Liberal Democrat Voice

Morrissey Inquiry into Party processes and culture

By The Voice | Wed 12th June 2013 - 4:00 pm

Liberal Democrat Chief Executive Tim Gordon has just emailed Party members about the Helena Morrissey Report, published at 4pm today:

Today Helena Morrissey published the report of her independent inquiry into allegations made in February that the Party had failed to respond adequately to complaints and warnings of alleged sexual harassment.

You can find Helena’s full report here.

The report concluded – and the Party has accepted – that, despite recent improvements, and despite the fact that the report is clear that those with whom issues were raised acted in good faith, it failed to deliver the procedures needed in a modern

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Facing the world

By Maelo Manning | Wed 12th June 2013 - 12:12 pm

Cissy Nasande is facing a potentially life changing operation on 15 June but is most concerned to stress how nice the British medical and charity staff are who tend to her. It is at moments like this in our friendship that I am reminded about how life can be just about compassion and kindness and is not always about politics.

Cissy has a severe facial disfigurement. A growing bone tumour is pushing her right eye forward. ‘Facing the World’, a wonderful charity for children with severe facial disfigurement, has brought Cissy …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged facing the world | Leave a comment

The Lib Dem narrative dilemma: forget about 2010, start looking forward to 2015

By Stephen Tall | Wed 12th June 2013 - 9:50 am

We Lib Dems are past masters of the squeeze message. “The Tories can’t win here: vote Lib Dem to keep Labour out”; “Labour can’t win here: vote Lib Dem to keep the Tories out”.

But since 2010 we have become the victims of a just-as-vicious squeeze message. Labour says: “Lib Dems are propping up a toxic right-wing Tory government pushing through disgraceful policies (which we will quietly sign up to later — viz cutting child benefit for wealthier parents — once we’ve capitalised on public anger).” …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged featured, narrative, neil stockley and nick clegg | 53 Comments

Michael Moore MP’s Westminster Notes

By Michael Moore | Wed 12th June 2013 - 8:53 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.

The Queen

Last week, the Queen celebrated 60 years on the throne since her coronation in 1953. She has been a dedicated servant of the nation throughout these years and I am sure everyone in the Borders will want to join me in congratulating her on reaching this milestone. It was a real pleasure to meet representatives from my constituency in Dover House who had travelled to London for the thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey.

Referendum

As the debate surrounding …

Posted in Op-eds, Parliament and Scotland | Tagged Michael Moore and Westminster Notes | Leave a comment

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In Pictures: Malcolm Bruce’s 30th anniversary dinner

By NewsHound | Tue 11th June 2013 - 6:47 pm

On Sunday we brought you news of the dinner in Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, to celebrate Malcolm Bruce’s 30th anniversary as MP for Gordon.

We can now bring you a photograph of the assembled company taken on the night.

VIPs included every leader that there has ever been of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Malcolm, Jim Wallace, Nicol Stephen, Tavish Scott and Willie Rennie, David Steel and Navnit Dholakia, our Deputy Whip in the Lords and our Commons Chief Whip Alistair Carmichael. You can also just about see the top of LDV …

Posted in News | Tagged jenny marr, malcolm bruce and stephen rodan | 1 Comment

Opinion: Gender quotas are the sensible way forward

By Flo Clucas | Tue 11th June 2013 - 5:01 pm

‘In every aspect of life in which women are undervalued, under-represented or exploited we are dedicated to achieving equality.’ (from the Preamble of the Constitution of Liberal Democrat Women)

John Stuart Mill would have been outraged that, in the second decade of the 21^st century, women are still under-valued, exploited and under-represented, for it was he, speaking in the House of Commons in May 1867, who advocated votes for women.

Yet, here we are 150 years later, still trying to have equality in our society. Yes, we have women’s suffrage, but at the present rate of change, we will not have a gender balanced Parliament until 2050.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged Liberal Democrat Women and women | 42 Comments

The ins and outs of the Snoopers Charter

By Mary Reid | Tue 11th June 2013 - 3:19 pm

You may be forgiven for being confused over whether the Snoopers Charter (aka the Communications Data Bill) is in or out.

