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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Paul Head

Opinion: Time to deliver on safe standing

By Paul Head | Mon 17th February 2014 - 8:43 am

Saudi football supporterAt Autumn Conference in 2008, the Liberal Democrats passed a motion backing proposals to change the regulations that prevent football stadiums in the Championship and Premier League from providing ‘safe-standing’ areas. The motion called for the Government to:

Replace any regulations requiring spectators to be seated with new regulations clearly setting out standards under which a safe standing area may be licensed.

And

Direct the Football Licensing Authority to prepare suitable guidance under which domestic football clubs, working with their supporters, may introduce safe standing areas.

Fast forward to 2014 and those regulations, …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 3 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #365

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 16th February 2014 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 365th 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 (9-15 February, 2014), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, 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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Posted in Best of the blogs | 1 Comment
Caron Lindsay

Another wheel comes off the SNP’s independence bandwagon as EU Commission President says Scotland would find it difficult to join EU

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 16th February 2014 - 6:13 pm

It has not been a good week for Scottish independence campaigners and particularly the SNP. Their primary objective in their quest has been to achieve a break up of the UK without scaring any horses. We’d hardly notice, they said. Everything would go on pretty much as before. We’d still have the Queen and the pound and, of course, an independent Scotland would be admitted to the EU automatically on the same terms as the UK currently enjoys.

This week George Osborne, backed by Danny Alexander and Ed Balls, ruled out the SNP’s preferred option of a currency union. Alex …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , and | 25 Comments
The Voice

What’s being debated in our members’ forum this week?

By The Voice | Sun 16th February 2014 - 2:45 pm

LibDemVoice has two parallel sites. The first is our public blog, the thing you’re reading now. The second is our private members’ forum, which only current Lib Dem members can access.

If you’re a member and want to chat with fellow party members about any issue that’s on your mind, then why not sign up? In addition, you’ll be included in our regular surveys’ of party members’ views.

Here’s some of the most active discussions this past 10 days:

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The Voice

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

By The Voice | Sun 16th February 2014 - 1:25 pm

Many thanks to the  15,300 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

Wythenshawe and Sale East by-election: Labour win easily, UKIP beat Tories into second, Lib Dems lose deposit (100 comments) by Stephen Tall

Must-read analysis from Peter Kellner on where the 5 million missing 2010 Lib Dem voters have gone  (39 comments) by Stephen Tall

Statement by Lord Rennard (29 comments) by The Voice

Legal action to be launched by Lord Rennard unless membership suspension lifted (34 comments) by The Voice

Men, is your behaviour driving women out of politics? (56 comments) by Caron Lindsay

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Stephen Tall

Après Nick: which Lib Dem MPs are best-placed to become the next Lib Dem leader?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 16th February 2014 - 12:00 pm

Today’s Independent has an interesting story speculating on the Lib Dem leadership contest to come if the 2015 election result triggers Nick Clegg’s resignation. It’s one of the features of this parliament – perhaps linked to it being a fixed-term in which we know the dates are all known – that there hasn’t been nearly as much gossip about future leadership bids in any of the three main parties.

Anyway, the Indy story seeks to make up a little for that absence: Nick Clegg’s rivals for the Lib Dems leadership told to rev up. The premise of the article …

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NewsHound

LibLink: David Heath: Electorate has casting vote on number of female MPs

By NewsHound | Sun 16th February 2014 - 10:35 am

Just two weeks after the excellent Sarah Yong was selected to fight his Somerton and Frome constituency next year, retiring MP David Heath has been writing in the Frome Standard about the need for more women in Parliament.

He will be slightly red-faced to have under-estimated even our lowly number of women in the MPs, saying we have five, rather than seven, but that doesn’t undermine the premise of his piece.

