Alex Foster

Royal Mail shut down useful community websites

By Alex Foster | Mon 5th October 2009 - 10:13 pm

Last month at conference, in two of our conference fringes, speakers highlighted useful online services set to revolutionise politics.

At our first fringe, “Campaigning after Rennard,” James Graham thought that TheStraightChoice (reviewed by LDV here), a website that allows members of the public to upload the leaflets they have received through their letterbox, had the potential to revolutionise politics. No more would politicos be able to put out close-to-the-knuckle material in relative obscurity. From now on, James argued, we’d all have to assume that at least one blogger would read our leaflet, and at least one journalist …

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Posted in News and Online politics | Tagged and | 14 Comments
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Stephen Tall

Twice as many Sun readers vote Lib Dem than Guardian readers

By Stephen Tall | Mon 5th October 2009 - 8:20 pm

The decision of The Sun to switch its political allegiance from Labour to the Tories generated a fair few headlines last week, and a vigorous discussion here on LDV. It prompted me to undertake a quick calculation to find out approximately how many Sun readers are Lib Dem voters. And thanks to today’s Media Guardian, which publishes the voting intentions of newspapers’ readers at each of the last four general elections, I’m returning to the fray to give you two tables.

The first, below, shows the voting intentions of readers of the main national dailies, sorted in descending order of likelihood to vote Lib Dem at the 2005 general election. No real surprises here: the Indy and Grauniad top the table, the Sun and Star (despite Lembit’s best efforts) prop it up.

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Posted in News | 7 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dems choose Dawn to take on Dave in Witney

By Stephen Tall | Mon 5th October 2009 - 6:15 pm

David Cameron’s local paper, the Witney Gazette, has the story:

THE Liberal Democrat candidate to take on Witney MP David Cameron in the next General Election has been announced. Dawn Barnes will stand for Witney against the Conservative leader in May or June next year. …

Miss Barnes, 32, said: “I was really happy, and a little surprised, to be confirmed as the Liberal Democrat candidate to stand against a man who is widely-tipped to be the next Prime Minister.

“However, it’s a real honour, and I’ll be working hard with the local party and friends and family in West Oxfordshire

…

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Posted in Selection news | Tagged , and | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

CommentIsLinked@LDV … An Evan Harris double-bill: embryon research and BNP teacher ban

By Stephen Tall | Mon 5th October 2009 - 5:40 pm

It’s not only Vince Cable who’s been all over the papers – the Lib Dems’ science spokesman Evan Harris also has his say today on two very different issues.

First up, in today’s Independent, animal-human hybrid embryo research which, says Evan equires three things to prosper: legal permission, good scientists and more funding. Here’s an excerpt from his article:

Those of us involved in campaigning for human-animal embryo research to be legal during the passage of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill always knew that this was a controversial area of research. But we also knew it was a

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged , , , , and | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

By Mark Pack | Mon 5th October 2009 - 3:20 pm

Some people like regularly visiting a site to see if there’s new stories of interest. Some people like subscribing to its news feed (RSS) and checking that way. But if you prefer email, you can instead sign up to get a daily early morning email with a summary of the previous day’s posts from Lib Dem Voice, complete with convenient links to click on if any take your fancy and you want to take a read.

Just go to our email sign up page to start getting these emails. You can also sign up for a special once-a-week email, bringing …

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Stephen Tall

CommentIsLinked@LDV … A Vince double-bill – ‘Osbornomics’ and single mothers

By Stephen Tall | Mon 5th October 2009 - 1:25 pm

Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable’s path has gone beyond mere sainthood – to his financial omniscience we can now add his media omnipresence. In today’s Independent, he delivers a withering attack on what he terms ‘Osbornomics’ in, erm, honour of the Tories’ shadow chancellor.

First, Vince tries to pin down Boy George’s guiding economic philosophy:

The last Conservative government was led by people who had a clear sense of ideological direction and conviction. Mrs Thatcher was clearly influenced, directly or indirectly, by the ideas of Hayek – rolling back “the serfdom of the state”. Sir Geoffrey Howe and rising stars like Nigel Lawson had developed a response to the inflationary 1970s through the monetarist ideas of Milton Friedman and the Chicago School. It is very difficult to see any clear or consistent thread this time round.

However, he acknowledges Mr Osborne has publicly lauded one philosopher, one Adam Smith:

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged , and | 1 Comment
Baroness Ros Scott

Ros Scott writes… Party President’s report to members, September ‘09

By Baroness Ros Scott | Mon 5th October 2009 - 12:30 pm

September is the transition month from the quiet of the summer recess to the hustle and bustle of Regional and State Party Conferences, although the past month was still pretty busy.