Back in December Julian Huppert reported that the Joint Committee that was looking at the Bill had unanimously agreed that it would have to be significantly amended to be acceptable. In an article in the Independent he wrote: “We have gone through the Home Office proposals – and the results are damning. The Bill as it is simply cannot proceed. ”

In April, Nick Clegg vetoed the Bill, and

Posted in News | Tagged communications data bill, featured, home office and snoopers charter | 4 Comments

Opinion: Decriminalising drugs

By Joe Bourke | Tue 11th June 2013 - 2:15 pm

The 2011 Liberal Democrat conference passed a motion calling for all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs to be scrapped, the introduction of a regulated market in cannabis, and the expansion of heroin maintenance clinics for the most fervent users.

The UK Drugs Policy Commission (UKDPC), published its final report in 2012. According to UKDPC, the cost of implementing current policy on illicit drugs is at least £3bn a year, but a lack of evidence for what works and provides value for money, and politicians’ unwillingness to act on available …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged drugs and drugs policy | 13 Comments

Review of North Sea oil and gas

By Mary Reid | Tue 11th June 2013 - 12:30 pm

Ed Davey, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, has launched a review of the North Sea oil and gas industry, headed by Sir Ian Wood.

In the Financial Times, Ed Davey is quoted as saying:

I expect it to say tough things to industry, as well as be supportive, and say tough things to government as well. Our offshore infrastructure is getting older, and we are seeing a decline in the rate of exploration and in the amount of oil and gas that is being recovered.

Posted in News | Tagged edward davey, north sea gas and north sea oil | 2 Comments

Lib Dem MP Sir Robert Smith takes Yeo’s place as Energy and Climate Change Committee chair

By Stephen Tall | Tue 11th June 2013 - 11:15 am

Sir Robert Smith, Lib Dem MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, has been named today as interim chair of the Energy and Climate Change Committee following Tim Yeo’s decision to step down while allegations he used the role to help a private company influence Parliament are being investigated. Here’s the committee statement issued this morning:

The committee has unanimously accepted the chair’s recommendation that he absent himself from committee business for the duration of the investigation of the parliamentary commissioner for standards, following his self-referral at the weekend.

The committee

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Posted in News | Tagged energy and climate change select committee, paul goodman, select committees, sir robert smith and tim yeo | 3 Comments

LibLink: Lynne Featherstone – Gender equality and empowerment are crucial in the fight against world poverty

By Mary Reid | Tue 11th June 2013 - 10:46 am

Lynne Featherstone, the International Development Minister, has written an article for The Herald, reflecting on progress since the G8 in Gleneagles in 2005.

She writes:

In 2005, Scotland hosted the G8 in Gleneagles where world leaders made the historic pledge to “Make poverty history”.

Eight years on, the UK is again hosting leaders, this time in Northern Ireland, so it seems appropriate to reflect on how far we’ve come in reaching that goal.

I am particularly proud that we have helped 5.3 million children have a primary school education and will have improved access to

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged dfid, G8 and lynne featherstone | 2 Comments

Opinion: Prisoner voting rights

By Tom Nicholson | Tue 11th June 2013 - 8:55 am

This week, the Supreme Court is considering the legality of the Government’s ban on prisoner voting. A majority of MPs are set against even limited suffrage for prisoners. The idea makes David Cameron “physically sick” and Jack Straw believes “those who break the law cannot make the law.”

Many supporters advance the same perfectly sound arguments, particularly from a human rights perspective. But a strong, pragmatic case for full prison enfranchisement can also be made by assessing this most populist of policies against the aims of sentencing in the criminal …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged prisoner voting | 9 Comments

National carers week 2013

By Norman Lamb MP | Mon 10th June 2013 - 8:57 pm

At some point in our lives, almost all of us will find ourselves caring for a relative or close friend. Many of us will one day be reliant on some form of care ourselves. We owe our carers an immense debt of gratitude. In this week’s National Carers Week, individuals and organisations are joining together to highlight the invaluable work carried out by UK carers and to raise the profile of the nature and challenges of the role.

