Here at LDV towers, we often receive offers of work which do very little to persuade us that the author either knows what this site is about, or is able to write reasonably correct English.
The following is typical. I have removed names.
Hello Blog Owner,
Hope the day is treating you well!
My name is ______, an Internet Marketer.
While searching on internet, I came across your blog and read 3 of your quality posts and got really impressed with it. I think you’re doing a great job and making your readers happy and better than they were.
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 330th 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 (9-15 June, 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:
Paddy Ashdown went on Murnaghan to say in no uncertain terms that now was not the time to be even talking about arming Syrian rebels and cautioned against any actions which could sound like a “Desist or we send our arms” message to Assad. The problem with that approach, he said, is that if you make a threat, you have to carry it out or nobody will ever believe what you say again.
I’ve been busy on Storify this morning. My tweets summarising his comments are here. Here’s a selection:
.@paddyashdown: At this point, arming rebels would be an
This week saw the Lib Dems launch a major new campaign: A Million Jobs for a Stronger Economy. As a party we have a habit of launching major campaigns and then letting them peter out. Remember the ‘John Lewis economy’ for instance? Or that we were the ‘one nation party’ before Ed Miliband? If not, you won’t be alone. So it’s encouraging that the party’s Million Jobs campaign is scheduled to run for a year — the minimum necessary for it to get any traction — and …
The Liberal Democrat Press Office Twitter account rather optimistically thought that Nick Clegg was going to be talking about the party’s new Million Jobs campaign. As it happens, the G8 summit, snoopers’ charter and Syria took up all the time available.
On Syria, he said that any intervention should be thought through carefully and worked out on an international basis. He described the idea that Britain could solve things by unilateral military intervention as “fanciful.”
On the Snoopers’ Charter, he repeated his stance that the idea of keeping every website we visit is both disproportionate and unworkable and that knee jerk …
Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander did the rounds of the TV studios yesterday to promote the Coalition’s actions to increase tax transparency. You can see his BBC News interview here. On Channel 4 meanwhile, he was also quizzed about whether he thought the UK should help arm Syrian rebels: he said the case was unproven that would help the country at this time:
Today’s Sunday Times front page (£) splashes with a ‘Cash for peerages row hits Clegg’ headline. The reality is slightly less exciting: Rumi Verjee, a prominent donor to the Lib Dems, is apparently top of the list of seven names put forward for peerages:
Rumi Verjee, a multimillionaire who brought the Domino’s pizza chain to Britain, is top of a list of seven names compiled by the Lib Dems who are expected to be awarded honours within weeks. He has given £770,000 to the party since May 2010. … Verjee
Following on from the stunning success of the Carmichael Twinterview , I recently caught up with Jo Swinson for a bit of 140 character Q and A. Here is our chat, pretty much in full.
CL: First up: Have you recovered from your anaphylaxis incident? What should people know about how to help if someone has an attack?
JS: Yes thanks, all better! Talk to family/friends with allergies so you know their triggers to avoid, and if you have an EpiPen, carry it!
CL: Good. How are you enjoying being a minister?
JS: Loving it! To be able to deliver Lib Dem priorities like shared parental leave & extending flexible working is both exciting & rewarding
CL: What are you proudest of in your first 8 months?
JS: Introducing the legislation on shared parental leave is top of the list. Also extractives transparency so we know about govt payments from oil/gas industry.
CL: And many members will be interested to know about your work on pubs..
JS: We’ve launched a consultation on creating an Adjudicator.
CL: What will the Adjudicator do? How will that benefit landlords and customers?
JS: The idea is to ensure that the Code of Practice is adhered to so there is greater fairness: we’re keen to hear people’s views on this
CL: You’ve been talking to postmasters recently. What did you say to them?
JS: I enjoyed the postmaster conference. It’s tough in retail just now, including POs, but we’re investing & have strong plans for future.
CL: Post offices are safer now than they’ve been for a while, aren’t they?
