Alix Mortimer

That twenty billion…

By Alix Mortimer | Thu 13th November 2008 - 10:37 am

Good old Channel 4. They’ve done a Factcheck on Brown’s claim, repeated (twice) at every PMQs session that (for example yesterday):

“If we’d listened to Liberal party advice we’d be cutting public expenditure by £20bn this year.”

Now, I think it would be fair to say that Channel 4 Factcheck, marvellous though it and the Snowman are, is not the weathervane of the nation’s political mood. Tabloids will not rush to reproduce these findings. But never mind that for now, give yourself a break and weep with relief as you read the following:

The

…

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Posted in News and PMQs | Tagged | 18 Comments
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The Voice

Den Dover expelled from the Conservatives

By The Voice | Thu 13th November 2008 - 7:52 am

Via The Guardian:

David Cameron yesterday expelled the Conservative party’s former chief whip in the European parliament after the Strasbourg authorities ruled that he had breached its rules and demanded that he pay back just over £500,000.

Den Dover, who resigned as chief whip in June over claims that he had siphoned off £758,000 of public money to family members through a company providing secretarial services over nine years, will face a fraud investigation by the EU’s anti-fraud body, Olaf. This has the power to ask police in Britain to carry out searches.

Full story here.

Posted in News | Tagged | 9 Comments
Mark Pack

Baby P

By Mark Pack | Thu 13th November 2008 - 12:41 am

After the horrific story of Baby P came out, where each detail seems to add yet another awful question (how can you get away with hiding injuries with chocolate smears? how can a doctor fail to notice that a baby’s back is broken?), and then the desperately unseemly sight of MPs bawling at each other across the House of Commons (what a collective failure of decency by those sitting behind Brown and Cameron who somehow thought that was an appropriate way to behave when the death of baby was being discussed), we now have this:

The Times has also learnt that

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Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged , and | 485 Comments
Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #89

By Stephen Tall | Wed 12th November 2008 - 9:26 pm

Gentle reader, I crave your indulgence. Last week, I forgot all about the Golden Dozen, … something to do with an historic US election put it clean out of my mind. Fortunately, no-one yet seems to have noticed, and I think I may just have got away with it. So anyway…

Welcome to the very belated 89th of our weekly ( 😳 ish) round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (26th-October – 1st November), together with a hand-picked quintet, mostly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

How about starting with the most popular blog-posting, and we work our way down? Here goes…

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Alex Foster

Quote of the day

By Alex Foster | Wed 12th November 2008 - 7:48 pm

Conservative US blogger John Hinderaker thinks Bush’s control of the English language has been misunderestimated.

Obama thinks he is a good talker, but he is often undisciplined when he speaks. He needs to understand that as President, his words will be scrutinized and will have impact whether he intends it or not. In this regard, President Bush is an excellent model; Obama should take a lesson from his example. Bush never gets sloppy when he is speaking publicly. He chooses his words with care and precision, which is why his style sometimes seems halting. In the eight years he has

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Alix Mortimer

PMQs: Nick tackles Gordon on “big, permanent and fair” tax cuts

By Alix Mortimer | Wed 12th November 2008 - 6:21 pm

Today’s PMQs underlined to me how utterly hollow and rotten the institution really is. It’s not just that it couldn’t be more archaic if the protagonists were daubed with woad. It’s how it makes them behave. The aspect being chiefly reported is a horrifically self-important tussle between Cameron and Brown over a dead baby.

In case you are lucky enough not to know about this yet, Baby P was killed recently in North London after months of abuse during which time he had been the subject of supervision from various health and child protection agencies, all of whom

…

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Posted in News and PMQs | Tagged , , and | 27 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dem tax policy: the media’s starting to listen, so now will the public get to hear about it?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 12th November 2008 - 3:20 pm

Earlier today, Lib Dem Voice published this extract from Nick Clegg’s speech to the Royal Commonwealth Society summarising the Lib Dems’ policy of tax cuts for low- and middle-income households:

Real tax cuts – big, permanent and fair – for the people who need them. Funded by making the wealthy pay their fair share, ending the special exemptions and loopholes they’ve profited from for so long. Liberal Democrats would reduce basic rate income tax by 4p in the pound. That would give nearly £1000 back to a worker on £30,000 a year. Funded by four changes.

