Stephen Tall

NEW POLL: should we have a televised leaders’ debate in the UK?

By Stephen Tall | Fri 17th October 2008 - 6:04 pm

It’s not just the US electorate which has closely followed the three Presidential (and one vice-presidential) debates – much of the British political class has also been transfixed by the sheer theatre and high stakes involved in these face-offs.

In reality, all four debates have perhaps disappointed those expecting, or hoping for, ‘game-changing’ fireworks or gaffes from any of the candidates. Though as Martin Kettle put it in today’s Guardian:

Too many observers wait for someone to say something either utterly brilliant or staggeringly stupid. But that’s not what the debates are about. The real point of the debates is

…

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Posted in Voice polls | 7 Comments
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Richard Huzzey

The Barack and John Show

By Richard Huzzey | Fri 17th October 2008 - 3:50 pm

In an interlude that feels like an off-beat West Wing episode, the two US Presidential candidates have both spoken at the Alfred E Smith memorial dinner, where they were required to do a stand-up comedy routine. Both, I thought, were pretty good, although McCain’s clip shows more gags than Obama’s. (I’m not sure how much these clips are edited, but Obama’s inspiring rhetoric at the end feels odd after the stand-up routine).

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Posted in LDVUSA | 1 Comment
James Graham

Why don’t liberals talk about morality?

By James Graham | Fri 17th October 2008 - 1:18 pm

First a confession: I understand what is going on with the global wunch crunch far less than I’m comfortable with. The world’s leaders seem to be making up as they go along, adopting a throw everything at the market until something sticks approach. Gordon Brown’s plan looked like it was going to pay off at the beginning of the week; now it looks like we are rapidly heading back to square one. None of it makes sense to me; I find it highly ironic having people complain about the “complexity” of Georgism earlier this week when it is kindergarten …

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Posted in Op-eds | 38 Comments
Alex Foster

Nick Clegg, Joanna Lumley, Gurkhas

By Alex Foster | Fri 17th October 2008 - 11:25 am

Jonathan Wallace has the all-important pictures of the latest steps in the gurkha tank justice battle.

Posted in News | Tagged | 2 Comments
Alex Foster

Steve Webb’s cream cake triumph

By Alex Foster | Fri 17th October 2008 - 10:43 am

Steve Webb got to hold the Government to account whilst praising them for adopting Lib Dem policy yesterday in Parliament:

Commenting on Ed Miliband’s announcement that the Government will support an 80% cut in carbon emissions by 2050, first proposed by the Liberal Democrats, Liberal Democrat Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Steve Webb said: “I am glad the Government has finally come round to the reality that an 80% cut in emissions is needed if we are to stand any chance in the fight against climate change.”

Steve Webb went on to say:

“However, Mr Miliband appears to think he can

…

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Posted in News and Parliament | Leave a comment
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Stephen Tall

Lembit: time for Lib Dems to stop the conspiracy against me

By Stephen Tall | Fri 17th October 2008 - 9:56 am

A fairly extraordinary press release has been issued by Lembit Opik – one of the three Lib Dems standing for the post of party presidency which will be decided by an all-member ballot within the next few weeks – demanding an end to an alleged “conspiracy” in the party against his candidacy.

I’ll reproduce the whole release below, but here’s the part which will cause some sharp intakes of breath:

If anyone is conspiring against me I ask them to stop … I don’t agree with conspiracies in the Liberal Democrats. That’s why I backed former leader Charles Kennedy to the end – I was appalled by the perceived internal campaign against him. That’s why I defended Ming Campbell up to his moment of resignation, in the face of a whispering campaign against him too. I still refuse to play any part in such negative campaigning.”

Quite why Lembit should feel it’s appropriate to rake over the ashes of the Kennedy and Campbell resignations in a way that paints the party in quite such an unattractive (and, in my view, misleading) light is beyond me. To do so in a campaign for a post which is, above all, about uniting the party and moving it forwards smacks of appallingly poor judgement.

