Welcome to the 65th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (11th-17th May), together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed.
Let’s get straight down to it, in descending order of popularity:
Sensible or suicide? Intelligent or insane? I am, of course, referring to this morning’s Telegraph story which states that Nick Clegg would tacitly support the Tories if they end up as the largest single party at the next general election, but lack a majority. (Although, interestingly, many LDV readers expect the Tories to secure enough MPs to gain a working majority at the next election, according to our current poll.)
The Telegraph story states:
In consultations with senior members of the party, he said he was prepared to take the necessary steps that would enable the Tories to form a minority
…
The Sunday Telegraph‘s Mandrake diary yesterday reported the party’s Tea for Two competition for helpers signing in at the Crewe and Nantwich by-election HQ over the next few days.
The party will get in touch with the winners once they’ve all been drawn but we can exclusively reveal the two winners randomly selected so far: Alun Griffiths from Bradford won tea for two in London with Sarah Teather, and local member Ken Veitch from Nantwich won tea with Simon Hughes.
Go and help this week and you could win tea with Chris Huhne, Lord Rennard, Vince Cable or Nick Clegg …
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 David Thoreau. The entire book is available on Amazon here and can also be bought at the Westminster Bookshop.
A non-party-political movement that grew up in the 1920s and 1930s, dedicated to small-scale mass ownership of land and property as a bastion against collectivism, big business and big institutions, which its founders believed led inevitably to slavery. Distributism flourished under the early leadership of former Liberals Hilaire Belloc and G. K. Chesterton, became associated with radical Catholicism and arts and crafts pioneers like Eric Gill, and disintegrated in the 1940s – but was later influential on key Liberal Party policy-makers in the 1950s and green economics pioneers in the 1970s.
The immediate influences on distributism were the ideas of Hilaire Belloc (q.v.), especially in his book The Servile State (1912), and the prolific journalism of G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936). According to its proponents, it was an economic doctrine, but much of what they wrote was also historical criticism and profoundly spiritual.
A short guide to the best of Lib Dem Voice
In the final full week of campaigning for the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, we featured heaps of stories about the goings-on. There’s trouble for the Tories, consideration about whether it’s better for Labour to win or lose – given the calibre of their leaflets, they deserve to lose.
Away from the campaign coalface, Tim Leunig reviewed a Clegg speech on Lib Dem plans for the city; Laurence Boyce recounted an interview with the man himself – and large numbers weighed in in the comments.
Jake Holland brought us …
If the Democrat primaries were being run on first past the post (rather than allocating delegates in proportion to the votes won by the different Presidential candidates), then Hillary Clinton would now be the Democrat nominee for President, despite having won fewer votes overall.
Here’s a selection of the criticisms from today’s News of the World about MEPs and their pay and benefits. Some of the criticisms are a little wide of the mark (such as pointing out that, shock horror, MEPs get a salary) but there are also activities they highlight which are in a very different league:
Tory David Sumberg—dubbed Britain’s laziest MEP for making just two speeches in the chamber since 2004—admits paying wife Carolyn almost as much as he earns himself!
He gives her up to £60,000 a year for her services as a “secretary/assistant”.
But our records show in 2002 there were
…
An extract from her memoirs:
One evening I was at the Royal Opera House for some gala performance and was talking to about what we had seen when Chris Smith came over (the then Minister of Culture, who is gay).
“Have you met Chris Smith, our Culture Secretary, Ma’am?” I asked.
She peered at him.
“And this is his partner,” I added.
“Partner for what?”
I took a breath. “Sex, Ma’am.”
She stalked off.
Our belated guide to the highlights here at LDV. Read this if you don’t read anything else this summer:
Our guest contributors included
You, our readers, weighed in with dozens of comments about
There was also lots and lots of by-election news from Crewe and Nantwich (polling this week! Go there if you possibly can!) and slightly …
A variety of political financial stories this week, including:
…
With polling day in the parliamentary by-election just five days away, there’s an extra Crewe and Nantwich slant to this weekend’s collection of random stuff (with thanks to Tim Harkchild for emailing from Crewe). So if you’re sitting comfortably, we’ll begin.
Leaders on the line
Nick Clegg and David Cameron both returned to Crewe on Wednesday, and both were affected by train problems. It was Nick, though, who was doing a phone-in on Radio Stoke when this was mentioned and quickly pointed out that it was Cameron’s party that privatised the railways.
