Amanda J Taylor

Opinion: Time for Lib Dem members to unite against UNITE’s Labour propaganda

By Amanda J Taylor | Tue 16th March 2010 - 1:45 pm

The Guardian reported last Friday that the uber-union UNITE is to get its members canvassing one another on behalf of the Labour Party.

In spite of justified criticism of the Government throughout the parliamentary cycle, UNITE always comes out for Labour when an election’s nigh – it never learns! Its members’ publication (paid for out of the political levy, or not?) is full of pro-Labour propaganda.

I believe it behoves a trade union to campaign for policies that would help its members, not nail its colours to the mast of just one political party, regardless of whether …

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Alex Foster

Digital economy bill must be debated in the Commons

By Alex Foster | Tue 16th March 2010 - 12:36 pm

So despite conference taking our peers out for a friendly word in their shell-like, it seems the Digital Economy Bill has successfully cleared the hurdles in the House of Lords.

Some industry experts are relying on the bill passing simply because it runs out of time, the MPs fail to scrutinize it, and it gets through thanks to the wash-up.

So now is the time to write to your MP to insist the bill gets a proper hearing in the Commons.  38 Degrees have information and a campaign to help you do that.

Posted in Conference, LDV campaigns and News | Tagged , and | 8 Comments
Iain Roberts

Poll hints hung parliament could be vote winner

By Iain Roberts | Tue 16th March 2010 - 11:40 am

As the election draws closer and the polls seem firmly stuck in or near hung-parliament territory, the latest Guardian/ICM poll suggests that the prospect of no one party having an absolute majority isn’t scaring voters as much as Labour and the Conservatives might like.

As the Guardian reports:

Voters remain unconvinced by the Conservative alternative, with 29% thinking a clear Tory victory would be best. Only 18% think Britain would be best served by a strong Labour win this spring. Both groups are outnumbered by the 44% who want a hung parliament in which the government works with smaller parties such

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NewsHound

Michael Moore live online at the Guardian at 11am

By NewsHound | Tue 16th March 2010 - 10:22 am

Over at The Guardian website, Michael Moore, Lib Dem spokesman on international development, will be live online and answering readers’ questions about aid and development from 11am today, Tuesday. Here’s how it’s being trailed:

Last year, the Liberal Democrats set out their thoughts on international development in a policy paper, which outlined support for the aid target of 0.7% of GDP, a call for renewed efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals and an acknowledgement that aid sometimes fails and that perhaps financial aid is not the most effective way of delivering support.

At 11am (GMT) on Tuesday, 16 March, the Lib

…

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Mark Pack

Cabinet Office breaks the law, again

By Mark Pack | Tue 16th March 2010 - 9:20 am

Regular readers of The Voice may be familiar with my correspondence with the Cabinet Office and the tales of how the Cabinet Office has lost correspondence, failed to comply with data protection access requests and ignored requests made under the Freedom of Information Act. In short, the Cabinet Office’s administration is frequently chaotic and on several occasions the Cabinet Office has broken the law.

A sample of this was contained in my previous post:

I’ve also put in two Freedom of Information requests about the Cabinet Office’s records of complaints about emails sent via their website going astray. The first produced

…

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Stephen Tall

The 39 Labour MPs who are 100% authoritarian

By Stephen Tall | Tue 16th March 2010 - 8:22 am

Lib Dem Voice launched our new website – How Liberal / Authoritarian is your MP? – at the party’s spring conference last weekend.

LDV has identified 10 key votes from the 2005-10 Parliament – ranging from ID cards and freedom of speech to freedom of information and trial without jury – in order to rank all MPs according to how liberal or authoritarian their record is. All MPs are marked out of 100: the higher their score the more authoritarian they are. The lower their score the more liberal is their voting record.

39 MPs recorded a score of 100/100, meaning they had voted on the authoritarian side of the argument in each and every one of the 10 Commons debates we looked at. All 39 of them are Labour MPs, and here is the roll-call of authoritarianism:

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Alex Foster

Daily View 2×2: 16 March 2010

By Alex Foster | Tue 16th March 2010 - 7:30 am

Good morning, and welcome to Daily View. I’m standing in for your usual Tuesday host because Sara was rushed into hospital yesterday. Get well soon, Sara.

March 16th in history saw the resignation of Harold Wilson in 1976; in 1995, Mississippi finally ratified the 13th Amendment and officially outlawed slavery in US.

Today is the birthday of Isabelle Huppert and Jimmy Nail.

2 Big Stories

Police investigate Labour MP Ashok Kumar’s death

Police and doctors are investigating the death of a Labour MP whose body was found at his home yesterday.

Dr Ashok Kumar, 53, had been working as normal, with major commitments as parliamentary private secretary to Hilary Benn, the environment secretary. He was also campaigning for Corus steelworkers’ jobs in his Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency. His body was found after anxious staff failed to rouse him by phone and called emergency services, who broke into his home.

