NewsHound

LibLink: Layla Moran: Six ways to break British research

By NewsHound | Sun 5th April 2015 - 11:55 am

All parliamentary candidates are being deluged by emails from organisations and constituents on a huge range of subjects. One particular missive comes from Vote Cruelty Free which encourages candidates to sign up to the following six pledges:

1) Ban experiments on cats and dogs.
2) End the secrecy surrounding animal experiments.
3) Stop importing monkeys for use in laboratories.
4) End non-medical experiments.
5) Stop genetically modifying animals.
6) Stop suffering in the most extreme experiments.

Layla Moran, Liberal Democrat candidate for Oxford West and Abingdon has written an article for the Our Kingdom website in which she looks at these pledges and explains why she can’t sign up for them because of the effect it would have on British research and ultimately be worse for animals as research is driven to parts of the world where animal welfare is not taken as seriously as it is here.

First, a general overview and the benefits of well-regulated life science research:

On February 24, Britain took the historic step of legislating to make mitochondrial donation therapy possible, offering hope to those carrying mitochondrial defects and creating the possibility for them to have children without passing on the diseases that currently afflict — and usually kill — over 100 babies each year. But medical progress depends on a global ecosystem of life sciences research. Development of novel techniques to a level where mitochondrial donation could be trialled in humans relied on earlier studies using macaques, for example.

Britain is at the forefront of much of this research and, in addition, currently has the highest animal welfare standards worldwide. It is already illegal to conduct animal experiments if an alternative exists and illegal to use cats or dogs if a different animal could be used. Research on animals for cosmetics or on great apes for any application is banned outright. I’m proud that the UK has such high standards and proud that the Liberal Democrats have worked hard in the UK and Europe to drive further improvements.

And then she tackles the substance of the 6 pledges:

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Tagged , and | 2 Comments
Advert
Kirsten Johnson

Opinion: Water of Life

By Kirsten Johnson | Sun 5th April 2015 - 10:25 am

Today many Christians are celebrating Easter, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Jesus, whether you view him as historical figure, prophet or messiah, used many images in his teaching. One was water.

John 4:13-14 talks of Jesus’ encounter with the woman of Samaria at the well, and Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But anyone who drinks the water I give them will never be thirsty. In fact, the water I give them will become a spring of water in them. It will flow up into eternal life.”

Water is a precious resource. Just this week there was news of California entering the fourth year of drought. Governor Jerry Brown has introduced strict conservation measures to reduce water usage by 25%. California produces a third of the fresh vegetables consumed by Americans, and prices in shops across the country are already reflecting the drought.

Global warming has brought this on. The snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains which supplies the water California needs is at a record low. The water California needs for households, crops and industry is not available. Sacrifices will have to be made.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 11 Comments
The Voice

Mathew Hulbert: “The vast majority of the good things done in this government were as a result of Liberal Democrat influence”

By The Voice | Sun 5th April 2015 - 8:55 am

Barwell Councillor Mathew Hulbert has not always been the biggest fan of the coalition, it’s fair to say. However, he was incredibly fair about it in a recent debate for young people in Leicestershire. You can see his one minute pitch here:

Continue reading »
Posted in News | 5 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Caroline Lucas: Vince Cable could make you think eating babies was ok

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 4th April 2015 - 4:41 pm

It’s fair to say that this is not a headline I ever thought I’d be writing, but there you go.

The Guardian decided that it might be a good idea to take ten politicians and send them on a “blind date” with someone from a different party. They didn’t exactly push the boat out with this. The MPs met in the cafe in Portcullis House which is ok, but I prefer the public one off Westminster Hall. It’s always a joy to see what food combinations they come up with. They had an Earl Grey cheesecake one time I was there, which was a bit lacking in flavour, if I’m honest.

Probably the closest match politically was between our Vince Cable and Green MP Caroline Lucas. Afterwards, each MP had to say what they thought of the other. Caroline was generally very positive about Vince but made a bit of a strange comment:

My overriding feeling about Vince is that he’s so reasonable and so plausible that he could make eating babies sound an entirely rational thing to do.

