Paul Walter

Party opens digital book of condolence for Charles Kennedy

By Paul Walter | Tue 2nd June 2015 - 9:24 pm

condolenceThe Liberal Democrat party has this evening opened a digital book of condolence for Charles Kennedy.

Nick Clegg has written to party members as follows:

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Paul Walter

Charles Kennedy speaks at the anti-Iraq war rally in Hyde Park, 2003

By Paul Walter | Tue 2nd June 2015 - 8:19 pm

Saturday 15th February 2003 – Hundreds of Liberal Democrats joined over a million people in London to protest against the invasion of Iraq. At the post-march rally in Hyde Park, Charles Kennedy addressed the crowd. Click below to view.

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The Voice

Charles Kennedy on sparkling form about Europe at the Liberal Democrat conference in 2013

By The Voice | Tue 2nd June 2015 - 12:30 pm

On this very sad day, there is perhaps no finer way to pay tribute to Charles Kennedy than to view him in action. Here is Charles speaking on fantastic form about Europe at the Glasgow Liberal Democrat conference on 17th September 2013. Passionate. Powerful. Funny. Pithy. Brilliant! Please watch this. It’s great. What a great man! We will miss him dreadfully.

Click below to view.

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The Voice

Charles Kennedy on the night of the long sgian dubhs

By The Voice | Tue 2nd June 2015 - 11:30 am

As part of our tributes to Charles, we’re republishing this piece, which he wrote for us just after the May general election. You can see the article in its original form here. Between 7am and 11.30am today this article has been viewed on Liberal Democrat Voice over 6400 times, as a result of being linked by the Independent and on Twitter.

I am very fond of political history. If nothing else, we can all reflect on and perhaps tell our grandchildren that we were there on “The night of long sgian dubhs!”

I would very much like to thank my home team. They have been so energetic, dedicated and selfless to the task. Indeed, with them, I would like to thank the very many over the years who have made possible the previous seven successful general election campaigns locally.

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The Voice

Charles Kennedy – a life in pictures

By The Voice | Tue 2nd June 2015 - 10:04 am

This was put together with tears in our eyes.

Scroll down to view. Hover your mouse over the image to see the caption and click on it to see similar pictures on Getty Images.

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Caron Lindsay

Tributes to Charles Kennedy

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 2nd June 2015 - 8:24 am

Pretty much everyone is paying tribute to Charles Kennedy and we’ll bring them to you on here.

Tim Farron was on Breakfast a while ago and sounded like he was fighting off tears as he talked about his good mate. I suspect that the tributes will take up several threads today. Feel free to add your own in the comments.

Nick Clegg

Charles’s untimely death robs Britain of one of the most gifted politicians of his generation.

Charles devoted his life to public service, yet he had an unusual gift for speaking about politics with humour and humility which touched people well beyond the world of politics.

He was a staunch internationalist and passionate believer in Britain’s role in Europe, yet he was a proud Highlander, Scot and British Parliamentarian.

He was one of the most gentle and unflappable politicians I have ever known, yet he was immensely courageous too not least when he spoke for the country against the invasion of Iraq.

He led the Liberal Democrats to our party’s greatest electoral successes, yet he always remained modest about his huge achievements.

Whenever I asked him for advice, he was unfailingly kind and wise.

Most of all, I will never forget the pride and love with which he would talk about his own family, most especially his devotion to his son Donald.

My heart goes out to his sister and brother and to Sarah and Donald at this tragic time.

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Caron Lindsay

Charles Kennedy 1959-2015

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 2nd June 2015 - 7:19 am

Charles Kennedy by Catch21productionsThat’s something I always hoped I wouldn’t have to write.

I was woken up a few minutes ago by my phone buzzing.  “I just want to send you my condolences” said the message from an old friend. That made me sit up pretty sharpish. It didn’t take long to find out what she meant. If you’re reading this and feeling slightly disorientated and wondering what on earth is going on, the BBC has the facts:

Mr Kennedy’s family said in a statement: “It is with great sadness, and an enormous sense of shock, that we announce the death of Charles Kennedy.

“We are obviously devastated at the loss. Charles was a fine man, a talented politician, and a loving father to his young son.”