But I think there is still an issue for all political parties in ensuring that parliament better reflects the make-up of the country at large. Instead, there is a huge

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged , , and | 2 Comments
Erin Marie Saltman

The Independent View: Censorship is not the way forward in countering online extremism

By Erin Marie Saltman | Sun 16th February 2014 - 9:00 am

Earlier this month, the Government reiterated its intent to censor online extremist content through ISP filtering systems. This has largely been in reaction to fears over radical jihadi videos coming from Syria and has been heightened due to recent estimates of 2,000 European fighters travelling to Syria. There is particular concern over the influence foreign fighters may have on the young and impressionable upon their return to their countries of origin.

Though well-intentioned, government-controlled filtering is problematic for a number of reasons.

Firstly, it raises big questions about what can be deemed ‘extremist’ in theory. Secondly, current filtering technology …

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Posted in The Independent View | Tagged , and | 1 Comment
The Voice

A longer read for the weekend: Nick Harvey on how “the whole model of local Government funding is now fundamentally broken”

By The Voice | Sat 15th February 2014 - 2:30 pm

There was a mini-Lib Dem rebellion this week, when five MPs – Tim Farron, Nick Harvey, Andrew George, Stephen Gilbert and Adrian Sanders – all voted against this year’s funding settlement between the Treasury and local government.

As the New Statesman’s George Eaton points out here, “By the end of 2015-16, the budget of the Department for Communities and Local Government will have been reduced by a remarkable 60.6 per cent, with several years of austerity still ahead.” But Whitehall will have been emboldened by this recent ICM poll highlighted by the BBC showing 60% of the public …

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Posted in Local government and Parliament | Tagged , , , and | 9 Comments
NewsHound

The tale of Nick Clegg and the naked Legends of Somerset

By NewsHound | Sat 15th February 2014 - 12:15 pm

Legends of SomersetFrom the Wells Journal:

WELLS MP Tessa Munt has shared naked men with leading Liberal Democrats in Parliament – in the form of naked calendar Legends of Somerset.

Her party leader, Nick Clegg, and fellow MPs David Heath of Somerton and Frome, Don Foster of Bath, Simon Hughes of Bermondsey and Old Southwark, David Laws of Yeovil and Jeremy Browne of Taunton, all agreed to have their photo taken with the hit charity calendar.

The calendar is being sold here to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Here’s how it got …

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The Voice

Lib Dem MP Stephen Gilbert diagnosed with Bell’s palsy

By The Voice | Sat 15th February 2014 - 10:45 am

steve gilbertOur sympathies and best wishes to Stephen Gilbert, Lib Dem MP for St Austell and Newquay, who put out the following statement on his website this week:

Stephen Gilbert, the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for St Austell & Newquay has been diagnosed with “Bell’s Palsy”; a viral infection of the facial nerve that has led to temporary paralysis of the muscles in the right-hand side of his face.

Stephen was diagnosed on Wednesday 5th February 2014 at the Accident & Emergency department of St Thomas’ Hospital in London, following the

…

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Caron Lindsay

Men, is your behaviour driving women out of politics?

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 15th February 2014 - 9:20 am

Imagine you are in a meeting trying to make your case. How would you feel if, every time you opened your mouth to speak, somebody interrupted you before you had got to the end of your first sentence? Not just once. Every. Single.Time.

Imagine you are in a meeting, trying to make your case, but the decision has clearly been made by a small cabal of powerful men who have reached their own understanding over dinner and some booze the night before, at an event that you were not invited to.

Imagine you are in a meeting trying to do your job …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 93 Comments
Stephen Tall

How should PMQs be reformed?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 15th February 2014 - 8:00 am

Hansard-SocietyPrime Minister’s Questions, the half-hour weekly pantomime that transfixes Westminster and the SW1 media, got a deserved pasting from the Hansard Society this week which released a report, Tuned in or Turned off? Public attitudes to PMQs.

The results couldn’t be clearer. PMQs is a significant ‘cue’ or ‘building block’ for the public’s perceptions of Parliament, and it provides a lot of the raw material that feeds their negative assumptions about politicians.

