Stephen Tall

The state of the Liberal Democrat blogosphere

By Stephen Tall | Fri 18th September 2009 - 2:45 pm

There is of course no such thing as ‘the Lib Dem blogosphere’. For sure there are hundreds of Lib Dems who write blogs, but any suggestion we can be neatly bundled together into one coherent entity is wide of the mark – we’d scarcely be liberals otherwise. Which is why if you visit the Lib Dem Blogs Aggregator – a site which collates the feeds of more than 220 active bloggers – you will find posts about potholes and proportional representation, pop-culture and Palestine, all nestling alongside each other. If anything defines ‘the Lib Dem blogosphere’ it is this eclecticism.

We can separate political blogs – whether Lib Dem, Labour or Tory – into two broad categories. First, there those bloggers who write primarily for (and are read primarily by) those already interested in politics. And then there are those bloggers – usually political campaigners – who are primarily writing for readers in their electoral patch.

In each case it’s true to say the Lib Dems punch well above our weight. You don’t have to take my word for it.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 4 Comments
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Antony Hook

Fiona Hall says: “Time to get out of the ghetto”

By Antony Hook | Fri 18th September 2009 - 1:50 pm

The new leader of the Liberal Democrat MEPs, Fiona Hall, has said that its time for MEPs to have an increased profile in the party and for the European angle to have a greater role in Liberal Democrat policy making.

In an interview with me on behalf of the Lib Dem European Group, Fiona said,

“We need to get MEPs out of the ghetto of “Europe”. MEPs do not do “Europe”. MEPs do crime, security, civil liberties, finance, climate change, energy, biodiversity, agriculture, fisheries, international development … with a particular emphasis on the European level of decision making in these areas. At …

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Posted in Europe / International | Tagged | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

Cabinet Office: correspondence chaos

By Mark Pack | Fri 18th September 2009 - 11:20 am

It’s all a bit rum. Back in December I put in a complaint via the Cabinet Office website about Gordon Brown. It was a pretty minor issue – using government letterhead for partisan purposes – but given how stringent the rules imposed on other bodies around the country, it seemed to me worth all of oooh 30 seconds to make the point of principle.

But I got no reply. And I don’t like that sort of thing…

So I sent another message via their website. And got no reply.

So I wrote a letter. And got no reply.

So I wrote to my MP, who then wrote to the …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 16 Comments
Helen Duffett

Daily View 2×2: 18 September 2009

By Helen Duffett | Fri 18th September 2009 - 8:42 am

2 big stories

Star Wars – the end?
The Guardian and the Times both lead with the news that President Barack Obama has decided to scrap US plans to build missile shields in Poland and the Czech Republic. This is seen by Republicans as an attempt to “appease” the Kremlin, which had objected that a missile shield so close to Russia’s borders would threaten its own defences.

President Obama justified the change of plan by citing new intelligence that shows Iran’s long-range missile programme to be far less advanced than previously thought. Instead of being close to developing missiles capable of

…

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Tony Vickers

New book: The Case for a New People’s Budget

By Tony Vickers | Fri 18th September 2009 - 6:25 am

To many of us, notably Vince Cable, it has for long been blindingly obvious that the property boom would end – and end in pain for millions around the world.

The scale of the crash may have surprised even most who expected something like it at this time, as borrowing against unsecured ‘bubble’ land values was bound to lead to massive default.

However the Lib Dems’ campaign group on land value taxation (LVT) which I chair, ALTER, believes that the ‘Credit Crunch’ can be turned into a major opportunity for the Party, if it can press home its renewed conviction …

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

The Which? survival guide to conference

By Mark Pack | Thu 17th September 2009 - 9:31 pm

An email pings in to The Voice’s inbox to say:

Which? is producing supplements for this year’s party conferences, providing people with a one-stop guide to surviving Bournemouth, Brighton and Manchester…

In the build up to the next General Election, it’s important that the consumer voice is heard as each party develops its policies. All 45 million voters are also consumers, so each supplement includes the issues Which? wants to see on the political agenda – from better protection for savings to simpler energy bills and access to good quality dental care.

