Tory frockgate unravels further

On Monday I reported that a scandal was unfolding concerning Samantha Cameron’s “£65 M&S dress” worn at Conservative party conference.

On one level, it really doesn’t matter what the spouses of party leaders wear, and, within reason, how much they pay for it, particularly since the Camerons are well remunerated for David’s parliamentary work, as well as being privately wealthy.

On another, when strenuous efforts are made for one thing to appear as something else entirely, that’s hypocrisy and it should be exposed. So when, as the Mirror reported last Sunday, strings are pulled to obtain an off-the-shelf dress that …

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LibLink … Chris Huhne: Griffin is trying to peddle hatred against Muslims

Over in the Independent, Lib Dem shadow home secretary Chris Huhne writes about his experiences on last night’s BBC Question Time as a fellow panellist alongside BNP leader Nick Griffin. Here’s an excerpt:

The key method of Griffin was on display: pretend to be moderate and reasonable in order to garner support which would be revolted if it knew his real agenda. He was confronted with quotes from YouTube, in which he told David Duke of the Ku Klux Klan that the BNP had to move softly because the British people were not yet ready for talk of racial purity, so

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Opinion: A Liberal Line on Immigration

For me one of the key tenets of liberalism is our commitment to human rights and fairness. This is why I think fighting the fight on immigration is so important.

On last night’s Question Time, a member of the audience asked whether the rise of the BNP had been down to Labour’s failure on immigration. I think there is an element of truth in that, but perhaps not the element of truth that our home affairs spokesman, Chris Huhne, thought.

Over the last ten years we have been subjected to Home Office and Immigration policy made to please the xenophobic, right wing agenda of papers such as the Daily Mail.

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What did you make of Chris Huhne’s Question Time performance? #bbcqt

So that was the Question Time that was. There is copious assessment of Nick Griffin’s performance, linked to here on LDV.

My views are straightforward. First, Nick Griffin came over badly, but that is immaterial: those who are BNP-inclined will likely have seen him as the victim of a liberal, metropolitan, media stitch-up; and those who despise the BNP will have had their view confirmed.

Secondly, my over-riding sense was of relief that the BNP don’t have a more slick, plausible leader. The moment is ripe for a truly charismatic, attractive, anti-politician to play the demagogue: Nick Griffin is decidedly not that person, thankfully.

Such are my thoughts on Mr Griffin – but what about Chris Huhne’s performance?

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BBC1 Question Time: your Lib Dem blogs reader

Here’s the click-through of posts published on the Lib Dem blogs in response to last night’s BBC1 Question Time, with Nick Griffin. If we’ve missed your post, or you write something later on, please post your link in the comments thread:

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Daily View 2×2: 23 October 2009

2 Big Stories

Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time

British National Party leader Nick Griffin has used his Question Time appearance to criticise Islam and defend a past head of the Ku Klux Klan.

He also told a largely hostile audience that Winston Churchill would be a BNP supporter if he were alive, and said he would find two men kissing “creepy”.

Anti-fascist protestors scuffled with police outside BBC TV Centre in west London before the show was filmed.

Minister Peter Hain said the BBC had legitimised the BNP’s “racist poison”.

But the corporation defended the invitation to the leader of the anti-immigration party to appear, saying it had a duty to be impartial.

One of the panellists, Justice Secretary Jack Straw, said it had been a “catastrophic week for the BNP because for the first time the views of the BNP have been properly scrutinised”.

And following the programme, other panellists said Mr Griffin had been exposed. BBC (with video)

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BBC Question Time – LDV open thread, 22 October 2009 #bbcqt

It’s Thursday, it’s 10.35 pm … it’s BBC1’s Question Time.

It is, of course, the most highly anticipated Question Time ever with a colossal media storm surrounding the invitation of BNP leader Nick Griffin. The evening news says that there are massive protests outside BBC TV Centre, with twitter reports that staff are almost under siege. Across the country, protests are happening at regional BBC offices.

For the Liberal Democrats, it’s leadership contender and Shadow Home Secretary Chris Huhne taking up cudgels for the yellow corner. Baroness Sayeeda Warsi will be in the blue corner, and Lord Chancellor Jack Straw …

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Simon Hughes on the Labour MPs “failing to match climate rhetoric with real action”

Lib Dem Voice yesterday covered the video Simon Hughes made to highlight the Lib Dems’ opposition day motion on climate change, and the 10:10 campaign’s call for a commitment to a 10% cut in the UK’s carbon emissions in 2010. The Lib Dems’ motion was straightforward:

