Paul Walter

Paul Walter’s shocking confession

By Paul Walter | Sat 9th August 2008 - 9:20 am

I have an appalling confession to make. I didn’t touch either of the books on my summer reading list on Lib Dem Voice last month. In fact, I didn’t even take one of them with me. I don’t even possess them!

Should I do some sort of penance? You know the sort of thing. Should I compile an encyclopaedia of Bob Shaw’s blog titles? Or act as Lembit’s celebrity appearance booker for a month?

In place of the two books I listed, I read instead Running Mate by Joe Klein, which I recommend. It was loaned to me by an …

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Posted in Books | Tagged | 8 Comments
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Stephen Tall

Michael White on Nick Clegg’s leadership

By Stephen Tall | Fri 8th August 2008 - 3:35 pm

The Guardian’s senior political commentator examines the party’s fortunes in today’s online political briefing. It makes interesting reading:

Nick Clegg has issued a reader-friendly pre-conference document, Make It Happen, which will be discussed at his party conference in Bournemouth from September 13-17. If endorsed, it will mark the first Lib Dem shift towards a lower overall tax burden for many years. It will not be straightforward.

But who is listening at a time when the government’s troubles seem terminal, when the resurgent Conservatives, around 20% ahead of Labour in polls, look set to sweep all before them without a hung parliament

…

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Posted in News | Tagged | 22 Comments
Stephen Tall

Norman Baker: time to ditch the oath of allegiance

By Stephen Tall | Fri 8th August 2008 - 3:10 pm

For those who are surprised that Norman Baker should have come third in our poll of most-rated Lib Dem shadow cabinet members, much of Stormin’ Norm’s popularity is the result of his championing of causes just like this:

A collection of 22 cross party MPs are launching a campaign to end the tradition of swearing allegiance to the Queen when entering parliament. Led by Liberal Democrat Norman Baker, the MPs are calling for the choice to swear an oath to their constituents and the nation instead.

“This is a matter of democracy,” said Mr Baker. “I’m put here by my constituents

…

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 70 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dems to back SNP on local income tax?

By Stephen Tall | Fri 8th August 2008 - 2:51 pm

The Scotsman reports that the Lib Dems are going to come to the rescue of the SNP to ensure that the council tax is replaced by a local income tax in Scotland:

SNP ministers are prepared to do a deal with the Liberal Democrats which could see every council in Scotland set its own income tax rate, it emerged yesterday. The Scottish Government wants to introduce a nationally-set local income tax of 3p in the pound to replace the council tax, but its proposals have come in for heavy and sustained criticism since their publication earlier this year.

Business groups, councils,

…

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Posted in News and Scotland | 10 Comments
Mark Pack

Cutting youth crime

By Mark Pack | Fri 8th August 2008 - 10:43 am

Yesterday Chris Huhne set out the party’s approach to cutting youth crime:

“If we want to tackle the problem of youth crime, we need to take action early to stop kids from embarking on a life of crime before it’s too late.

“The old parties are falling over each other trying to be tough on crime, but nothing is being done do stop young people getting sucked in to a cycle of crime.

“Ministers know that programmes to divert kids away from crime work, and are even happy to promote such projects. However, they have failed to fund them properly in favour of

…

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Posted in News | 4 Comments
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Mark Pack

Guns and knives: councillors speak out

By Mark Pack | Fri 8th August 2008 - 10:05 am

Though not perhaps quite in the way you’d expect. SNP councillor Jahangir Hanif took his children to see him firing off an AK-47, whilst Conservative councillor Philip Thomas has been praising a meat cleaver and two machetes as being “cool”.

Posted in News | 3 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV members’ survey, August 2008 (5): how do you rate the performances of the current shadow cabinet?

By Stephen Tall | Fri 8th August 2008 - 7:45 am

All this week, Lib Dem Voice has been publishing the results of our first ever survey of party members. Some 133 of you accessed the survey via our private members’ forum. We don’t pretend it’s a representative sample, but that doesn’t mean it’s without value either. We hope you, LDV’s readers, find it interesting. Perhaps the wider party will, too. This is the first in what we intend to be a monthly survey – if you have ideas for future survey questions, please email me at [email protected].

The final question asked members to rate out of 10 the current …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 21 Comments
The Voice

Vote for us someone by midnight tomorrow

By The Voice | Thu 7th August 2008 - 6:55 pm

Voting in Total Politics / Iain Dale’s Top 100 UK Political Blogs closes at midnight tomorrow (Friday). We’ve discussed the competition before, but if you are intending to vote – hurry up and get your vote in.