Editor’s note: Lib Dem Voice has volunteered to remain neutral in internal party elections. However, such defensive statements by a candidate which serve only to feed the anti-Lib Dem narrative of much of the media is, I believe, reckless. I hope this is the last we’ll see of it from Lembit’s campaign.

The full press release is below:

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Posted in Party Presidency | Tagged and | 81 Comments
Helen Duffett

Boris Johnson says get elected to make your voice heard in City Hall

By Helen Duffett | Thu 16th October 2008 - 11:07 pm

Mayor’s Question Time yesterday at London’s City Hall was interrupted twice, by protesters in five different parts of the public gallery.

They were calling on the Mayor to ensure a living wage for workers on the London Underground, particularly those employed as cleaners. I’d noticed the young woman sitting next to me, fiddling nervously with a piece of paper, but it was only when she stood up and shouted in Boris’s direction that I recognised her as one of the group who’d carried out a similar protest in July.

At first, the Mayor and Assembly Members looked on benignly as one …

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Posted in London and News | Tagged and | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

BBC Question Time: open thread

By Stephen Tall | Thu 16th October 2008 - 9:50 pm

In a week that’s witnessed two seemingly impossible events – a perfect start to the England football team’s World Cup campaign; and the partial political rehabilitation of Gordon Brown – today’s BBC1 Question Time (10.35 pm) will once again attempt to make sense of the last few weeks’ economic turmoil.

In the gold corner will be Julia Goldsworthy, Lib Dem MP for Falmouth and Camborne, and the party’s shadow secretary of state for communities and local government (and, for one week only, inbetween Lembit Opik’s resignation from the Lib Dem shadow cabinet, and last week’s mini-reshuffle, our housing spokeswoman, too). And …

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Posted in Lib Dem TV | Tagged and | 11 Comments
Stephen Tall

Has Obama sealed the deal? (And is that a good thing?)

By Stephen Tall | Thu 16th October 2008 - 8:48 pm

Last night saw the third and final presidential debate between Senators Obama and McCain. The polls suggest the Democratic hopeful emerged the winner with the public (though perhaps not with the now-immortal Joe the Plumber); the pundits are calling it pretty much a draw, which isn’t good enough for Senator McCain, who is trailing nationally, and especially badly in the battleground states which will determine the winner.

The ElectoralVote.com map, as of today, gives Senator Obama a lead of 352 over Senator McCain’s 171 in the electoral college; most worryingly for the Republicans, the polls …

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Posted in LDVUSA | 14 Comments
Stephen Tall

Should a Lib Dem be the next Commons speaker?

By Stephen Tall | Thu 16th October 2008 - 1:25 pm

A rumour swept the political blogosphere last night that former Tory chancellor Ken Clarke is interested in becoming the next Speaker of the House of Commons (a position currently occupied by Michael Martin, and from which he is widely expected to stand down at the next election or sooner). Here’s Sky News’s Jon Craig:

My spy tells me he has heard that Ken has asked some of his mates to take soundings among Labour and Conservative MPs about the level of support he would receive if he ran for Speaker. … Ken Clarke has always said he would never

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Posted in News | Tagged | 17 Comments
The Voice

Alexander: “Government is swiftly ditching its toxic policies”

By The Voice | Wed 15th October 2008 - 8:02 pm

Thanks to The Times’ Sam Coates’ Red Box blog for drawing attention to this pithy comment from Danny Alexander, the Lib Dems’ Manifesto Group chair:

In the space of 24 hours we have seen the end of 42-day detention, the scrapping of plans for secret inquests and now the abolition of Key Stage Three tests. Just as banks are desperate to offload their toxic loans, the Government is swiftly ditching its toxic policies. As there are still several days of the week left there should be plenty of time for ministers to add ID Cards, Council Tax and Britain’s

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Posted in News | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

PMQs: Cable tackles Harman on unemployment and interest rates

By Stephen Tall | Wed 15th October 2008 - 7:53 pm

With our Superman Prime Minister currently bestriding the globe like a Colossus of financial acuity, it was left to Harriet Harman at today’s Question Time to bat for the Government and laud the financial bail-out as Gordon Brown’s Dunkirk. It was not her finest hour. Ms Harman struggled to sound on top of her brief throughout the half-hour exchange, with both Vince Cable and William Hague asking tough questions that left her visibly floundering.

