ALDC

By-election update: ALDC report, including sensational Lib Dem victory in Leicestershire

By ALDC | Sat 22nd February 2014 - 10:55 am

ALDC Master Logo (for screen)There were two principal by-elections yesterday, reports the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors (ALDC).

In Birstall Wanlip ward of Charnwood Borough Council, Simon Sansome won a sensational victory for the Liberal Democrats coming from third place. On his second attempt Simon took 15% of the defending Conservative’s vote and achieved a 7% majority. The Labour vote remained stable at 27%.

The local team, pictured, put their victory down to running a campaign focused on local issues. They knocked on 2000 doors and put out 15,000 pieces of …

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Posted in Local government | Tagged and | 29 Comments
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NewsHound

Nick Clegg “vows to veto any Tory Eurosceptic as EU Commissioner”

By NewsHound | Sat 22nd February 2014 - 9:04 am

nick clegg euFrom the Independent:

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will veto any attempt by the Conservatives to appoint a Eurosceptic candidate to become Britain’s next EU Commissioner, The Independent has learnt.

As Prime Minister, David Cameron has to nominate a successor to replace Baroness Ashton, who will step down as Britain’s representative on the European Commission later this year.

But the Liberal Democrat leader has made it clear that many of the candidates favoured by the right wing of the Conservative Party who want to see “one of their own” in Brussels would be unacceptable to him and he would veto them.

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 8 Comments
Joe Otten

On Demonisation

By Joe Otten | Fri 21st February 2014 - 5:55 pm

A fellow councillor recently retweeted in a spirit of irony, something about ‘evil’ public sector workers. After a short exchange it became clear that the issue was the ‘demonisation’ of public sector workers by the government.

Now it almost has the status of received wisdom that Michael Gove hates teachers, Jeremy Hunt hates nurses, Eric Pickles hates local government workers, all Tories hate welfare recipients, that this hatred leads to demonisation, and the Liberal Democrats, while perhaps not directly involved, are quite comfortable with all this.

I was reluctant to get involved, as I disagree often with Michael Gove, and have no …

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Posted in Op-eds | 79 Comments
Patrick McAuley

Opinion: Professionalisation vs Professionals in early years

By Patrick McAuley | Fri 21st February 2014 - 4:03 pm

The Liberal Democrat Education Association Conference 2014 was a thoroughly enjoyable event with friendly people and some fantastic debate. One such debate was the emphasis placed on professionals teaching in early years education.

It is important to note, governance relationships within the modern welfare-state has evolved from its top-down centralised roots to a system of partnerships, networks and stakeholders. Equally, the philosophy of state-interventionism has moved away from the notion that education professionals exist in isolation from other stakeholders such as parents as well as other areas of welfare such as health. Therefore to direct ones faith in …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Tad Jones

Consultation on the link between the Co-op and Labour

By Tad Jones | Fri 21st February 2014 - 1:52 pm

My other half and I are lucky enough to live a couple of minutes walk from a decent sized Co-op store. It’s convenient, has some fairtrade, and we get a few vouchers through being members. The downside is that we seem to be supporting the Labour party when we have no wish to. The Co-op supports Labour candidates to the tune of £800,000 a year apparently. The Conservative MP Jesse Norman claimed that the Co-operative group has in the last ten years “given £6,187,788 to the Co-operative Party, and a further £355,857 to the Labour Party”.

It’s a …

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Posted in News | 18 Comments
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Caroline Pidgeon

Caroline Pidgeon writes… Power to the people – why conference paper has my backing

By Caroline Pidgeon | Fri 21st February 2014 - 11:59 am

Last July I wrote a piece for Lib Dem Voice about devolving powers to London and other large cities. My article was drawing attention to a report published last summer called Raising the Capital (pdf). This report had been produced by the London Finance Commission, an authoritative and wide ranging group of experts from both inside and outside politics, and crucially including experts from Birmingham and Manchester and chaired by the highly respected Professor Travers of the London School of Economics.

