Stephen Tall

What the 2013 local elections mean – for the Lib Dems and the next election (and beyond)

By Stephen Tall | Fri 3rd May 2013 - 7:15 pm

Well, it could have been worse.

The BBC calculates that the Lib Dems have finished these local elections with the loss of a net 124 councillors, slightly better than the projected loss of 130 according to the Rallings and Thrasher model I said the results could best be judged by.

The Tories have done slightly worse (actual loss of 335 councillors compared to a projected loss of 310); while Labour has disappointed its own supprters (an actual gain of 291 councillors compared to the projected gain of 350).

There’s no doubt which party is the biggest winner: Ukip, by an …

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Giles Goodall

Opinion: Ironically, the rise of UKIP makes Britain a more European place

By Giles Goodall | Fri 3rd May 2013 - 7:00 pm

UKIP logoUKIP’s relative success in the English local elections and South Shields by-election this week has met with predictable reactions across the political spectrum: from copycat politics and jealousy on the Tory right, to handwringing and downright despair on the centre left.

But while UKIP has succeeded in hoovering up disenchanted Tories by the thousand, its appeal is clearly much broader. In fact, the rise of UKIP’s populist anti-politics replicates a pattern played out across Europe since the crisis hit, from the Danish People’s Party to Italy’s Beppe Grillo. Ironically, with …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Tagged , , , , and | 25 Comments
Helen Duffett

The LDV Friday Five: 3 May 2013

By Helen Duffett | Fri 3rd 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. Nick Clegg MP writes… The Labour and Tory exodus (79 comments) by Nick Clegg MP
  2. While David Cameron and Owen Jones unite in favour of universal benefits, I want us to get explicit about why redistribution matters to society (27 comments) by Stephen Tall
  3. What will happen to the Lib Dems in Thursday’s local elections? (25 comments) by Stephen Tall
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Liberal Youth Elections 2013… Finance Officer: Rory Roberson

By Rory Roberson | Fri 3rd May 2013 - 4:00 pm

Writing this in the wake of running an election campaign in Worcestershire I can say with little doubt that money is absolutely vital for the smooth running of a campaigning force and Liberal Youth desperately needs to become a better campaigning force.

But first a little about myself, I have been involved in politics for a number of years now and have been involved in a full campaign a year since joining the party at Aberystwyth University in 2009, a trend that looks as if it will not finish anytime soon. As well as this I have …

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Liberal Youth Elections 2013… England Convenor: Stuart Wheatcroft

By Stuart Wheatcroft | Fri 3rd May 2013 - 3:30 pm

I have been a member of the Liberal Democrats since the end of 2005. Despite this, I had no serious involvement with Liberal Youth until early 2012. Liberal Youth was not an effective organisation nationally, and in my area it was non-existent.

A huge amount of progress has been made. Liberal Youth’s contribution to the campaign in Eastleigh has been widely recognised. The momentum has been continued through the Gold Guard project, with action days in key seats around the country and a huge membership engagement push at every level of the organisation. More must be done, but there has been …

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Richard Clare

Liberal Youth Elections 2013…England Convenor: Rich Clare

By Richard Clare | Fri 3rd May 2013 - 3:00 pm

Rich ClareIt’s that time of year again – time for the young Liberals to choose their executive. I’m standing for Convenor of LY England and I have two main aims: to protect and expand Liberal Youth’s resources by promoting us within the Federal and English parties, and to turn us into more of a campaigning force across the country. Although I have two years’ experience as branch chair in Sheffield Hallam, I am not part of the LY ‘clique’ – if I become the new Convenor, I will be a fresh …

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Callum Leslie

Liberal Youth Elections 2013… Chair: Callum Leslie

By Callum Leslie | Fri 3rd May 2013 - 2:30 pm

Callum Leslie reclaim the nightFor the past 18 months, I’ve been wrestling with the possibility of leaving the party. As the party leadership continues to ignore party policy and members’ wishes, we have to sit through the bedroom tax, secret courts, the NHS debacle, shares for rights, tuition fees and more. The position of conference as the sovereign body of the party by which all are bound is all but extinguished.

About two weeks ago, I came to a realisation. Having been a party member since I was 14 and a candidate …

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Sarah Harding

Liberal Youth Elections 2013… Chair: Sarah Harding

By Sarah Harding | Fri 3rd May 2013 - 2:00 pm

Liberal Youth have worked hard this election. Across the country, young Liberal Democrats have been phoning, delivering and canvassing to ensure as many Lib Dem councillors as possible were elected.

In 2015, our party will face a bigger challenge, and Liberal Youth can make a huge difference.