DC himself had been on Radio Stoke a few days earlier, when he referred to the by-election in “Crewe and Nuneaton”. Well done, Dave.
CU@by-election
The Lib Dems are taking the by-election very seriously, of course, so a mass text message from Nick went out to members encouraging us to head to Crewe to help Elizabeth Shenton’s campaign. At least one recipient didn’t need the encouragement: Elizabeth was out campaigning with Nick himself when the text message arrived on her phone.
Public Whip gets cracking
The Public Whip, a site set up to track parliamentary voting records, is using these data to help undecided voters choose who to back in the by-election. It’s a little flawed – it makes a big deal about issues of interest to the geeks behind the site, like ID cards, the right to protest near Parliament and Freedom of Information while omitting to ask about healthcare and schools – but it’s worth having a go. It told me I was closest to the Liberal Democrats, surprisingly.
On the fringe
Of course, it’s not just the big three parties fighting it out in Crewe and Nantwich. Our old friends then English Democrats are here, with another video to delight and entertain:
Paul Linford has drawn an interesting parallel* with the Darlington by-election from the early 1980s which, against the odds, Labour held – so saving Michael Foot’s leadership of the Labour Party.
A defeat in Darlington would have quite possibly led to a change in Labour leader, and so at the very least a less disastrous 1983 general election.
So if you were a Labour supporter in Crewe & Nantwich, would you want to vote for Labour and risk prolonging Gordon Brown’s agony? Or vote for someone else in the hope of ending Gordon Brown’s premiership and getting a new Prime Minister …
Tsk tsk, someone really did get their facts wrong because the FT’s Jim Pickard reports:
A senior Tory tells me, over a cup of Earl Grey, that 30 Labour/Lib Dem councillors have defected to the Conservatives in the last 12 months. Only one Tory councillor has quit the party during the same period.
One problem with that. It ain’t true. Indeed, the Murray family alone demonstrate that – as Gordon and Lynn were both Conservative councillors on Barrow Borough Council and switched to the Liberal Democrats within the last year.
And they’re not the only ones by any means. A sample of …
I blogged before about David Murphy, the Labour councillor in Rochdale who has been living in South West Europe. He was eventually expelled from the Labour group, but has now popped up again in the town. Rochdale Online reports:
David Murphy can serve yet another 6 months, at your expense, as a Councillor despite moving to Murcia in Spain! His attendance at last night’s 15 minute Council Meeting has ensured that he can continue to live by the coast in Spain at taxpayer’s expense. Labour withdrew the whip from Councillor Murphy in May, 9 months after Councillor Murphy’s controversial continental
…
It’s not that unusual for a would-be Parliamentary candidate to be selected for a seat and then, after a period of time, to quit – perhaps because of a change in their personal circumstances, because they found being a candidate wasn’t really for them or because of an internal dispute.
However, the case of Michael Ellis – Conservative candidate for Northampton North – is a little different from the rest as, after three months consideration by Conservative chiefs, his resignation has been undone.
As the local paper, the Northampton Chronicle, puts it:
Barrister Michael Ellis, who had said he would quit the General Election trail,
…
Hey ho, here’s the story from The Times:
The scale of secret cash links between senior Conservatives and wealthy backers was revealed yesterday after George Osborne was told that he should have declared how his office was being funded. The Shadow Chancellor was the subject of a parliamentary investigation after it emerged that he failed to register almost £500,000 in donations. Donors had given the money to the Conservative Party but asked that it be used to bankroll Mr Osborne.
Ten other Shadow Cabinet ministers have also been benefiting from money channelled from Tory headquarters, the final report of the investigation
…
‘Fraid there are no Lib Dem panellists on tonight’s Question Time (broadcast on BBC1 and online from 10.35 pm GMT).
The panel includes Health Secretary Alan Johnson, shadow business, enterprise and regulatory reform secretary Alan Duncan, Plaid Cymru’s spokesperson for health and social services in the Welsh Assembly Helen Mary Jones, broadcaster and journalist Lauren Booth and businessman Simon Woodroffe.
So, if you want to sound-off as you watch, please feel free to use the comments thread.
