Stephen Tall

David Cameron poaches Lib Dem tax-cuts idea. (But that’s not half as annoying as the Tory ideas my party’s trying to claim.)

By Stephen Tall | Wed 7th August 2013 - 8:00 pm

It’s amazing how much more popular with David Cameron the Lib Dems’ flagship policy of taking the low-paid out of income tax is these days… Just today he celebrated delivering an income tax cut for 25 million people and lifting 2.4 million low earners out of tax:

It’s all a bit of a contrast from the first 2010 televised leaders’ debate, when David Cameron argued the policy was unaffordable… unlike the Tories’ own proposals for raising the inheritance tax threshold to £1m or tax breaks for married couples, of course.

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Mary Reid

LibLink: Jo Swinson on payday loans and meeting the Archbishop today

By Mary Reid | Wed 7th August 2013 - 4:40 pm

jo swinson by paul walterYesterday Jo Swinson spoke about payday loans on camera to The International Business Times. We cannot embed the video on Lib Dem Voice, but you can watch it here.

She said that she and Vince Cable would be meeting the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rev Justin Welby, today to discuss  new  guidelines for credit unions. She stated:

My colleague and I, business secretary Vince Cable, are meeting the Archbishop of Canterbury on this issue. We are very keen that credit unions are expanded as they are important way of lending to a community that benefits local people.
…

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NewsHound

Alan Beith to step down in 2015

By NewsHound | Wed 7th August 2013 - 2:58 pm

Alan Beith, MP Berwick-upon-Tweed

Sir Alan Beith has announced that he will be standing down from Parliament at the next election, after serving Berwick upon Tweed as their MP for 42 years.

Nick Clegg said:

Sir Alan has been a huge figure in British and both Liberal and Liberal Democrat politics over an astonishing four decades.

The present generation of political leaders in Britain were barely out of nursery when Alan Beith was first making his mark on the floor of the House of Commons.

So it is little wonder that when Sir Alan speaks today, he commands the attention of all parties in Westminster.

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Mary Reid

Don Foster declares war on betting shops

By Mary Reid | Wed 7th August 2013 - 1:51 pm

don fosterOne of the lower profile motions on the agenda for Federal Conference in Glasgow is entitled ‘High Street Gambling’. It is relatively short and contains just two recommendations:

Conference therefore calls on Liberal Democrats in government to push for:
1. Betting shops to be put in a new separate planning use class, allowing local authority planning committees to control them
2. The Gambling Act to be amended to allow council licensing committees to take into account the cumulative impact of a proliferation of gambling activities when considering applications.

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The Voice

Nick Clegg’s Letter from the Leader: “Behind the scenes of ‘Call Clegg'”

By The Voice | Wed 7th August 2013 - 11:30 am

‘Nick Clegg effect helps LBC to record 1m listeners’ noted The Guardian last week — yes, the Lib Dem leader’s risky decision last January to host a weekly radio phone-in has proved a hit with the public. (“Imagine if we could do it with a politician who was popular,” side-swiped Nick’s co-host Nick Ferrari.) In this week’s letter Nick offers a behind-the-scenes video glimpse of the show…

libdem letter from nick clegg

I hope you’re having an enjoyable summer so far and getting some time to relax, enjoy the sunshine and enjoy time with family and friends.

This week I was back on LBC for my regular radio phone in show ‘Call Clegg’. I really enjoy doing it, and like the many town hall meetings I also do, it’s a great way to speak directly to the public.

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Michael Moore

Michael Moore MP’s Westminster Notes

By Michael Moore | Wed 7th August 2013 - 10:03 am

 Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland, Michael Moore MP, writes a regular column for newspapers in his Borders Constituency. Here is the latest edition. 

Surgeries and Shows

Over the past fortnight I have held my annual summer advice surgeries during which I have visited around 50 villages and communities across the Borders. These are an opportunity for me to hear the concerns of my constituents and are a highlight of my work as local MP.