Posted in News | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Lessons in media management

By Mark Pack | Thu 7th August 2008 - 5:45 pm

I think this letter from Brent Labour MP Dawn Butler should be filed in the “Things not to do” category.

Posted in News | Tagged | 4 Comments
The Voice

Liberal Democrat Voice says, the party acts…

By The Voice | Thu 7th August 2008 - 4:10 pm

In May Liberal Democrat Voice carried a piece from Lynne Featherstone about the lessons from May’s elections, in which she laid out five challenges for the party including,

We should ensure that we have at least a modest local internet presence covering every part of the country, helping point the public at more news about the party, how to join, how to get in touch with the local team etc. With the number of existing sources of news and information about the Liberal Democrats, I am sure it can’t be beyond the wit of a clever programmer or two to be able to put together an effective mini-site system that covers our internet black holes at a minimum of cost and effort.

A few days ago the following email went out to local parties:

 We have agreed a deal to put in place a local website for every party of the country which does not have its own local Liberal Democrat website.

This deal, with Prater Raines Ltd , will mean that wherever someone lives in the country, they can find the Liberal Democrats easily on the internet and get informed and involved. It will also mean that the party’s campaign buttons and films are much more widely publicised around the internet.

Where a local party does not have a website (e.g. because it is very small and has not been able to afford one or find a suitable volunteer) this deal will ensure that there is a simple, professional looking site. It will contain relevant local contact details, as used currently on www.libdems.org.uk, along with up to date news about the party and its campaigns.The party will also provide an appropriate local web address for each of these sites that can be used in any local activity to help promote it.

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Posted in Online politics | Tagged | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

Should candidates in internal party elections be able to contact members?

By Mark Pack | Thu 7th August 2008 - 2:20 pm

This is an issue that pops up fairly regularly in the Liberal Democrats, with some internal contests seeing candidates given contact details for the electorate (e.g. when selecting Westminster Parliamentary candidates) but others not (e.g. federal committee elections).

So it’s interesting to see how a similar debate is playing out in another party. The Greens are currently electing their (first) leader, and this contest has included a dispute over whether the candidates should be given members’ details. Jim Kilock’s posting from last month (and the comments to it) seems to give a good flavour of the arguments being used …

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Posted in News | 13 Comments
The Voice

Everything you ever wanted to know about LDV’s Stephen Tall…

By The Voice | Thu 7th August 2008 - 1:50 pm

… Is over at Total Politics’ Daily Politico Q&A here. Find out about Stephen’s childhood links to Michael Foot, what he would have been doing in 1940, why he has no hobbies, and much more.

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The Voice

Party elections: it’s that time again

By The Voice | Thu 7th August 2008 - 11:20 am

Nomination papers will be available next week for the party’s biennial internal elections.

The committees up for election are the Federal Executive, the Federal Policy Committee, the Federal Conference Committee and the International Relations Comittee. Also up for election are the delegation to the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party, and there’s the Interim Peers List Top-Up Election to choose 30 new potential peers (because we believe in an elected Lords). The electorate for these elections is made up of voting representatives to Federal Conference.

There’s find more information about the elections and the timetable on the party website. There are …

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Posted in News | 5 Comments
Stephen Tall

Axe the Tax: is the party softening its line on Local Income Tax?

By Stephen Tall | Thu 7th August 2008 - 10:26 am

The Guardian publishes today what appears to be a well-briefed article suggesting the Lib Dems are thinking of deferring plans to scrap Council Tax in favour of a local income tax:

Liberal Democrats are planning to soften their support for a local income tax to replace the council tax, a key policy for at least three elections. Instead they are expected to propose reforms to adapt the council tax.

Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman, is backing the shift in stance. He believes the party should not look to introduce, or press any coalition partners to introduce, a local income

…

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | 80 Comments
Mark Pack

Are light bulbs a particularly female subject?

By Mark Pack | Thu 7th August 2008 - 10:10 am

Thank you Times Newspaper for crediting Liberal Democrat Voice for the story about Boris Johnson and light bulbs, so I hope it isn’t too churlish to ask, “Why is the story in the Women’s section on your website?”

Posted in News | Tagged | 6 Comments
Mark Pack

What next for social networking?

