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Nick Clegg’s Conference rally speech – “We are the party of jobs”

By Nick Clegg MP | Sat 14th September 2013 - 6:01 pm

Speaking at the Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference rally in Glasgow this evening, Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is expected to say:

Welcome to Glasgow. This year’s conference sees us gather in a city that has always been important to the Liberal Democrats, a city once represented by Roy Jenkins, that gave us Ming Campbell and where nearby in 2005 Jo Swinson won a famous victory to take her seat from Labour and become an MP at just 25.

Before anything I want to pay tribute to our team of Scottish MPs who lead the way in Parliament in arguing for a United Kingdom that is strong, secure and together. All under the direction of our fantastic Chief Whip and rally compere.

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Posted in Conference | Tagged economy, featured, glasgow conference 2013 and nick clegg | 11 Comments

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Conference: Willie Rennie MSP – A stronger Scotland within the UK

By Willie Rennie | Sat 14th September 2013 - 5:01 pm

Speaking to Scottish Liberal Democrat Autumn conference in Glasgow, Willie Rennie MSP, Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats said:

On the first Sunday of this month I took part in a relay race over the Comrie hills near Perth.

Covering 20 miles with teams of five runners we battled clubs from across Scotland.

For the third year in a row my partner was David Greig.

That’s right. David Greig, one of Scotland’s foremost playwrights.

We are equally matched runners. Less equally matched playwrights.

We support each other up and down the hills.

Through the bogs and over the heather.

We both run for the team – Carnegie Harriers.

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Posted in Conference | Tagged glasgow conference 2013 and Scottish referendum | 3 Comments

Opinion: We need zero tolerance for zero hours contracts

By Richard Kilpatrick | Sat 14th September 2013 - 4:02 pm

This week Labour began to move the economic debate away from deficit reduction to living standards. It really is a shame that the party elected in 1997 to tackle social mobility and subsequently failed to shorten the gap between the richest and poorest in our society now seem to stand up for working families in hard economic times. Wednesday saw Ed Miliband’s dismal attempt to rekindle his relationship with the TUC but for me he did touch on an issue close to my heart; he committed to legislating to curb the use of zero hour contracts.

I have to admit a special interest, I have worked for a company that uses zero hour contracts for about a year. I myself am not on a zero hour contract. I am also a student and understand the level of flexibility that is required by some people. However I refuse to accept that flexibility cannot be achieved while providing income stability, holiday pay and a safety net for when you fall ill. It is also not constructive for a company to build a relationship with its staff using zero hour contracts resulting in a large staff turnover and an unhealthy competition for hours.

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | Tagged employment rights, glasgow conference 2013 and zero hours contracts | 4 Comments

Opinion: Ten reasons why the bedroom tax must go

By Ruwan Uduwerage-Perera | Sat 14th September 2013 - 3:02 pm

The conference amendments can only be an expedient stop-gap to complete repeal. Here are ten reasons why the bedroom tax (also known as the spare room subsidy) should go.

1. Bedroom Tax is targeted to victimise the most vulnerable members of society. Two thirds of the victims of Bedroom Tax were receiving Incapacity Benefit: over 440,000 nationally.

2. An extra bedroom is not an extravagance if you need additional space for medical equipment, a room for carers to sleep in or live in a household where an ill person is too unwell to sleep in the same room as their partner and to do so would negatively affect the health and wellbeing of both.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged bedroom tax and glasgow conference 2013 | 48 Comments

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Opinion: Urgent action is needed on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals

By Derek Webb | Sat 14th September 2013 - 2:02 pm

The Lib Dem message at conference this year is: “Stronger Economy, Fairer Society”. We wholly endorse this message, and our Campaign for Fairer Gambling is absolutely focused on this direction.

There must be sensible enforcement of sensible gambling regulation. The most addictive form of gambling is roulette machines in betting shops – Fixed Odds Betting Terminals, also known as FOBTs.

Because these machines are a very labour unintensive form of consumer spending, they result in a net loss of jobs in local communities and this has a negative impact on tax revenue generation.

In addition to the economic cost of FOBTs, there is the added social cost of FOBT addiction and each addict affects up to twelve others.