Michelle Smyth, public affairs manager at Which? says:

“With a general election

…

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Posted in Conference | Tagged | 1 Comment
Bernard Salmon

Why the Real Women proposals are flawed

By Bernard Salmon | Thu 17th September 2009 - 7:05 pm

ATTENTION: features conference amendment!

The Real Women policy paper which we’ll be discussing on Saturday afternoon at Lib Dem Federal Conference is, on the whole, a very good one. It contains lots of proposals which will help make women’s lives better, covering issues like safety, childcare, health and discrimination.

But there is one significant part of the policy motion which is flawed and that’s in the sections covering body image. Basically, the problem is that it seeks to use state legislation and regulation to tackle issues which can only really be addressed through processes of cultural change. As a result, its proposals …

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | Tagged , and | 72 Comments

The Independent View: Time to be honest about English matters

By David Rickard | Thu 17th September 2009 - 3:55 pm

The scandal provoked by MPs’ dodgy expenses claims earlier this year led to unprecedented professions of interest in constitutional reform on the part of the three main parties. For the Liberal Democrats, unlike the other two parties, this was set in the context of a long record of advocating constitutional change; hence the party’s contributions to the debate carried more credibility than most.

However, amid the flurry of proposals for parliamentary reform, very little of the debate addressed the English Question: the issue of how England should be governed as a nation, taking into consideration the impact on England and …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged and | 32 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV pre-conference members’ survey (2): leading Lib Dems’ approval ratings

By Stephen Tall | Thu 17th September 2009 - 2:25 pm

Over the last week or so, Lib Dem Voice has 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 c.250 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.

Tomorrow we’ll take a look at the satsfaction ratings with the Lib Dem shadow cabinet; but today we’re going to focus on those leading Lib Dems beyond Westminster.

LDV asked, How would you rate the performances of the following leading Liberal Democrats? And here’s what you told us (with results from April – the last time LDV asked the question – in brackets):

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged , , , and | 4 Comments
Alex Foster

#ldconf 101 – absolute top tip

By Alex Foster | Thu 17th September 2009 - 1:04 pm

Here’s my absolute, most important top tip for people attending conference – pack sensible shoes. I cannot emphasise this enough. You will be spending much of your time on your feet, and you will be schlepping wearily from venue to venue. Bits of Bournemouth are hilly, so you will also be trekking up a small cliff to switch from conference hall to fringe meetings. If you just pack strappy shoes, or dress shoes, or the ones that look good with your suit but are murder on your toeses, you will spend the week in agony. …

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Katie Ritson

German elections: the view from the chalk face

By Katie Ritson | Thu 17th September 2009 - 11:25 am

If you clicked on this hoping for some in-depth political analysis from a seasoned commentator drawing on the full range of German daily newspapers – then stop reading here. Hardbitten politico I am not; my grasp on the minute-by-minute situation as a time-pressed mother of a toddler with no voting rights (as a UK citizen) is tenuous. Nonetheless, in these pre-election weeks, it would be hard not to pick up on the political vibes in the air and catch some of the excitement; even the discussions round the sandpit in our local park have been touching on party politics in …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Tagged , , , and | 8 Comments
Stephen Tall

Nick Clegg’s The Liberal Moment: your blogosphere reader

By Stephen Tall | Thu 17th September 2009 - 9:55 am

Today saw the publication of Nick Clegg’s Demos pamphlet, The Liberal Moment, outlining his thoughts on progressive politics over the past century, moving forward to the future.

The party’s media office made the trusting (and canny) move to give a group of Lib Dem bloggers advance sight of the document, which means there’s already been a vigorous response around the blogosphere. In chronological order, here are the posts to date (we’ll add others as they appear):

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Stephen Tall

Nick pledges to seize the Liberal Moment

By Stephen Tall | Thu 17th September 2009 - 9:35 am

You can tell it’s a pre-conference week… on Monday, the Lib Dems’ deputy leader Vince Cable launched the party’s response to the fiscal crisis, while today Nick Clegg has published a major pamphlet with think-tank Demos outlining his thoughts on progressive politics. Titled The Liberal Moment it’s available for download as a PDF dcument here.

