Helen Duffett

Parties select their “star performers” for General Election campaign

By Helen Duffett | Tue 9th March 2010 - 6:22 pm

From the FT:

The Liberal Democrats will centre their campaign on joint appearances by Nick Clegg, leader, and Vince Cable, Treasury spokesman, in an attempt to project a blend of youth and experience.

A clutch of former Lib Dem leaders will be deployed in the regions. Paddy Ashdown is taking a hands-on role directing the Lib Dem’s defence of the south-west heartlands. Sir Menzies Campbell and Charles Kennedy will be touring seats in Scotland and the north.

The article also lists Chris Huhne (“pugnacious, quick-footed”) and Lynne Featherstone (“sound media performer”) as ones to watch in the Liberal Democrat campaign.

Read the …

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Sarah Mulley

The Independent View: International development beyond aid – an opportunity to change the political debate

By Sarah Mulley | Tue 9th March 2010 - 4:15 pm

Sarah Mulley is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr).  Before joining ippr, she was coordinator of the UK Aid Network.

A major shift in political attitudes to international development has occurred in the UK during the last decade. There is now strong cross-party commitment to meeting the UN target to give 0.7% of GDP as aid, and DFID’s place in government as an independent department now seems secure.

But the cross-party commitment to aid, and to DFID, is not as clear cut as it might first seem.

First, the question of what counts as aid is crucial.  …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

Rejoice, rejoice, we have the answer to stock market problems: buy in some windbreaks

By Mark Pack | Tue 9th March 2010 - 2:20 pm

The following quote is a genuine quote from an academic journal. Oh yes.

Why have I thought necessary to mention that?

Well, it’s about the stock market.

And how windy the weather is.

And how stocks go up or down depending on how windy it is.

Not just the stocks of windbreak or heating/cooling firms.

All stocks.

Yes indeed:

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Posted in News | Tagged | 2 Comments
Helen Duffett

BNP announce Parliamentary Candidate for Buckingham

By Helen Duffett | Tue 9th March 2010 - 12:58 pm

The BNP has announced its Buckingham candidate for the 2010 General Election, adding another candidate to a slate which already includes UKIP, John Stevens (former Lib Dem member and before that, Conservative MEP,) Patrick Phillips (“conservatively minded” Independent candidate) and Geoff Howard (former Conservative and UKIP member).

With the three main parties refraining from standing against the Speaker, it will be interesting to see how the vote is split by the minor parties and independents, all of whom have or have had right-wing leanings.

The Liberal Democrats have chosen a spokesperson rather than a candidate.

From the Buckingham Advertiser:

The British National

…

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Posted in General Election and News | Tagged , , , , , , and | 9 Comments
Mike Guillaume

Opinion: Another Greek tragedy? Time for Europhiles to admit the dream is over

By Mike Guillaume | Tue 9th March 2010 - 11:50 am

In case you wouldn’t have noticed, another crisis has come on top of the big one.

For those who understand French, read carefully this article in the March 5 edition of French daily “Le Monde” . A former German finance vice-minister buries the euro as it is now and advises all Southern-Europe economies (including France) to get out of the Eurozone if they don’t clean up their act, behave more like Germany and adopt many unacceptable social measures. Some German backbenchers have suggested these might include selling off some islands (who would buy these? You guess).

That doesn’t yet …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Tagged , , , , , , , and | 56 Comments
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Giles Wilkes

Opinion: How to make QE into good Liberal Democrat policy

By Giles Wilkes | Tue 9th March 2010 - 10:20 am

In the last week, there has been a silly fuss about the risk posed by a hung parliament following the next general election. Nick Clegg has scotched the idea that the Liberal Democrats would undermine stability. In fact, his party has taken far more steps than the others to demonstrate credibility to the markets. Cherished policies have been sidelined in the interest of stablity.

