Stephen Tall

Are you on your way to the Forum?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 31st January 2009 - 10:18 am

Don’t forget, if you’re a party member you can register for the Lib Dem Voice members’ forum. You’ll be in good company: there are 879 registered members, all of whom have the opportunity to read and post on a rich variety of topics which don’t always make it into the public blog, as well as having the chance to vote in LDV’s monthly tracking surveys. Here’s a selection of the currently active threads to whet your appetites:

>> Organ donation: presumed consent?
>> Is their a link between crime and Immigration in the UK?
>> The Return of Ken Clarke
>> What to

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The Voice

Are there more ex-SDP members on the Tory front-bench than the Lib Dem front-bench?

By The Voice | Fri 30th January 2009 - 6:40 pm

Danny Finkelstein asks the question over at The Times’s Comment Central here. Scores on the doors (allegedly) so far show it to be a draw…

Tory shadow cabinet ex-SDPers: Greg Clark, Chris Grayling, Andrew Lansley and David Mundell.
Lib Dem shadow cabinet ex-SDPers: Vince Cable, Chris Huhne, Tom McNally and Paul Burstow

Or can LDV readers point out more…?

Posted in Humour and News | Tagged , , , , , , and | 13 Comments
Richard Huzzey

The Democrats could get a super-majority yet

By Richard Huzzey | Fri 30th January 2009 - 5:51 pm

During last year’s US elections, Democrat supporters weren’t just watching the margin by which Barack Obama beat John McCain. They were also hoping to see their party gain 60 seats in the United States Senate. While they were assured of a majority, 60 votes are necessary to override “fillibusters” – speeches by opposition politicians that go on so long that a law never comes to a vote. With a 60 senators or more, the Democrats would be able to avoid these stalling tactics by passing a motion moving to a vote.

Democrats picked up the seats they wanted in North Carolina, …

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Posted in LDVUSA and News | 6 Comments
Helen Duffett

Six new Liberal Democrat councillors

By Helen Duffett | Fri 30th January 2009 - 4:53 pm

A great crop of Liberal Democrat victories last night, in council by-elections around the country:

There were Liberal Democrat gains in Fenham, Newcastle (from Labour); Valentines, London Borough of Redbridge (from Labour); Bury St Edmunds (from Independent); Axholme South (from Independent) and North and West Marlow (from Conservatives).

Didsbury West (Neil Trafford’s seat) is held with an increased majority.

Congratulations to our six new councillors and their campaign teams!

Best wishes (and a much-deserved rest) also go to talented Liberal Democrat candidate Karelia Scott-Daniels who came third in Stoke Newington, Hackney, ahead of the Conservatives.

Posted in News | 2 Comments

Opinion: With Darfur still burning, the question that must be asked – has the Liberal hand lost its touch in times of crisis?

By S | Fri 30th January 2009 - 3:40 pm

With the relentless genocide in Darfur still incendiary, our attention must turn to the lack of affront from the liberal contingent. Unlike the Arab/Israeli conflict or the violence in Sri Lanka, the Liberal Democrats have lucid policy on the crisis in Sudan. Without a doubt the strength of Lib Dem rhetoric does not match the strength of our policy. This begs the question: has the Liberal hand lost its touch in times of crisis?

It was Liberals who hailed the end of Apartheid. The recent death of Helen Suzman was a poignant reminder of this. It was liberal democracy that salved …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 9 Comments
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The Voice

Duwayne Brooks to stand for Lib Dems in Lewisham

By The Voice | Fri 30th January 2009 - 1:50 pm

The Mirror today reports what visitors to Lewisham Lib Dems’ website knew last week – that Duwayne Brooks, one of the best friends of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence is fighting a council by-election for the Lib Dems:

Liberal Democrats have selected two people committed to working hard on behalf of Downham residents to fight the Council by-elections on February 19th, Duwayne Brooks and Jenni Clutten. They hope to join Cllr Julia Fletcher as the representatives for the area on Lewisham Council.

Duwayne, 33, is well known in Lewisham as a campaigner against knife crime and, if elected, will be working

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Posted in Local government and News | Tagged , , and | 1 Comment
The Voice

Lembit: “Time to talk to al-Qaeda”

By The Voice | Fri 30th January 2009 - 1:20 pm

The BBC reports on Lembit Opik’s plea for the West to speak to al-Qaeda:

It is time to talk to al-Qaeda. Having been through this in the past, I know this is right. Declaring war on terror does not deliver peace. The random killing of hundreds of civilians has obviously secured headlines from the perpetrators. As long as this cycle is repeated, we have relatively little chance of achieving closure on the terrorist methodology.

