Following his speech to the Progress conference earlier today, Peter Mandelson answered a question about electoral reform. After defending the existing system, he went on to say:
Now, does that mean to say that there is no change that could be made in our voting system in our country so that people really feel that it’s fairer and more representative? No,I don’t think we should reject contemplating any sort of change and I think that’s something that we’re going to have to address in the coming months.
By Martin Land
| Mon 14th September 2009 - 6:32 pm
Back in the 1980s my employer, encouraged by some important orders I’d picked up in what we then called Eastern Europe, asked me to try to build up a distribution network in as many countries as I could. In creating this customer base, I made a number of good friends in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and Yugoslavia. It was good business, though never easy, and my sympathy with the many friends I made there led me to take more time over it than perhaps I should have.
I’m pleased to say that after the fall of the Berlin Wall, I was personally able to help a number of my old contacts with the small amounts of capital needed to start up their own businesses and keep up contact with many of them even now. Sad to say some of my Yugoslav friends disappeared into the tragedy of the Civil War, though I still keep in touch with Slovenes who escaped the worst of it.
In those dark days in the 1980s conversations often turned to politics. Once we had carefully sounded each other out, it was a topic that could not be easily avoided. It was obvious that the system had failed, though no one I ever spoke to thought it would go and certainly not in the manner it did. I felt it had 10 years; they were generally far less sanguine.
By Gareth Aubrey
| Mon 14th September 2009 - 3:40 pm
Can it really be party conference season already? In Wales it can, as Plaid pop off to Llandudno this weekend where no-one will notice them (so what’s new…) In any case, what self-respecting journalist is going to waste their time on things that are actually happening when there’s good speculatin’ to be had?
Leaving On A Rhoose Plane
The target of said speculation is of course Rhodri Morgan, whose stated retirement date (his 70th birthday) is now just over two weeks away. With departure supposedly imminent, the pretenders to the throne have crept back into the shadows to avoid the appearance of giving an extra shove on the way off the precipice (Jon Cruddas’ trip to Wales to essentially endorse Huw Lewis as the “properly lefty” candidate notwithstanding.)
Mind you, Rhodri couldn’t have done a better job fuelling the speculation if he’d tried.
Over at Scotland on Sunday, Nick Clegg has an article arguing that “It’s the Liberal Democrats who have the record, the strength and the vision to change politics for good”. Here’s an excerpt:
It’s liberals who invented the state pension and the NHS, liberals who were first to campaign to protect the environment and liberals who first put concern for human rights into our foreign affairs. The Liberal Democrats are a pioneering party – the party of Charles Kennedy and Ming Campbell, who stood up against jeers and derision to campaign against the illegal invasion of Iraq. We led calls for
I’m Carey Oppenheim and I’m Co-Director of the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr), the UK’s leading progressive think tank. If you have been to the Liberal Democrat conference before you may have been to one of our events.
The debate dominating the conferences this year is the future of politics itself – ippr is hosting a key event at each of the three main conferences where leading figures will discuss how to renew trust in politics and the crucial issues facing us in the coming general election.
To open up the debate, ippr and Lib Dem Voice are asking party …
Executives at Britain’s top companies saw their basic salaries leap 10% last year, despite the onset of the worst global recession in decades, in which their companies lost almost a third of their value amid a record decline in the FTSE.
The Guardian’s annual survey of boardroom pay reveals that the full- and part-time directors of the FTSE 100, the premier league of British business, shared between them more than £1bn.
Bonus payouts were lower, but the basic salary hikes were more than three times the 3.1% average pay rise for ordinary workers in the private sector. The big rise in directors’ basic pay – more than double the rate of inflation last year – came as many of their companies were imposing pay freezes on staff and starting huge redundancy programmes to slash costs.