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Mark Pack

Why should an MP be allowed to veto a piece of legislation in secret?

By Mark Pack | Mon 15th March 2010 - 10:08 pm

Some bad old secrecy habits clearly still linger on in parts of the Conservative Party.

Step forward: Christopher Chope MP and his veto of a Bill to aid developing countries.

The Bill was at a stage where any one MP objecting to it would kill it off, and that’s what he did. In itself, of course it’s perfectly fair for an MP to view a Bill as being wrong. Myself, I’d change the weird way Parliamentary rules work to produce this power of veto,  but given it’s there I don’t hold it too much against an MP for using it.

But that doesn’t cover Christopher …

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Mark Pack

Weekend voting gets another push from Jenny Watson

By Mark Pack | Mon 15th March 2010 - 9:54 pm

In an interview with The Guardian newspaper, Electoral Commission chair Jenny Watson repeated the Commission’s interest in seeing a switch to weekend voting:

Flexible election schedules, including opening the polls for entire weekends, should be considered to make the system more relevant to 21st century life, she said.

These comments echo strong public support for weekend voting, support from a Liberal Democrat front bencher, Lord (Chris) Rennard, and previous Electoral Commission statements.

In the interview, Jenny Watson also gave her support to the much more controversial issue of looking again at online voting, expressed doubts about how many general …

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Posted in Election law | Tagged , , and | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

LDVideo Special: Lib Dem Birmingham spring conference – Nick & Vince uncut

By Stephen Tall | Mon 15th March 2010 - 8:15 pm

Yesterday, LDVideo brought you some of the media reportage from the party’s spring conference. Today, for those of you who want to re-live it all unexpurgated, here are Nick and Vince’s conference speeches in full …

First, here’s Nick:


(Also available on YouTube here).

And here’s the 3-minute video which introduced Nick:

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NewsHound

LibLink: David Laws – Five things I have learned

By NewsHound | Mon 15th March 2010 - 7:25 pm

Over at the BBC News website, Lib Dem shadow schools spokesman David Laws “reveals the most important things he has learned in his life.” Here’s one of them …

5. Sometimes it is easier to achieve your goals in a roundabout way than by a full-frontal assault.

When I was in the City you were taught to be very blunt, straight forward and direct. There was a premium on clarity of thought and expression, whereas sometimes in politics to achieve your goals or to persuade other people, you need to be less direct than you might otherwise want to be.

It’s probably

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Stephen Tall

Evidence based, Left Foot Forward? Not if you’re ignoring the actual evidence

By Stephen Tall | Mon 15th March 2010 - 5:55 pm

The Labour-supporting Left Foot Forward blog prides itself on being evidence-based. But not, it seems, when the evidence doesn’t support the conclusion they’ve already written.

That seems to be the only explanation for their slanted weekend posting that Lib Dem tax policy “fails the fairness test”, which appears to rest on two points: 1) that people who don’t pay tax won’t benefit from tax-cuts, and 2) ignoring completely the redistributive wealth tax rises that Vince Cable and the Lib Dems are proposing.

Perhaps the authors, Tim Horton and Howard Reed, hoped nobody would notice the sleight-of-hand; or at least that it …

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Mark Pack

Welcome advice on poll cards from the Electoral Commission

By Mark Pack | Mon 15th March 2010 - 1:50 pm

The 2010 edition of the Electoral Commission’s “Handbook for polling station staff” contains this welcome advice for those staff:

Most electors bring their poll card with them to show to the Poll Clerk even though this is not a requirement for most voters. Offer this poll card back to the elector. It will help them to give information to tellers outside if this is their wish.

It’s a small, but very welcome, recognition of the usefulness of tellers to the health of our electoral system. Tellers are party volunteers who gather information about who has voted. They therefore bring two benefits: first, …

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Mark Pack

Lords reform: cynicism wins the day

By Mark Pack | Mon 15th March 2010 - 12:50 pm

In March, the House of Commons voted in favour of reforming the House of Lords making it either wholly or 80% elected.

In March too, Justice Secretary Jack Straw announced the a draft bill to reform the Lords would be published within weeks.

Only one problem. The first March was in 2007 and the second 2010. Three wasted years when that terribly modern and cutting edge idea of electing the people who sit in our Parliament could have been introduced. But instead we’re left with this political cynicism:

Although the plan is unlikely to become law before parliament is dissolved, Labour strategists

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The Voice

Want to catch up on LDV’s Lib Dem conference coverage? Look no further … #ldconf

By The Voice | Mon 15th March 2010 - 11:50 am

It was packed weekend here at Lib Dem Voice, just as it was for conference delegates – so if you missed our coverage because you were in Birmingham, or simply want to re-live it all again, here’s the Voice’s handy guide to the conference-related posts published this past weekend …

Nick at conference:

…

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Stephen Tall

Daily View 2×2: 15 March 2010

By Stephen Tall | Mon 15th March 2010 - 10:15 am

Happy Monday morning, everyone, and welcome to the Ides of March edition of the Daily View. (I hope David Cameron is watching his back: the Tories don’t do loyalty).

