There is no news today on account of the fact that I do not do polls.
Someone do something. Please.
I mean, seriously. I’m on the brink of joining Fathers for Justice and performing a naked stunt on the Commons roof terrace, before the Parliamentary authorities fence it in.
If nothing happens at PMQs today, I’m replacing Lib Dem Voice with pictures of kittens and the highlights from Hi! Monkey.
While we’re waiting, I need to learn to cook. I only have hobs and a …
The latest edition of the Commons register of Member’s Secretaries & Research Assistants reveals that, with 14 bag carriers, Sir Menzies is employing only four less people than Tory leader David Cameron – and six more than the PM (who admittedly has a fair bit of secretarial support outside Parliament).
It reminds me of the old exchange from Yes Minister
James Hacker: Who else is in this department?
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Well briefly, Sir, I am the Permanent Under Secretary of State, known as the Permanent Secretary. Woolley here is your Principal Private Secretary, I too have a Principal Private
…
The weather may be rotten, but Lib Dems are out there as part of Green Tax Switch week.
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/greentaxswitch/
Send your pics to [email protected] to be included.
This year’s Party elections counts will be the last for two years and probably the last to be held in Cambridge.
We have to copy the details of the votes on all the ballot papers to computers so they can be counted. No experience and very limited typing skills necessary. This year we again have the large extra job of counting the election for the Interim Peers List, with 48 candidates for 30 places.
Please contact Colin Rosenstiel if you can come or know others in your …
An e-mail from Iain Dale of Internet Telly (it’s the future) station, 18 Doughty St:
I’m keen to get a list of LibDem bloggers who would be available on Monday evenings, which is where I have a panel of bloggers from all three parties to discuss blog issues and the week ahead. Can you advertise it on LibDem Voice and ask people to email me [email protected]? We’d need people from 8.30pm till 10pm.
Vox Politix is the least rabidly Tory of the programmes I’ve watched so far, and unlike most of 18 Doughty St’s other programming it isn’t …
The following seats have recently announced they are seeking Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (people to run as the Lib Dem candidate for MP at the next General Election).
We list the constituency name, application closing date, and the contact details of the Returning Officer, whom you should contact for an application form.
The green tax switch is shaping up to be the biggest campaign we have ever run as a party, and it is in an excellent cause. The time for talk on climate change is over, and the time for action has arrived.
We have one key message which could not be simpler on the doorstep. We should tax pollution not people. If we are to change our behaviour, it is the role of government to lead us collectively away from our dependence on fossil fuels. We need green taxes not to raise revenue for the state – taxes are high enough – but to switch off climate chaos.
By using green tax revenue to take the low paid out of income tax and cut 2 pence off the basic rate, we can nudge our society towards sustainability and strike a blow for fairness and social justice. How much each individual taxpayer saves will depend on their own behaviour. The greener we go, the more we save.
Look, we’ve told you before love, you’re not coming in here. Source: Sky News
Now for some wild speculation. Short is resigning early on in a Parliament. It was only last year she won her seat standing on a Labour ticket. There will be intense pressure on her to resign and cause a by-election. We were in second place in Ladywood at the last election…
A war of words has broken out in Wakefield over a topless photo. Former Tory council candidate Nathan Garbutt has resigned from the party after local activists tried to stop him posing for gay magazine Attitude .
Members of the Conservative Group on Wakefield council have dismissed his allegations, and told Wakefield Today that Mr Garbutt, 21, left the party over a disagreement about policy.
Garbutt, who is openly gay, was approached by Attitude to take part in an article about gay activists in political parties. The magazine wanted him to pose topless.
Wakefield Conservatives will soon be advertising …
“Should the rumour mill be moved to the members area?” is the question being posed in the private area of Lib Dem voice – members can vote in the poll there.
A report published today by the Unlock Democracy campaign has found that average membership of Liberal Democrat parties fell slightly in the last five years, but that levels of activism increased. This compares with a dramatic fall in membership and activism for Labour constituency parties and an increase in the sizes, but not in activism, of Conservative Associations.
Local Politics: A Case for Treatment? serves as a health check for local parties as a measure of the state of democracy in the uK. The detailed figures come from surveys of local parties across the country and show an interesting picture. Although Liberal Democrat local party membership dipped slightly on average, in held seats with small majorities and in target seats there were significant increases. In all but the most solid LibDem seats, party members have become more active since 2001.