In recent weeks I have also attended the annual rideouts, Common Ridings and Shows which take place across the Borders. This year’s have been as entertaining as …

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Posted in Op-eds, Parliament and Scotland | Tagged and | Leave a comment

Opinion: The Dark Satanic Wells of Fracking

By Andy Boddington | Wed 7th August 2013 - 9:03 am

Like many enthusiasts, I’m looking forward to the bombastic Last Night of the Proms, one month today. And I bet I’ll not be alone in bellowing out the words of England’s most popular anthem, Jerusalem.Blake Newton Fracking

Two centuries ago, William Blake began writing his epic poem Milton, including perhaps Jerusalem, while living in Felpham, Sussex. A few years later, he was back in London where the streets were being illuminated for the first time by gas lamps. The coal gas of Blake’s era gave way in the late 1960s to the cleaner supplies from the North Sea. Now we are witnessing the third coming of gas – hydraulic fracturing of shale. And this takes us directly back to Sussex, where protesters are mounting a blockade against fracking at Balcombe.

Green campaigners’ passions flare at any mention of fracking. The Campaign to Protect Rural England seems less certain that fracking is out of order, at least as a temporary energy fix. But it is at one with the Financial Times in believing that Balcombe is far from the best place to start. The drilling site is within the protected High Weald area of outstanding natural beauty and, even though the blockade is being led by eco-activists, most villagers say they are opposed to fracking in their parish.

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The Voice

Lessons of Coalition (9): what do the Lib Dems need to learn from the first 3 years?

By The Voice | Wed 7th August 2013 - 8:15 am

ldv coalition lessonsLibDemVoice is running a daily feature, ‘Lessons of Coalition’, to assess the major do’s and don’ts learned from our experience of the first 3 years in government. Reader contributions are welcome, either as comments or posts. The word limit is no more than 450 words, and please focus on just one lesson you think the party needs to learn. Simply email your submission to [email protected]. Today Rob Parsons shares his thoughts.

Understand the mechanics of government

Be grown up. It is possible to be grown up in politics, as exemplified by …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 9 Comments
Nick T

Falling living standards are a problem of Labour’s making

By Nick T | Tue 6th August 2013 - 5:25 pm

Making use of the slowest news month of the year, the Labour party has released details of a report which (shock horror) has shown that living standards have fallen as a result of the financial crisis and subsequent recession.

Of course, they don’t put it quite like that, choosing to blame the coalition rather than the bust they promised would never come. Here’s Chris Leslie, Labour’s shadow financial secretary to the Treasury (presumably Balls is on holiday…):

David Cameron will go down in history as a disastrous Prime Minister for people’s living standards. He is totally out of touch, his economic policies

…

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NewsHound

Tougher penalties for owners of dangerous dogs

By NewsHound | Tue 6th August 2013 - 4:36 pm

Dangerous_DogsUnder current legislation dog owners can only be prosecuted if their dogs attack people in public spaces. Recent cases of dogs causing serious injury in the home, where the owners cannot be prosecuted, have prompted the Government to look again at the 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act. Earlier in the year the Government undertook to change the law so that owners would be held responsible for an attack by their dogs wherever the attack took place.

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Paul Pettinger

Opinion: Why no UKIP Peers?

By Paul Pettinger | Tue 6th August 2013 - 2:17 pm

House of Lords chamberBy surrendering the principle of proportionality we surrender part of ourselves

The Coalition Agreement stated that “Lords appointments will be made with the objective of creating a second chamber that is reflective of the share of the vote secured by the political parties in the last general election”. It is therefore difficult to justify why UKIP, having secured over 3% of the vote at the last General Election and only currently having 3 of the over 500 Peers aligned to a political Party, has not been given the opportunity to have ennobled a cohort of Peers of its choosing. The same is true for other minor parties.

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Mary Reid

The Daily Mail gets it wrong again

By Mary Reid | Tue 6th August 2013 - 11:56 am

Parents and child - Some rights reserved by Ed YourtonThe Daily Mail still doesn’t ‘get’ the Liberal Democrats, although many of us take that as evidence that we must be doing something right.

According to the headline today Clegg tells new dads they must take a month off or get nothing: Deputy PM wants to follow Scandinavia’s lead to make sure fathers play a bigger role in childcare, Nick Clegg and the party have  apparently already adopted a policy that is to be debated in Glasgow next month.

So this presents us with another opportunity to explain how policy making works, or is supposed to work, in the Liberal Democrats.  A year or so ago the Federal Policy Committee set up a policy working group, chaired by the inestimable Claire Tyler, to look at work/life balance. They took evidence from a wide range of experts and organisations and have now published their policy paper entitled A Balanced Working Life: Policies for Low and Middle Income Households (pdf).

