Ed Randall

Opinion: The Avoidance of Embarrassment Principle

By Ed Randall | Thu 11th February 2010 - 8:50 pm

There is one principle that Labour politicians seem willing to test to destruction in the English courts. It is the avoidance of embarrassment principle. The Foreign Secretary has not only tried to apply that principle in court, in full public view – where he has looked increasingly ridiculous in the Binyam Mohamed case – but his legal representative has also tried to pursue the principle in private, in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to conceal his master’s shame and the
Government’s hypocrisy.

Even though the Government appeal in the Binyam Mohamed case was dismissed the Foreign Secretary told the House of Commons that …

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The Voice

Wide backing for radical reform of Parliamentary scrutiny function

By The Voice | Thu 11th February 2010 - 2:20 pm

So reports a news release from Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris:

An amendment to the Government’s resolutions on reform of parliament following the report of the Wright Committee due to be debated on the 22nd of February, which calls for the establishment of a House Business Committee has attracted widespread support, including that of Sir George Young, its backers announced today.

The Select Committee on Reform of Parliament (the Wright Committee) was set up in July 2009 as a response to the expenses scandal to bring forward recommendations on how Parliament could be reformed to carry out its functions better. The Government …

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

How is social media influencing foreign policy?

By Mark Pack | Thu 11th February 2010 - 12:50 pm

That’s one of the questions posed to internet pundit and author of What Would Google Do? Jeff Jarvis:

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Posted in Europe / International and Online politics | Tagged | Leave a comment
Stephen Tall

LDV party members’ survey: Nick Clegg approval rating at +66%

By Stephen Tall | Thu 11th February 2010 - 11:40 am

At the start of the week, Lib Dem Voice invited the members of our private discussion forum (open to all Lib Dem members) inviting them to take part in a survey, conducted via Liberty Research, asking a number of questions about the party and the current state of British politics. Many thanks to the 200 of you who completed it; we’re publishing the results on LDV over the next few days.

It’s four months since we last asked party members how they felt Nick Cleg was doing as Lib Dem leader – the last time was in …

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Stephen Tall

How can we sell the Single Transferable Vote to the public?

By Stephen Tall | Thu 11th February 2010 - 10:25 am

The last 24 hours’ focus on voting systems – surely every Lib Dem’s dream come true? – have highlighted just how hard it will be to gain acceptance for the party’s preferred proportional voting system, the single transferable vote.

It’s no surprise that almost all MPs from the two establishment parties, Labour and the Tories, are desperate to hold onto the electoral system that secures their cosy hold on power: just five Labour/Tory MPs voted to include STV in any referendum on voting reform.

But it will also be the case that a significant portion of the country will …

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Mark Pack

What Disraeli really meant when he said “England does not love coalitions”

By Mark Pack | Thu 11th February 2010 - 9:20 am

It’s a favourite quote amongst Conservatives who are opposed to electoral reform wheeled out to suggest that there’s something fundamentally alien to this country about coalition government “England does not love coalitions”.

But what did Disraeli really mean when he said it on 15 December 1852? The words were uttered during a debate on the Conservative budget, which was under attack for proposing a deficit. What’s more, the day before he had tried to get the group of Radical MPs to agree to back him and eventually join the Cabinet.

In other words, it was more a matter of “England does not …

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Posted in Parliament | Tagged and | 5 Comments
Alex Foster

Daily View 2×2: 11 February 2010

By Alex Foster | Thu 11th February 2010 - 8:11 am

Well, let’s see. First the earth cooled. And then the dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat, so they all died and they turned into oil. Then it was February 11th and time for Daily View, on this, Canadian actor Leslie Nielson’s birthday.

He shares the date with the Beast of Bolsover, Dennis Skinner, and Caribou Barbie, the Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Other notable occurrences today include the death of Sylvia Plath in 1963 and the début of Julia Child’s US TV show The French Chef in 1963. If you’ve never seen it before, go see Julia making omelettes.

2 Cheerful Stories

British Retail’s “irreversible downward spiral”

The Guardian has news that some British towns and cities have so many empty shops they may never recover:

Many of Britain’s towns and cities are suffering from such huge shop vacancy rates that they risk becoming ghost towns, wiping hundreds of millions of pounds off property values, a study revealed yesterday.

Cities such as Wolverhampton and Bradford, where nearly a quarter of shops lie empty, could be on an irreversible downward spiral as a result of the financial crisis. The research by the Local Data Company shows retail vacancy rates across Britain rose 2% in the past six months of last year to 12%, with some towns seeing as much as 24% of its shops lying empty.

“As much as 24%” ? What’s wrong with “Almost a quarter” ?

Oh, and NB, the photo in the story is my home city Nottingham. I’m not sure where it was taken, but it’s not really typical of the city.