Nick also has an article in today’s Times setting out his ambiton for the Lib Dems to replace Labour as the progressive party at a national level. Here’s an excerpt:

Today I am publishing a pamphlet, The Liberal Moment, in which I make a simple argument: in the same way that Labour eclipsed a tired Liberal Party almost a century ago, the Liberal Democrats now offer a new rallying point for a resurgent progressive movement in Britain, replacing Labour as the dominant force of progressive politics.

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Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged , and | 7 Comments
Alex Foster

Daily View 2×2: 17 September 2009

By Alex Foster | Thu 17th September 2009 - 8:00 am

Good morning. Today we remember the deaths of Hildegard von Bingen, and, centuries later, Laura Ashley; and today’s birthday girl is Tessa Jowell.

Two big stories

A surprising number of newspapers seem to be leading with a story about how soon, we will all have the right to register with any GP we choose. I struggle to see why that’s made so many front pages.

Instead, my picks are the Independent’s story about racism in the US, with President Carter weighing in on opposition to President Obama’s current policy platform:

After lurking near the surface of political discourse in America

…

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Stephen Tall

Saint Vince, the canonisation continues …

By Stephen Tall | Wed 16th September 2009 - 8:15 pm

Yesterday saw the launch of Vince Cable’s and the Lib Dems’ plans for tackling the fiscal crisis, widely praised by commentators (though perhaps less so in Wales).

Today it’s not just the Guardian which is singing Vince’s praises, the Economist’s Bagehot is also writing In praise of Vince:

The real winner of today’s fiscal tussle, however, was Vince Cable.

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Mark Pack

What do the academics say? Persuading someone to vote comes with a free bonus

By Mark Pack | Wed 16th September 2009 - 6:25 pm

Welcome to another in my occasional series on useful, interesting or controversial findings from academic studies of our politics and elections.

Today it’s turnout and the question, “Is voting habit forming?” In other words, if you persuade someone to go out and vote in one election, do you get a bonus benefit in that they are also then more likely to vote in future elections?

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Adam Boulton

Adam Boulton writes… Lib Dems should back a Leaders’ Debate

By Adam Boulton | Wed 16th September 2009 - 3:25 pm

Two weeks ago Sky News’s political editor Adam Boulton launched a campaign to to get the leaders of Britain’s three main political parties to take part in a televised debate at the general election. Lib Dem Voice asked Adam to pitch his arguments in favour to our readers, and he gamely said yes…

Liberal Democrats know what it feels like. You’ve got a brilliant idea, it’s so obvious it just has to be right. But your competitors make patronising noises about your initiative, while trying to work how they can nick it for themselves.

That’s how I feel about Leaders’ Debates at the next General Election. Of course they should happen. Television is still the major mass medium of communication at a time when more and more people feel alienated from politicians – how could our political leaders possibly deny the public the chance to compare them face to face at election time?

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Posted in General Election, Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged and | 17 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV pre-conference members’ survey (1): Nick Clegg & Party approval ratings

By Stephen Tall | Wed 16th September 2009 - 2:40 pm

Over the last week or so, Lib Dem Voice has 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 c.250 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 April’s figures – the last time we asked this question – in brackets):

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged | 1 Comment
Alex Foster

#ldconf 101 – speaking at conference

By Alex Foster | Wed 16th September 2009 - 1:41 pm

This is the third in a small series of articles with what every delegate needs to know about Conference. See also our posts on how you don’t have to be a registered delegate to attend fringe and training events, and how to be a voting rep at conference even if you weren’t elected to that position at your local party’s AGM.

This is perhaps the area where I am least qualified to speak, since I have never given a speech to Conference in the eight or so years I have been attending.

But I have noticed there’s very clear and …

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Alex Foster

Google Calendar of Conference events #ldconf #ical

By Alex Foster | Wed 16th September 2009 - 11:38 am

I apologise from the outset, but this is going to be one of those posts that not everyone understands. If you’re not technical, or if your diary is still entirely paper based, look away now.

