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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It’s become a truth universally acknowledged in the Liberal Democrats that wherever there is a threat to our freedoms, Julian Huppert will be there trying to thwart it, whether that’s convenient for the party leadership or not. Most of the time, it has to be said, it is convenient for the leadership, but it’s worth remembering that if it hadn’t been for the combination of him and some angry bloggers, we might be in a world where the Communications Data Act of 2012 had been passed.
And so it was on …
There’s a terrific post in today’s Times by YouGov chief executive Stephan Shakespeare assessing 10 things you need to know about the electoral scene. What makes it fascinating is his summary of quite why 2015 is, in so many ways, hard to read.
For instance, Labour has a small lead in the polls for an opposition party 18 months out from the election – but a small lead may be enough given the current boundaries.
But, set against that, is the fact that voters don’t regard Ed Miliband as prime ministerial and think a Labour victory would make for a …
We’re 18 months from the May 2015 election so I thought it’d be useful to keep a running check on how candidate selection is going in our held and key target seats…
I published a first draft of this list a week ago, and asked readers to help me update it – many thanks to those of you who commented here, on Twitter, via Facebook and by email and text. I thought it would be helpful to re-publish the list now we have much fuller information about (re-)selections in our held seats and the top 50 targets for the party.
Here’s a snapshot of how the party’s doing in getting people in place in the battleground seats that will determine the extent of Lib Dem influence in the next parliament:
Held seats: 23/57 MPs re-selected (40%); 7/57 MPs retiring (12%) – 3 potential successors selected.
Top targets from Labour: 7/23 candidates selected (30%); 5/23 currently in process (22%). 52% will be selected within next couple of months.
Top targets from Tories: 12/27 candidates selected (44%); 2/27 currently in process (7%). 51% will be selected within next couple of months.
Transport Minister Susan Kramer came to Glasgow yesterday to talk about the benefits HS2 will bring to Scotland, even though it’s not as yet planned to come all the way north. It will cut journey times by an hour and bring economic benefit apparently.
She spoke to the BBC here:
High speed 2 easily cleared its first parliamentary hurdle yesterday, with just 34 MPs voting against the High Speed Rail (Preparation) Bill – 350 voted in favour. Here Penny Gaines argues the case against HS2 is still strong.
High Speed 2 will cost £50bn, including the trains. But it is an environmentally damaging vanity project, with a constantly shifting rationale for building it.
The current argument is that speed is irrelevant for the case for HS2, but that our existing railways are nearly full and the only option is to build a new high speed railway. This argument does not stand up to scrutiny.
Liberal Youth England has vacancies for 3 regional chairs in the following areas:
By-elections for these positions will be held at the Liberal Youth Winter conference in Cardiff next weekend.
Regional chairs are am responsible for establishing, organising and supporting Branches and Societies in the region, acting as a regional point of contact for the Executive, media, campaigns, events and Federal Party purposes.
All members of the party in England under the age of 26 are eligible to stand.
If you’d like to stand for election, simply email me (for I …
Today, the Coalition Government has committed to reaching the next great milestone in Welsh devolution by taking forward the key recommendations of the Silk Commission.
As a party that believes in devolution and has campaigned for decades to deliver more power for Wales, this is a huge win for the Liberal Democrats. Can you imagine a Tory or Labour Government devolving these powers from London?
Currently the National Assembly of Wales is unique amongst the rest of the world. It can make laws, spend money, but it can’t control how much it raises through tax. For over a decade, Labour refused to let go of the purse strings. But where Labour failed, the Liberal Democrats have acted.
This week brought welcome news for millions: Lib Dem minister Steve Webb wants to introduce a cap on pension fees.
Who cares? With 12 million people not saving enough for an adequate income in retirement, forcing charges to be capped could substantially improve the standard of living for pensioners without requiring an extra penny of their income.
The government is consulting on three different caps for workplace pensions: a 0.75 per cent cap, a 1 per cent cap, or a “comply or explain” cap, which would allow providers to charge between 0.75 and 1 per cent if they could justify doing so.
Childcare in the UK is expensive.
In 2011 the OECD reported the UK having the second highest costs of childcare for any OECD country in terms of average family incomes. According to the Daycare Trust, full-time nursery care costs parents an £11,000 per year on average and around £4,000 for care for two school-age children around the start and end of the school day.
Many parents have to choose between leaving work to care for their kids, sacrificing much needed income or continuing in work and struggling with the costs of childcare. If they’re lucky their household earnings are enough that either option doesn’t cause any considerable hardship.
But it’s not the cost of childcare that’s the problem – it’s the way we pay for it.
Ok, so it’s not the most exciting headline in the world. After all, nocturnal imbibing of spirits is pretty commonplace.