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Iain Roberts

Policing expenses a snip at £10,000 per MP

By Iain Roberts | Thu 11th February 2010 - 7:28 am

Radio 4’s Today Programme has revealed the cost of the new parliamentary body to police MPs’ expenses: around £6.5 million a year, with 80 staff and a boss pulling in £100k.

Nice work if you can get it, but surely it raises serious questions about the new system.

The total amount current and former MPs are being asked to repay, covering claims over several years, is a touch over a million pounds.

That means the new cost of checking those expenses and ruling whether they’re legitimate is many times higher than the amount the public purse was previously losing where …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

More general election counts set to be held on Thursday following legal change

By Mark Pack | Wed 10th February 2010 - 11:08 pm

The Government has backed a move to amend election law to ensure that general election counts are started on the evening of polling day, exception in exceptional circumstances.

This exception will mean that counts for constituencies where there are severe logistical problems in getting ballot boxes in from polling stations, such as from Scottish islands, are likely to continue to commence on Fridays. However, for other constituencies counts will commence on Thursday evening.

The new clause in the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill will require the counting of votes at a UK Parliamentary general elections to commence within four hours of the …

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Posted in Election law and General Election | Tagged , and | 4 Comments
Jim Killock

The Independent View: Liberal Democrats should oppose the Digital Economy Bill

By Jim Killock | Wed 10th February 2010 - 8:12 pm

Last week we reported that, following the concessions forced on the government, Don Foster MP is broadly happy with the Digital Economy Bill’s proposals on illicit downloads. Jim Killock of the The Open Rights Group has a different take on the situation:

The Digital Economy Bill should be opposed by Liberal Democrats. Mandelson’s Bill seeks to reduce illicit downloads by punishing innocent people, removing any chance of a reasonable defence, and by disconnecting people.

Let’s start with this first idea, of disconnecting ‘infringers’.

Let’s say you pay BT, for broadband and somebody else downloads a number of copyright music tracks. You, your family, and …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged , and | 25 Comments
Stephen Tall

The 14 non-Lib Dem MPs who backed the Single Transferable Vote

By Stephen Tall | Wed 10th February 2010 - 6:43 pm

The House of Commons yesterday voted by 365 votes to 187 to hold a UK-wide referendum on changing the voting system next year from first-past-the-post to the alternative vote. The Lib Dems reluctantly voted for the alternative vote, as the most modest of improvements on the current, broken system.

But the party, in the person of Cambridge MP David Howarth, also moved an amendment to leave out ‘an alternative-vote’ and insert ‘a single transferable vote’ – in other words, to ask Parliament to approve an electoral system which would at last reflect the votes cast for parties across the country, …

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Posted in Parliament | Tagged , , , , and | 13 Comments
Seth Thevoz

Opinion: saving General Election night – a mistake?

By Seth Thevoz | Wed 10th February 2010 - 5:27 pm

Democracy has been saved “at the eleventh hour” – that’s right, the cross-party “Save general election night” campaign has successfully lobbied the government to stop councils from delaying counting votes until a day after the election.

It seems many Liberal Democrats are welcoming the right outcome for the wrong reason.

There are two main possible justifications for this:

(1) Counting the votes as soon as possible, to minimise the risk of someone tampering with ballot boxes.

(2) Feeding the frenzy of wanting instant results broadcast as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, the campaign has been geared towards the latter, and most Lib Dem MPs who’ve supported …

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Posted in General Election and Op-eds | 19 Comments
The Voice

How you can help Liberal Democrat Voice

By The Voice | Wed 10th February 2010 - 1:50 pm

The Voice is only a success because of the interest and support from our readers. For many people just lurking and reading the site is all they want to do – and that’s fine, we’re grateful for people taking the time to read the site.

You can though help us continue to produce interesting content for a growing audience. Here are three simple ways:

1. Let us have your tips for stories. Perhaps there’s something outrageous going on in your local council? Or you’re an expert in a particular area and have spotted a story other people have missed? Or you’ve seen …

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Chris White

We must defend the arts against right-wing cuts

By Chris White | Wed 10th February 2010 - 12:25 pm

Keynes was both a serious Liberal and a serious man. His work in two world wars and their aftermath is the stuff of legend. His contribution to economic thinking, recently somewhat vindicated, makes him a giant. Bertrand Russell found him intellectually formidable.

But he also built the Cambridge Arts Theatre and was the first Chairman of the Arts Council, created by the postwar Labour Government.

It would be too easy to say merely that a great man needs a hobby like anyone else. The Classical world and civilisation since have shunned the suggestion that somehow culture was an add-on, like sitting down …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 30 Comments
Stephen Gilbert MP

Opinion: A very modern problem – Cornwall Council, Sita UK and the incinerator

By Stephen Gilbert MP | Wed 10th February 2010 - 11:20 am

PFI has created a very modern problem – how should councils manage relationships with contractors when they stretch over decades and involve multi-million pound sums but also remain responsive to political change, advances in technology and moving priorities? It’s a problem that has come to the fore in Cornwall.