The report highlighted that barely seven per cent of all the tax paid by …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 12 Comments
Norman Lamb MP

Norman Lamb writes… Working together for better mental health crisis care

By Norman Lamb MP | Fri 21st February 2014 - 9:47 am

When someone is experiencing a mental health crisis, it essential that they feel able to access the help they need – and quickly. They will probably be in a state of extreme distress and confusion. Without help, people may be at risk of causing harm to themselves and those around them (cases of injury to others are actually very rare). They often end up in police cells – completely inappropriately. They may even commit suicide – and all too often, I hear tragic cases of suicide after someone has repeatedly been unable to access mental …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Another Coalition? 1-in-5 of the public likes the idea, but is divided between Lib-Lab and Lib-Con pact

By Stephen Tall | Fri 21st February 2014 - 7:45 am

Nick Clegg sparked a flurry of Coalition speculation this week, with his (relatively) warm words towards Labour on a BBC Radio 4 documentary this week. Everyone’s had their say – but what does the public think? YouGov has polled them to ask…

The first question asked which option folk would like to see after the next general election…

yougov coalition feb 2014

So a Labour majority government is the preference of most (31%), narrowly ahead of a Tory majority government (29%). A coalition government involving the Lib Dems would be favoured by …

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Posted in Polls | Tagged and | 20 Comments
George Potter

Opinion: A real answer to the ‘English Question’

By George Potter | Thu 20th February 2014 - 5:30 pm

One of the more interesting policy papers to be debated at Liberal Democrat Spring Conference in York is ‘Power to the People’ which sets out with the aim of providing a blueprint for a federal UK. In almost all areas it is a brilliant paper which offers a clear, radical, liberal vision of the future of our country.

However, there is one flaw in this paper. And that is the embarrassing fudge which it offers when it comes to English Devolution.

It proposes that England use Single Transferable Vote proportional representation for local elections – so far so good – but then …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 42 Comments
Nick T

Yes, food poverty is real – but the situation is complex and solutions are not straightforward

By Nick T | Thu 20th February 2014 - 2:30 pm

Food poverty, it seems to me, is a slightly odd term, but its apparent necessity is, I think, a reflection of the tortuous treatment imposed on the word “poverty”. Poverty now, in common usage (at least among experts in such issues), means “relative poverty”, which essentially means inequality. So when we actually want to refer to poverty as the word would historically have been understood (as being unable to satisfy one’s basic needs) we have to apply a prefix: fuel poverty, food poverty etc.

While Britain clearly has its share of poverty on the relative definition, in theory there ought to be no such thing as food poverty. A generously funded social security system should mean that anyone in danger of being in such a situation (whether in work or not) ought to be caught by the state’s safety net.

I think most can agree, though, that this theoretical scenario is not always the case in practice.

Unfortunately, however, I don’t think the agreement goes any further, particularly when we look at levels of food poverty and its causes.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 97 Comments
Stephen Tall

Clegg v Farage: why Nick needs Nigel

By Stephen Tall | Thu 20th February 2014 - 1:45 pm

Some smart stuff from Nick Clegg this morning, issuing a direct challenge to Ukip’s Nigel Farage to debate him on Europe.

For starters, it seizes the initiative. Nick’s been ambushed often enough on his radio phone-in show, Call Clegg, with the producers lining up disgusted ex-Lib Dem members, and folk like Boris Johnson and Cathy Newman, to spring awkward questions on him. Today he turned the tables. The speed with which emails from the party pinged into my inbox – complete with petition to sign – show this was a planned surprise.

It’s succeeded in catching Nigel Farage off-guard. The Ukip leader wants to think through the pros and cons. If he agrees to Nick’s challenge, will it weaken his case for appearing in 2015’s televised leaders’ debates? Should he demand a four-way debate – even though he must know that’s a non-starter and it might look like he’s unwilling to take up the gauntlet thrown down by Nick? They’re fair enough questions to want to think through. But in today’s insta-response news climate, Nige’s lack of immediate enthusiasm will dent his carefully cultivated image of un-spun, devil-may-care, shoot-from-the-hip, take-on-all-comers man-of-the-people.