However, when the man in question is Secretary of State for Scotland Alistair Carmichael breaking his month long abstinence having raised, at the time of writing, £4,235 for Macmillan Cancer Support, it is appropriate to mark the occasion.
The last time Alistair had a drink, he wasn’t in the Cabinet, Scotland still had an outside chance of qualifying for the World Cup finals and the third Bridget Jones book was still under lock and key at the publishers. He was finally able to celebrate/commiserate in traditional style. His tipple of choice was, in my opinion, the world’s finest single malt, Orkney’s Highland Park.
It seemed that half of Facebook was up to celebrate with him to enjoy the occasion. He told us:
Yesterday evening, Lord Steel delivered a lecture on Lords reform and the forthcoming Scottish referendum. Here is the speech in full.
Stone Memorial lecture, Strathclyde University 31 October 2013
Scotland and the Lords after 2014
My intention in this lecture is to look forward and discuss what fundamental changes and improvements could be made to our parliaments at Westminster and Holyrood once we get past the Scottish referendum this time next year. But before I do that, considering that this Sir Alexander Stone memorial lecture is decreed to be broadly on the subject of rhetoric I want as a prelude to remark on …
Yesterday evening, Lord David Steel delivered a lecture on Lords reform and the forthcoming Scottish referendum. He called for a wide constitutional overhaul, including reforming the House of Lords into an indirectly elected chamber.
Speaking earlier to Scotland Tonight, he called for a grown-up debate about whether Scotland wants to be a separate nation or not. He rejected David Cameron’s assertion that an independent Scotland would be more vulnerable to terrorist attacks and Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that fuel bills will come down, saying such comments obscured the real issues of the campaign.
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. Last Thursday, Lord Wrigglesworth made his maiden speech in the House of Lords during a debate on the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union. His words are reproduced below.
My Lords, it is a great honour and a great pleasure to address your Lordships’ House for the first time. I do so with
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So, it’s Hallowe’en. I thought we should join in with the fun, especially as I’m at home with a full-on dose of Empty Nest Syndrome as the Teenager, for the first time, bails for a party with her friends.
Nick Clegg has been at a party too, today. He tweeted from the event at Great Ormond St Hospital.
Amazing to join the fun and games with staff, patients, families and volunteers at the GOSH Halloween party. pic.twitter.com/olVbLGTSfX
— Nick Clegg (@nick_clegg) October 31, 2013
Liberal Democrats have been busy carving pumpkins, too and I thought you ought to see some of …
Mike Crockart’s Private Member’s Bill (or the Communications (Unsolicited telephone calls and texts Bill to give it its proper name) is up for its second reading tomorrow. It’s the only Liberal Democrat measure being discussed. The Bill aims to ensure that people are not bothered by unwanted calls if they don’t want to be. The explanatory notes to the Bill are here.
By amazing coincidence, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Nuisance Calls, of which Mike is co-chair, published its report on the unsolicited marketing industry this morning. It …
Lord Berkeley’s “Rights of the Sovereign and Duchy of Cornwall Bill” is due to have its second reading in the Lords on 8 November. He has been quoted as saying he wants to “provoke a debate”, and it may be supposed that Bill is likely to be defeated at its second reading. As it would affect the Prince’s private interests, it would require his consent in order to progress. He has given his consent to several bills in the past, according to the Parliament website. It is surprising how many bills require his consent. This is
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The Herald brings intriguing news of a recent dinner held in honour of a select group receiving honorary degrees from the University of St Andrews, including recently-departed US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton:
The former First Lady was in good spirits. As appropriate for the star of the show, she arrived a little late, but made a point of going round all the other 17 graduates to shake them by the hand and say what a privilege it was to be graduating in their company.
The cast-list was impressive and included Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the worldwide web, Nobel laureate
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Today the Prime Minister announced the very welcome news that the UK will have an open public register of beneficial ownership – something Liberal Democrats have long campaigned for. By making business more transparent, so that anyone can find out who really owns and controls a company, we strengthen the image of the UK as a clean and trusted place to do business.
As it stands UK companies currently have a register which lists who directly holds their shares but you can’t always tell who the ultimate beneficial owner is. With no duty for companies to hold this information individuals can …
Champions of the Countryside Alliance boast that it is the voice of rural Britain. I disagree. It is just one voice within rural Britain. It’s like saying that the Tories are the voice of the Home Counties and Labour is the voice of the Industrial North. That’s just lousy stereotypical language. There are many different voices within rural England.
I am forever angry that the London press, especially the right leaning press, routinely trots out stereotypes about life in our rural areas. They seem to believe that “Escape to the Country” is something authentic. It’s a reality show, no more.
