The Voice

Internal investigation into Lord (Chris) Rennard: new statement issued by Alistair Webster QC

By The Voice | Sun 19th January 2014 - 10:30 am

On Wednesday, Alistair Webster, the QC appointed by the party to examine the evidence in the disciplinary case being considered against Lord (Chris) Rennard, released this statement explaining his investigation.

A further statement has just been released today:

“In view of the extensive comment which has followed my statement, and in view of some of the statements made by those directly concerned, I wish to make the following quite clear:

“1. My report to the RPC has not been provided to any other party for one reason only: the Committee had unequivocal advice from independent solicitors that to publish it without

…

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Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged and | 37 Comments
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Caron Lindsay

LibLink: Tim Farron’s Winning here blog

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 19th January 2014 - 10:06 am

Party President Tim Farron has taken to writing a monthly blog on the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors and Campaigners’ website. It’s for ALDC members only, but if you have even the slightest link to any election campaign this May, I’d strongly recommend that you join them. People who do what they say have more chance of winning. They have so many good campaigning resources that they really are invaluable.

Back to Tim’s blog. He talks about why councillors and community campaigners are so important:

You have the track record of action, the record of success and the community knowledge to

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged , and | 3 Comments
The Voice

New Statement from Liberal Democrat Women

By The Voice | Sat 18th January 2014 - 9:20 pm

LDW believe the entire process from the word go has been mishandled. As a result we have been left with an unsatisfactory position which has not been fair to anyone involved.

We, have been talking to Senior Members of the Party about how LDW can contribute to resolving this distressing situation. Our involvement has been welcomed and we have been working behind the scenes to help in anyway we can. We are speaking to the Leader’s Office to arrange a meeting with Nick Clegg as soon as possible.

LDW is aware that the women who made the allegations against Lord Rennard have …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 26 Comments
Stephen Tall

“The EU has provided us with the best Europe we’ve ever had”

By Stephen Tall | Sat 18th January 2014 - 4:55 pm

That was the claim in this very interesting essay by Robert Cooper – a visiting professor at the London School of Economic and a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations – in last week’s New Statesman. In it, he mounts a staunch defence of parliamentary democracy as the best way of deciding such matters rather than referendums:

The sovereignty of parliament is a good principle because it allows maximum space for political decision-making and maximum opportunity for debate on issues that are always complex.

It was his three reasons for continuing to support British membership of the EU which …

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Posted in Europe / International | Tagged , , and | 14 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dem membership increase confirmed: “Across the country, 75% of our local parties grew in 2013”

By Stephen Tall | Sat 18th January 2014 - 2:55 pm

We reported here three weeks ago that the Lib Dems finished 2013 with a more members than at the start of the year – “the first governing party in recent history to have increased membership while in power,” as the party put it.

At the time, final figures weren’t known as local parties had still to report their numbers to party HQ – so it’s worth noting this snippet from Lib Dem chief executive Tim Gordon in his latest weekly email:

Congratulations to those local parties that have increased their membership. Parties have been notified this week of the incentives

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Stephen Tall

Want to see a photo of a Young David Laws?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 18th January 2014 - 1:15 pm

Young David Laws – no, not a new telly detective, but a picture of Lib Dem schools minister David Laws aged about 19. Hint: he’s the chap on the left… a phrase not normally associated with David.

(Hat-tip to Jezz Palmer for spotting.)

young david laws

Anyone got other photos of Lib Dem MPs before they were famous?

Posted in News | Tagged and | 17 Comments
Daisy Benson

Opinion: Time to concentrate on making our party fairer

By Daisy Benson | Sat 18th January 2014 - 11:00 am

Bad things happen in political parties just as they do elsewhere – the important thing is to learn from your mistakes and make every effort not to repeat them.

Recently, serious events forced us as a party to hold up a mirror to ourselves and in a number of areas we were found wanting.

