The Voice

Ros Kayes chosen by West Dorset Lib Dems to take on Oliver Letwin in 2015

By The Voice | Sat 14th December 2013 - 9:45 am

The Lib Dems have been runners-up in the West Dorset constituency since it was created in its modern form in 1992. Oliver Letwin was first elected in 1997 and has narrowly held the seat the seat since then. It would take only a 3.5% swing towards the Lib Dems to win it.

The party has this week moved a step nearer towards that goal with the selection of an energetic local candidate, Ros Kayes, as their website highlights:

West Dorset Liberal Democrats have selected Bridport based Cllr Ros Kayes to fight the seat for the party in the General Election of

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Posted in Selection news | Tagged , and | 16 Comments
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Stephen Tall

Who will you nominate as your Liberal Voice of the Year?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 14th December 2013 - 8:15 am

liberal-voiceWe’re launching our search for the Liberal Voice of the Year – to find the individual or group which has had the biggest impact on liberalism in the past 12 months. This is the seventh annual award, and as is our tradition, we’re looking beyond the ranks of the Lib Dems to find the greatest liberal who’s not a member of our party.

We’ll be seeking nominations from Lib Dems signed up to our members’ forum in our forthcoming survey – this is a heads-up so you can get …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged | 36 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Jade Holden chosen as Scottish Liberal Democrat candidate for the Cowdenbeath by-election

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 13th December 2013 - 5:38 pm

Jade Holden CowdenbeathThe Scottish Liberal Democrats have chosen Jade Holden, who’s 23, a current Euro candidate and former Liberal Youth Campaigns Officer, as their candidate for the forthcoming Cowdenbeath by-election. The poll was caused by the sudden death of Labour MSP Helen Eadie of whom Scottish Leader Willie Rennie said:

As fellow parliamentarians for West Fife, Helen’s intense, burning commitment to socialism was inspiring to observe. Although a gentle and kind lady you did not cross Helen without suffering from the sharp end of her tongue.

Helen made waves for her causes and

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 7 Comments
Olly Grender

Baroness Olly Grender’s maiden speech

By Olly Grender | Fri 13th December 2013 - 2:50 pm

It is a tradition for LDV to bring its readers copies of our new MPs’ and Peers’ first words in Parliament, so that we can read what is being said and respond. You can find all of the speeches in this category with this link. On 28 November, Baroness Grender made her maiden speech in the House of Lords during a debate on broadcast media and its role in the economy. Her words are reproduced below.

Baroness Grender (LD): My Lords, I would like to thank my noble friend Lady Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury for introducing this debate. I …

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Merlene Emerson

Launch of EMLD Achievement Awards

By Merlene Emerson | Fri 13th December 2013 - 1:21 pm

It was an idea hatched on a train journey a few months ago whilst travelling with colleagues to an EMLD executive meeting. At our Annual General Meeting last month the hosting of the “EMLD Achievement Awards” as a way of recognising and rewarding those who have fought for and championed race equality in the UK received the approval and endorsement of our members.

There is currently a Federal Party award, the “Dadabhai Naraoji Award”, given to the local party that is the most successful in its outreach to the BAME communities but it was felt that EMLD as an organisation would …

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Paul Reynolds

Opinion: Political deference to today’s orthodoxy is the UK’s economic problem

By Paul Reynolds | Fri 13th December 2013 - 10:54 am

All three main political parties in the UK today broadly accept the Bank of England’s (BoE’s) programme of buying the paper ‘assets’ of banks with printed money – worthless and valuable alike (quantitative easing – QE). There are few dissenters, but I am one of them.

My dissenting post-2008 remedy was a managed partial default/bankruptcy of the UK’s insolvent banks with a quick operational reboot, on the grounds that it would be cheaper than a printed-money ‘bankers subsidy’. The quantity of intricately interwoven bad assets was unknown, and thus the UK government was subsidising a pig-in-a-poke, I believed.

But hey ho we …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 26 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Chris Davies MEP – Why I’m backing Verhofstadt for Commission President

By NewsHound | Thu 12th December 2013 - 6:16 pm

Over on his blog, North West MEP Chris Davies explains why he is backing former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt to continue leading the ALDE grouping and be the group’s nominee for president of the European Commission.

Over to Chris to explain why:

He is a man who can provide the European Union with a degree of leadership and inspiration that it has been missing.

I am seriously concerned that Europe is stagnating while countries elsewhere gain greater economic influence.  Verhofstadt is absolutely right in saying that we must break free of our self-imposed shackles and move forward.

National governments should retain control

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged and | 12 Comments
Nick T

Lib Dems should aim for a budget surplus not because the Tories want to, but because it is right

By Nick T | Thu 12th December 2013 - 1:54 pm

All parties have a mixture of deficit hawks and doves – those who believe in balanced budgets and those who aren’t too bothered. The Lib Dems are no exception, but I think we are different in the motivations underlying these positions.

