If you have been thinking about improving your house from an environmental point of view, but haven’t known where to start, now’s a good time to take action.
It’s National Architecture Week and the theme is “How Green is our Space?”
One of the features is that for a modest donation to the housing charity Shelter, you can get an hour of time with an architect to discuss how to green your home. But hurry! There are only two days left to book your slot.
David Acock, Conservative Borough Councillor for Eastfield Ward, Northampton from 2003 to 2007, has left the Tories to join the Lib Dems. Mr Acock said: “Only the Lib Dems have show consistent principles in opposing ID cards from the start, the war in Iraq and in defending our civil liberties.”
In a comment on Lib Dem Voice, Ed Davey has quashed the Guardian’s far-fetched reports of Lib Dems joining a Labour government. Ed is Ming’s chief of staff and chair of the party’s Campaigns and Communications committee. The story was mentioned by Stephen this morning, but Ed replied:
For the record, there is no prospect of any Liberal Democrat joining the Brown Government.
Iain Dale has also thrown scepticism on the story, noting that no member of the Grauniad’s political team had wanted to put their name to the article.
Update: The Daily Mail’s Ben Brogan suggests that the …
The BBC is reporting the sad news that the oldest MP in the House of Commons, Piara Khabra, has passed away at the age of 82. Lib Dem Voice sends condolences to his family, friends and staff. Mr. Khabra was an expert on India and completed the 2006 Sport Relief charity run – perhaps a first for an octagenerian MP? He represented Ealing Southall, which he won with nearly 50% of the vote in 2005, with the Lib Dems in second place on 24%.
Update: In the comments section, numerous posters confirm the reports I’ve heard today that Labour …
That’s the startling story in today’s Guardian, which reports:
Gordon Brown and Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, have held private discussions in recent days about a plan for one or two senior Lib Dems to join Mr Brown’s first cabinet, the Guardian has been told by a well-placed source. It is being emphasised that the discussions have not been about a coalition and may not have been conclusive.
The comments of the quoted party spokesmen do not refute the story, which by implication suggests there’s something to it:
One of Sir Menzies’s closest aides, Lord Kirkwood, issued a qualified
…
Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, will be talking to Emily Maitlis on BBC News 24 on Tuesday, 19 June at 1700BST.
You can submit a question here.
A Lib Dem motion underlining the importance of Royal Mail’s Universal Service Obligation was debated at Westminster Hall yesterday amid concerns that, if Royal Mail’s application for zonal charging for bulk mail is approved, bulk mail will be removed from the universal service.
As Orkney and Shetland MP Alistair Carmichael commented, “What is left will hardly be worth the name. It will hardly be universal and it will barely be a service.”
But what struck me in the debate, as reported on eGov monitor here, was this comment by fellow Scottish Lib Dem, Sir Robert Smith MP:
“the present situation has
…
As reported in today’s Mail:
Ken Livingstone has blocked the appointment of nine white men because they are “unrepresentative” of London.
The Mayor used his powers to promote equality to stop them serving on the London fire authority. He refused to confirm all but one of the Tory and Liberal Democrat nominations to the body that sets the brigade’s budget and policies. …
The Mayor approved all five Labour nominations, as well as one Tory woman and the sole Green and One London party representatives.
So, does Ken have a point? Should such public bodies be representative of the ethnic make-up of …
As Margaret Thatcher famously said, “U-turn if you want to” – and how David Cameron’s Tory party has taken this advice to heart.
No ‘Team Cameron’ proposal is now complete without the obligatory clarification reversal once the policy’s unpopularity – either with the party (grammar schools) or the public (free museum entrance) – is revealed.
As predicted on LDV yesterday, the suggestion from Hugo Swire, the Tories’ culture spokesman (and Eton and Sotheby’s alumnus), that a future Tory Government would reverse Labour’s free museums admissions policy has been swiftly jettisoned:
Conservative party officials moved quickly to dampen the row yesterday, claiming
…
Welcome to the 17th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (10th – 16th June), together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed.
In pole position this week:
By John Dixon
I’m worried about global warming. The idea that what thousands of scientists have been saying it is all a ‘grand conspiracy’ sounds itself like a grand conspiracy. And although I understand that there has been some verbal trash coming from the green corner (see David Cameron for numerous perfect examples) that doesn’t really compare to the huge mountain of it from the other side (I recently saw an advert by Exxon Mobile claiming that ‘Carbon Dioxide is life!’).