As Helena Morrissey author of Processes and culture within the Liberal Democrats and recommendations for change herself said

Liberal Democrats recognise that the allegations alone and the circumstances surrounding them mean that the Party failed to live up to its own ideology.

Our ideology aka our values …

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Posted in Op-eds | 24 Comments
Karen Wilkinson

Opinion: Campaign against school attendance policy update

By Karen Wilkinson | Sat 18th January 2014 - 9:30 am

With the fining of Stewart & Natasha Sutherland this week, an update on the campaign to reverse the changes to the attendance policy (see my previous article).

Emma Whiting’s e-petition to 10 Downing St gained almost 50,000 signatures and closed before most parents were aware of the forthcoming changes. Craig Langman, finding himself unable to sign it in September, put up a members’ petition on 38 degrees and it went viral, gaining 127,000 signatures within a few weeks without any media coverage or promotion by 38 degrees. It now has 190,000 signatures. We delivered it to a nervous …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 41 Comments
The Voice

Nick Clegg: Inappropriate for Lord Rennard to rejoin Lib Dem Lords if he does not apologise

By The Voice | Fri 17th January 2014 - 7:45 pm

A statement released tonight by a Liberal Democrat spokesperson

Nick Clegg is of the view that as long as Lord Rennard refuses the very reasonable request from Alistair Webster QC to apologise that it is inappropriate for him to rejoin the Liberal Democrat group in the House of Lords. Nick has communicated this to the Chief Whip and Leader of the House of Lords group.

In addition, a growing number of party members have come forward to make representations to the party that Lord Rennard’s refusal to apologise in itself brings the party into disrepute.

The Lords Chief Whip and Leader of the

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Posted in News | 79 Comments
The Voice

Coalition minister calls for minimum wage increase (that’s Vince, 4 months ago, in case you were wondering)

By The Voice | Fri 17th January 2014 - 3:39 pm

Here’s the Lib Dems’ Vince Cable on 14 September 2013:

vince min wage - sept 2013

And here’s the Tories’ George Osborne – four months later – on 10 January 2014:

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Opinion: A letter to Michael Gove

By Anonymous Liberal | Fri 17th January 2014 - 11:30 am

Dear Michael,

I hope this finds you well.

A confession.

Unlike Paxman, I’m a fan.

You’re an unusual Tory with unusual origins. And your passion to change education is laudable.

The 1960s Crosland reforms, implemented by your mentor Mrs Thatcher, were supposed to promote social mobility. The reality is mixed. Overall literacy and numeracy have improved. Higher education has become more accessible across class, gender and race.

But this has come at a cost. Some think general mediocrity is better than a few attaining excellence while the majority attain little. I think it’s still mediocrity. Employers lament school-leavers’ inadequate skills. Our performance in the Pisa education …

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Julian Huppert

Julian Huppert MP: Another promise kept – Nick Clegg announces more than doubling of young offenders’ education time

By Julian Huppert | Fri 17th January 2014 - 10:05 am

If people are to be in jail, one of our priorities is to make sure that when they leave prison, they won’t come back. We realise that the best way to do this isn’t about draconian sentencing; it’s about providing people with skills. That’s why in our 2010 manifesto we said that we’d increase the number of hours prisoners spend in education and training.

Today, we’ve achieved another goal – Nick Clegg has announced that through a new system of Secure Colleges, young offenders will see the time they spend in education more than doubled.

This really matters. At any one time …

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Posted in News and Op-eds | Tagged , and | 5 Comments
David Boyle

Opinion: Why local banks need Lib Dems to act

By David Boyle | Fri 17th January 2014 - 8:15 am

It hardly seems worth Ed Miliband’s time to actually make the speech on economics today, because it has been previewed, leaked and debated – almost sentence by sentence – all week.

There was a debate about the middle classes on Tuesday.  Then there was the important commitment to competition in the banking sector, where he flagged the idea of a market cap, an important idea – but there are three practical problems with it.