My candidacy for Chair is based on what we need to do to help win in 2015: plan, recruit and train.

Plan: I will work with the membership to lay out our key goals up to 2015, liaise with the Federal Party and Strategic Seats to plan our on-the-group campaigning and expand the Gold Guard.

Recruit: I will widen recruitment avenues and …

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The Voice

Local elections 2013 live blog…..

By The Voice | Fri 3rd May 2013 - 9:57 am

09:56 Caron:

And we start off with some good news from Ashfield. Simon Hughes has just said on BBC Breakfast that it looks like we have held our seats and got the youngest councillor in the country elected.

10:10 Stephen:

10:26 Caron:

Congratulations to Lib Dem Voice’s Sara Bedford on her election as County Councillor for Abbots Langley in Hertfordshire.

10:29 Caron:

The Telegraph has its own spin on Tim Farron’s appearance on …

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Nick T

The three things I’ll be looking for in today’s results

By Nick T | Fri 3rd May 2013 - 9:31 am

The extent to which county council election results tell us about the state of politics in the country is without doubt significantly overstated. Only a fraction of the population voted yesterday, and in places that are not representative of the country as a whole.

But the results can tell us some things, and here is what I am looking out for.

1 – How do votes translate into council seats won?

As all Liberal Democrats know, winning votes is little fun at all unless it also means winning seats, and those two things are far from the same in a first-past-the-post electoral system. …

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Caron Lindsay

Local elections 2013: Summary of overnight Council results

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 3rd May 2013 - 8:05 am

Stephen Tall has the South Shields analysis for you here. I’m rounding up the council results.

Lib Dems win by-election with swing from Labour in Sheffield

Let’s start with some very good news. We can still get a respectable swing from Labour to us in the north. Sheffield Liberal Democrats successfully defended Fulwood ward in a by-election caused by  the sad death of Cllr Janice Sidebottom in March. New Cllr Cliff Woodcraft won with a majority of 1428 (compared to 800 when the ward was contested last year). This is significant because Fulwood is in Nick Clegg’s seat. There was a …

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Stephen Tall

South Shields by-election: Labour hold solid, Ukip surge, Tories fall and Lib Dems… plummet to 7th. Ouch.

By Stephen Tall | Fri 3rd May 2013 - 7:35 am

polling dayThe South Shields by-election — triggered by David Miliband’s exit from British political life — has resulted in a solid hold for Labour, which polled just over half the vote, only fractionally down on its 2010 position.

But it’s Ukip which has most to celebrate: in a seat they haven’t contested since 2001, they stormed to a strong second, winning almost one-quarter of the vote.

The Tories lost almost half their vote, slipping to third. Meanwhile the Lib Dems’ valiant Hugh Annand lost his deposit, trailing in seventh place behind the BNP.

Full result below:

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Posted in News and Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged , and | 42 Comments
Stephen Tall

Polls are closed! Here’s some election reading to keep you going for the loooong wait…

By Stephen Tall | Thu 2nd May 2013 - 10:05 pm

Lib Dems winning hereThey’re over! Nothing more to be done now but wait. And it’ll be a long wait for most, with many of today’s local elections not due to be counted until tomorrow. I offered my preview of today’s local elections earlier this week. To keep you going, here’s a clutch of analysis.

Local Election Preview (Anthony Wells)

With the Conservatives starting from an extreme high, it is almost inevitable that they will lose a lot of seats and lose control of a substantial number of councils. It also means that Lib Dem councillors up for re-election are overwhelmingly in LD-v-Con areas, not LD-v-Lab areas. In recent local elections the Lib Dems have done OK against the Conservatives, but been massacred where they are up against Labour in metropolitan areas. With very few LD-v-Lab urban areas having elections, don’t expect huge Lib Dem losses this year.

Local Elections 2013 – Seat Projections Too ‘Conservative’? (Patrick Briône and Damian Lyons Lowe for Survation)

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Stephen Tall

What the hell have the Lib Dems done?

By Stephen Tall | Thu 2nd May 2013 - 3:40 pm

That’s the does-what-it-says-on-the-tin name for the website, created by William Summers and run by Mark Pack, highlighting some of the key successes of the Lib Dems in government.

It’s been freshly updated this week, so what better day could there be than to take a look and share it with any friends and colleagues yet to decide how to cast their vote today?

what have lib dems done - apr 2013

PS: I understand from Mark that the updated version of his infographc — click here to enjoy its resplendence — …

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Stephen Tall

The Sun refuses to back the Tories, says ‘Vote local’ (Aka: The Sun hedges its bets)

By Stephen Tall | Thu 2nd May 2013 - 11:00 am

The Sun_Kinnock_1992Does what The Sun says matter?

