Liberal Democrat Voice

Tim Farron’s book likes and dislikes: CS Lewis and Richard Dawkins

By Mark Pack | Sat 8th August 2009 - 5:38 pm

Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron features in the ‘Brought to book’ column in the current edition of Total Politics, answering questions such as:

What is your least favourite book?

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. I’m a Christian, but I don’t object to people criticising my faith or even trying to ‘disprove’ it. However, I do object to bright people like Dawkins writing uncritical and abysmally researched polemic and then parading it as a respectable work.

What was the most inspiring book you have ever read and why?

Posted in Books | Tagged richard dawkins, tim farron and total politics | 28 Comments

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Boris Johnson brings the house down

By Helen Duffett | Sat 8th August 2009 - 11:50 am

The Mayor of London, who is in charge of the capital’s planning issues, was told to remove a wooden summer house at his Islington home because it was built without planning permission.

From the Times:

Council officers ordered Boris Johnson to remove the shed from a balcony at his home, a Grade II listed building in a conservation area of Islington, North London.

Islington Council wrote to Mr Johnson to tell him that the shed required planning permission because it was within the curtilage of a listed building.

“Planning enforcement officers advised Mr Johnson that the shed did not have planning

…

Posted in London and News | Tagged boris johnson, islington council and terry stacy | 1 Comment

LDV Weekend Meme: your favourite blog-posts

By Stephen Tall | Sat 8th August 2009 - 10:30 am

The Lib Dem blog awards are with us again – and one of the categories is ‘Best posting on a Liberal Democrat blog (since 1st September 2008)’. This is actually my favourite award for the simple reason that it recognises writing talent, pure and simple. By which I don’t mean that the prose has to be worthy of a Booker nomination; rather that the article has to attract, engage and provoke readers – elevate our thinking, if you like.

All of which musing prompted me to ask my LDV colleagues – and myself – to self-nominate the favourite articles we’ve posted here on the site. Here’s what we said:

Posted in LDV meme | Tagged alex foster, blog of the year awards, featured, helen duffett, Lib Dem Blogs, Mark Pack and stephen tall | 11 Comments

YouTube ‘cos we want to: Charles Kennedy special

By Stephen Tall | Sat 8th August 2009 - 8:45 am

It’s one of the curiosities of YouTube that, because it’s only four years old, even fairly recent events and people of prominence are sometimes almost absent. Search for ‘nick clegg’, elected leader of the Lib Dems 18 months ago, and you’ll find 520 videos; search for ‘charles kennedy’, who led the party from 1999 to 2006, and there are fewer than a hundred, many of them relating directly to his resignation.

Here are three of the clips I found, and dusted down for your viewing delectation:

First up, and seven years before Charles was elected party leader, he was one of the Lib Dem talking heads for the BBC’s 1992 general election coverage. And doesn’t he look youthful:

Secondly, Charles gives a personal explanation of what motivated him to get into politics (the shakiness is down to the cameraman, I think, rather than CK):

Posted in YouTube | Tagged charles kennedy | Leave a comment

Police told to ignore European Court of Human Rights over DNA database

By Helen Duffett | Fri 7th August 2009 - 11:13 pm

Despite a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights last December, the Association of Chief Police Officers has written to chief constables in England and Wales advising them to continue adding the DNA profiles of innocent people to the national DNA database. They have been told that new Home Office guidelines will not take effect until 2010.

From the Guardian:

Senior police officers have also been “strongly advised” that it is “vitally important” that they resist individual requests based on the Strasbourg ruling to remove DNA profiles from the national database in cases such as wrongful arrest,

…

Posted in Big mad database and News | Tagged chris huhne, european court of human rights, national dna database and policing | 5 Comments

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Are Tory bloggers less trustworthy than Labour or Lib Dem ones?

By Mark Pack | Fri 7th August 2009 - 9:56 pm

Rather bizarrely, that looks to be the view of the Conservative Party’s Press Office. At the tail end of July, their attitude towards bloggers caught some attention following the refusal of a Conservative press officer to even email an already published letter to a Conservative blogger.

