A cheery wave and good afternoon to you all.
Page 19, today’s newspaper: “It emerged yesterday that the number of days MPs would attend Parliament in the next session would be the smallest since 1979-80.”
Liberal Democrat Voice, 24th October (that’d be six days ago): “Over the next year Parliament will sit for just 128 days, the lowest figure since 1979.”
I’m off to get a “Bringing you the news six days before the Guardian” T-shirt 🙂
The key policy declared at the Lib Dems’ Bournemouth conference last month was not the famous ‘Tax Cuts’. It was that the State should shrink. In the run-up to conference, argument raged as to how big the tax cuts might be, and who should receive them. Only one decision appeared to be cast in stone: State spending should shrink, by a hefty £20 billion.
This stance was bolstered by bold new policy declarations on education and health. Our ‘free schools’ policy would put large sums of public money into support for privately-run schools. Meanwhile, the National Health Service should be reformed to require ordinary NHS patients to pay for some of the most expensive drug treatments – or else go without. This last step outflanked the Tories’ Andrew Lansley, whose perceptive comment was, “If the NHS could simply exclude treatments and expect patients to pay up, the values of the NHS could be progressively undermined.”
Today, these policies lie in ruins. Not – or at least not yet – because Lib Dem members across the country have woken up, recognised a betrayal of the Party’s long-held principles, and rebelled en masse. Instead, events have taken charge.
We have seen a massive growth in State power – as the only effective means of preventing financial meltdown. Bemused neo-con Bushites, so long accustomed to treating government as the humble servant of global business enterprise, found themselves forced to let government take control. In the UK, Treasury civil servants became the new masters of the financial universe. Tony Blair, who so fretted that Brown might spoil his precious legacy, had probably not actually feared the return of Clause Four socialism. But that is effectively what has happened.
Why, share it with others via Ryan Cullen’s excellent LibDig of course 🙂 The ALDC website is running a brief piece from myself on what it is and why it is a good idea to use it; read it here. Lovers of circular reasoning may wish to er, LibDig the piece.
Dave Hill has the story:
The defection to Ukip of a bunch of ward-level Westminster Tories might not be front page news but is it part of a bigger story? It has surely taken a little shine off the party’s retention of Simon Milton’s former Council seat with only a small adverse swing. More significantly, it might indicate something more than a pocket of grassroots discontent over the party’s attitude to Europe.
Read more here.
Jonathan Calder has the welcome news that Liberal Democrat run Islington Council has stepped in to the controversy over Labour run Hackney Council’s decision to ban the launch of a book by Iain Sinclair from one of its libraries because the book expressed, “controversial or political opinions”.
This excuse has been given very little credence by anyone outside Hackney Council. The real motive for the ban looks to be the author’s critical views of the 2012 Olympics plans, which the council has been an enthusiastic supporter of.
In response to the ban, Islington Council has invited the author to come and launch …
A couple of weeks ago, in the immediate afterglow of the three US presidential debates, Lib Dem Voice set up a poll asking: Is it now time for the UK to introduce televised debates between the major party leaders prior to a general election?
Here’s what you told us:
• Yes, it is time – 83% (248)
• No, it is not time – 15% (46)
• Don’t know – 2% (6)
Total Votes: 300. Poll ran: 17th-28th October 2008
I think that’s probably the most overwhelming result we’ve yet had from an LDV readers’ poll. Of course, the probability of Gordon …
Tim Ireland of Bloggerheads fame has started a list of reasons why the two women are the same… but has struggled to get past 7. Perhaps our readers could help his complete the list.
This being Prime Minister’s Questions, the burning topic of the day – should Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross be publicly flogged for crimes against Andrew Sachs – was not tackled. But, this being PMQs, there was plenty of other puerile posturing and manipulative outrage on display.
The Tories’ David Cameron returned to the questioning that brought him no joy last week: demanding that Gordon Brown accept that ‘boom and bust’, far from being vanquished, is alive and well in UK plc today. The rest of his questions got bogged down in trying to prove the Prime Minister has abandoned his infamous fiscal rules.