The month started with a weekend series of visits in the West Midlands, first up being an early evening members’ meeting in Stratford-upon-Avon on the Friday, hosted by local PPC and Chair of the Parliamentary Candidates Association, Martin Turner. The next morning, stopping only for coffee with Martin to discuss some issues related to candidate recruitment, selection and retention, I was off to West Worcestershire to meet the victor of the District by-election that week, before heading to Malvern for a dinner with members.

Richard Burt is our PPC there, and is optimistic about his chances of pulling off a victory against the Conservatives. Sunday saw us head to Hereford to meet Sarah Carr, who is fighting hard to retain Paul Keetch’s seat, although boundary changes have been less than kind.

The next week saw me in Bedford, where the unexpected death of the independent mayor has given us an opportunity to gain only our second directly elected Mayor. David Hodgson, a long-time stalwart of the Party

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Stephen Tall

Daily View 2×2: 5 October 2009

By Stephen Tall | Mon 5th October 2009 - 9:50 am

2 Big Stories


Tory conference opens, and it’s time to party like it’s 1994

A few thousand Tories are converging on Manchester today, with two issues dominating discussion: Europe and welfare cuts. Ah, and there we were thinking The Major Years were but a distant memory.

On a more positive note, the Tories will be singing today from the localism song-book, with Caroline Spelman championing the party’s conversion to local control of local services – an interesting about-turn for an MP who opposed Scottish and Welsh devolution, and believes central government should impose council tax freezes from Whitehall.

Ministerial …

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John Bridges

By-election results: 1 October 2009

By John Bridges | Mon 5th October 2009 - 7:00 am

Three more gains

There were eleven principal council by-elections held on 1st October. Labour held four seats, the Tories two and the Lib Dems one. The Lib Dems took one seat off the Tories and two off independents. Labour gained one seat off an Independent in Scotland. There were no Parish and Town council elections reported to ALDC.

The Independent last Friday quoted the Press Association:

The post-conference “Brown bounce” failed to show in the latest council by-elections, although the Tories were hit by a huge surge to the Liberal Democrats.

This may be true looking at their narrow analysis …

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Posted in Council by-elections | Tagged | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

Cameron tested by the choppy waters of welfare, Lisbon and Marr

By Stephen Tall | Sun 4th October 2009 - 3:45 pm

At the start of his party’s conference in Manchester, Tory leader David Cameron has announced plans “to get Britain working again” – but his comments have drawn a sharp response from the Lib Dems’ shadow work and pensions secretary Steve Webb:

This is yet more Tory posturing. Much of what David Cameron is proposing – such as reviewing people on incapacity benefit – is happening already.

“But the central assumption – that unemployment is simply about the workshy not applying for jobs – is ridiculous in the middle of a global recession. There are parts of the country now where there are already 100 people applying for every vacancy. So forcing more single parents and people with health problems to apply for the same jobs is far more about posturing than about tackling unemployment.”

Mr Cameron is having a tough 24 hours. First, he is having to defend his party’s precarious position on Europe, refusing to say what the party’s policy will be when the Lisbon treaty is ratified (other than he “will not let matters rest”, whatever that means).

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged , , and | 4 Comments

The Independent View: Time to better regulate the sunbed industry

By Sarah Woolnough | Sun 4th October 2009 - 1:35 pm

Cancer Research UK welcomes the emphasis placed on public health and disease prevention in ‘A Fresh Start For Britain‘ recently backed by the Liberal Democrat conference – through mention of the need to tackle obesity, alcohol abuse, and smoking. We know that around half of all cancers are potentially preventable, so we welcome this focus. However, we believe there is one important omission – the need to better regulate the sunbed industry.

Earlier this year, the International Agency for Research on Cancer re-classified UV radiation (and therefore sunbeds) – elevating it to it’s highest risk category for cancer, the same as tobacco. Easy access to unregulated sunbed salons, particularly by young people, continues to be a problem across the UK.

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Posted in The Independent View | Tagged and | 3 Comments
The Liberator Collective

New edition of Liberator

By The Liberator Collective | Sun 4th October 2009 - 12:00 pm

If you were in Bournemouth, you may have already picked up a copy of the latest edition of Liberator magazine (issue no.335 – September 2009). It’s a bumper 40-page conference edition, packed with comment from many leading Liberal Democrats.