In its own terms, of course not. Its own self-promoted myth that it was ‘The Sun wot won it’ for the Tories in 1992 with its anti-Kinnock front page belies the reality: it backs the party it thinks is most likely to win.

It’s in that narrow sense that it’s interesting The Sun has declined to back either the Tories or Labour today for the first time in its 44-year history:

Who you choose today must be a local decision, not a national one. Read

…

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The Voice

What you get from Liberal Democrat Councillors – a record of action

By The Voice | Thu 2nd May 2013 - 9:58 am

Liberal Democrats around the country are taking to the streets or phones to get out the vote. Here’s Lib Dem HQ in sunny Ludlow. Ludlow HQ

From the Liberal Democrat website:

The Liberal Democrats are building a stronger economy in a fairer society, enabling everyone to get on in life.

Our councillors have proud records locally, standing up for local people:

  • No library will be closed in any Lib Dem-run or Lib Dem-led authorities this year
    • Northumberland County Council, Portsmouth and Stockport are opening new ones
  • Liberal Democrats are helping businesses and customers to get their economies

…

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Nick T

Labour’s VAT cut: bad economics and disingenuous politics

By Nick T | Thu 2nd May 2013 - 8:23 am

In the run-up to today’s county council elections, Ed Miliband has been taking to a wooden pallet in towns and villages around the UK, telling anybody who would listen about Labour’s plan to rescue the British economy by temporarily reversing the 2.5 percentage point increase in the rate of VAT.

Desperate, though, to avoid admitting this would involve a significant increase in borrowing, he’s been telling us that this would actually be a free tax cut because the economic growth that resulted from it would increase revenues by more than the upfront cost.

That unlikely-sounding claim was given short shrift by …

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The Voice

Good Morning! And best wishes to all Lib Dem candidates today!

By The Voice | Thu 2nd May 2013 - 7:30 am

Best of luck to all Lib Dem candidates in today’s local elections across England (and in the Ise of Anglesey).

Good luck, too, to Hugh Annand in today’s South Shields by-election; and to John Brown (Doncaster) and John Appleby (North Tyneside) in today’s mayoral elections.

And a particular shout-out to LibDemVoice’s ‘Libby Local’, the first-time candidate in ‘Libbyshire’ who’s been keeping LibDemVoice readers up-to-date with campaign progress over the past 6 months. You can catch up with all her experiences here.

goodmorning_ld

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The Voice

Clegg defends Coalition: “We inherited from Labour an economy teetering on the edge”

By The Voice | Wed 1st May 2013 - 8:58 pm

Nick Clegg was interviewed while on the campaign trail in Lewes today for Channel 4 News by Gary Gibbon — here’s a 6-minute excerpt in which Nick explains the steps the Coalition has taken to rescue the economy since 2010:

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Stephen Tall

“We cannot afford it” – Cameron on raising income tax threshold to £10k. In 2010.

By Stephen Tall | Wed 1st May 2013 - 7:05 pm

With a hat-tip to Ed Stradling, here’s a reminder of what David Cameron told Nick Clegg about raising the income tax threshold in the first leaders’ debate:


(Watch it on YouTube here.)

I think it’s fair to say the Tories have since had a change of heart. Apparently it was their idea all the time:

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Caron Lindsay

Beyond Royal Assent: implementing the Scotland Act

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 1st May 2013 - 3:30 pm

Last year, against the odds, Michael Moore successfully piloted the Scotland Act through Parliament. This gives the Scottish Government, from 2015, some pretty major new powers, including more accountability for setting its own revenue. They will also have borrowing powers. The powers include:

  • a Scottish rate of income tax
  • borrowing powers for Scottish ministers
  • the power to create new devolved taxes
  • enabling the replacement of UK Stamp Duty land tax and UK landfill tax with new Scottish equivalents

The Scotland Office recently published its first annual report detailing the progress in implementing these powers. It gives quite a good insight into the practical process …

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Caron Lindsay

Nick Clegg and Paddy Ashdown say that Afghan interpreters should have the right to live in the UK

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 1st May 2013 - 1:30 pm

Almost exactly four years ago, Nick Clegg, as an opposition party leader, led a debate in Parliament in which the Labour Government was defeated on its plans to restrict the rights of Gurkhas to settle in the UK. David Cameron was keen to get himself into the photos with Joanna Lumley at the time.