News reaches The Voice of the death of Peter Thurnham who was a Lib Dem MP for just a few months after his defection to the party in October 1996.
You can read more about his career, and tributes from colleagues, in the Manchester Evening News
The folks from www.publicwhip.org.uk have just released a vote-match style website for the Crewe & Nantwich Parliamentary by-election. It serves up a number of different policy questions, and then tells you which party is the best fit for your answers.
As their news release says:
While activists are descending from all corners of the country to Crewe & Nantwich to help with their party’s by-election campaigns, volunteers from the Public Whip today launched an online questionnaire to help people make up their minds about who to vote for. The webpage http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/byelection compares people’s opinions to the way each party has voted in
…
Friction.TV has done an interview with David Howarth MP ahead of tomorrow’s debate in Parliament on his bill to introduce fixed term Parliaments. I won’t spoil the fun by telling you who the presenter is…
Peter Black has the details of how our good results in this year’s Welsh local government elections are translating into increasing amounts of power and influence across Welsh councils.
Three days ago at Full Council, my Lib Dem group on Nottingham City Council voted to support the introduction of a Workplace Parking Levy in our city.
The scheme charges large employers with more than 10 parking spaces for every space they have. The fee begins in 2010 at around £15 per month per space – less than a bus season ticket – and employers can choose whether to pass the fee onto employees or to pay it themselves. Around 500 employers will be subject to the fee and so far it looks like about 50% of them are planning to pass on the charge. The money raised will mostly pay for the tram, but it will also provide for major renovation of our railway station, and help subsidize a number of bus routes that are not commercially viable but provide a vital service, including to major employers, the airport and the universities.
Ah happy memories. Remember the glories of last summer and the Ealing Southall by-election when the Conservatives sanctimoniously threatened the Liberal Democrats with legal action over use of an image in a leaflet, saying that this was an outrageous breach of the law, would result in a huge financial penalty, the end of the world etc etc – all at the same time as putting out a leaflet themselves that, er…, did exactly what they were complaining of others doing?
You might have thought being caught out saying one thing whilst doing another would have resulted in a slight pause for caution …
Most of the coverage in the UK of American elections in the last couple of days has focused on Hillary Clinton’s latest primary victory and then John Edwards’s endorsement of Barack Obama.
However, also of significance is the special election (by-election) win chalked up by the Democrats in a formerly solidly Republican Mississipi congressional seat. George W Bush carried the district with more than 60% of the vote in 2004, but in this week’s election Democrat Travis Childers won through. This makes it three special election victories for the Democrats in a month – all in strongly Republican areas – and …
Focus on the Ladden-Frome area reports:
Councillor Sarah Turley (Boyd Valley) has left South Gloucestershire’s ruling Conservative group and joined the Liberal Democrats.
Sarah says, “When I stood for election last year I was determined to stand up for my local community. Unfortunately, over the last year I have found that my work has been undermined by members of the Conservative group on the Council.”
“In particular, when I wanted to speak up on behalf of local residents against the in-vessel composter, I was discouraged from doing so. At the same time I have worked closely with community campaigners, many of whom are
…
I’ve already blogged about how London Elects admitted to failing to count all the votes in the London Mayor election. Now looking through the detailed figures I see that Lambeth has sprouted two extra wards.
What seems to have happened is that some, but only some, of the ballot boxes in Brixton Hill and Thornton wards were reported in to the central number crunching venue in City Hall with typos in their names – and so the official results have votes for both Brixton Hill and Brxiton Hill (note the x and i) and also both Thornton and Thirnton (note …
Charles Clarke speaking into mobile phone, central London, today:
I trust him, but I am not sure about her
Who could he have been talking about?
“Good evening Mr Haw!” I said cheerily as I wandered past the assorted tents and placards still disfiguring the east side of Parliament Square; but the legendary peace campaigner studiously ignored my outstretched hand. I thought this just a touch rude, but reasoned afterwards that he must have taken me for a member of the ruling classes. An easy mistake to make – I was, after all, most finely tailored from head to toe for the latest in a series of blogger interviews, most kindly organised by the Millennium Elephant, this time with the leader of the Liberal Democrats himself, Nick Clegg! Here’s all I remember of the evening:
Jo Christie-Smith asked Nick about our much-heralded “narrative” and, on a related theme, Helen Duffett questioned Nick regarding our media profile, or rather lack of it. To reinforce the point, Helen produced a pair of “media goggles” with a red lens on one side, and blue on the other – the point being that the media tend to view politics in terms of a straight divide between Labour and Conservative, thus marginalising the Liberal Democrats. Nick acknowledged the problem and assured us that we have people on the case in Cowley Street, but I was heartened to learn that he is not obsessing over the media. Nick says he doesn’t even read the newspapers every day, and tends to think that their influence is on the wane.
