Caron Lindsay

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #325

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 12th May 2013 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 325th 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 (5-11 May, 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
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Libby Local

Libby Local – The Final 2 Episodes: “Election Day!”

By Libby Local | Sun 12th May 2013 - 2:15 pm

Since last October, the pseudonymous Libby Local has been keeping LDV readers up-to-date with her first-time attempt to win Demsbury Central in Libbyshire. Here’s the 16th and penultimate episode…

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIt was mid-afternoon on Thursday and the grumbling old man at the bar shouted across to me: “Who’s your candidate?”

I was feeling exhausted and didn’t need this intrusion from a man who had just announced that he had voted UKIP.

The day had begun at 5am with letters delivered through letterboxes of hard-to-reach and wobbling voters. The post run also …

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Posted in News | 3 Comments
Mark Valladares

Next week in the Lords: 13-16 June… God bless Her Majesty!

By Mark Valladares | Sun 12th May 2013 - 11:21 am

House of Lords chamberAfter the pomp of the Queen’s Speech, comes the dissection of its content. Of course, that’s not all that gets done, so let’s dive into the week ahead…

Monday sees the debate on elements of the Speech relating to business, economy, local government and transport, whilst crossbench peer, Baroness Young of Hornsey has a particularly salient oral question, seeking a view on how UK clothing sector retailers might ensure that people working throughout their supply chains enjoy safe and secure working conditions in light of the Rana Plaza disaster.

On …

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Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged , , , and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Clegg leadership plot: Gove’s ‘crazy grenade’ detonates, briefly, before Tories revert to arguing about Europe

By Stephen Tall | Sun 12th May 2013 - 11:05 am

Hats off to Mr Gove! With the Tory party in its customary state of internecine warfare over Europe, the education secretary used his interview this morning on The Andrew Marr Show to allege a leadership plot to overthrow Nick Clegg. Here’s PoliticsHome’s account:

Michael Gove has suggested Nick Clegg’s opposition to increasing childminders-toddlers ratio is due to an internal Liberal Democrat plot to unseat him as leader.

Mr Clegg said last week that he was “yet to be persuaded” by the case for allowing staff to look after more children.

However Mr Gove today said the reforms, which were defended by

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 32 Comments
Stephen Tall

Nick Clegg’s Letter from the Leader: “Lib Dems remain focused on the things people really care about”

By Stephen Tall | Sun 12th May 2013 - 8:55 am

Nick Clegg isn’t one for the pomp and pageant of parliament (he’s rather keen to let you know). He’s also keen to let you know that this week’s Queen’s Speech was “designed to build a stronger economy and a fairer society in Britain, enabling everyone to get on in life” (to quote Her Majesty). Over to Nick…

libdem letter from nick clegg

Fair pensions. Decent care in your old age. A tax cut for small businesses taking on staff. A major new high speed railway. Energy investment to keep lights on and bills affordable. Shared parental leave. Rehabilitation of prisoners to set them back on the straight and narrow.

Just a few highlights from the Government’s plans for legislation this year, outlined this Wednesday in the Queen’s Speech, designed to build a stronger economy and a fairer society in Britain, enabling everyone to get on in life.

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 8 Comments
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NewsHound

Christine Jardine selected for Aberdeen Donside by-election

By NewsHound | Sat 11th May 2013 - 4:43 pm

S Delaney A McInnes W Rennie C Jardine M BruceChristine Jardine, a former Downing Street Special Adviser, has been selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Aberdeen Donside Scottish Parliament by-election caused by the death o SNP MSP Brian Adam last month. She is seen second on the right in the photograph, which also features Cllr Steve Delaney, Alison McInnes MSP, Scottish leader Willie Rennie MSP and Sir Malcolm Bruce MP.

The by-election will take place on June 20.

Liberal Democrat Voice readers will be familiar with her name because of occasional …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 4 Comments
Mark Valladares

ALDE Party Council: “The sun lounger can wait, Brad, there are only twelve months to save Europe!”

By Mark Valladares | Sat 11th May 2013 - 3:37 pm

From Yerevan and Lisbon, from Mariehamn and Palermo they came, not necessarily to put the world to rights immediately, but to at least organise the processes by which it might happen.

Ah yes, process – not an obvious reason to come to Pula, in Istria on the Adriatic coast of Croatia, I admit, but that was what brought European liberals together for the Spring meeting of the Council of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe (ALDE). The promise of warm sun, blue sky and crystal clear waters couldn’t have had an influence, surely?