For too long, the care system in the UK has been designed around the needs of large organisations rather than around …

Posted in News | Tagged carers | Leave a comment

Opinion: We must resist illiberal responses to the Woolwich murder

By Prateek Buch | Mon 10th June 2013 - 6:04 pm

The Social Liberal Forum is urging Nick Clegg to continue resisting the pressure from Conservative and Labour Parliamentarians for a “Snooper’s Charter” as a result of the murder of Lee Rigby in Woolwich.

At our recent Annual General Meeting, the SLF passed a motion urging the Liberal Democrat leadership to “resist all intimidation and blandishments by the Conservatives and others to support such legislation and to retain our outright and… to campaign vigorously against all threats to restrict our long-held liberties and rights from unauthorised State surveillance.”

Condemning the murder in …

Posted in Op-eds | 6 Comments

Well done, Ed Balls. He’s opened up space for a proper welfare debate. Lib Dems now need to claim that space.

By Stephen Tall | Mon 10th June 2013 - 3:45 pm

Ed Balls has done us all a favour. His announcement last week that if he were Chancellor he would put a stop to winter fuel allowances for well-off pensioners means Labour has joined the Lib Dems in saying we need to focus the welfare budget where it’s needed most, not keep on re-distributing from the worse off to the better off in the name of universalism. It’s why I chose him as my 38th Liberal Hero.

And yesterday he was at it again, highlighting quite how much of the welfare budget the state pension represents — some £74 …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged bedroom tax, ed balls, housing benefit, legal aid, nick clegg, pensions, steve webb, triple lock, welfare, welfare reform and winter fuel allowance | 13 Comments

Lib Dem Nevis – sponsored Ben Nevis climb to fund an HQ internship

By Glyn Ley | Mon 10th June 2013 - 3:10 pm

Last week, our party President Tim Farron wrote on Lib Dem Voice about the party’s intentions to fundraise and pay all interns who work at Lib Dem HQ. I think this is fantastic news and something I support. He did however raise the issue that implementing this policy – so that everyone is able to take up an internship regardless of their financial circumstances – could mean fewer internships are available for people to take up. About 18 months ago I wrote an article on here where

Posted in News | Tagged fundraising and unpaid internships | 1 Comment

The Tories’ biggest headache

By Joe Otten | Mon 10th June 2013 - 12:46 pm

Iain Martin in the Telegraph asks “Is Nick Clegg the Tories’ biggest headache?“. Once you get past the heartwarming bitterness, Nick is roundly praised with not-so-faint damnation, for blocking one right wing policy after another.

Mr Cameron remains pragmatic about the antics of his deputy, say colleagues. Some other Tories are much less relaxed. “Our backbenchers have really had it with Clegg now,” admits one minister. An MP from the Tory Right said that Number 10 was “supine” and far too eager to please the Deputy Prime Minister. “Why does our leadership spend so much of its time placating Clegg

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Posted in News | Tagged nick clegg | 36 Comments

Opinion: Choose Life

By Tahir Maher | Mon 10th June 2013 - 10:27 am

The spring conference at Brighton 2012 proposed a motion (F20) on Medically Assisted Dying which was carried and I was the only one who spoke against it. Now Lord Falconer has introduced a Bill on Assisted Dying for which I feel compelled to make a case against. On the wall at Lib Dem head office it say “The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity“.The motion and …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged assisted dying | 23 Comments

A personal guide to the 13 most essential political podcasts

By Stephen Tall | Mon 10th June 2013 - 8:45 am

Commuting is a major part of my daily life, so I find podcasts are an essential way to make use of time I’d otherwise spend staring vacantly out the window or idly refreshing and re-refreshing Twitter. Here, in order of where they appear in my iTunes directory, are the podcasts I listen to most frequently…

The Economist’s podcasts – a good mix of audio recordings of selected articles from the print edition together with brief discussions involving the Economist’s expert correspondents. Slightly irritatingly the sound can vary between recordings, so you …

Posted in News | Tagged alistair cooke, anne mcelvoy, bbc radio 4, carolyn quinn, emma burnell, featured, george eaton, great lives, guardian politics weekly, helen lewis, house of comments, isabel hardman, jon pienaar, letter from america, mark thompson, matthew parris, media show, new statesman, news quiz, now show, peter oborne, pienaar's politics, podcasts, rafael behr, sebastian payne, simon cox, steve hewlett, steve richards, sue cameron, the economist, the spectator, the view from 22, tom clark and westminster hour | 8 Comments

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #329

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 9th June 2013 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 329th 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 (2-8 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:

Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment

LibLink: Charlotte Henry – How can the Liberal Democrats cure its ‘woman problem’?