PR Week this week reports that the Conservatives have now changed tack somewhat:

The party has adapted its blogger relations policy after a staffer caused a storm in the Tory blogosphere by admitting the party’s press office does not consider blogs ‘important’…

Posted in Online politics | Tagged blogging, conservative party and iain dale | 24 Comments

LDV readers say: open up BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day

By Stephen Tall | Fri 7th August 2009 - 4:30 pm

A couple of weeks ago, Lib Dem Voice asked our readers the question, Do you think Radio 4’s Thought for the Day should be opened up to secularists and humanists?

The result was pretty clear-cut:

* 60% (384 votes): Yes, open it up
* 19% (122): No, keep it for religion
* 21% (134): Just scrap Thought for the Day
Total Votes: 640 Poll ran: 14th July – 6th August 2009

But we can’t guarantee the BBC will listen…

Posted in Voice polls | Leave a comment

By-election results: 6 August 2009

By Helen Duffett | Fri 7th August 2009 - 2:46 pm

It’s been a quiet week, results-wise, but there are two bits of by-election good news:

Didcot has its first ever Lib Dem Councillor following yesterday’s gain from Labour.

From the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors:

David Rouane (Lib Dem) 152 (42.1%)
Labour 124 (34.3%)
Conservative 85 (23.5%)
Lib Dem majority 28
Turnout 12%

Lib Dem gain from Labour (Labour councillor resigned)

And another Lib Dem for Little Gaddesden Parish Council. Also from ALDC:

Little Gaddesden PC

LD Rob Irving 102
Philip Melville 97

Turnout 23%
(postal votes turnout was in the 40%s)

Congratulations to the new councillors and to everyone who helped with their campaigns.

Posted in Council by-elections | 4 Comments

Millennium’s Credit Crunch Diary… July: Is it ALL about the Banks?

By Millennium Elephant | Fri 7th August 2009 - 1:25 pm

You would think from the news that the BANKS were the most important things in the British Economy.

And I’m afraid you would be RIGHT.

The financial sector is far and away the largest contributor to Great Britain’s Gross Domestic Product; our exports of financial services in 2007 amounted to TWENTY-ONE billion pounds, almost a tenth of ALL exports and more than from adding together our other two big sellers (that’s food and drink: £10bn and, embarrassingly, arms sales: £7bn).

Well now we’ve seen the results for the first half of the year for some of the BIGGEST BANKERS on the High Street. …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged banking and credit crunch | 6 Comments

NEW POLL: What do you think the next general election holds in store for the Lib Dems?

By Stephen Tall | Fri 7th August 2009 - 3:00 am

August may be a quiet month in domestic politics, but it’s merely the precursor to the new Parliamentary year to come – by the end of which there will have to be a general election, and (it seems almost certain) a change of government. What better time, then, to ponder what we think awaits the Lib Dems at that election?

Our poll ratings seem steady enough, consistently in the 18-20% range – down on the equivalent stage in the 2001-05 Parliament, when the party was boosted by its lone opposition to the Iraq war – but pretty strong compared to most …

Posted in Voice polls | 18 Comments

Forthcoming PPC selections

By Mark Pack | Thu 6th August 2009 - 9:59 pm

Fancy standing for Parliament? Here are the selections coming up in the next month, courtesy of the LibDems4Parliament website:

Bournemouth East – PPC (1st Aug 2009 – 28th Aug 2009).

Stourbridge – PPC (1st Aug 2009 – 14th Aug 2009).

Mid Norfolk & South West Norfolk – PPC (1st Aug 2009 – 23rd Sep 2009).

Mid-Bedfordshire – PPC (1st Aug 2009 – 8th Aug 2009).

Hertford & Stortford – PPC (Re-advertisement) (1st Aug 2009 – 8th Aug 2009).