But there are problems I see in confronting global warming, in taking on the challenge. People agree global warming exists …
Hot-on-the-heels of the grammar school debacle, the Tories have unveiled a fresh way to lose votes.
It’s the turn of Hugo Swire, Tory culture spokesman, to come up with this week’s U-turn-in-waiting:
“We do not want to ban free admissions, but we believe museums and galleries should have the right to charge if they wish to.”
According to today’s Sunday Telegraph, “a recent poll showed the measure, which costs the Government £40 million a year subsidy, is the most popular policy introduced by Labour since its election in 1997.”
Place your bets now for how long this Tory policy will last. …
David Laws, Lib Dem shadow secretary of state for work and pensions, has compiled figures showing 8.5 million Britons who have opted out of the state second pension will be worse off as a result of Gordon Brown’s last budget, which will claw back £4 bn of rebates over the next five years.
I’m not going even to attempt to paraphrase a story about S2P rebates, so read the full story here.
As already noted by Paul Walters and Linda Jack, there is a very significant piece in today’s Indie.
The article is based on a ‘leaked’ document, outlining a strategy to remark Ming as a ‘pinstripe radical’ and show to the public that radical side and anti-establishment ethos that he shows in private.
This sounds to me like a sound statement of principles. Ming must play to his strengths – and he has many. But there is no reason why a dissenting interrogation of modern society shouldn’t come from someone who is clearly held in esteem by that same establishment …
That’s the call from Annette Brooke MP, Lib Dem Children and Young Persons Spokesperson, after the Labour Government announced a policy review:
“There needs to be a clear signal that physical punishment is counter-productive and damaging. Children that are hit are more likely to hit others and are more likely to be bullies. If it is wrong to hit an adult, it is wrong to hit a child – children deserve equal protection. There should be a total ban accompanied by supportive measures for parents, so that they can find different ways to change their children’s behaviour.”
What do Lib …
Lib Dem shadow home secretary Nick Clegg has hit out at Labour’s third passport price rise hike in under two years.
From October, a passport will cost £72, up from £66 now, and £42 in December 2005. In 1995, the cost of renewing a passport was just £18.
The reason for this rocketing stealth tax? ID cards, and Labour’s desperation to conceal from the public the full £20 billion costs of introducing their new compulsory surveillance system. As Nick explains:
“Last time I asked, the Government refused to justify its implausible claim that 70 per cent of the cost of ID
…
Lib Dems, SNP and the Greens united at Holyrood last night united in rejecting Labour and Tory plans to replace Trident at a cost of £20 billion.
The Lib Dems successfully amended the original Green motion to state that Trident should not be replaced “at this time” to allow for the system’s use in future multilateral disarmament talks (and in line with party policy). They also pointed out that defence matters aren’t devolved, so the vote won’t make a blind bit of difference.
Lib Dem MSP Mike Rumbles argued:
We believe that the key to a safer world is to
…
Lib Dem peer Lord Avebury has been doing some digging, as reported in today’s Indy…
There’s a Gordon Brown meme (started by Matt Wardman, I think) currently working its way round the blogosphere.
For those Lib Dems who have not yet been ‘tagged’, and/or for those without a blog on which to respond, feel free to leave your comments on this thread to the following set of questions:
* 2 things of which Gordon Brown should be proud.
* 2 things for which he should apologise.
* 2 things that he should do immediately when he becomes PM.
* 2 things he should do while he is PM.
By Jock Coats
We’re often told that the answer to our housing problems lies not in special schemes – such as, ironically, promises to build a million new social homes – but in freeing up planning laws to allow for more land to supply the demand.
The corollary to that, of course, is that many people don’t want to see yet more urban sprawl, even though most don’t really appreciate that to build a million new homes on virgin land (if that’s what it came to) would in fact use up only around one-tenth of one per cent of currently …
Surprisingly little reaction on the Lib Dem blogosphere so far to Tony Blair’s speech yesterday in which he labelled the media a ‘feral beast’.
James Graham makes reference, and Stephen Tall attempts a ‘fisk’.
So what do Lib Dem Voice readers think of the Prime Minister’s views?
The first word can go to Don Foster, Lib Dem shadow secretary of state for culture, media and sport:
“While the Prime Minister bemoans the change in relationship between politicians and the press, he should recall that he has been its prime cause. It’s easy to blame the press for a
…
The Press Gazette reports:
A controversial attempt to exempt MPs from the Freedom of Information Act faces possible collapse today due to lack of support in the House of Lords.