By NewsHound | Sun 9th June 2013 - 5:30 pm

Over at the Telegraph, Lib Dem blogger and former London Assembly candidate Charlotte Henry takes a look at the Lib Dems’ ‘woman problem’ in the light of the recent publicity concerning allegations against Portsmouth South MP Mike Hancock and former party chief executive Lord (Chris) Rennard. Here’s an excerpt:

The Lib Dems need to get more women elected at every single level, of that there is no doubt. It is galling to still walk into party meetings with barely any women, or to still see male dominated panels at party conference. … All that said, it should be noted that the

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged charlotte henry, chris rennard, mike hancock and women liberal democrats | 8 Comments

Charles Kennedy MP writes…

By Charles Kennedy | Sun 9th June 2013 - 3:29 pm

Charles Kennedy and Malcolm Bruce today celebrate 30 years as MPs for their constituencies. They have both issued messages to mark the occasion. Here is Charles’.

This coming Sunday will mark thirty years of serving Ross, Cromarty and Skye; Ross, Skye & Inverness West and currently, Ross, Skye & Lochaber. Through the many boundary and name changes it’s a continued privilege to serve the largest and arguably one of most beautiful constituencies in the country. The last three decades have brought have a wealth of issues to the constituency table; from the building of the Skye Bridge, ensuring the continuation of …

Posted in News | Tagged charles kennedy | Leave a comment

Malcolm Bruce MP writes: The unlimited variety of 30 years in Parliament

By Malcolm Bruce | Sun 9th June 2013 - 2:28 pm

Malcolm Bruce and Charles Kennedy have issued messages to mark their 30 year anniversaries as MPs. First up, Malcolm’s:

Thirty years ago this weekend, I was elected as Member of Parliament for Gordon – for the first time and at the third attempt. It had taken nine years of sustained campaigning. I was of course exhilarated and excited but little realised that that was the first of seven successful elections.

Campaigning has changed beyond recognition. Then we had 60 plus public meetings and there was no Facebook or Twitter. Technology was limited too. Then there were no mobile phones, no e-mail and …

Posted in News | Tagged malcolm bruce | 1 Comment

Farron backs ‘Get Better, Get British’ campaign to get more UK food into our hospitals

By The Voice | Sun 9th June 2013 - 12:30 pm

Farmers Weekly reports:

Liberal Democrat president Tim Farron has called for a parliamentary debate based on Farmers Weekly’s campaign to get more UK food into our hospitals. Mr Farron, who is also MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, launched an early day motion in support of the Get Better, Get British campaign on 5 June. The motion calls for MPs to debate the issue at the earliest opportunity and calls on the Department of Health and DEFRA to support the campaign’s aims.

And here is early day motion …

Posted in News | Tagged agriculture, farmers weekly, hospitals and tim farron | 4 Comments

Clegg and Rennie congratulate Bruce and Kennedy on 30 years in Parliament

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 9th June 2013 - 12:00 pm

Two senior Liberal Democrat parliamentarians have been celebrating 30 years representing their constituencies in parliament. Sir Malcolm Bruce MP for Gordon and Charles Kennedy MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber both thanked constituents and Liberal Democrat party members this weekend for their support.

They have both marked the occasion with events in their constituencies. I travelled to Inverurie on Friday to attend a dinner in honour of Malcolm. His wife Rosemary had organised a few surprise guests for him too. The evening had no fewer than …

Posted in News | Tagged charles kennedy and malcolm bruce | 3 Comments

Unpaid internships: Tim Farron replies

By Tim Farron MP | Sat 8th June 2013 - 1:01 pm

Two weeks ago we published an open letter to Tim Farron on the subject of unpaid internships. Here is his reply.

