2), LIB DEM 31%(+1)
    Ipsos MORI in the News of the World … CON 36%(+4), LAB 30%(-2), LIB DEM 23%(-9)
    YouGov in the Sunday Times … CON 35%(+1), LAB 27%(-2), LIB DEM 29%(nc)

There is also a OnePoll for the People showing the Tories and Lib Dems tied on 32%, with Labour way back in 23%; however, OnePoll, it should be noted, are a new …

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Posted in General Election and Polls | 15 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Chris Huhne – Voters should not give in to Tory blackmail

By NewsHound | Sat 24th April 2010 - 6:25 pm

Writing for the Financial Times, Lib Dem shadow home secretary Chris Huhne exposes the Tories’ scaremongering that a hung parliament will be a disaster for the economy. Here’s an excerpt:

is to scare the voters witless about the prospect of multi-party democracy and a real change in our corrupt political system. All manner of pestilence is threatened to befall the British people if they vote other than Tory. … Of the 14 countries that enjoy the top AAA rating for creditworthiness with all three rating agencies – Fitch, Moody’s, and Standard and Poor’s – 10 have coalitions or minority governments

…

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Posted in General Election and LibLink | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Conservative politician accused of threatening charity

By Mark Pack | Sat 24th April 2010 - 5:20 pm

Adam Bienkov has the story which involves, surprise, Conservative London Assembly member Brian Coleman:

Boris Johnson’s fire chief was questioned by police this week after a woman accused him of a threatening and “intimidating” phone call.

Independent candidate Linda Edwards, who runs a charity linked to Barnet council claims Brian Coleman warned it would:

“suffer after the election” because of her candidacy and added it is “now open season for everyone to have a knock at you and The Larches will suffer…“After the call I felt he was trying to get me to pull out and not stand for the council. I

…

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

TV’s Gloria de Piero refuses to go on TV

By Alex Foster | Sat 24th April 2010 - 4:20 pm

News from the Ashfield constituency, where yesterday I was delivering in a street with a most unusual name.

It appears that Labour’s parachute candidate, TV’s Gloria de Piero, is so frit of her lack of local links that she has pulled out of all hustings engagements, including a piece arranged by the regional TV slot of the Daily Politics.

Gloria De Piero had previously said she would attend hustings on the BBC politics show (25th April), a chamber of commerce breakfast hustings (22nd April), a Nottingham Evening Post hustings (28th April) and Sutton-in-Ashfield churches together hustings (29th April) but has

…

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Posted in General Election | Tagged , , , , and | 2 Comments
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