In 1998 consultants outlined a vision for Cornwall’s waste management that included incineration. In 2002 a waste plan was adopted by the council. In 2006 the council appointed a contractor, Sita, to run the contract in a £400 million 30-year deal. In 2008 Sita submitted a planning application to build an incinerator in …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

A political prediction which didn’t turn out too well

By Mark Pack | Wed 10th February 2010 - 10:20 am

“Whatever happens in the election this week it is not going to make all that much difference” – Peregrine Worsthone, just before the 1979 general election in which Margaret Thatcher defeated Jim Callaghan.

Hey ho.

Mind you, even in the first few months after the 1979 general election he was far from alone in the view that the choice in 1979 between Labour and Conservative was an incremental one rather than one of major choice.

In large part that is because – with one notable exception – the 1979 Conservative manifesto avoid radical specifics and the campaign itself saw both Sir Keith Joseph …

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

Good news for Katy Gordon as SNP councillor switches

By Mark Pack | Wed 10th February 2010 - 8:10 am

The switch of Councillor Alex Dingwall from the SNP to the Liberal Democrats is a great boost for Katy Gordon’s campaign in Glasgow North (Labour majority: 3,338).

Explaining his reasons for leaving the SNP after 31 years as a member, Cllr Dingwall said:

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 4 Comments
Iain Roberts

Daily View 2×2: Wednesday 10 February

By Iain Roberts | Wed 10th February 2010 - 7:41 am

Pick up a newspaper or turn on the radio and TV this morning and there’s only one story filling up the front pages and the airwaves…

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Posted in Daily View | Tagged , , , and | 4 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Brian Paddick – A bad day for race relations in the police

By NewsHound | Tue 9th February 2010 - 9:20 pm

Over in The Indpendent, former top police officer and 2008 Lib Dem candidate for Mayor of London Brian Paddick writes about the case of Commander Ali Dizaei, jailed yesterday for perverting the course of justice. Here’s an excerpt:

If ever there was a “Marmite” senior officer, it was Ali Dizaei. Many hated him, believing he had “got away with it” because “he was black”. But for the Black Police Association, he was their flag-bearer.

He was an undoubted champion for racial equality, but his approach was sometimes aggressive and confrontational when dealing with “the establishment”. Ali Dizaei’s MO was getting things done

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged , , and | 3 Comments
The Voice

Nick’s challenge to Labour/Tories: sign up to to restore public faith in politics

By The Voice | Tue 9th February 2010 - 8:15 pm

Nick Clegg’s metaphors are on fire. At the weekend we filletted some of the great quotes from his Telegraph interview – and yesterday he came up with another … Speaking of Gordon Brown and David Cameron’s joint refusal to sign up to real political reform, Nick commented:

Listening to the two of them anyone would think they were powerless backbenchers rather than the leaders of the two parties in Parliament which have proved to be the real roadblocks to reform. It’s like a couple of cowboy builders coming back to your house to tell you how bad their workmanship is.”

The …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , and | 2 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Chris Huhne – The alternative vote is not the solution

By NewsHound | Tue 9th February 2010 - 4:20 pm

Over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free site, Lib Dem shadow home secretary Chris Huhne argues Labour has got it wrong in proposing a referendum on the Alternative Vote: only the Single Transferable Vote will remedy the unfairness of the present system. Here’s an excerpt:

is very similar to first-past-the-post in two key respects. Because it is based on single constituencies – a virtue for its proponents, who say they prize the constituency link – the parties continue to select one candidate each, and the voters only have one choice for each party.

That means that in the majority of parliamentary

…

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Mark Pack

An intriguing list – so get voting

By Mark Pack | Tue 9th February 2010 - 2:50 pm

Cross-posted from the Power 2010 blog:

If all it took to sort out our political system was to produce a list of proposals we’d have the best political system, ever.

Over the last few years, there has been no shortage of wish lists, most of which have promptly disappeared never to be thought of again.

So I’ll readily admit to being a little sceptical of Power 2010 when it was launched intending to, yes, put together a list of proposals.

To its credit, though, Power 2010 has put together an imaginative approach: trawling widely for ideas, then getting a cross-section of the public …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 10 Comments
Mark Pack

Sir Roger Singleton writes…

By Mark Pack | Tue 9th February 2010 - 1:50 pm

Last month I recounted the Home Office’s repeated failures to reply to my letters, including one to Sir Roger Singleton of the Independent Safeguarding Authority which was passed on to them and was about the ISA’s procedures:

Paragraph 5.6.1 of “Guidance Notes for Barring Decision Marking Process”, which states in part:

“even where a jury has found someone not guilty of having done something, you must always remember that, at most, this means is that the court did not find that someone did something “beyond a reasonable doubt” (the criminal standard of proof).”