Four years on, and Clegg and Cameron have opposing views on whether Afghan interpreters who helped our soldiers in that country should be allowed to settle here. Today’s Times (£) reports that the Prime Minister, along with Theresa May and Philip Hammond are against allowing …

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James Harper

Opinion: Thinking about “foreign criminals”

By James Harper | Wed 1st May 2013 - 11:57 am

Watching the recent episode of ‘Dispatches’ on Channel 4 entitled ‘Inside Immigration’, got me thinking a bit about attitudes towards ‘foreign criminals’ in the UK. The idea of the programme was that undercover reporters worked as temps in the UK Border Agency’s processing offices and gave the inside story on the chaos and disorganisation there.

Halfway through, during a ‘pause for thought’ about the real consequences of maladministration, the narrator piped up: ‘Gabriella’s story as a shocking example of what the human cost can be when things go wrong’ at the UKBA’. But the story was somehow not what I was expecting- …

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Michael Moore

Michael Moore MP’s Westminster Notes

By Michael Moore | Wed 1st May 2013 - 10:28 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. 

Better Together

Last week the UK Government published its second Scotland Analysis paper, this time analysing the currency options for an independent Scotland. It set out four main currency choices: firstly, negotiating a formal sterling currency union with the continuing UK; secondly, adopting the pound without the formal consent of the continuing UK; thirdly, joining the euro area; or fourthly introducing an independent Scottish currency.

The paper sets out that all of these options would not be as …

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Stephen Tall

Ukip set to win 22% this Thursday according to ComRes poll

By Stephen Tall | Wed 1st May 2013 - 10:10 am

UKIP logoMuch excitement this morning at an unusual event: a poll looking specifically at this Thursday’s local elections. And more than that, a poll showing Ukip on 22%! The full figures are:

    Conservatives 31%
    Labour on 24%
    UKIP 22%
    Lib Dems 12%

Important point: this poll was conducted only in the areas which will actually vote this week. That’s why the Tories are ahead and Labour’s behind. The equivalent vote shares compared to the last time these same seats were fought in 2009 is as follows (via the ever-excellent Anthony Wells):

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Janice Turner

Race equality – a new Liberal Democrat approach: SLF/EMLD Conference takes place soon

By Janice Turner | Wed 1st May 2013 - 8:55 am

Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, is the keynote speaker at one of the most important race equality events this party has held in recent years. Organised jointly by the Social Liberal Forum and Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats, it takes place from noon on Saturday 1st June at Amnesty International’s Human Rights Action Centre, 25 New Inn Yard London EC2A 3EA. The conference will be of immense help to all those who realise that, particularly in London, the ethnic minority vote will be key to whether we sink or swim in the next elections.

Race equality is …

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Stephen Tall

A site house-keeping notice: just because we’re neutral does not mean we’re unopinionated!

By Stephen Tall | Wed 1st May 2013 - 7:30 am

ldv-textA brief site house-keeping notice follows…

Our regular reader may have noticed that those of us who edit LibDemVoice — as well as contributing general news updates, editing and uploading others’ submissions, and requesting guest pieces — sometimes express our own views.

Sometimes trenchantly.*

And sometimes to the displeasure of at least some of those who drop by here, whether signed-up Lib Dems or not.

A couple of people have asked, not unreasonably, how we can square this with our stated intention to be a neutral site for the benefit of all …

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The Voice

Nick Clegg grilled by Martha Kearney: Lib Dems “the voice of fairness” in government

By The Voice | Tue 30th April 2013 - 8:35 pm

Nick Clegg fared better than Ed Miliband in his pre-local election grilling today by Martha Kearney on BBC Radio 4’s World at One. You can watch the 18-minute interview here:

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Tommy Long

Liberal Youth Elections 2013… Finance Officer: Tommy Long

By Tommy Long | Tue 30th April 2013 - 3:00 pm

Supposedly Liberal Youth’s funding is under threat. I’ve never seen anything official but I’m always being told by one person or another that our donors aren’t overly impressed with our performance and are seriously reconsidering whether to let us manage our own finances any more.

This has to stop. Uncertainty means that we cannot properly plan our spending. Perhaps it’s fair to say that we haven’t always done an incredible job with our money-management in the past but as liberals don’t we accept that people do their best when they’re trusted and supported to make their own decisions?

I strongly believe that …

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Liberal Youth Elections 2013… Finance Officer: James King and Robin McGhee

By James King and Robin McGhee | Tue 30th April 2013 - 2:30 pm

Neither of us have ever had much to do with Liberal Youth. We are experienced activists and party officers who were impressed by the potential of Liberal Youth next year and thought we’d have a punt at being Finance Officer. We hope our experience and total lack of ambition will mean we can serve the organisation humbly and well, protecting and improving its finances as we have done together in our student branch.

We met at Oxford University where we eventually ascended to the co-chairmancy of the university branch of the party. In those dim and distant years (2011) Oxfordshire didn’t …

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