Here’s a summary of the contents:

• The editorial column Commentary identifies the four key elements of ‘Cleggism’.
• The insider gossip column Radical Bulletin analyses the dispute in the Federal Policy Committee over ‘commitments’ and ‘aspirations’.
• Our lead article ‘Stop, search, listen’ is written by Duwayne Brooks (a Liberal Democrat councillor in Lewisham and author of Steve and Me: My Friendship with Stephen Lawrence and the Search for Justice). He favours stop and search powers, but asks why policing still targets black people.

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Posted in News | Tagged | 9 Comments
Geoffrey Payne

Opinion: Forget open primaries, and go for STV instead

By Geoffrey Payne | Sun 4th October 2009 - 10:45 am

During the debate on MPs’ expenses at the Lib Dem conference recently, one of the speakers, Michael Meadowcroft, suggested that instead of having open primaries as a way of restoring trust in the political process, why not use the Single Transferable Vote (STV) instead?

STV has been the preferred voting system of the Liberal party and Liberal Democrats for many decades, and was championed by the greatest liberal of all, John Stuart Mill, in the nineteenth century. This week Gordon Brown announced that Labour, if re-elected, would propose a referendum on the Alternative Vote (AV) system, in which instead of marking your ballot paper with an X, you write down your preferences by rank, 1, 2, 3, etc …

The problem with AV is that you are still only electing one person per constituency.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , and | 17 Comments
Mark Pack

Daily View 2×2: 4 October 2009

By Mark Pack | Sun 4th October 2009 - 7:00 am

It’s Sunday. It’s 7am. It’s time for the Daily View, today with an election night special.

2 Big Stories

David Cameron stalls on Europe

David Cameron bravely stuck his neck out by, er…, insisting that the Tories “could only have one policy at once”. Not multitaskers then:

David Cameron has refused to give an unequivocal commitment to a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, after Irish voters delivered a 67% “Yes” vote.

The Tory leader promised a vote on the treaty should his party win the election – but only if it had not been ratified by all EU member states.

He said the Tories “could only have one policy at once”, and he did not want to prejudice decisions in other countries. (BBC)

Report says Iran has data to make atom bomb

A confidential analysis by staff of the U.N. nuclear watchdog has concluded that Iran has acquired “sufficient information to be able to design and produce” an atom bomb. (Reuters)

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

Sunday Bonus

Now this is how election night coverage should be done:

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Posted in Daily View and Europe / International | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #135

By Stephen Tall | Sat 3rd October 2009 - 10:02 pm

Welcome to the 135th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (13-19th September 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, partly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. (And, yes, the Golden Dozen has kinda got a bit out-of-synch as a result of the party conference – #136 is here. Sorry about that.)

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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Stephen Tall

Wikio’s top blogs in the UK: September ’09

By Stephen Tall | Sat 3rd October 2009 - 7:30 pm

Those lovely people at Wikio have emailed The Voice with their list^ of the top blogs in the UK in June 2009.

(Lib Dem blogger Jennie Rigg has already published the list of top 30 politics blogs: below is the full list for all blogs, though there’s considerable overlap between the two owing to the dominance of politics blogs in Wikio’s weightings.)

1 Iain Dale’s Diary (=)
2 Guy Fawkes’ blog (=)
3 Liberal Conspiracy (=)
4 Liberal Democrat Voice (+1)
5 Labourlist (-1)
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Iain Roberts

Would slavery have been abolished under Farage?

By Iain Roberts | Sat 3rd October 2009 - 6:33 pm

It would be nice to think that the 18th century British parliament saw the light and abolished slavery when the matter was first put to them. But we all know that isn’t what happened. William Wilberforce and his colleagues lost the vote on their first attempt. And their second. And their third.

So Nigel Farage’s suggestion, made on RTE, that the Irish referendum score on the Lisbon Treaty is now 1-1 and we should have a decider is very strange. Would we ever have abolished slavery if Farage had been in charge of the voting? …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Tagged , and | 32 Comments
Paul Walter

Opinion: A frightening party of selfishness and reactionism

By Paul Walter | Sat 3rd October 2009 - 5:36 pm

As the Tories gather for their conference, it is very tempting to suspect that, despite the Cameron makeover of the party, they are still unreconstructed hateful fire-breathers underneath.

Just look at a couple straws in the wind which have re-emerged in the last few days.

It is tempting to think that the old “posh” Tories still exist. That basically the Conservative party is the party of the rich. Does the bumbling Eric Pickles flat-cap schmooze-over mean anything? No, it would seem if you look at what the Tory party regards as a “typical family”. Extrapolations on Liberal Conspiracy reveal that the …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , and | 24 Comments
Stephen Tall

Nick welcomes Ireland’s Lisbon yes vote, says Tories are “embarrassing themselves”

By Stephen Tall | Sat 3rd October 2009 - 5:25 pm

Ireland’s yes to the Lisbon Treaty was emphatic (albeit at the second time of asking): 67% voted to approve it, with just two of the 43 constituencies rejecting it, on an icnreased turnout of 58%.