Mr Cameron is right about this, but it’s poor strategy for three reasons: (i) the Tory leader just doesn’t sound convincing when talking about the details of economic policy; (ii) the Prime Minister (rather as Tony Blair did after 9/11) is quite content, at least for the moment, to say extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures; and (iii) because, as The Spectator’s Fraser Nelson argues here, the Tory leader is failing to project any form of Tory narrative that might connect with voters. More than usual, Mr Cameron is adopting slick debating society schtick during these recession reality PMQs. It worked once; it’s not working now.
By contrast, the Lib Dems’ Nick Clegg used his two salvoes to make two big, connected points: that there are billions of government spending that not only can be cut, but should be cut (eg, ID cards and the surveillance database); and that the best and fairest way to stimulate the economy is to cut taxes for low- and middle-income earners. In doing so, Nick gains high praise from Fraser (again):
Finally, the right line from Prime Minister’s Questions – and it’s one that Gordon Brown will fear the most. “What people need now is more money in their pockets. He could deliver big tax cuts for people who desperately need help”. It was from Nick Clegg. You can argue – as I do – that the Liberal Democrats’ proposed tax cut is paltry. But the rhetoric and positioning is precisely right. It’s a binary distinction: Brown trusts the state, and wants to spend his way out of a recession. Clegg is saying he trusts the British public, and wants to stimulate the economy by letting them keep more of their own money. When Brown retorted that the “Liberal Party” would somehow damage the British economy by taking out £20 billion of spending, it sounded irrelevant. Clegg has astutely judged that the Tories are missing an open goal because of internal struggles with the concept of tax cuts. It’s a no-brainer in the current environment – has anyone see Barack Obama’s website recently? Obama’s figures, like Clegg’s, are paltry if you add them up. But the positioning is right. Clegg is showing the Tories how to do it.
Anyway, you can judge for yourselves, below, via YouTube and the Hansard transcript:
Paul Waugh has the story:
The noble peer is asked no fewer than four times (it may even be five times) whether he discussed aluminium tariffs with Oleg Deripaska on his yacht this summer. Four times he refuses to answer and tries to deflect the issue with guff about sensationalist media witchunts.
The only sensible conclusion to draw is that Mandelson did indeed discuss the tariffs. Sadly, he’s probably banking on the fact that there is no tape available of their meetings and old Oleg is the last person to land him in it.
BBC reporter Richard Galpin deserves full credit for not
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1. Anyone can become a (“registered supporter”) if they are on the electoral register in the UK and sign some form of statement saying they are a supporter of the Liberal Democrats.
2. This data would be centrally collated – although obviously shared with local parties – on a database package that could be deployed for campaigning and fundraising purposes.
3. Once the system had been successfully implemented, which may take some months (at least!) the party’s constitution should be reviewed in order to attempt to enfranchise these supporters into the party’s decision-making process. This might start with consultation and …
One of the roles of the President is to be the bridge between the members and the centre. That’s why I’ve promised to:
We need to evaluate what we offer members – too many feel they are “focus fodder” or a source of donations. We need to create a …
I’ve made a specific manifesto commitment to use my Presidency to measurably increase the membership by 2010. Recruitment is one of my areas of specialist interest across the last 17 years. I made the first three recruitment training videos for the Lib Dems – one of them has even achieved a degree of cult status! I’ve just completed another one and it will be released at the end of the year.
I’ve also travelled the country training individuals in recruitment techniques, based on the famous Five Point Plan which we pioneered and promoted almost two decades ago. It still works today …
Lib Dem Voice has invited party presidential hopefuls Chandila Fernando, Lembit Opik and Ros Scott to make their pitches for how they’d improve Lib Dem membership. In a series of articles, they will set out their ambitions and how they would deliver on them.
You can find out more about how to vote in the election for party president here.