The public like the ‘theory’ of PMQs but dislike the current practice of it. They recognise that the opportunity

…

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The Voice

Lib Dem donor arrested as part of Serious Fraud Office investigation

By The Voice | Fri 14th February 2014 - 7:15 pm

The Financial Times reports:

A prominent Indian backer of the UK Liberal Democrat party and his son were the two suspects arrested earlier this week in connection with an investigation into allegations of bribery by Rolls-Royce. Sudhir Choudhrie and his son Bhanu were arrested on Wednesday as part of the Serious Fraud Office’s investigation into alleged bribery in Indonesia and China by the engine and turbine maker. …

A spokesman for the Choudhries confirmed that the pair had been arrested. The pair deny all wrongdoing and are co-operating fully with the investigation, he said. They were granted bail without conditions

…

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Caron Lindsay

Bluff, bluster and bullying, says Salmond. Pot, kettle and black come to mind

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 14th February 2014 - 3:38 pm

That the SNP would dismiss yesterday’s announcement on currency by George Osborne should not come as a surprise to any of us.

Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon have taken to the airwaves to complain of “bluff, bluster and bullying” by those nasty big boys from Westminster. It’s actually quite brazen to sit there and say, having been told a very firm “no” that the answer was really yes. But their aim was to whip up fury amongst their own supporters, to incite an emotional reaction in those who don’t like English Tories telling things like they are.

That was always going to …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , and | 30 Comments
Stephen Tall

Official: Lib Dem voters least bothered about penis size

By Stephen Tall | Fri 14th February 2014 - 2:15 pm

Kudos to YouGov for coming up with the most outrageously crow-barred poll finding to mark Valentine’s Day – that Lib Dem voters are least likely to think that penis size matters.

yougov poll - 14 feb 2014

The findings are not surprising. After all, we’ve always wanted proportional representation. We’ve always been wary of sudden swings to the left or right. And throughout the Coalition, Lib Dems have argued it’s not the size of our parliamentary party that matters, but what we do with our honourable members. We must now gird our …

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Posted in Polls | Tagged | 13 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Farron: “No excuse for David Cameron to block recall of MPs but he has done”

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 14th February 2014 - 1:21 pm

The Guardian reports that the proposal to recall MPs who have committed serious wrongdoing has been blocked by David Cameron against the wishes of Nick Clegg.

A Lib Dem source said news that the legislation had been dropped was broken to the party’s MPs at a meeting on Tuesday. “Tom Brake, the deputy leader of the house, stood up and told MPs it was off the agenda. It seems that the Tories have argued that there is too much to deal with and something had to give. But it didn’t wash: they are pandering to their backbenchers,” he said.

Under the plans,

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 21 Comments
Newsmoggie

LibLink: Stephen Tall: It’s 8 May 2015, Cameron’s won a majority and here’s some advice from his Chief Whip

By Newsmoggie | Fri 14th February 2014 - 11:52 am

Our Stephen Tall has been turning his hand to fiction in his regular column for Conservative Home.  As he says on his own site:

It’s a piece of fiction, not least because it imagines a scenario in which the Tories have won an outright majority. That starting point appeared to confuse ConHome’s Ukip-infused readers, who didn’t know whether to laugh or cry in the comments.

You do actually have to read the whole thing to see all the well-crafted little digs in there, and you can do so here.

Here are some of the highlights:

The first piece of advice – keep …

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged , and | 8 Comments
NewsHound

Danny Alexander’s photograph used in US scam

By NewsHound | Fri 14th February 2014 - 10:21 am

Danny Alexander’s photograph has been used by a con-man as a device to extract money from an American woman.  From the Independent:

Francis Rains received a phone call last September telling her she had won $2.5m and a Mercedes-Benz.  A man called her a couple of days later, apparently from a Jamaican number, saying she needed to send money to pay off the tax on her prizes.

In order to convince her to send the money, he sent her a picture of ‘himself’. The picture he sent was a smiling picture of Chief secretary to the Treasury,Danny Alexander.

