Well, I must say that I’m feeling a bit better this week, having lost last weekend to the wretched lurgy that is doing the rounds.
So, what’s happened of interest? Overnight, there were six by-elections indicated by ALDC, with those in Keynsham and Wells probably most potentially winnable, although it will be interesting to see how we get on in Gospel Oak ward, Camden and Royton South ward, Oldham. We came third in both in 2010 but with decent shares of the vote.
I am the last person to argue that you should never resign from a political party. I resigned from the Labour Party just over thirty years ago. I know it to be an intensely personal and often painful decision. So I pass no judgement on those who have decided to leave the Liberal Democrats because of opposition to the Justice and Security Bill. I think I am entitled to ask, however, what kind of Justice and Security Bill we would now be contemplating if either Labour or the Conservatives had been governing alone?
It seems incoherent to me to resign …
Ahead of Scottish Conference in Dundee this weekend, Scottish Liberal Democrats have launched a new Facebook page for news, views, infographics and pictures about the Scottish Liberal Democrats.
Their picture of today is a head shot of leader Willie Rennie with all the nice things that journalists keep saying about him.
The Conference has its fair share of controversy – debates on secret courts, snaring and smacking over the next three days.
There will be keynote speeches from Vince Cable, Nick Clegg, Jo Swinson, Michael Moore and Malcolm Bruce as well as …
Nick Clegg has emailed Lib Dem members today to set out his view on David Cameron’s decision to pull the plug on cross-party talks seeking to find an agreed way forward on the Leveson Report’s recommendations for self-regulation of the press underpinned by statute:
As you may have seen this morning the Prime Minister has decided to call off the cross-party talks on implementing the Leveson proposals on press regulation.
Throughout the talks I have sought to defend a free press while making sure ordinary people can be protected
…
Liberal Democrat Chief Whip Alistair Carmichael’s Twitter account is always good for a laugh. At least, I hope he was joking here…
@mirrorjames Do they use the whole horse I wonder? The odd horse’s head could be useful in the office….
— Alistair Carmichael (@acarmichaelmp) January 15, 2013
It was from Alistair’s Twitter that I discovered that we have an accomplished and talented author in the Scottish Liberal Democrats. Rosie Wallace has written two novels, set in the same small town, about its parliamentarians and their families. She should know …
Since the conception of the coalition government the future of the Liberal Democrats has been one of the biggest talking points in British politics. The conventional wisdom was that they would be annihilated in 2015 as a result of broken promises and the tough decisions of government. Yet the party secured a stunning victory in Eastleigh on the back of 8% national poll ratings, abysmal national council elections and several heavily-reported scandals. Despite these difficult circumstances certain political commentators have claimed that the Liberal Democrats should not celebrate Eastleigh, pointing towards the 14% swing against them. But this is …
Pieces of writing can do lots of things: challenge, comfort, exasperate, inform, entertain. Occasionally, though, one reads a piece that, in prose far more clear, lucid and fluent than one’s jumbled thoughts, nonetheless perfectly describes those thoughts.
I’ve long been a fan of The Economist’s David Rennie, and have praised him here on the Voice before. Last summer he took over the paper’s Lexington column (in tragic circumstances), but before that he was for two years British political editor and author of the weekly Bagehot column.
In May last year he wrote one of those columns I describe …
One of Liberal Youth Scotland’s campaigns this year has concentrated on encouraging the Scottish Liberal Democrats to adopt a policy to ban snaring. We believe that this practice is barbaric, cruel, indiscriminate and unnecessary.
On Saturday 16th March, Scottish Liberal Democrat conference will debate an LYS motion calling for a ban on snaring. Scotland has led the way on this issue with the Scottish Government adopting new guidelines in 2008. However research undertaken by the Scottish Society for the Prevention of cruelty to Animals (SSPCA) has shown that 85% of the public are in favour of an outright ban.
One Aberdeenshire Vet …
Vince Cable is right to argue that the government should give the economy a fiscal stimulus with increased borrowing to fund infrastructure investment, especially affordable home building. Cable’s argument is sound: the finance is cheap, the multiplier in this kind of investment is relatively large and there is an urgent need to give our flat-lining economy a kick-start.
Investment in affordable housing would provide particular economic benefits in London and the south east, where the shortage of affordable homes is undeniably the single biggest break on the region’s economy.
The UK’s construction industry has massive spare capacity, having shrunk significantly in the …
The new LDV members’ survey is now live. So if you are one of the c.1,400 registered members of the Liberal Democrat Voice forum — and any paid-up party member is welcome to join — then you now have the opportunity to make your views known.
Questions we’re asking this month include:
…
As I embark on my independent inquiry I would like to set out the structure of the review and how I am going to gather input. The review will cover three overlapping areas:
I am keen to hear from all those who have relevant experiences and views to help me form an accurate picture (whether Party members, staff or public).
This is a Call for Written Evidence for three questions around the areas outlined above:
…
One of the many good things, as I wrote last year, that Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore delivered in the Edinburgh Agreement was a provision to allow 16 and 17 year olds to vote in the referendum on independence. He was pleased to be able to persuade the Coalition Government to agree something which had long been Liberal Democrat policy. To be fair, it had also been SNP policy.
Yesterday, the SNP Government, whose responsibility it is to legislate for the referendum, introduced their Bill to extend the franchise to include 16 and 17 year olds. …
What a first conference! From Friday evening through to Sunday afternoon it did not stop. Sleep seemed to be one luxury too many.
The organisation was far better than I expected. Every event started on time and there were stewards everywhere to help direct you and answer your questions. It was very smooth and professional throughout and everyone I met seemed friendly.