One: ending upper rate pensions

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Posted in Op-eds and Polls | Tagged and | 8 Comments
Helen Duffett

Doing the Database Rag

By Helen Duffett | Wed 12th November 2008 - 1:11 pm

From eclectech, soundtrack by Mushroom: a jolly database ditty about our stalker Government.

Listen here.

Enjoy!

Posted in Humour | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

FT: Tories to ditch Osborne in favour of Hague?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 12th November 2008 - 12:43 pm

A month ago Lib Dem Voice’s Alix Mortimer suggested it was high-time the Tories considered ditching their under-whelming shadow chancellor, George Osborne:

My guess is that Cameron is wincing his way through the current crisis, burying his head in a cushion every time George goes on TV, and he’s planning the reshuffle. He hasn’t spent all this time and effort decontaminating the Tory brand to have his plans trashed by some oily twerp who hides his weekly treasury briefings down the back of the sofa, old mate or not. He can’t afford to go into a General Election side-by-side

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 10 Comments
Mark Pack

Electoral registration reform: public backs rest of the world over Labour by more than two to one

By Mark Pack | Wed 12th November 2008 - 12:20 pm

New research shows that by a margin of more than two-to-one the public backs changes to the electoral registration system that would reduce the scope for fraud.

The Liberal Democrats, Conservatives and Electoral Commission have all repeatedly called for the system of household registration, currently used in England, Scotland and Wales, to be abandoned in favour of individual registration, as is used in Northern Ireland.

The current system allow one person in a household to fill in a form on behalf of all the people living at an address. However, a system of individual registration could allow the collection of extra personal …

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Posted in News | Tagged | 7 Comments
Alex Foster

What nutter writes Tory tax policy?

By Alex Foster | Wed 12th November 2008 - 9:24 am

So, now the Tories have three distinctive tax promise, all of which are batty.

Their longest standing policy is their dog whistle tax incentives for marriage, proving their commitment to 19th century values when marriage was all about money and women were chattel.  And, incidentally, neglecting their focus on the whole “two unmarried spinsters who live together” demographic that was so totemic for Lady Young during the parliamentary debates on civil partnerships.  Moreover, giving a tax break to the vast majority of the population means it will either be expensive, or so small as to be meaningless.  Do we really need a

…

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Posted in News and Op-eds | 11 Comments
Mark Pack

Nick Clegg on global cooperation and tax policy

By Mark Pack | Wed 12th November 2008 - 7:45 am

The full text of his speech to the Royal Commonwealth Society on Liberal Democrat tax policy and also the party’s approach to global cooperation is now up on his website:

This is a time of crisis for Britain, and for the world. The banking collapse will lead to a global recession; that much is now certain. And its implications will be profound.

The very model of capitalism that America has promulgated for generations is now being questioned. The rise of China, India, Brazil and oil-rich Gulf States will be accelerated by a prolonged American recession. And instability and conflict will be driven

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Posted in News | Tagged | 14 Comments
Stephen Tall

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Jonathan Calder – ‘Tory MP: Ferry political prisoner’

By Stephen Tall | Wed 12th November 2008 - 12:02 am

Over at the New Statesman’s blog, Jonathan Calder looks at Bryan Otis Ferry’s position as a ‘political prisoner’, while looking at Lembit’s long-term ambitions:

Will we see more of him? I hope so. Lembit has a Westminster seat to defend and could no doubt return to the Lib Dem front bench if he chose.

Besides, the alternative for him is too dreadful to contemplate. I caught a glimpse of it from behind the sofa on Saturday evening when Neil and Christine Hamilton appeared on Hole in the Wall.