My concern is simply this. When a

…

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Mark Pack

Why politics should be about personalities

By Mark Pack | Tue 9th February 2010 - 12:20 pm

Tony Benn’s lament that politics should be about issues, not personalities, is one echoed even by many who would struggle to find any issues on which they agree with him.

But it’s not a view I share. Why? Because the detailed policies of election manifestos or conference speeches frequently get swept aside in power by events. It’s not just the unexpected new event, it’s also the fallibility of forecasts which mean that decision making is often made from a very different perspective from that used to draw up pre-election policy promises.

Take the economy. It’s hard enough to know whether it is …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 14 Comments
Stephen Tall

Tories’ policies recalled as economic model proves unroad-worthy

By Stephen Tall | Tue 9th February 2010 - 10:50 am

(With thanks to today’s Guardian).

The Tories were today forced to recall a consignment of hybrid policies following widespread complaints that their economic model failed when it encountered bumpy or slippery surfaces. The party is already facing criticism over the recent recall of many of its other policies, including marriage tax-breaks, which have been affected by the potentially dangerous acceleration towards an election.

The Tory leadership of David Cameron and George Osborne are due to give details of their latest recall today, and on most other days leading up to 6th May. “We’ve tried applying the brakes,” they admitted, “but the …

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Posted in Humour and Op-eds | Tagged | 5 Comments
Iain Roberts

Are the Tories resigned to pushing lobby fodder?

By Iain Roberts | Tue 9th February 2010 - 10:24 am

Look at a Lib Dem election campaign, whether it’s a sitting MP or target seat challenger, and you’ll invariably find a hard working local campaigner, a local champion, and leaflets full of local stories.

That’s not at all what you see in Conservative literature. Across many seats the Tories have all but given up promoting their local campaigning credentials, or selling their candidate as the best person to be the MP. True, you’ll always find a few token stories, but the vast majority of material hitting doormats promotes Cameron, and Cameron alone.

Most of their firepower pushes the message that …

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Posted in General Election, News and Op-eds | Tagged | 6 Comments
Sara Bedford

Daily View 2×2: 9 February 2010

By Sara Bedford | Tue 9th February 2010 - 9:53 am

Welcome to this morning’s Daily View.  I am sure I cannot be the only person to be cheered by waking to the news that the Conservatives believe that their no. 1 electoral weapon is George Osborne.

On this day 60 years ago, United States Senator Joe McCarthy launched his anti-communist crusade, with a speech accusing more than 200 staff in the State Department of being members of the Communist Party.  On 9thFebruary 1979, England and Birmingham City forward Trevor Francis signed for Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest for £1 million, the first UK footballer to move for a seven figure sum.

Today is also the third anniversary of the death of actor Ian Richardson CBE, best known for his portrayal of the Machiavellian Conservative politician Francis Urquhart in the wonderful House of Cards trilogy.

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Mark Pack

What happened to the 19 Conservative MPs who voted to keep MPs’ expenses secret?

By Mark Pack | Tue 9th February 2010 - 8:20 am

I’ve commented on the fate of the 21 Conservative MPs who voted against reform of Parliamentary expenses (in brief: nearly all of them have since had to pay back money or had an expenses scandal come to light).

That was one of two key votes where Parliament had had the chance to clean up its act before media stories and public outcry forced it to do so. The other was about whether or not MPs’ expenses should be susceptible to Freedom of Information requests. There was an attempt to change the law to keep them secret, via a Bill introduced …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , , , , , , and | 11 Comments
Mark Pack

A polite round of applause directed towards The Times

By Mark Pack | Mon 8th February 2010 - 11:18 pm

I wasn’t expecting that.

The Times has reported its latest opinion poll. It has reported the changes in party share of the vote.

And then Peter Riddell has said,

These shifts are within the margin of error

Why’s that impressive? Because nearly every opinion poll only shows changes within the margin of error (you’ve usually got to look over a wider pattern to see statistically significant changes), but that doesn’t stop newspapers writing up their stories as if the changes in support are significant and therefore ones we can be sure actually happened.

It’s as if the newspapers think, “Look, we know the poll doesn’t …

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Posted in Polls | Tagged , , and | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

Digital Economy Bill may breach human rights laws

By Mark Pack | Mon 8th February 2010 - 11:05 pm

The BBC reported over the weekend:

An influential group of MPs and peers has said the government’s approach to illegal file-sharing could breach the rights of internet users.

The Joint Select Committee on Human Rights said the government’s Digital Economy Bill needed clarification.

It said that technical measures – which include cutting off persistent pirates – were not “sufficiently specified”.

In addition, it said that it was concerned that the Bill could create “over-broad powers”.

You can read the full story here.

Posted in News | Tagged | 5 Comments
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