While the membership of Conservative Associations in held seats increased, critically membership levels in their target seats fell. It is a similar story with income levels which improved in most held seats but dropped in the majority of Tory targets, suggesting that the Conservative Party is still on the defensive.
Nick Clegg’s excellent 2006 conference speech calling for a Great Repeal Act, www.greatrepealact.com
It’s like Webcameron, but:
More on Ming’s blog
London free-sheet London Lite and other tabloid rags are publishing new rumours surrounding Charles Kennedy.
Charles was apparently due to host the Marketing Week Effectiveness awards last night, but had to be replaced by Jeremy Vine with only an hour to go.
Quoting from London Lite (stripping out the bits that aren’t of direct interest):
He reportedly stumbled over his lines and struggled to read the autocue. One eyewitness said he was slurring his words and “did not look in a good way.”
A source said
…
Prince Charles has been urged to cancel a visit to Pakistan which will coincide with the scheduled execution of a Leeds man on death row.
Mirza Tahir Hussain, 36, is due to be executed on 1 November for murdering a taxi driver in 1998.
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall are due to visit the country from 29 October to 3 November.
Leeds MP Greg Mulholland said it would be “monstrous” for Mr Hussain to be hanged during the Prince’s visit. More here.
Greg has been fighting hard to save his constituent. See:
…
Colin Ross has been digging around the issue of the Midlands Industrial Council, a group of wealthy individuals who donate to the Conservative Party.
He has new revelations.
There is a set of stairs in the mother of all Parliaments. At the top is the committee corridor, and the office of the leader of the Liberal Democrats. In the middle, is the MP’s tea room, and at the bottom, is the most popular restaurant in the palace. It is a busy set of stairs.
There is a member of the cabinet, a prominent member of the cabinet, who cannot open a door.
Parliament has many doors that require a swipe card to pass through them. Helpfully, our swipe cards come with a big black arrow on the side that you should …
What do you think? Vote in the poll on the right hand side.
UPDATE: Somewhat predictably, there was some immediate poll rigging. The results for the first hour were very balanced, and then there was a pronounced search in favour of the third option. I’m not going to pull the poll, else the likes of Mr Fawkes will make that in to a story, too. 🙂
UPDATE 2: Or maybe I will. After all, there’s no value in a rigged poll. Anyway, before the poll rigging took off, it was about 40% in favour of waiting for the electoral
…
The Guardian reports that Lib Dem equalities spokesperson Lorely Burt has called on Ruth Kelly to resign.
Kelly, a member of the ultra-conservative Catholic group Opus Dei is the cabinet secretary responsible for defending, among other things, gay rights.
Lorely Burt said: “We had always feared Ruth Kelly’s personal beliefs would make her unsuitable to be a champion of gay rights. Unfortunately these fears have become reality and she should now stand down.”
A dermatologist from Bedford hospital who wishes to emulate the success of independent Wyre Forest MP Richard Taylor is calling on the Liberal Democrats not to front a candidate at the next General Election.
Bedford NHS Trust is £12m in debt, and has recently announced more than 120 job cuts.
Dr Barry Monk has written to the Conservatives and to the Lib Dems to request a “clear run” against Patrick Hall, the sitting Labour MP. His majority is 3383.
You may recall Baroness Jenny Tonge landed herself in hot water at the Lib Dem party conference this year for saying at a fringe meeting “The pro-Israeli lobby has got its grips on the western world, its financial grips. I think they have probably got a certain grip on our party.”
The Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel leapt on the remarks. Yesterday, Ming Campbell wrote what is apparently a stern letter of rebuke to Jenny. He said later (in a comment that I’m reading straight from a Board of Deputies press release, not from a …
Sir Richard Dannatt’s comments about British presence in Iraq are welcome and overdue in public debate.
On the issue itself, Sir Richard is doubtless right that ‘coalition’ (Anglo-American) forces in Iraq are part of the problem, not part of the solution. Seen as a hostile occupying force, our troops are increasingly counter-productive to the stated goal of founding a united, peaceful, liberal democracy.