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Stephen Tall

15 things to look out for at the Lib Dem conference

By Stephen Tall | Tue 6th August 2013 - 10:55 am

The Lib Dems have published the agenda for our autumn conference — I’ve uploaded it to read at the foot of this post. It’s a pretty meaty agenda, too, with big issues up for debate. This, after all, is the penultimate autumn conference before the 2015 general election, which means it’s important for determining what makes it into the party’s manifesto.

I’ve skim-read the agenda this morning. It seems it can be read in alternative ways. My main impression was “How different is this to what a Conservative agenda would look like?” I don’t just mean that Lib Dem conferences give our members a real say in our policy-making (compare that with the Tories who won’t even publish their official membership numbers). I mean that if you look at the topics being discussed and the recommendations arising you wouldn’t for a moment confuse this with a party that’s a sub-set of the Tory party. Which is more or less the impression you’d get if you relied on Patrick Wintour’s reporting in The Guardian.

Anyway, here are 15 things which caught my eye based on a quick skim-read (so apologies in advance if I’ve missed out the bit you think’s most important):

1) Commitment to a living wage:

Saturday afternoon’s debate on policy motion F4, A Balanced Working Life, calls the establishment of an official living wage, one that it is paid by central government (with local government encouraged also to lead by example), and making companies that employ over 250 people be transparent about how many of their employees are not paid the living wage.

2) Extending free childcare:

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | Tagged , and | 16 Comments
Ed Wilson

Opinion: Who cares about the environment? The coalition doesn’t seem to

By Ed Wilson | Tue 6th August 2013 - 10:06 am

fishSunday’s Observer features two related stories (Revealed: how water firms are polluting our rivers and beaches and Ministers putting seas and marine life in peril) which suggest that the coalition does not plan anything more than a minimal response to major environmental problems and opportunities.

There is an opportunity for this government to act on ready-made recommendations from the sentencing council, from select committees and from a representative group of environmentalists and fishing industry interests. The “greenest government ever” seems likely to deliver either nothing at all or a merely pathetic set of proposals.

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The Voice

Lessons of Coalition (8): what do the Lib Dems need to learn from the first 3 years?

By The Voice | Tue 6th August 2013 - 8:15 am

ldv coalition lessonsLibDemVoice is running a daily feature, ‘Lessons of Coalition’, to assess the major do’s and don’ts learned from our experience of the first 3 years in government. Reader contributions are welcome, either as comments or posts. The word limit is no more than 450 words, and please focus on just one lesson you think the party needs to learn. Simply email your submission to [email protected]. Today Robin McGhee, co-treasurer of Liberal Youth, shares his thoughts.

We should organise ministers better

When entering coalition, Nick Clegg decided to spread out his party’s …

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The Voice

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #337

By The Voice | Mon 5th August 2013 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 337th 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 (28th July – 3rd August, 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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Joe Otten

Liberal Democrat Federal Conference agenda available

By Joe Otten | Mon 5th August 2013 - 5:06 pm

Autumn 2012 conference - Some rights reserved by Liberal DemocratsAgenda papers for the federal conference in Glasgow have been published. Within the theme of ‘a stronger economy in a fairer society, allowing everyone to get on in life’ there are policy motions on work life balance, green growth, learning and skills, fairer taxes, strengthening the economy, housing benefit, tackling sexual and domestic violence, racial equality, and more.

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Marie Jenkins

Opinion: Forget #twittersilence, we need to be #shoutingback

By Marie Jenkins | Mon 5th August 2013 - 3:23 pm

I read Kelly-Marie’s article about her ‘#twittersilence’ yesterday with great interest, and not just because I couldn’t believe that a Dr Who fan would be able to stay out of the twitter discussions on ‘Number 12’!

As a feminist, social-media addict and aspiring MP too, Kelly-Marie and I have much in common. However, it was for exactly those reasons that I decided to be part of the ‘#shoutingback’ crowd yesterday – those users who refuse to be intimidated by nasty people hiding behind their keyboards, spouting bile because they think that they can get away with it.