That this House believes that it is vital that the UK demonstrates political leadership at all levels in response to the climate crisis, and that this is particularly important ahead of the United Nations Climate Change summit in Copenhagen if there is to be an international agreement which will avert the worst effects of catastrophic climate change; further believes that immediate practical responses to the crisis should include a massive expansion of renewable energy and energy efficiency and a commitment for all homes in Britain to be warm homes within 10 years; acknowledges that action taken now to tackle the climate crisis will cost less than action taken in the future; notes the declared support of Labour and Conservative frontbenchers to the objective of the 10:10 campaign which calls for 10 per cent. greenhouse gas emission reductions by the end of 2010; agrees that the House will sign up to the 10:10 campaign; calls on Her Majesty’s Government and all public sector bodies now to make it their policy to achieve a 10 per cent. reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by the end of 2010; and further calls on the Government to bring a delivery plan before this House by the end of 2009 on how these objectives will be achieved.

But Labour MPs said no, rejecting the motion – you can find a full list of MPs who opposed it below – but, first, here’s what Simon Hughes had to say:

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LDV readers say: Yes to Vince’s ‘Mansion Tax’

Was it only a month ago we were in the throes of the Lib Dem conference? How time flies. Cast your minds back four weeks, and the Lib Dems’ shadow chancellor, Vince Cable, made a few waves by announcing his wish to introduce a new tax, quickly dubbed the ‘Mansion Tax’, of 0.5% on the value of properties over £1m.

In fact, as LDV’s Alex Foster spotted at the time, Vince was re-treading a policy he’d been forced to abandon just 18 months previously. But, then, a lot has changed in the last 18 months, both economically, and in terms of Vince’s popularity. The surprise announcement caused Vince more than a few headaches, with shadow cabinet colleagues complaining of being kept in the dark.

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Nick Griffin’s verdict on Chris Huhne

Ahead of tonight’s BBC1 Question Time – featuring the BNP leader Nick Griffin – The Guardian reports his verdicts on his fellow panellists. Here’s what he said about Chris Huhne, the Lib Dems’ shadow home secretary:

Big hitter. Menzies Campbell would have been more daunting.

And here’s what he said about the other panellists:

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Open Rights Group call to action

This week, for the first time, public opinion was tested on the government’s proposals to disconnect people from the internet for copyright infringement.

Open Rights Group commissioned a YouGov poll, which came back with some remarkable findings.

The political implications are profound, if our poll is to be believed. While Labour have certainly got this wrong, we are yet to see any UK parliamentary party fully backing the public’s instincts shown in this poll. Perhaps the Liberal Democrats will be ready to pick up the challenge.

In our poll, 42% said that disconnection, should it be applied to them, would disrupt their …

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Mansion Tax: FT praises, Government doesn’t reject

From Left Foot Forward:

Martin Wolf, writing in yesterday’s FT, has praised the Liberal Democrats “mansion tax” policy:

“Taxation of property should be heavier, not lighter. But it should also be less regressive. That is why the mansion tax is the germ of an excellent idea.

“Taxes on property have other benefits: they automatically rise with prosperity; they are hard to evade; and they are automatically imposed on otherwise untaxed foreign owners. The latter benefit from the amenities of the UK without paying for them. A higher property tax is a simple – and inescapable – way of making them contribute to

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Daily View 2×2: 22 October 2009

Good morning readers. It’s the 22nd October and there are just 70 days left til the end of the year. Today is Derek Jacobi’s birthday, the 43rd anniversary of the first time an all-female group topped the charts in the States, and the 114th anniversary of a rather scary train-wreck at Paris’s Montparnasse station. Train wreck at Montparnasse, 1895

2 Big Stories

Postal strike poll puts blame on government as union announces action

The Guardian reports a Yougov poll in which voters put the blame for postal strikes squarely on Gordon’s shoulders.

Gordon Brown’s handling of the Royal Mail strikes comes under strong criticism from the public and Labour backbenchers today, with a new poll showing most voters believe the government should get directly involved in the dispute and force management and unions to go to the conciliation service Acas.

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Conservative Bedford woes

Fresh from losing the Mayor election in Bedford to Dave Hodgson comes this news of further Conservative problems, via the BBC:

The leader of the Conservative group on Bedford Borough Council has been suspended from the party for two years.

The Tory Party said the action against Nicky Attenborough was taken because of comments she made about the selection process for the Tory mayoral candidate.

She described the open meeting, where non-Conservative Party members had a vote, as a disgrace.

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NEW POLL: How should the Lib Dems increase their number of female MPs?

At the Speaker’s Conference yesterday, Nick Clegg delivered a frank assessment of the Lib Dem Parliamentary Party, calling it “woefully unrepresentative of modern Britain”. It’s not hard to see why. No ethnic minority MPs, and just nine female MPs among our 63 representatives. Woeful is the word.