There were two key issues to …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged | 10 Comments
Stephen Tall

The double dip recession that never was?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 11th May 2013 - 12:35 pm

Did the double-dip recession ever happen? It looks increasingly possible that it didn’t — the BBC reports the latest revision to the data:

A revision by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has cast doubt on the UK’s double-dip recession last year. Revised growth estimates now suggest the construction industry shrank in the first quarter of 2012, but by less than previously thought. Analysts say the revision may be enough to mean the overall economy narrowly avoided falling into recession for a second time. The ONS is due to give official confirmation of this in June.

In fact there was a …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , , , and | 17 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Praise for Nick Clegg and Liberal Democrats from both sides – should we be worried?

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 11th May 2013 - 12:16 pm

I remember hearing Nick Clegg saying that if he was being attacked from both left and right, then he felt reassured that he was doing something right. He may be feeling slightly worried now, as there have been a couple of not entirely unpleasant pieces in the New Statesman and Daily Telegraph in the last few days.

From the left, we have Rafael Behr, the political editor of the New Statesman, arguing that it’s Nick Clegg, not Nigel Farage, who has shaken up Westminster:

For Lib Dems, the distinction is between two styles of politics. There is the managerial one, laden with

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , , , , and | 8 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Vince Cable talks sense on immigration

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 11th May 2013 - 10:34 am

Vince Cable has spoken up for the economic benefits of immigration in the Queen’s Speech debate, challenging the half truth and hyperbole in the illiberal rhetoric that’s doing the rounds at the moment. He reserved much of his ire for the Labour party:

I was hesitant about raising the subject because it is essentially covered by the Home Office, but substantial economic issues are also involved and it is important to refer to them. I was provoked into feeling that we should debate the issue in this context because a couple of days ago I was on the radio on the

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 24 Comments
Helen Duffett

The LDV Friday Five: 10 May 2013

By Helen Duffett | Fri 10th May 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

  1. Local elections 2013: Summary of overnight Council results (25 comments) by Caron Lindsay
  2. What the 2013 local elections mean – for the Lib Dems and the next election (and beyond) (79 comments) by Stephen Tall
  3. Local elections 2013 live blog….. (19 comments) by The Voice
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Lord Tom McNally

Tom McNally writes… transforming rehabilitation

By Lord Tom McNally | Fri 10th May 2013 - 4:23 pm

For decades Britain has been locking people up for short periods of time only to see them reoffend as soon as they are released from prison. This party has long recognised that the criminal justice system just wasn’t working in preventing reoffending.

Nearly half – 47.5% – of those leaving prison are reconvicted within a year. For prisoners sentenced to less than 12 months it is almost 60%. The cost of reoffending by ex-offenders to our economy each year is between £9.5bn and £13bn. This is not good enough. Victims of crime deserve better than this. Society as a whole …

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Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged and | 10 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Fancy working for the Liberal Democrats?

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 10th May 2013 - 1:30 pm

I thought it might make sense to do an occasional round up of jobs available around the country with the party, as advertised on the Work for an MP website.

If you are wanting to apply to work for either Michael Moore MP or John Leech MP, you need to get your skates on, as applications close later today.

New jobs up for grabs this week include a Policy Officer post with the Welsh Liberal Democrats. I spent a weekend in Cardiff last year and fell in love with the place, so if you fancy working near the beautiful …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 7 Comments
Alison Garnham

The Independent View: Universal Credit..will it work?

By Alison Garnham | Fri 10th May 2013 - 11:53 am

When the first Universal Credit (UC) pilot was launched in Ashton-under-Lyne last week, much attention was paid to the practicalities of the new benefit, from the timetable to the IT system, the challenge of online claims to the problems with monthly payments. A new report published this week by Child Poverty Action Group and the TUC, however, considers the bigger question of whether UC can deliver on its broader objectives, and in particular on how the new benefit can truly ‘make work pay’.

UC relies on two key design features to deliver on this promise. First, it allows claimants who …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged , and | 21 Comments
Caron Lindsay

The Sun’s new superhero: Greg Mulholland, the Casked Crusader

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 10th May 2013 - 10:35 am

The Casked Crusader

 

Liberal Democrats have long known about Leeds North West MP Greg Mulholland’s efforts to protect the Great British Pub. Now, the Sun has caught on to his work and interests and, today, have dubbed him The Casked Crusader, illustrated in this fetching portrait. In this article, entitled Scandaleous, they quote him as saying:

The pubco model is a scam. No one has got to grips with it — it’s a corporate scandal as big as Libor or Enron but no one’s even probing it.