I’ve been utterly …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 10 Comments
Kelly-Marie Blundell

Opinion: Why I stayed off Twitter on Sunday (despite Doctor Who)

By Kelly-Marie Blundell | Mon 5th August 2013 - 12:59 pm

Lots of discussion was had about “#twittersilence” this weekend.

The premise is clear. Following the diabolical harassment of feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez, threats included the most heinous debasement, the threat of rape; feminists around the world pledged to go silent on Twitter for National Friendship Day.

As a feminist and social media user myself, as well as being an aspiring politician, I’ve experienced my fair share of offensive behaviour, comments and abuse. Indeed the downside of social media in society seems to be that it creates a form of mask through which people can hide in order to persecute and …

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Lester Holloway

Opinion: Zimbabwe election

By Lester Holloway | Mon 5th August 2013 - 11:47 am

The ‘Grave concerns’ voiced by William Hague over Zimbabwe’s election make clear their displeasure at Robert Mugabe winning a seventh presidential term. But would the result be any different were it not for voter fraud? Britain has implied this but not even opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai claims he really won.

The issue is not whether Mugabe stole the presidential election but whether he stole the all-important two-thirds majority in parliament which allows ZANU-PF to make constitutional changes. Tsvangirai lost because the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is a mess. There are two MDC’s, one run by Welshman Ncube, and many activists …

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Caron Lindsay

40 sleeps till the Liberal Democrat Voice Awards and we need your help

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 5th August 2013 - 10:25 am

Jo Swinson wins "Best use of e-campaigning 2009"It’s less than 6 weeks until Federal Conference in Glasgow. And late on the Saturday night of Conference, as always, Liberal Democrat Voice will be holding its annual awards. This is the 8th such ceremony, and this year, we’re making a few changes.  As usual, they’ll be awarded in a budget lavish ceremony in Castle 2 at the Crowne Plaza between 10 and 11:30 pm. The dress code is “imaginative.”

There will be some Very Important Guests. Some we will keep as surprises, but we can …

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Posted in Best of the blogs, Conference and News | Tagged and | 5 Comments
Jeremy Hargreaves

Opinion: Fairer taxes

By Jeremy Hargreaves | Mon 5th August 2013 - 9:20 am

You don’t have to talk to many people about tax these days before someone brings up how unfair it is that some of the biggest international companies and brands seem to be able to find ways of getting out of paying any.

And at the same time, many people are themselves feeling the financial squeeze in their own budgets.

So in preparing new tax policy for the party to debate at autumn conference, we have worked to create a fairer balance: a tax system which helps those on low and middle incomes, and ensures that the richest companies and individuals …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 26 Comments
The Voice

Lessons of Coalition (7): what do the Lib Dems need to learn from the first 3 years?

By The Voice | Mon 5th August 2013 - 8:04 am

ldv coalition lessonsLibDemVoice is running a daily feature, ‘Lessons of Coalition’, to assess the major do’s and don’ts learned from our experience of the first 3 years in government. Reader contributions are welcome, either as comments or posts. The word limit is no more than 450 words, and please focus on just one lesson you think the party needs to learn. Simply email your submission to [email protected]. Today Mark Pack  shares his thoughts.

The invisible ministers should up their game, or be sacked

For the start of both 2011 and 2012, I wrote …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 8 Comments
Ruwan Uduwerage-Perera

Opinion: Can anyone explain the Lib Dem obsession with potholes?

By Ruwan Uduwerage-Perera | Sun 4th August 2013 - 4:00 pm

Ruwan pot holingI read August’s AdLib today with much dismay. I wonder how many of us have found ourselves squatting beside a hole in the road, posing for a photograph, and subsequently pondered on why we weren’t voted in?

I completely understand the rationale of acknowledging local priorities and the important safety considerations of potholed roads, but are we getting our priorities right when we establish major campaigns over such mind-numbing issues?

Surely the focus on these little concerns, at the expense of far more important and life-altering policies, only diminishes LibDems in the perceptions of potential voters?

Do we really want to be viewed as pettifogging obsessives about the depth of tarmac when essential services such as schools, health, housing and social care are under threat?

Although I am repeatedly advised by the pundits and pollsters “This is what the focus groups are talking about” I do not find that this is the first concern on the electorate’s lips when we talk on the doorstep. Voters want to know about drops in local education standards, the lack of public transport to enable rural employment and, increasingly, the loathed bedroom tax.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 49 Comments
The Voice

Lessons of Coalition (6): what do the Lib Dems need to learn from the first 3 years?

