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Where I disagree with ConHome over the BNP’s Buckingham Palace Invitation

By Richard Huzzey | Thu 21st May 2009 - 1:28 am

There will be – and should be – widespread disgust at the suggestion that BNP leader Nick Griffin is going to attend a Buckingham Palace garden party, hosted by HM the Queen. For the overwhelming majority of Britons who support racial and cultural diversity, it is offensive to see the British National Party attending a function hosted by the Head of State in honour of public service. It would be embarrassing for the Queen herself, who has been rightly keen to emphasise she is constitutional monarch for Britons of all faiths and races.

However, it would be mistaken to focus …

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Posted in News | Tagged bnp, buckingham palace, ConservativeHome, jonathan isaby, nick griffin, richard barnbrook and tim montgomerie | 18 Comments

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LibDemBlogs.co.uk needs your help to keep running

By Richard Huzzey | Wed 20th May 2009 - 8:34 pm

Users of the excellent Lib Dem Blogs aggregator will have noticed it stopped working earlier today and no longer displays new posts from registered Lib Dem bloggers. This is because it has outgrown its current server arrangements and the site’s owner, Ryan Cullen, needs help from the Lib Dem blogosphere to cover the costs of moving.

If you value your visits to www.libdemblogs.co.uk, then please consider throwing in a donation to cover Ryan’s costs. His labour on the site has been a great resource for readers and authors of Lib Dem blogs. It would be a tragedy to …

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Posted in News | Tagged Lib Dem Blogs and ryan cullen | 7 Comments

Opinion: Pushing for PR

By Daniel Russell | Wed 20th May 2009 - 8:07 pm

In a week which has seen the Commons Speaker lose his job over his part in the mis-handling of MPs’ expenses – which is merely the culmination of a less than satisfactory tenure in the prestigious position – surely it is time for other sweeping changes to be undertaken for the good of politics in the UK? In particular, now must be the time for the Lib Dems to be pushing even harder for proportional representation.

Voter apathy has been all too apparent in recent years and the disconnection between the public and the political process has been getting wider and …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged constitutional reform, mps expenses and proportional representation | 12 Comments

“Touché, Mr Speaker!” (It’s pronounced ‘Touchy’)

By Stephen Tall | Wed 20th May 2009 - 6:57 pm

If you haven’t seen it, here’s the moment the outgoing Speaker Michael Martin forgot to call Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg – the man who last Sunday called for him to quit – for his traditional supplementary question at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions:

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Posted in News | Tagged michael martin, nick clegg and PMQs | 3 Comments

Opinion: the worst outcome of MPs’ expenses, a victory for the far right?

By George Turner | Wed 20th May 2009 - 2:15 pm

PoliticsHome recently carried some rather shocking numbers from a poll that it conducted between the 14-15 of May saying that over a quarter of British voters have changed their voting intentions as a result of the MPs’ expenses scandal. The main beneficiary it seems is UKIP, with 28% of those changing loyalty to the anti-European Union party. The second biggest beneficiary is the BNP with 16%.

Leaving aside for a moment the thoroughly disagreeable politics of these parties, any gain by UKIP or the BNP in the European elections on the basis of anger over expenses would be a …

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Posted in News | Tagged bnp, mps expenses and ukip | 5 Comments

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Phil Willis latest Lib Dem MP named by Telegraph

By Stephen Tall | Wed 20th May 2009 - 1:20 pm

We have a rather belated entrant into the pantheon of Lib Dem MPs accused by the Telegraph of having abused the expenses system: Harrogate and Knaresborough’s Phil Willis.

The full Telegraph story is here. Tracing the sequence from the newspaper’s (actually rather confusing) report, it appears Phil’s main residence is near Harrogate, and he bought a basement flat as his London base a decade ago (presumably when first elected). So far no story.