Harrow East – PPC (1st Aug 2009 – 14th Aug 2009).

Basingstoke – PPC (1st Aug 2009 – 27th Aug 2009).

…

Posted in Selection news | Leave a comment

Public in dislike of petty partisan politicking shock!

By Stephen Tall | Thu 6th August 2009 - 6:15 pm

Nick Bye, the third-placed Tory candidate in their Totnes ‘open primary’, writes a cheerily self-deprecating account of his experiences in today’s Times, A popular raspberry against yah-boo politics:

Matthew Parris chaired the big hustings meeting, which I reckoned would be a walkover for me — it was very much my home territory. I’m a mayor and used to traditional, on-the-stump speeches. But this is where the open primary system really worked for Dr Wollaston. She had the good sense to appreciate that party political point-scoring was just not what this audience wanted to hear.

I, however, made the mistake of using one of of my favourite lines of attack. “The biggest myth in British politics is that Liberal Democrats are such nice people” went down a storm in front of the party executive. But in front of a wider audience, it fell as flat as a pancake.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged jeremy warner, jonathan calder, nick bye and vince cable | 8 Comments

Lib Dem Blog of the Year Awards 2009

By Helen Duffett | Thu 6th August 2009 - 5:06 pm

The Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year Awards, run in conjunction with Lib Dem Voice, are back for their fourth year. As usual, they’ll be awarded in a ~~budget~~ lavish ceremony at the party’s autumn conference in Bournemouth. (There’s further information on the event over at the Lib Dems’ Flock Together site). Click on the following links to see last year’s Shortlist and the Winners.

This year’s awards are as follows:

Posted in Best of the blogs, Conference and Online politics | Tagged blog of the year awards and featured | 7 Comments

Thousands of botched operations in Scottish hospitals

By Helen Duffett | Thu 6th August 2009 - 10:54 am

A parliamentary question by the Liberal Democrats has revealed that more than 3,000 patients’ organs were accidentally cut or punctured during surgery over the past five years.

From the Scotsman:

The figures, obtained by Ross Finnie, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, reveal a series of mistakes, including unintentional cuts during operations, and failure of sterile precautions during surgery.

The errors also include instances where “foreign bodies” were accidentally left in a patient’s body during surgery, and an “inappropriate” operation being carried out.

Mr Finnie, who obtained the statistics through parliamentary answers, said: “Most patients will accept that undergoing operations is not without a

…

Posted in News and Scotland | Tagged NHS and ross finnie | 5 Comments

Less than 1 in 16 rapes result in a conviction

By Mark Pack | Wed 5th August 2009 - 8:00 pm

Another part of the party’s policy paper ‘Real Women’ has been released to the media today, highlighting the shocking news that the already dreadfully low rate of conviction for rapes has fallen even further:

Fewer than one in 16 rapes reported to the police results in a conviction in court, research by the Liberal Democrats has revealed. Figures revealed in a Parliamentary answer show that the conviction rate has fallen from less than one in 13 in 1998.

The Liberal Democrats have today called for up to 15 more Rape Crisis Centres to be opened across the country, and for more money

…

Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged lynne featherstone | 33 Comments

Opinion: Getting ready for the next General Election

By John Sharkey | Wed 5th August 2009 - 6:10 pm

At the next General Election we have a once in a generation opportunity. The Labour vote is in freefall and in so many of their traditional heartlands, in places like Newcastle, Liverpool, Hull, Burnley and Sheffield, it is our party that is poised to take electoral advantage. There is now no such thing as a safe Labour seat.

We undoubtedly face a tougher fight against the Tories, however it is clear that the public are far from convinced about Cameron and Osborne. Many voters are being turned off by their assumption that they will breeze into Downing Street after the …

Posted in General Election and Op-eds | Tagged featured | 30 Comments

South West under siege from Tory “lovebombing”?