By The Voice | Sun 4th August 2013 - 2:20 pm

ldv coalition lessonsLibDemVoice is running a daily feature, ‘Lessons of Coalition’, to assess the major do’s and don’ts learned from our experience of the first 3 years in government. Reader contributions are welcome, either as comments or posts. The word limit is no more than 450 words, and please focus on just one lesson you think the party needs to learn. Simply email your submission to [email protected]. Today Louise Shaw shares her thoughts.

One member, one vote for all party elections

Coalition has exposed and accentuated the differences between two powerbases within the …

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

What can be done about food waste?

By The Voice | Sun 4th August 2013 - 11:40 am

It is a little known fact that the European Union has a target for reducing food waste, aiming to reduce the 2011 level by half by 2020. Astonishingly, it was estimated that 89 million tonnes of food were wasted in 2011 across the European Union. As part of their efforts to reach their target, the European Commission have recently launched a public consultation on the subject.

In response, the House of Lords European Union Committee has launched an inquiry, seeking to establish a common understanding of the issue, identify and scrutinise proposed EU-level solutions, consider their implications and identify …

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Stephen Tall

Today’s #TwitterSilence – are you in or out?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 4th August 2013 - 9:30 am

For those of you who don’t inhabit the Twittersphere, many people today are taking part in a #TwitterSilence (that’s its hashtag).

It was the idea of Times columnist Caitlin Moran as “a symbolic act of solidarity” intended to shame Twitter into taking more seriously the rape/bomb threats and other abuse being targeted against women. You can read her blog about it here.

I’m not taking part. I summarised my reasons here:

My Co-Editor Caron Lindsay wrote an excellent piece on the topic here last week. And Index on Censorship’s Padraig Reidy has written an excellent response to Caitlin Moran, highlighting how the well-intentioned desire to limit the free speech of people who abuse it can have damaging consequences:

A lot of time spent defending free speech is not actually about defending what people say, but defending the space in which they can say it (I’ll refrain from misquoting Voltaire here). It may be idealistic, but we genuinely believe that given the space and the opportunity to discuss ideas openly, without fear of retribution, we’ll figure out how to do things better. Censorship holds society back. In fact, it’s the litmus test of a society being held back.

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Stephen Tall

What Lib Dem members think about The Morrissey Report into alleged sexual harassment within the party

By Stephen Tall | Sun 4th August 2013 - 8:15 am

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum  to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. More than 600 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

79% of Lib Dem members support Morrissey Report

helena morrissey reportThe independent Morrissey Inquiry, set up by the party following allegations of sexual impropriety against the party’s former chief executive Lord Rennard (which he denies), reported in June. Are you broadly aware of the report and its recommendations?

    67% – Yes

    28% – No

    5% – Don’t know

How effectively do you think the party has communicated the findings of the Morrissey Report?

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged , and | 20 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dem members back plain cigarette packaging, but more evenly divided on minimum alcohol pricing

By Stephen Tall | Sat 3rd August 2013 - 4:45 pm

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum  to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. More than 600 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

Two-thirds of Lib Dem members back plain cigarette packaging

Do you support or oppose banning brightly coloured branding and packaging for cigarettes and introducing plain packs?

    40% – Strongly support
     
    26% – Tend to support

    Total support = 66%
     
    17% – Tend to oppose
     
    11% – Strongly oppose

    Total oppose = 28%
     
    5% – Don’t know

Two-thirds of Lib …

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NewsHound

LibLink | Maajid Nawaz – ‘Education. For me it’s personal.’

By NewsHound | Sat 3rd August 2013 - 2:25 pm

maajid-navazWe reported here 2 weeks ago that Maajid Nawaz has been selected as the Lib Dem candidate for the ultra-marginal three-way Hampstead and Kilburn seat. This week sees him write for the local Camden New Journal newspaper, focusing on education. Here’s an excerpt:

If we desire a society in which every child is given the opportunity to fulfil their potential, regardless of their economic background, the development of an education system capable of supporting this is crucial.

This is why I’m so proud that the Liberal Democrats in government have fought hard to

…

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