However, in April 2007, Phil bought the neighbouring basement flat for £215,000, and designated it as his second home, claiming some expenses for stamp duty, legal …

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Posted in News | Tagged mps expenses and phil willis | 19 Comments

If you want to be outraged about something other than MP expenses…

By Mark Pack | Wed 20th May 2009 - 11:55 am

Awful news from today’s Independent:

More than 800 people with haemophilia have received contaminated blood products putting them at heightened risk of developing vCJD, the Government has disclosed for the first time.

The figures were revealed in a parliamentary answer from Lord Darzi, a Health minister, following the death of a haemophiliac who had received infected blood products…

Lord Morris, who established the privately funded two-year inquiry into the haemophilia “tainted blood” scandal after the Government declined to hold one, said yesterday: “There were only 6,000 haemophiliacs and almost 2,000 died of infection with hepatitis C and HIV. Now another 800 are

…

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Posted in News | Tagged lord darzi | 4 Comments

PMQs: change the whole system

By Alix Mortimer | Wed 20th May 2009 - 11:52 am

We open with tributes to the Speaker from Brown and Cameron, and a planted question on the government’s forthcoming Gurkhas statement. The House listens in faintly disgusted silence to Gordon Brown making a virtue of the fact that he had to be made to do something.

We follow with tussling between Brown and Cameron over whether or not a General Election would cause chaos. Cameron trying to persuade us that an election would mean “addressing the issues” and “a fresh start” – see Costigan Quist’s post on this subject this morning, if you haven’t already. Brown’s

…

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Posted in PMQs | 7 Comments

More Lib Dem saints #MPexpenses

By Alix Mortimer | Wed 20th May 2009 - 10:31 am

The Telegraph continues its series of saintly MPs and three more Lib Dems are included.

Tom Brake, Susan Kramer and Ed Davey are all Greater London MPs with columns of zeroes next to their ACA claims, even though they are strictly speaking entitled to them. They join Sarah Teather, Lynne Featherstone and David Howarth who have already featured in the series.

Here’s an interesting thing: will Vince Cable be included in this holy parade? He too is a Greater London MP who doesn’t claim the ACA he is entitled to. I seem to recall

…

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Posted in News | Tagged ed davey, mps expenses, susan kramer, tom brake and vince cable | 9 Comments

Daily View: 2×2

By Alix Mortimer | Wed 20th May 2009 - 9:02 am

2 big stories

There’s only one game in town this morning, and it’s a mish-mash of the Speaker’s resignation plus the interim measures on expenses he announced yesterday. The Guardian has it:

MPs will no longer be allowed to “flip” second homes or claim for household goods, the outgoing Commons Speaker Michael Martin announced tonight as part of a “robust” set of interim measures aimed at resolving the MPs’ expenses crisis.

Just hours after telling the Commons he was standing down as Speaker next month following pressure over his handling of the expenses debacle, Martin reappeared

…

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Posted in News | 7 Comments

Ben Chapman’s rise and fall mirrors the rise and fall of Labour

By Mark Pack | Wed 20th May 2009 - 7:50 am

March 1997: John Major is Prime Minister and there’s a Parliamentary by-election in the Conservative-held seat of Wirral South. With a general election expected within weeks, the by-election is a major political event, with widespread media coverage.

New Labour use the campaign to showcase their mix of new and old, in the form of their candidate. He is Ben Chapman, the son of a farm labourer (tick the traditional Labour box) who became a successful senior civil servant, went into business and was a very recent recruit to the party (tick the New Labour box).