I’m sitting here feeling, like most of you will be, shocked, raw and numb. This is a guy whose warmth, wit and wisdom was never more needed. I really don’t like the thought of a world without him in it.

From that day in 1983 when his election in the next constituency showed me that there was a place for young people in politics to his brave decision to oppose the Iraq War to the heartbreaking grace of his concession speech last month, he has been an example to follow.

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NewsHound

Liberal Democrat spokespeople in the Lords

By NewsHound | Mon 1st June 2015 - 6:01 pm

House of Lords chamberOur team in the Lords have today announced their Lib Dem spokespeople.

They will, of course, take on a greater role now that the Commons team is so depleted and we will be hearing more from them over this Parliament than we may have done in the past.

Here is the full list:

 

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Nick Perry

Opinion: We made Mental Health an issue – now we must lead the fight to make it possible

By Nick Perry | Mon 1st June 2015 - 5:05 pm

Having worked as a frontline mental health social worker for the past 15 years, there was no-one prouder than I was to see Nick Clegg and Norman Lamb push mental health care (and its place within the NHS) up the political agenda .

There is no doubt that without the determination of our gutsy Party, we would not have seen, over the course of the General Election, the other political parties try to associate themselves with our work: securing more funding for mental health care (particularly child and adolescent mental health care) over the last Parliament.

But as any social work student …

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Alain Desmier

Opinion: Profiting from not selling out – let’s start (up)

By Alain Desmier | Mon 1st June 2015 - 3:23 pm

The Lib Dems could and should be the party of small business at the next general election and we must not wait another five years to realise it. We cannot allow Labour to clumsily win back liberal minded voters from the Tories as they did in 1997.

Lib Dems in Government create economic prosperity and security, that is an irrefutable fact of the last five years.  Now we need to find enough messengers to carry this story to British enterprise.

I run a financial technology startup and I’ve now lost count of the number of sympathetic texts and emails I’ve had from clients and business peers over the past month: “I liked your man, shame he did so badly”, and a lot of “ I really can’t believe the Lib Dems did so badly, I voted Tory as I didn’t want Labour.”

My opening sentence is a platitude that every political party trots out once every political electoral cycle when it’s worried it doesn’t have enough core vote, or put bluntly, enough money. We can do better, we can actually mean it and commit ourselves through our policies to become the party of the entrepreneur.

In addition to our record of repairing a damaged economy, I think we have three distinct, vital differences that make us attractive to job creators and we need to be shouting about them, as loudly as we can.

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John Bland

Opinion: It took a day to lose those seats in Parliament – it can take a day to win them back

By John Bland | Mon 1st June 2015 - 2:05 pm

The following was first submitted to LDV as a comment. The team felt it was worth publishing as a full post. The author gave his permission for this.

I write this as a new member awaiting the paperwork. I joined the party because I am pro European (accepting a need for increased reform & democratic accountability), am absolutely appalled with the prospect that a Conservative government might withdraw this country from the ECHR and because I cannot reconcile democracy with government access to personal emails. In addition I was impressed with the Liberal Democrat record in Government and the performance of Liberal Democrat Ministers.

Given the post election scenario which I, like many, found shocking I appreciate that rebuilding is required, but I feel that this may be easier than many think.

Firstly, the Conservatives made commitments in the election campaign that will be hard to deliver without some drastic cuts. The electorate will be able to see what the Liberal Democrats in government prevented the Conservatives from trying to introduce. We have already seen this in action. There was no mention of the HRA in the Queens Speech – it is clear that the campaign that the Liberal Democrats have run, combined with some high profile noises from the Conservative back benches and legal community, has revealed the home truth, that they would have a hell of a fight on their hands. The objection should be the withdrawal from the ECHR which this country and a Conservative government helped form in the first place.

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Jonathan Waddell

Opinion: Three things the Lib Dems can ‘own’

By Jonathan Waddell | Mon 1st June 2015 - 12:44 pm

 

It seems to me that elections are fought not in the currency of policies but actually perception.

I feel that in the election campaign, where we actually talked about ourselves (on those rare occasions) we tried to take credit for the economic recovery. However, given that the Tories have always held that ground, they won that argument before it even began. As a result, voters who wanted a continuation of the past five years didn’t think to vote Lib Dem, they instead thought to vote Tory. It shouldn’t seem so baffling after all that people who voted Lib Dem last time chose to vote Tory this time if they were so thrilled about the outcomes of the coalition.

