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Know someone in local government who deserves an award?

By The Voice | Tue 30th July 2013 - 1:52 pm

The ALDE Group in the Committee of the Regions has launched the third edition of the awards for key liberal players at regional and local level. This year’s awards ceremony will be held on 4th of December in Brussels.

Both the national board of ALDE and EDP member parties as well as their local branches can submit nominations of persons that are considered to be suitable candidates for such an award, accompanied by a small motivation. Nominations need to reach the ALDE Secretariat by 30th September 2013.

There will be 2 categories of awards:

Local Leader of the Year

Regional Leader of the Year

Each …

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Posted in Europe / International, Local government and News | Tagged awards, europe and Local government | 2 Comments

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Gideon Keynes – The Memoirs

By David Allen | Tue 30th July 2013 - 11:42 am

I got all my best lines from comedians and opponents. It began on Oleg’s yacht, when I bet the Prince of Darkness a grand he couldn’t invent me a policy more blatantly bogus than “Neo-Classical Endogenous Growth Theory”. After a few vodkas, Peter came up trumps. “Expansionary Fiscal Contraction!” he spluttered, between giggles. I cunningly insisted on sole rights to the phrase, and paid up.

Next – gulp – we won. We were in The Thick of It – you remember, that comedy Tony wrote under an Italian pseudonym, which he kept secret until his trial at The Hague in 2022. …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged humour | 21 Comments

Phil Willis praises 111 service

By NewsHound | Tue 30th July 2013 - 9:57 am

Phil Willis has praised the 111 service in York for the excellent service he received recently. Speaking in the House of Lords yesterday he said:

On June 9 I had reason to call 111 because I was having a heart attack.

The response from 111 was not only excellent in York – not only at the same time did they call the paramedics, but they had me in hospital within 25 minutes to an absolutely superb accident and emergency.

He was responding to a Private Notice Question posed by a Labour peer: “To …

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Posted in News | Tagged 111, NHS Direct and phil willis | 4 Comments

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

By Stephen Tall | Tue 30th July 2013 - 8:00 am

We’re more than three years in. What started in the Rose Garden has turned into a bed of thorns. The quieter summer weeks are as good a time as any to reflect on the key lessons the Lib Dems need to learn from this stint in government. Who knows? We may have a second chance after 2015: best to plan ahead now to avoid the obvious pitfalls we fell into this time (tuition fees, NHS Bill, secret courts) as well as to max-out the successes we’ve delivered (tax-cuts for the low-paid, the ‘pupil premium’, new apprenticeships).

Over the next few days, we’ll be running a daily feature, ‘Lessons of Coalition’ to which those of us who contribute to LibDemVoce will be adding. But we welcome reader contributions as well. 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]. Here’s mine for starters…

Stronger policy development and campaigning on issues that matter to the public (AKA where’s our liberal equivalent of the benefits cap?)

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged bedroom tax, benefits, featured, immigration, lessons of coalition, Mark Pack and welfare | 42 Comments

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Parking and poster vans provoke Coalition differences

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 29th July 2013 - 9:24 pm

There are some open differences of opinion going on in the Coalition Government at the moment. Eric Pickles was taken to task by our Norman Baker over his idea to allow people to park on double yellow lines.

The Guardian says:

Asked about the plan, Baker said on Monday that “both sides of the coalition” wanted high streets to prosper and that he agreed that over-zealous action by traffic wardens could be a problem.

But he also expressed reservations about Pickles’s idea. “The idea of actually having cars parked for a very long period of time on a double yellow line

…

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Posted in News | Tagged immigration, norman baker, parking, poster vans and sarah teather | 12 Comments

No more leverage or transformation

By Mary Reid | Mon 29th July 2013 - 3:00 pm

Some years ago my portfolio as a Cabinet member in Kingston Council included Communications. My first act was to set about enforcing the use of Plain English in all communications between the Council and residents. Although leaflets had been subjected to scrutiny, and many had won the Crystal mark, hundreds of standard letters were still written in ‘councilese’. So with the officers I set up a Better Letters campaign, which named and shamed the worst, and awarded plaudits to the most improved letters, as well as providing advice.

One of my favourite sentences appeared in the standard letter telling residents about …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged gov.uk and jargon | 11 Comments

Lib Dem members on David Ward: majority say his comments were wrong – but majority also say party wrong to suspend him

By Stephen Tall | Mon 29th July 2013 - 2:50 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.

We asked about the party’s decision to suspend the whip from Bradford MP David Ward. This followed controversy in February when ha made controversial comments about Jews (David Ward summoned by Clegg after ‘Jews’ comments – BBC) and then again in July when he tweeted calling Israel an “apartheid state” and saying that “Zionists” were “losing the battle (MP David Ward has Lib Dem whip withdrawn over Israel comment – BBC).

