Nick’s pick of the greatest Parliamentary speeches in the last century

A big tip of my hat to Michael White in today’s Guardian for his feature, Greatest speeches in parliament of the past 100 years, 1909-2009, which links to a number of the Hansard transcripts of Parliamentary speeches nominated by ’46 distinguished figures, mostly living peers and MPs, plus a few officials and observers’.

It’s well worth browsing lazily through – as, incidentally, is the Hansard website, which you can access here. You can, for instance, search on speeches by “Jo Grimond”, and read ‘Major Grimond’s’ (as he then was known) maiden speech from March 10, 1950 …

Posted in Europe / International and Parliament | Tagged , , and | 2 Comments
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New edition of Liberator

The latest edition of Liberator magazine (issue no.332 – April 2009) has just been mailed to subscribers. Here’s a summary of the contents:

• The ever popular Commentary editorial considers the Tories’ complicity in the financial crisis and the problem of neoliberal economic dogma.
• The insider gossip column Radical Bulletin leads with an analysis of the continuing internal dispute in Aberdeenshire.
• Our lead article ‘Reconnecting with our radical heritage’ is written by Matthew Sowemimo, Director of the Social Liberal Forum. He explains why the Social Liberal Forum has been created and why it has been launched now.
•

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LDV members’ survey (4): big increases for Lib Dem and Nick Clegg approval ratings

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 almost 200 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: Do you think, as a …

Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged | Leave a comment

Quite possibly the daftest political comment of the weekend

From Friday’s Guardian, where we have Jury Team’s millionaire founder Paul Judge saying,

Judge said Jury Team was able to criticise Smith in a way that mainstream opposition politicians could not because it was independent of party politics.

“We know that the Conservatives and Lib Dems won’t dare attack a fellow MP on the issue of sleaze.”

Yeah right; I’ve never heard a Conservative or Lib Dem MP criticise another MP on sleaze, have I? (Except, obviously, for all the numerous occassions when I have.)

Posted in News | Tagged | 6 Comments

Do we really work the longest hours in Europe?

Comedian Dave Cohen was on the case in The Guardian last week:

Everybody knows we Brits work the longest hours in Europe. We’ve read it so many times it must be true, mustn’t it?

I am a comedy writer and performer, not an investigative journalist. I once read an article by John Pilger and I used to cover meetings of Llantrisant village council for the Pontypridd Observer, although announcing the construction of a roundabout on Coedcae Lane was as close as I ever got to a scoop.

But in the course of making a documentary for the BBC about my shambolic efforts to

…

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Miriam attacks stem cell waste

The Independent has the full story:

The wife of the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has criticised the financial and bureaucratic barriers that prevent British mothers from donating discarded umbilical cords to a national tissue bank.

Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, who married Mr Clegg in 2000, said she wanted to donate the cord blood cells of her third child, Miguel, to a national tissue bank but was told it was impossible.

Cord blood contains stem cells that can be used in transplant operations to treat a range of disorders relating to the blood and immune system, such as leukaemia and anaemia.

The Government has

…

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Do you belong to a suspicious group? It’s hard not to…

So far-fetched have been recent grounds for arrest, or for flagging yourself up as a terrorist suspect, that people keep asking me if Lib Dem Voice is running a series of hoax posts. (We’ve had lingering near street ironworks, ordering vegetarian airline meals, handing in lost property, scaring ducks, putting your bin out on the wrong day, looking at things and – easily the most heinous, in my opinion – going equipped with balloons.)

I thought I was joking (albeit darkly) when I said on LibDig that people might one day be singled out for their taste in music, but even that now appears to have happened. Home Office Watch features the terrifying ordeal of a jazz musician arrested by anti-terror police who had taken his soundproofed studio, replete with wires, as a sign of bomb-making.

We read everywhere of the bewildering array of groups whom the Government has decided should carry ID cards, from Mancunians to pilots, or in a happy Venn-style coincidence, both.

Then there’s people travelling outside the UK… people travelling inside the UK…

(Are you remembering all these vital clues? Tricky when there doesn’t seem to be any particular pattern behind them.)

So who should we be wary of? What we need is a handy guide in pictures. Never mind Keeping Calm and Carrying On nor indeed not keeping calm and carrying on. At last, I’ve found just the thing:

Posted in Big mad database | Tagged | 15 Comments

Catchup to 5th April 2009

It’s Sunday night, it’s the early hours of the morning – it’s LDV Catchup!