Carefully marshaled by minders through the campaign, …

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Posted in News | Tagged ben chapman, gordon brown, mps expenses and tony blair | 4 Comments

LDV members’ survey – MPs’ expenses special – now live

By Stephen Tall | Tue 19th May 2009 - 5:30 pm

The new LDV members’ survey is now live – this one focuses exclusively on the hot topic of MPs’ expenses. So if you are a registered member of the Liberal Democrat Voice forum – and any paid-up party member is welcome to join – then you now have the opportunity to make your views known. Questions we are asking your opinion on include:

– your views on MPs in general and the Telegraph’s reporting;
– which party you think has been hardest hit by the allegations;
– which Lib Dem MPs named by the Telegraph you think have questions to answer;
– whether …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged chris rennard and mps expenses | 4 Comments

Another BNP fakery scandal

By Mark Pack | Tue 19th May 2009 - 3:52 pm

The BNP like to style themselves as the party that tells the truth, which is why the tales of their fake photos and made-up statistics matter. Here’s the latest BNP fakery:

AN ex-Guardsman branded the BNP “scumbags” last night for using his photo and faked words on an election flyer.

Former Scots Guards NCO Stuart Walker, 37, was shocked to see a picture of himself in uniform outside Buckingham Palace on a poll leaflet.

He told The Sun: “I was completely outraged when I saw this leaflet. I think they got the photo off a website and the quote they’ve made

…

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Posted in News | Tagged bnp and the sun | 7 Comments

Tim Montgomerie writes about www.nothingbritish.com

By The Voice | Tue 19th May 2009 - 3:00 pm

We’ve taken the slightly unusual step of inviting Tim Montgomerie of ConservativeHome to write this guest post as his latest internet venture is one on which there is much common ground.

It’s a great pleasure to write for Liberal Democrat Voice. I read it most days and learn a great deal from it. More than occasionally it gives me ideas for posts on ConservativeHome!

We have many things in common as Conservatives and Liberal Democrats and many things that divide us. Perhaps the most important area of common ground is our belief in a Britain where every person – regardless …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged bnp, tim montgomerie and yougov | 30 Comments

NEW POLL: who do you think should be the next Speaker?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 19th May 2009 - 1:19 pm

Well, it’s come to pass – Michael Martin is set this afternoon to resign as Speaker of the House of Commons after his botched handling of the row over MPs’ expenses. The question on everyone’s lips now is: who will replace him? We’ve set up a new poll asking just that question – here are the most-frequently touted candidates from whom to choose:

Diane Abbott

Sir Alan Haselhurst

Frank Field

Sir George Young

Richard Taylor

Vince Cable

Sir Menzies Campbell

Ken Clarke

Sir Alan Beith

David Davis

Norman Baker

Sir Patrick Cormack

Tony Wright

Other (please state in comments)

More important …

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Posted in Voice polls | 33 Comments

LDV readers say: 85% wanted Michael Martin to quit

By Stephen Tall | Tue 19th May 2009 - 12:50 pm

Well, y’know, I’m personally convinced that Michael Martin must have been finally convinced to quit when he saw the overwhelming result of LDV’s over-night poll showing 85% of readers thought he should quit now. So much more likely than that the Prime Minister instructed him to resign voluntarily.

Here, for the record,is what you said in response to the question, “Do you think the Speaker of the House of Commons Michael Martin should resign over his handling of the MPs’ expenses row?”

>> 85% (137 votes) – The Speaker should resign now – reform cannot wait until the general election.
>> 9% (15)

…

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Posted in News, Parliament and Voice polls | Tagged douglas carswell, house of commons, michael martin, mps expenses and nick clegg | 4 Comments

Tony Greaves writes… Abolish postal voting on demand

By Tony Greaves | Tue 19th May 2009 - 11:25 am

I want to abolish postal voting on demand, which was introduced in 2000 with the best of intentions. It has proved to be wide open to electoral fraud, corruption and fiddling, and is a thoroughly bad thing.

Ministers have talked about the “convenience” of voting. This is the word the Government used in the Electoral Administration Bill in 2006, when I was ploughing the same furrow. They talked about convenience and increasing turnout. Unfortunately there are unintended consequences, many of which are unavoidable.

The Electoral Commission report in August 2004, following the last European election – Delivering Democracy? The Future of …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged postal voting | 25 Comments

Speaker Michael Martin to resign

By Helen Duffett | Tue 19th May 2009 - 10:47 am

Sky News reports that Commons Speaker Michael Martin will resign this afternoon, over the MPs’ expenses scandal.

