Paul Walter

Nick Clegg: Governing with Labour and the SNP would be a recipe for “insomnia and instability”

By Paul Walter | Sat 21st March 2015 - 10:26 am

The Guardian is doing a series of interviews by Phoebe Greenwood with the leaders of the parties, in the run-up to the general election. This week, it is the turn of Nick Clegg. There is a sixteen minute video of the discussion, plus a couple of summary reports.

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The Voice

Paul Strasburger stands down from Lib Dem Lords group pending investigation of fundraising allegations

By The Voice | Sat 21st March 2015 - 9:53 am

Lord Strasburger has temporarily stood down from the Liberal Democrat group in the House of Lords pending investigation into allegations to be made in a Channel 4 Dispatches programme which have been reported in the Telegraph. This involved another undercover operation involving a reporter posing as a businessman. Lord Strasburger has denied doing anything wrong.

From the BBC:

In a statement published by the Liberal Democrats, Lord Strasburger said: “Whatever Channel 4 may say in their Dispatches programme, I do not think I have committed any offence.

“Having said that, I believe that we should all be accountable for what we do,

…

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Stephen Tall

LibDemVoice Fantasy Football League: how it stands after Week 29

By Stephen Tall | Sat 21st March 2015 - 7:45 am
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Newspuppy

Nick Clegg and a dancing troupe in Gravesend filming of promotional video

By Newspuppy | Fri 20th March 2015 - 4:55 pm

It appears that the Liberal Democrats have turned parts of the centre of Gravesend into a film set. The News Shopper has the details:

The Lib Dems have been filming in Parrock Street car park for the last two nights, which confused residents who spotted a white, double decker bus and film crews.

They also filmed in the area around Windmill Street, Railway Place and Manor Road, where traffic management was in place both nights from 5pm.

A dancing troupe and the Lib Dem party leader are expected to be filmed today, as long as the smog does not interfere.

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Jonathan Brown

Opinion: Netanyahu’s rejection of peace must mean British recognition of Palestine

By Jonathan Brown | Fri 20th March 2015 - 4:05 pm

On ‘Call Clegg’ this week Nick robustly declared that “if Benjamin Netanyahu now unilaterally has decided to rule out the prospect of a Palestinian state then I think it is inevitable that British parliament, as it voted a few months ago, should rule a Palestinian state in.” The contrast with Cameron’s (is it unthinking or calculated?) support for Netanyahu’s hope-destroying election victory is both massive, and very welcome. It is great to see the Liberal Democrats standing up for the peace process rather than for an obstructionist right-wing government.

It has become a cliché to say that ‘paradoxically Netanyahu’s election victory is a good thing’: that with the emperor’s new clothes exposed for what they are, there can be no more pretending that there is an Israeli partner for peace.

I’m not so sure. There is no evidence that a prime minister who openly exploits prejudice against Israel’s Arab citizens will suddenly show any serious commitment to a negotiated solution to the conflict. And just as those of us who support an end to the illegal and divisive policies of the occupation want a just peace for the Palestinians, we also recognise that such an outcome will be to Israel’s benefit too. We want a safe, decent and prosperous Israel as a genuine partner for Palestine: an Israel which is becoming ever more unequal, racist, militarised and beholden to its extremists cannot be a partner for peace, let alone a decent place for Israelis to live. This election result is a tragedy for both sides.

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Nick T

Stephen Williams takes on 38 Degrees over “highly misleading campaign”

By Nick T | Fri 20th March 2015 - 3:12 pm

Just hearing the name 38 Degrees will, undoubtedly, make at least the candidates among LDV’s readership shudder. For the luckily unfamiliar, 38 Degrees is a campaigning group which mobilises individuals, primarily in an effort to bombard MPs and candidates with, often, hundreds of identical emails. Those of us involved in politics will have long heard the frustration of those on receiving end, who rightly complain that the campaigns are often only loosely based on facts, and selective ones at that, and often fit with Labour’s similar shaky narratives. The campaign against TTIP is probably the prime example.

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Ruth Bright

Opinion: Cyril Smith – Liberal Democrats should allow scrutiny of all party archives

By Ruth Bright | Fri 20th March 2015 - 1:55 pm

As late as last year there were people defending Cyril Smith’s reputation on Liberal Democrat Voice.  Well now we know beyond all reasonable doubt that the old Liberal Party had its own Savilesque character – it is just that none of us knew, in fact none of us even had an inkling. None of us could possibly have known and none of us could possibly have had an inkling. Could we?