And this was the week in which even more MPs fell foul of the media in the great expense extravaganza, which was particularly embarrassing for Jacqui Smith. Chris Grayling came in for criticism for representing a constituency 17 miles from London but still claiming both second home allowance and high travel costs. Eric Pickles fun time on Question Time finally became available on Youtube – both with and without a Monty Python Yorkshiremen mashup. Thank goodness Nick Clegg has the answer.

It was …

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Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #111

Welcome to the 111th (and, yes, I am hopping) of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (29th March – 4th April 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, mostly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

As ever, let’s start with the most popular post, and work our way down.

Posted in Best of the blogs | 2 Comments

LDV members’ survey (3): yes to assisted suicide, and to incitement to gay hatred ban

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 almost 200 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.

In the light of the controversy over Swiss right-to-die organisation Dignitas, LDV asked: Do you think the law should be changed, so that it is no longer illegal to assist a relative in seeking assisted suicide abroad?

Here’s what you told us:

Yes – 75.3%
No – 17.5%
Don’t know – 7.2%

Here’s a small selection of your comments:

Some confusion is useful. Leave it to the courts.
The right to die in dignity should be respected.
This is not the sort of thing which Parliament should interfere with. A Nelsonian blind eye is a much more adult, progressive and Liberal approach.
I do not think suicide should be encouraged, whether assisted or not, whether here or abroad.
Very frequently assisted suicide as it is called is an act of love.
I don’t think it should be illegal to travel abroad and if assisteed suicide is legal in a foriegn juristiction then thats there problem.
To each a life is given and it is for each to ‘live it’ and ‘death it’ as they deem right – so long as no harm to others is caused.
It must be a difficult decision and I couldn’t do so; let’s not criminalise those who are brave enough to do so.
By analogy with abortion, if we legalise it in the UK, then we can regulate the circumstances in which it’s permissible.

We then asked: Should assisted suicide be legal in the UK?

Again, there was strong support, but less strong than for allowing it to happen overseas:

Yes – 61.9%
No – 26.8%
Don’t know – 11.3%

Here’s a little of what you said:

At least, not until the change in the law okaying ones done abroad is given some time.
It’s going to happen anyway. Legalise and regulate it very tightly, that’s vastly better than having it happen unregulated in secret.
But with important legal safeguards to guarantee informed consent.
I have every sympathy with those who are suffering intolerably and wish to end their own life but I am concerned for those who may be pressured to this against their wishes.
I don’t support assisted suicide. But I think patients should be able to give waivers to allow enhanced palliative care even if it shortens their lives as a side-effect.

Finally for today, we asked about the criminalisation of incitement to hatred over sexual orientation, as supported by the Lib Dems last month: Liberal Democrat spokespeople have supported a new law to ban incitement to hatred against individuals based on their sexual orientation. What do you think?

Posted in LDV Members poll | 5 Comments

A look back at the polls: March 2009

We tend not to be too poll-obsessed here at LDV – of course we look at them, as do all other politico-geeks, but viewed in isolation no one poll will tell you very much beyond what you want to read into it. Looked at over a reasonable time-span and, if there are enough polls, you can see some trends.

Here, in chronological order, are the results of the eight polls published in March:

Tories 42%, Labour 30%, Lib Dems 19% – Populus/Times (9th March 2009)
Tories 41%, Labour 31%, Lib Dems 17% – YouGov/S. Times (15th March)
Tories 42%, Labour 32%, Lib Dems 14%

…

Posted in Op-eds and Polls | Tagged , , , and | 10 Comments

Should BBC licence fee-payers foot £150k ‘Sachsgate’ fine?

No, says Don Foster, the Lib Dems’ shadow culture, media and sports secretary, following media regulator Ofcom’s announcement on Friday that it was fining the BBC £150,000 following the infamous prank calls made by Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross on Mr Brand’s Radio 2 show:

This money should come out of Jonathan Ross’s salary so that broadcasting does not suffer.”

Hmmm. Sorry, Don, but you’ve not convinced me your statement is anything other than populist drivel.