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 40 Comments
Julian Huppert

Julian Huppert MP writes: Lib Dem immigration policy paper is strong, balanced and compassionate

By Julian Huppert | Thu 20th February 2014 - 12:40 pm

Public concern about immigration has been fuelled by the rise of UKIP, and further driven by the Tories desperately trying to show how tough they can be on foreigners, and Labour keen not to be left out of the ‘sounding tough’ rhetoric. I am always disappointed that just about the only thing Labour has apologised for is letting too many people into the country in their 13 years.

We must stand firm against the anti-foreigner tide, and the Immigration Policy Paper, which you can read here, does exactly that. Andrew Stunell has led the working group impressively to produce a …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 14 Comments
Kelly-Marie Blundell

Opinion: Food poverty is real and we need to address it

By Kelly-Marie Blundell | Thu 20th February 2014 - 11:15 am

There is some merit in the argument presented by the Archbishop of Westminster that cuts, and indeed caps, to welfare are removing a safety net for those worst off in society.

We see in the Independent that one in six GPs have been asked to refer people to food banks, and while unemployment may be dropping, people are still struggling with stagnant wages and rising costs.

I’ve long argued against the benefits cap, stating that the cost of living varies so broadly across the country that such a cap can only lead to people in so-called affluent areas being disadvantaged. …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 20 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Nick Clegg challenges Nigel Farage to debate on EU membership

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 20th February 2014 - 9:57 am

Nick Clegg LBC laughingOn his weekly Call Clegg phone in programme, Nick Clegg challenged Nigel Farage to a public, open debate on whether Britain should stay in the EU. He said it was time for the leaders of the two parties advocating out and in to discuss the issues. He was clear that membership of the EU protected 3 million British jobs, kept us safer and enabled us to protect the environment.

I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I will challenge Nigel Farage to a public, open debate about whether we should

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 26 Comments
The Voice

“Labour is going for a coalition with the Lib Dems come what may.”

By The Voice | Wed 19th February 2014 - 8:40 pm

That’s the view over at Labour Uncut, where editor Atul Hatwal reckons Labour is scaling back its key seat targeting strategy to an extent which means that – even if it works – Ed Miliband will only be able to govern with the backing of the Lib Dems.

… it is the scale of reprioritisation which effectively means Labour has abandoned thoughts of governing alone and is now aiming for coalition with Lib Dems.

Labour’s struggle in the south in particular is crippling the party’s ability to push for a clear majority. … One seasoned campaign professional with knowledge of

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 28 Comments
Graham Watson

Graham Watson MEP writes: The time has come for the EU to take decisive action over Ukraine

By Graham Watson | Wed 19th February 2014 - 6:24 pm

The past twenty four hours has seen the situation in Ukraine escalate from serious to critical. We are only now seeing the true extent of the clashes between police and anti-government protestors, with the number of fatalities standing at 26 but set to rise as the violence continues. What is clear is that last night’s attack on protestors by the police was at the direct order of the Ukrainian government. While the government claimed it was simply aiming to restore law and order, the underlying motive was for President Yanukovych to reassert his legitimacy. As far as I am concerned, …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Tagged , and | 24 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Danny Alexander speaks out about use of police horses in Inverness

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 19th February 2014 - 2:28 pm

As a native of the peaceable Highland capital, I was quite shocked to see the words “police horses” and “Inverness” in the same sentence. Why on earth would there be any need to employ such an expensive resource, normally associated with serious trouble? It’s not as if they were even taken from a stable down the road. The animals were transported 200 miles from Ayrshire for a pre-Christmas show of police strength. They were even used to police the Inverness Caledonian Thistle game on the Saturday afternoon. I cannot imagine, as someone who goes to Caley games when I …

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 14 Comments
Newsmoggie

Lorely Burt: Liberal Democrats offer best of both worlds

By Newsmoggie | Wed 19th February 2014 - 12:58 pm

Lorely Burt has given an interview to the Huffington Post. The lengthy report is dominated with discussion of the Liberal Democrats’ attitude towards women in the wake of her defeat by Malcolm Bruce in the Deputy Leadership election. She said that the party was desperately trying toe how that it was welcoming to women:

At the last general election we had women in 40% of our most winnable seats,” Burt explains. “We just didn’t win them.” Which is a bit of a problem. “At the next election there are eight Lib Dems who are standing down, of those six selections have

…

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 3 Comments
Mark Jewell

Opinion: Don’t close spare room subsidy loophole – just yet

By Mark Jewell | Wed 19th February 2014 - 11:18 am

In January, it was revealed that there was a loophole in the Government’s welfare reforms. The loophole relates to those people claiming Housing Benefit whilst in the same property for at least the past 17 years.

The government have indicated they will reverse this loophole as soon as possible. Reports suggest legislation will be brought forward in March.

I would call on the government to hold on closing this loophole until the independent review, ordered by Nick Clegg, has reported back on the implications of the spare bedroom subsidy.

I base this on my own experiences. Although I lost my seat in May

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 5 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Times reports Lib Dem “infighting” but misses out David Laws’ dismissal of their “highly misleading” story

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 19th February 2014 - 9:52 am

Yesterday, the Times reported that the Liberal Democrat leadership were preparing to ditch policies from our manifesto which wouldn’t get agreement from either the Conservative or Labour parties. I wrote of the dangers of such a move, arguing that our manifesto needed to be brimming with liberalism.

David Laws, who chairs the manifesto group, wrote on the party website that the Times story was highly misleading.

The latest example of this is the highly misleading article on the front page of today’s Times (18 February) under the headlines ‘Lib Dems Axe pledges for coalition deal’ and ‘Lib Dems seeking policies to

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 24 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Two things about the independence referendum that haven’t made me want to punch a pillow or hide under the duvet

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 19th February 2014 - 8:56 am

It’s not been a great week in the Scottish independence referendum. The Codswallop Quotient has gone through the roof since word got out last Tuesday night about George Osborne’s plan to rule out a currency union with an independent Scotland.  If the CQ has a similar effect on the human body as the pollen count, there will be lots of people sneezing across the country this week.

It was a huge gamble on Osborne’s part and it will be a while before we know whether it’s paid off. I’m still not getting any sense that it’s doing any more than reinforce …

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 29 Comments
Caron Lindsay

David Laws on Times manifesto article: “Nothing could be further from the truth”

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 18th February 2014 - 5:32 pm

I wrote this morning about an article in the Times which suggested that our manifesto would ditch policies that both the Conservatives and Labour disagreed with.

Manifesto Working Group Chair David Laws has responded to the Times article with an unequivocal posting on the party’s new website.

He says:

Nothing could be further from the truth.

As Chair of the Manifesto Group, I see it as our role to set out a clear Liberal Democrat vision of where we would like to take Britain in the next Parliament – this is why our Manifesto themes paper at the Glasgow conference has a chapter

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 15 Comments
ALDC

ALDC’s by-election report 13 February 2014

By ALDC | Tue 18th February 2014 - 1:16 pm

ALDC Master Logo (for screen)Last week saw two principal by-elections. In Kingstanding, Birmingham MBC the Conservatives won a shock 138 majority over Labour in what is traditionally a safe Labour ward (the Conservatives last won it in the 1960s). The Tory candidate was elected on his fifth attempt after a heavily localised campaign concentrating on issues affecting individual streets, reminiscent of how the Liberal Democrats have campaigned over the years. The other parties failed to make an impact. UKIP came third on 7.9%, the Liberal Democrats fourth and National Front last. In Richmondshire an Independent candidate retained Reeth and Arkengarthdale ward with a 190 majority over the Tory candidate the only candidates in the by-election.

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 4 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Nobody else will speak up for liberalism, so our manifesto has to be brimming with it

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 18th February 2014 - 11:45 am

lib dem manifesto tax cutI find myself bemused by this report from today’s Times (£) which suggests that Liberal Democrats would steer clear of any policies that both the Conservatives or Labour disagreed with in our manifesto for next year’s General Election.