The paper quotes Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable:
By Stephen Tall
| Sun 13th September 2009 - 5:45 pm
Welcome to the 134th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (6th – 12th September 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:
By Stephen Tall
| Sun 13th September 2009 - 4:00 pm
Yesterday’s Times revealed that Jack Straw signed a secret deal with Libya three years ago guaranteeing the Libyan killer of a British policewoman will never be brought to justice in Britain:
The Libyan killer of a British policewoman will never be brought to justice in Britain after a secret deal approved by Jack Straw. The Foreign Office bowed to Libyan pressure and agreed that Britain would abandon any attempt to try the murderer of WPC Yvonne Fletcher, shot outside the Libyan embassy in London 25 years ago.
Anthony Layden, Britain’s former ambassador to Libya, said this weekend he had signed the agreement with the Libyan government three years ago, when Straw was foreign secretary. At the time Britain was negotiating trade deals worth hundreds of millions of pounds with Libya.
The deal followed a visit by Tony Blair, then prime minister, to meet Colonel Gadaffi in March 2004 after Libya announced that it was ending its nuclear weapons programme. The disclosure will provoke criticism of the government after the row over the early release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the terminally ill Lockerbie bomber.
Lib Dem shadow foreign secretary Ed Davey has condemned the move:
In the current financial climate, we have to look at all revenue options including product placement.
The previous Secretary of State, Andy Burnham, was wrong to have ruled out the option of product placement.
With Google now having a larger advertising revenue than ITV, the commercial television companies need to fight back and it’s welcome that the new Secretary of State is using common sense and allowing product placement to be part of their armoury.
Given how controversial product placement was in its early days in US TV and in films, I’m struck how muted the public …
By Stephen Tall
| Sun 13th September 2009 - 2:00 pm
Shirley William’s memoirs, Climbing the Bookshelves, is published on 24th September, and you can order it from Amazon using this link (and earn the party some commission). Today’s Sunday Times serialises the book: “the rebel ‘Gang of Four’ politician, reveals her maverick streak was rooted in a free-spirited childhood”. Here’s an excerpt:
I was a competitive child. I liked risk, matching myself against challenges. Climbing my father’s bookshelves to the very top was one such challenge. So later was amateurishly climbing mountains, breaking fingernails as I clung on to wet rock. Risk was one of several things that attracted me to politics when I was young, though I was also drawn to some obvious causes — poverty and inequality, lives limited by the accident of birth. …
Cllr Paul Twigger has been unanimously selected by the Liberal Democrats to fight the next General election for the West Derby constituency. At 28, Paul Twigger will be one of the youngest prospective candidates to stand for the Lib Dems. Mr Twigger will go head to head with Labour’s Stephen Twigg in 2010 for the Parliamentary seat. … As well as being the city’s youngest councillor, Paul Twigger also works as a Field Officer for the charity Age Concern Liverpool, looking after some of Liverpool’s most vulnerable citizens.
By Stephen Tall
| Sun 13th September 2009 - 10:05 am
Welcome to the Sunday edition of LDV’s Daily View. And as Mark Pack of this e-parish is (apparently) forraging for chocolate in Bristol, it falls to me to bring you today’s supplement with extra multimedia entertainment.
2 Big Stories
NSPCC and Nick criticise new Government regulations for parent helpers
Ministers are under intense pressure to scale back plans for a “big brother” child protection database which will force millions of parents to undergo paedophile and criminal checks. In a major blow for the Government, Britain’s largest children’s charity, the NSPCC, criticised the regulations for parent helpers which it said threatened “perfectly safe and normal activities” and risked alienating the public.
The paper also quotes Nick Clegg’s condemnation of Labour’s proposals:
This scheme is wildly over the top. How are we supposed to create a country fit for our children if we regard every adult looking after children as a potential threat?”
Independent broadcasters will be allowed to take payments for displaying commercial products during shows. The change is intended to bring in extra funds for commercial broadcasters. Experts believe it could raise up to £100m a year.
There are currently strict rules against product placement and this ban would remain in place on BBC shows. Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw is expected to announce a three-month consultation on the changes in a speech to the Royal Television Society next week.