FOBTs expose inexperienced, young gamblers to a game that they will lose at several times faster than the real, casino variant.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged gambling | 6 Comments

Conference Comment: What the papers say (1)

By Newsmoggie | Sat 14th September 2013 - 9:59 am

It fairly wall to wall Lib Dem coverage in the national press today and party leaders are cheerleading for our role in the coalition. Even newspapers that are not normally friendly towards the Lib Dems have something positive to say. There is a grudging respect that the Lib Dems took on the near impossible task of collaborating in a coalition government and have stuck with it.

Nick Clegg gives an exclusive and upbeat interview to the Independent.

Over in the Telegraph, Danny Alexander says that hard pressed workers deserve pay rises as the economy recovers. He says the party has to “shout from the roof tops“ to ensure that voters recognise the role it has played in improving the economy.

Anyone who says this better economic news is all to the credit of the Conservatives is wrong. This is a joint plan that bears the imprint of the Lib Dems.

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Posted in Conference | Tagged glasgow conference 2013 | 7 Comments

The Independent View: A liberal democracy must protect all people from the state. Support Emergency Motion 2 on Legal Aid

By Helen Mountfield QC & Nick Armstrong | Sat 14th September 2013 - 8:55 am

Last week Chris Grayling, the Minister for Justice, responded to 16,000 consultation objections, with changes to his criminal legal aid proposals. He conceded that someone who’s been arrested should be able to choose their solicitor; and criminal representation shouldn’t be just about price, but quality too.

You may think justice has been saved. But it hasn’t. Far from it. Which is why we are asking you to urge your conference voting reps to choose the Legal Aid Motion (Emergency Motion 2) for debate.

Because Chris Grayling is still removing legal aid and access to justice from whole groups of people, defined by …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged autumn conference 2013, emergency motions and legal aid | 3 Comments

Nick Clegg – “The clouds are lifting. We need to look people in the eye and say – we got it right”

By Andy Boddington | Sat 14th September 2013 - 8:01 am

Speaking to the Independent, Nick Clegg is upbeat:

We need to be unabashed about the fact that we have played a vital, even pivotal, role in saving the British economy and a leading role in providing fairness in the tax, education and skills systems and greening our economy for the future.

Clegg gives a list of Tory proposals that the Lib Dems have vetoed. Among them are a recent attempt to cut planned child care provision for two-year-olds; a 40p top rate of income tax; cuts in inheritance tax for the rich; workers being “fired at will” without good reason; state schools being run for profit; a divisive two-tier examination system; and regional pay for public sector workers.

We need to explain that this country would be very different indeed – in my view a lot less fair – if the Conservatives had been left to their own devices.

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Posted in Conference and News | Tagged featured, glasgow conference 2013 and nick clegg | 32 Comments

Jeremy Browne MP writes… Proud of our record in Government

By Jeremy Browne MP | Sat 14th September 2013 - 6:50 am

The fundamental question for Liberal Democrats gathering for conference is this: are we proud of our Government or ashamed of it?

I think we should be proud.

The Coalition Government came together in 2010 when Britain was in deep trouble. We had been hit by an economic shockwave. The last Government was borrowing a ruinous £450 million extra every single day.

We also faced serious problems which held our people back and threatened our future prosperity. Entrenched inter-generational poverty and welfare dependency needed to be tackled head-on. School standards had fallen behind our international competitors, wasting the talent of our young people and …

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | Tagged coalition government and glasgow conference 2013 | 21 Comments

Liberal Democrat Voice Awards: The shortlists (8): Political Broadcaster and commentator

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 13th September 2013 - 8:00 pm

The Liberal Democrat Voice Awards are but 26 hours away. At 10 pm on Saturday 14 September, in Castle 2 of the Crowne Plaza, with cash bar on hand, and an imaginative dress code, the best in blogging, campaigning, social media and politics in general will be feted in a ceremony filled with razzmatazz, glitz and glamour.

And so we come to the end of the shortlists we’ve been drip feeding you for nearly a week now. The final categories are political broadcaster and political commentator (print/online) of the year. The nominations were submitted either via the Summer members’ survey or …

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Posted in News | Tagged Liberal Democrat Voice Awards 2013 | 2 Comments

Conference Comment: Is Nick Clegg “worse than Michael Foot”?