You can watch Vince’s encounter for yourself via YouTube here, or read the Hansard transcript, below:

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Posted in News and PMQs | Tagged , and | 4 Comments
Alex Foster

John Cleese on Sarah Palin

By Alex Foster | Wed 15th October 2008 - 1:57 pm

See what John Cleese thinks about Sarah Palin.

“Monty Python could have written this!”

Posted in News | 6 Comments
Alix Mortimer

What we missed…

By Alix Mortimer | Wed 15th October 2008 - 11:03 am

Last week, Leo Hickman at the Guardian observed, was a great time to be burying bad news. Like the governmental go-ahead for expansion at Stansted airport for example:

Would he have dared do so at any other time given that it was just 72 hours ago that the government’s committee on climate change, chaired by Lord Turner (some week he’s having what with his other job at the FSA), said that the UK’s carbon reduction target for 2050 should be raised from 60% to 80% and include shipping and aviation?

This must surely

…

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Posted in News | 1 Comment
Alix Mortimer

Ten people who predicted the financial meltdown

By Alix Mortimer | Wed 15th October 2008 - 8:03 am

The “I told you so” game continues over at the Times, whose list of the prescient includes an astrologer, two websites and a Russian Marxist economist executed in 1938. Only two UK politicians feature on the list and they are, of course, Vince Cable and Lord Oakeshott (the latter by dint of his warnings about Iceland).

Let’s hear those questions to the government again:

1. Vince Cable – deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats

Here is a question Mr Cable’s posed to Gordon Brown, then Chancellor, during Treasury Questions back in November 2003: “The growth of the British economy is

…

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Posted in News | Tagged | 36 Comments
Stephen Tall

Are the Tories playing the expectations game?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 14th October 2008 - 5:44 pm

There’s been a fair amount of publicity today generated by ConservativeHome’s ‘scoop’, a briefing they’ve been fed received on the party’s analysis of the political impact of the current economic crisis, and in particular:

Team Cameron readily concede that Brown has enjoyed a good few days. They expect the Conservatives’ poll lead to drop into single figures in the next month or so. They expect to lose the Conservative lead on economic competence but expect it to be restored by the new year.

Now, forgive me for lapsing into cynicism, but this strikes me as a rather easy way …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 6 Comments
The Voice

Welcome back to Gavin Webb

By The Voice | Tue 14th October 2008 - 5:30 pm

The Lib Dem PPC for Burton is once again a fully-fledged party member. Lib Dem bloggers Alex Wilcock and Paul Walter have the background.

Posted in News | Tagged and | 4 Comments
The Voice

Clegg: time for Government to cut taxes now

By The Voice | Tue 14th October 2008 - 5:26 pm

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg – following on from his Independent article last wek – has once again spoken up for the need for the Government to put the needs of ordinary people to the fore. Here’s how PoliticsHome reports Nick’s appearance on BBC Radio 4’s The World At One at lunch-time:

Mr Clegg responded to the news that the government is seeking a promise from the banks to ease lending to small businesses. He said: “Anything that stops loans being called in against small and medium-size enterprises is welcome.”

He also argued that similar guarantees should be obtained in the

…

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Posted in News | 14 Comments
Seth Thevoz

The Sustainable Communities Act – at last an opportunity for liberal local government!