The real question is: what to do about it? Nick has previously indicated – and repeated the point in his submission yesterday – that he would consider recommending all-women shortlists be adopted by the party after the next election if he’s unable to point to real progress in improving the Parliamentary party’s representativeness. …

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Vince: Equitable Life defeat a blow to policyholders who lost half their pensions

A few months ago, Lib Dem shadow chancellor Vince Cable tabled an Early Day Motion in the Commons to attempt to pressure the Government to treat fairly the Equitable Life policyholders who lost their pensions due to “serial maladministration” by the, erm, Government. Rather remarkably, the EDM attracted 331 signatures, a recent record, and over half the MPs in the Commons.

With such support, the Lib Dems decided to put the issue to the vote (the first time it’s been voted on by the Commons), giving over one of their oppositon debates to the subject. Surely Labour would either give in, and at last accept the independent Parliamentary ombudsman’s judgement that the Government was liable for compensation; or, if they didn’t, enough MPs would ensure they backed up their EDM signature with their Parliamentary vote?

Neither event happened. Labour squeaked through with a majority of 25, the whips’ job done. Equitable Life policyholders remain uncompensated for the incompetence of their Goverment.

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LibLink … Paddy Ashdown: Afghanistan’s future lies in strengthening its tribal structures, not in its corrupt government

Over at The Independent, former Lib Dem leader Lord (Paddy) Ashdown assesses the situation in Afghanistan in the light of President Karzai’s belated acceptance of the need for new, legitimate elections. Here’s an excerpt:

… no one should be in any doubt what the new vote will cost, not just in treasure but in blood. A new election may do something for President Karzai’s legitimacy, but it won’t alter the problem he poses if, as Mrs Clinton at least seems to expect, he is re-elected. What then?

Some say that Karzai II must be very different from Karzai I and the international

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Video: Simon Hughes on the Liberal Democrats’ 10:10 campaign motion

The 10:10 campaign is calling for a commitment to a 10% cut in the UK’s carbon emissions in 2010. It’s aimed at individuals, businesses, schools, politicians – in fact, everyone in the UK.

At 4pm today, Parliament will be debating the following motion, submitted by Simon Hughes MP, the Liberal Democrat Shadow Energy & Climate Change Secretary:

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Rennard’s expenses clearance: Party needs to learn some lessons in transparency

What’s the correct response to the news that Lord (Chris) Rennard has been cleared by the Clerk of the Parliaments of any wrong-doing over his allowances claims? I ask because I think there are some important issues at play here for how we, the Lib Dems, as a party can help restore trust in democracy.

First, we need to separate the personal from the political (and, incidentally, this applies just as much to Chris’s critics). Most of us who have met, or in some way know, Chris will be pleased for him on a personal level. The allegations that he’d somehow fiddled the system has dogged him since April, and brought about a more-hasty-than-planned exit to his time as the party’s chief executive.

Above all, though, Chris’s friends and the wider party will be relieved. The allegations against him have hung like a dark cloud over the Lib Dems’ pronouncements on expenses for several months now.

To be blunt, it’s been an embarrassment, and one which the party has handled poorly – precisely because we’ve failed to separate the personal from the political.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 29 Comments

Andrew Lewin selected for Lib Dems in Hertford and Stortford

Vince Cable and Andrew LewinCongratulations to Andrew Lewin who was selected on Tuesday night as the Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Hertford and Stortford.

Andrew will be challenging incumbent Conservative MP, Mark Prisk. Prisk has been the MP for Hertford and Stortford since 2001, but has recently been asked to repay £7,000 of Parliamentary expenses.

Andrew Lewin said,

I share the public’s anger over the expenses episode, it is essential that candidates tackle this issue openly and offer solutions that can rebuild trust in the system. If I

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Cabinet Office: correspondence chaos update

Back in September I blogged about how difficult it’s been to get a response from the Cabinet Office to a small complaint I had about possible misuse of letterheads by Gordon Brown:

Tally so far: two emails and one letter from me plus four letters from my MP spread out over nine months and what to show for it all? Just one

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Evan secures Parliamentary debate on Trafigura and libel laws

Lib Dem MP Evan Harris has secured a debate on libel law and the reporting of Parliamentary proceedings following Carter Ruck’s attempts last week to gag The Guardian from reporting details of a Parliamentary Question concerning Trafigura’s activities. (You can catch-up on LDV’s reporting of the issue here.)

The debate will take place today in Parliament’s Westminster Hall today, 21st October, from 2.30-4pm.

