Mark Pack

Conservatives lose majority on Mendip Council

By Mark Pack | Sun 1st July 2007 - 9:32 pm

Cllr Les Bennett has quit the Conservative group on Mendip Council, deciding to sit instead as an independent. The loss of Cllr Bennett means the Conservatives no longer have an overall majority on the council, which is now 23 Conservative, 23 Liberal Democrat and 1 independent.

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Mark Pack

Conservative activist says: we must lie in Ealing Southall

By Mark Pack | Sun 1st July 2007 - 12:12 pm

It’s a favourite cliche of the other parties to attack Liberal Democrat campaign tactics. However, the evidence – as ever – is rather different in Ealing Southall. Ben Surtess (a name that may be familiar to some as he has written some interesting posts on PoliticalBetting.com) is a Conservative activist and over on Conservative Home has been arguing that the party must lie in its election campaign:

The two themes that must be pressed home within the first week of the campaign is that the Conservatives are the party challenging Labour … and that Lit is the “local” candidate while the LibDem candidate is

…

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Posted in Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged and | 11 Comments
Mark Pack

Ealing Southall: Tony Lit criticised by his own side

By Mark Pack | Sat 30th June 2007 - 9:56 pm

Phil Taylor Ealing Southall quoteHello and welcome to Ealing Conservative Councillor Phil Taylor, who has blogged thus about the Tory candidate for the Ealing Southall Parliamentary by-election:

He is clearly a controversial and high risk choice

Why is Tony Lit considered by his own side to be “controversial and high risk”? Well here’s a taster:

  • Tony Lit’s selection led to an outbreak of criticism on ConservativeHome; in particular Francis Maude seems to have rather misled another would-be Conservative candidate who was told that he had

…

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Posted in Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged and | 16 Comments
Jeremy Hargreaves

Brighton rocks: conference previewed

By Jeremy Hargreaves | Sat 30th June 2007 - 1:52 pm

Last week the party published the preliminary agenda for Autumn Conference in Brighton.

A major policy paper will set out proposals for tackling poverty and reducing inequality – an issue that Lib Dem leader Ming Campbell personally has identified as something he wants the party to tackle as a priority. There’ll be a new paper refining further our proposals to make the tax system fairer – including a headline proposal to cut income tax by 4p in the pound. And there will be a new paper on local and regional governance in England.

Also still to come are policy papers on tackling climate change and on better governance of the UK.

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Posted in Conference and News | 8 Comments
Mark Pack

“Come and help in Ealing and Sedgefield” – message from Chris Rennard

By Mark Pack | Fri 29th June 2007 - 8:30 am

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Mark Pack

Ealing Southall is Lib Dem vs Labour – Press Association

By Mark Pack | Thu 28th June 2007 - 6:23 pm

Press Association quote on Ealing Southall by-election

 

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Stephen Tall

All change in Cabinet reshuffle

By Stephen Tall | Thu 28th June 2007 - 6:22 pm

The BBC website has a helpful at-a-glance photo-guide to Gordon Brown’s first cabinet here. Only Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, survives in the same post he held under Tony Blair – every other cabinet post has changed hands.

For all that, the reshuffle is perhaps not as extensive as might have been expected, though there are nine ‘new faces’ in the cabinet: Harriet Harman, Geoff Hoon, James Purnell, Ed Miliband, Ed Balls, John Denham, Baroness Ashton, Shaun Woodward and Andy Burnham. However, there were few big surprises, with the possible exception of Jacqui Smith as the first female Home Secretary. …

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Party releases ‘holding statement’ from Shirley Williams

By the founding editor | Thu 28th June 2007 - 11:36 am

“I met Gordon Brown at 6:30pm on Wednesday evening. We had a friendly and constructive discussion. I was not offered a Ministerial position and would not have accepted one.

“The Prime Minister and I talked briefly about the dangers of unsecured nuclear materials and nuclear proliferation, subjects I have worked on as a member of the Board of Directors of the Nuclear Threat Initiative in Washington DC.