Elsewhere on this site, Mark Pack has recently argued why fears of decline in membership for all political parties may have been over-hyped.
Here’s a brief posting describing how to do formatting in comments. It may come in useful for those of you who engage in huge debates on thread comments – and I’m sorry if it seems hopelessly basic for those who have been on the net for a while.
This site, like almost all on the internet, uses a simple programming language called HTML to do formatting. You can use HTML yourself in the comments to help make it clearer when you are quoting or for emphasis.
HTML works using codes that surround the words that they refer to. Usually …
At US website Politics Online, Anthony Man writes on how the internet has changed the way local and national campaigns are run:
“As more and more people spend more and more time online, the Internet is reshaping political campaigns in ways large and small. From the presidency to the lowest-profile local office, the Internet is permeating the way campaigns are organized. It’s changing the way candidates raise money and eroding influence of candidates, political parties and the news media.”
In this piece, Man also quotes other commentators on the effect of the internet, most notably in the current Presidential campaign:
“If you’re
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From today’s Independent:
The sports car giant Porsche has pulled off one of the greatest share killings of all time in a coup that has left some of the world’s largest hedge funds nursing combined losses that could total $20bn (£12.6bn).
The vast sum was won and lost in bets on the share price of Volkswagen. While Porsche has been building a secret 74 per cent stake in its rival, the hedge funds have been betting that the shares will fall. The shares soared by 400
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It’s simple. They are just three years behind the rest of us. We might think it’s 2008, but the Royal Mail is still in 2005. From their October 2008 Key Customer Update:
Within the next 5 years, by the end of 2010, we want to have identified all significant sources of water leaks within site boundaries and taken steps to mitigate them.
and
Within the next ten years, by the end of 2015 we want to recycle all water that we use outside of normal personal use.
You can do the maths 🙂
PS They also do a nice line in jargon:
We have decided to
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The Daily Telegraph has the rather odd story about Glenrothes candidate Peter Grant.
Earlier today the Statutory Instrument to combine 2009’s local and European elections on the same date went through the Commons.
Key points to note:
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From the Associated Press of Pakistan:
LONDON, Oct 27 (APP): Politicians, activists and grass-root leaders joined thousands of British Muslims to celebrate peace, in defiance of divisive smear casters. They gathered Sunday to take part in an annual jamboree to celebrate British Islam and discuss how the community can reach out to wider society in peace and solidarity.
The Global Peace and Unity conference organised by the Islam Channel took place at Excel Centre in East London despite the attempts of smear casters to dissuade leading politicians, activists and community leaders from attending.
The Muslim Council of Britain has written …
From the official YouTube blog:
Like you, we’re continually surprised, moved, and entertained by the videos people post on YouTube. And, like you, we’re occasionally dismayed when people use YouTube for less positive purposes. That’s why we count on you to know our Community Guidelines and flag videos you believe don’t belong on the site.
We’ve recently made a change to our flagging menu we think you should know about: We replaced the category “minors fighting” with “youth violence.” You can find it in the pull-down menu under “Violent or Repulsive Content,” and we’ll still follow our usual process of reviewing
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In the US, as in the UK, some people don’t like to reveal who’ll get their vote. But there are suburbs where residents are risking controversy by putting up huge campaign signs in their front gardens.
With days left before US voters go to the polls, many homes in Bay View, Milwaukee are displaying “yard signs” as big as 8ft by 4ft featuring the name of their favoured candidate.
Jim Marsh of South Superior Street has previously been reserved:
“I am pretty quiet about it. I guess it’s speak softly and carry a big sign.”
Similar signs have led to tension further down …
Given the current debate in the party over membership and over supporters schemes, it seems a good time to give another airing to this article which (minus a few minor updates) first appeared in Liberator last year.
People often draw a pessimistic picture of the state of politics based on the declining membership totals across all political parties and the contrasting much larger membership figures for some pressure groups. For example, the RSPB on its own has more members than all the UK political parties combined – and political party membership is on a long-term downward trend. So is it all doom and gloom?