By Seth Thevoz | Tue 14th October 2008 - 10:12 am

Liberal Democrats have every reason to be excited about the Sustainable Communities Act, which kicks in this year. Co-sponsored by our very own Julia Goldsworthy, and passed with cross-party support, it offers a unique opportunity which Lib Dems would ignore at their peril.

Quite simply, it’s a piece of devolved, ‘opt-in’ legislation. Participation isn’t compulsory, but councils can choose to get involved – and on their terms. The Act enables local councils to submit proposals to the government on how they can promote ‘local sustainability’. This is extremely loosely defined. It’s anything which will contribute to ‘the improvement of …

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Posted in Local government and News | Tagged | 1 Comment
Sal Brinton

Sal Brinton on the sentencing of her former Tory opponent

By Sal Brinton | Tue 14th October 2008 - 9:14 am

I’m very relieved that Ian Oakley, the former Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Watford, has finally been sentenced for his part in the campaign of criminal damage, harassment and intimidation against the Watford Liberal Democrats. Oakley has made the lives of well over 30 people a misery for the last two and a half years.

I was with Mark Watkin, another of Oakley’s targets, in court yesterday (Monday 13 October), to hear the verdict. It was depressing to hear the detail of the many incidents recounted again by the CPS, but very reassuring when the wheels of justice moved into action, …

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Posted in News | 6 Comments
The Voice

Former Tory PPC for Watford receives suspended prison sentence for hate campaign

By The Voice | Mon 13th October 2008 - 7:42 pm

Readers of Lib Dem Voice will well recall the story of Ian Oakely, the Conservative candidate for Watford and Hillingdon councillor*, who appeared in court and pleaded guilty in August to five charges of criminal damage and two of harrasment – LDV covered it here, and Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Watford Sal Brinton wrote about it here.

Mr Oakley today appeared before Central Herts Magistrates Court in St Albans, where he received an 18-week jail sentence suspended for 12 months. The BBC.co.uk report gives further details:

At August’s hearing the court heard Oakley had terrorised Liberal Democrat rivals

…

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Posted in News | 9 Comments
Stephen Tall

The financial crisis: what will be the impact on Labour?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 13th October 2008 - 7:26 pm

Yesterday I looked at the impact of the current financial crisis on the Lib Dems, the one party which correctly anticipated the credit crunch and its impact. Inevitably (if frustratingly) much of this will depend on the extent to which the public blames Labour for the mess the UK currently finds itself in, or the extent to which they credit Labour if the Government’s bail-out package helps rescue the UK from amidst the debris of the current global crisis.

In short, what the Lib Dems have to say is unlikely to have any immediate positive or negative impact on …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

42 Days defeated in House of Lords

By Stephen Tall | Mon 13th October 2008 - 6:57 pm

This report from Sky News:

Peers voted 309 to 118 to reject a controversial proposal to hold terror suspects for up to 42 days without charge.

It only narrowly passed through the House of Commons in June – and was not expected to clear the upper house of Parliament.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith will make an emergency statement on the result in the Commons at 8:30pm tonight.

The latest bid to extend pre-charge detention for terror suspects was rejected by a coalition of Tory and Liberal Democrat peers and Labour rebels.

They backed a move by crossbencher Lord Dear, a former chief inspector of

…

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Posted in News | 3 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV members’ survey (5): what you think of the Lib Dem shadow cabinet

By Stephen Tall | Mon 13th October 2008 - 1:34 pm

At the start of last week, Lib Dem Voice emailed 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 current state of British politics, especially as they affect the Lib Dems. Many thanks to the 181 of you who completed it.

Today we turn our attention to the performance of the Liberal Democrat shadow cabinet (prior to last week’s minor reshuffle). Reproduced below, in alphabetical order, are the full results of our survey, which shows how effective each member is felt by members to be, together with a net satisfaction rating (those who think they’re very/fairly effective minus those think they’re very/fairly ineffective).