I joined the party in 1985 when I was eighteen. Of course three decades on I do not remember every earnest conversation amongst my fellow Liberal students. What I do remember though is that in the entirely peripheral and uninfluential party circles in which I moved, “Hanger Smith” was viewed with contempt and wariness for supporting capital punishment and rejecting a woman’s right to choose. I never heard any rumours about him and sexual abuse, but there was a sense that he was an old local government bruiser who was somehow untouchable despite being totally out of sync with the mainstream of the party. 

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Newspuppy

Independent: “Liberal Democrats do have a more balanced, pragmatic approach to the task”

By Newspuppy | Fri 20th March 2015 - 1:10 pm

This morning’s leader article in the Independent praises yesterday’s Liberal Democrat alternative budget and concludes that “five years in government have clearly matured the Lib Dems”:

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Tim Farron MP

Tim Farron MP writes…The British people deserve more than Cameron’s weak leadership on EU

By Tim Farron MP | Fri 20th March 2015 - 12:15 pm

European FlagThis week marks David Cameron’s last European Council as Prime Minister before the General Election and let’s hope he avoids one last blunder. It is easy to forget, given the endless Tory arguments on Europe over the past five years, that in opposition David Cameron’s ambition was for the Conservative Party to “stop banging on about Europe”. This summarises Cameron’s position well – he is simply not interested and sees the EU purely as a party management issue. If the issue of Europe is quiet then it’s a good bet that Tory backbenchers will be too.

But this abdication of leadership has caused repeated humiliations for the Prime Minister and allowed the ranks of Tory backbenchers to drive the agenda, leaving their leader looking weak, lacking in ideas and clueless.

Constantly bullied from the back benches, Cameron has time and again stirred from his self-imposed slumber, woken up too late and then mistakenly “taken a stand” before being humiliated. Famously he “vetoed” a new EU treaty in December 2011 but the result was not the triumph he portrayed – the rest of the EU went ahead anyway and concluded the treaty without the UK, leaving a legacy of bitterness in its wake and representing a low point in British diplomacy.

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Miranda Pinch

Opinion: Freedom of speech?

By Miranda Pinch | Fri 20th March 2015 - 11:17 am

Southampton University is under attack: it is planning a conference on ‘International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Responsibility and Exceptionalism’  in April.  Paris University has been forced to cancel a conference entitled: ‘Israel Apartheid is real’.

I have recently attended two conferences on Islam, one of which also came under threat.

So when is free speech permissible and when not?

At my local university I have been shocked at the racist and Islamophobic comments made in talks and seminars by those who support Israel unreservedly.  Had I made similar comments about Jews and Judaism, I would have been thrown out.  Islam is no more homogenous than Judaism or Christianity  and the way it is practised is as much cultural, political and historical as any other. When I condemn Saudi Arabia or ISIS I am not condemning Islam as a whole, nor do I delegitimize Saudi as a State. On the contrary I am often defending Islam. When I criticise Israel, as a Jew myself, I am not attacking Judaism, I am criticising a regime that gives Judaism a bad name and when I criticise the USA, I am often criticising those who give Christianity a bad name.

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Paul Walter

The Liberal Democrats could well be on course to improve our vote share to seats “bangs for the buck”

By Paul Walter | Fri 20th March 2015 - 9:54 am

In the 2010 election, the Liberal Democrats were 14%, or a seventh, less effective at harnessing our vote share to win seats than we were in 2001. If you look at my table below you’ll see that, since 1983, 2001 was our best year for converting vote share into seats.

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Kirsten Johnson

Opinion: Could you save a life?

By Kirsten Johnson | Fri 20th March 2015 - 8:55 am

As a Prospective Parliamentary Candidate I have received emails from St John Ambulance and from the British Red Cross, both wishing to promote First Aid. But what about mental health first aid? With equal parity now being given to mental and physical health, shouldn’t First Aid include Mental Health First Aid?

I think so. And I am pleased that Lib Dems at conference thought so too, for we approved new mental health policy which included a clause I submitted with the support of Oxford East:

To consult with external bodies on the content of, and how best to include training in, Mental Health First Aid, with a view to incorporating elements of Mental Health First Aid into existing First Aid at Work courses.

Imagine the world before First Aid classes, before people were taught the recovery position and CPR. Before such training, if someone was ill people would flap and call for help. They would not get involved.

The same thing happens when people are in mental health crisis. People feel inadequate, have no idea how to help, and do not get involved.