Many Tories often seem to see deficit reduction as an end in and of itself, not even necessarily because they want to see a smaller state and lower taxes, but simply because their ideology teaches that budget deficits are Bad Things.

And in recent years, some Labour figures have begun to sound like their ideology teaches that budget deficits are inherently …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 57 Comments
Norman Lamb MP

Norman Lamb MP writes…Have your say on dementia care

By Norman Lamb MP | Thu 12th December 2013 - 12:36 pm

Back in 2008, when I was Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary, I spoke out about poor diagnosis rates for dementia sufferers, saying that “the NHS must do more to ensure people are encouraged to seek early help and that they have access to care from their GP, specialist assessment and accurate diagnosis.” Dementia diagnosis rates across the country vary significantly – and although they are improving, they are still not good enough. And, while there is some excellent dementia care – there has also been much that is inadequate.

I could never have imagined then that – 5 years on – …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 3 Comments
Paul Stocker

Opinion: Ukip’s not-so-respectable European allies

By Paul Stocker | Thu 12th December 2013 - 11:27 am

Recently, Nigel Farage rejected the overtures and offer of alliance from the French Far Right party, Front Nationale, led by Marine Le Pen, stating “Whatever Marine Le Penn is trying to do with Le Front National, anti-Semitism, is still deeply embedded in that party, and for that principle political reason, we are not going to work with them now, or at any point in the future”. The alliance also included the Dutch Freedom Party, led by blonde bombshell, Geert Wilders – famous for his anti-Islam tirades.

This attempt by Farage to place Ukip in the ‘respectable’ wing of European politics …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 19 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Tim Farron – Only a fool could trust in the ‘oversight’ provided by the intelligence committee

By NewsHound | Thu 12th December 2013 - 9:18 am

Over on Politics.co.uk party president Tim Farron has a piece on the ramifications of the story that has dominated much of the past year: the extent of the powers held by states to snoop on our communications. Tim sets out some thoughts about the oversight of these systems, which he thinks are presently inadequate.

Here’s an excerpt:

Our democratic process is built upon a system of checks and balances. Those who exercise power over the individual are held to account by others. For all the faults of the Westminster bubble (and there are many), the quiet revolution in the way select committees

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged , and | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

‘Good’ gender segregation and ‘bad’ gender segregation?

By Stephen Tall | Thu 12th December 2013 - 9:08 am

universities_uk logoI’ve just heard the Chief Executive of Universities UK be put through the mill on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme following its decision to publish advice that gender segregation might not necessarily be discriminatory as long as “both men and women are being treated equally, as they are both being segregated in the same way”. The guidance – which you can read here – is specific to invited external speakers at meetings on university premises.

I do not like gender segregation. At all. Maybe it’s the result of having …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 73 Comments
Caron Lindsay

And AD LIB’s new editor is….

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 11th December 2013 - 7:15 pm

If you subscribe to the party’s in-house magazine AD LIB, you’ll know that Abi Glidden, the current editor, is leaving. In her final editorial, she says that editing the magazine has been a pleasure and that subscriptions have risen by 16% since it was launched a year ago. We wish her well in her new endeavours.

She announces also that her successor as editor of AD LIB is none other than

 

DRUM ROLL

 

The Divine Ms Duffett herself (pictured here with LDV Co-editor Stephen Tall)

 

Helen Duffett and Stephen Tall Helen Duffett and Stephen Tall

I caught …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 7 Comments
Steve Coltman

Opinion: Don’t waver on energy policy

By Steve Coltman | Wed 11th December 2013 - 6:05 pm

The recent debate on energy prices was kicked off by Ed Miliband’s declaration that a Labour government would freeze energy prices for a while. Understandably this is attractive to some who are struggling with household bills but the proposal will not in the long run benefit anyone (except perhaps the Labour party). Energy companies can only control the prices they charge to a very limited extent; they would put up their prices in anticipation of a price freeze then raise them again when the freeze is over. Labour are attempting to bribe the electorate with their own money.

It now looks …

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The Voice

FOUND: David Cameron’s Little Black Book

By The Voice | Wed 11th December 2013 - 2:13 pm

So David Cameron’s keeping a little black book of the things Lib Dems have stopped him doing in Government – things he wants to put in the next Tory manifesto.

A copy has been found, and it’s scary reading:

Liberal Democrats think these policies are unfair. Do you want schools to be run for profit? Or a record of all your emails and texts to be kept? Or do you want your boss to be allowed to fire you at will?

Click here to help us stop David Cameron’s Little Black Book …

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Posted in News | 17 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Better in Cameron’s Black Book than on the Statute Book

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 11th December 2013 - 11:55 am

“The Lib Dems have held us back, says Cameron” screams today’s Daily Mail headline. Yes, it’s the Prime Minister showing that he can play the differentiation game too.