Two other people,

…

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Stephen Tall

Wythenshawe and Sale East by-election: Labour win easily, Ukip beat Tories to 2nd, Lib Dems lose deposit

By Stephen Tall | Fri 14th February 2014 - 9:10 am

Labour comfortably won yesterday’s Wythenshawe and Sale East by-election, caused by the sad death of Paul Goggins just five weeks ago. Here are the results:

    Labour: Mike Kane – 13,261 (55%, +11%)
    UKIP: John Bickley – 4,301 (18%, +15%)
    Conservative: Daniel Critchlow – 3,479 (15%, -11%)
    Liberal Democrat: Mary di Mauro – 1,176 (5%, -17%)
    Green: Nigel Woodcock – 748 (3%, +3%)
    BNP: Eddy O’Sullivan – 708 (3%, -1%)
    Monster Raving Loony: Captain Chaplington-Smythe – 288 (1%)
    Turnout: 23,961, 28%

It’s clear there were two winners from the election – though the very low-turn-out (barely one-quarter of the registered electorate bothered to vote in what was a foregone conclusion by-election) …

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Posted in News and Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged and | 128 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Edward McMillan-Scott MEP: Tories are playing into Putin’s hands in high stakes game

By NewsHound | Thu 13th February 2014 - 7:00 pm

Edward McMillan ScottYorkshire and the Humber MEP Edward McMillan-Scott has a longstanding interest in human rights. He’s travelled all over the world to make the case to governments who don’t respect their citizens’ freedoms. He’s understandably not wildly chuffed about the Winter Olympics taking place in Sochi and how this might fuel Putin’s ambitions. He explained why in the Yorkshire Post.

Putin has international ambitions for Russia: this is the new Great Game, the 19th century strategic rivalry and conflict between the British Empire and the Russian Empire for supremacy in Eurasia.

…

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Nick T

Ed Davey’s speech to the IPPR on climate change

By Nick T | Thu 13th February 2014 - 4:41 pm

Here’s how the Guardian previewed Ed Davey’s speech this afternoon to the Institute for Public Policy Research:

Britain’s climate change policy is under threat from a “diabolical cocktail” of nimbyism, denial of science and fear of Europe from politicians on the right, the energy secretary will say on Thursday.

Amid growing warnings about a potential link between global warming and extreme UK weather, Ed Davey will raise concerns that the politicial consensus about the need to tackle climate change is in danger of breaking down as some in the Conservative and Ukip parties try to discredit the science.

He will say that the actions of climate deniers are “undermining public trust in the scientific evidence for climate change” and that “we can see around us today the possible consequences of a world in which extreme weather events are much more likely”.

In his speech at the IPPR thinktank on Thursday, Davey will criticise those who seize on “any anomaly in the climate data to attempt to discredit the whole”.

Taking aim at “climate change denying Conservatism”, which he calls wilfully ignorant, he warns that it could create a diabolical cocktail that threatens the whole long-term structure of UK climate change and energy policy.

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NewsHound

Calder Valley PPC backs regional assembly for Yorkshire

By NewsHound | Thu 13th February 2014 - 3:16 pm

Yorkshire radio station The Pulse reports:

Yorkshire should be given a regional assembly like Scotland and Wales, according to a group of Calderdale councillors.

The idea is being discussed at the Liberal Democrat conference next month and would see decisions on things like Education, Health and Agriculture made away from Westminster.

Yorkshire, which has roughly the same population as Scotland, would be offered the chance to take control of such powers instead of having them controlled from London.

The proposal will be debated at the Liberal Democrat spring conference, which will take place in York on the 7th-9th of March.

LibDem PPC for Calder Valley,

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 41 Comments
Toby Fenwick

Opinion: Use devo-max to put the positive case for the Union

By Toby Fenwick | Thu 13th February 2014 - 1:53 pm

I have no doubt that should Scotland’s voters decide to plump for independence on 18 September, Scotland would become a functional nation state. For unionists to claim that Scotland isn’t capable of governing itself, or that it would immediately become a celtic version of Greece is insulting, inaccurate and unlikely to marshal any votes into the No column. Though I believe we are better together, unionists need to make a positive case in addition to exposing the SNP’s wilful distortions and wishful thinking.