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Opinion: Human Rights Act – when rights clash

By Alan Smith | Mon 1st June 2015 - 11:07 am

 

As one of the many who have recently joined the Liberal Democrats, my attention has been drawn to the fight to make sure that the Human Rights Act is not scrapped by the Conservatives. In a recent email from Tom Brake MP, we were reminded of the following rights afforded to us by the Human Rights Act:

  • the right to life;
  • the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
  • the prohibition of slavery and forced labour;
  • the right to liberty and security of the person;
  • the right to a fair trial;
  • prohibition of punishment without law;
  • the right to respect for private and family life;
  • the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion;
  • the right to freedom of expression;
  • the right to freedom of assembly and association;
  • the right for men and women to marry and found a family;
  • the right to peaceful enjoyment of personal property;
  • the right to education;
  • the right to free elections;
  • and the prohibition of discrimination.

But what happens when there is friction between two or more of these rights?

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The Liberator Collective

Introducing Liberator

By The Liberator Collective | Mon 1st June 2015 - 9:36 am

New members have been asking about Lib Dem organisations that they can join.  You are welcome to submit similar items on behalf of other organisations.

liberator-2Liberator has been called many things. “A trashy rag run off on a duplicator” (David Steel), “a small bunch of idiots” (Mark Oaten), more positively as ,“long may it continue to interest us” (Paddy Ashdown), and perhaps best getting to the point, from former MP Michael Meadowcroft: “Liberalism needs outlets for its ideas, opinions and polemics; it has far too few. Liberator is a vital regular vehicle for radical opinion.”

While our pages are open to all, Liberator is a magazine with a point of view in and around the Liberal Democrats. It came from the left of the old Liberal party and is firmly on the social liberal wing of the Liberal Democrats now. We don’t claim we are always right; we do hope to be interesting.

Liberator’s news section Radical Bulletin seeks to shine some light into dark corners of the party’s committees and actions by officers, and explain why some of the odder things that occur in the party happen.

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The Voice

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #417

By The Voice | Sun 31st May 2015 - 8:13 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 417th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (24 – 30 May, 2015), together with a hand-picked quintet, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging.

As ever, let’s start with the most popular post, and work our way down:

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Paul Walter

A refreshing note of dissent in UKIP on Farage’s HIV comments

By Paul Walter | Sun 31st May 2015 - 7:13 pm

One of the most awful moments of the 2015 election campaign was when Nigel Farage mentioned “foreigners” and HIV treatment in one of the TV debates.

UKIP’s only MP is Douglas Carswell. His father, Wilson Carswell, was one of the first doctors to identify HIV/Aids in Uganda in the 1980s.

So, one expected Douglas Carswell to have some views on Farage’s revolting HIV comments.

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Paul Walter

Photo gallery of Liberal and Liberal Democrat women past and present

By Paul Walter | Sun 31st May 2015 - 6:13 pm

Through the wonderful archive of Getty Images, here is a smattering photographs of prominent Liberal and Liberal Democrat past and present. Scroll down to view. Roll your mouse or put your finger on the photo to read its caption. You can also click on the photo to see it at the Getty Images site with similar photographs.

And yes, I know that Shirley Williams was in the Labour party at the time of the first photo.

If you think I’ve missed out anyone you’d like to see a photo of here, please let me know in the comments and I’ll add them (if appropriate).

I would have liked to have featured Enid Lakeman, Elizabeth Shields, Margaret Wintringham, Liz Lynne, Jackie Ballard, Diana Maddock and Ray Michie but I couldn’t find any useable Getty Images of them.

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The Voice

How you can help Liberal Democrat Voice

By The Voice | Sun 31st May 2015 - 5:17 pm

The Voice is only a success because of the interest and support from our readers. For many people just lurking and reading the site is all they want to do – and that’s fine, we’re grateful for people taking the time to read the site.

You can though help us continue to produce interesting content for a growing audience. Here are four simple ways:

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Paul Walter

We bored people rigid about electoral reform for decades and learned to hold our tongues – but now is the time to pipe up!