Martin is expected to make a statement to the House of Commons at 2:30pm today.

Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged michael martin and mps expenses | 4 Comments

How the Canadian pollsters performed

By Mark Pack | Tue 19th May 2009 - 10:10 am

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire:

May 12th saw voting in the British Columbia elections. This Canadian provincial election saw Gordon Campbell’s governing Liberals re-elected and also a few barbs thrown about internet polling. As in the UK, internet polling has both its fans and its detractors. So does the Canadian experience help shed any light on the UK polling debates?

Perhaps the most striking fact about Canadian pollsters is that they haven’t yet had a “1970″. In Britain, pollsters got the 1970 general election badly wrongly with much of the blame being placed on having fieldwork that ended too far ahead …

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Posted in Polls | Tagged carole james and gordon campbell | 4 Comments

The MPs who blocked expenses reform last summer

By Mark Pack | Tue 19th May 2009 - 8:50 am

Last summer an unholy alliance of Labour and Conservative MPs voted to block a series of major reforms to MP expenses, such as requiring receipts for all claims, having outside checks and major changes to the Additional Costs Allowance (ACA).

I commented on Dawn Butler’s role in this yesterday and on looking through the details of the vote it is good to see that all the Liberal Democrat MP voting went through the lobbies in favour of reform. Of course, the bulk of the blame for blocking the reforms must lie with the Labour Party as 146 of their MPs …

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Posted in News | Tagged david cameron and mps expenses | 6 Comments

What they said about the Speaker

By Mark Pack | Tue 19th May 2009 - 7:55 am

“An incompetent and unknown man forced into the Chair by a petty majority in the face of an election defeat known to be impending.”

Oh, perhaps I should add that this was Lord Salisbury 1895 about Speaker William Court Gully.

Posted in Parliament | Leave a comment

The BNP’s made-up statistic

By Mark Pack | Mon 18th May 2009 - 11:17 pm

The BNP’s European leaflets have attracted some attention for their fake photos and the law suit arising from their use of another photo, but they’ve also got a made-up statistic.

Here’s the BNP claim:

However, Turkey’s population is only 75 million.

So even if you think that everyone in Turkey is low-waged, this wouldn’t be true. But as certainly not everyone is low-waged, it’s even less true.

Posted in News | Tagged bnp | 30 Comments

Dawn Butler’s whirlpool bath

By Mark Pack | Mon 18th May 2009 - 10:49 pm

When blogging earlier today about how Labour MP Dawn Butler was one of those who blocked reforms to MPs’ expenses last year it crosseed my mind to make a satirical comment. Good thing I didn’t try really, as it would have been topped straight away by the latest Daily Telegraph revelation – that she claimed for a Jacuzi-style bath on expenses.

Posted in News | Tagged daily telegraph, dawn butler and mps expenses | 10 Comments

Three “saintly” Liberal Democrat MPs #MPexpenses

By Helen Duffett | Mon 18th May 2009 - 6:16 pm

The Telegraph has canonised three Liberal Democrat MPs (for what that’s worth) because they have not made claims for second homes:

Sarah Teather’s balance sheet has a column of zeroes, as does fellow London MP Lynne Featherstone’s, here.

David Howarth, whose Cambridge constituency is a significant commuting distance from London, is also listed.

It’s worth noting that none of the Liberal Democrat MPs from London constituencies claim an allowance for a second home, but it’s still good to see the Telegraph including Lib Dems in their praise.

Posted in News | Tagged david howarth, lynne featherstone, mps expenses and sarah teather | 8 Comments

Dawn Butler’s voting record #MPexpenses

By Mark Pack | Mon 18th May 2009 - 5:44 pm

Brent South Labour MP Dawn Butler has been under fire over her expense claims, as previously covered on this site (including a link to the fun BBC report timing the travel distance from her two homes). Her local newspaper recently reported:

MPs in Brent are facing heavy criticism over alleged expense claims.

and went on to cover Dawn Butler’s claims. It included this, er…, interesting defence from Dawn Butler:

At the first opportunity I voted for reform.