54% say David Ward’s comments were wrong; but 53% say party was wrong to withdraw whip

Lib Dem MP for Bradford East David Ward has had the party whip temporarily withdrawn following controversial comments he has made regarding Israel. Which of these statements most closely matches your own view?

21%

17% – I think the whip should remain withdrawn until he apologises for his comments

16% – I disagree with his comments but oppose the whip being withdrawn

37% – I oppose the whip being withdrawn and support his right to continue speaking out in this way

8% – Don’t know

An interestingly split response. While a clear majority of Lib Dem members disagreed with David Ward’s comments (54%, summing the first three options), a clear majority also oppose the decision of the party leadership to remove the whip until at least 13th September (53%, summing the third/fourth options).

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged david ward and israel | 7 Comments

How Ed got down on one knee to propose to Russell

By Mary Reid | Mon 29th July 2013 - 10:52 am

Last week Lib Dem Voice reported the engagement of Ed Fordham and Russell Eagling, long time Lib Dem activists, which was the first same sex engagement to be announced in the Births, Marriages and Deaths column of The Times. This fact had been mentioned by Julian Huppert during the final Commons debate on the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, to an amusing put-down by the Speaker.

The Independent followed this up on Friday with a delightful full page article (with a beautiful photo) about the couple under the heading: Gay marriage …

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Posted in News | Tagged ed fordham, equal marriage and russell eagling | Leave a comment

Opinion: Pies, GM pies, and statistics

By Andy Boddington | Mon 29th July 2013 - 9:00 am

Public opinion is swinging in favour of GM crops and foods, but are Lib Dem voters really leading the pack?

Here on Lib Dem Voice in June, Baroness Kate Parminter said that it is the duty of the government to take into account public opinion when deciding whether to give the go-ahead to GM crops and food. It now seems that public sentiment is shifting in favour of GM food.

A survey published by the Independent last week suggested that 42% …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged genetically modified and GM food | 13 Comments

Chickens, eggs, Twitter and report abuse buttons

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 28th July 2013 - 8:30 pm

In the last 24 hours, over 40,000 people have signed an e-petition calling on Twitter to install a “report abuse button.” This was started after journalist Caroline Crialdo-Perez suffered numerous tweeted threats of rape and sexual assault in the wake of her successful campaign to have Jane Austen put on a bank note. Shewrote for the Independent about her experience both of the abuse and the support she’d received in return. Ishould warn you that if you click on the link you will see some examples of the tweets she was sent:

These are all tweets from men. Men who

…

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Posted in News | Tagged caroline crialdo-perez, communication, internet abuse, misogyny, sexism and twitter | 14 Comments

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #336

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 28th July 2013 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 336th 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 (21-27 July, 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

LDV’s Sunday Best: our 7 most-read articles this week

By The Voice | Sun 28th July 2013 - 2:30 pm

Many thanks to the 15,000 unique visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

Opinion: Cameron’s porn ban – what does it mean? by Iain Roberts (42 comments)

POLL EXCLUSIVE: What Lib Dem members think will happen in 2015 and what we want to happen in the event of a hung parliament by Stephen Tall (47 comments)

Labour MP for Tottenham tells residents: wait until September for help by Mark Pack (15 comments)

The good news on university applications in 5 graphs by Stephen Tall (29 comments)

Exclusive: Liberal Democrats: “Go home” poster vans “disproportionate, distasteful and …

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Posted in Site news | Tagged site news | Leave a comment

Vince Cable: “Go home” poster vans “stupid and offensive”

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 28th July 2013 - 12:55 pm

Those of you who have not been willing to take the word of senior Liberal Democrat sources on those notorious poster vans, and have been waiting for a minister to say something will not be disappointed by Vince Cable’s comments on today’s Andrew Marr show:

It’s stupid, as Trevor Phillips said, the idea that illegal immigrants have got a sophisticated grasp of English, read at a distance and I think it is offensive. It is designed, apparently to create a sense of fear within the British population that we have a vast problem with illegal immigration. We have a problem, but

…

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Posted in News | Tagged andrew marr show, bbc, economy, housing, immigration and vince czable | 22 Comments

Majority of Lib Dem members back monarchy – but 40% would prefer UK to become a Republic

By Stephen Tall | Sun 28th July 2013 - 11:45 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.

44% want Charles as King, 9% prefer Wills: 40% want neither

Thinking about the future monarch, which of the following would you prefer?