The UK’s leading economics writer, Martin Wolf, agrees that there is nothing to fear from minority government, adding: “I cannot be the only person who believes that Vince Cable is far better qualified …

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Mark Pack

Election2010: excellent new elections blog

By Mark Pack | Tue 9th March 2010 - 9:40 am

I’ve certainly criticised academics a few times for not really getting political campaigning – and so spending time looking in the wrong place (such as in my post on internet campaigning) but one exception to that certainly is Phil Cowley of Nottingham University. So it’s not a great surprise that the new Election 2010 blog run by him and colleagues is looking very good, with a regular feed of relevant content – but also content that isn’t simply duplicating what is elsewhere.

You can take a look at Election2010.blogspot.com.

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Sara Bedford

Daily View 2×2: 9 March 2010

By Sara Bedford | Tue 9th March 2010 - 8:55 am

On this day in 1956, the British authorities ordered the deportation of the Greek Cypriot leader, Archbishop Makarios, in the hope of restoring law and order to the island.

Thirty seven years ago today, the people of Northern Ireland voted overwhelmingly to remain within the United Kingdom. In a referendum on the future of the province, 591,280 people (57%) of the electorate voted to retain links with the UK. A poll boycott by the nationalist population meant that only 6,463 voted in favour of a united Ireland.

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NewsHound

LibLink: why John Kampfner is backing the Lib Dems

By NewsHound | Tue 9th March 2010 - 7:53 am

John Kampfner, journalist and former New Statesman editor, has a Comment is Free piece on the Guardian website explaining why he’s backing the Lib Dems.

My decision to back the Liberal Democrats in 2010 is based on a more fundamental appraisal of Labour’s record, together with a positive assessment of the Lib Dems’ platform.

Their analysis of the failures of the deregulated market has been consistently, and painfully, accurate. Their tax reform plans, taking 4 million low-paid workers out of tax altogether, are the most redistributive of any party, alongside green taxes, a “mansion tax”

…

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

Well done, Evening Standard

By Mark Pack | Mon 8th March 2010 - 10:52 pm

A quick update to my post which pointed out how the media had comprehensively misreported findings about how many people are registered to vote, painting an unduly pessimistic picture. The Evening Standard at least has now corrected its report.

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The Voice

Vince lays down the gauntlet to Alex Salmond

By The Voice | Mon 8th March 2010 - 9:45 pm

Lib Dem shadow chancellor, Vince Cable tonight addressed Reform Scotland on the action that needs to be taken to reform banking and protect the economic recovery. LDV is publishing extracts from Vince’s speech, below, including his call to SNP leader and Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond to follow the Lib Dems’ lead and state clearly how the Scottish government will live within its budget in the years ahead:

Banking
We need to rethink our approach to banking. Successive Labour and Conservative Governments have left Britain vulnerable to an over-inflated financial services sector, where institutions became too big to fail.

On a UK level – where British banks are 4.5 times bigger in terms of their liabilities than the country’s economy – this is bad enough. But in Scotland, this has been still more pronounced. At the time they got into trouble, RBS’ and HBOS’ liabilities were 25 times the size of Scotland’s economy.

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NewsHound

LibLink: Chris Huhne answers Indy readers’ questions … on non-doms, leadership ambitions and best friends

By NewsHound | Mon 8th March 2010 - 8:50 pm

Lib Dem shadow home secretary Chris Huhne answers Independent readers’ question in today’s paper. Here are three which caught NewsHound’s eye:

Why are you sticking it to Lord Ashcroft when your own leadership campaign was part-funded by a “non-dom”?

All parties take contributions from non-dom taxpayers, but the Liberal Democrats do not put them into the House of Lords where they can make law for the rest of us who pay full taxes. Nor do our Lords break solemn and binding commitments to become permanently resident and pay full taxes. Nor do our Lords fail to tell our leaders that they have

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged | 8 Comments
Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #159

By Stephen Tall | Mon 8th March 2010 - 7:45 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 159th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (28th Feb – 6th Mar 2010), together with a hand-picked quintet, usually courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget, by the way, 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
The Voice

Lib Dems launch Campaign for Body Confidence

By The Voice | Mon 8th March 2010 - 7:15 pm

Congratulations to Lib Dem MPs Lynne Featherstone and Jo Swinson for helping to organise a panel debate this afternoon in Parliament – to coincide with International Women’s Day – on measures to tackle the harm caused by pressure to conform to unrealistic and unhealthy body image ideals. The event marked the launch of the Campaign for Body Confidence.