Nick Clegg was quick to welcome the result – and to note the awkward situation David Cameron now finds himself in:

This result finally puts to rest years of wrangling over Europe’s future and paves the way for a stronger and more democratic European Union.

“The worst thing would be to re-open this self-indulgent debate. David Cameron should now finally accept the treaty as a fact of life instead of plotting with Eastern European nations to have it blocked. The Conservatives are already embarrassing themselves and Britain with their petulant impotence on Europe.

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Posted in Europe / International | Tagged , , , and | 17 Comments
Stephen Tall

YouGov marginals poll: what it means for the Lib Dems

By Stephen Tall | Sat 3rd October 2009 - 12:30 pm

PoliticsHome has today published its YouGov survey of some 240 marginal seats, with a sample of around 35,000 voters, providing the most complete picture of regional polling trends, and likely constituency results. The results are fascinating – but, as with any polls, it comes with health warnings.

The most important is that, even with the large sample size, the number of people in each individual seat is not high enough to give reliable voting intention figures for individual constituencies. This is an especially relevant consideration when looking at Lib Dem MPs and target seats, as the ability of a local party to organise an effective ‘ground-war’ campaign often marks the difference between a successful hold / gain and a near-miss.

For example, the PoliticsHome survey predicts that Chris Huhne’s seat of Eastleigh will be a Tory gain based on the Lib Dem – Tory swing in the south and south-west. However, I will eat my hat (really, I will) if Chris is unseated.

You can find the full survey results here. Let’s have a look at the implications for the Lib Dems.

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Posted in General Election and Polls | Tagged | 30 Comments
Mark Pack

YouGov marginals polls: a smattering of details

By Mark Pack | Sat 3rd October 2009 - 12:14 pm

YouGov’s now annual mammoth marginals poll is out. It’s heavily talked about elsewhere, so here are a few extracts that are likely to be of particular interest to The Voice’s readers:

As was the case last year, there is still no sign of Liberal Democrat supporters tactically voting Conservative to oust Labour though neither is there any sign of them voting tactically against the Tories…

Sitting Liberal Democrat MPs continue to benefit from both anti-Conservative tactical voting and a personal vote…

respondents are far more likely to recall having received literature or seen adverts from the Liberal Democrats than the Conservatives.

…

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Mark Pack

Does filesharing help or hinder musicians?

By Mark Pack | Sat 3rd October 2009 - 9:20 am

Leaving aside the extremely hard-line nature of Peter Mandelson’s proposals for a crackdown on illegal file sharing, there is a more fundamental question about what the impact of illegal file sharing really is on the music industry. To what extent does the distribution of songs this way take money away from sales and to what extent does it act as a free form of publicity, which triggers purchases and income from other streams such as concerts and merchandise?

Take this recent report from The Times:

Lily Allen condemned artists who have spoken out against the proposals.

Allen, in a lengthy posting on her blog, criticised “rich and successful artists” such as Ed O’Brien, of Radiohead, and Nick Mason, the Pink Floyd drummer, told The Times that file-sharing had some beneficial effects for artists.

The pair, part of the Featured Artists Coalition, which opposes plans by Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, to temporarily disconnect those who repeatedly flout the law, said that the government plans would criminalise young people.

O’Brien said: “My generation grew up with the point of view that you pay for your music. Every generation has a different method. File-sharing is like a sampler, like taping your mate’s music. You go, ‘I like that, I’ll go and buy the album’. Or, ‘You know what, I’ll go and see them live’.

“What’s going on is a huge paradigm shift.”

So as a follow up to the clip with Nick Clegg’s views on the matter, here is one musician’s musical riposte to Lily Allen:

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 36 Comments
Mark Pack

Jim Fitzpatrick accused of abusing Parliamentary expenses

By Mark Pack | Sat 3rd October 2009 - 9:00 am

The Evening Standard reports:

A Government minister was today accused of misusing taxpayers’ money – allegedly spending thousands on invitations to Saturday coffee mornings.

Farming Minister Jim Fitzpatrick broke Parliamentary rules, the Conservatives claim, by sending thousands of unsolicited letters using Commons notepaper and envelopes.