Somewhere along the line, Nick and I got into a mild disagreement over David Cameron. I quite like Cameron, seeing the deeply reactionary forces on his backbenches as being more of the problem as far as the Conservatives are concerned. But Nick is not remotely impressed with Cameron, whom he regards as superficial and deeply conservative, notwithstanding some obvious movement towards a place of sanity which has taken place under his watch. I will naturally bow to Nick’s better judgement, but a brief survey of some voting figures from last week serve to highlight the point I was trying to make:
The evening before we saw Nick, David Howarth and Evan Harris were busy seeing off the oppressive, defunct, and frankly embarrassing crime of “blasphemy” in the House of Commons. The division was never in doubt; nevertheless 57 MPs voted in a desperate attempt to retain blasphemy legislation in the 21st century – virtually all of them Conservatives. So while both Cameron and Clegg were among the Ayes that evening, it would appear that at least a quarter of the Conservative parliamentary party are completely mad! In short, there is a rich seam to be mined here, if only Liberal Democrats could be persuaded to openly embrace a more radical secular agenda. But I digress!
Paul Walter wanted to know whether, what with Labour steadily losing confidence by the hour, there might be any scope for applying pressure on electoral reform for Westminster. Nick was adamant that he has no intention of flirting with Labour on this, or indeed any other issue. But Jo wanted to know why we are so bad at fighting PR elections (echoing a point made recently by Jonathan Calder). The sad truth is that proportional representation in Scotland, Wales, or London has not thus far led to a dramatic change in Liberal Democrats fortunes. The reasons may be various, but some aspects of the recent mayoral elections might give us pause for thought:
For example, Helen may want to get away from the red and blue “media goggles,” but how are we to prevent the media from asking the obvious (and entirely legitimate) question as to where one is intending to cast one’s second preference vote? Brian Paddick resisted this up to a point, but was unable to avoid letting out a few hints along the way, before eventually “declaring” for the Left List after the close of poll (the less said about that the better).
The Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords have launched a new eNewsletter.
Every month you can be updated on what’s happening in the House of Lords, what the members of our group in the House of Lords have been up to and read a short Op-Ed from one of the Lib Dems in the Lords.
This month Tom McNally has written about the group’s role holding the Government to account (see below).
You can read the full newsletter at http://blogs.libdems.org.uk/lords.
Holding the Government to account
The partial reform of the House of Lords in 1998 was one of those acts
…
Today’s announced tax changes, designed to deal with the fallout from the abolition of the 10p tax rate, will cost £2.7 billion (to be funded by extra borrowing).
Of that, only £630 million will go to people who lost out in the first place due to the abolition of the 10p rate.
In other words – more than three quarters of the cost of today’s announcement won’t go to the people it’s designed to help.
Whatever happened to prudent financial policies I wonder?
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
A plea from a member – more ambition and less equine pacification please… (Nick Baird)
Will the real Green party that cared about people and planet please stand up? (Kobe Bibbon)
We need better conversations on AI and the environment (Josh Matthews)
How to spot a Racist (Ben Rich)
Councils must help music – so music can help their communities flourish (Charlie Clinton & Josh Matthews)
Beware the pitiless quicksands of Rutland Water
Charlie Maynard resigns from Lib Dem front bench and calls for no confidence vote in Ed Davey
Peter Kellner: Zack Polanski should have won at a canter
Liverpool near bottom of the league for recycling
Labour's recovery in by-elections continues.
Vote Tory, get Reform?
Council by-election results scorecard 2026-2027
Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker discuss Gone to Earth and its restoration
Matt Brittin and Manon Dave need a traditional BBC arse-booting
Looking good!
Tristan Ward Tristan Ward 
Ruth Bright 
Nick Baird 
Alan Jelfs 