That is why I welcome the clarity from the Chancellor (pdf), Ed Balls and our own Danny …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 20 Comments
The Voice

Danny Alexander: currency union would create unacceptable risks for Scotland and the UK

By The Voice | Thu 13th February 2014 - 11:29 am

Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury, Danny Alexander, released the following statement commenting on the Treasury’s analysis of a proposed currency union were Scotland to vote for independence:

Today the Treasury has published further analysis of the SNP’s proposed currency union in the event of Scotland voting for separation.

This analysis is crystal clear – a currency union would create unacceptable risks both for Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom.

For Scotland separation would already be the riskiest and most uncertain step our country has ever taken. To take that step and then give up control over interest rates, exchange

…

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The Voice

Statement by Lord Rennard

By The Voice | Thu 13th February 2014 - 10:59 am

A spokesman for Lord Rennard has just released the following statement to the media:

There will be no court action if the party simply follows its own rules, or if there is a realistic prospect of mediation succeeding. In the meantime, Lord Rennard is still waiting to see the report of Alistair Webster’s investigation, as was promised to him. He was, however, informed by Alistair Webster personally that the report’s only decision was that there should be no further action, as there was insufficient evidence to hold a disciplinary hearing.  Any lawful party action and any mediation will have to reflect this.

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Posted in News | Tagged | 30 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Christine Jardine – From the fourth estate to Westminster

By NewsHound | Thu 13th February 2014 - 9:58 am

Christine Jardine, who was recently selected as PPC for Gordon, has been interviewed by the Deeside Piper – the newspaper she used to edit – about her selection and her journey from journalist to politician.

Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

DEESIDE PIPER: What do you hope to achieve if voted for by the people of Gordon?

CHRISTINE JARDINE: Over the last 30 years, Malcolm has been a strong voice for the people of Gordon and that is what I would want to be as well. For both the urban and rural communities. I believe rural communities need a strong voice particularly at the moment. The most important thing is listening to what is important to the people of Gordon and, if you like, what I aim to achieve if I am elected after 2015 will be dictated by what they want me to achieve

If I was the MP at the end of five years, I would hope that I’d continue Malcolm’s work and had worked hard for the oil industry-won investment for the North-east, particularly in infrastructure and being a strong voice in getting our road and transport network improved. What would be important to me as an MP would be making sure that I work for the people and what they want to happen. I would hate to think after however many years that people felt “We voted for her but what has she done for us.”

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Stephen Tall

Memo to both Left and Right: Income Tax isn’t the only tax that matters

By Stephen Tall | Thu 13th February 2014 - 7:45 am

There was some leftie love showered on this ConservativeHome article by Peter Franklin this week: Right-wingers should stop boasting about how much income tax the rich pay. His point was absolutely right, as he laid into the supposedly slam-dunk argument glibly tossed around by unthinking capitalist Tories like Boris:

The richest one per cent of Britons contribute 30 per cent of all the Income Tax collected in this country. This, supposedly, is a ‘killer fact’ – deployed with devastating complacency by the free-market right: Rising inequality? No need to worry about that! The rich are kindly paying your taxes for

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 27 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Ruling out currency union: Locking the horse inside the stable?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 12th February 2014 - 6:48 pm

MoneyThe currency in an independent Scotland has been the subject of much frenetic debate in recent months. The Scottish Government’s White Paper on independence is clear that their preferred option is to continue to use sterling within a monetary union with what would remain of the UK:

The Commission’s analysis shows that it will not only be in Scotland’s interests to retain Sterling but that – post independence – this will also benefit the rest of the UK.

Under such an arrangement, monetary policy will be set according to economic conditions across

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 33 Comments
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