The article reports a conversation with a Liberal Democrat source:

He conceded that the party was not going to win a majority at the next general election, but said it was vital that it left open the opportunity of working with either of the other two parties. “We need to

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 37 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Danny Alexander on porn, always wearing the same tie, Scottish independence and Lib Dem achievements in Government

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 18th February 2014 - 10:18 am

photoDanny Alexander was in relaxed form on last night’s The Agenda programme on ITV. Host Tom Bradby had a bit of a gentle go at him for always wearing the same tie, showing numerous photographs to back up the claim. It was the very tie that Danny had on. He was able to completely disarm Bradby by saying that his 6 year old daughter chose it so he likes to wear it a lot.

By far the funniest moment was the look on his face, pictured above, when fellow panellist Germaine Greer …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , , and | 4 Comments
The Voice

Nick Clegg: “Don’t put mentally ill kids in cell”

By The Voice | Tue 18th February 2014 - 8:52 am

One of the many horrible injustices faced by people in the throes of a mental health crisis is that, rather than get the medical help they need, they’re locked up in a police cell.

Norman Lamb and Nick Clegg have been doing something to ensure that these people have better care. A new Crisis Care Concordat between Police, paramedics and health services should deliver important changes:

  • Health-based places of safety and beds are available 24/7 in case someone experiences a mental health crisis
  • Police custody should not be used because mental health services are not available and police vehicles should also not be

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 12 Comments
Issan Ghazni

Opinion: Britain should offer more support to pro-democracy protesters in Ukraine

By Issan Ghazni | Mon 17th February 2014 - 3:49 pm

Liberals have common cause with pro-democracy protestors in Ukraine

While UKIP and the Tory Right want to take Britain out of Europe other nations are clamouring to join the EU, not least in the Ukraine where pro-EU protests have been taking place for several months now. They want to be ‘in’ for the same reason as the Liberal Democrats, to boost jobs and investment. Europe is not a threat to national sovereignty but a guarantor of democratic and economic stability across the continent.

 As Ukraine protesters are seeking to free their country from Kremlin interference so too the collective influence of European nations

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 29 Comments
Matt Gallagher

Opinion: I don’t know what you stand for

By Matt Gallagher | Mon 17th February 2014 - 1:53 pm

Canvassing in the Wythenshawe and Sale East by-election I encountered a number of voters who asked the question; “Lib Dems, I don’t know what they stand for.”

It would be easy, and wrong, to dismiss such a questioner as uninformed or typical of the tribal element in every constituency who have no real interest in your answer.

As the date of the next General Election nears, the answer to this question will be critical to Liberal Democrat prospects.

The compromises of coalition have muddied the waters, and the Liberal Democrats stand to come off worst. In the northern cities, the supporters we won …

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Posted in Op-eds | 35 Comments
Joe Otten

Coalition with Labour on, if they don’t “break the bank”

By Joe Otten | Mon 17th February 2014 - 12:03 pm

Tonight’s radio programme Nick Clegg: The Liberal who came to power has hit the news-stands for this apparent top line demand of any future coalition with Labour:

There is just no doubt in my mind that if there were a Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition, we the Liberal Democrats would absolutely insist that government would not break the bank.

More details can be found in the Mirror, Guardian and BBC, and other sources of news are available.

Let’s contrast the following comments by Nick on the Labour Party

I think they’ve changed. I think there’s nothing like the prospect

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 44 Comments
Alex Smethurst

Opinion: 2016 is the year Bristol should adopt STV

By Alex Smethurst | Mon 17th February 2014 - 10:20 am

Understanding the cycle of elections for local authorities can be a complicated process for the elector. Last year, a vote at Full Council resolved that Bristol City Council would change its cycle from ‘elections by thirds’ to whole council elections or ‘all ups’, to commence in 2016. This is a unique opportunity for Bristol to prove it’s not afraid for bold change and to introduce the Single Transferable Vote (STV) electoral system for elections to the council.

Turnout in local authority elections in England has always been lower than for Westminster elections. By introducing proportional representation in the form of STV, …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 10 Comments
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