Of course Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross bear ultimate resonsibility for their potty-mouths. But what they said was broadcast by the BBC, and the Beeb …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 25 Comments

Update on G20 death inquiry

The Observer reports on witness statements taken by the Independent Police Complaints Commission:

Investigators are examining a series of corroborative accounts that allege Ian Tomlinson, 47, was a victim of police violence in the moments before he collapsed near the Bank of England in the City of London last Wednesday evening. Three witnesses have told the Observer that Mr Tomlinson was attacked violently as he made his way home from work at a nearby newsagents. One claims he was struck on the head with a baton.

…

A police source told the Observer that Mr Tomlinson appears to have become caught between police lines and protesters, with officers chasing back demonstrators during skirmishes.

This possibility is supported by footage of an Al Jazeera reporter being caught in a police charge and pushed into the main body of the protestors while reporting to camera:

Posted in News | Tagged , and | 4 Comments

Why would watching someone swim fast inspire you to mow your lawn?

I’m all for encouraging gardening. More gardening can make people healthier, benefit the environment and improve the local area. And, far more importantly, for many people it’s a great source of enjoyment.

I’m also relaxed about the idea of government in some way being involved in such encouragement; for example, by local councils running gardening courses.

But I really can’t see how the government can claim with a straight face that encouraging more gardening is one of the objectives for the 2012 Olympics. For as the Financial Times reports:

Ministers sought to dig themselves out of an allotment-sized hole on Friday to

…

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Jury Team: so far, it’s a flop

Jury Team is the new political organisation that is letting anyone put themselves forward for selection as a European Parliament candidate on their behalf and is letting the public vote on who should actually stand.

Its launch got extensive mainstream media coverage, including from the BBC, Mail, Telegraph, Sky, Guardian and Sunday Times. Moreover, almost all of the coverage was very friendly, e.g. not pointing out the myriad of similar ventures in the past which have failed nor asking why their website goes out of its way to encourage anonymous donations.

With that favourable background and now only 20 days to go until the close of poll for their candidate selection process, it seems fair to judge Jury Team on how it is doing so far.

And the picture is one of a party that has flopped. Because the latest figures from their website shows that in three quarters of the European Parliament electoral regions the number of number of people who have applied to be a candidate is the same (2 regions) or less (7 regions) than the number of seats up for election. In one region, there is not even a single name put forward. Letting the public choose your candidates doesn’t add up to much if there aren’t enough on offer to provide an actual choice.

Moreover, the number of votes cast in total to select the candidates has been tiny. In only four regions have more than 150 votes been cast in total by the public, with the total under 50 in three regions (and zero in a fourth where there are no candidates on offer).

Far from being a major step forward in involving the public, the number of votes cast across a whole region in most cases is smaller than the number of votes often cast in the selection of a candidate for just one Parliamentary constituency by one of the mainstream parties. Similar, the numbers of supporters on Facebook or people looking at their films on YouTube are extremely small.

Even on Twitter, although the number of followers is superficially more respectable (but still under 1,000), it is only half the number of people who Jury Team are following on Twitter. Following double the number of people who are following you is normally a sure sign of a Twitter account that is trying very hard to get noticed (becuase if you follow someone on Twitter, they will often follow you back), but failing.

Overall, it’s looking rather like a flop so far.

Here are the full figures, taken from the Jury Team website and other websites on Saturday 4th April:

Posted in News | Tagged and | 20 Comments

Opinion: The Rubber Chicken Circuit and Lib Dem policy on factory farming

The ubiquity of overcooked, tasteless chicken served at political fundraising events is such that it has warranted the invention of a phrase that must surely strike fear into the hearts of even our most sociable Elected Members: The Rubber Chicken Circuit.

It was probably inevitable that chicken would become the meat of choice to serve at such events because of its almost universal popularity and the fact that it is now one of the cheapest meats available. But I always wonder how this has become the case at Liberal Democrat events, given that we are the only party to …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 3 Comments

Brian Coleman and road safety: Partingdale Lane update

Last year I blogged about the controversial road safety record of Conservative London Assembly Member Brian Coleman, he also of the exorbitant expense claims. One of the issues I highlighted was Partingdale Lane which had been closed to traffic on safety grounds:

He insisted on opening the road, had to think again after the courts ruled against the policy (with the judge directly criticising Brian Coleman’s behaviour), then saw £250,000 spent on safety measures, even after all that the road sees regular accidents though Brian Coleman claimed that residents had faked a

…

Posted in News | Tagged | 2 Comments

Opinion: Gin-swigging Geldof joins chorus of calls for free trade

A BBC chin-wag with Bob Geldof was a predictable part of the G20 coverage, and culminated perhaps equally predictably, with ‘Sir Bob’ confessing that he’d been knocking back gin. He then peevishly crushed a plastic up and chucked it on the ground.

