Liberal Democrat Voice

The LDV Friday Five (ish): 9 October 2009

By Helen Duffett | Fri 9th October 2009 - 5:00 pm

It’s Friday. It’s five o’clock. And when I tried to high-five Stephen Tall by way of celebration, he thought I was putting up my hand and asking to write the Friday Five. Ah, why not –

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

1. YouGov marginals poll: what it means for the Lib Dems (35) by Stephen Tall
2. Iain Dale for Home Secretary? (10) by Richard Huzzey
3. Would slavery have been abolished under Farage? (32) by Iain Roberts
4. Because homophobia is gay when it’s against Tories, too (21) by Stephen Tall
5. Opinion: A frightening party of selfishness …

Posted in Friday Five | Leave a comment

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By-election results: 8 October 2009

By John Bridges | Fri 9th October 2009 - 4:56 pm

One up, one down

There were five principal council by-elections held on 8th October. The Tories held three seats. The Lib Dems took one seat off Independents but lost one to an Independent Liberal. There was one Parish and Town council election reported to ALDC which was won by the Tories.

According to the agent in the Penrith West Ward by-election for Eden District Council in Cumbria we ran a “classic ALDC campaign”, “by the book”. I could write a whole column – in fact a book – about that but what was clear was that it …

Posted in Council by-elections | 4 Comments

The weird farce of Royal Mail parcel deliveries

By Mark Pack | Fri 9th October 2009 - 1:55 pm

Now, when I say parcel deliveries, you might think that this story involves parcels or indeed deliveries. If only.

I was already familiar with the problem in many areas of people getting “Sorry you were out” cards through the letterbox, saying the Royal Mail had tried to deliver a parcel, even though they were firmly sat at home at the time.

I’d always thought this was a case of rushed staff wanting to cut corners near the end of their rounds by sticking a few cards through letterboxes without knocking on the door.

The truth though is far stranger. For in many cases …

Posted in News | Tagged lynne featherstone and royal mail | 11 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 9 October 2009

By Helen Duffett | Fri 9th October 2009 - 12:07 pm

2 Big Stories

Widely questioned as being rather premature, and merited more by vision than achievements so far, President Obama’s award is making the headlines this morning:
Barack Obama wins 2009 Nobel peace prize (Telegraph)

Less than a year after taking office, Mr Obama won the prestigious award after calling for worldwide disarmament.

He had also worked to restart the stalled Middle East peace process since taking office in January.

In an announcement in Oslo, he was honoured “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Thorbjoern Jagland said.

“Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as (Mr) Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future,” the committee said.

“His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.”

The committee said it attached special importance to Mr Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

Royal Mail strike – Christmas come early?
And not in a good way…

Posted in Daily View | Tagged barack obama, george osborne, jonathan calder, nich starling, nobel peace prize and royal mail | 4 Comments

Tom Watson writes … on the Royal Mail and postcodes

By Tom Watson | Fri 9th October 2009 - 9:10 am

It’s not often that The Voice invites MPs from other parties to do a guest post, but in this case we’ve asked Tom Watson as the postcode issue is one he took a close interest in as a minister and it is an issue that cuts across parties.

The recent decision by Royal Mail to close down the Ernestmarples.com web site shows us how our public institutions are woefully unprepared to seize the new opportunities created by the internet.

Ermenmarples.com is a web site that enables other sites to provide postcode driven, citizen focused web services on a not-for-profit basis. Sites like …

Posted in The Independent View | Tagged featured, henry metcalfe, postcodes and royal mail | 16 Comments

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Royal Mail, postcode data and what you can do

By Dominic Hargreaves | Thu 8th October 2009 - 11:00 pm

With the recent takedown of the postcode geocoding API provided by Ernest Marples Ltd, there has been discussion of other ways to get hold of postcode data without paying prohibitive licence fees to Royal Mail. One solution is to collect the data from scratch, without using existing sources that are derived from the Royal Mail licensed database. This has at least some chance of avoiding the infringement of Royal Mail’s intellectual property rights.

There are several such projects already in existence. The oldest is Free The Postcode which invites visitors to collect the location of a postcode by visiting a location and recording the latitude and longitude of its …

Posted in The Independent View | Tagged ernest marples, postcodes and royal mail | 1 Comment

David Cameron’s speech: Danny Alexander responds

By Mark Pack | Thu 8th October 2009 - 10:35 pm

Here’s what Danny has to say (and interesting to note that he’s being deployed as the Lib Dem person to attack the other parties, not Nick Clegg or Vince Cable):

This speech demonstrates the huge gulf between the sunny rhetoric of David Cameron and the grim reality of Tory policy.

The Tories claim to be honest on spending, but their proposals barely scratch the surface.

They claim they can fix the country’s finances, but their plans are economically illiterate. Cutting spending now would plunge us back into recession.