JS: Yes, no closure programmes under this govt, £1.34billion investment instead! We do need to modernise the network & mutualise it too I hope.
CL: And you are tackling payday lenders, too..
JS: Yes – I recently announced tough action. OFT clamping down & FCA gets stronger enforcement powers from April.
CL: How do you reckon Willie’s done in his first two years as leader? What should he do next?
JS: Brilliantly – #thankswillie! Continue taking the fight to Salmond & ensuring the Scottish Lib Dems punch well above our weight in Holyrood.
CL: Are you heading up to Donside to help our candidate Christine Jardine in the by-election?
JS: Yes, I’ve been rejigging my diary so that I can make a couple of visits. Christine is a fantastic candidate!
CL: Tell us something we don’t know about her.
JS: She used to teach journalism at Strathclyde University and one of her students was my good friend & bridesmaid, Hilary.
CL: Small world! Why would she be a good MSP?
JS: She has a wealth of experience: as a broadcaster, writer, activist, and a mum. Just the kind of passionate, determined voice Donside needs.
CL: How’s the Campaign for Body Confidence going?
JS: From strength to strength! I’m continuing Lynne’s great govt work on this – with new workstreams on role of fathers & health visitors.
CL: That sounds really interesting. I read something about airbrushing practices changing.
JS: Boots said that acceptability of airbrushing in adverts has changed and ASA changed guidance too in 2011.
CL: Any advice for aspiring women candidates who might be inspired to follow in your footsteps?
JS: Stand for election: you can help indviduals & your community, develop new skills & it can be good fun! Lots of help & advice available
CL: What are your hopes for the new Lib Dem Women organisation?
JS: Lib Dem Women will be a formidable force! I wish the new organisation the best of luck – we need a strong voice for women in the party.
CL: And, finally – Mr Carmichael told us his panda obsession helps to relieve stress. How do you relax?
JS: I find running relaxing and I love the way my mind wanders when out for a run. East Dunbartonshire has lots of gorgeous routes.
CL: Alistair also shared his favourite You Tube video. What’s yours?
JS: I do love Isabel Fay’s take on internet trolls. Warning: contains examples of offensive posts.
Nick Clegg has indicated that he will not change his position on the so called “snoopers’ charter” despite calls for him to do so by four former home secretaries. A group of politicians, including Liberal Democrat peer Lord Carlile wrote to the Times (£) to say that the Bill was necessary:
It has always been a requirement, and always will be, that such intrusive intercepts are subject to time-limited warrants. Their use is guided by a strict criterion of necessity and proportionality, and are only permitted to protect national security and counter serious criminal conduct. We find it odd
I’m leafing through the 2,077 photos I’ve taken so far of Turkey’s protests. Having sat down to shed a ‘liberal’ light on what’s happening here, I realize I may make a further claim to your attention: I am seeing, as it were, both sides of the coin.
Watching protests in Beşiktaş, Taksim & Gezi Park, marching to the outskirts of Istanbul & being pepper-sprayed is one side. Working in a conservative, pro-government school where colleagues refer to protestors as “terrorists” and tut gruffly every time Taksim gets mentioned is the other.
The Queen’s Birthday Honours have been announced and so far we are aware of four Liberal Democrats who feature. There may well be more and we will update you as the day goes on.
The first Voice congratulations go to Sir Andrew Stunell who receives a knighthood for public and political service. Andrew has served this party in many capacities. I first knew him back in the 90s when he worked for ALDC and I’m glad to see his service at all levels of Government being recognised.
Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats Kirsty Williams becomes a CBE. She has led the …
Vince Cable emailed party members last night kicking off the Party’s “A million jobs for a stronger economy” campaign. This is what he said:
This campaign will promote the fact that Liberal Democrats in Government have helped business create more than one million private sector jobs. Our ambition is to help create a million more new jobs.