Posted in News | Tagged , and | Leave a comment
The Voice

The LDV Saturday caption competition – Jo Swinson

By The Voice | Sat 3rd October 2009 - 8:45 am

There’s no prize at stake – just the opportunity to prove you’re wittier than any other LDV reader …

jo swinson

Here’s Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson putting across her point – but what might she be thinking / saying?

Image: Alex Folkes/ Fishnik Photography

Posted in Caption Comp | Tagged | 8 Comments
Stephen Tall

The LDV Friday Five (ish): 2/10/09

By Stephen Tall | Fri 2nd October 2009 - 7:22 pm

What could be simpler: five categories, each with five links. And it’s Friday.

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

1. That Andrew Marr question: wrong, wrong, wrong (32) by Stephen Tall
2. Opinion: The disaster of Bournemouth was avoidable (26) by William le Breton
3. NEW POLL: Do you support Vince’s ‘mansion tax’? (31) by Stephen Tall
4. Bournemouth was a hit, no shambolic disaster (26) by Iain Roberts
5. Opinion: Conservatives are complete hypocrites on LGBT issues as Section 28 raises its ugly head again (16) by Andrew Reeves

5 recent Lib Dem tweets

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Posted in Friday Five | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

The leaders’ debate – is it really now game on?

By Stephen Tall | Fri 2nd October 2009 - 6:40 pm

Fair play to Sky News. It’s a month since the broadcaster upped the ante on a leaders’ debate, with Adam Boulton launching a full-throated campaign – including writing for LDV – for Nick Clegg, Gordon Brown and David Cameron to debate each other in the lead-up to general election day.

The result? The AP tells us a deal has now been reached between the broadcasters:

Broadcasters have written to Britain’s main political parties proposing a series of televised debates before the general election. The BBC, Sky News television, and ITV have written to the leaders of the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties with a joint proposal for three live televised debates before the election, which must be called by the middle of next year.

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Posted in General Election and News | Tagged , , , , , , and | 12 Comments
Stephen Tall

NEW: post-conference ’09 LDV members’ survey #ldconf

By Stephen Tall | Fri 2nd October 2009 - 3:40 pm

Following the Lib Dem autumn conference in Bouremouth, Lib Dem Voice is conducting a survey of our Forum for party members on some of the issues that arose.

The survey includes questions on why you did (or didn’t) attend the conference; what you thought about it; your views on Nick Clegg’s statements on tuition fees and spending cuts; Vince’s ‘mansion tax’; and which MPs you thought emerged best from the conference.

The survey – a link to which has been emailed to all signed-up members of LDV’s forum – should take only 5-10 minutes to complete, and your responses …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

Richmond Council pioneers green parking charges

By Mark Pack | Fri 2nd October 2009 - 3:30 pm

Sky News reports:

A local authority in London has become the first in the world to charge motorists for parking on the basis of how “green” their vehicle is.

Richmond upon Thames is to charge drivers varying prices based on the carbon dioxide emissions of their vehicle of choice.

The system works for drivers who use the RingGo system to pay for their parking.

Motorists register and pay by phone, and RingGo accesses the DVLA database for each customer’s registration to determine emissions data on the car.

Those who drive gas-guzzlers will pay 25% above the standard rate while those who drive eco-friendly cars will

…

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Posted in Local government and News | Tagged , and | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dem social networking web developments coming soon!

By Stephen Tall | Fri 2nd October 2009 - 1:45 pm

myconservativesMuch excitement across the Tory blogosphere this morning over the launch of myconservatives.com. The launch hasn’t been a totally 100% slick affair, as this screen-grabs illustrates – and as Chris Keating has already blogged:

Much angst at the ConservativeHome comments thread on this where many people seem to be reporting you can’t get through to it and that it redirects straight to the Tory Party homepage. Not great publicity, really. Someone should have thought that one through.

Still, it’s nice to know that technical cock-ups can occur in even the best-funded parties.

Those …

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Posted in Online politics | 6 Comments
Mark Pack

Electoral Commission heavily criticise report into plans for 2012 London elections

By Mark Pack | Fri 2nd October 2009 - 8:55 am

The Electoral Commission has published a report laying out a series of detailed and powerful criticisms of the cost-benefit analysis carried out for the Greater London Returning Officer into the use of e-counting for the 2012 London Mayor and Assembly elections.

However, the Greater London Returning Officer (GLRO) appears determined to go ahead with electronic counting, having told a meeting he had made this decision before even hearing the Electoral Commission’s views and despite even the flawed cost-benefit analysis showing that e-counting is more expensive than manual counting.

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Posted in Election law and London | Tagged , , and | 2 Comments
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