By Newsmoggie | Fri 13th September 2013 - 5:11 pm

If you only read the Independent, it would be grim news. The paper reports that Lord Oakeshott popped his head above the parapet to tell Parliament’s The House magazine that Nick Clegg is “worse than Michael Foot”.

We have to accept that Nick’s ratings have been poor and have been for a long time. You’ve got to be frank that his ratings are down at levels which, if you go back, were only seen by Mrs Thatcher shortly before she left and Michael Foot.

Well, that’s his view and the Telegraph’s venerable Benedict Brogan dismisses it outright:

His views have been discounted to irrelevance from over-use. We’ve heard it all before, from him.

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Posted in News and Op-eds | Tagged general election 2015 and glasgow conference 2013 | 116 Comments

Martin Horwood MP: Trident – A Different Path

By Martin Horwood | Fri 13th September 2013 - 4:03 pm

Few aspects of British policy have remained so undisturbed for so long as the UK’s attitude to nuclear deterrence. As we bring home our troops from Germany, tying up one of the last loose ends in a Cold War conflict that Britons under the age of 40 can probably barely remember, it would be wise for our nuclear policy to finally catch up.

This is not a new idea for us. In opposition, Liberal Democrats opposed Tony Blair’s plan for early like-for-like replacement of Trident nuclear weapons and we did so on the basis that a system designed to counter the existential threat from the twentieth century Soviet Union is not sensible in the early twenty-first century.

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Posted in News | Tagged featured, nuclear disarmament and trident | 11 Comments

Conference: The Coalition and Beyond – Liberal Reforms for the Decade Ahead

By Louise Shaw | Fri 13th September 2013 - 3:02 pm

Liberal Reform’s first publication – The Coalition and Beyond : Liberal Reforms for the Decade Ahead is an interesting, thoughtful and practical guide to ideas the party needs to be looking at the next few years, through the rest of the coalition and beyond.

We’ve had some really great contributions, from people within and outside the party with liberal credentials. It’s been remarked already how many different levels of the party have contributed to this – from Parliamentarians, to PPCs and ordinary activists and members. We did have this aim in mind, so are pleased with the result.

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Posted in Conference | 1 Comment

Conference Preview: Monday 16th September

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 13th September 2013 - 2:36 pm

This is the third part of my wander through the conference agenda. You can find Saturday’s here and Sunday’s here.

First up on Monday morning is a debate on the new Liberal Democrat approach to race equality. The motion argues that it’s really important to develop targeted strategies for each under-represented or discriminated-against group to tackle the issues which are specific to them. It calls for measures on things like school exclusion, university recruitment, equality monitoring for every organisation in receipt of public money and diversity in the school curriculum.

A massive confrontation on the economy?

The media will bill the debate on …

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Posted in News | Tagged autumn conference 2013 | 6 Comments

Opinion: Vince Cable is right to question the wisdom of Help-to-Buy

By David Gray | Fri 13th September 2013 - 2:03 pm

All policies have winners and losers. The inevitable consequence of policy-making is that some people in the country must lose out; it is the Government who must decide who this will be when they are passing laws. Which is why, on the surface, few scrutinised George Osborne’s help-to-buy scheme when it was introduced in the form of an Equity Loan in April of this year. The idea of giving people help to buy new build homes is one that has no immediate losers. But in the long run, we will all pay the price.

The housing market has crashed before, and it will crash again if house prices go back the days of increasing at an alarming rate. It is not a sustainable model and it is one that contributed heavily to the UK staying in recession for longer than most. The worrying thing is that Osborne is ignoring this recent history for short-term political gain. Booming house prices are frequently reported in the media as being ‘healthy’, whereas the reality is anything but. The reality is mortgages that will take a lifetime to pay off, placing a huge burden of debt on an entire generation.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged housing | 10 Comments

Conference: Emergency Motion – Home Office Immigration Poster Vans and Attitude to Migrant Communities

By Merlene Emerson | Fri 13th September 2013 - 1:03 pm

I was a witness at an Immigration tribunal hearing earlier this year for a friend. Let’s call her Little Red. She came to the UK from China as a masters student and worked for the NHS on graduation. But following a painful divorce she found she no longer had the right to work and live in the UK. Little Red has appealed the Home Office’s decision but is still waiting for an answer. Hers is merely one case in half a million back log of cases currently with the Home Office or in the appeals system.