Sounds like my kind of evening.

Nonetheless, some of his sentiments, if not so predictable, were especially pertinent. On the importance of trade, he said:

Look, probably the great unsung triumph so far of the twenty-first century was the lifting of 400 million Chinese people out of extreme poverty—through trade.”

Furthermore, he urged governments to stop erecting …

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

LDV members’ survey (2): booze, recession and Afghanistan

Over the last week, 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 almost 200 of you who completed it; we’re publishing the results on LDV over the next few days.

We asked: The Chief Medical Officer has proposed fixing a minimum price for alcohol sales in Britain. This measure is opposed by the Tories and Labour, but …

Posted in LDV Members poll | 8 Comments

“Women Erased in Israel, Flogged in Pakistan and Restricted in Afghanistan”

The New York Times headline neatly wraps up three stories about the at times grim, and in the photoshopping case verging on farcical, struggle for women’s rights across much of the Middle East:

On Friday, The Associated Press reported that Israeli newspapers “aimed at ultra-Orthodox Jewish readers” digitally manipulated a photograph of the new Israeli government, to remove two female cabinet ministers, Limor Livnat and Sofa Landver…

The Pakistani newspaper Dawn reports on Friday that Pakistan’s prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, is “taking serious notice of the public flogging of a girl in Swat” and “has ordered the authorities to inquire

…

Posted in Europe / International | Tagged , and | 1 Comment

Leeds councillor rejoins the party

From Headingley Today:

A councillor elected as a Liberal Democrat, who defected to Labour and then sat as an Independent has rejoined the Lib Dems. Councillor Kabeer Hussain who represents Hyde Park and Woodhouse, has been welcomed back by the Liberal Democrats.

Posted in News | Tagged | 7 Comments

LDV members’ survey (1): 80% support for Nick’s tax stance

Over the last week, 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 almost 200 of you who completed it; we’ll be publishing the results on LDV over the next few days.

First up, we asked about the Lib Dems’ policy on tax: Nick Clegg this week announced that the Lib Dems would no longer find it possible to cut the overall burden of taxation because of the current economic crisis, as had been announced in last year’s Make It Happen policy document. The party will continue to pledge to cut the taxes of low- and middle-income earners, though, funded by raising taxes for the wealthiest. Which of these statements best represents your view?

Here’s what you told us:

80.3% – This is the right approach: tax cuts for the poorest are needed, but the overall burden cannot be reduced in the current circumstances


8.3% – Nick Clegg was wrong to drop the party’s pledge to cut the overall burden of taxation
8.3% – Pledging to cut taxes at all, even for the lowest paid, in the current economic circumstances is unrealistic
3.1% – Don’t know

Here’s a selection of your comments:

Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged and | 2 Comments

The silence of Da Fink

The Times’s Daniel Finkelstein suddenly seems uncharacteristically shy.

On successive days this week, he has denounced senior Lib Dems – Baroness Williams, Simon Hughes, Chris Huhne and David Howarth – for acting as legal observers to ensure the freedom to protest peacefully was respected at this week’s climate camp in London, organised to coincide with the G20 summit.

As I’ve previously mentioned – here and here – also on successive days Danny has neglected to mention last August’s Kingsnorth climate camp, after which serious concerns were raised about policing methods.

Nor has Danny acknowledged the concerns noted just 10 …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 2 Comments

Ed Davey on Lisbon treaty: “I’ve read all the key parts”

Caroline Flint, Labour’s minister of state for Europe, sparked some minor controversy earlier this week, after she admitted she had not read parts of the Lisbon treaty: “I have read some of it but not all of it,” she confessed. The Tories professed their outrage, seemingly forgetting Ken Clarke’s famous declaration, back when he was a senior member of John Major’s cabinet, that he had not read the Maastricht treaty.