By Mark Pack | Thu 7th August 2008 - 9:45 am

Predicting which companies and software are going to prosper and which are going to fizzle and disappear is a notoriously unreliable business, but it certainly looks at the moment as if Facebook, Myspace and Bebo are pretty well entrenched as the major social networking sites not only in the UK but also in many other countries, including (perhaps crucially in terms of predicting the future) the US.

Possibly this trio will change slightly in composition, having one of its members replaced or being joined by a fourth or fifth, but at the moment all three seem set pretty …

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Posted in News and Online politics | Tagged , , , and | 9 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV members’ survey, August 2008 (4): are the Lib Dems on the right or wrong track?

By Stephen Tall | Thu 7th August 2008 - 7:45 am

All this week, Lib Dem Voice is publishing the results of our first ever survey of party members. Some 133 of you accessed the survey via our private members’ forum. We don’t pretend it’s a representative sample, but that doesn’t mean it’s without value either. We hope you, LDV’s readers, find it interesting. Perhaps the wider party will, too. This is the first in what we intend to be a monthly survey – if you have ideas for future survey questions, please email me at [email protected].

The fourth question asked about the current direction of the party.

LDV asked: Do …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 3 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV doesn’t do statporn, but if we did…

By Stephen Tall | Wed 6th August 2008 - 3:20 pm

We’d probably note that in July we had almost 15,000 ‘absolute unique visitors’*. That’s a little down on June’s record of almost 17,000 – but still our third best month overall. For comparison, Iain Dale received 59,000 absolute unique visitors and Guido Fawkes 113,000.

Thank you to all our readers, whether you visit only occasionally, or pop by often.

Remember, if you’ve got something to say, and you want to say it to thousands of readers, then do consider writing an article for LDV, and email it to [email protected]. We publish some guidance for those wishing to write for the …

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Posted in Site news | Tagged and | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

Paris Hilton responds to John McCain

By Mark Pack | Wed 6th August 2008 - 2:20 pm

Pinch yourself, this really is true. First, John McCain features Paris Hilton in a TV advert attacking his rival for the US Presidency, Barack Obama. And then Paris Hilton responds by producing her own spoof ad about the super-old white-haired dude.

So for your viewing pleasure, here are the two:

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Posted in LDVUSA | 11 Comments
Stephen Tall

Guido, did you really think Vince wasn’t way ahead of you?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 6th August 2008 - 2:04 pm

Over at Guido Fawkes’ blog, Paul Staines attack-dogs Lib Dem demi-god Vince Cable, accusing him of “naivety” in relation to the Government’s botched nationalisation of Northern Rock:

What about the naive politicians Vince, who welcomed the nationalisation, without having done any due diligence on behalf of the taxpayers?

Why didn’t Vince ask the key question, what are the taxpayers billions in loans secured against?

I guess Mr Staines isn’t an avid reader of Hansard, but as any fule kno’ it has of course been the Lib Dem shadow chancellor asking just these questions of Gordon Brown and Alasdair Darling throughout the shambolic …

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Posted in News | Tagged | 22 Comments
Mark Pack

How much does it cost to change a light bulb? Cost efficiency, Boris Johnson style

By Mark Pack | Wed 6th August 2008 - 10:00 am

During the London Mayor elections, Boris Johnson and his campaign had to get the bulbs changed in five lamps in their office.

No surprise there really.

But you might be a little surprised at how much they paid.

Changing five lamps required someone to be paid for two hours of work, at £28.98 per hour. (That’s 24 minutes per lamp.)

Plus 10% administration fee.

Plus VAT.

Add in the cost of material and the total bill came to £88.81.

Nothing like a bit of value for money is there? (Copy of invoice here.)

P.S. I’m now off to become an electrician.

Posted in London | Tagged | 10 Comments
The Voice

Leadership election news

By The Voice | Wed 6th August 2008 - 9:32 am

In Wales: While Brecon and Radnorshire AM Kirsty Williams and Cardiff Central AM Jenny Randerson remain favourites, North Wales AM Eleanor Burnham launched her bid by promoting herself as a candidate best-placed to reconnect with Welsh speakers in the north.

In Scotland: Three weeks today the new Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats will be unveiled.

Posted in Scotland and Wales | Tagged | 7 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV members’ survey, August 2008 (3): what do you think of Nick Clegg’s leadership?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 6th August 2008 - 7:45 am

All this week, Lib Dem Voice is publishing the results of our first ever survey of party members. Some 133 of you accessed the survey via our private members’ forum. We don’t pretend it’s a representative sample, but that doesn’t mean it’s without value either. We hope you, LDV’s readers, find it interesting. Perhaps the wider party will, too. This is the first in what we intend to be a monthly survey – if you have ideas for future survey questions, please email me at [email protected].