Neil McGovern, a Cambridge City councillor, has grepped the conference directory so that you don’t have to. He’s written a program that scrapes the information about the training and fringe events (including LDV’s fringe fiesta) and plugs them into a Google Calendar.

This means that if you use GCal yourself, you can import all those events into your diary – and from there, straight into your …

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Posted in Conference | 4 Comments
Alex Foster

Daily View 2×2: 16 September

By Alex Foster | Wed 16th September 2009 - 8:00 am

Welcome to Daily View. Today is the anniversary of Black Wednesday, and bunny hops for today’s birthday boys: Henry V and Russ Abbot.

2 Big News Stories

Wor Vince has fleshed out Lib Dem policy on how to respond to the parlous state of public finance – and Michael White approves.

Number crunchers at the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies, whose own estimate of the required squeeze will be published tomorrow, call his nine suggestions a “state-of-the-art shopping list”. As so often with Lib Dem ideas, it includes some which bigger parties are closing in on: trimming

…

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The Voice

Ladbrokes: “all the early money” goes on Lib Dems’ Dave Hodgson in Bedford mayoral election

By The Voice | Tue 15th September 2009 - 11:45 pm

An email drops into the Voice’s inbox from Ladbrokes to let us know their latest odds for the by-election for the directly-elected position of Mayor of Bedford. The betting firm has made the Tories favourites at 1/2, but the Lib Dems’ Dave Hodgson is a close second at odds of 2/1 – and Ladbrokes note:

your man Hodgson is attracting all the early money in Bedford!

Labour and the Independent candidates are also-rans in this election. So, guess what, folks? It’s a 2-horse race!

To find out more about Dave Hodgson’s campaign to become Lib Dem Mayor of Bedford click here. …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 3 Comments
Stephen Tall

Mark Oaten on the scandal that ended his political career

By Stephen Tall | Tue 15th September 2009 - 7:20 pm

Today’s Independent carries an extensive excerpt from Lib Dem MP Mark Oaten’s soon-to-be-published autobiographical book, Screwing Up, published next week – you can order it from Amazon using this link (and earn the party some commission). Here’s the book blurb:

Mark Oaten is a politician of nearly 13 years standing, having famously won the seat of Winchester in 1997 with a majority of only two, though a by-election later returned him with a majority of 20,000. More famously, he hit the headlines in January 2006 when, shortly after announcing his withdrawal from the race to succeed Charles Kennedy as leader of the Lib Dems, Oaten was caught up in the biggest political scandal of the year as the News of the World published the story of his relations with a rent boy. His world collapsed. This is the story of a man obsessed by retaining his youth, fearful of turning 40 and feeling a complete failure. It s the story of coping with media scandal, and of how he and his wife Belinda managed to save their marriage, as well as his own recent decision to leave politics for the unknown.

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Posted in Books | 31 Comments
Mark Pack

The Voice’s conference coverage

By Mark Pack | Tue 15th September 2009 - 5:25 pm

We’re just putting the finishing touches to our plans for covering the Bournemouth federal conference (Security pass? Check. Emergency chocolate rations? Check. Peruvian dancing band booked for fringe? Check.)

Now that we’ve been around through several conferences, there is always the risk of doing things just because that’s what we’ve always done. So any last minute suggestions for what we should do in addition to or differently from our previous conference coverage?

Posted in Conference | 9 Comments

Haggis, Neeps and Liberalism #8

By Ruaraidh Dobson | Tue 15th September 2009 - 3:50 pm

It seems impossible to believe, but once again Freshers’ Week is upon us. That most exciting time of year, when fresh-faced school pupils transform overnight into bleary-eyed students – all while scrupulously obeying government guidelines on alcohol use, of course.

It’s a great opportunity to try new things, or at the very least join new clubs and promptly forget about them. It’s also the most important time of year for youth politics.