Alongside the assasination of Julius Caesar today marks the anniversary of the first Test cricket match between England and Australia (1877); the registration of the first internet domain name, symbolics.com, 25 years ago; and the 70th birthday of Frank Dobson. O frabjous day!

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

…

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Posted in Conference and Daily View | Tagged , , and | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

A reply to Tom Harris: Lib Dems wait for the voters to speak. (It’s called democracy, and we kind of like it).

By Stephen Tall | Mon 15th March 2010 - 7:45 am

Labour MP Tom Harris, bless him, is clearly feeling a little bit insecure, as the Lib Dems enjoy a successful conference with a spring in their step and the full glare of the media spotlight. Tom’s blog is a good, fun read – but like his Tory equivalent Iain Dale, he has a bit of a tribal blind spot when it comes to the Lib Dems.

Here’s what Tom has to say about Lib Dem shadow schools secretary David Laws declining to take the media bait asking whether the party would back Labour or the Tories in the …

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Posted in General Election and Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 33 Comments
Mark Pack

Fight to succeed James Purnell turns nasty

By Mark Pack | Sun 14th March 2010 - 9:10 pm

Tameside Eye has the story about the fight to win the Labour selection in Stalybridge & Hyde, where James Purnell is standing down. It has both its serious and its farcical elements.

The serious: a series of anonymous emails have been sent out making a wide number of personal attacks on Cllr Jonny Reynolds, one of those in the running to be Labour candidate. The emails have come from two IP address: one which has also been used by another Labour Councillor, Sean Perry-Parker, to send out emails and a second one which is a local council IP address (and therefore …

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NewsHound

LibLink: Edward McMillan-Scott – I am comfortable joining the Liberal family

By NewsHound | Sun 14th March 2010 - 8:35 pm

Over at The Observer today, the Lib Dems’ newest MEP Edward McMillan-Scott, former leader of the Tories in Europe, writes about why he had to leave David Cameron’s party in protest at their extreme views. Here’s an excerpt:

It was chilling to hear say to one very senior spokesman at an EU meeting some years ago: “We can say what we like here, but it will be different when we are in government.” I should have left then, instead of carrying on the pro-European fight from within.

My decision to join the Liberal Democrats this weekend was made easier by the

…

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Posted in Europe / International and LibLink | Tagged , , and | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

Luciana Berger and the customised number plate

By Mark Pack | Sun 14th March 2010 - 7:25 pm

The Mail on Sunday reports:

As a Labour candidate in a working class area of Liverpool, glamorous 28-year-old Londoner Luciana Berger has gone to great lengths to prove her down-to-earth credentials.

The privately-educated friend of the Blairs’ son Euan has spent months canvassing on jobs, schools and hospitals.

And such is her devotion, the former management consultant has even ditched a car with a £5,000 personalised numberplate spelling out her name.

You can read the full story here and catch up on the previous travails of Luciana Berger here.

Posted in News | Tagged and | 5 Comments
Stephen Tall

Things can only get better for the Lib Dems, as D:Ream’s Brian Cox defects from Labour

By Stephen Tall | Sun 14th March 2010 - 6:15 pm

Time was when you were asked to name a Lib Dem celebrity backer you would have been hard-pressed to think beyond Barry Norman, Liz Kershaw and Barry Cryer (all of whom are stars, of course). Then came Sandi Toksvig, Floella Benjamin and Brian Eno; perhaps also Daniel Radcliffe. And last month, the Observer named Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Colin Firth, Kate Winslet, Andrew Motion, Razorlight, and the Kooks. Suddenly, it’s al looking a bit more A-list, a bit more contemporary.

And now comes today’s news from The Sunday Times, ‘D:Ream is over as poster boy Brian Cox deserts Labour: …

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Iain Roberts

Where’s a cat when you need one?

By Iain Roberts | Sun 14th March 2010 - 5:08 pm

In November 1912, the use of flogging with the cat was extended to those procuring prostitutes and for crimes against women and children. An anti-flogging amendment was rejected by 297 votes to 44.

Some were opposed. George Greenwood (Liberal, Peterborough) called flogging “the methods of barbarism”.

Arthur Lynch (Nationalist, West Clare – this was before Irish independence), described the horrors of a flogging he had witnessed.