The move will not apply to the BBC, and children’s programmes will remain product-placement free. A long-overdue acceptance of commercial reality? Or a retrogade intrusion into public broadcasting space?
After about an hour or so of having my knuckles scraped by ridiculously snappy letterboxes, and falling over on uneven paths, and generally feeling pretty battered and bruised and grumpy, I got to a house where a skinhead with no shirt on and a BNP tattoo set his dog on me. … I suspect that this is a big part of the reason political parties are haemorrhaging membership. The expectation that people risk their own personal safety for nothing on a regular basis is not a rewarding experience for the activist.
… the whole point of blogging is that it is interactive, or it is nothing. If most committee members don’t blog, don’t engage with the blogosphere, in short, have lives, and do not respond immediately, or even at all, will they be criticised? You bet they will and, like I did, would probably withdraw back into their collective shells.
Sunday Bonus track
You may have noticed a chap called Derren on the telly this week attracting a lot of attention. Here’s a reminder of him at his best:
By Stephen Tall
| Sat 12th September 2009 - 6:49 pm
In the lead-up to this year’s Lib Dem autumn conference in Bouremouth, Lib Dem Voice is conducting a survey of our Forum for party members on the recent political and economic crises – asking about what you think, and also your perception of how the party has dealt with them.
The survey has been designed jointly with the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr), to tie-in with a conference fringe event on the theme, ‘The end of politics as we know it?‘, (1pm, Tue 22 Sept) with a panel comprising Ming Campbell, Shirley Williams, Charles Clarke and, erm, …
Welcome to a new occasional series covering what academics have to say about politics, elections and public opinion. As with most things in life, academic research comes in various flavours, including the good, the bad and the stating the bleeding obvious (though investigating ‘what everyone knows’ does have a role, as just sometimes it isn’t true after all).
Today’s selection is about the order in which names appear on ballot papers can affect election results.
By Stephen Tall
| Sat 12th September 2009 - 1:55 pm
Was The Guardian’s Martin Kettle right yesterday to argue, as per his article’s headline, The biggest problem for the Liberal Democrats is illiberal Britain. It was a long, thoughtful piece – and, hey, it’s much better to be talked about than not, especially if you’re a Lib Dem – but, still, it was at best a partial explanation.
Let’s start with the positive stuff. First of all, Mr Kettle acknowledges the various ways in which the party has “been right on so many issues”:
By so many yardsticks, the Lib Dems deserve to be higher in the polls than they are. Michael Meadowcroft, intermittent party loyalist and former MP for Leeds West, listed several of them in a typically forceful Guardian letter today: the economy, Europe, ID cards, Iraq and localism. On all of them, as he says, the Lib Dems have been consistently right. One can add others to the list that Meadowcroft omitted: climate change, police powers, tax, electoral reform. All big subjects on which the Lib Dems have been right most of the time in ways that put the other parties to shame.
Couldn’t have put it better myself. But then there’s the problem of the current opinion polls: the Lib Dems have been tracking in the high-teens, occasionally breaking the 20% barrier.
By Stephen Tall
| Sat 12th September 2009 - 12:40 pm
The Grauniad, bastion of liberal values. But also a newspaper which today gives vent to a number of unsubstantiated smears against the Lib Dems in an article by Steven Morris – Liberal Democrats accused of dog whistle politics over Gypsy claims – which buys hook, line and sinker into the spin from Labour and Tory HQs.
The Grauniad’s story focuses on Islington (though cheerfully throws a few other snide half-truths into the mix to legitimise turning a local issue into a story for a national newspaper – of which more later), and the recent proposal by Islington Labour party to consider locating a site for travellers and gypsies in Highbury Fields, the borough’s premier open space. The Lib Dems in the area have campaigned against the idea, arguing that Highbury Fields is unsuitable as a location for any development, including new travellers’ sites. Agree or disagree with the local party’s position, but it’s an entirely consistent view.