The panel featured Lynne (the party’s shadow equalities minister), Clothes Show presenter Caryn Franklin, psychotherapist Susie Orbach and Dr Helga Dittmar of the University of Sussex. Other attendees included Girlguides, Linda Papadopoulous and the world’s leading body image experts.

Here’s what Lynne had …

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Mark Pack

Election purdah period: what can and can’t be done?

By Mark Pack | Mon 8th March 2010 - 6:15 pm

The legal firm Wragge & Co have put together a useful guide:

‘Purdah’ is a political convention, which formally applies to government ministers and civil servants in central government during the period immediately before a general election.

During a period of purdah, ministers and civil servants will refrain from taking decisions or making policy announcements which are significant and may be politically contentious.

But what does that mean in practice? Go and read the guide to find out. Short version: the laws and rules aren’t that clear. If in doubt ask a lawyer. Surprising that from a law firm 🙂

Posted in News | 2 Comments
Ed Randall

Opinion: Who can trust Cameron?

By Ed Randall | Mon 8th March 2010 - 4:25 pm

In June 2006 Professor John Curtice, commenting on opinion polls and shifts in the UK political environment said: “It looks as though we may have entered a new political era”. Andrew Grice, The Independent on Sunday’s Political Editor, observed that the Independent’s ‘poll of polls’ showed “David Cameron’s rejuvenated Conservative Party a seven-point lead over Labour.”

The focus of their political analysis was the impact of a recently elected Conservative Party leader on UK party politics. Here was a leader who had set out to detoxify the Tory brand, and he and his party appeared to be making significant headway.

David Cameron had, according to Andrew Grice, called on …

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Mark Pack

Race Equality and the Liberal Democrats

By Mark Pack | Mon 8th March 2010 - 2:50 pm

That’s the title of a pamphlet from Liberal Democrat Equality Spokesperson Lynne Featherstone and published by the Runnymede Trust.

It starts:

Over half of Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Black African children in the UK are growing up in poverty. Infant mortality is more than twice as high among Pakistani and Caribbean groups than white British children. Almost every ethnic minority group earns less than white British workers in the same profession.

These are some of the problems that underline the need for a real, long-term solution to alleviate the vast inequalities faced by Britain’s minority ethnic groups.

The problems that face ethnic minority groups today are substantial, but what do the Liberal Democrats propose can be done to address them?

The answers include the name-blank employment policy pioneered by Lynne (to avoid subconscious bias at early stages in the recruitment process) and are laid out in the pamphlet, which you can read in full here:

Race Equality And The Liberal Democrats

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged and | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

How did newspapers do at reporting their own polls? (February update)

By Mark Pack | Mon 8th March 2010 - 12:50 pm

This year we’ve tracking each month how good newspapers are at reporting their own political opinion polls. Getting your own story right isn’t perhaps the highest of bars to set newspapers, but on past experience it’s one they often seem to miss. But what’s the actual evidence? Who does best? Who does worst?

In order to provide answers, each time a newspaper publishes a political opinion poll we’re giving the report a score out of 30 based on how accurate the report is and whether it meets the British Polling Council’s own rules for political polling. (For details of the scoring …

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Stephen Tall

Election appeal – can you make a donation to help these 5 Lib Dem candidates today?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 8th March 2010 - 10:50 am

The next general election, if it held as widely expected on 6th May, is less than two months away. In which case, there is less than eight weeks for the Lib Dems to work for every vote we can in order to put an end to Gordon Brown’s disastrous Labour Government, and make sure David Cameron cannot wreak havoc at the helm of the Tories.

No one can be sure what will happen, what the results might be. But one thing’s for certain. Labour and the Tories will have the advantage of being bank-rolled by the unions and big business and folk like Lord Ashcroft. There’s only one way to level the playing field, and that’s for all of us who want the Lib Dems to have the best chance possible to dip into our pockets and give what we can to the party.