Posted in LibLink | Tagged | 3 Comments
Helen Duffett

Peter Mandelson invents the Post Office

By Helen Duffett | Tue 11th November 2008 - 7:56 pm

The Guardian has news of Labour’s further inconsistency in their plans for the Post Office network:

Lord Mandelson is urging the prime minister to save the Post Office network by allowing it to provide government services and financial products, according to a leaked letter seen by the Guardian.

Mandelson suggests that the current economic downturn and “recent events in the financial services” present an opportunity for the Post Office to take on a new range of tasks.

In the letter to Gordon Brown dated October 30 – sent less than a month after he rejoined the government – the business secretary says: “We should examine the prospects for POL becoming a much more significant player in financial services – offering a wider range of attractive products within easy reach of the whole population, available from an institution they can trust.”

Whatever next: Mandelson’s novel suggestion that Post Offices could provide a convenient local point to collect pensions, benefits and send parcels?

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Posted in News | Tagged | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

Brian Paddick to enter I’m A Celebrity

By Stephen Tall | Tue 11th November 2008 - 6:26 pm

Lib Dem London mayoral candidate Brian Paddick has been revealed as one of the contestants on the next series of ITV’s I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here. The News of the World says of Brian:

Count on former Met copper Brian to stir things up in the jungle this year. Outspoken Brian – who ran for London mayor – is no stranger to controversy and no stranger to speaking his mind. You have been warned, celebs.

Brian will be appearing alongside:

Joe Swash
Simon Webbe
Esther Rantzen
Carly Zucker
Nicola McLean
Martina Navratilova
Robert Kilroy-Silk
Dani Behr
George Takei

And if you’ve never heard of half of them, the …

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Posted in News | Tagged | 26 Comments
Stephen Tall

CommentIsLinked@LDV: James Graham – ”Change’ in the valleys’

By Stephen Tall | Tue 11th November 2008 - 6:10 pm

Lib Dem Voice has mentioned before the distinct lack of liberal commentary in the mainstream media; but we do of course have many Lib Dems who contribute with varying degrees of regularity to national newspapers and magazines. Whenever these appear, LDV is delighted to link to them: simply drop us a line at [email protected].

Over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free blog, James Graham takes a look back at the race for the Lib Dem presidency, and looks forward to the contest for leader of the Welsh Lib Dems. Read it in full here, but here’s a teaser:

The

…

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Mark Pack

What connects Norman Baker, Eartha Kitt, the assassination of JFK and a public meeting in Islington in 1981?

By Mark Pack | Tue 11th November 2008 - 5:20 pm

Why, the Daily Politico of course.

Posted in News | Tagged | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

Lynne Featherstone vs Hazel Blears

By Mark Pack | Tue 11th November 2008 - 3:45 pm

The Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey & Wood Green has an article today on the New Statesman website about Hazel Blears and her speech last week to the Hansard society on political engagement.

Although most of the coverage of the Blears speech has been about her comments on bloggers, Lynne takes her to task over other parts of the speech as you can read here. The New Statesman also has a response from Hazel Blears here. Well, I say “response” but if I tell you that she repeatedly talks about “Liberals” it gives you an idea of the tone …

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Posted in News | Tagged | 2 Comments
Darrell Goodliffe

Opinion: Time to end the ‘war on terror’ and bring all our troops home

By Darrell Goodliffe | Tue 11th November 2008 - 3:20 pm

Nick Clegg, writing in The Independent on Sunday, made many worthy suggestions as to how British foreign policy may now proceed, especially in light of the election of Barack Obama as US President.

He is right to argue that now is the time for a “regional agreement, similar to the Dayton Peace Agreement, involving all countries in the region, especially Iran.” He is right about the centrality of involving both Iran and Pakistan in negotiations and also splitting the Taliban.