“For those people that want revenge, it’s hard. But then the crime will have created its own ricochet. That would distract from any chance of strategic solutions

…

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged , , and | 6 Comments
Richard Huzzey

Liberalism in a word

By Richard Huzzey | Fri 30th January 2009 - 12:27 pm

The ever-insightful Timothy Garton Ash was the author of an intelligent article in The New York Times last week, which considered the international fate of the word “liberal”. His stimulus is Obama’s inaugural address last week, which has already been debated on Lib Dem Voice. The speech was, in the historian and writer’s opinion,

in substance, a blend of classical constitutional and modern egalitarian liberalism. The thing, but never the word. Anyone who knows anything about contemporary political discourse in the United States understands why.

He concludes,

I don’t expect Mr. Obama to use that word any time soon. But

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Posted in LDVUSA and News | 10 Comments
Richard Huzzey

A Romance with Labour? Say No to Hugs

By Richard Huzzey | Fri 30th January 2009 - 1:04 am

This week’s New Statesman features a startling article by the Fabian Society’s Sunder Katwala, suggesting a pre-election coalition between Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

Rather than speculating on the party’s intentions in a hung parliament – which has become the sport of hostile journalists keen to misrepresent our MPs’ pronouncements – he is advocating this as a desirable course of action. It would be impossible, Katwala accepts, for the Lib Dems to prop up a discredited Labour government after Gordon Brown had lost a general election. He suggests averting a plurality of Tory MPs completely by a revolutionary cooperation between …

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Posted in Op-eds | 22 Comments
Stephen Tall

BBC Question Time (29/1/09): open thread

By Stephen Tall | Thu 29th January 2009 - 10:20 pm

Jo Swinson, Lib Dem shadow foreign affairs minister – and one of LDV readers’ top choices for promotion to the party’s shadow cabinet – is the Lib Dem representative on tonight’s Question Time (BBC1 and online, 10.35 pm GMT).

Jo will appear alongside former Justice Secretary (and former flatmate of Tony Blair) Lord Falconer, Conservative shadow secretary for children, schools and families (and neocon apologist-in-chief for The Times) Michael Gove, Deputy First Minister of Scotland (but for how much longer?) Nicola Sturgeon, and writer and broadcaster (and general media tart) Hardeep Singh Kohli.

And for those who are …

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Posted in Lib Dem TV | Tagged and | 7 Comments
Helen Duffett

London Assembly: Lib Dems teach Tories a lesson on value for money

By Helen Duffett | Thu 29th January 2009 - 7:40 pm

There was a certain tension among the Tories yesterday at Mayor’s Question Time in London: In a change to the usual format, the London Assembly were considering the Mayor’s Draft Budget.

Naturally, value for money was being debated, and who better to champion it than Conservative Assembly Member Brian Coleman, he of the expensive taxi habit.

He was keen to question the Mayor on value for money – Boris seemed surprised that this was coming from Coleman’s direction, so inserted a little put-down later on – when it came to the discussion on how to encourage an increase in cycling, …

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Simon Titley

Opinion: Going forward

By Simon Titley | Thu 29th January 2009 - 5:14 pm

Do you like jargon? Are you a regular user? If so, prepare to have a brick thrown through the window of your soul.

You don’t have to be a Grumpy Old Man to find jargon, buzzwords and clichés irritating. Back in 1996, I attempted to do something about this problem in the public relations agency in which I then worked. I took the unorthodox view that there was no excuse for professional communicators to use such language. Jargon got in the way of effective communication because it made us sound pompous, silly or unintelligible. Disciplining ourselves to use plain English would make us better communicators.

To illustrate the problem, I translated the beginning of the Book of Genesis into PR jargon:

1. At the outset, God’s agenda was to basically focus on his core deliverables, namely two leading-edge products, (a) heaven and (b) earth.
2. However, the earth lacked an overall concept, and had a low profile in terms of its key audiences. Obviously the Spirit of God had to step back and benchmark the existing waters before his game plan could get the green light.
3. And God’s key message was that light was a strategic objective, and it was covered-off.
4. And God’s perception of the light was that it was fit for purpose. However, his desired goal was that light and darkness should be differentiated in the marketplace.
5. So God branded the light ‘Day’, and the darkness he branded ‘I Can’t Believe It’s Not Light’. And the evening session and morning session made up Day One.
6. Then God set out with the object of factoring-in a firmament to interface with the existing generic waters, to bring to the party two segmented brands.
7. So God tasked himself with the job of rolling-out a firmament, to supply a proactive vehicle for launching his two distinct waters products, and it was up and running.
8. And God branded the firmament ‘heaven’. And at close of play, the prioritised actions for Day Two were ticked off.