What’s most definitely not consistent is Islington Labour leader Catherine West’s spin. Here’s how the Grauniad presents it:
By Alex Foster
| Sat 12th September 2009 - 10:26 am
This Saturday’s trio of videos doing the rounds takes as its topic Minnesota’s new Senator, Al Franken, who eventually took his seat after a load of legal wrangles – as we covered here and here earlier in the year.
Now, however, he is Senator – and proving to be a good one too.
Here are three videos of his exploits. The first contrasts American Republican values with the tendency of the American Republican party to invoke Christian values.
Willie Rennie has been elected (unopposed) as the new chair of the Liberal Democrats’ Campaigns and Communications Committee (CCC). His predecessor, Ed Davey, announced he was standing down earlier this year.
Willie brings a strong campaigning pedigree to the role, being not only a Parliamentary by-election victor himself (and anyone who can remember the political circumstances of January 2006 will, after shuddering a little, recognise just how strong a candidate he was) but also a former Campaigns Officer with a good record of victories.
Having a Scot in the role should help ensure that feathers stay unruffled over how the party’s campaigning …
Highly controversial Conservative London Assembly Member Brian Coleman is in the news again, though this time it’s not for an outrageous expense claim or the like.
The Barnet Standards Board has ruled that he broke the rulesfor sending an email that called the blogger Roger Tichbourne “an obsessive, poisonous individual”.
I’m not exactly over-joyed at the outcome. Yes, Brian Coleman has once again behaved stupidly. Yes, he deserves criticism. But should such matters really be up for standards boards to rule on? I don’t think so. Let the actions of politicians be public and then let the voters or (if it’s …
By Stephen Tall
| Fri 11th September 2009 - 6:45 pm
Welcome to a new LDV feature, one of those ventures which we all may learn to love, or might die a dismal death – Reader, You Decide. The format’s simple: five categories, each with five links. Feeling daring? Then read on …
With the head of the Financial Services Watchdog, Mr Airhead Turner, placing bankers on a scale between Socially Awkward and Totally Useless, people have been coming up with plans to curb excessive bonuses. Mr Airhead himself floated the idea of a transaction tax or Tobin tax, where you charge the bankers for passing money across the border.
Captain Clegg and the Liberal Democrats don’t think this would work, because the bankers would just pass their money over everyone’s border but ours!
We’d rather see bonuses cut down to size by cutting the BANKS down to size, breaking them up so they are no longer too big to save when it turns out that they are too big to let fail.
For the Conservatories, Master Gideon Oboe said that if banks didn’t stop awarding big bonuses he would have the regulator write them a VERY STERN letter, warning them that he would not sign off on their pay package. And if they persisted in paying out, well, he’d write them ANOTHER very stern letter! That would sort them out.
And Mr Frown, the Prime Monster himself, promised to try very hard to put a STOP to that sort of thing, and then tried very hard to scupper Monsieur Sarcastic and Ms Angular Meercat’s plan to ACTUALLY stop that sort of thing!
I think it is time to put a fresh proposal on the table.
By Ed Fordham
| Fri 11th September 2009 - 12:30 pm
Campaigning is an all year round slog and most intensive for the staff and full-time campaigners who do this every day, every week. In that context many of you will have fond memories of Cllr Neil Trafford, Federal Campaigns Officer for the north west of England. Neil tragically died in an accident last year, but a group of us have used that sad occasion to institute a new award within the party.
This award will be for the outstanding member of campaigns staff – be they employed by a Local Party, constituency, MP, MSP, AM, MEP or indeed the federal …
A few months ago there was quite a controversy in Parliament over attempts to allow MPs to keep their home addresses secret at election time. A large part of the controversy stemmed from the unsatisfactory way part of the debate was handled in Parliament – which fuelled suspicion about some MPs wanting to keep their addresses secret in order to make it harder for people to work out whether they were exploiting rules over Parliamentary expenses.
Anyway, after debate back and forth the law was changed and the new rules are now in force, courtesy of the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009. These rules only apply to Parliamentary elections and by-elections, so the first outing for them is likely to be in the by-election to replace Michael Martin.