Tory MP David Maclean has until the end of today’s proceedings to find a peer willing to sponsor his Private Members’ Bill in the upper chamber.
Opponents of the measure said that if no one comes forward by then, the Bill will effectively die due to lack of parliamentary time.
The article quotes Lib Dem peer, Lord (Tom) McNally:
“I think it would be better for the reputation of both Houses if this bill
…
Lib Dem leader Ming Campbell is on Radio 4’s consumer programme You and Yours right now.
If you’re listening, why not tell us what you think?
It’s a no-brainer question, isn’t it? Our residents, our voters, our punters – call them what you will, they are our bosses, we answer to them. So why ask the question?
Well, I was flicking through a publication last night called ‘councillor’, produced by the I&DeA, and there was an article by Cllr Paul Bettison, Tory leader of Bracknell Forest Borough Council. He was looking at how councillors deal with the media, and this sentence pulled me up sharp:
“When you sign up for public office you’re not just representing local people – you’re representing your authority .”
This is a …
Lib Dem shadow secretary of state for trade and industry, Susan Kramer, has been setting out her reasons for seeking voluntary redundancy, as the party again voices its commitment to abolish a “fundamentally flawed” department.
Susan clearly believes Gordon Brown will soon make her dream come true in the imminent Government makeover:
“My goal in coming into this role has been to put both myself and every other Front-Bench DTI spokesman out of a job. It looks as if I will achieve that later in the year. When the Department is eliminated and elements of it restructured, it is crucial
…
It’s a common aphorism that every Home Secretary is the most authoritarian – until the next one.
Jack Straw was banned from his (and my) old student union back in 2000 for introducing policies as Home Secretary (such as limiting trial by jury) that “undermine basic principles of freedom, liberty and democracy”. “He has done things even Michael Howard would not have done,” said one of the student union officers at the time.
Until David Blunkett came along and made Jack Straw look like Roy Jenkins.
With Straw, Blunkett and Charles Clarke all fallen by the wayside, it’s now time for serial …
The Tories have today called for an inquiry into the war in Iraq, with shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague arguing, according to the BBC, it should be along the lines of the wide-ranging inquiry into the Falklands War.
Sound familiar? Yep. Here’s why:
Tony Blair claims his Government has been open and straightforward on Iraq. But every piece of information has been wrung out of them in the face of stiff resistance.
It took the death of David Kelly before, at the Hutton Inquiry, we found out the truth behind the dodgy dossier and the infamous 45
…
It isn’t only Liberal Review and the Lib Dems’ Corruption is a Crime website which have noted how quiet the Tories have been about BAE’s Al Yamamah deal, and the Labour Government’s decision to squash the Serious Fraud Office’s investigation of advance commissions cash bribes.
Surely this should be the ideal opportunity for David Cameron to take the attack to Labour on precisely the same ground – dodgy foreign arms dealing – that so damaged the Tories in the 1990s?
Yet as the Conservative Home website notes:
The Conservatives, unlike the LibDems, have been as quiet on the
…
Catching up on news from last week: Labour-run Oldham Council has decided to ban all staff (including those who sit at a desk all day) from wearing flip-flops in the name of safety, with the result that staff have said it is a case of “health and safety gone mad.”
Even the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents has questioned the ban. And as Howard Sykes, the leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition puts it:
Can we please treat our staff like adults and have some common sense applied?
By Liberal First*
One thing puzzling me about the recent debate in the media about the Tory’s grammar school woes is that their policy position is now not deeply dissimilar to our own, or that of the government, on the matter of selection.
We also do not propose shutting down existing grammar schools but take the view that the 11+ is a particularly crude and ineffective method of aligning pupils to the best education for them and that it should not be extended.
Common entrance at 13 is considered a better alternative, but new grammar schools as isolated monasteries of academic …
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)
The Lib Dem leadership should to listen to our MPs
Latest PollBase is out, with all the British voting intention polls since the 1930s
Dean Friedman: Ariel
State of Play: the classic BBC drama, part 2
Can Davey survive as leader?
A Week in Politics #9
The Joy of Six 1589
"A chap on his own gets a bit cracked sometimes": Michael Powell on Mr Colpeper
The oldest pub in Swansea and the secret tunnel
Peter Hirst 
expats 
Hywel Hywel 
Chloe 