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Paul Walter

Danny set outs alternative Lib Dem budget

By Paul Walter | Thu 19th March 2015 - 2:57 pm

In a constitutional innovation, from the House of Commons dispatch box, Danny Alexander has today set out the Liberal Democrats’ alternative fiscal plans, as the Guardian reports:

Danny Alexander, the Liberal Democrat chief secretary to the Treasury, has taken the unprecedented step of standing at the Commons dispatch box to set out an alternative fiscal plan to George Osborne’s budget.

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Norman Lamb MP

Norman Lamb writes…A blueprint for a fairer society

By Norman Lamb MP | Thu 19th March 2015 - 1:55 pm
1 in 4 of us will develop a mental health problem at some point in our lives – and 75% of these conditions develop by the age of 18. If people don’t get the support they need in childhood and adolescence it can have an impact on the rest of their lives.  
 
And in yesterday’s budget, Liberal Democrats acted decisively to make sure the best possible support is available, with £1.25bn of new investment in young people’s mental health services, and a clear blue print for delivering the transformation needed.
 
If we want to build a fairer society, where everyone has the opportunity to realise their full potential in life, we must ensure that young people with mental health problems get the help and support they need.
 
There are some really good mental health services for young people around the country. But too often these services are fragmented and under-resourced, and young people are simply not getting help when they need it.  A complete overhaul is long overdue.
 
Last year, I set up a Task Force to look at how we can link up mental health services with other advice services in the community, making it easier – and less daunting – for young people to seek help, and making sure they get the right support when they ask for it.
 
The task force brought together clinicians, counsellors, and mental health experts – but also, crucially, young people themselves with experience of mental health problems.  The charity Young Minds helped us work with young people to understand the problems they have faced getting help, and their priorities for change.
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The Voice

Danny turns the tables on Balls on TV economy debates

By The Voice | Thu 19th March 2015 - 11:00 am

On Sunday’s Andrew Marr show, Ed Balls caught the chancellor off guard when he all but forced him (in one of recent television history’s most awkward moments) to shake on an agreement to hold a television debate.

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Robin Teverson

Robin Teverson writes … Doing cold smarter

By Robin Teverson | Thu 19th March 2015 - 9:36 am

 

In the world of politics, energy is all too often around building shiny new power stations – whether gas or nuclear.  Rather more positively it is about renewables – erecting wind or solar farms, and wind arrays off-shore.

Just recently, with Lib Dems in Government and in charge of DECC, we’ve got rather more sophisticated. Nowadays we also think about the demand side of the equation. Why not spread demand more evenly and avoid having to build all that expensive excess capacity?  Or even better, increase energy efficiency to such a degree that we don’t need to generate so much power and heat in the first place.

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Matt Hemsley

Opinion: Welsh Liberal Democrats need to be bolder in considering a coalition without Labour

By Matt Hemsley | Wed 18th March 2015 - 5:21 pm

 

This past week in Wales, political ears pricked up after Stephen Crabb (the Conservative Secretary of State for Wales) gave support to the idea of a Conservative, Plaid Cymru, Liberal Democrat coalition in the Senedd after the May 2016 elections.

The ‘rainbow coalition’ almost happened in 2007 – but has more recently seen to be off the table, so backing (as it were) from such a prominent politician has sparked off some debate.

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NewsHound

Twelve major improvements announced in the budget

By NewsHound | Wed 18th March 2015 - 3:34 pm

There are twelve significant improvements announced in today’s budget:

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Mary Reid

Victory for Lib Dems with announcement of world’s first tidal lagoon

By Mary Reid | Wed 18th March 2015 - 1:21 pm

The Chancellor has just announced that he will be opening formal negotiations which could lead to an investment of £1 billion in a world-first scheme to extract energy from tidal power.

Ed Davey has been working on this project for several years, so it is a great victory for Liberal Democrats in government, on the back of our other achievements on renewable energy. The UK is already the world leader on offshore wind, thanks to the Lib Dems.

The first tidal lagoon will be planned for Swansea Bay, as predicted in the Guardian this morning.

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The Voice

Budget open thread

By The Voice | Wed 18th March 2015 - 12:30 pm

 

We will not be live blogging the Budget as there are plenty of other sources of live information. But readers are very welcome to add their own reflections in the comments section below.