If there’s one thing that David Cameron and Nick Clegg can agree on, it’s that the Liberal Democrats and the Tories have divergent views on many issues. Both will take every opportunity to point that out to anyone who will listen.

The Daily Mail quotes Cameron’s interview with the Spectator in which he says that Nick Clegg has stopped him doing all sorts of things he would love to do. None of this is …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 15 Comments
Stephen Tall

“Osborne’s waving an enormous red flag” – Social Liberal Forum’s warning to Lib Dems over Autumn Statement

By Stephen Tall | Wed 11th December 2013 - 10:15 am

Prateek Buch, director of the Social Liberal Forum, has an article in today’s Independent – The Lib Dems should not sign up to Osborne’s austerity straitjacket – issuing a stark warning to his fellow Lib Dems to take note of the “enormous red flag” he says was waved by George Osborne in last week’s Autumn Statement.

That flag was the Chancellor’s pledge for the economy to move into surplus by 2018/19, within the course of the next parliament. To achieve that – what, in effect, was the original Alistair Darling plan to eliminate the deficit over two parliaments …

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 27 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Tim Farron: European fisheries vote shows that EU can be reformed

By NewsHound | Wed 11th December 2013 - 9:07 am

Tim Farron has been writing in the Huffington Post about a crucial vote in the EU to reform the way in which fish are caught. This might seem tedious to many of us, but this has positive, practical implications for anyone who catches fish and anyone who likes to eat it.

Tim first set out the issues with the current situation:

The situation right now is drastic. Job losses within the UK fishing sector continue to rise as fish stocks fall, and it tends to be the small-scale fishermen who are hardest hit. The total amount of fish caught in the EU

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 1 Comment
Ed Fordham

Same Sex marriages – March 29th is the day

By Ed Fordham | Tue 10th December 2013 - 3:08 pm

wedding ringsThe Government have today announced that Same Sex marriages can commence in 2014.

One of the ways of finding out who I was, who I might be and what shaped my thinking and existence was to speak to older relatives about themselves and my forebears.

Their memories are linked either to very small specific instances or to the large set piece occasions. In this cascade of history weddings stand out large and strong.

In photographs it is weddings that are posed and formal and vibrant – and yet – up to now …

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Posted in News | Tagged | 20 Comments
Stephen Tall

Three scenarios for the 2015 election based on current polling: which do you think looks most plausible?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 10th December 2013 - 2:45 pm

In 18 months we’ll know the result of the 2015 general election.

Forecasting is a mug’s game – especially because there are an even greater number of variables this time than usual: a governing coalition of two parties with one established centre-left opposition, Labour, and an insurgent right-wing party, Ukip.

But plenty are having a go at it anyway. Lib Dem MP Sir Nick Harvey reckons Labour has the next election in the bag. Psephologist Lewis Baston thinks we’re headed for a second hung parliament. And pollster Sir Bob Worcester believes the Lib Dems are destined for meltdown.

Here’s my quick ‘n’ dirty analysis based on the polling trends. What I’ve looked at is Labour’s lead over the Conservatives according to the monthly average of opinion polls under three different scenarios.

(Huge caveat straight off: the extent of the polling science on display here is me playing around on an Excel spreadsheet.)

Scenario 1

The Conservatives hit rock bottom in May 2012. The omnishambles budget and its desperate U-turns were followed by a poor set of local election results. There have been dips since then, notably when it looked like the economy might plunge into what was being billed as a triple-dip recession at the start of 2013, but never quite matching that period.

Taking May 2012 as the peak of Labour’s lead, what would happen if the linear trend since then were to continue through to May 2015? This is what:

polling trends 2015 - ST 2

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Posted in Polls | Tagged , , , and | 51 Comments
The Voice

Spring Conference reprieved

By The Voice | Tue 10th December 2013 - 12:26 pm

Spring 2013 Federal Conference agendaA couple of weeks ago Lib Dem Voice reported that party members were being consulted by Federal Executive about the future of Spring Conference, following a consultation session at Glasgow.  This was driven by financial pressures and the need for the Spring Conference to be cost-neutral.

Options included keeping it as it is but with cost savings, reducing its length from two days, or abolishing the Spring Conference completely .  The second option was preferred by Federal Executive.  Not surprisingly, the Federal Conference Committee did not support either abolition or any changes to the length of the conference.

Gareth Epps reports that yesterday evening the Federal Executive agreed to not make any changes, but to see how online technology could make the conference more accessible to the wider membership.