However, the problem is, who will replace them? The Iraqi civil war is clearly so advanced that peacekeeping forces will be necessary long into the future. Withdrawal of British and American forces is now vital, but we need international support to do so. No matter how much the invasion of Iraq was a grave error, only the most irresponsible detractor would support an action that made its future even worse. The attrocity of invasion is a national sin, and the long-standing opposition of millions of Britons cannot erase our communal responsibility for the future of Iraq; that means that we should be unfaltering in our genuine committment to rebuilding Iraq, but our troops no longer contribute to that goal.
Ow… just… ow… Sion Simon MP, when you wrote for the Guardian you were funny, but you’re now officially a tit.
Watch, and if you’re a fan of ‘car crash’ TV fast forward to 1 minute and 30 seconds in.
The Times reports today:
“THE business that gave the largest financial gift to the Liberal Democrats was entirely fraudulent and had never traded, a High Court judge ruled yesterday.”
and:
“The Electoral Commission, which polices political donations, said last night that it will study the judgment in detail. It has the power to ask the courts to force parties to surrender gifts. Under election law, corporate donations may be accepted only from companies “carrying on business” in Britain.”
Rather hilariously, Iain Dale interprets this as “LibDems Stare Bankruptcy in the face.” Two things on that.
1) If we were forced to repay all of the donations, that would require each Lib Dem member to fork out about £30 to get the party out of a hole. I’d open my chequebook now. The major party donors would do the same, I’m sure.
2) Our party is the only one of the big three that ended its last reporting period solvent. Unlike Labour and the Conservatives, we don’t have eye-watering debts beyond our wildest dreams. We can find £2.5m in extreme circumstances.
“The Son of Orange Book” hasn’t had nearly as fiery a reception as its predecessor. One review described the original as ‘smelling faintly of brimstone’. No rumors of right-wing conspiracies have accompanied this volume. This autumn, the essays are more measured, and the potential future leadership candidates more cautious about what they say.
Stripped of its spin, the Orange Book was less than earth-shattering – and Britain After Blair is much the same. The two defining characteristics of the essays are that they are liberal, and intelligent. At £10 for 14 essays and a detailed introduction, they are also decent value for money.
That said, some of the essays gave me a faint longing for something more, while a number of them are essentially arguments for existing party policy – cogent, but unadventurous.
Why does it so often feel as if the party has a lack of ambition for the future of the BBC? It seems that the only time we comment on it is when we’re attacking the Government or their proposals. It’s hard to recall when we last put forward imaginative plans to “secure the BBC’s status as the envy of the world”.
Actually I should probably quote that statement in full: “We can only secure the BBC’s status as the envy of the world by introducing a single, independent regulator for all public service broadcasters.” – Don Foster, 15 March 2006
The problem is the statement makes no sense. It starts from an assumption that the BBC already HAS status as “the envy of the world” under the decades old model of internal regulation but goes on to suggest that such status can only be secured and developed by handing regulatory responsibility to an outside body.
The growing disconnect between the voters & the politicians they elect is one of the seemingly intractable problems facing political parties today, and I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard some hand-wringing politician crying crocodile tears about the “you’re all in it for yourselves mentality” which prevails amongst the general public.
Of course this is unfair, but public perception is unfair, and MPs are nowadays all seen as sleazy & out for themselves.
This is why we as Lib Dems have to mark out a distinctive difference here between our approach & that of the NuLabCon parties.
As the Westminster Parliament returns for business, 50% of people who answered a Liberal Democrat Voice poll said they would like to see Charles Kennedy back on the Liberal Democrat front bench within a year. A further 27% would like to see him back in the next two to five years. 24% of those polled said he should never return.
Lib Dem Voice asked “When would you like to see Charles Kennedy back on the Lib Dem front bench?”
The responses break down as follows:
…
The following seats have recently announced they are seeking Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (people to run as the Lib Dem candidate for MP at the next General Election).
We list the constituency name, application closing date, and the contact details of the Returning Officer, whom you should contact for an application form.
The struggle for action against climate change is one Lib Dems have played their part in, with a proud environmentalist tradition that has only got stronger in recent years. In arguing that climate change science is compelling, we are happy to make common cause with people from any other political stripe. To demonstrate the problem, that’s quite proper. There are still climate-change deniers (usually funded by Exxon-Mobil) and dismissing their propaganda is vital.
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