Most people would put jobs high on their list of priorities at the moment. Even if they are retired themselves, they will have family or friends who may be at risk of redundancy or who are unemployed at the moment. This weekend sees the launch of a major new Liberal Democrat campaign, A million jobs for a stronger economy. Its twin aims are to highlight the fact that with the Liberal Democrats in Government a million jobs have been created and to campaign for a million more.
This is an ambitious campaign that’s going to last for a year. The …
The most important thing the party needs to do is recruit new volunteers. We all know it, and everyone talks about it.
But Devon and Cornwall are doing it.
This week they’ve organised recruitment training evenings in key seats. And this Saturday, as part of the National Day of Action on Jobs there will be a Regional Action Day in North Cornwall which will include practical training in recruitment.
This training isn’t just talk. After a short session of training, with scripts giving examples of what to say, they involve practical on-the-job training. In other words, going out and actually putting it into …
Helena Morrissey is a businesswoman, not a lawyer. She brings to our party her experience of functional and dysfunctional organisational practices, and a sympathetic, listening ear.
After a long, hard look at our organisation, our internal party culture, and our values, she finds us broadly well intentioned, but structurally deficient. Chiefly, we fail to have widely advertised, open and transparent procedures in place to deal with a clear organisational risk: abuse of power.
As a member of the parliamentary staff of the Lib Dems and a PPC, I applaud Helena Morrissey. When you read the report you will see that she has …
On 5th July, Tory MP James Wharton’s private member’s bill — laying out Conservative plans for an in-out referendum on the EU in 2017 — will get its second reading.
The Tories are on a three-line whip to support it (very unusual for a private member’s bill). Labour has confirmed they’ll shun the vote, branding the bill “a gimmick, a political stunt”. The Lib Dem parliamentary party will decide its position in a couple of weeks’ time, but is likely to abstain with …
Lib Dems in Kingston have been left shocked by the sudden resignation of council leader Derek Osbourne following his arrest on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children.
The news broke on Wednesday, with the local paper reporting a statement by Cllr Liz Green, acting leader of Kingston Council: “Derek Osbourne has resigned from the Liberal Democrat group. We are deeply shocked by these allegations but I am unable to comment further as we must now allow the police the time and space they need to investigate the allegations thoroughly and without prejudice.”
My co-editor Stephen Tall has already published his first thoughts and a follow up post outlining where praise is due, which I agree with pretty much entirely. I’ve now emerged from my trip to London and subsequent burial under a pile of things that need to be stuffed into envelopes to add a few random thoughts of my own.
“A missed opportunity”
Norman Lamb started to draw up procedures for dealing with harassment in 2003. This work was never completed. Morrissey says:
I offered my first impressions of Helena Morrissey’s independent report into the Lib Dems’ culture and practices here yesterday, based on a skim-read and hearing Helena’s presentation of it at a media briefing.
I read the report in full (available online here) on the train home last night. I recommend it to all Lib Dems, and indeed anyone interested in how organisations can totally mess up when dealing with delicate internal issues.
It’s an excellently written, fair-minded, balanced and practical report which understands the idiosyncratic nature of …
There are few more popular Lib Dem MPs — among the ranks of party members — than Cambridge MP Julian Huppert.
It’s not hard to see why. He stands up for civil liberties, and as a scientist (indeed, the only MP with a science PhD in the House of Commons) he is keen on evidence and a rational approach to policy-making. On both grounds, he is unpopular with those Labour and Tory MPs who regard such behaviour as a tiresome intrusion on their evidence-free, and often authoritarian, prejudices.
How do we know he’s unpopular? Because some of their number have taken …
On Tuesday the European Parliament voted through an interim report calling for greater European cooperation to tackle organised crime, corruption and money laundering in the EU.
Hundreds of billions of pounds worth of taxes are lost every year across Europe due to organised crime, as well as millions of legitimate jobs which have been taken from hard-working citizens. Fraud, counterfeiting, smuggling and cyber-crime all have a drastic impact on the economy and are undermining efforts to promote jobs and growth. Britain is particularly affected, with half of Europol’s investigations into organised crime having links to the UK.