The problem is that while we have a culture where there’s a course for everyone, we have a degree for everyone – smart or stupid, talented or talentless. This has led to a system where only two grades matter – First or Fail. A First sets you out from the majority of candidates for employment, who leave with 2:1s, 2:2s or thirds; a fail means you’re back to square one. Anything in between is simply a blur of the average, and companies have no desire for the average.
But surely a degree should mean something? A degree should mean that someone is clever, whatever the grade. However, with degrees filled up with students who got EEE at A-level, it naturally devalues the system.
Parents who regularly ferry groups of children on behalf of sports or social clubs such as the Scouts will have to undergo criminal record checks — or face fines of up to £5,000, it was disclosed today.
They will fall under the scope of the government’s new vetting and barring scheme, which is aimed at stopping paedophiles getting access to children.
Failure to register with the Independent Safeguarding Authority, the Home Office agency that administers the scheme, could lead to criminal prosecution and a court fine.
Last month I blogged about the Youth Justice Board paying £1m over three years to one IT manager, employed as a consultant. They have now decided to end this arrangement and instead employ a normal member of staff, at much lower cost:
An IT consultant who cost the Youth Justice Board (YJB) £336,000 last year is to be replaced by a permanent employee on a regular pay grade, CYP Now can reveal.
The move, which could save the YJB more than £200,000 a year, comes on the back of concerns raised over the high cost of employing chief information officer Mike
By Alex Foster
| Thu 10th September 2009 - 4:29 pm
A piece in the Bournemouth Echo underlines just how important party conferences are to the resort’s economy – and just how huge an event conference is, even for the smallest of the three main parties:
It is estimated the event could boost the resort economy by £6.5 million, as delegates spend money in hotels, bars, restaurants and shops.
“That’s really working on the basis of about 6,000 delegates staying for an average of four nights,” said Peter Gunn, director of the BIC and Pavilion.
A few seconds with a calculator and those figures suggests delegates will be spending an average of £270 …
By Alex Foster
| Thu 10th September 2009 - 2:43 pm
There’s shortly to be a mayoral by-election in Bedford following the August death of the incumbent mayor and blogger Frank Branston.
Local Lib Dems are the first to name their candidate as Cllr Dave Hodgson, familiar to many attendees of party training as the membership recruitment and retention expert, spreading best practice to local parties up and down the country.
Cllr Dave Hodgson is leader of the Bedford Liberal Democrats group, and was appointed to Bedford BC’s cabinet as member for partnerships and IT by the late mayor.
He expressed his delight at being selected to stand,
Only STV can make MPs really accountable to voters on their expenses claims and local issues, or major decisions on war and peace, the environment and the economy – indeed all issues. Only STV offers voters a genuine choice of candidates from the same and different parties, which must be essential for anyone who believes in freedom, choice and freedom of choice.
The current scandal of MPs’ expenses and allowances has triggered a popular demand for reform and some people think that proportional representation (PR) should be an important part of a reform package. PR has many advantages; it would for example:
Rees Southern Hi Nick, as Alex points out, ASH is not a vested interest. Nor are the other organisations mentioned in my article, including the Royal College of Physicians, C...
Matt (Bristol) I dont think lib dems should be a low tax or high tax party. I would like them (Or someone else) to be a subsidiarist, consensualist party, whereby levels of ta...
Alex Macfie @Nick Baird: Since when was ASH a "vested interest"? And vested in what?...
Chris Caswill Thanks for this, Joe. I am only missing a Wealth Tax option. I also support the comments from the two David’s, Allen and Warren. Four problems with Burnham�...
Nonconformistradical @David Raw
"A few facts before the few remaining nonconformist radical little blue ribbon temperance Liberals decide to leave this party. I, for one, dislike h...
and 
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A Week in Politics #8
Rees Southern
Matt (Bristol)
Alex Macfie
Chris Caswill
Nonconformistradical