First, there is a danger that it will lead to the big banks dumping poorer customers – though equally, there will be more banks available for them to …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 8 Comments
Paul Tyler

Lord Paul Tyler writes: An update on the Lobbying bill

By Paul Tyler | Thu 16th January 2014 - 8:15 pm

The Government’s Transparency Bill is nearly complete.  It is a very different Bill from that introduced to the House of Commons in the autumn.  Full marks to Tom Brake who, while robustly rebuffing the more hysterical accusations about the Bill, has listened, and worked hard inside government to secure a sensible package of improvements.  The first was in the House of Commons, where MPs voted to ensure the definition of non-party campaigning remained the same as for the last thirteen years.  If this were a ‘gagging law’, then so too was Labour’s PPERA of 2000.

In the Lords, we have concentrated …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 11 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Alison Goldsworthy: Westminster’s treatment of women is stuck in the 1950s

By NewsHound | Thu 16th January 2014 - 7:15 pm

Over at the Telegraph, Alison Goldsworthy, Vice Chair of the Liberal Democrats’  Federal Executive has written a thought provoking piece about the way young women are treated in the political bubble that is Westminster.

She paints an unedifying picture of life inside the Palace, across all parties:

Tales of parliamentarians in their 50s, heavy breathing that they may be giving up their seat, or promotions would be on offer whilst getting uncomfortably close to female staffers in their early 20s are commonplace. Go to the bars of Westminster most days of the week then you will see it in action. You don’t

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged and | 16 Comments
Brian Paddick

Brian Paddick writes… The curious case of Chris Rennard

By Brian Paddick | Thu 16th January 2014 - 2:55 pm

For the record, I abhor anyone who uses their power to take advantage of others and that includes men over women, let alone men who are in positions of authority. Chris Rennard denies any wrongdoing and an independent review of the evidence has concluded that there is less than a 51% chance that the allegations could be proved beyond reasonable doubt. As I still hold the record as the highest-ranking openly gay police officer in the UK, hopefully people will accept a degree of neutrality in my observations.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 55 Comments
Nick Harvey

Nick Harvey MP writes… Robert Gates poses stark defence question to UK: Do we want to be a real military partner or a nuclear power and nothing else?

By Nick Harvey | Thu 16th January 2014 - 1:58 pm

Former US Defence Secretary Robert Gates was on Radio 4’s Today programme this morning decrying the UK’s defence cuts. He said the squeeze meant the UK could no longer be a ‘full spectrum’ military partner of the US, acknowledging that our relationship with the US has been fundamentally altered.

A sceptic would quickly dismiss the comments of a man currently promoting his memoirs, but Gates makes a wider point about what exactly we want to be doing with a smaller defence capability.

Both Labour and the Tories continue to cling to the idea that we should maintain a full-scale Cold War …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 31 Comments
Adam Corlett

Opinion: Making allowances – 12 conclusions about the Personal Allowance policy

By Adam Corlett | Thu 16th January 2014 - 12:28 pm

CentreForum today published ‘Making allowances’ – a paper all about the Lib Dems’ flagship policy of raising the income tax Personal Allowance. Here are some of my conclusions – some obvious, some more obscure – to help inform future tax cuts.

1) The costs are huge. The coalition’s Personal Allowance increases have cost £11bn, and the Lib Dems’ minimum wage tax target would cost at least the same again. With this combined total, we could (roughly) reduce VAT to 15%; scrap council tax or business rates; easily deliver quality universal childcare; or

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 16 Comments
Phil Bennion

Phil Bennion MEP writes: It’s time we had a sensible, evidence-led debate on EU freedom of movement

By Phil Bennion | Thu 16th January 2014 - 11:45 am

Freedom of movement is one of the EU’s most cherished achievements. It has given millions of people the opportunity to work, study and retire across the continent and has brought huge economic and social gains.

But the recent debate has taken a serious turn for the worse. Both the Conservatives and Labour are dancing to the tune of UKIP.