What I’m saying is, enough is

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , and | 2 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink…Fiona Hall MEP: Lawson’s EU lunacy is a recipe for economic disaster

By NewsHound | Fri 10th May 2013 - 8:55 am

Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament Fiona Hall has responded to former Chancellor Nigel Lawson’s call for Britain to leave the EU.

Writing in the Independent, she spelled out some of the economic consequences of such a move:

We are currently on the cusp of a game-changing trade deal between the EU and the US, which will bring billions of pounds to the British economy and create tens of thousands of jobs. The US has also made it quite clear that our ‘special relationship’ would cease to be special were the UK outside the EU. Major trade agreements with India and

…

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Posted in Europe / International and LibLink | Tagged , , and | 29 Comments
Stephen Tall

Vince in not-so-coded call for Lib-Lab cooperation

By Stephen Tall | Fri 10th May 2013 - 7:55 am

Vincent CableVince Cable published an interesting piece in the New Statesman last month (I missed it at the time): My advice to young Lib Dems — rise above the tribalism.

It’s a biographical reflection on his political journey — from Young Liberal to Mr Wilson’s ‘White Heat’ Labour to the breakaway SDP and finally to the Liberal Democrats, where he joined “some of the descendants of Grimond and Crosland”.

However, it also has a very clear political message. At least, I think it does. Tell me below-the-line if you think I’m …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 7 Comments
Ed Maxfield

Opinion: The Liberal Democrats and the County Council elections – a whole new chapter?

By Ed Maxfield | Thu 9th May 2013 - 5:43 pm

A wise man said to me today: “are you going to write a new chapter for the book after you came third in your election?” The chapters in 101 Ways to Win an Election are each the same length as an LDV article so I thought, “why not!?”

The first and most obvious point to make is to never stop learning. Each campaign has the potential to teach you something new. The trick is to learn the right lessons, which generally will come from listening carefully to what the voters are telling you about your campaign.

In this

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 13 Comments
Jennifer Webber

The Independent View: Voters support pro-wind energy candidates

By Jennifer Webber | Thu 9th May 2013 - 4:55 pm

Nine months ago Nick Clegg made his Leader’s speech to Conference in front of a backdrop featuring wind turbines. There followed months of speculation about the relationship between Lib Dem Energy Secretary Edward Davey and his junior Minister John Hayes, until the latter was moved. So were Clegg and Davey right to be so forthright in support? New polling numbers suggest so, despite what certain fossilised parts of the media would have us believe.

Over the last year there’s been a slew of opinion polls showing strong support for wind – as Davey said to the Parliamentary Renewable and Sustainable Energy …

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Posted in The Independent View | Tagged , , , and | 4 Comments
Nick T

LibLink: Richard Marbrow – Ukip is essentially a ‘party of the south east’ despite gains

By Nick T | Thu 9th May 2013 - 3:33 pm

Writing for Public Service Europe, Lib Dem campaigner Richard Marbrow has an interesting piece on the distinctly geographical ‘success’ of Ukip.

Here’s an excerpt:

For those of us who ply our politics in the north or the west of the United Kingdom, the inability of the British press to understand the existence of parts of the country more than an hour from London is a source of never ending frustration. The game changer of UKIP gains in the county council elections is a phenomenon largely contained in the South and East of England. Their breakthrough did not even extend into the South

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged and | 22 Comments
Jemima Bland

Opinion: Why Lib Dems should support the Referendum on the EU – and let’s have it before 2015

By Jemima Bland | Thu 9th May 2013 - 2:23 pm

EU flag - Some rights reserved by European ParliamentIn Lancing in early 2013, in the heart of the Adur Valley region of English South Coast, our campaign team was putting together a strategy for the May 2013 county elections.

Not long ago, Lancing and Sompting were Liberal-run towns. Lib Dem councillors had recently brought a French market to Lancing, and a local entrepreneur has just introduced direct flights to Paris from our airport in Shoreham. Local businesses export their products to Europe through Shoreham Port. Hundreds leave the South Coast

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 46 Comments
Tom Brake

Tom Brake MP writes…Being Deputy Leader of the Commons

By Tom Brake | Thu 9th May 2013 - 1:16 pm

In September waiting by the phone finally paid off, I was given my first ministerial position: Deputy Leader of the House of Commons. If I am perfectly honest, when the position was offered to me, I wasn’t exactly sure what it would entail.  I had to phone a friend (David Heath in case you are wondering) to find out!

I have since learnt that my lack of awareness was at least partially excusable; much of what the Office of the Leader of the House of Commons does goes unseen, with its principal task, one of managing the precious resource that is

…

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David Boyle

Opinion: Can the middle classes get some political clout?