By coincidence, shortly after reading such an article in Liberator last year, I came across membership and local group numbers for Friends of the Earth, and they suggest a rather different perspective.
First – those Friends of the Earth figures. Its membership currently is roughly the same as the Liberal Democrats. The RSPB may have more members than all parties put together, but one of the leading environmental campaign bodies does not even have a clear membership lead over the smallest of the three main parties.
And get beyond membership figures into active local group figures and political parties come out even better – for the Liberal Democrats have roughly double the number of active local parties compared with Friends of the Earth’s active local groups.
So yes, the biggest and most successful pressure and lobby groups do very well compared to political parties in terms of headline membership figures, but is that the right comparison to make? The RSPB is unusual, even amongst pressure groups, in being so very large – so people who use it as a yardstick for judging parties need to justify using it rather than a smaller more typical organisation.
Second – what has really happened with the overall level of political activity over the last few decades? Again, the normal picture painted is one of declining activity – how many campaigns these days aim for a 100% canvass for example? Throw in a few anecdotes about how hard it is to find tellers and how few window posters appear these days and the case appears conclusive.
But scratch under the surface, and there has been a major change in the sort of activity that campaigns – particularly in the Liberal Democrats – involve.
What happens to the fight against global warming in a time of economic crisis? Lib Dems know that it must be fought as strongly as ever. However, there are those who will say that economic recovery must be the top priority and that other causes, however worthy, must take a backseat – for example, some politicians and representatives of companies whose interests are threatened by the battle against global warming who will be only too happy to encourage that type of thinking. They should not be allowed to succeed.
We should not let the need to tackle economic troubles take away …
A few members of our forum have mentioned the lack of coverage of the Glenrothes by-election, and by a curious coincidence, I received an update email from the campaign manager Andrew Reeves at almost the exact same time.
I was sat in the by-election HQ in Markinch, Glenrothes on Saturday afternoon with Tavish Scott MSP, the new Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats looking at the article in the Guardian, where they have said “even the Tory and the Lib Dem could lose their deposits.”
We have had this happen once this year, in the Glasgow East by-election, let us ensure it
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In his Lib Dem News column this week, reprinted on his Liberal England blog, Jonathan Calder poses what he terms “an awkward question that won’t go away”:
How can you justify financing the BBC through the licence fee in a multi-channel, multi-platform, multi-everything world? Increasing numbers of people rarely watch its programmes and the fee is the nearest thing we have to a poll tax. If the BBC has its way, it will cost us all £180 a year by 2013.
Those arguing the case for the continuation of the BBC licence fee have not had their case made any …
The Bank of England Act 1998 requires the Bank of England to “publish minutes of the meeting before the end of the period of 6 weeks beginning with the day of the meeting”.
It could have said “publish minutes of the meeting within 6 weeks of the day it took place”. Shorter, clearer and with the same meaning.
Does this sort of clunky …
Cllr Bob Kilmister, a former Lib Dem councillor on Pembrokeshire county council, reassures his residents via his blog that he continues to work and act as a Liberal Democrat despite having decided to resign from the Lib Dem group:
I did this so Tony Brinsden my colleague could retain his seat on the National Park. The political balance rules meant that unless I resigned Tony could not continue to perform his duties on the park. Tony is Chair of the Development committee and is also chairing the new Local Plan process. I thought it vital that he continue
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Hey, don’t take The Voice’s word for it – the research is courtesy of liberal free-market think-tank Reform:
Labour is lagging in the league table of mathematical prowess, according to the results of the 2008 Reform maths challenge, released today. The independent think tank posed the taxing test to delegates at all three Party conferences this autumn as part of its ongoing campaign to promote rigour and excellence in maths – and the entries from attendees at Labour’s conference came out bottom in the battle of the mathematical minds.
The problems that tripped up the politicians also demonstrate the UK’s
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