One reason why rural areas get such a bad deal in public policy is that London journalists rely on urban myths about the countryside rather than trying to understand rural reality. This reality game is not without victims. The media’s glib characterisations of country life distort discussions of pressing issues like rural funding, schooling and a working landscape. And most of all, the need for jobs and decent housing in rural areas.
Britain is in the grip of a housing crisis. There are 1.8m households on waiting lists for affordable homes, totalling over 4.5m people. Millions of young people are priced out of the housing market, unlikely to ever be able to afford to buy their own home. Poor quality, overcrowded accommodation impacts significantly on the health and well-being of its residents. It is undoubtedly one of the great social crises of my generation.
Yet for all the statistics, case studies and figures there are two that really stand out – 98,280 and 240,000. The first is the number of new homes built last …
Lewis Baston, a research associate at Democratic Audit who is perhaps the nearest the UK comes to a Nate Silver, has published a pamphlet called Swing Seats: The key battlegrounds of the 2015 election (not available online yet). It’s a forensic analysis of the constituencies that will decide the next election, and digs much deeper than the national polls on which so much political commentary relies.
I was on a panel – together with ConservativeHome’s Paul Goodman and the Fabian Society’s Marcus Roberts – to discuss its findings yesterday. Below are 10 points I jotted down from …
A month ago, we heard from Matt who wrote bravely about how he feels denigrated by Conservatives attacking welfare claimants. Today, Ian – a disabled bus user in Shropshire living in sheltered accommodation – writes about problems with transport as his Conservative council slashes bus services.
I am writing this article because I am campaigning on behalf of registered users from Three Crosses, Clee Hill near Ludlow and other scheme managers, users and their carers in South Shropshire. We were users of Shropshire Link, a regular, bookable bus service that served all the rural areas.
We have lost our independence thanks to the Conservative Cabinet member for Highways and Transport, Claire Wilde, who abolished the Link service as of 8 October. It has been replaced with a community bus service.
International Development minister Lynne Featherstone writes a monthly column for one of her local newspapers. Here is the latest one…..
Social housing in Haringey is in high demand. There are currently over 10,000 individuals and families stuck on the waiting list – and many will not have the chance to bid for a property in the foreseeable future.
In the meantime, people are often in cramped conditions in the private sector, or waiting in low quality ‘temporary’ accommodation. This has a detrimental effect on both the children and adults in these situations.
And once families are given social housing in Haringey, it’s …
For years Lib Dem leaders have been plagued by the question, ‘Who will you support in the event of a hung parliament?’ In 2010, Nick Clegg straight-batted it pretty effectively, saying the Lib Dems would talk first to the party with the most seats and most votes. In 2015 he’ll stick to that trusty formula, with the added credibility of being able to say it’s exactly what he did last time – the voters remain the king-makers etc.
So unsurprisingly journalists have moved on. Their new favourite question, one we’ll hear more and more the close we get to May 2015, …
The Independent reported on Sunday that Nick Clegg 2ould consider imposing all women shortlists for the 2020 general election if the party did not select enough women in winnable seats.
I defected from Labour earlier this year and I want to share my experiences of a party that needs to use all women shortlists to select female candidates for parliament and councils.
Earlier this year, Mark Fergusonrightly pointed out on Labourlist that no women had been selected in open shortlists since before the general election. It pointed out that when local labour parties had the choice between a man and …
Nick Clegg’s press conference, postponed from Monday because a crane had blown on to the Cabinet Office roof, took place this afternoon and the leader was in fairly sparky form.
Tweets from the BBC’s Chris Mason and ITV’s Carl Dinnen revealed his comments on HS2 where he absolutely savaged Labour’s position, decrying it as miserable, pathetic and a betrayal of the north.
On energy costs, he repeated his assertion that Ed Miliband’s energy bill freeze was a con:
Nick Clegg: “the only that is green about this policy con from Ed Miliband is it’s naivety.”
— Chris Mason (@ChrisMasonBBC) October 30, 2013
Norman Lamb is no stranger to these pages writing about all aspects of his job as health minister. It’s been great to see how he’s done so much to improve mental health services and he acknowledges that there is a long way to go to get services to where they need to be.
It’s not just within government that Liberal Democrats are acting, though. I’ve become aware of two initiatives from around the country where we are trying to advance policy or campaign for better services. You may know about more so please add them in the comments.
The first comes …
Liberal Democrat MP Michael Moore writes a regular column for newspapers in his Borders Constituency. Here is the latest edition.
As local MP, I am determined to do as much as possible to boost job opportunities for young people here in the Borders. I believe that apprenticeships offer a great opportunity for businesses and young people. They are not just for the traditional trades but can be in anything from marketing to business administration and customer service. Apprenticeships help businesses reduce recruitment costs, lower staff turnover and improve productivity.
Over the last few months, I have been campaigning to encourage local businesses …
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