(From my essay, ‘Let’s run this up the flagpole and see who salutes’).

The problem is still with us and I have my own pet peeves:

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 39 Comments
The Voice

Guest post: Peter Luff MP on an innovative online consultation

By The Voice | Thu 29th January 2009 - 3:38 pm

Peter Luff is the Conservative MP for Mid Worcestershire and Chairman of the Business and Enterprise Committee.

Politicians in the UK are often criticised for not using modern technology and communication methods effectively to engage with the public. This is a fair criticism – we should be doing so much better.

Sure, there are MPs who flirt with blogs and ministers who ‘twitter’, but there’s still an overwhelming sense that parliamentarians are using new media to be seen to be using new media, and that we actually still don’t know our dongles from our floppies.

In stark contrast to the US, we have …

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Mark Pack

Ouch! Someone doesn’t like Steve Hilton

By Mark Pack | Thu 29th January 2009 - 1:04 pm

The latest edition of Standpoint casts David Cameron’s top adviser Steve Hilton into its “Overrated” column:

Between David Cameron’s election as leader and his hoped-for entry into 10 Downing Street, Steve Hilton will have cost the Conservative party at least a million pounds. Despite vast debts, the Tories are reported to be paying their chief strategist an unprecedented £270,000-a- year salary.* Yet, apart from having helped to make Cameron leader, Hilton has no other notable political successes to his name. In the disastrous 1997 and 2005 general election campaigns, Michael Portillo’s two failed leadership bids, and Steve Norris’s two doomed efforts

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Mark Pack

Derek Conway: should the police investigate him for fraud?

By Mark Pack | Thu 29th January 2009 - 12:52 pm

Now that the Standards and Privileges Committee has decided that Derek Conway should repay several thousand pounds that wrongly went on employing one of his sons, Duncan Borrowman (who lodged a complaint originally about the whole affair) says:

I call again for the Metropolitan Police to investigate Mr Conway for fraud.

You can read more on Duncan’s blog.

Posted in News | Tagged and | 3 Comments
Peter Welch

What sort of recession is this anyway? A view from Southend

By Peter Welch | Thu 29th January 2009 - 12:20 pm

Mark Pack asked this very question – What sort of recession is this anyway? – on LDV the other day. Yesterday, the IMF offered a top down view which is frankly frightening.

My political activity began in the economic chaos of the early Thatcher years and I live in fear of a return to the levels of unemployment of the 1980s. How does it look from Southend?

Immediately after selection as Liberal Democrat candidates for the two Southend consituencies, Graham Longley and I decided to find out for ourselves. We used the party’s small business survey as a basis …

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Posted in Online politics and Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 3 Comments
James Graham

Lib Dig Pig #8

By James Graham | Thu 29th January 2009 - 10:14 am

Welcome to the eigth edition of Lib Dig Pig, being a roundup of non-Lib Dem oriented gems on the internet, as voted by Lib Dem members using Lib Dig (if you aren’t one, and are a Lib Dem member, sign up here: http://libdig.co.uk).

I thought I’d try a slight change of format this week: less snark, more links. Also, to encourage you to explore Lib Dig more, I’m including the name of the person who submitted each item along with a link so you can see what other things they’ve been “digging.”

So without further ado, the top links this week are:

1. Revealed: Labour lords change laws for cash (Times Online). Submitted by me: “We’ve won (at least for now) transparency for MPs’ expenses – it’s time we had greater transparency in lobbying!”

2. The Coroners and Justice Bill – destroying data protection (Program Your Own Mind). Submitted by Helen Duffett: “Lee Griffin opens up the Trojan Horse that is the Coroners and Justice Bill.”

3. Why is the Labour Party spamming bloggers? (Bloggerheads). Submitted by Alix Mortimer: “Tim Ireland gets spammed by a government breaking its own data protection rules (Chicken Yoghurt is on the list too).”

4. Libby Purves: Try this for comedy: prison policy run by clowns (Times Online). Submitted by Alex Foster: “An all too brief look at Labour lunacy on prisons.”