Dear Friends,

Firstly thank you for your letter and thank you for bearing with me while I was away for a few days with Rosie and the children. I wanted to make sure I gave you a proper reply rather than a few rushed lines.

In my meetings with Liberal Youth and the campaign group InternAware I was asked about the party and internships. I promised at the time that I would personally not employ people as unpaid interns. My staff …

Posted in News | Tagged tim farron and unpaid internships | 24 Comments

Ashcroft’s latest poll: a couple of interesting findings about the Lib Dems

By Stephen Tall | Sat 8th June 2013 - 10:35 am

Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft — who spends more on polling than all three main political parties combined — published the latest of his surveys yesterday.

It contained little good news for his party: ‘Perceptions of the Conservatives have been eroded further … This is the price we have paid for spending half a year talking amongst ourselves.’ And none of the party leaders would’ve been much chuffed by public perceptions of them, though Nick Clegg comes off worst, ‘ the weaknesses of the other two, being “weak”, “out of his depth”, and “out of touch” all at the same time.’

One finding caught my eye, asking which outcome at the next general election the public would most like to see:

Posted in News and Polls | Tagged lord ashcroft | 39 Comments

The LDV Friday Five: 7 June 2013

By Helen Duffett | Fri 7th June 2013 - 5:00 pm

It’s Friday. It’s five o’clock. Here’s a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week:

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

The “affair” is none of our business – but how did it get in the papers anyway? (53 comments) by Caron Lindsay
Mercer affair can only help Nick Clegg’s quest for lobbying transparency and recalling MPs (9 comments) by The Voice
Would PR spell the end of the Liberal Democrats? (32 comments) by The Voice

Posted in Friday Five | Leave a comment

Op-eds

What does a Lib Dem “trans activist” look like? (Caron Lindsay)
Winning back a generation starts with fixing the broken student loan system (Tom Gordon MP)
Welcome to my day: 21 September 2026 – time to clean up our politics? (Mark Valladares)
What I would have said about homeless children at Conference (Suzanne Fletcher)
Caron’s kitchen table diary (Caron Lindsay)

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What does a Lib Dem “trans activist” look like?

Caron’s kitchen table diary

Victoria Collins MP writes.. The ask that changes everything

To get Britain growing, we must cut business costs

Morrissey Inquiry into Party processes and culture

Facing the world

The Lib Dem narrative dilemma: forget about 2010, start looking forward to 2015

Michael Moore MP’s Westminster Notes

The Queen

Referendum

In Pictures: Malcolm Bruce’s 30th anniversary dinner

Opinion: Gender quotas are the sensible way forward

The ins and outs of the Snoopers Charter

Opinion: Decriminalising drugs

Review of North Sea oil and gas

Lib Dem MP Sir Robert Smith takes Yeo’s place as Energy and Climate Change Committee chair

LibLink: Lynne Featherstone – Gender equality and empowerment are crucial in the fight against world poverty

Opinion: Prisoner voting rights

National carers week 2013

Opinion: We must resist illiberal responses to the Woolwich murder

Well done, Ed Balls. He’s opened up space for a proper welfare debate. Lib Dems now need to claim that space.

Lib Dem Nevis – sponsored Ben Nevis climb to fund an HQ internship

The Tories’ biggest headache

Opinion: Choose Life

A personal guide to the 13 most essential political podcasts

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #329

LibLink: Charlotte Henry – How can the Liberal Democrats cure its ‘woman problem’?

Charles Kennedy MP writes…

Malcolm Bruce MP writes: The unlimited variety of 30 years in Parliament

Farron backs ‘Get Better, Get British’ campaign to get more UK food into our hospitals

Clegg and Rennie congratulate Bruce and Kennedy on 30 years in Parliament

Unpaid internships: Tim Farron replies

Ashcroft’s latest poll: a couple of interesting findings about the Lib Dems

The LDV Friday Five: 7 June 2013

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

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What does a Lib Dem “trans activist” look like?

Caron’s kitchen table diary

Victoria Collins MP writes.. The ask that changes everything

To get Britain growing, we must cut business costs

The Queen

Referendum

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

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