At a packed meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Migration at the House of Commons on 9th July, I met a Welsh lady who had responded to their enquiry. She recently became a grandmother and her new grandson was only two weeks old at the time. But as her daughter did not earn more than £18,600 per year, she could not sponsor her non-EU spouse under the Family Migration Rules that came in a year ago. It was heart breaking to see a young family torn apart.

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Posted in Conference | Tagged glasgow conference 2013 and immigration | 4 Comments

Conference: Nuclear power – the raw politics

By Mike Tuffrey | Fri 13th September 2013 - 12:03 pm

Will the Lib Dems ditch their historic opposition to nuclear power? That debate is set to be one of the main flashpoints at the Glasgow conference. New polling evidence – published here for the first time – shows the outcome will affect support among key voter groups – ‘our market’, as the jargon goes – with all that means for key seats and the overall result of the next election.

Of course the debate itself will be about technical details: how nuclear technology can be called safe when no solution has yet been found for waste that remains lethally radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years; whether the promise of no public subsidy can be true if Brussels has to approve funding guarantees as “state aid”; and how renewables will ever gain critical mass if the high costs of nuclear crowds out resources and public funding for newer technologies?

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | Tagged glasgow conference 2013 and nuclear power | 10 Comments

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #343

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 13th September 2013 - 11:29 am

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 343rd 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 September, 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

Stephen Tall guests on Guardian Politics Weekly podcast – Lib Dem conference preview

By The Voice | Fri 13th September 2013 - 11:05 am

LibDemVoice co-editor Stephen Tall joined the panel for this week’s Guardian Politics Weekly podcast, hosted by Hugh Muir and also featuring Guardian columnists Seumas Milne and Anne Perkins. They preview the Liberal Democratic party conference; Ed Miliband’s reception at the TUC; and Boris Johnson losing the plot at the London assembly. There’s also a contribution from Lester Holloway from Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats, highlighting the party’s continuing difficulties in getting MPs elected from diverse backgrounds.

You can listen to it here online, or download it as an MP3 here.

Posted in News | Tagged anne perkins, guardian politics weekly, hugh muir, lester holloway and seumas milne | Leave a comment

Menzies and Paddy on coalition politics and the election

By Andy Boddington | Fri 13th September 2013 - 10:03 am

In today’s Guardian, Menzies Campbell says that Nick Clegg has turned the corner and his role as leader is no longer under threat:

Coalition politics is not for the faint-hearted. Nor is leadership, as Nick Clegg will tell you. As he contemplates his fourth party conference as deputy PM, his thoughts, and his leader’s speech, need to be turning to the general election, now less than two years away. He can do so with more confidence than 12 months ago. Last year’s atrial flutterings over his leadership have died away. His policy of differentiation between the Liberal Democrats and their Tory partners has become overt and even reciprocated.

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Posted in Conference and General Election | Tagged 2015 election and glasgow conference 2013 | 17 Comments

Buying votes – Lord Tyler on the Lobbying Bill

By Paul Tyler | Fri 13th September 2013 - 9:05 am

Concerted non-party campaigns now weave more citizens together than the parties can dream of, and raise a lot of money in the process. They do so not with intensely political ‘values’, but with a chance to pit ‘the people’ against ‘the politicians’ on a given issue. For better or worse, this has a broader appeal than the starkly partisan campaigning we are used to.

The challenge Parliament has to deal with is what all this means for elections, in which non-party groups may increasingly express a preference for one party, or even a group of parties, over the others. Whether it is a group of farmers and rural residents coming together in an association, or a trade union, or a big email list of broadly left-wing people, it is only right and natural that together such organisations should be able to say whom they most support to defend their views and interests. The question is whether the wealthier organisations – or even maverick millionaires – should be able to drown out the poorer ones. I strongly believe they should not.