The third question asked about Nick Clegg’s leadership of the party.

LDV asked: Are …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 13 Comments
Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #76

By Stephen Tall | Tue 5th August 2008 - 8:59 pm

Welcome to the 76th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (27th July – 2nd August), together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed.

Let’s get straight down to it, in traditional descending order:

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Posted in Best of the blogs | 5 Comments
Mark Pack

A little local trouble for Michael Gove

By Mark Pack | Tue 5th August 2008 - 3:50 pm

Yesterday Michael Gove made a speech attacking magazines such as Nuts and Zoo:

I believe we need to ask tough questions about the instant-hit hedonism celebrated by the modern men’s magazines targeted at younger males.

Titles such as Nuts and Zoo paint a picture of women as permanently, lasciviously, uncomplicatedly available.

We should ask those who make profits out of reveling in, or encouraging, selfish irresponsibility among young men what they think they’re doing.

There’s plenty to debate in his speech. But it has one rather embarassing problem. Recess Monkey explains:

A look through the Register of Members Interests reveals Michael was elected

…

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Posted in News | Tagged | 22 Comments
Sal Brinton

Sal Brinton on events in Watford

By Sal Brinton | Tue 5th August 2008 - 2:25 pm

Today Ian Oakley, the former Conservative PPC for Watford, (and the former Tory manager for Ali Miraj’s 2005 Watford General Election Campaign) has pleaded guilty to five charges of criminal damage and two of harassment against the Liberal Democrats and their supporters in Watford. He has also asked for a further 68 crime incidents to be taken into consideration. This leaves around 74 incidents unaccounted for, from the 150 plus that have been perpetrated over the last three and half years.

He will be sentenced on Tuesday 16 September. I think I can speak for all of us in Watford …

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Posted in News | 25 Comments
Mark Pack

Conservative Watford candidate admits to 75 offences

By Mark Pack | Tue 5th August 2008 - 11:56 am

Ian Oakely, the Conservative candidate for Watford and Hillingdon councillor*, today appeared in court and pleaded guilty to five charges of criminal damage and two of harrasment. He also asked for 68 other offences to be taken into account, making a total of 75 offences.

A fuller piece will follow later today, but in the meantime I’m sure that many people will both be shocked at the number of offences but also relieved that after all the years, someone has finally been brought to justice.

* After he was arrested, he quit as Conservative candidate and left the Conservative group on Hillingdon Council.

UPDATE: …

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Posted in News | 83 Comments
Mark Pack

42 million signatures on Pakistani petition against terrorism

By Mark Pack | Tue 5th August 2008 - 11:47 am

It’s gone unremarked in the media here, but a huge online petition is being run in Pakistan against terrorism. Started by the Yeh Hum Naheen (YHN) Foundation, a Pakistani NGO, it is currently growing at the rate of more than a million signatures a day, assisted by a mix of offline and online campaigning, including several thousand people around the country gathering signatures on sheets of paper, a high profile website and the ability for people to sign the petition via text message.

The straplines for the campaign are interesting, as they are clearly aimed in part at addressing support …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

LDV members’ survey, August 2008 (2): what you think of Make it Happen’s tax-cutting agenda

By Stephen Tall | Tue 5th August 2008 - 7:45 am

All this week, Lib Dem Voice is publishing the results of our first ever survey of party members. Some 133 of you accessed the survey via our private members’ forum. We don’t pretend it’s a representative sample, but that doesn’t mean it’s without value either. We hope you, LDV’s readers, find it interesting. Perhaps the wider party will, too. This is the first in what we intend to be a monthly survey – if you have ideas for future survey questions, please email me at [email protected].

The second set of questions asked what you think of the Lib Dems’ …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 17 Comments
Stephen Tall

Does it matter where the Cabinet is held?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 4th August 2008 - 11:44 pm

One of the more bizarre headlines today was from the BBC, Cabinet ‘may go to West Midlands’:

Gordon Brown will hold his first cabinet meeting after MPs’ long summer break outside London – most likely in the West Midlands. A Downing Street spokesman said the gathering was set for 8 September.

Ministers will also be taking part in a range of other events in the region on the day to give them an opportunity to “engage” with the public.

The spokesman said the move was part of the government’s commitment to “listen and learn” from people’s experiences.

Let’s move beyond the easy …

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Posted in News | 6 Comments
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