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 10 Comments
Stephen Tall

The Clegg Family Christmas Card, with a little help from their sons

By Stephen Tall | Tue 10th December 2013 - 10:35 am

Here is the Christmas card Nick Clegg and Miriam González Durántez will be sending out this year:

Clegg family Xmas card 2013

The London Evening Standard explains:

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

Bob Russell’s surgery lasts for 12 hours – is this a record?

By The Voice | Tue 10th December 2013 - 10:06 am

bob russell_2Bob Russell, the Lib Dem MP for Colchester, claims to have set a record by holding a surgery that lasted for 12 hours.

It seems that 36 people made appointments to see him last Friday. It’s not entirely clear whether he had originally planned it to go on for so long, or whether he just had a very long list of people who wanted to see him.

He claims to have seen 10,000 constituents at his surgeries since he was elected in 1997.

So your challenge today is to establish whether …

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 6 Comments
The Voice

Nick Clegg’s Commons tribute to Mandela: “let us honour his memory by ensuring that the hope he gave lives on”

By The Voice | Mon 9th December 2013 - 7:50 pm

clegg on leveson 2Nick Clegg offered his tribute on behalf of the Lib Dems today to Nelson Mandela’s immense contribution to leading South Africa away from apartheid and towards democracy. Here’s what he had to say:

The Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Nick Clegg):
On behalf of the Liberal Democrats, let me add my voice to the many tributes to Nelson Mandela, the father of modern South Africa. Our thoughts and condolences are with his loved ones, the people of South Africa, and everyone around the world who is grieving his loss.

Nelson Mandela’s message

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Posted in Parliament | Tagged and | 8 Comments
Steve Bradley

Opinion: Our liberal identity crisis

By Steve Bradley | Mon 9th December 2013 - 3:34 pm

Does anyone know why the Liberal Democrats exist ? It’s an important question.

IPSOS/Mori research in 2012 into voter perceptions found that 64% “don’t know what the Liberal Democrats stand for these days” (57% for Labour, 44% the Tories). This was echoed even amongst party supporters, with 41% of Lib Dem voters unclear (42% for Labour voters, 37% Conservatives). “Our polling now shows that the Liberal Democrats have the toughest task telling voters what they stand for”, the report concluded.

We need to acknowledge that our party has an identity challenge nationally, and blaming the coalition would be too convenient. …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 81 Comments
The Voice

MPs condemn MPs’ pay rise

By The Voice | Mon 9th December 2013 - 1:13 pm

MPs of all sides are objecting to IPSA proposals to increase their pay by 11%, alongside some less-reported minor cuts to expenses and a move to a career-average pension scheme, that make the whole package, we are told, cost-neutral.

Danny Alexander has called the rise “wholly inappropriate”:

I think most people will find it utterly incomprehensible that a time of pay restraint for the public sector and further squeezes on Government spending that IPSA should be recommending . I think it would be wholly inappropriate to get such a large pay rise when every other public sector worker sees pay

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 17 Comments
Joe Otten

Poverty at its lowest since 2004/5?

By Joe Otten | Mon 9th December 2013 - 10:55 am

A report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (pdf) shows that 13 million people in the UK were in poverty in 2011/12, a poverty rate of 21% which, while still too high, is the lowest it has been since 2004/5.

There is a mixed picture behind this: improvements for pensioners and children, and declines for adults in work, the latter being the angle picked up by the BBC.

The data predates some of the more recent benefit changes, which are not likely to help, although even a 1% uprating of benefits will be faster than many people’s wages, which …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 33 Comments
The Voice

Christmas present ideas from the LDV team and friends: Day 9

By The Voice | Mon 9th December 2013 - 8:55 am

Giles Goodall at ALDENext up in our series of Christmas present ideas comes from regular contributor and Euro candidate Giles Goodall.

Just in the nip of time for Christmas – with a release date two days after the last ever episode airs on BBC4 – comes the box set of all three series of Denmark’s hit political drama. Which self-respecting, Europe-minded, coalitionist Lib Dem could be without the Borgen Trilogy?

After the heady days of a surprise election victory, novelty of entering government, and mounting pressure of compromising on your ideals in

…

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Posted in News | Tagged | 4 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #356

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 8th December 2013 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 356th 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 (1-7 December 2013), 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 | Leave a comment
NewsHound

LibLink: Stephen Tall: The agony of the Tory modernisers

By NewsHound | Sun 8th December 2013 - 3:29 pm

In his latest column on Conservative Home, Stephen Tall feels the pain of those who wanted a modern, inclusive Conservative Party. When they had their way, the Tories actually did quite well. When the nasty lot take hold, their poll ratings plummet and they don’t appeal beyond their hardcore supporters. And that’s not enough to win a general election, especially when the Liberal Democrats are keen to woo those who would once have been called the “wets.”

I’ve written here before about the Lib Dems’ 17.5 per cent strategy, the optimistic end of the party’s share-of-the-vote forecast for 2015. To our

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged and | 16 Comments
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