It falls to Liberal Democrats to set the record straight and defend the benefits that freedom of movement brings, including for the 2 million or so British citizens who live across the EU. These are not just retirees in Spain or Portugal, but …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 40 Comments
Stephen Tall

First Euro poll of 2014 shows Lib Dems at 7%. Can we make being ‘The Party of IN’ work for us by the time of the real election?

By Stephen Tall | Thu 16th January 2014 - 10:55 am

The first poll this year asking how people will vote in May’s European elections has been published today by YouGov. It gives the following headline ratings compared with the last elections in 2009:

    Conservative 17% (-11%)
    Labour 24% (+8%)
    Lib Dem 7% (-7%)
    Ukip 19% (+2%)

Feed these numbers (plus those for the Greens, SNP/Plaid and others) into euroelection.co.uk and here’s what it means for numbers of seats:

euro results forecast 2014

The Lib Dems would be reduced from 11 seats to just 4, if these numbers are to be believed. The Tories number of MEPs …

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Posted in Europe / International and Polls | Tagged , , and | 40 Comments
Mike Biden

Opinion: Is Europe “falling behind” – or is it leading the way?

By Mike Biden | Thu 16th January 2014 - 9:43 am

Where did George Osborne get his figures from? Who writes his speeches?

A quick look at Wikipedia offers four sources of data for GDP per capita in 2012.  The first and simplest comes from the IMF (as it omits odd places such as Monaco and Liechtenstein).

Of the top 30 no less than 14 are members of the EU, 7 are major oil producers, 3 are the great trading hubs of  Hong Kong, Singapore and Switzerland and the remaining 6 are Australia, Canada, United States, Japan, Iceland, and Israel.

At 23rd in the list the UK is …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 13 Comments
Stephen Tall

Vince Cable nails Labour’s crass and inaccurate attacks on Lib Dems’ support for the minimum wage

By Stephen Tall | Wed 15th January 2014 - 8:00 pm

Sometimes you’ll hear Labour folk claim, with absolute certainty, that the Lib Dems opposed the introduction of the minimum wage in 1998. They’re wrong, as a glance at the voting record shows not a single Lib Dem MP voted against and 26 voted in favour.

Today Labour’s shadow secretary of state for Work and Pensions, Rachel Reeves, upped the ante, demanding to know:

where was the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, the right hon. Member for Twickenham (Vince Cable)? He was nowhere to be seen in the debates. He was nowhere to be seen on the voting record. On Second Reading and Third Reading, he failed to vote. Apparently, he abstained because he had reservations about a minimum wage. Perhaps he will stand up today to profess his concern for the plight of the low-paid.

Vince didn’t respond directly immediately. But he did respond:

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Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged , , and | 21 Comments
Newsmoggie

LibLink: Tim Farron: European Arrest Warrant is a vital weapon in the fight against crime

By Newsmoggie | Wed 15th January 2014 - 4:48 pm

Farron the Ubiquitous (he is, but that’s not a complaint) has been writing for the Huffington Post again, this time, as befits the man in charge of the European Election campaign, on the European Arrest Warrant.

First, he reminds us of the high profile cases where the warrant has brought British criminals back to justice.

Hussain Osman fled to Italy after the failed 21 July 2005 London bombings, during which he placed an explosive at Shepherd’s Bush tube station. Just one week later, he was tracked down and arrested by Italian police on a euro-warrant issued by a British court before

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 10 Comments
The Voice

Statement from Liberal Democrat Women

By The Voice | Wed 15th January 2014 - 2:55 pm

Liberal Democrat Women is whole heartedly against sexual harassment and unwanted indecent or sexually inappropriate advances of any kind.  This includes within the workplace and throughout our Party at every level.

We believe strongly that positions of power should never be abused.

We need to trust that there was a thorough and impartial investigation. Whilst our Party has made mistakes in the past we need to look to the future and ensure that the culture in the Party continues to change following the suite of measures implemented following the Morrissey Review and those measures are remain under constant review.