The only thing is that Vince is generally right about stuff. If she thought that what he was saying about things like tuition fees and austerity was rational, it’s because it was. I was a bit miffed on Vince’s behalf by the baby-eating comment. She could have chosen a better analogy.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , , and | 14 Comments
The Voice

This is everything a leaders’ debate should be – with one of the best put-downs ever

By The Voice | Sat 4th April 2015 - 3:15 pm

Last month, Scotland’s four main party leaders debated each other for Glasgow University’s Politics Society. Willie Rennie, Jim Murphy, Ruth Davidson and Nicola Sturgeon spent an hour and a half discussing everything from austerity to Trident to drugs policy. They did it with loads of thoughtfulness and bags of humour. It makes me very optimistic about the tv debate between these four on Tuesday night and the subsequent one with Greens’ Patrick Harvie later in the campaign. Unfortunately, UKIP will also be taking part in that second debate and given the horrid comments by their MEP about an SNP minister, that could really sour the atmosphere.

It’s actually a very good watch and relevant to people across the whole UK. Willie Rennie was very strong on the economy, highlighting how France had tried the sort of policies that Nicola was advocating and these simply hadn’t worked.  When Nicola Sturgeon implied that her party represented Scotland, he very effectively called her out. Another highlight came when he invited Ruth Davidson to write a joint letter with him to Theresa May asking her to release the drugs policy review that Norman Baker said the Tories had blocked.

That drugs question, by the way, saw an open admission that three of the leaders had taken Cannabis.

You can watch the whole thing below:

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , , and | 4 Comments
Advert
Caron Lindsay

Unmasked: The “tall young man” in the Liberal Democrat office

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 4th April 2015 - 1:45 pm

The Guardian has a report today on Nicola Sturgeon’s visit to the SNP office in Edinburgh West – which just happens to be right next door to the Liberal Democrat campaign office on one of the busiest roads in Edinburgh.

SNP supporters from the city and beyond had come to greet Nicola after her excellent performance in the leaders’ debate on Thursday. Severin Carrell, the journalist who wrote the article, alluded to the contrast with the quietness of Mike Crockart’s campaign office where only four people were to be found and made a number of very flawed conclusions about the party’s prospects in Edinburgh West:

But now, to add to the Lib Dems’ discomfort, the SNP’s campaign headquarters is in the old Yes Scotland shop immediately next door to Crockart’s high street office.

And protected behind a privacy screen, four Lib Dem workers stoically continued working away on their campaign, as scores of raucous SNP supporters, their saltires, SNP placards and balloons above their heads, greeted Sturgeon’s arrival.

Crockart was away at a meeting. A tall young man in his subdued office seemed to shrug off the contrast. Were they flustered by the huge crowds outside? “Not really. We had it during the referendum. It’s fine. It’s democracy,” he said.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 10 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Are you feeling like you need some good old fashioned civil liberties talk in this election?

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 4th April 2015 - 12:15 pm

You need look no further than Ben Mathis, Lib Dem candidate for Hackney South who looks at the constituency’s liberal values and wonders why it “settles for social conservatism in a red bow.” Enjoy.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 6 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Nicola Sturgeon faces similar press trashing to Clegg in 2010 – but with added misogyny

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 4th April 2015 - 10:39 am

I might have some fairly fundamental disagreements with Nicola Sturgeon on the best future for Scotland, but I have a great deal of time for her as a human being and as a politician. She is a much cleverer tactician than Alex Salmond ever was. I am perfectly happy to argue with people on their political outlook, but I’m not struck on the sort of nasty personal mudslinging that we see at PMQs, or in Labour’s deeply misleading personal attack on Nick Clegg last year and I sure as hell am not going to make up my mind how to vote based on how someone eats a bacon sandwich. Nor, I suspect, are the rest of the population.

It appears that after her very good performance in Thursday’s Leaders’ Debate that Nicola Sturgeon is, highly predictably, being done over by the right wing press in much the same way that Nick Clegg was in 2010. Remember Nick Barlow’s wonderful way of dealing with that – the #nickcleggsfault meme on Twitter where Clegg was blamed from everything to the weather to the cat being sick?