By Helen Duffett | Wed 5th August 2009 - 5:36 pm

Lib Dem constituencies in the South West (map from the Independent)

The Independent has a piece today on the Lib Dems’ General Election prospects in the South West:

On the Cornish doorsteps, the Conservatives’ man for the Camborne and Redruth seat at the next election is detecting signs that his party is on the verge of a major breakthrough. “There is a feeling here that the Liberal Democrats have not delivered locally,” he says. “There’s everything to play for.”

His quiet confidence in defeating Julia Goldsworthy, the high-profile

…

Posted in News | Tagged jeremy browne, julia goldsworthy and lord ashcroft | 22 Comments

Liberal Democrat General Election Team announced

By Helen Duffett | Wed 5th August 2009 - 3:27 pm

Nick Clegg has announced today the team that will advise him on strategy, resources and communications, as well as the planning and delivery of the Lib Dems’ General Election strategy.

From the Liberal Democrats’ website:

Nick Clegg said:

“I am delighted to announce the team that will lead the planning and delivery of our General Election campaign.

“I have asked John Sharkey, my adviser on Strategic Communications and the former MD of Saatchi’s, to Chair the Campaign, supported by Andrew Stunell MP as Vice Chair.

“John’s extensive experience managing major communications businesses combined with Andrew’s campaigning expertise will be a formidable combination steering the

…

Posted in General Election and News | Tagged andrew stunell, chris fox, Danny Alexander, hilary stephenson, john sharkey, jonny oates and nick clegg | 31 Comments

Anne Main sparks row among St Albans Conservatives

By Helen Duffett | Wed 5th August 2009 - 2:39 pm

From the St Albans and Harpenden Review: (Hat tip: Jonathan Calder)

The future of MP Anne Main has sparked a civil war among St Albans Conservatives.

Chairman Seema Kennedy and her two deputies, Matt Peck and Mary Zambra, asked Mrs Main to step down, and have now called a meeting of the local party’s 300 members on August 13, to vote on her de-selection.

But an opposing faction is backing the MP and trying to remove Mrs Kennedy and Mr Peck from their posts ahead of the crucial vote.

Defying clear advice from the party’s regional campaign director that

…

Posted in News | Tagged anne main, sandy walkington and st albans | 1 Comment

Does it matter if The Observer closes?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 5th August 2009 - 11:00 am

Much speculation this week that The Observer, Sunday sister paper of The Guardian (both of which are owned by Guardian News and Media under the beneficent custodianship of The Scott Trust), is on the brink of being closed down, and perhaps converted into a weekly news magazine. This follows some disastrous financial results for the Guardian Media Group, which recorded a pre-tax loss of almost £90m in 2008-09, £37m of which was contributed by GNM. As the Financial Times reported earlier this week:

GNM has started work on a three-year strategic plan, including radical measures aimed at assuring the future of The Guardian, the group’s daily newspaper, a senior figure in the group said.

The plan is aimed not so much at addressing a fall in newspaper advertising revenues caused by the economic downturn but at surviving the effects of a longer-term shift by readers and advertisers to the internet. …
No decisions have been made on the future of The Observer under the strategic plan but closure of the title in its present form has not been ruled out. According to a person close to the management of The Observer, staff became alarmed last week when they discovered a secret “dummy” of a weekly news magazine with their own title’s branding on it.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged kamal ahmed, roger alton, sunder katwala, sunny hundal and the observer | 13 Comments

Scorched on the Rock

By Stephen Tall | Wed 5th August 2009 - 10:30 am

Yesterday Northern Rock – taken into public ownership 18 months ago – posted its figures for the first six months of the year. They made for eye-watering reading:

Nationalised bank Northern Rock made a pre-tax loss of £724m for the first six months of the year as its bad debts tripled. The Newcastle-based firm wrote off £602m in bad loans and expects that figure to be similar in the second half of 2009.