” was an artist in it. He laid on the lash with such vigour that at every stroke the victim’s whole frame quivered, his eyes rolled in, his muscles stood out as though they

…

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Stephen Tall

Nick Clegg’s speech delivers on all fronts

By Stephen Tall | Sun 14th March 2010 - 4:45 pm

If Nick Clegg sounded a little hoarse from a sore throat throughout his leader’s speech to the Birmingham spring conference then it’s not surprising: he has been omnipresent in the media this week, winning the Lib Dems more coverage than I can remember outside of an election campaign.

The first responsibility of any Lib Dem leader’s speech is to forget that he is talking to the party faithful in the conference hall – they will vote for the party regardless – and to pitch directly to the wider public watching the speech live or on news bulletins.

The second …

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Posted in Conference, General Election and Op-eds | Tagged and | 12 Comments
The Voice

+++ Exclusive: MEP has change of heart – now happy to have penis

By The Voice | Sun 14th March 2010 - 4:33 pm

News reaches us in LDV Towers that Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies has had a change of heart and will be allowing his name to go forward for the Flying Golden Penis trophy for Politician of the Year at the Erotic Awards 2010.

Last month, as we reported, Chris Davies wrote:

It’s an honour to be considered but it’s not justified. I organised a fringe meeting to give sex workers a voice at last year’s party conference, and more recently I put out a press release defending sex workers from prohibitionist government policies. But it’s not enough

Whether Chris has been …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged , , , and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo Special: Lib Dem Birmingham spring conference

By Stephen Tall | Sun 14th March 2010 - 1:58 pm

Welcome to the latest instalment of LDVideo, where we highlight some of the best, most interesting political videos avalable on the internet. Today we focus on the Lib Dem spring conference in Birmingham, which has concluded today …


Nick Clegg states, “I am not the kingmaker”:


Vince sets out how the Lib Dems will cut public spending – but not this year:

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Posted in Conference and YouTube | Tagged | 5 Comments
The Voice

Nick Clegg’s #ldconf speech: read it in full here

By The Voice | Sun 14th March 2010 - 12:20 pm

A hoarse-sounding Nick has just started adressing the Lib Dems’ spring conference in Birimingham. Here’s what he’s saying …

Shall I tell you the one phrase that bothers me more than any other? It’s this. “That’s just the way things are”.

No.

The way things are is not the way they have to be. We do not have to live in a country where the poorest pay the biggest chunk of their income in tax. We do not have to live in a country where politics is the plaything of wealthy donors and corrupt MPs. We do not have to live in a

…

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Posted in Conference and News | Tagged | 17 Comments
Alex Foster

Lib Dems and the #debill

By Alex Foster | Sun 14th March 2010 - 11:58 am

I don’t want to be excessively partisan, but for the second time this weekend at conference, I’m getting a really good feeling about the Liberal Democrats.

The first was when we heard that a senior, experienced MEP thought our party was the best way forward.

But the second has been our response to the Digital Economy Bill and a huge online campaign from internet activists within the party and of no party.

Yes, it’s true that our team in the Lords invited the anger of the online activist fraternity. A lot of resentment has been brewing about the Digital Economy Bill as a …

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NewsHound

The Indy on Nick: ‘Clegg the Credible’

By NewsHound | Sun 14th March 2010 - 11:30 am

That’s the headline in today’s leader column in the Independent on Sunday. Here are 4 things especially worth picking out …

1. On Nick’s task as Lib Dem leader:

Nick Clegg has done a good job of preparing the Liberal Democrats for an election that suddenly looks likely to be the closest since 1992, and possibly since 1974. His task has not been an easy one. … Mr Clegg has to fight to be heard in this restricted space, while leading a party that, perhaps even more than Labour, harbours a deep suspicion of its leaders. And yet, somehow, Mr Clegg

…

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Alex Foster

+++ PODCAST: Lib Dem #debill debate

By Alex Foster | Sun 14th March 2010 - 10:47 am

I always seem to start my podcasts with an apology. In the hurry to bring this recording to you so you can share in the debate the Lib Dems had this morning, I have not yet processed my sound file. It could do with a bit of amplification for sure. And I’m afraid I missed the vital first few moments of Bridget Fox’s speech. And after that, the speeches will be punctuated by the sounds of the hall slowly filling up as the debate progressed, and the frustration of many of the delegates that what looked like …

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Posted in Conference and Podcasts | Tagged and | 2 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Anna Arrowsmith – Why I’ve gone from porn to politics

By NewsHound | Sun 14th March 2010 - 10:45 am

You want proof that the media is male-dominated? Look no further for your proof than the ludicrous level of attention given to the news that Anna Arrowsmith (or to give her her industry name, Anna Span, the UK’s first female porn director) is standing for the Liberal Democrats in Gravesend at the next general election. Anna has an article on today’s Guardian Comment is Free website explaining her decision to stand for Parliament – here’s an excerpt:

Since news of my selection broke on Thursday, many people have asked me why I want to be an MP. The answer is: for

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged | 9 Comments
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