“NTI is a private organisation established by Senator Sam Nunn of the Democratic Party, former chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee, and Ted Turner, founder of CNN. Senator Richard Lugar of the Republican Party, …

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By-election machine hits the ground running

By the founding editor | Wed 27th June 2007 - 10:06 pm

With a double by-election likely on July 19, the Liberal Democrat by-election machine is now gearing up for action.

The Ealing Southall HQ will open on Saturday morning, near Southall station.  You’ll find it at Unit 5, Urban Hive, Grand Union way, Bridge Road, Southall, UB2 4EX. 

The agent will be Chris Leaman, London Campaigns Officer and agent for Sarah Teather at the last General Election. The agent in Sedgefield will be Campaigns Officer Ruth Millburn.  Chris Rennard told MPs this evening that both campaigns would be very hard fought and that we would make every possible effort over the next three …

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Posted in News and Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged and | 18 Comments

Baroness Williams ‘to join’ government of all the talents

By the founding editor | Wed 27th June 2007 - 10:01 pm

According to the 24 hour news channels some of the papers will report tomorrow that Shirley Williams is to  join Gordon Brown’s government – not in ministerial office but in a position that will place her “close” to Gordon Brown.  No more detail yet, but we’ll not have long to wait to find out for certain.

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The Voice

Second Tory MP to defect to Labour?

By The Voice | Wed 27th June 2007 - 1:57 pm

That’s the speculation over at Iain Dale’s Diary.

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Stephen Tall

Tory MP defects to Labour

By Stephen Tall | Tue 26th June 2007 - 3:55 pm

The MP for Grantham and Stamford, Quentin Davies, has today announced he has crossed the floor from David Cameron’s Tories to Gordon Brown’s Labour.

Mr Davies explained his decision in an open letter to Mr Cameron:

“Although you have many positive qualities you have three, superficiality, unreliability and an apparent lack of any clear convictions, which in my view ought to exclude you from the position of national leadership to which you aspire and which it is the presumed purpose of the Conservative Party to achieve. Believing that as I do, I clearly cannot honestly remain in the party.”

Intriguingly, …

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Stephen Tall

“We must take risks,” says Ming

By Stephen Tall | Tue 26th June 2007 - 1:53 pm

In a wide-ranging speech to Lib Dem staff today – reported on the BBC website here – Ming Campbell has pledged the party must be “prepared to take risks”. He also promised to make his age (66) a campaigning issue: “Politics would benefit from more people with experience.”

Here’s the filleted version…

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James Graham

Why Lib Dems should support the Citizens’ Convention Bill

By James Graham | Tue 26th June 2007 - 1:32 pm

Today, Unlock Democracy has launched its campaign for a Citizens’ Convention Bill. The Bill will be presented to the House of Commons today by Lib Dem Treasury Spokesperson Julia Goldsworthy MP, and it is set for its second reading debate this Friday.

The idea behind this Bill is simple: there is now broad, cross-party support for the principle that Britain’s democracy needs to be renewed, and that the people themselves must be at the centre of any new reform.

Gordon Brown launched his leadership bid pledging to “build a shared national consensus for a programme of constitutional reform.” Sir Menzies Campbell subsequently called on Brown to establish “a broadly-based Convention” which “should involve not just the political parties but also members of the public.”

Last week, the Power Inquiry launched its new campaign calling for just such a process in a statement that was signed by 101 individuals and organisations, including – among others – Baroness Shirley Williams and prominent Lib Dem supporter Claire Rayner.

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Posted in News and Op-eds | Tagged and | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

Ready for a double by-election day?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 26th June 2007 - 8:42 am

Rumours abound (hat-tips: Dizzy and Guido) that Tony Blair will announce his resignation as an MP this week, triggering a by-election in Sedgefield to be held on the same day as the by-election in Ealing Southall.

Labour’s thinking goes that such a double-hander will dilute the Lib Dems’ by-election efforts – and as Labour are unlikely to lose both seats they could at the very least claim a “score draw”. (This was the phrase used by then Labour party chair, John Reid, after the Lib Dems’ sensationally snatched victory in Leicester South, but just missed out in Birmingham …

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Posted in News and Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged | 9 Comments
Stephen Tall

Cable reveals Brown’s legacy of debt

By Stephen Tall | Mon 25th June 2007 - 2:10 pm

Lib Dem shadow chancellor, Vince Cable, can’t be accused of taking a soft line on highlighting the UK’s addiction to debt.