They claim to care about the poorest, but will only slash taxes for millionaires.

They expect to have the keys to Downing Street handed to them, but at a time of crisis they have the wrong solutions and the wrong priorities.

Posted in News | Tagged Danny Alexander and david cameron | 9 Comments

Help people searching for advice on cervical cancer jab

By Alex Foster | Thu 8th October 2009 - 4:05 pm

Last week, when I was writing Daily View hours later than I should, I linked to Mark Pack’s piece linking to Malcolm Cole’s piece about Google search results about the cervical cancer jab. Caron Lindsay has also written about this.

Last week, Malcolm Cole was warning that those worried about the cancer jab being given to teenage girls were getting misleading and inaccurate advice if they ran an internet search for more information.

Scary stories have legs, and it’s still the case, a week later, that if you search for information on this story, the leading results are …

Posted in Online politics | Tagged NHS | 2 Comments

Strange voices of support for Lib Dem tax policy

By Alex Foster | Thu 8th October 2009 - 2:35 pm

A tip off from a reader asks us to highlight a growing number of people who support our policy on raising the basic personal income tax allowance to £10,000, taking the lowest paid out of income tax altogether.

I understand crossbencher Lord Digby Jones supported this on Question Time, since it helps those on low incomes, and also helps get people back to work. One of the biggest disbenefits of moving from benefits to low paid work is the high rate of marginal tax you pay. You don’t just lose the income, and all the benefits in kind such as free …

Posted in News | 5 Comments

How you can help Liberal Democrat Voice

By The Voice | Thu 8th October 2009 - 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 great, 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 …

Posted in Site news | Leave a comment

Jo Swinson calls Tories’ bluff on engaging the public online

By Alex Foster | Thu 8th October 2009 - 12:45 pm

Jo Swinson MP has called for less talk and more action from the Conservative Party on proposals for public involvement in making laws.

Speaking at the Conservative Conference this week, William Hague announced his plans for a ‘Public Reading Stage’ for proposed legislation. The idea is that this would enable the public to become involved in the process of making laws by using an online system to make comments and spot potential problems. And it’s all a part of the Tory “Google Government” idea that I’ve covered for the Voice in a review of Cameron’s speech to the LGA …

Posted in Online politics | Tagged Jo Swinson | 1 Comment

Opinion: Why Lib Dems should hot-foot it to Sefton Central

By Richard Clein | Thu 8th October 2009 - 9:55 am

Don’t be put off by the train station sounding Sefton Central – the news that Claire Curtis-Thomas, once dubbed the UK’s most expensive MP, is standing down should signal a re-evaluation of the Liberal Democrats chances in this new seat.

No-one is surprised by Ms Curtis-Thomas’s decision as she has gone from being the country’s most expensive MP to one of the most inactive. I have been the prospective Parliamentary candidate for two years, and in that time there has only ever been reactive responses from the Labour camp. In terms of literature, the only thing that has hit …

Posted in Selection news | Tagged claire curtis-thomas, crosby, richard clein and sefton central | 12 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 8 October 2009

By Alex Foster | Thu 8th October 2009 - 8:12 am

Welcome to Daily View on this, Independence Day in Croatia, the anniversary of the death of German Bundeskanzler Willy Brandt, and the birthday of DJ Q Ball from the Bloodhound Gang. So, while he’s doing it like they do on the Discovery Channel, let’s get on with our selections.

Two big news stories

Ex-army chief General Sir Richard Dannatt to advise Tories on defence (Guardian)

David Cameron will announce that ex-army chief General Sir Richard Dannatt is to become an adviser to the party on defence.

The announcement was almost immediately undermined by an embarrassing frontbench gaffe when Chris Grayling, the

…

Posted in Daily View | 2 Comments

Postcode campaign gears up to save popular web services

By Mark Pack | Wed 7th October 2009 - 7:56 pm

A range of popular websites, providing useful services such as information on local job vacancies and planning applications, have been closed down following the Royal Mail’s decision to crack down on the use they made of its postcode address database.

As Alex blogged previously:

With postcodes so increasingly important to national life, it’s ridiculous that they are not public data that is, as a minimum, free to use for non-profit organisations.

Posted in LDV campaigns | Tagged charles arthur, featured, planningalerts.com, postcodes, richard pope and royal mail | 6 Comments

Huhne urges Labour – “Restore hero cops’ pensions”

By The Voice | Wed 7th October 2009 - 7:45 pm

Thousands of police officers forced to retire after being injured in the line of duty face having their injury pensions cut back to minimum levels, research by the Lib Dems’ home office team has found.