The bank revealed that 6.4% of Together mortgages – the 125% loan-to-value product now withdrawn – are more than three months in arrears, up from 2.14% a year

…

Posted in News | Tagged banking, northern rock and vince cable | 1 Comment

CommentIsLinked@LDV… Chris Huhne: While we need to clarify the rules for obtaining British citizenship, curtailing people’s freedom of expression is a big mistake

By Stephen Tall | Wed 5th August 2009 - 10:00 am

Over at The Guardian, Lib Dem shadow home secretary Chris Huhne argues that, while we need to clarify the rules for obtaining British citizenship, curtailing people’s freedom of expression is a big mistake. Here’s an excerpt:

There is the germ of a good idea in the government’s proposals for a points-based test for citizenship. It is reasonable to expect people who want to become British citizens to have worked, paid taxes, speak the language and not to have engaged in criminal acts. It is also reasonable to suggest that people who go the extra mile and volunteer in their local community

…

Posted in LibLink | Tagged chris huhne, citizenship and evan harris | 7 Comments

Nine staff sacked for breaking rules over ID cards database

By Mark Pack | Tue 4th August 2009 - 11:16 pm

Computer Weekly has the story:

Nine staff have been sacked from their local authority jobs for snooping on personal records of celebrities and personal acquaintances held on the core database of the government’s National Identity Scheme.

They are among 34 council workers who illegally accessed the Customer Information System (CIS) database, which holds the biographical data of the population that will underpin the government’s multi-billion-pound ID card programme.

Further details are in the full story.

Hat-tip: Ideal Government

Posted in News | 1 Comment

Open primaries: should the Lib Dems adopt the ‘Totnes model’?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 4th August 2009 - 6:30 pm

The announcement today from Totnes of the winner of the Tories’ first ‘open primary’ – in which the party’s Parliamentary candidate has been chosen not by party members, but by over 16,000 voters in the constituency – will prompt all political parties to ask the simple question: is this the future?

The arguments in its favour are obvious, both in terms of ‘democratic renewal’ and canny campaigning:

it has provoked national interest;

the 25% turnout suggests an appetite among the electorate;

the winning candidate has a genuine mandate;

her name recognition will have been boosted;

there has been communication with the whole constituency.

On which basis, you’d conclude it’s a no-brainer: surely every constituency which can remotely afford to run an open primary should adopt the principle. Well, perhaps. But of course it’s not quite that simple.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged costigan quist, electoral reform, featured, james graham and totnes | 31 Comments

Sats results: Record fall in English results

By Helen Duffett | Tue 4th August 2009 - 3:45 pm

Figures published today show that fewer 11 year olds have reached Level 4 in English, the standard expected for their age group. A fifth of 11 year olds did not achieve this level, in the tests taken in May.

The drop in results is the first since Sats tests were introduced in 1995.

From the Daily Mail:

“The depressing figures come despite Labour investing billions over the past decade in literacy and numeracy drives.
This September alone, around four in ten children – almost 220,000 – are expected to move up to secondary school without sufficient mastery of the three Rs.
They

…

Posted in News | Tagged david laws, education and sats | 3 Comments

Oakeshott to challenge Tory peer’s home expense claims

By Helen Duffett | Tue 4th August 2009 - 12:49 pm

From the BBC:

The Lib Dems’ Treasury spokesman Lord Oakeshott said he would be asking Lords authorities what address Lord Taylor claimed for between 2001 and 2007.

Lord Taylor told the newspaper he regarded the property in the West Midlands as his main home.

The Sunday Times alleged Lord Taylor claimed more than £70,000 in overnight allowances between 2001 and 2007 on the basis that his mother’s home in the West Midlands was his main home.

The paper claimed the house was in fact sold in 2001 after his mother’s death – but Lord Taylor said he regarded it as

…

Posted in News | Tagged expenses, lord taylor of warwick and matthew oakeshott | 11 Comments

Stephen Fry pokes fun at Euro-myths

By Mark Pack | Tue 4th August 2009 - 8:50 am

Here’s the “Call my Euro-bluff” section from an episode of QI I stumbled across:

Posted in Europe / International | Tagged stephen fry | 7 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 4 August 2009

By Richard Huzzey | Tue 4th August 2009 - 8:08 am

2 Big Stories

The joint committee of MPs and peers on human rights is calling for an independent review of the evidence that British intelligence officers were complicit in torture:

The Joint Human Rights Committee said it was unable to establish whether British officers were involved in mistreatment of suspects.