Explaining the purpose behind the debate, Evan says:

There is a lot of concern in Parliament and in the media over the impact of English law on freedom of expression, but the people who should be

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LibLink … Chris Huhne: Why I will debate with Nick Griffin

Over at the Guardian’s Comment is Free blog, Lib Dem shadow home secretary Chris Huhne – who will be appearing alonsgide BNP leader Nick Griffin on Thursday night’s BBC1 Question Time – argues that it is time for liberals to challenge the fascists head-on. Here’s an excerpt:

The BBC has judged that two MEPs in a nation-wide election entitles the BNP to a voice on Question Time, just as previously a similar threshold elevated Ukip and the Greens. The BBC’s duty of impartiality is too important to have broadcasting executives decide that some opinions are acceptable and others are not, providing

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Lib Dem Voice has a new co-editor

A parish notice on behalf of the LDV team …

I am delighted to announce that Mark Pack is joining me as Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice, effective immediately. Mark was a founding member of LDV, alongside Rob Fenwick, back in August 2006. His first post was entitled, Ming Campbell movie online. Ah, those were the days.

Over the past three years Mark has made a huge contribution to making this site the success it is, helping build LDV’s monthly readership to over 30,000 unique visitors, and ranked as one of the top 5 blogs in the UK.

I first asked Mark …

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Lib Dem website comes close second in policy search tests

News from Brand Republic:

Tamar, the natural search conversion agency, has today released the results of its first Political Search Index, which tracks how easy it is for voters to find official policy information from the mainstream political parties online.

The results show the Labour Party trailing badly behind the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Green Party and the Scottish National Party.

Tamar’s research looked at fifteen specific policy areas of interest to voters and examined how effectively the political parties have optimised content on their own websites for Google.

The overall scores were:

Conservatives 1.5
Liberal Democrats 1.9
Greens 3.1
SNP 6.8
Labour 25.9

You can read more here.

Posted in Online politics | Tagged and | 4 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 21 October 2009

2 Big Stories

Griffin invokes the Nazis

BNP leader Nick Griffin compares British Generals to Nazi war criminals – he really doesn’t like people criticising his party. As the BBC reports:

Comparing them to Nazi military chiefs who faced trial at Nuremberg Mr Griffin said they had pursued “illegal wars”.

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Nick Clegg – “Parliament houses a shooting gallery but not a creche”

Today witnessed the appearance of Nick Clegg (as well as Gordon Brown and David Cameron) in front of the Speaker’s Conference, chaired by the new Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow.

The issue this special committee has been asked to look at is: “Consider, and make recommendations for rectifying, the disparity between the representation of women, ethnic minorities and disabled people in the House of Commons and their representation in the UK population at large”.

You can watch Nick give his views and answer questions on the Parliament website here (his part begins about 48 …

Posted in Parliament | Tagged , , , and | 7 Comments

+++ Parliamentary authorities clear Lord Rennard of breaking expense rules

This just in from the Clerk of the Parliaments, the official who has been investigating a complaint against the Liberal Democrat peer and former Chief Executive Lord Rennard.

The ruling rejects allegations that Chris Rennard claimed overnight subsistence for days that he was not present and also rejects allegations that he made claims related to having a home outside London that he wasn’t entitled to make:

In these circumstances and after due consideration, I have decided not to uphold complaint: I have concluded that Lord Rennard’s claims for expenses were in accordance with the rules and guidance on Members’ expenses applicable

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Posted in Parliament | Tagged and | 28 Comments

Where are the the think tank bloggers?

Yesterday saw the annual Prospect Think Tank of the Year awards ceremony, an occasion the glittery red-carpetness of which those of us on the outside can only dare to dream. Congrats are due at the outset to the UK’s only liberal think tank, Centre Forum, for winning Pamphlet of the Year for Giles Wilkes’ report, A balancing act: fair solutions to a modern debt crisis, about which he wrote here on LDV.

Awards are usually a moment to take stock, which is what I’ve done today. Because one of the points that has struck me over …

Posted in Online politics and Op-eds | Tagged , , , and | 8 Comments

LibLink … Vince Cable: Flash a red light on reckless lending

Over at The Times, the Lib Dems’ shadow chancellor Vince Cable argues that the Financial Services Authority’s review on mortgages doesn’t go far enough to prevent a return to banks’ wild excesses. Here’s an excerpt:

Some of the more aggressive banks, seeking to expand their market share, are relaxing their offerings in terms of loan-to-value ratios. Any eagerness to return to former lending practices should be a source of concern. The housing market has not adjusted, at least yet, to realistic levels. Historical trends show a cyclical pattern of boom and bust, lasting roughly 15 to 20 years, going back to

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