Choice is a funny thing. I spent seven months studying how it worked in practice when I was running the Barriers to Choice Review for the Cabinet Office.
Despite the rhetoric from parts of the left, I believe that people can improve public services by being able to choose between different providers.
I’m also only too aware how many people are excluded from that – by a lack of information or advice, by a lack of transport and any number of other factors.
Way back in May, Stephen Tall made Jo Swinson his 36th Liberal Hero of the week for her plans to make consumer rights more wide-ranging and easier to understand. She published her draft bill yesterday. The measures within it include:
a service to be re-performed or some money back, eg if 25 out of 100 photos of an event are substandard, you would get 25% of your money back;
rights over digital content, eg a streamed movie that keeps freezing;
The three acting c0-chairs of Liberal Democrat Women, Dinti Batstone, Tam Langley and Miranda Whitehead have issued a statement on behalf of the organisation giving their reaction to Helena Morrissey’s report on processes and culture within the Liberal Democrats.
We welcome today’s report by Helena Morrissey following her independent inquiry into the processes and culture of our party, and support in full the recommendations she makes for change.
The inquiry was prompted by the sexual harassment allegations against Lord Rennard, although it does not consider the truth or otherwise of the allegations, but rather how they were handled. Morrissey observes that, ‘Overall
Paddy Ashdown has been writing in the Guardian about what he considers should be the key principles underpinning any state intrusion into our communications, online or otherwise. First of all, he tackled the “nothing to hide, nothing to fear” argument:
Two stories jumped out at me this week as being deeply connected. Stephen Tall praisedEd Balls for not ignoring the huge chunk of welfare spending that goes to pensioners. Then, a new website from Public Health England reminded us of the country’s large health inequalities. These inequalities should give us extra cause to question the fairness of current spending on pensioners.
As Stephen wrote “Spending on the state pension will increase by nearly 20% in real terms between 2010–11 and 2017–18.” The challenge of an ageing population was present even before the financial crisis. It’s now …
I attended Helena Morrissey’s media briefing this afternoon, marking the publication of her independent inquiry report into the ‘culture and processes’ of the Lib Dems following the allegations of sexual impropriety levelled against the party’s former chief executive, Lord (Chris) Rennard.
I’ve not yet had chance to read the full report, so this post is based on a skim read only, together with Helena’s own summary of it to the assembled journalists.
First, Helena set the context: not simply of the specific allegations, but more widely of what she termed …
Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg has made this statement following the release of Helena Morrissey’s independent report into processes and culture within the Liberal Democrats and her recommendations for change:
I’m very grateful to Helena Morrissey for her very thorough report.
It makes sobering reading. It shows that stretching over a 20 year period a series of mistakes were made which left a number of women feeling seriously let down and for that there is absolutely no excuse whatsoever.
The report also shows that the individuals who dealt with their complaints had the right motives, but there weren’t the right processes
Steve Trevethan Thank you for a bravely honest article!
Might the “leadership” which took the L. D party into enforced student debts/loans have been confused about the i...
David Le Grice Weird that this appears to be the first LDV article about this, and the first time anyone in the parliamentary party has spoken up about it (as far as I'm aware...
Jack Delighted to see conference overwhelmingly reject the EHRC guidance (they don't deserve three quarters of that name - I accept they are a commission). People ar...
Geoff Reid Somebody had to say it eventual!y. Thank you Tom for inviting us to be honest on this matter....
Hywel Important point there Paul. For all the angst about 'lack of cut through' that has pretty much been the case for most of the time the LIb Dems existed except f...
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Councillor defies council to install hedgehog sign
My view on a bland Lib Dem conference
Fascism?
Steve Trevethan
David Le Grice
Jack
Geoff Reid
Hywel