Previously, officers were allocated an additional sum each year to compensate them for the injuries they received, even when they reached retirement age. However, since Home Office guidance was issued in 2004, many forces have reassessed officers when they have reached retirement age and reduced their injury awards to the lowest possible level. The Labour Government’s recent response to a consultation on this subject …

Posted in News | Tagged armed forces, chris huhne, military covenant and policing | 6 Comments

LDV post-conference members’ survey (2): ‘savage’ cuts, tuition fees, ‘mansion tax’ and the leadership

By Stephen Tall | Wed 7th October 2009 - 6:35 pm

Over the weekend, Lib Dem Voice invited the members of our private 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. You can catch up on the results of all our exclusive LDV members’ surveys by clicking here.

First up, LDV asked: In a media interview before the party conference, Nick Clegg spoke of the need for the Lib Dems to be “quite bold, or even savage, on current spending”. Do you agree with Nick’s assessment?

Here’s what you told us:

Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged bournemouth 2009 conference, higher education, mansion tax, nick clegg, spending cuts, tuition fees, universities and vince cable | 2 Comments

Opinion: Take care with the economic medicine you prescribe

By Ed Randall | Wed 7th October 2009 - 3:25 pm

If cuts in public spending are savage and premature, then the consequences for our economic health could be even worse than the harm done to public services.

I’m sure you have all heard talk of: green shoots, economic recovery, lights at the end of various tunnels, and a return to growth. It is claptrap designed to support a return to business as usual – what might also be labelled the old order – and we’ve all been hearing it for months now.

Liberal Democrats should not be taken in. While we may be in the first phase of an epic electoral battle, and it may be politic to join the cutters and slashers in order to demonstrate just how serious we are about getting the country’s finances in order, Liberal Democrats know that it is simply mad to stand by while private and public finance are confused. While private austerity isn’t any more likely to be a guarantee of general prosperity than public parsimony is to be a warranty of private affluence, governments can pursue common goals in ways that are not open to us as individuals.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged economy, featured and recession | 24 Comments

Yes, council websites can

By Mark Pack | Wed 7th October 2009 - 1:20 pm

The October edition of Total Politics has a piece from me on how local authorities can learn from the Obama campaign’s mastery of the internet to build communities of active and engaged residents. You can read it over on my blog.

The basic theme – too many councils are trapped in the idea that a good online presence equals a 1990s style website which you then just expect people to come to – is one I also talked about in one of The Voice’s fringe meetings at Bournemouth Conference. The podcast of that, along the contributions of Jo Swinson MP …

Posted in Local government and Online politics | 2 Comments

Have you done the reader survey yet?

By Mark Pack | Wed 7th October 2009 - 10:20 am

As I covered previously, Liberal Democrat Voice is helping two academics do a survey of the readers of political blogs. If you’ve not yet done the survey, it would be great if you could spare a few minutes to complete it. Thank you!

Posted in Site news | Leave a comment

Daily View 2×2: 7 October 2009

By Iain Roberts | Wed 7th October 2009 - 8:42 am

Two big stories

Cuts are in the air this conference season, but none of the parties are calling for these ones. The BBC reports that British Airways is cutting 1,700 jobs and introducing a two-year pay freeze for cabin crew. Evidently asking employees to work for free, as the airline did a few months ago, didn’t do the trick.

Meanwhile, the Daily Express reports that little seems safe from the Conservatives attempts to out-cut Labour and the Lib Dems. Ministers’ pay to be cut. MPs’ jobs to go. All but the lowest paid civil servants to have their pay frozen. …

Posted in Daily View | Tagged conservative party, latvia and stephen fry | Leave a comment

Osborne’s pensions plan would leave women in the lurch – Webb

By Richard Huzzey | Wed 7th October 2009 - 1:46 am

Lib Dem Work and Pensions spokesman Steve Webb was quick to share his thoughts about George Osbourne’s plan to raise the retirement age with Lib Dem Voice readers yesterday.

Today he has issued a stinging rebuke of the implications of the Tory scheme for women:

Women have been a total afterthought to this announcement. It is simply impossible for the Tories to save £13bn a year by raising the state pension age for men alone.

George Osborne’s plans would require the pension age for women to increase each year until 2016. The Tories must come clean or risk leaving every

…

Posted in News | Tagged george osborne, pensions and steve webb | 7 Comments

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #137

By Stephen Tall | Tue 6th October 2009 - 8:30 pm

Welcome to the 137th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (27th September – 3rd October 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, partly 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:

Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment

Should Banksy graffiti be removed? Sutton lets the public decide

By Mark Pack | Tue 6th October 2009 - 7:55 pm

A brief update to my blog post last month about how Hackney Council had removed one of Banksy’s most famous pieces of art / graffiti (delete as you wish). Liberal Democrat run Sutton Council is taking a much more interesting and enlightened approach to a Banksy in its patch:

The fate of a mural by graffiti artist Banksy hangs in the balance as the public have been asked to decide whether it should be preserved.