By Paul Walter | Sun 31st May 2015 - 1:40 pm

For decades we were the party that was known for wanting electoral reform. Many people thought it was our only policy.

We went on and on and on and on about it. Then we realised we were getting nowhere with it and started to shut up about it. Then came the AV referendum debacle which shut us up even more on the subject.

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The Voice

LDV’s Sunday Best: our 7 most-read articles this week

By The Voice | Sun 31st May 2015 - 12:40 pm

7 ver 4 fullMany thanks to the 22,300  visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

 Breaking…Willie Rennie: I hope that fair minded people will give Alistair Carmichael a second chance (67 comments) by The Voice

Why calling for HQ staff to be sacked is unacceptable and will not be tolerated on LDV (126 comments) by Caron Lindsay

In full: Nick Clegg responds to the Queen’s Speech (23 comments) by The Voice

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Julian Huppert

Julian Huppert writes…#libdemfightback: from theory to practice

By Julian Huppert | Sun 31st May 2015 - 10:08 am

As we move on from the trauma of the General Election, I have been hugely encouraged by the new sense of energy, and the huge new membership – we’ve got almost 200 new members here in Cambridge, for example.

There are lots of reasons – people realising their values chime with ours, people feeling bad about the huge hit that we took, people rather belatedly realising what we achieved.

This will form the core of the #libdemfightback – and I have no doubt that we will fight back and win more seats at all levels.

It is of course really important that we keep these members, and make sure that they do get the policy discussions, the community activity, the sense of value that they want. We cannot just let them believe we are nothing more than a campaigning cult, our rituals being leaflet delivery and door knocking.

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Caron Lindsay

Could Tim Farron’s band reunite at the Glee Club?

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 30th May 2015 - 7:46 pm

It didn’t take long for a photo of a very New Romantic Tim Farron and his two band-mates to appear on the internet. Within hours of Jonathan Calder revealing the name of our leadership hopeful’s band this morning, he was sent a photo, from around about 1987, of a teenage Tim Farron in his band, Fred the Girl, previously known as The Voyeurs until they realised what exactly that meant.

I have spent many fruitless hours trawling You Tube to see if I could find some footage. I suspect if it’s there, it’s unlisted so nobody will be able …

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NewsHound

LibLink: Norman Lamb: We can build a new progressive, liberal movement of change across the country

By NewsHound | Sat 30th May 2015 - 6:15 pm

Yes, I know, lots of leadership stuff today – but then, there’s a lot out there and it is a Very Big Thing for the party at the Norman Lamb badgesmoment.

Norman Lamb has outlined his vision for Politics Home. Trust the people, he says:

As liberals, we fundamentally believe that government can’t pick and choose which human rights are important, or who should have them.  We believe that powerful organisations – both public and private – must be open and accountable.  And we believe that, when people use the internet, they don’t surrender the right to privacy from government snooping.

And at the very heart of my liberalism is the idea that we must trust in people. That we must take power away from unaccountable institutions and give it to individuals – so that they can decide how to live their lives, rather than being told what to do by the state.

Nearly a decade ago, I won a long battle with the Labour government to force the then-Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to publish lists of the individuals he met.  That principle now extends across all government ministers – and is crucial in holding ministers to account for the way that decisions are made.

And it’s important to give those most vulnerable a proper say in what happens to them:

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The Voice

Video: Tim Farron talks about housing

By The Voice | Sat 30th May 2015 - 4:45 pm

Liberal Democrat leadership candidate Tim Farron has released his first campaign video and he’s devoted it to housing:

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Caron Lindsay

Fancy working for ALDC?

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 30th May 2015 - 4:15 pm

If you are a new member reading this, you might like to think about joining ALDC – you seriously should never fight an election without their excellent campaigning resources.

If you are looking for a job in campaigning, you have until noon on Monday to apply for this vacancy with ALDC.

Full time fixed contract for one year, with the potential for extension

This is a new post created to help us boost the support we can provide to our members through the provision of campaign packs, materials and ideas, and templates for literature and campaigning – both paper and online.