That’s why Lib Dem Voice is running an election appeal to promote making a donation to the party. We have identified five Lib Dem candidates standing in five seats, all of them in real need of a helping hand. Any donation you can spare – £10, £100, £250, or any amount inbetween or higher – will make a difference.

To make a donation to the Lib Dem Voice election appeal fund to be shared equally between LDV’s five profiled candidates, please click here.

Here are the five we are asking you to help us get behind:

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 9 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Vince Cable – We pay millions to lock up the wrong people

By NewsHound | Mon 8th March 2010 - 9:55 am

Over at the Mail, Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable looks at four cases brought to his constituency advice surgey, and examines the very human stories behind each “to question the role played by prison in dealing with the individuals concerned.” Here’s the first story:

An elderly lady came to see me about her grandson. Let me call him Mr A. He is serving a sentence for GBH.

He had drug problems and had gone into a pub, got into an argument with a barman and in the fight that followed pulled out a knife, causing injury. As I told his grandmother,

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Nick and Vince: the party’s dual leadership for the election campaign

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

Visitors to the Lib Dem website – www.libdems.org.uk – will notice a new ‘splash’ page has recently been put up to greet them. Here’s what it looks like:

It’s worth highlighting for two reasons:

1. The emphasis on fairness and the party’s policy – unique among the three main parties – of cutting income tax for the majority of British people by raising the tax threshold to £10,000;

2. The emphasis on the dual leadership of Nick and Vince. It’s hard to imagine Labour producing a similar image of Gordon …

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Posted in News | 9 Comments
Stephen Tall

Nick Clegg accuses Tories of “crude form of blackmail”

By Stephen Tall | Mon 8th March 2010 - 7:15 am

As the prospect of a hung parliament looms larger, it’s crystal clear the Lib Dem leadership is determined to shoot down early Tory claims that the financial markets will react badly to no one party having an overall majority.

Last month, it was deputy leader Vince Cable – regarded by many voters as the best choice of Chancellor – who stressed that “Our own approach to fiscal policy is at least as robust as that of any other party.”

And now today, in a speech to party workers, Nick Clegg will accuse the Tories of ‘a crude form …

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Posted in News | 7 Comments
Stephen Tall

LibLink: Nick Clegg – Your choice: the old politics, or the new

By Stephen Tall | Sun 7th March 2010 - 8:48 pm

Over at the Independent today, Nick Clegg argues that the electorate is weary of two-party wrangling and tactical voting. The voters, he says, are ready for a third option, one which breaks new ground. I guess that would be us, then. Here’s an excerpt:

This election could be an election of renewal, when the old politics finally passes its sell-by date and a new era of pluralism and accountability is ushered in. The one advantage of a crisis – economic, political, social – is that it can open the door to a new way of doing things. It can make the

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Why vote Liberal Democrat? Book review

By Mark Pack | Sun 7th March 2010 - 7:00 pm

If you go to Amazon searching for “Why vote Liberal Democrat?”, edited by Danny Alexander and just published  by Biteback, you may be surprised to find yourself being presented instead with a book of the same title from 1997, written by William Wallace. The new book is misfiled by Amazon under the title “Why vote Lib Dem?” but actually the 1997 volume provides an interesting contrast with the 2010 version.

The 2010 book is one of a series, covering also Labour, Conservatives, SNP, Plaid and the Greens. All the others are single person authored books (with the exception of …

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Posted in Books, General Election and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and | 19 Comments
Mark Pack

Lucy Care and Lara Croft

By Mark Pack | Sun 7th March 2010 - 6:20 pm

Not a combination I’d expected to put in a headline, especially as wrestling with recalcitrant letter boxes, RISOs or activists isn’t quite in the Lara Croft style, but courtesy of the BBC we have:

A new £36.2m Derby road is to be named after computer game and movie character Lara Croft following a public vote.

The star of the Tomb Raider franchise was originally devised by a computer game developer based in the city.