Of course, Nicola is getting much different treatment to a man. Her clothes come in to it. The Daily Fail describes her as a “glamorous power-dressing imperatrix.” Wow. A woman goes out wearing smart clothes. How remarkable. Of course, if she rocked up for FMQs in Parliament in her jeans, they’d have something to say about that, too. On appearance, women really can’t win.

The Telegraph’s splash is a bit different. Last night, when I read their account that she’d told the French ambassador that she’d prefer David Cameron to be Prime Minister, it didn’t seem right to me. Apart from anything else, the Nicola Sturgeon I know has more sense than to be so indiscreet. The paper bases its story on a memo written by a UK Government official who wasn’t even at the meeting in question and who actually doubts its veracity. It’s all very third hand and clearly questionable.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , , , and | 87 Comments
The Voice

Something to keep you giggling on the campaign trail

By The Voice | Sat 4th April 2015 - 9:15 am

Possibly not if you are going canvassing though. You can just imagine knocking an a door and then an image of Sky News’ mash up of Clegg, Miliband, Cameron and Farage singing Boyzone’s I Swear pops into your mind unbidden. By the time the voter opens the door, you are giggling, and possibly drooling. Not the best way to win votes.

The thing about this is that after Thursday night, it seems so dated with just the four of them.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , and | 3 Comments
Stephen Tall

LibDemVoice Fantasy Football League: how it stands after Week 30

By Stephen Tall | Sat 4th April 2015 - 7:45 am

Congratulations to George Murray, whose Marauding Fullbacks lead the LibDemVoice Fantasy Football League after Week 30

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged | Leave a comment
Charles Kennedy

Charles Kennedy writes…Time to dig deep and believe

By Charles Kennedy | Fri 3rd April 2015 - 4:19 pm

Well, you will have heard it time and time before. Commentators will tell us that we simply cannot win, opposition will tell us that we simply don’t matter. I can tell you, they are all wrong.

This General Election will be the hardest fought in our history. However, there has never been a more important time to stick our head above the parapet and make the unambiguous case for a strong liberal voice in politics. I for one am up for the challenge.

I have been an MP for over 30 years (a point my campaign team like to emphasise more than I). I am often asked what motivates me to stay the course. My motivation is straight forward; my motivation is to fight on the issues that matter for the people of Ross, Skye and Lochaber.

In Ross, Skye and Lochaber it is a two horse race between myself and the SNP. The race is between two competing views of the world. Indeed, our views on the NHS contrasts the options well.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , and | 37 Comments
The Voice

New campaign poster highlights tax cut.

By The Voice | Fri 3rd April 2015 - 2:32 pm

The party issued a new poster today to highlight the raising of the tax threshold which comes into effect on Monday. It means that every taxpayer is £825 a year better off thanks to the implementation of the pledge that was on the font page of our manifesto.

Tax cuts election poster

 

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged and | 52 Comments
Patrick Murray

Opinion: Let’s make this the Housing General Election

By Patrick Murray | Fri 3rd April 2015 - 10:58 am

Last month,  2,300 people descended on Westminster for the Homes for Britain rally calling for all political parties to end the housing crisis in a generation, and publish a plan within a year of office setting out how they would do this. It was an inspirational moment, and one of the biggest campaign rallies I have ever seen. Many people from took part in the relay leading up to it – walking, running, cycling from all over the country. There was even a bus, Betsy, who journeyed up from Land’s End, visiting towns and cities along the way taking the message about the housing crisis to the people.

So why is it so important? Well we are in the midst of a terrible crisis. For over 30 years no Government of any political party has built anywhere near enough homes. We need 245,000 homes a year now, yet we only built around half that figure last year. As a result for young people in many parts of the country owning a home is something they can only dream of. There are still 1.6 million families on waiting lists for affordable housing. And we lack suitable housing options for older people despite the massive demographic changes coming our way. Of course this crisis looks different in different housing markets, for example in some parts of the country the challenge is about regenerating communities and replacing decrepit homes, but one thing is clear – our housing system is dysfunctional and fails almost everyone.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged and | 31 Comments
Simon Foster

Opinion: The silence of the Miliband

By Simon Foster | Fri 3rd April 2015 - 9:06 am

Yesterday I got an email from Ed Miliband, which included part of his online Q &A session:

“I am stuck as to whether to vote Labour or Lib Dem. I am not interested in past records either, I am looking to the future. Many people fall in an “in-between zone”, not poor enough to receive help with living costs, but not rich enough to be able to stay on top of general living costs. How would Labour deal with this? — Zoe, Norfolk

Ed: Hi Zoe, you’re absolutely right that the problem in our economy right now is that recovery just isn’t reaching working people — just a few at the top. Many working people aren’t getting paid enough to be able to stay on top of the bills. Tackling this cost of living crisis will be the key mission of the next Labour government. Unlike the Tories, Labour understand that Britain only succeeds when working families succeed, and that’s why only a Labour government can tackle the cost of living crisis. One of the ways we will do this is by freezing your energy bills until 2017 and giving the regulator the power to cut bills this winter so that people can afford to heat their homes. To make sure work pays, we will ban exploitative zero-hours contracts, raise the minimum wage to £8, and provide 25 hours free childcare per week for working parents with three or four year olds. We’ll also introduce a new, lower 10p starting rate of tax, paid for by scrapping the unfair marriage tax allowance, which will benefit 24 million people on middle and lower incomes…”

Well the minimum wage should go up to £8.25 in the long run anyway, and the 10p tax rate is completely wrong, we should be looking at national insurance now instead.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 51 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Candid, competent Clegg puts in good performance in debate that fails to break the poll deadlock

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 2nd April 2015 - 11:12 pm

The NHS doesn’t need warm words, it needs hard cash.

Probably the line of the debate for me, from Nick Clegg as he highlighted Liberal Democrat plans to invest £8 billion in the NHS in England with resultant Barnett Consequentials. Clegg was at the top of his game tonight. Paddy Ashdown said he was flawless, but I wouldn’t quite go that far. He stumbled a bit on immigration – taking the right line but with some strange comments about good and bad immigrations. I actually feel prouder of him than I did in 2010. After all the grief he’s taken, after everything that’s happened in the last five years, for him to come out with humility and clarity and perform so well was very good.  As I write, a public speaking expert says that he thought Nick was excellent.

He was pretty strong on the economy, too and repeatedly challenged Cameron on the Tory plans not raising taxes on the rich.

Having lived through the independence referendum and all the nonsense spread by the Yes campaign that the NHS had been privatised in England, it was good to see Nick call Nicola out on that.

Nicola Sturgeon  was very good too. It was funny when she turned and faced Cameron to ask him to specify his welfare cuts and he turned away from her. She made a lot of claims about what was happening in Scotland, from NHS Funding (actually going down), NHS car parking (you still have to pay in some places) and on the failure of the SNP to keep its promise to dump student debt. Oh, and let’s not forget the young people denied opportunity because of the SNP’s slashing of college places. 

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 148 Comments
Caron Lindsay

The popcorn’s ready for the debate tonight – what I want to see from Nick Clegg

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 2nd April 2015 - 7:39 pm

It was one year ago tonight that Nick took on Nigel. And tonight he takes on Nigel and five others. All of them will be queuing up to attack him. Nigel because Nick’s open, liberal, internationalist stance is the antithesis of all he stands for, Ed, Nicola, Leanne and Natalie because that’s what they do and Dave because the last thing he wants is another coalition with the Nick. After all, he did tell the Daily Mail that he’d govern like a proper Tory if it weren’t for Nick. When the Prime Minister talks about Ed Miliband being in Alex Salmond’s pocket, you can tell he feels that he’s been in Nick Clegg’s for the past five years.

But lets just take a moment and smile. This is the first major occasion like this at a UK level when there will be an equal number of men and women on that stage. I wish it wasn’t remarkable and I hope that in my lifetime it won’t be. Natalie Bennett, Nicola Sturgeon, Leanne Wood and Julie Etchingham, you are making history.

So, let’s look at the basic housekeeping first. The debate can be seen on STV and ITV live and you can watch online on the Lib Dem website here. I will probably watch the BBC News Channel, where, alongside the debate, they’ll have the Worm, which shows selected viewers’ instant reactions to what is being said.