The vote in London borough Sutton has seen initial support for the artist…

Despite usually operating a zero-tolerance stance on graffiti, the council has made an

…

Posted in News | Tagged banksy, colin hall and sutton council | 4 Comments

Vince – Osborne’s policies are “Lib Dem Lite”

By Stephen Tall | Tue 6th October 2009 - 7:10 pm

Today saw the Tory shadow chancellor George Osborne deliver his conference speech to the party faithful in Manchester, including setting out a number of spending cuts:

>> Public sector pay freeze in 2011 – except frontline military or people on less than £18,000
>> Keep 50p top tax rate for now
>> End Child Trust Funds for all but the poorest families
>> No tax credits for families earning over £50,000.

His Lib Dem opposite number Vince Cable is distinctly underwhelmed:

Posted in News | Tagged economy, george osborne and vince cable | 8 Comments

Iain Dale for Home Secretary?

By Richard Huzzey | Tue 6th October 2009 - 6:57 pm

If we have to have a Cameron government, then I would much prefer an Iain Dale or a Dominic Grieve as Home Secretary than Chris Grayling. (All are, naturally, a disappointment compared to Home Secretary Huhne under PM Clegg!)

Yet I fear Iain’s chances of getting the job are only slightly worse than Dominic Grieve’s (as the Murdoch press is rumoured to have insisted Grieve was moved from his shadow Home Office role).

Writing about his visit to the Arts Alliance Music in Prisons fringe at the Tory conference, Dale notes that politicians are tough on crime when …

Posted in News | Tagged chris grayling, dominic grieve and iain dale | 10 Comments

LDV post-conference members’ survey (1): Nick Clegg approval ratings

By Stephen Tall | Tue 6th October 2009 - 4:45 pm

Over the weekend, Lib Dem Voice invited the members of our private 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. You can catch up on the results of our exclusive LDV members’ surveys by clicking here.

First up, LDV asked: What is your view of Nick Clegg’s performance as Lib Dem leader?

Here’s what you told us (with September’s pre-conference figures in brackets):

Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged bournemouth 2009 conference, chris huhne, nick clegg and vince cable | 2 Comments

Foster on online pay-per-view for England World Cup match: football’s “making a fast buck” at fans’ expense

By Stephen Tall | Tue 6th October 2009 - 3:30 pm

Well, the good news for Lib Dems is that it should be safe to go knocking on doors on Saturday afternoon knowing you’re not going to interrupt an England World Cup qualifier on the telly. The bad news – if you’re a football supporter without home access to the Internet – is that you can’t watch England take on Ukraine.

The BBC explains:

England’s World Cup qualifier in Ukraine on Saturday will be shown exclusively live to subscribers on the internet who will pay at least £4.99. All previously broadcast England matches have been available on TV.

Posted in News | Tagged don foster, football and television | 11 Comments

Haggis, Neeps and Liberalism #9

By Bernard Salmon | Tue 6th October 2009 - 1:45 pm

Who does Alex Salmond think he is?

With all three main party leaders having now agreed to participate in televised debates in the run-up to the next general election, Scotland’s Opportunist-in-Chief is threatening to throw his toys out of the pram
unless he’s included in any debate shown north of the border.

But Salmond is indulging in pure gesture politics once again. As my colleague Stephen Glenn has pointed out before, Salmond has no right to expect to take part in a leaders’ debate when he won’t even be a candidate at the next Westminster election.

He leads the fifth biggest party at Westminster (behind the Democratic Unionists) and will be fielding candidates in less than 10 per cent of constituencies UK-wide.

Posted in Op-eds and Scotland | Tagged alex salmond, haggis neeps liberalism, iain gray, jack mcconnell, jim murphy, leaders tv debate and tavish scott | 8 Comments

Bad systems, not tired people get election counts wrong

By Mark Pack | Tue 6th October 2009 - 12:00 pm

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire:

Both the recent controversies over whether or not general election counts should take place on the Thursday night and whether or not the 2012 London Mayor and Assembly elections should use e-counting touch, in part, on the question of the accuracy of manual counts.

This is an area where systematic evidence is very thin on the ground.

Posted in Election law and Op-eds | Tagged electoral commission and featured | 16 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 5 October 2009

By Richard Huzzey | Tue 6th October 2009 - 1:01 am

2 Big Stories

Chancellor-on-way-out promises freeze in public managers’ pay:

The freeze in effect represents a pay cut. And by targeting the richest public-sector figures, it will be seen as a sign that the broadest shoulders must carry the heaviest burden.

Chancellor-in-waiting proposes raising retirement age:

Shadow chancellor George Osborne would raise the state pension age from 65 to 66 from 2016 if the Tories win the next election to help tackle the UK’s debts.

2 Must-read Posts

Cllr Daisy Benson gave her readers a story about the human stories behind the unemployment statistics:

This morning, on my way to work I bumped

…

Posted in Daily View | 8 Comments

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