44%

9% – Prince William should succeed as King after Queen Elizabeth II instead of Prince Charles

40% – Neither – there should be no monarch after Queen Elizabeth II

6% – Don’t know

By 53% to 40%, our sample of Lib Dem members opt for monarchy over a republic. As ever, though, those headline figures include a span of opinion revealed in the comments.

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged monarchy, prince charles, prince william, royal family and the queen | 17 Comments

Nick Clegg’s Letter from the Leader: It’s Summer – back to work

By The Voice | Sun 28th July 2013 - 10:40 am

This week, Nick’s focus is on the Liberal Democrats’ Million Jobs campaign. He talks about his experience shadowing an apprentice in a pharmacy in his Sheffield constituency. We’re glad he reassured us that his work was carefully double and triple checked. Find out what other Liberal Democrat MPs are up to in their areas…

This summer, Liberal Democrat MPs and Peers are going back to the shop floor and finding out what it is like to be an apprentice.

For my part, I spent some time last week

…

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Posted in News | Tagged letter from the leader and million jobs campaign | 6 Comments

Jo Swinson tells media to leave Kate’s weight alone

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 28th July 2013 - 9:14 am

Round about the middle of the Duchess of Cambridge’s pregnancy, I remember seeing an article in a newspaper suggesting that her bump wasn’t big enough for the stage she was at. I remember thinking that that was such a cruel thing to write. So she might have a doctor on hand to reassure her that everything was absolutely fine with her baby. That might not be the case for another pregnant woman sitting at home. who might be caused anxiety by reading something like that.

Of course, I knew then that …

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Posted in News | 22 Comments

What’s being debated in our members’ forum this week?

By The Voice | Sat 27th July 2013 - 2:55 pm

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:

Reasons the Lib Dems will find it difficult to continue the Coalition

…

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Posted in Site news | 2 Comments

The ingenious humour of the British public vs the Home Office

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 27th July 2013 - 10:30 am

Yes, I know I’ve banged on a bit about these awful Home Office poster vans this week, but bear with me. This is funny.

I said at the time that we needed some sort of original and creative way of protesting against them. Really, they were crying out to be mocked. The internet has not disappointed.

Liberal Conspiracy has a few examples, although it should be noted that it’s not found the time within its articles on this subject to mention the Liberal Democrat opposition to the vans, nor that they were never cleared by any Liberal Democrat minister.

The #racistvan …

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Posted in News | Tagged home office poster vans, immigration and twitter | 4 Comments

After Lembit: Lib Dems in Montgomeryshire select Jane “Fresh Start” Dodds to win back former liberal stronghold

By Stephen Tall | Sat 27th July 2013 - 8:55 am

The parliamentary constituency of Montgomeryshire had been a Liberal stronghold since 1880, bar four years in Margaret Thatcher’s first term. The seat of former Liberal leader Clem Davies was, however, lost by 1,184 votes to the Tories in 2010 after a massive 13% swing against three-term MP Lembit Opik.

Returning Montgomeryshire to the Liberal fold is, therefore, a top Lib Dem target in 2015. And this week the party took an important step by selecting a new candidate, Jane Dodds, and billing her candidacy as A Fresh Start:

Liberal Democrats in Montgomeryshire

…

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Posted in Selection news | Tagged jane dodds, lembit opik and montgomeryshire | 8 Comments

2 gains from Labour on Merseyside – and very nearly a third

By Simon Shaw | Fri 26th July 2013 - 3:45 pm

Winning a council seat in Merseyside off Labour would be a significant achievement. Winning two on the same day would be virtually unheard of.

Yesterday, in Maghull, Sefton MBC, Merseyside, Lib Dems won two seats off Labour and came within 9 votes of winning a third. The by-elections concerned took place in three adjacent seats on Maghull Town Council.

Maghull Town Council, 8 miles to the North West of Liverpool City Centre, is the largest civil parish in the country and levies a Band D council tax precept of nearly …

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Posted in News | Tagged council by-elections, Local government and maghull | 41 Comments

Lib Dem publish latest accounts, shows £410k deficit and party membership down to 42,500

By Stephen Tall | Fri 26th July 2013 - 2:20 pm

The latest set of accounts for the Lib Dems have been published – I’ve uploaded it at the foot of this post. Here are 5 points that struck me I read through the document.

1) The party ended 2012 with a £410k deficit

The party recorded a £410k deficit, with £6m income and £6.4m expenditure. This is noted as a “disappointing result” and ascribed to the late receipt of a substantial legacy donation “which would have brought the result down to something much nearer to break-even”. Yet legacies are by their very nature unpredictable: it’s not something we can rely on this year. Ideally the party needs to break even on its regular incomings/outgoings and then be able to use windfalls for investment.