Format

Each leader gets a one minute statement. Then there are four question and answer sessions on the topics of health, the economy, immigration and the future of the UK. Each section, after each leader has had an uninterrupted minute to answer the question, lasts for up to 18 minutes.

My advice to Nick

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 26 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Nick Clegg says: Employers must be equally supportive of workers with mental and physical health problems

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 2nd April 2015 - 2:27 pm

I wrote the other day of my annoyance at the dreadfully stigmatising headlines about mental health in the wake of the Germanwings plane crash.

It’s good to see that Nick Clegg has given quite a detailed interview reported on the Huffington Post while on the battle bus about this issue in which he said that there shouldn’t be a blanket ban of people with mental ill health doing any job. Employers had to look at people’s individual circumstances and be as accepting of people with mental ill health as with physical.

I think it’s very important that we don’t, however understandable in this context, allow what is said about one individual to shape or colour the way in which we regard people who go through episodes of mental health problems.

It’s very important that employers in all walks of life are as accepting of people who are recovering from mental health problems just as much as they would be people who recover from physical health problems.

He warned of the dangers of shutting people with mental ill health out of work:

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , and | 3 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Lib Dems in the media – three must-watch programmes from yesterday

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 2nd April 2015 - 12:59 pm

There are so many media interviews with politicians at the moment. We’re suffering from so much information overload and it’s only Day 4. It’s hard to imagine that we’ll be missing it when it’s all over. Did I say that out loud?

Anyway, here are three must watch/listen events that you might have missed from yesterday.

The first is Willie Rennie’s interview on Good Morning Scotland yesterday. Of course, he got all the usual really tough questions and answered them pretty strongly.

Secondly, Steve Webb represented us really well on the See Hear election debate which you can watch here on iPlayer. One issue that has been raised elsewhere is that no party has signed up to produce a BSL manifesto. Steve said that we might be able to produce a BSL summary. Again he had a very reasoned, practical, liberal approach, talking about providing services that met individual needs and gave individuals choice about what was best for them. He also took a bit of a swipe at Michael Gove’s education policies, talking about need for teachers to be properly trained.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 1 Comment
Lord William Wallace

William Wallace writes…Challenging Ukip’s assumptions

By Lord William Wallace | Thu 2nd April 2015 - 11:35 am

With Eurosceptic Tories and Ukip candidates alongside us in this campaign, we need to challenge their assumptions in every all-party panel and debate. Here are a few I’ve found useful so far:

1. To those who say we want a referendum now, or as soon as possible, without waiting for negotiations on EU reform or for the next change in the Treaties: why don’t they say straight out that they want to leave the EU, and not hide behind the call for a referendum?

2. Where do they think Britain will go to when we leave the EU? The Norwegians and the Swiss have warned us about the disadvantages of not having a say in the rules of the Single Market.  Would we find closer friends to work with in Saudi Arabia, or Russia, or China?

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 12 Comments
Adrian Pellas-Rice

Opinion: Getting things out of proportion

By Adrian Pellas-Rice | Thu 2nd April 2015 - 10:15 am

Finding things to complain about in The Guardian is hardly difficult, but here are two little blemishes that bleed deep:

First we have a quote from editor Alan Rusbridger in 2013, touching on the AV referendum:

They came up with such a weak version of proportional representation that they could not get anyone excited or enthused.

And second, a report from earlier this year on a Guardian staff ballot:

Staff of the Guardian and Observer have voted in favour of Katharine Viner… using the single transferable vote system… he successful candidate is guaranteed a place on the shortlist of three that will go forward to the next round of interviews conducted by the Scott Trust.

Claiming that AV is a form of PR, or that you used STV for what turns out to be a single-winner election, is incongruous at best, and probably just plain wrong. And, of course, the article doesn’t mention that Labour was the party that “came up with” AV as a 2010 election commitment.

If you want to get technical, it is true that AV is essentially STV-1 (STV electing a single member).  But the two names are used distinctly with good reason. STV-1 is a degenerate case, with less complexity and none of the proportionality of its multi-winner siblings. Important connotations of “the single transferable vote system” do not apply to AV, and vice versa. Even if this kind of equivalence was intended, the bold passages still needed qualification in order to make sense to the Guardian’s general readership. It seems far more likely the editorial process just got it wrong.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , and | 29 Comments
Chris Bowers

Opinion: We should be alert to this threat to Europe!