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The Voice

LibLink … Ed Davey: Britain must signal the beginning of the end for coal investment

By The Voice | Wed 18th March 2015 - 12:00 pm

Ed Davey Social Liberal Forum conference Jul 19 2014 Photo by Paul WalterEd Davey writes in the Guardian:

For over 200 years, modern civilisation has been built on fossil fuels; now climate science says we must phase out fossil fuel pollution in just a few decades. That’s a colossal challenge – especially if we are to keep anything resembling current lifestyles while also ending the poverty that blights the lives of more than 1 billion fellow human beings.

We are already seeing a significant shift in thinking. The Rockefeller Foundation is divesting from coal and tar sands. Oxford University is considering similar action. And the Bank of England is analysing the impact on financial systems of fossil fuel investments becoming “stranded assets” – in other words worthless – if the world gets its act together on climate change.

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Paul Walter

Debate likely to be the political Celebrity Squares option

By Paul Walter | Wed 18th March 2015 - 10:40 am

seven candidates

US Republican Presidential nomination primary debate 2012
Don’t hold your breath at this stage, but it looks entirely conceivable that we have possibly got a robust plan for a seven-way leaders debate during the general election campaign. It could well be on April 2nd, although Labour have yet to agree.

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Paul Walter

‘Almost certain that Tim Farron will be leader later this year’ – Stephen Tall

By Paul Walter | Wed 18th March 2015 - 9:15 am

Tim Farron Nick Clegg 2010 Photo by Liberal Democrats Alex Folkes Fishnik photography

With his usual uncanny knack and impeccable insight Stephen Tall is bang on the money over on PoliticsHome:

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The Voice

In praise of Eric Pickles

By The Voice | Tue 17th March 2015 - 6:30 pm

We bet you never thought you’d see that title on Liberal Democrat Voice, eh?

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Paul Walter

Remembering Srebrenica

By Paul Walter | Tue 17th March 2015 - 5:30 pm

When I clicked through the conference agenda last week, my eye was caught by an exhibition stand entitled “Remembering Srebrenica”. When I got to Liverpool, I made a beeline for that stand and went back again the next day.

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Paul Walter

Our Don says farewell to conference with a song

By Paul Walter | Tue 17th March 2015 - 4:30 pm

Don Foster - Some rights reserved by Department for Communities and Local GovernmentWhen I first started going to Lib Dem conferences, we had fewer MPs than we have now. So, those MPs that we had were run ragged charging from fringe meeting to fringe meeting to speech to TV interview, as they were rather thin on the ground. It always seemed to be our Don Foster who was really doing loads of stuff. I did wonder how he kept going.

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Mary Reid

Confessions of an FCC virgin

By Mary Reid | Tue 17th March 2015 - 3:04 pm

 

Liverpool was my first conference as a member of the Federal Conference Committee (FCC), having been elected at the end of last year. The experience confirmed my impression that Liberal Democrats do conference really rather well.

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Paul Walter

Thanks Liverpool!

By Paul Walter | Tue 17th March 2015 - 1:00 pm

image

My photo of the stage at the replica Cavern Club, The Beatles Story, Liverpool.

When we visit a city for a conference, it has a significant positive impact on the local economy of that area. Our arrival is very well flagged up in advance with posters and publicity. Then when we arrive everyone knows we’re there due to the extra security presence and hordes of…..well let’s just say unusual looking people with yellow badges and bundles of papers wandering around.

Much of the time during the conferencee, the representatives are charging around like blue-bottomed flies chasing to the next debate or meeting.

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The Voice

Peers visit 1000 constituencies

By The Voice | Tue 17th March 2015 - 10:36 am

IMG_1603Early Friday morning, as others made their way to Liverpool for Conference, I set off to Hereford, following in the footsteps of a large number of my colleagues in the Lords. Our local candidate Lucy Hurds has been hugely successful in getting our Peers out of the House of Lords and onto the streets of Hereford including John Shipley, Jenny Randerson, Nigel Jones, Sally Hamwee, Shirley Williams and Chris Fox. She’s clearly been effective in getting others out too and it was great to see a good number of Lucy’s campaign team out with us and working hard to reclaim the seat for the Lib Dems.

Dick Newby, our Chief Whip, called for 1,000 visits to be made before the election. After many months of hard campaigning this was our 1,000th.

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The Voice

LDVideo: Dorothy Thornhill for Watford

By The Voice | Tue 17th March 2015 - 8:44 am

Dorothy Thornhill from Think About It Films on Vimeo.

As a resident, a mayor, a teacher and a mum, I’ve been involved with our town for nearly 40 years. You know me – I can’t pull the wool over your eyes, but there’s no quick fix and I’m not a miracle worker, but I can be a strong practical passionate woman for Watford in Parliament.

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