2) Membership falls again: it’s now 42,501, down 34% since 2010

“As at December 2012 there were 42,501 members of the Party.” This is a further 13% drop since last year, and a massive 35% drop since the heights of Cleggmania in 2010. What’s clear from the chart, though, is that this is in reality a continuation of a decline in membership evident over the past 15 years, which I explored here last year:

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Posted in News | Tagged donations (Lib Dem), featured, party membership and statement of accounts | 41 Comments

Finally, the media pick up on Coalition split on offensive poster vans

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 26th July 2013 - 1:30 pm

There’s a big lesson to learn from the offensive poster van fiasco this week. Sometimes we Liberal Democrats, including me, can be quick to feel a dividing line between those inside the Whitehall Bubble and the rest of us. This week, we spoke with one voice. Liberal Democrats inside Government were every bit as livid as those of us outside at the presence of these vans on our streets. With their stark message “Go home or face arrest”, illustrated by handcuffs, they can only inflame tensions in communities.

We now know that the Tories have pulled a fast one on us. …

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Posted in News | Tagged catherine bearder, featured, home office, home office poster vans, immigration, media, meral hussein ece and tim farron | 23 Comments

Opinion: Where does the Trident debate go from here?

By Steve Coltman | Fri 26th July 2013 - 12:29 pm

In the Spring of 2011 I submitted a motion to conference. It was not selected for debate:

Conference notes that:

(i) The Coalition agreement states: “We will maintain Britain’s nuclear deterrent and have agreed that the renewal of Trident should be scrutinised to ensure value for money. The Liberal Democrats will continue to make the case for alternatives.”

(ii) Conference in September last year resolved, among other things, to: “Press for the extension of the SDSR to allow a full review of the alternatives to ‘like-for-like replacement of Trident.”

(iii) The final decision on a replacement for the Vanguard-class submarines has been deferred to

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged defence and trident | 20 Comments

Mixed by-election results – joy in Maghull, commiserations in Kingston

By The Voice | Fri 26th July 2013 - 11:20 am

So, who says the Liberal Democrats can’t take seats off Labour in the north?

Actually, we can. In Maghull, just north of Liverpool, two wards of the town council turned from red to gold and another came within 9 tantalising votes of doing the same. Our vigorous campaign won a 20% swing from Labour.

And, it seems, those fabulous Liberal Youth people were on the case, too.

Was great to be out earlier campaigning in Maghull. We had a full committee room with average age of about 25 – lots of @liberalyouth peeps.

— James King (@jamesinoxford) July 25, 2013

Well done …

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Posted in Local government and News | Tagged by-election results and Local government | 12 Comments

EXCLUSIVE: Nick Clegg’s ratings get a boost & 55% of party members want him to lead party in 2015

By Stephen Tall | Fri 26th July 2013 - 9:50 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.

Nick Clegg’s ratings recover to +18%, best in over a year

What is your view of Nick Clegg’s performance as Lib Dem leader?

44% – Satisfied

Total satisfied = 58% (+10%)

20% – Dissatisfied

20% – Very dissatisfied

Total dissatisfied = 40% (-8%)

2% – Don’t know / No opinion

When we last polled party members on their view of Nick Clegg’s performance as Lib Dem leader, in March 2013, he had a rating of -2%. This was only the second time perceptions of Nick within the party had dipped into the negative zone. July’s rating sees his position recover significantly to +18%. That’s Nick’s best rating since June 2012 (when it was +19%).

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged featured and nick clegg | 27 Comments

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #335

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 25th July 2013 - 8:30 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 335th 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 (14-20 July, 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 | 1 Comment

IFS say marriage tax break is symbolic and of little benefit to children.

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 25th July 2013 - 3:45 pm

Liberal Democrats generally don’t need to be persuaded that the Tories’ marriage tax break idea, on which they’d like to blow half a billion quid, is an ineffective and entirely wrong-headed idea.

However it’s always useful to have more ammunition against it. The Telegraph reports that the Institute of Fiscal Studies take the view that education and wealth of parents is far more significant to children than whether their parents are married:

Research shows that children whose parents are married make better progress at school and are more emotionally stable than those whose parents co-habit.

However, the IFS has found that this

…

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Posted in News | Tagged don't judge my family, Institute of Fiscal Studies, marriage tax break and telegraph | 5 Comments

A very important baby boy born in London

By NewsHound | Thu 25th July 2013 - 2:12 pm

Congratulations to Caroline Pidgeon, Leader of the Liberal Democrats on the London Assembly, who gave birth to a baby boy this morning!

He weighed in at 7lb 11oz at 9.51am. Everyone is doing well.

Posted in News | Tagged Caroline Pidgeon | 6 Comments

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Recent Comments

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