By Chris Bowers | Thu 2nd April 2015 - 8:55 am

There’s a new acronym doing the rounds, which I think is a vicious wolf in sheep’s clothing. And I fear the party may have fallen for the sheep’s clothing and not seen the wolf.

The acronym is TTIP. It stands for Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which sounds all well and good. And if all it’s doing is promoting free trade between Europe and America, fair enough. But the question we should all be asking is: at what cost?

TTIP has made its way into the election campaign solely as an adjunct to the NHS debate. There are fears that the TTIP agreement – still being negotiated (in secret) by EU and US trade negotiators – will threaten the state funding of medical services. Lib Dem candidates like me are advised by the party’s Policy Response unit to say that Vince Cable has been given several assurances that neither our ability to run the NHS nor our ability to protect the environment will be threatened.

But the threat is bigger than that. A few days ago, Germany’s environment agency UBA expressed serious concern that the EU’s position on the emerging TTIP could weaken environmental protection standards in Europe. It says Europe’s current proposals would breach the democratic principles at the heart of the EU by giving US companies the right to information about EU legislation before the European Parliament or European civil society groups get to hear about it. Lib Dems should be alarmed at this.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 55 Comments
Caron Lindsay

What’s happening on P-35, Thursday 2nd April?

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 2nd April 2015 - 7:30 am

Five weeks to go! And one week (with two bank holidays) to get nomination papers in.

Today is Debate Day, of course. And it’s also the first anniversary of Nick Clegg’s second debate with Nigel Farage last year.

Nick will be preparing ahead of the debate which takes place in Salford. His visit for the day is in nearby Cheadle, visiting a charity set up by parents after their 9 month old baby, Millie, died after choking at nursery. Cheadle Lib Dem Mark Hunter, as MP for the area, helped Millie’s parents campaign for a change in the law to ensure that every nursery has someone available who is trained in paediatric first aid. Millie’s Trust  aims to provide first aid training to everyone who needs it and Nick and Mark will be attending a paediatric first aid lesson.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged | 4 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Some thoughts on zero hours contracts – Liberal Democrat record in government is better than Labour’s

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 1st April 2015 - 9:37 pm

Zero hours contracts have taken up a lot of bandwidth and airwaves today.

There is a narrative that goes something like: “There might not be mass unemployment but the jobs created under this government are all zero hours contracts”. That is nonsense. The proportion of the workforce on zero hours contracts is actually very small. It’s only about 2% of all jobs.

If exploitation is going on, even if it’s only a handful of people being exploited, it needs to be stopped. There’s no doubt about that. And Liberal Democrats in Government have stopped the scandal of exclusivity, the practice of not guaranteeing your employee any hours or any pay, but not letting them work for anyone else either. We’re way ahead of Labour.

Jo Swinson said at her campaign launch on Monday that she was thinking about something like ensuring that people would automatically have  rights if they were working consistent hours over a certain period, so she and Labour are not a million miles apart. However, I think that we need to be sure that thee won’t be any unintended consequences from such a policy. Think about it. If you were an unscrupulous employer, would you be inclined to make sure that your employees didn’t build up that consistent work pattern? Labour’s policy might not be the simple solution that they are trying to make out.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 20 Comments

Lib Dem declared winner of April Fool’s Day

By Raif Pollo | Wed 1st April 2015 - 8:09 pm

Will & Tim friends againAn intern working in Catherine Bearder MEP’s office has been declared the ‘winner’ of April Fools’ Day by the Huffington Post website.

Intern Tim Reynard cooked up the prank over breakfast, and texted Oxford West & Abingdon Organiser Will Griffiths the following message:

Will, really sorry to do this, I’ve been working for Nicola (Blackwood, the Conservative MP) since leaving Odeon, and the opportunity of an internship with the Lib Dems to compare parties was too good not to apply for.  Wish u all the best but I’m a Tory at heart and am due back in Nicola’s office today.  Sorry for such short notice, Tim.