However, all the things that make him right about these issues make his call for Britain to support “a …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Tagged | 9 Comments
Mark Pack

Government opens up new risk to our personal data

By Mark Pack | Tue 11th November 2008 - 12:30 pm

The Government’s latest attempt to persuade us of the wonders of its ID cards scheme is Introducing the National Identity Scheme, a publication that sets out the claimed benefits of the scheme but which in fact makes clear that the scheme will open up even more personal data to the mercy of computer hackers.

Sensitive and personal information about you will be available via a simple online login despite the fact that, as even many banks and other financial institutions have discovered, opening up records to online access means hackers will sometimes also get in. As the old saying goes, …

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Posted in News | Tagged | 1 Comment
Steven Gauge

LDVUSA: How Obama made it happen

By Steven Gauge | Tue 11th November 2008 - 11:44 am

A week ago, the USA was going to the polls, and Lib Dem Steven Gauge was on-the-spot in Ohio. Here’s what he saw…

As Churchill said, “Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing…after they have exhausted all other possibilities.” On November the 4th 2008 they finally got it absolutely right.

As the Presidential election results began coming in, I was in the ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel, Columbus, after two weeks of working as a volunteer on the Obama Campaign in the crucial swing state of Ohio. When CNN called the result and the crowd erupted, I …

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Posted in LDVUSA and Op-eds | Tagged | Leave a comment
Stephen Tall

Beith: church disestablishment “not necessary”

By Stephen Tall | Tue 11th November 2008 - 10:55 am

The Religious Intelligence website has the story:

A DISESTABLISHED Church is not part of a truly liberal society, the British MP Sir Alan Beith has said.

Speaking at the Liberal Democrat Christian Forum’s inaugural Gladstone Lecture , Sir Alan told members of the Liberal Democrat party that “disestablishment is not a necessary feature of a diverse and multi-cultural society.”

He said: “I know of no evidence that significant numbers of Muslims, Jews, Hindus or Sikhs are at all interested in getting the Church of England disestablished, and it is no longer a popular view with nonconformists or Catholics as it

…

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Posted in News | 58 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dem MP urges charity fines for mobile phone menace MPs

By Stephen Tall | Tue 11th November 2008 - 10:45 am

Greg Mulholland, Lib Dem MP for Leeds North West, has urged House of Commons Speaker Michael Martin to introduce fines whenever an MP’s phone rings in the chamber. His proposal came after Culture Secretary Andy Burnham was repeatedly interrupted by Tory MP John Whittingdale’s Blackberry (he was, apparently, unaware how to switch it off).

BBC.co.uk takes up the story:

Calling a point of order minutes later, Mr Mulholland, a former Leeds city councillor raised the subject of the interruption. He said: “Whilst accepting that we’re all fallible in terms of the potential to leave our mobile phones on, may I recommend

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Posted in Parliament | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Lester: Paul Dacre and Graham Dudman have got it wrong

By Mark Pack | Tue 11th November 2008 - 8:15 am

Part of the recent Paul Dacre attack on Justice Eady (who ruled against the News of the World in the Max Mosley case) was that he was unaccountable for his actions and basically a one-man band introducing a privacy law on his own. He was supported in this attack by The Sun’s managaing editor, Graham Dudman, who said, “The issue here is that Justice Eady is unelected and unaccountable. Parliament has not made these decisions, one man has”.

But Liberal Democrat peer Lord Lester has hit back today, pointing out that when the law on which Eady’s rulings are based …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , and | 2 Comments
Helen Duffett

London Lib Dems: Talk to your neighbours!

By Helen Duffett | Mon 10th November 2008 - 11:38 pm

It’s always valuable to meet with campaigners from neighbouring areas, to share ideas (and helpers!)

In a change to the printed guide which has been sent out to London Region Liberal Democrats, this Saturday’s Autumn Conference now features a campaigning pick-me-up.

Campaign Surgery, a fringe event at 11.45, is great for development parties. Here’s the idea:

Are you trying to win your first council seats or to strengthen a small group on the Council? If so, come along to this two-way surgery session where you can chat informally with some of our Regional team and staff.