We expect an apology from Lord …

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The Voice

Statement by Lord Rennard

By The Voice | Wed 15th January 2014 - 1:54 pm

I am pleased that this brings to an end all investigations concerning allegations made against me on Channel 4 News last February.

The Metropolitan Police also investigated the allegations thoroughly and over several months and found that there was no case to proceed.

My wife Ann and I are very grateful to our families and many friends both inside and outside the Liberal Democrats who have shown unwavering support throughout.

We are particularly grateful to Alex Carlile QC, who helped us to ensure that justice was eventually done, and to Richard Cannon of Janes Solicitors who guided us through the police processes.I now …

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The Voice

Internal investigation into allegations against Lord Rennard

By The Voice | Wed 15th January 2014 - 1:36 pm

Statement of Alistair Webster QC’s conclusions
Following allegations made in a Channel 4 documentary early in 2013 I was appointed under Rule 7.6 of the English Party’s membership rules to investigate and determine whether or not it was appropriate to charge Lord Rennard with acting in a way that had brought the party into disrepute. The charge, if proved, might warrant his expulsion from the Liberal Democrats or other sanction under the Party’s rules.

Let me be clear from the outset that the evidence suggests that Lord Rennard’s behaviour has caused distress to a number of women, so much so that they came forward several years after the events in question.

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Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged , and | Comments Off on Internal investigation into allegations against Lord Rennard
Newsmoggie

Vince Cable raises fine for failing to pay minimum wage to £20,000 per worker

By Newsmoggie | Wed 15th January 2014 - 1:17 pm

We’ve known for some time that the Coalition has been intending to raise the penalty on rogue employers who don’t pay the National Minimum Wage. What we didn’t know is that Vince Cable is actually making the proposed £20,000 fine payable for every single worker who doesn’t receive the legal amount.

Vince is quoted in today’s Guardian:

Anyone entitled to the national minimum wage should receive it. Paying anything less than this is unacceptable, illegal and will be punished by law. So we are bringing in tougher financial penalties to crack down on those who do not play by the rules.

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 6 Comments
Caron Lindsay

LibLink: John Barrett: Independence is about country, not cash

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 15th January 2014 - 11:58 am

Former MP for Edinburgh West John Barrett has made a surprise intervention in the debate on Scottish independence. Writing in the Scotsman last Saturday, he became the only senior figure so far to say that he doesn’t yet know how he’s going to vote in the referendum on 18th September.

He said that the debate so far has become polarised and is switching people off:

There are good people on both sides, who genuinely believe in what they are arguing for. Unfortunately, as they are entrenched in their own positions, they are often unable to view many important issues in a non-party

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged , , and | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

And the winner of our Liberal Voice of the Year award is… Edward Snowden

By Stephen Tall | Wed 15th January 2014 - 10:39 am
liberal-voice

It's a fortnight since we launched our search for the Liberal Voice of the Year with the aim of finding the individual or group which has had the biggest liberal impact in the past 12 months. This is LibDemVoice's seventh such annual award, and as is our tradition, we looked beyond the ranks of the Lib Dems to find the liberal who’s most impressed our readers and is NOT a member of our party.

We unveiled the shortlist here on New Year's Day. In total, 363 readers cast a vote in the past two weeks using a preferential voting system. The final (13th) round of voting gave the following result:

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Posted in News and Polls | Tagged and | 30 Comments
Antony Hook

Opinion: Horizon 2020 means €80 billion extra science for Europe and jobs in the UK

By Antony Hook | Wed 15th January 2014 - 9:44 am

If I say, “Europe gives us a wider horizon” you might think this was a general observation that uniting as a continent, doing things together, helps us see and reach further in the world.

It certainly does but I have in mind a specific horizon: the Horizon 2020 fund. This is €80 billion that the European Union has voted to allocate to scientific research in 2014-20.

A European fund like this means a big opportunity for the UK.  We have some of the best universities and other research institutions. They are well placed to apply for grants under this fund.  Already …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 16 Comments
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Recent Comments

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