Will’s instincts kicked in and, fearing that the Lib Dem campaign had been compromised, Will set to deleting all Tim’s access to databases, email etc.

He then rang Campaign Manager Neil Fawcett to tell him the news.  Neil, who had just said good morning to Tim in the office, took the news calmly, and asked Will to get himself straight in to the office.

By the time Will arrived, the rest of the office were in on the joke, and were busy pretending to be checking that nothing had been taken, and that emails had not been forwarded to the Tories.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 15 Comments
Caron Lindsay

New Ashcroft report show Lib Dems gaining ground in majority of seats polled

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 1st April 2015 - 6:55 pm

Lord Ashcroft has released some new polls in six Liberal Democrat/Conservative marginals and two Liberal Democrat/Labour marginals, including Nick Clegg’s seat.

In all but two of the seven Lib Dem held seats,  the Liberal Democrats are gaining ground. In Cambridge, Julian Huppert has pulled head of his Labour rival. He has gained ten points in six months to have a 9 point lead. There is absolutely no room for complacency, though.

Dan Rogerson (North Cornwall), Andrew George (St Ives), Adrian Sanders (Torbay) have slight leads and have gained ground since the previous polls.. Ashcroft emphasises that it’s all very much in the margin of error but it’s going in the right direction. In Sheffield Hallam, Nick Clegg has halved the gap between himself and Labour. What’s interesting is that Clegg’s vote has leapt up by 7 points – but Labour have gained 6 points as Greens and UKIP support has fallen. Even despite that fall in support of the smaller parties, Clegg has closed the gap to within the margin of error.

Ashcroft finds a movement to the Conservatives in both Nick Harvey’s North Devon seat and Stephen Gilbert’s St Austell and Newquay. In North Devon, our vote has actually gone up and in St Austell it’s stayed the same – but UKIP’s vote has melted back to the Conservatives.

In Camborne and Redruth, which Julia Goldsworthy is trying to win back, the news is not so good, with the Liberal Democrats having a bit of a mountain to climb as the Conservatives gain ground. Update: It’s worth incorporating this comment from someone who actually knows the area, Mathew McCarthy, into the main post:

Knowing Camborne, Redruth & Hayle as well as I do know (having been campaigning there pretty much full time since December 2013) this polling simply does not reflect the reality on the ground. We’ve been gaining serious ground in council by elections, winning one from 4th place last summer, and we know we’re in with a shout in May. We have an amazing candidate who is more well known than the current MP and is more popular amongst undecided voters.

We’re working absolutely flat out to deliver a great result in May, and I know Lib Dem teams across the whole country are doing the same. All I have to say to those Liberal Democrats campaigning flat out across Cornwall and South West England and indeed everywhere is thank you for the amazing effort you’re putting in.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 20 Comments
The Voice

New Party Election Broadcast: Look left, look right then cross

By The Voice | Wed 1st April 2015 - 5:55 pm

The new election broadcast being broadcast right now on BBC1 moves from the open doors theme of the last two to emphasising the moderating influence of the Liberal Democrats. It’s that centre ground theme again that we’ve seen in the posters launched last week. Remember that few of us reading this will be the broadcast’s target audience. There is a Scottish version with a different soundtrack to incorporate the SNP.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged and | 26 Comments
Paul Burstow

Paul Burstow writes…Care Act shows how Lib Dems in Government make society fairer

By Paul Burstow | Wed 1st April 2015 - 1:50 pm

Knowing that you will receive the best care possible means the world to everyone who finds themselves or their loved ones in need of social care.

That is why I made it my first priority as Care Minister, and together with Norman Lamb – our current Care Minister – and other Lib Dem colleagues we have worked hard to reform our badly out of date care system and drag it into the twenty first century.

Today, that work reaches a major milestone with the Care Act coming into effect. As the independent health charity the Kings Fund put it, on social care “the coalition has made more progress in five years than the previous government did in thirteen”.