He did so in his spring conference speech three months ago, and he has now dug out figures showing the worryingly high levels of debt taken on by British households.

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Stephen Tall

Is an ’08 general election on the cards?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 25th June 2007 - 1:59 pm

‘Election set for 2008’ is how The Times today reports the handover of the Labour leadership from Blair & Prescott to Brown & Harman.

Even more authoritatively, bookmakers William Hill have slashed the odds on a general election being held in 2008 from 10/1 to 5/1, according to readaBet.com. (Though 2009 remains the punters’ favourite.)

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Posted in News | 4 Comments
Richard Huzzey

Harman beats Johnson to Labour Deputy spot

By Richard Huzzey | Sun 24th June 2007 - 3:19 pm

Against all expectations and Guido’s tip, it turns out that Harriet Harman has trumped Alan Johnson by 50.4 to 49.6 of the vote. Sky News had been reporting Johnson as the winner for a long time before it was announced.

Has anyone seen the full breakdown of preferences and transfers? My guess would be that Johnson was ahead of Harman on first preferences and got beaten on successive rounds of transfers. Also, I wonder if Benn was up there with them on first preferences…

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Mark Pack

Sky first with the news

By Mark Pack | Sun 24th June 2007 - 3:06 pm

By my watch, Sky beat the BBC to reporting the result of the Labour Deputy Leadership election by 32 minutes (and possibly longer – Iain Dale says an hour, but I wasn’t watching Sky for that long, so possibly their “breaking” news was just recycled news).

Only one slight problem. They were reporting the wrong winner for those 32 minutes. But hey, what’s a bit of accuracy between friends?

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Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #18

By Stephen Tall | Sun 24th June 2007 - 1:25 pm

Welcome to the 18th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (17th – 23rd June), together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed.

Down to business…

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Posted in Best of the blogs | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

Lib Dem peers tipped as next Attorney General

By Stephen Tall | Sun 24th June 2007 - 12:05 pm

M’Lords Carlisle and Lester are in the running to replace the egregious Lord Goldsmith as Attorney General…

… according to that most reliable of news sources, the Sunday Mirror.

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Chris Keating

Opinion: It’s deja vu all over again

By Chris Keating | Sun 24th June 2007 - 11:31 am

For me, every new speech by David Cameron brings an intense sense of deja vu.

It’s commonplace that the Cameron Conservative strategy is based on a detailed study of how Tony Blair and New Labour seized the centre ground and won elections. However, it’s increasingly clear that what Cameron has borrowed from Blair is not only an electoral strategy, but his entire philosophical baggage-train.

Blairism was never ideological. But in “New Britain”, a collection of speeches made in 1994-96, Blair laid out the philosophy behind his vision of a new politics and a new society. Economic security would be assured, from both recession and exploitation. But more importantly, a Labour government would build a new society based on mutuality and common values; and a new sort of politics which would give power back from Whitehall to ordinary people.

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Mark Pack

Campbell on Brown

By Mark Pack | Sat 23rd June 2007 - 8:55 am

In case you missed it, Ming Campbell has written a detailed account of the week’s events over on his website, www.mingcampbell.org.uk

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Laurence Boyce

Opinion: Taking Liberties

By Laurence Boyce | Fri 22nd June 2007 - 9:18 pm

Try as hard as I might, I can never manage to get myself worked up over the whole civil liberties agenda. So, following Sir Ming’s recommendation, I took myself off to a viewing of Taking Liberties at the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse.

Naturally I approached the cinema with great caution, checking that no-one was on my tail, and paid cash to ensure that I could not be traced in any way. What I settled down to watch turned out to comprise two quite distinct narratives rolled into one – an indictment of our disastrous misadventures in the Middle East, mixed into a bubbling cauldron of pure libertarian paranoia.