More than 27,000 people took part in the vote to name the Osmaston Road to Burton Road stretch of the new route, with 89% opting for Lara Croft Way…

Councillor Lucy

…

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Stephen Tall

Pollwatch – State of the Leaders: Clegg +14%, Brown -24%, Cameron +9% (Feb. 2010)

By Stephen Tall | Sun 7th March 2010 - 4:25 pm

Yesterday, Pollwatch looked at the state of the parties in January; today it’s the turn of the party leaders.

As with all polls, what follows comes with caveats. Only two polling companies – YouGov and Angus RS – this past month asked questions specifically to find out the public’s views of the three main party leaders. And each asks variants on the basic question – do you think Clegg/Brown/Cameron are doing a good job – to come up with their figures, so comparison ain’t easy. But, still, we don’t indulge in polls often, so here goes …

Here, in chronological order, are the results of the three polls published in February asking for the public to rate the three major party leaders:

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Posted in Op-eds and Polls | 4 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Chris Huhne – Tough on crime? Jail’s not the answer

By NewsHound | Sun 7th March 2010 - 4:05 pm

Over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free website, Lib Dem shadow home secretary Chris Huhne argues tht locking up more people is a populist ploy that doesn’t cut crime. Instead, he says, we should focus on rigorous community sentences instead. Here’s an excerpt:

It should be a given that important matters of public policy are based on evidence and research, rather than political whim. Why, then, is the field of criminal justice uniquely and scandalously divorced from this obvious rule? … Both continue to try to frighten the public into the arms of their party. It is this politics of

…

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Stephen Tall

Top Lib Dem asks: was Ashcroft’s peerage given under false pretences?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 7th March 2010 - 3:35 pm

Today’s Telegraph reports that Lib Dem peer Lord (Matthew) Oakeshott has called for all documents relating to Tory donor Lord (Michael) Ashcroft’s peerage to be made public to establish whether the Queen conferred the honour under false pretences:

Lord Oakeshott, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, wrote to Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell, urging him to publish all relevant papers as a matter of urgency, to make clear whether the monarch had been misled. … William Hague, the former Conservative leader, said that he discovered only a few months ago that Lord Ashcroft had enjoyed ”non-dom” tax status for the last 10

…

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Sara Bedford

Conservative political adviser resigns over conspiracy conversation

By Sara Bedford | Sun 7th March 2010 - 2:50 pm

A Conservative political adviser at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead has been forced to resign, after a taped phone conversation was posted on the internet, alleging that he was conspiring to oust the council’s deputy leader Alison Knight.

André Walker, a former high-flying Conservative student, who has previously worked for London Councils, and Westminster and Hammersmith & Fulham councils, was recorded and photographed on a phone by another passenger on Tuesday night, travelling travelling back from Waterloo station.

The Slough & Langley Observer has the story:

A statement from the Royal Borough said: “Effective from this morning (Friday 5 March 2010) Mr André Walker has tendered his resignation from his position in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. This has been accepted and he is no longer employed by the council. The Royal Borough will not be making any further comment.”

Mr Walker said: “I went into work today (Friday) as usual. My position was untenable and I resigned. I was on the train on Tuesday night, I made some comments I shouldn’t have, I was incredibly unlucky to sit next to a left wing activist who decided to record me.

“I put the council in a difficult position, I have apologised for that. A conversation I had was overheard, I said the wrong thing, I have apologised. That apology has gone to various people in the group including Alison Knight. I resigned because that was the appropriate thing to do. I haven’t spoken to Alison Knight.

“I think I have been pretty reasonable. I owned up to a mistake I have made. It’s pretty hurtful for me to hear all these allegations.”

Listen to the conversation below or view a transcript on You Tube.


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The Independent View: Poverty can and must be made history

By John Madeley | Sun 7th March 2010 - 2:15 pm

Ten million people bought Make Poverty History campaign armbands in 2005. Some would hold that voters give development issues a low priority. But those armbands showed that a lot of voters care.

More and better aid, debt relief and trade justice were the demands of campaigners. Five years later, how is the government doing? Brilliantly if you fall for Labour’s spin. Mediocre if you analyse the facts.

An OECD report says that Britain is expected to devote 0.56% of national income to development aid this year. That hides a few things. The government arrives at this figure by including …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged , , and | 3 Comments
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