The Care Act creates new rights and protections for people who need care and new rights for the friends and family who selflessly care for them. It puts in place for the first time a national rules to determine when a person is eligible for care ending the unfair postcode lottery that existed in the past. This means that  people with the same level of care needs will now be treated in the same way wherever they live. It also puts people’s wellbeing at the heart of all care decisions, and creates new responsibilities for local authorities to make sure that support is available to stop people developing care needs in the first place.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged and | 4 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Why did Cameron’s and Clegg’s Palace business have to be conducted in secret?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 1st April 2015 - 12:59 pm

I was pretty grumpy on Monday when I was watching the rolling news coverage. First of all, the BBC had live reporting from Westminster, the only place in the country you wouldn’t find any politicians following the dissolution of Parliament. Ok, so they did find Simon Hughes, but they could have headed a couple of miles down the road to go to him.

Then there were people reporting from Downing Street long after everyone had departed to ht the campaign trail.

But what made my blood boil was the aerial shots of Buckingham Palace broadcast as David Cameron and Nick Clegg made their visits there. We all know what it looks like. The BBC and Sky didn’t really need to spend money on a helicopter to give us pictures of one of the most familiar sites in the country if not the world.

Why on earth were  we not able to see what was going on inside? What’s with the mystery? It wasn’t very exciting, but we weren’t even given a photograph of the occasions. Cameron met first with the Queen, although that was pretty much a waste of time given that the dissolution of Parliament is an automatic process these days. Then Nick Clegg met with the Privy Council he chairs to carry out the necessary formality. When I say chairs, there actually aren’t any as the meetings are traditionally held with everyone standing to make them shorter. 

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , , and | 10 Comments
The Voice

Well, it is April 1st

By The Voice | Wed 1st April 2015 - 12:00 pm

We’re pleased many of you enjoyed our little prank today.  To maintain the joke we kept all most of the comments in moderation, but have now released them, so you can go back and see who fell for it.

For some readers the penny only dropped when they read our new comments policy for today.

Here is a round-up of some other April Fools that we liked across the media:

The Guardian tried to get us to believe that Jeremy Clarkson had turned environmental campaigner.

Pink News told us that Nick Clegg had joined Grindr for the duration of the election.

And scientists at Cern say May The Force be with EU.

Mark Pack had a beautifully crafted piece about how the party was using automated technology. The first part was almost plausible. we rumbled it at the robo-calling and the end is hilarious.

Continue reading »
Posted in Selection news | Tagged and | 6 Comments
Caron Lindsay

AIDS organisations and Elton John support Liberal Democrat candidate Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett over HIV disclosure

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 1st April 2015 - 11:24 am

On Monday, Liberal Democrat candidate for Vauxhall Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett told Buzzfeed about his HIV status which means that he’s the first openly HIV positive candidate to contest an election in the UK. Yesterday, as Buzzfeed reports, Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish praised his courage.

After hearing about the story, Elton John and his husband David Furnish contacted BuzzNews News with a heartfelt message of support for Adrian.

“Elton John and David Furnish applaud Adrian Trett for his courage and bravery in publicly acknowledging his HIV+ status,” the statement said. “He is a fine example that HIV+ people live robust, happy and productive lives. We wish him all the best.”

Adrian was really chuffed with this:

He told BuzzFeed News: “I’m completely overwhelmed to have the support of Elton John and David Furnish and particularly appreciate it coming as a result of disclosing my HIV status. Their kindness means a lot to me, not least because Elton and David, along with the Elton John AIDS Foundation, have worked tirelessly on combatting HIV/AIDS – and the stigma surrounding it – for years.”

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | 1 Comment
Advert

Recent Comments

  • James Dennison
    Thanks David. I certainly didn't mean to imply that the UK begins and ends with England — rather, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland already have substantia...
  • James Dennison
    Thanks Jana. My instinct would be to approach this from the other direction: rather than create a new English Parliament to exercise the powers currently exerci...
  • Jana
    “ Give England institutional expression” Just ‘institutional expression’? Unless it is viewed as acceptable that criminal laws in England, for exampl...
  • David Raw
    Professor Dennison write, "England does not need another large parliament or bureaucracy"..................... and goes on continually refer to England. Writ...
  • Jana
    We don’t need a cap on donations - we need a cap on total spending by each political party, both on routine running costs each year and on specific election c...