By David Boyle | Thu 9th May 2013 - 11:58 am

I have been trying to weave a new political narrative out of the plight of the middle classes. I’ve no idea whether I’ll be successful or not, but I have learned that you gargle with the word ‘class’ at your peril.

One fact alone should tell the story. If house prices rise in the next three decades like they did in the last, the average home will be worth £1.2 million. Does anyone really believe average wages will rise enough for our children or grandchildren to afford to buy or rent a home, certainly in London and the south east?

Despite all …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 11 Comments
Stephen Tall

Official: the snoopers’ charter is dead in this parliament

By Stephen Tall | Thu 9th May 2013 - 10:30 am

One element missing from the Queen’s Speech was the Communications Data Bill, aka the ‘snoopers’ charter’. No surprise to Lib Dems: Nick Clegg torpedoed it last month.

So I had a momentary spasm of concern to see on ConservativeHome this story from Mark Wallace: The Snoopers’ Charter comes sneaking back. Again.

I asked Lib Dem MP Julian Huppert (who’s played a crucial role in safeguarding civil liberties this parliament, including on this Bill) if there were any truth in it, and got an immediate reply…

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , , , , , , and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

The Coalition: we’re trapped in a loveless marriage with no happy ending in sight

By Stephen Tall | Thu 9th May 2013 - 9:15 am

The Guardian’s Martin Kettle has an acute analysis — This is the beginning of the end for the coalition — of what the Queen’s Speech has revealed about the Coalition Government.

It’s 20 years since Norman Lamont, smarting from being sacked as Chancellor by John Major, accused the Tories’ last majority government of ‘giving the impression of being in office but not in power’. Well, the Coalition is in office and it is in power (the big long-term reforms from Steve Webb on pensions and Norman Lamb on social care show that). But it is no longer in harmony. …

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Posted in News | Tagged | 29 Comments
Nick T

Can a global trade deal be rescued?

By Nick T | Thu 9th May 2013 - 8:13 am

Container ShipCongratulations to Roberto Azevedo, who, it has just been announced, will take over from Pascal Lamy as the head of the World Trade Organisation later this year. Azevedo, a Brazilian diplomat, beat off Herminio Blanco, a former Mexican finance minister who had the backing of many developed countries.

The most obvious and pressing task facing Azevedo is to rescue the so-called Doha Round of world trade talks, which stalled in 2008 and have made little progress since.

In the absence of global progress, a number of bilateral trade talks have sprung up, most recently …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 3 Comments
Caron Lindsay

The Queen’s Speech from a Liberal Democrat perspective

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 8th May 2013 - 9:16 pm

So, the tiaras are back in their boxes, Alistair Carmichael’s wand is back in its cupboard and the Queen’s Speech has been delivered. There is plenty to make Liberal Democrats cheer, but also areas where more details are required  before we can breathe that sigh of relief.  There are, also, a couple of areas where I was hiding behind a cushion.

First, though, the truly extraordinary. We Liberal Democrats are kind of used to playing “stronger economy, fairer society” bingo every time one of our ministers opens their mouths. But we weren’t quite expecting this:

My government’s legislative programme will continue to

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 12 Comments
Dick Newby

Lord Newby writes… Pick a Peer

By Dick Newby | Wed 8th May 2013 - 5:10 pm

Almost a year ago, I laid down a challenge to the Liberal Democrat group in the House of Lords – probably the largest group of Liberal Democrats in any legislature in the world.

I felt strongly that we needed to do more to work with constituency parties to tell the story of how we are influencing legislation and debate on a daily basis, both to members and to wider groups.

So it was with that in mind that I set the group the target of making 1,000 constituency visits between now and the General Election. And today I can report with some …

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Don Foster MP

Don Foster MP writes… Local communities say ‘Yes’ to locally-led housebuilding

By Don Foster MP | Wed 8th May 2013 - 3:55 pm

Amid all the excitement of the local elections, two results of polls on the same day may have passed you by. While in many parts of the country voters were electing local councillors, in Thame in Oxfordshire and in the St.James area of Exeter voters were deciding whether to accept or reject locally developed Neighbourhood Plans.

Like many Liberal Democrats I was anxious to see how well we did in the council elections. But as Minister with responsibility for “localism”, I was also keeping a close eye on these Neighbourhood Plan referenda.

After all Neighbourhood Planning is part of …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 8 Comments
NewsHound

LDVIdeo: Nick Clegg on pensions and carers’ reforms

By NewsHound | Wed 8th May 2013 - 2:30 pm

From the Guardian, video of Nick Clegg talking about Liberal Democrat inspired pensions reforms and help for the elderly and their carers.

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