LDV felt duty-bound to put the question to Ed Davey, the Lib Dems’ shadow foreign secretary – here’s what he told us:

I’ve read all the key parts, but there

…

Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged , , and | 2 Comments

First Plaid and Labour vote for cuts, then they oppose them…

An interesting use of YouTube by the Welsh Liberal Democrats. As they put it, “On March 11th, Plaid Cymru and Labour AMs voted for cuts in FE funding. Three weeks later they protest with lecturers and students on the steps of the Senedd about FE cuts.”

Watch the story below (or via the YouTube website):

Posted in Lib Dem TV and Wales | Tagged | 7 Comments

Chris Grayling – should I have defended him?

Voicers may recall that back in February I raised a sardonic eyebrow at the outrage surrounding Chris Grayling’s immolation at the hands of the Mirror.

The issue at stake was his second home allowance, when his constituency (my home town of Epsom and Ewell) is only 17 miles from Westminster. Not so fast, said I!:

“Only” 17 miles, eh? Ever tried negotiating it on the train? Oh, but of course not. You all live in Islington, don’t you.

One of my favourite pet facts to come out of the Policy Exchange report Cities Unlimited was that

…

Posted in News | Tagged | 2 Comments

Maggie Clay passes away

Very sad news about the death of Maggie Clay:

It is with deep regret I feel I must inform you that Councillor Maggie Clay passed away yesterday (Thursday 2nd April).

Maggie was much admired by all of us for her strong principles and her determination to make life better for people in Stockport. She played a leading role in many of our Council campaigns and most recently was at the forefront of our work to help people access benefits and be able to pay their winter fuel bills.

She was a caring champion who looked after our communities in need, and we shall

…

Posted in News | 27 Comments

Opinion: The morning after

I walked around the City of London this morning. Sunlight filtered through the banks and sandwich bars of the narrow streets, occasionally reaching the road, more often than not reflected from the acres of glass left gleaming and untroubled the the events of the previous days.

Around the Bank of England I searched for evidence of the violence and anarchy from the hard-core of the idiots who visited the G20 summit only to cause trouble. A rather lonely scrawl of “Fuck Capitalism” could be seen under the Bank’s museum entrance sign, and on the other side, more wittily someone had written “Because we’re evil” under a “No Bicycles” sign.

The small branch of RBS that had made the news as the nexus of ‘public’ anger had two windows boarded up and a rather cheerful offer of 3.5% interest on a cash ISA in the next.

Down Bishopgate where the peaceful Climate Camp had stretched for half a mile, before the Police decided to recycle their tents into environmentally unfriendly shopping bags, there was even less evidence that anything had happened.

The G20 had come, the G20 had gone, some people wanted a bit of a shout about it, and had achieved some commemorative mug shots of being oppressed to share with their mates on MySpace. Somebody accidentally died, and to everyone’s amazement it wasn’t Gordon Brown of embarrassment.

The concrete achievements of the G20 are hard to assess at this stage. Much of the money touted in the ‘historic’ $5 trillion package was from pre-announced national fiscal stimuli, much was optimistic, and much is likely to disappear after the cheerful world leaders go home to do hard sums with their Finance Ministers, several of whom will need to be coaxed down from the window ledges of their Treasuries.

What is clearly new though is the attitude and approach.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 16 Comments

Viewing MPs’ travel expenses on a map

There’s a nifty little Google Map at http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/maps/mpTravelExpensesMap.html which is a great example of how you can use maps to make statistics clearer. In this case, the big issue is that MPs do have genuinely different legitimate travel needs depending on where they live. It’s only reasonable for an MP from Scotland to have much higher travel expenses than one who lives in London, for example.

Putting the sums on a map helps show the patterns which are reasonable. And it also highlights those which are a bit more surprising, such as the previously mentioned Margaret Moran, Labour MP …

Posted in Parliament | Tagged , , and | 1 Comment

Teenager arrested for handing in a mobile phone

“Police have found a new way to plug those gaps in the DNA database by arresting people for being honest.” – Home Office Watch has spotted the story of a Southport teenager who was arrested after handing in a mobile phone he had found, to a police station. Paul Leicester was held for four hours, questioned and had his DNA, fingerprints and photo taken.

His alleged offence was “theft by finding” – even though he had not attempted to deprive the phone’s owner of their property, and handed it in as soon as possible. Merseyside Police have now …

Posted in Big mad database and News | 16 Comments
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