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Posted in News and Op-eds | Tagged | 87 Comments
Mark Pack

EXPOSED! The secret workings of the Ministry of Justice

By Mark Pack | Fri 22nd June 2007 - 4:29 pm

Morris dancing

Home Office Watch has the story.

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Mandelson’s ‘homoerotic admiration’ for Tony Blair

By the founding editor | Fri 22nd June 2007 - 2:04 pm

The promotional vehicle for Andrew Rawnsley’s Channel 4 documentary on Tony Blair’s premiereship trundles on, today with a quote on the Guardian arts blog:

“Of course Peter Mandelson had an almost homoerotic admiration for Tony – it was embarrassing,” opined Bazza in one of his gloriously unguarded off-piste moments.”

Greater love hath no man than one who didn’t know he’d be sacked twice in the next ten years.

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The Voice

Controversy over Labour’s Ealing phone canvassing

By The Voice | Fri 22nd June 2007 - 11:57 am

From the Hickey column in today’s Daily Express:

Just days after the death aged 82 of the nation’s oldest serving MP, Labour’s Piara Khabra, his party is under fire after it emerged that staff were canvassing for votes for a by-election in his constituency even before he had passed away … prior to his death, residents in his Ealing Southall constituency were, Hickey learns, controversially receiving telephone calls from Labour employees about their future voting intentions. “Locals have complained that they were canvassed over the phone by Labour staff only the week before Piara’s passing away,” Hickey is told. “It seems

…

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Posted in News | 11 Comments
Richard Huzzey

Opinion: Ming should rule out any coalition

By Richard Huzzey | Thu 21st June 2007 - 4:37 pm

It’s time for the Liberal Democrats to kill off any talk of co-operation with either Labour or the Tories. Otherwise speculation will carry on until the next election.

Sir Ming and his Chief of Staff, Ed Davey, must be heartily sick of having to bat such stories off as they arise, and have made valiant efforts to do so. But it’s time to say, categorically, that we will work on a case-by-case basis in the next parliament. That means an ironclad promise we’d form a coalition with neither Labour or the Tories.

The obvious criticism of this is that it would scotch the possibility of electoral reform or other long-term Lib Dem goals that could have been the price of our coalition participation. It is generally a bad idea to reduce your choices before you have to. But at the risk of predicting the future, I find it hard to imagine any deal could be good enough to taint us by association with either of the other main parties. Labour and the Tories have so much more in common than either has with us. We would have to prostitute too many liberal principles to join a formal coalition with either party.

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Posted in Op-eds | 16 Comments
Stephen Tall

Brown’s failed poachings: the views of the Lib Dem blogs

By Stephen Tall | Thu 21st June 2007 - 2:13 pm

Fifteen Lib Dem bloggers have so far had their say on Gordon Brown’s move to ensnare some of the Lib Dems’ top talent inside his first cabinet.

Here are the links (in reverse chronological order):

Neil Fawcett, A Liberal Dose: ‘More Guardian Tripe’

Tristan Mills, Liberty Alone: ‘Pacts with Labour’

Jonathan Wallace: ‘Cabinet seats and spin’

James Graham, Quaquam Blog!: ‘Deny everything, Baldrick (Updated)’

Mike Bell, Word from Weston: ‘A cosy consensus’

Anders Hanson: ‘Do we really worry the other parties that much?’

Paul Walter, Liberal Burblings: ‘Liberals resist headless chicken hysteria at “bums …

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Posted in Best of the blogs and News | Tagged , and | 6 Comments
Richard Huzzey

Paddy turned down N. Ireland; MPs angry at ‘elderly Scots’

By Richard Huzzey | Thu 21st June 2007 - 8:34 am

This morning’s Today brings more news on the over-wrought “Lib Dems in cabinet” story we reported from the Guardian.

Lord Ashdown has now said that – as the story about junior jobs was breaking on Wednesday – Brown offered him the post of Northern Ireland Secretary. His response?

I told him that I could not conceivably consider such a position unless my leader told me that he thought it was a good idea and even if he did, I didn’t.

Which is clearly the correct response, and dismisses speculation that the Lib Dem denial left open the possibility …

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Posted in News | 30 Comments
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