Grade: Scale 5-6 (currently £19,817 to £24,472)

The main responsibilities are:

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The Voice

Leadership News: The Tweets

By The Voice | Sat 30th May 2015 - 3:15 pm

We thought we’d take an occasional look through the Twitter feeds of leadership hopefuls Norman Lamb and Tim Farron. Today they are united, marching for human rights.

…

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NewsHound

Leadership News: Support for both Farron and Lamb in Huffington Post

By NewsHound | Sat 30th May 2015 - 1:45 pm

Two recent articles from the Huffington Post speak out in favour  of each candidate for the Liberal Democrats.

First, Jack Davies tells why he is supporting Tim Farron:

It was a cold afternoon in November when, huddled before my computer screen, I typed out a message to Tim Farron, the then party president of the Liberal Democrats.

The message was a call for help. I was hoping to stand for election as the Liberal Democrat PPC in New Forest West and I needed assistance in applying.

I didn’t expect Tim to reply, but to my surprise, he did.

His reply was polite and helpful. He offered to read my application script and pointed me in the right direction with tips on what to say. I was taken aback by the response and even more astounded that so much care was afforded to it.

It is moments like these that inspire people to enter the world of politics, to aspire them to be as good as the politician who has taken the time to talk to them. It certainly inspired me into getting more involved and I set up New Forest Liberal Youth to encourage more young people in the New Forest to become involved.

Editor of The Secularist Conversation Stefan Rollnick explains his support for Norman Lamb:

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NewsHound

Lamb looks to Farage for inspiration

By NewsHound | Sat 30th May 2015 - 12:15 pm

The Huffington Post reported Norman Lamb’s remarks at a new members’ event in London this week.

Lamb told the activists: “There are remarkable things happening these days, just look at the rise and fall of corporations. The big companies that are household names one day and disappear the next. The startups that suddenly catch fire and become enormous new organisations.

“The same is happening in politics. Look at what happened with the SNP, look at what happened indeed with a different force, one we reject entirely. Nigel Farage communicated a view to people in a way that got people listening,” Lamb said.

He adding: “Now, his message is one of division, ours is one of uniting people.

“There are so many people out there ready to hear from us. And actually wanting to hear a progressive liberal voice in opposition to a right-wing Conservative government. With the the Labour Party in a state of internal turmoil themselves and likely to face many years, I suspect, of infighting, the responsibility of us to step up to the plate and make the case for progressive liberal politics, the politics of hope not the politics of fear, is overwhelming.”

 

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Caron Lindsay

The Liberals Putin can’t bear to have in Russia

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 30th May 2015 - 10:45 am

I was very amused by this tweet from former Liberal Democrat MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber Edward McMillan-Scott.

If you look at the list, you’ll see that Edward, who was a powerful voice for human rights in the European Parliament, is viewed as more dangerous than Sir Malcolm Rifkind who was chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee. Edward is at 45 and Rifkind is 16 places further down at 61. It shows off your values when you are more horrified by people who want your citizens to have rights than someone who’s scrutinising the people who might be spying on you.

Edward is not the only dangerous liberal on that list, though:

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Tim Farron MP

Tim Farron MP writes…The Human Rights Act is vital and we must fight to keep it

By Tim Farron MP | Sat 30th May 2015 - 9:15 am

The Tories have blinked on the Human Rights Act but the fight is not yet won. They are still going to make ‘proposals’ this year, with still the threat of a bill next year.

The Human Rights Act is a favourite target of the right wing press. They hate it because it is ‘European’ (even though the European Convention on Human Rights springs not from the EU but from the quite different Council of Europe – and anyway, what’s wrong with being European?). They hate it because it contains a right to private and family life and so it interferes with that part of the media’s business model. And they hate it, above all, because, although human rights law protects everyone, some of its beneficiaries will always be unpopular and isolated minorities, people it is popular to attack.

But the Human Rights Act is vital for a fair society. Last year, for example, a court declared incompatible with human rights an Act of Parliament that retrospectively cancelled the Department of Work and Pensions’ debts to thousands of jobseekers who had been illegally denied benefits. How else could this unfairness be rectified? Parliament had passed the law only the year before. Jobseekers are demonised and although we should never stop campaigning for people being bullied by the government, it was clear that no political campaign was going to help. Only the court could do the job.

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