5. Twitter meetup spawns global charity event (TechCrunch). Submitted by Alix Mortimer: “One for Twitter fans.”

6. How I Made a 1,474-Megapixel Photo During President Obama’s Inaugural Address (David Bergman – All Access). Submitted by Will Howells: “Hyouge panoramic photo.”

Top Videos

What would happen if a 50km asteroid crashed into Earth, submitted by Alex Foster: “Don’t bother campaigning, the end of the world is nigh.”

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Posted in Best of Lib Dig | 1 Comment
The Voice

Norman Lamb and the ‘prince of grime’

By The Voice | Thu 29th January 2009 - 10:13 am

The Guardian’s Patrick Barkham has the story of the strange connection between Tinchy Stryder “a 22-year-old grime artist from east London, enjoying the highest new entry at No 3 in this week’s singles chart” and Norman Lamb “a middle-aged Liberal Democrat MP from Norfolk”:

Stryder’s tiny independent record label was created by Lamb’s son, Archie, when he was just 17, after his Lib Dem dad remortgaged their home to loan him £10,000. Archie and his friend Jack Foster dropped out of school after booking Stryder – then completely unknown – for their urban music nights in Norwich and persuading him to

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 1 Comment
The Voice

Scottish Lib Dems offer to “get round the table” with SNP over budget

By The Voice | Thu 29th January 2009 - 9:49 am

Tavish Scott, Lib Dem leader of the Scottish Lib Dems, has offered to open discussions with the SNP government in Scotland to resolve the budget breakdown triggered by the Holyrood parliament’s rejection of the SNP’s budget for 2009-10.

Though the Tories fell in line with the SNP, the 16-strong Lib Dem group, together with Labour and the Greens, voted against – the budget was ultimately defeated on the casting vote of the presiding officer. But this morning the BBC reports:

The Liberal Democrats want discussions with the Scottish Government about what concessions might gain their support for a revised budget.

…

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Stephen Tall

Labour backs Heathrow expansion – Norman and Susan lead Lib Dem opposition campaign

By Stephen Tall | Thu 29th January 2009 - 9:31 am

As BBC News reports:

The government has won a vote over plans for Heathrow’s third runway – but saw its majority cut to just 19. … The Lib Dems supported the but the ministers argue scrapping the plans would seriously damage the economy. More than 50 Labour MPs had previously expressed concerns about the plans in other Commons motions but only 28 of them voted for the Conservative motion on Wednesday.

It’s an all-too familiar scenario – Labour MPs queue up to sign Early Day Motions criticising their own party, then use their threat to withold support as bartering chips. All of which would be commendable if they didn’t then cash their chits for ridiculously small concessions, such as ‘a pledge to initially cap flights on the new runway’ .

Lib Dem shadow secretary of state for transport Norman Baker, and local Richmond MP Susan Kramer were among those leading the campaign against the Heathrow expansion. Extracts from their Commons speeches below, with links to the full Hansard transcripts, follow:

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Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged , and | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

Confusing letter-writers with terrorists: the PCC investigates

By Mark Pack | Wed 28th January 2009 - 11:13 pm

Earlier this month I blogged about the questions over a story run by The Sun claiming that the likes of Alan Sugar were being targeted by terrorists. There were two problems with the story: first, the initial discussion looked to be one purely about running a polite letter-writing campaign, and second, the subsequent inflammatory comments that were made looked to come from an agent provocateur.

Well now the Press Complaints Commission are investigating, as The Guardian explains.

Hat-tip: Tim Ireland

Posted in News | Tagged , and | 3 Comments
Alix Mortimer

PMQs: tax liabilities of their noble lordships

By Alix Mortimer | Wed 28th January 2009 - 6:37 pm

David Cameron is truly the hotel lobby pianist of parliament. Oily hair, smooth smile, same old bloody tune. Can’t you just see him in one of those awful little 1950s matinee jackets? Yes you can. All over the web, in fact. And at PMQs today, he went for the old will-he-admit-blah-blah-abolishing- boom-and-bust question again.

Of course, I should be fair and say that in some ways repetition of this message is a smart move (I just wouldn’t ever let such fair-mindedness stand in the way of a good caricature). Nick Clegg makes use of the repetition technique sometimes as well, after all. Cameron’s message does get to the heart of the hubris that is characteristic of both Brown and the government in general in terms of how they have behaved with the nation’s finances. However, it also gets to the heart of the fact that the Tories haven’t got the  first clue what to do about it except point and say “nerny-nerny-ner-ner”.