The vast majority of student activists and party members are recruited at Freshers’ Fayres, so it’s important to have a decent operation to bring people in. That’s harder than it appears – aside from the cost in money and time, you need a strong team of young activists willing to give up their Freshers’ Week to stand at a stall. Fortunately, this year we do.

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Mark Pack

Election hustings meetings: Electoral Commission relaxes rules

By Mark Pack | Tue 15th September 2009 - 2:20 pm

A wider range of meetings at which people get to question Parliamentary candidates should be exempt from election expense limits according to new guidance from the Electoral Commission.

The Electoral Commission’s previous guidance was that costs related to hustings meetings did not need to feature in any of the individual candidate election expense returns if all the candidates for a constituency were invited. This was a welcome simplification of the previous position where many meeting organisers (partly for good reasons and partly for more debatable ones) believed that in practice they could only organise a hustings meeting if everyone agreed to …

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Posted in Election law and News | Tagged | Leave a comment
Helen Duffett

Blog of the Year Awards 2009: The Shortlists

By Helen Duffett | Tue 15th September 2009 - 11:25 am

Nominations for the Liberal Democrats’ Blog of the Year Awards 2009 closed on 4 September. Since then, the judges (Tom Brake MP, Ryan Cullen, me, Meral Ece OBE, Lynne Featherstone MP, Alix Mortimer, Stephen Tall, Cat Turner and Paul Waugh) have been poring over the entries for the six categories.

It’s been a big task, and a fun one, to distil so many excellent examples of Lib Dem blogging and e-campaigning into lists of the five best.

Congratulations if you’ve been shortlisted, but if you haven’t: remember that the shortlists are based on the judges’ subjective opinions. The awards are intended to be a fun way to celebrate the talent in the Lib Dem blogosphere, whilst introducing you to some blogs you might not have read before.

First, a reminder that the winner of the Best non-Liberal Democrat politics blog category will be decided by a public vote here on Liberal Democrat Voice, so please have a read of the nominated blogs and then head on over to the sidebar to cast your vote.

Next, a plug for the awards ceremony itself. If you’re coming to party conference in Bournemouth, do head along to Old Harry’s Bar in the Marriott Highcliff Hotel from 9.45pm on Sunday 20th September.

Now, without further ado, here are the shortlists: (Drumroll, please)

Blank

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Posted in Best of the blogs and Conference | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and | 20 Comments
Stephen Tall

Vince launches new Lib Dem proposals, ‘Tackling the Fiscal Crisis’

By Stephen Tall | Tue 15th September 2009 - 10:12 am

Vince Cable has this morning launched a pamphlet published by the independent think tank Reform called ‘Tackling the Fiscal Crisis: A recovery plan for the UK’ setting out proposals for tackling the fiscal crisis. A PDF of the pamphlet can be downloaded here. Here’s what the Lib Dem website has to say:

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Posted in News | 26 Comments
Stephen Tall

Coming later today… Lib Dem Blog of the Year shortlists revealed

By Stephen Tall | Tue 15th September 2009 - 9:15 am

Yes, folks, this is a short, teaser post to let you know that the shortlists for this year’s Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year awards 2009 will be published this morning at 11.25 am.

The nine judges – Tom Brake MP, Ryan Cullen, Helen Duffett, Meral Ece OBE, Lynne Featherstone MP, Alix Mortimer, me, Cat Turner and Paul Waugh – have been poring over the entries for the following six categories:

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Posted in Best of the blogs | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Richard Huzzey

Daily View 2×2: 15 September 2009

By Richard Huzzey | Tue 15th September 2009 - 2:01 am

2 Big Stories

Brown will acknowledge need for cuts

The BBC is leading with news that the Prime Minister will use the ‘C’ word for the first time!

Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to admit for the first time that spending cuts will be needed, the BBC understands.

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said Mr Brown would make his most explicit comments yet on spending choices in a speech to union leaders on Tuesday.

Deliver us from Gordon

Meanwhile, The Times reports that almost half of voters would replace Mr. Brown with… well, anyone:

Almost half of voters think that anyone would do a better

…

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