The list is a long one, so here’s the skinny:

First of all, who’s at the top of the charts…

Top 5:
Vince Cable: +95%
Chris Huhne: +78%
Norman Baker: +58%
David Laws: +30%
Lynne Featherstone: +30%

And then we have the ones who, erm, aren’t at the top of the charts…

Bottom 5:
Nick Harvey: -16%
Stephen Williams: -25%
Sarah Teather: -25%
Roger Williams: -25%
Michael Moore: -32%

Finally, I thought we’d take a look at those with the highest number of Don’t knows / No opinions in the survey…

Most anonymous 5:
Michael Moore: 37%
David Howarth: 38%
Willie Rennie: 39%
Paul Burstow: 43%
Roger Williams: 49%

Full results follow:

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Leave a comment
Dictionary of Liberal Thought

DLT: Henry George 1839-97

By Dictionary of Liberal Thought | Mon 13th October 2008 - 10:20 am

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

Henry George 1839–97

Nineteenth-century America’s most influential radical theorist, his claim that the God-given land, the source of all wealth, had been unjustly usurped by landlords, and that the situation could be remedied by a tax on the unimproved value of land, inspired a generation of radical and socialist politicians in the English-speaking world and Europe.

Key ideas

• Land is the source of all wealth.

• God gave the land to the people, so its appropriation as private property was theft.
• This can be remedied by taxing away the value of rents paid on land and minerals.
• This ‘single tax’ would eliminate the monopoly power of landowners to exploit wage-earners and allow for the abolition of other taxes.

Biography

Henry George was born in Philadelphia on 2 September 1839, the second of ten children in a devout Episcopalian family. At sixteen, he went to sea and spent ten years drifting from job to job until, with a wife and young family, he settled in San Francisco, where he discovered a talent for journalism and, by 1871, became the editor and co-owner of the San Francisco Daily Evening Post.

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Posted in Dictionary of Liberal Thought | 33 Comments
The Voice

Vince: from Dr Doom to Mr Hope

By The Voice | Mon 13th October 2008 - 9:39 am

The Lib Dem deputy leader and shadow chancellor Vince Cable has penned an article for the Mail looking on the bright side of the current economic crisis. It’s worth reading in full if you want to cheer yourselves up on a gloomy Monday morning, but here are some extracts:

Today, with the collapse of the vast global pyramid-selling scheme created by international financiers, many people will be experiencing similar emotions. There are potentially millions of victims – those whose pensions depend on share values, those who bought houses on large mortgages at the peak of the housing boom, small businesses

…

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Posted in News | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #86

By Stephen Tall | Sun 12th October 2008 - 8:49 pm

Welcome to the 86th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (5th-11th October), together with a hand-picked quintet 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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Stephen Tall

Is there anything more the party can do to turn the polls around?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 12th October 2008 - 3:49 pm

Obsessing about any individual poll is a mug’s game, as we at Lib Dem Voice have long argued. However, we have also always said that polls – taken together and observed over a reasonable time period – are useful evidence of trends. And the trend for the party at the moment is, let’s be honest, not the happiest.

Three weeks ago, the Lib Dems benefited from a polling spike – two polls putting us at or above 20% – possibly as a result of increased publicity surrounding the party conference. Since then there have been seven polls (three from YouGov, …

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Posted in News and Polls | 102 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV members’ survey (4): how you will vote in the race for party president

By Stephen Tall | Sun 12th October 2008 - 12:42 pm

At the start of last week, Lib Dem Voice emailed 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 current state of British politics, especially as they affect the Lib Dems. Many thanks to the 181 of you who completed it.

Today we look at the race to become the next president of the Liberal Democrats. LDV asked: Three candidates are standing for the presidency of the Liberal Democrats: Chandila Fernando, Lembit Opik MP, and Baroness …

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Posted in LDV Members poll and Party Presidency | 7 Comments
The Voice

Prime Minister nearly blind

By The Voice | Sun 12th October 2008 - 9:31 am

Or so says the Telegraph this morning.

Posted in News | 3 Comments
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