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Posted in Parliament and PMQs | Tagged and | 6 Comments
Mark Pack

Nick Clegg on tour

By Mark Pack | Wed 28th January 2009 - 5:31 pm

Here’s the latest YouTube film from Nick Clegg.

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Mark Pack

Another Conservative councillor switches in Portsmouth

By Mark Pack | Wed 28th January 2009 - 4:32 pm

Interesting times continue in Portsmouth (see here and here for previous stories):

A second Conservative councillor has crossed the floor and joined the Lib Dems.

Central Southsea councillor Margaret Adair quit her party on Friday and signed up to the rivals.

As reported in The News, Cllr Adair was expected to follow in the footsteps of former Tory councillor Lee Hunt, who quit his party after claiming he was the victim of an internal hate campaign.

You can read the rest of the story from the local newspaper here.

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Kev O'Connor

Opinion: Time for outdated economics to be put to bed

By Kev O'Connor | Wed 28th January 2009 - 3:50 pm

I have for a long time been a strong critic of modern socialists. Partly because I am a strong critic of socialism, but primarily because they are so out of sync with the modern world. When the red flag was first raised in the Merthyr uprising, it was a logical response to the appalling conditions imposed upon the world’s first industrial workers.

But now, a century and a half on, we are challenging the majority of councillors and political activists in Merthyr who still hark for their fabled socialist solution. Whilst it may have helped in the nineteenth century, socialism …

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Posted in Op-eds and Wales | Tagged , and | 11 Comments
Stephen Tall

Who has more power? A council chief exec, council leader or a local MP?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 28th January 2009 - 1:52 pm

One former Council chief executive is much in the news just now – Christine Laird, former managing director of Cheltenham Borough Council, is being sued for £1m by the authority, which claims she concealed her depressive illness. The BBC reports:

Her time at the council was marked by a series of disputes with the authority and its Liberal Democrat leader, Andrew McKinlay, with allegation and counter-allegation of inappropriate, unhelpful, obstructive and bullying conduct. Mrs Laird filed 25 official complaints to the watchdog Standards Board for England, of which only one was upheld. She also filed an application for a restraining

…

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Posted in Local government and Op-eds | Tagged , and | 8 Comments
Mark Pack

More news, fewer places to look

By Mark Pack | Wed 28th January 2009 - 10:20 am

The latest stories from a range of different (official) party websites is now being drawn together in one place, with our new aggregator at http://blogs.libdems.org.uk

It pulls in stories from places such as the party’s main www.libdems.org.uk website, specialist sites covering particular policy areas such as Home Office Watch, Nick Clegg’s www.nickclegg.com and also a selection of the latest media coverage of the party from around the internet. Also crammed in are the party’s latest YouTube film, Twitter updates and campaigns buttons. All in just the one place.

We’re currently looking at adding in the highlights from Scottish, …

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Posted in Online politics | Tagged | 5 Comments
Stephen Tall

Top Lib Dem donor short-selling bank shares

By Stephen Tall | Wed 28th January 2009 - 9:43 am

Late last week, there was a small flurry of media interest in hedge fund Lansdowne Partners:

A hedge fund run by two Tory donors made a £12million killing in days by exploiting the collapse of Barclays shares, it was revealed yesterday. Financiers Paul Ruddock and David Craigen have donated more than £300,000 to the party, most of it since David Cameron became leader. Within hours of the ban on the controversial practice of short-selling being lifted last Friday, their company Lansdowne Partners sold shares in Barclays worth £28.4million. They were bought back on Wednesday, by which time the bank’s value

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 18 Comments
Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #101

By Stephen Tall | Tue 27th January 2009 - 9:51 pm

Welcome to the 101st of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (18th-24th January 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.

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Posted in Best of the blogs | Tagged | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

Ken Clarke lays into Conservative policy, again

By Mark Pack | Tue 27th January 2009 - 5:42 pm

Well, well – he’s certainly started with a work rate that puts some Conservative Shadow Cabinet members to shame … for it’s another day, and another attack from Ken Clarke on the policies that David Cameron and George Osborne have been pushing. Following up his earlier comments about the IMF, this time Ken Clarke has criticised them over tax policy. As Benedict Brogan reports:

What Ken Clarke has to say about promoting marriage through the tax system amounts to a violent rejection of everything Dave and George have been proposing. Better yet, he justifies it by claiming the Shadow Chancellor

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 2 Comments
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