Come and let us know

…

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Posted in Conference and News | Leave a comment
Helen Duffett

London Liberal Democrats Autumn Conference – still time to register

By Helen Duffett | Mon 10th November 2008 - 10:18 pm

It’s London Region’s turn to have their Autumn Conference and AGM.

Come to: Haverstock School, 24 Haverstock Hill, London NW3 2BQ (Nearest tube: Chalk Farm)

On: Saturday 15 November, from 9.30am to 5.30pm.

There’s a packed agenda, useful training and fringe events, and guest speakers – including Chris Huhne MP, Graham Watson MEP, Tom Brake MP and Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP.
Members of the London Assembly and London Regional Executive will also be there.

Advance Registration (before noon on Thurs 13th November) is £20 waged, £10 concessions (on the door £25 waged, £12 concessions). Call Flick Rea …

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Mark Pack

Nick Clegg vs Daniel Finkelstein on tax

By Mark Pack | Mon 10th November 2008 - 4:44 pm

Seconds out, round two. Nick Clegg has a piece over on Comment Central, taking Danny Finkelstein to task over tax policy and laying out the Liberal Democrat approach:

Without growth there’s no earthly way we’ll be able to balance the books over the economic cycle. Far from being irresponsible, as Danny alleges, tax cuts at a time of recession is the responsible thing to do. No wonder august papers such as the FT and the Economist are now coming round to our view, as are many eminent economists.

Of course, not all tax cuts help the wider economy. The Tory inheritance tax

…

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 21 Comments
Dictionary of Liberal Thought

DLT: Henry George Foundation

By Dictionary of Liberal Thought | Mon 10th November 2008 - 3:25 pm

Duncan Brack and Ed Randall, authors of the Dictionary of Liberal Thought, have kindly agreed to let us publish extracts on Lib Dem Voice. Last month Henry George; this month in follow-up, the Henry George Foundation. The entire book is available on Amazon here and can also be bought at the Westminster Bookshop.

Henry George Foundation

A charity that promotes the theories of Henry George, the Foundation is the principal supporter in the UK of taxes on the value of land (and other natural resources) as a means to promote social justice, alleviate poverty and increase economic efficiency.

Concerned about urban overcrowding and the plight of the poor, in February 1884 the British followers of Henry George (q.v.) established the Scottish Land Restoration League in Glasgow, with 1,800 members. Three months later they captured the London-based Land Reform Union (LRU) and renamed it the English Land Restoration League.

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Posted in Dictionary of Liberal Thought | 2 Comments
Jonathan Fryer

Jonathan Fryer’s Diary of a Euro-candidate

By Jonathan Fryer | Mon 10th November 2008 - 2:50 pm

Monday
Each autumn, I’m invited by Public Affairs International to give a briefing in London to foreign civil servants about relations between British political parties, the public and the media. A majority of the participants this afternoon are from Qatar and the UAE, which is an interesting reflection of current global realities. As their government ministers are almost all members of the ruling family, the Westminster system must seem very strange. I am left pondering what things would be like if Prince Andrew were our Minister of Defence. In the evening, I am the guest speaker at the AGM of Ealing …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Tagged | Leave a comment
The Voice

Clegg: Britain should talk to Iran

By The Voice | Mon 10th November 2008 - 2:10 pm

Writing for yesterday’s Independent, on Remembrance Sunday, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg proposed a three-step approach to finding a solution to Afghanistan and Iraq:

First, Britain should support a troop surge in Afghanistan, one made possible by the urgent withdrawal of our troops from Iraq. Now that Obama has advocated such a switch, isn’t it time we took action? We do not need to wait until the US troops are leaving the Gulf in 2010; we can leave Iraq as soon as is safe and practicable. Yet Afghanistan cannot be won on the battlefield, as I saw for myself

…

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Posted in Europe / International | Tagged | 6 Comments
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