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Posted in Op-eds and Parliament | Tagged featured and lobbying bill | 7 Comments

Caron’s guide to the craziness of Conference – updated

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 13th September 2013 - 8:36 am

Federal Conference is probably the best fun that you will ever have in your life. You will thoroughly enjoy every exhausting moment. If you’re new, it can be a bit overwhelming until you get used to the sensory overload. I had a long break from going to them and when I returned, two years ago, I spent the first day wandering round like a child in a toy shop.

So, with that in mind, I thought I’d throw together a fairly random list of tips and hints for getting the best out of the annual cornucopia of Liberal Democracy.

1. Plan your

…

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Posted in News | Tagged autumn conference 2013 | 3 Comments

Liberal Democrat Voice Awards: The Shortlists (7): Blog of the Year

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 12th September 2013 - 7:00 pm

The Liberal Democrat Voice Awards are but three days away. At 10 pm on Saturday 14 September, in Castle 2 of the Crowne Plaza, with cash bar on hand, and an imaginative dress code, the best in blogging, campaigning, social media and politics in general will be feted in a ceremony filled with razzmatazz, glitz and glamour.

Our illustrious judging panel has completed its work. Our thanks go to George Eaton, the editor of the Staggers Blog at the New Statesman, Christine Jardine, journalist, commentator and former Liberal Democrat Special Adviser and recent candidate for Aberdeen Donside, Mark Thompson, last year’s …

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Posted in News | Tagged Liberal Democrat Voice Awards 2013 | 2 Comments

Danny Alexander MP writes… Trident: The UK’s voice on an international issue

By Danny Alexander MP | Thu 12th September 2013 - 5:20 pm

I believe Trident is the UK’s last, unreformed bastion of Cold War thinking. And I believe we can adapt our nuclear deterrent to the threats of the 21st century by ending 24-hour patrols when we don’t need them and procuring fewer submarines.

This is the conclusion I draw from the Trident Alternatives Review that the Coalition Government published in July – a Review that clearly would not have happened without Lib Dems in Government.

But when the Review was published, some of our critics claimed any changes to Trident would seriously damage our relationship with the US. …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged barack obama, shirley williams and trident | 25 Comments

Opinion: Apprenticeships all across the UK are changing the lives of young people. I should know, because I’m one of them

By Callum Morton | Thu 12th September 2013 - 3:43 pm

I was told growing up that going to University was the pinnacle of all human achievement, that it would set me up for life. I didn’t do well in my A-levels and university became out of my reach, so I began working in students’ unions instead. Now, as an apprentice in Tom Brake’s office, I am gaining knowledge, developing new skills and working towards a qualification – all whilst making a difference in the local area. It has made me passionate to do more; I will be standing to be a councillor at next year’s local elections. I’ve come a …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged #FEparty and apprenticeships | 4 Comments

FREE: Extract of Paddy

By Helen Duffett | Thu 12th September 2013 - 3:20 pm

Aurum Press, the publishers of Paddy Ashdown’s bestselling autobiography A Fortunate Life, have released a chapter of the book for free download.

It’s called 1983 – The Winning of Yeovil, and as I wrote in 2009:

MP also stands for Military Precision, so it’s no surprise that Paddy Ashdown’s campaign to become MP for Yeovil was long on discipline and short on creature comforts.

If you haven’t packed a book for the train to Conference yet, 1983 – The Winning of Yeovil is vital reading for all Liberal Democrat campaigners. And as is typical of the Chair of the Party’s …

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Posted in Books and News | Tagged aurum press and paddy ashdown | 2 Comments

Sarah Ludford MEP writes… Emergency Motion 6 will promote Schedule 7 reform and protect civil liberties

By Sarah Ludford | Thu 12th September 2013 - 2:54 pm

The last time I wrote a piece for Lib Dem Voice I asked for the assistance of conference voting reps to ensure that party conference debates the detention of David Miranda and the reform of Schedule 7 of the Terrorism 2000 – Labour legislation – under which he was detained.

A very big thank you to those who responded with support for Emergency Motion 6: Schedule 7 of Terrorism Act 2000 to be in the ballot for debate in Glasgow next Wednesday (Sep 18th from 9:00 to 10.30, item F38). I’m sure the handsome volume of signatures – due …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged #ldconf, sarah ludford and schedule 7 | Leave a comment

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Recent Comments

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