One problem with that defence. For she was an MP at the time of the 3rd July 2008 votes on reforming …

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Posted in News | Tagged dawn butler and mps expenses | 4 Comments

First reactions to the Speaker’s statement on #MPexpenses

By Mark Pack | Mon 18th May 2009 - 3:42 pm

Two Liberal Democrat MPs have twittered their views on Michael Martin’s statement:

@joswinson resisting even debating the no confidence motion is the wrong path to take, this problem won’t just go away #MPexpenses

@lfeatherstone Speaker does not get it Another mtg is not the answer #MPexpenses

What’s your view? The comments thread awaits… (and by all means all post up links to any other responses you spot).

Posted in News | Tagged Jo Swinson, lynne featherstone, michael martin and mps expenses | 14 Comments

A look at the Euro polls to date

By Stephen Tall | Mon 18th May 2009 - 1:57 pm

We’re mid-way through the campaign for the European Parliament elections – though, as yet, discussion of Britain’s role in the EU has not been the, erm, dominant story. But, still, there have been five polls to date in May specifically asking for the public’s Euro voting intentions, so let’s check out what they’ve been saying:

Here they are in chronological order:

Con 36%, Lab 25%, Lib Dem 20%, Ukip 7%, Green 4%, BNP 4%, Nats 4% (YouGov all naming party, 10th May)

Con 37%, Lab 22%, Lib Dem 19%, Ukip 7%, Green 4%, BNP 4%, Nats 5% (YouGov certain to vote, 10th May)

Con

…

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Posted in Europe / International and Polls | Tagged european elections, mps expenses and yougov | 5 Comments

DLT: Economic Liberalism

By Dictionary of Liberal Thought | Mon 18th May 2009 - 10:20 am

Duncan Brack and Ed Randall, authors of the Dictionary of Liberal Thought, have kindly agreed to let us publish extracts on Lib Dem Voice. This month we continue our trilogy of postings on liberalism – classical, economic and social. Last month it was classical; this month, it’s economic. You can read other previous extracts on LDV here. The entire book is available on Amazon here and can also be bought at the Westminster Bookshop.

Economic Liberalism

In political terms, economic liberals proclaim their belief in individual freedom and free markets; they support a reduction in the role of the …

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Posted in Dictionary of Liberal Thought | 6 Comments

E-campaigning mentors needed

By Rob Blackie | Mon 18th May 2009 - 10:20 am

Do you need advice on e-campaigning? Or do you have experiences that you’d like to share on e-campaigning?

If so look no further.

The hearts & minds group of the Technology Advisory Board are setting up a mentoring scheme to match people who want to give advice on e-campaigning to people who need advice on how to campaign better.

We already have a number of experienced local campaigners ready – just click here to see more on the forum, follow the instructions there and they’ll get back to you.

Rob Blackie is a former Lib Dem Director of …

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Posted in Online politics | Tagged technology advisory board | Leave a comment

The LDV 2×2 Daily View (18/05/09)

By Helen Duffett | Mon 18th May 2009 - 7:50 am

At no cost to the taxpayer, Lib Dem Voice brings you this morning’s picks from the news and blogs (still dominated by the revelations about MPs’ expenses):

2 Big Stories

From FT.com:
Commons Speaker battles to keep job

Michael Martin, the Commons Speaker, will today make a desperate appeal to stay in his job, as MPs plot to make him the most prominent casualty of the Westminster expenses furore.

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, broke with convention yesterday in calling for Mr Martin to resign. David Cameron, Tory leader, refused to say how he would vote in a confidence motion to be

…

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Posted in Daily View and News | Tagged Jo Swinson, michael martin and nick clegg | 1 Comment