It also criticised ministers and the head of MI5 for refusing to testify at parliamentary hearings on the claims.

Meanwhile, Northern Rock has posted losses for its tax-payer owners of £724m:

The Newcastle-based bank, which is to be split into so-called good and bad banks, admitted that many customers were struggling over

…

Posted in News | 1 Comment

Banks: too large to care?

By George Turner | Mon 3rd August 2009 - 10:41 pm

The phrase “bonuses are back” should fill us all with disgust. The taxpayer’s money is being used to support an industry which is in turn paying out staggering amounts to its employees in compensation. Barclays Capital, Barclays’ investment banking arm has announced that it has made profits of £3bn on the first six months of this year. This implies an average pay out of £100,000 for the 22,000 people that work there just for this period.

We should not be fooled by the idea that because Barclays did not receive any funds from the government directly that these profits are …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged banking | 9 Comments

How much do national University standards matter?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 3rd August 2009 - 7:10 pm

The BBC reports:

Universities in England are failing to safeguard degree standards, according to a damning report from MPs. The current system for ensuring quality is “out of date and should be replaced”, the Commons universities select committee concluded. “… “We are extremely concerned that inconsistency in standards is rife and there is a reluctance to address this issue,” said Mr Willis, chair of the Commons Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee.

Lib Dem blogger ‘Costigan Quist’ is sanguine:

Posted in News | Tagged phil willis and universities | 16 Comments

Op-eds

Can we afford the Triple Lock? Not as a low tax party (Joe Wright)
Labour’s new vape tax is disastrous policymaking (Rees Southern)
Welcome to my day: 5 October 2026 – it’s beginning to feel a lot like AGM season… (Mark Valladares)
Observations of an ex pat: Stormy Red Sea (Tom Arms)
By-Election Report 01.10.26 (Joe Nutt)

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Vince Cable writes: Drill, baby, drill…or not

Lib Dems must do better on Burnham

Britain should be proud, but never afraid of the stranger

Lib Dem Women: Amplifying women’s voices at Conference

Tim Farron’s book likes and dislikes: CS Lewis and Richard Dawkins

Boris Johnson brings the house down

LDV Weekend Meme: your favourite blog-posts

YouTube ‘cos we want to: Charles Kennedy special

Police told to ignore European Court of Human Rights over DNA database

Are Tory bloggers less trustworthy than Labour or Lib Dem ones?

LDV readers say: open up BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day

By-election results: 6 August 2009

Millennium’s Credit Crunch Diary… July: Is it ALL about the Banks?

NEW POLL: What do you think the next general election holds in store for the Lib Dems?

Forthcoming PPC selections

Public in dislike of petty partisan politicking shock!

Lib Dem Blog of the Year Awards 2009

Thousands of botched operations in Scottish hospitals

Less than 1 in 16 rapes result in a conviction

Opinion: Getting ready for the next General Election

South West under siege from Tory “lovebombing”?

Liberal Democrat General Election Team announced

Anne Main sparks row among St Albans Conservatives

Does it matter if The Observer closes?

Scorched on the Rock

CommentIsLinked@LDV… Chris Huhne: While we need to clarify the rules for obtaining British citizenship, curtailing people’s freedom of expression is a big mistake

Nine staff sacked for breaking rules over ID cards database

Open primaries: should the Lib Dems adopt the ‘Totnes model’?

Sats results: Record fall in English results

Oakeshott to challenge Tory peer’s home expense claims

Stephen Fry pokes fun at Euro-myths

Daily View 2×2: 4 August 2009

Banks: too large to care?

How much do national University standards matter?

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