Friday was International Women’s Day and the first event I attended was the Conference rally. Nick Clegg came on and delivered a very good speech addressing the problems of recent weeks. The following speakers (Shirley Williams, Jo Swinson, Lynne Featherstone …
In the post Eastleigh celebratory glow, Shetland MSP used his Scotsman column to issue a sharp challenge on the economy and welfare reform to Liberal Democrat MPs.
First, he praised the party for the way we had come together to win against the odds.
A personal party scandal was badly handled from beginning to end. The Tory press scented blood and threw themselves at the Lib Dems.
But the Lib Dem by-election machine still has a kick. A win was needed and secured. Morale is on the up and belief returns. This will grow if Lib Dem Westminster MPs now get really stuck
…
There’s been a bit of a stooshie over future North Sea oil revenues in the last week or so. First, as the BBC tells us, a leaked draft of a Scottish Government report said that volatility in projecting revenues created uncertainty and could lead to spending cuts. Now, Alex Salmond tells us that it’ll all be fine and there’ll be a great big oil boom just as Scotland becomes independent. The SNP projections for the first year of independence are pretty much double what the OBR predicts.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie went on Newsnight Scotland on Monday night …
As though I have regressed to a version of myself more than two decades in the past, a question I often get asked these days is “why did you do it?”
People are interested to discover that despite having a well paid and relatively secure job with the Liberal Democrats in Scotland at a crucial time in our country’s history, and having just bought my first home, I decided to leave it all behind and move to Africa to work for Volunteer Uganda, a charity which strives to alleviate poverty through education.
As a mischievous child, impulsive, some would say reckless, …
Every MP has seen tragic cases of constituents struggling with debt problems.
Like Mrs S, whose daughter was granted hundreds of pounds of loans, despite not being in employment and suffering from mental health problems. That young woman is now in arrears with 2 different payday lenders. She is being charged high default fees and her situation is getting worse each day.
The Coalition Government is determined to make sure that consumers are properly protected and that payday lenders stop taking advantage of vulnerable people. The evidence of the scale of unscrupulous behaviour by payday lenders and the impact on …
A leader in the latest Economist offers the UK a growth plan that involves structural reforms, infrastructure spending and monetary policy changes while maintaining fiscal discipline. Particular highlights include a more welcoming attitude to talented immigrants, and Land Value Taxation.
The tax system could also be changed to promote growth. One reason why companies sit on development land is because they do not pay taxes until the offices and warehouses are built. It would be much better to tax the land value: that would make hoarding expensive and force owners to sell to someone who can use
…
Jo Shaw’s resignation from the Liberal Democrats on Sunday created a vacancy on the Liberal Democrats’ Federal Executive committee.
The votes from the original internal party election in 2012 have now been recounted and Candy Piercy has been elected.
Candy told Lib Dem Voice:
Although I am very glad to be on the FE again, I am very sad that the reason for this is the resignation of Jo Shaw. Jo was a fierce campaigner on the FE who always spoke up loud and clear for her principles.
I will do my best to carry on that approach. I will stand up
…
I have spent the last few months campaigning hard against secret courts. That’s in no small measure down to the energetic and informative campaign against Part II of the Justice and Security Bill run by Jo Shaw and Martin Tod.
On two occasions, Liberal Democrat Conference has overwhelmingly rejected the Government’s plans. Hundreds of us signed a petition and wrote to MPs and Lords. I don’t intend giving up until this measure is consigned to the dustbin. If it passes into law, I will campaign against it until it’s repealed. Is that a good enough statement of intent?
I am hopping mad …
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 316th 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 (3-9 March, 2013), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. This week’s and next week’s Dozens will be published later because of Federal and Scottish Spring conferences.
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:
A former journalist, who rose through the political ranks to become a cabinet minister, resigns in the midst of a scandal of his own making, strenuously denies the allegations but is convicted of perverting the course of justice and goes to prison, with his political career and reputation destroyed.
That was the tragedy of Jonathan Aitken, who has been doing the media rounds in the last 24 hours.
I want to tell his story – it happened some years ago so some readers may not remember – because it is a tale of redemption.
The incident that led to his downfall took place in when he was Minister of State for Defence Procurement, but it only came to light in 1995 after he had been promoted to Chief Secretary to the Treasury. He accepted hospitality, in the form of nights at the Ritz in Paris, from a Saudi businessman. The Guardian unearthed the story and Granada investigated it further in World in Action documentary.
A few observations from the weekend in Brighton.
The Liberal Democrat Voice office was the loveliest we’d ever had. Normally we are stuck in a broom cupboard in amongst bottles of Domestos. This time we had proper desks, bottles of water and sweeties. And do you know what else was lovely? The Conference Office had factored us in and booked us a room without us having to ask. Our thanks to the person who did that.
Rumour had it that the professional media’s quarters were not quite as plush. I’m not saying that there was straw on the floor …
Are you a man? Have you been or might you be on a fringe meeting panel at Liberal Democrat conference? If the answer to both is yes, I’d like your help…
At the Spring conference just gone in Brighton, I nearly ended up being a speaker on an all-male panel – and one taking place on International Women’s Day no less. The subject – technology and politics – is one where there are a good few female experts in the party, and it was only Olly Grender’s last minute addition which saved my blushes from Mark Thompson’s quite reasonable intention to turn up and put us all on the spot about what was an all-male panel.
The newest Liberal Democrat MP spoke for the first time in Parliament yesterday in a debate on the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Bill, paying tribute to the work of his predecessors David Chidgey and Chris Huhne. As is traditional, he praised his constituency and described its history as a bustling industrial and railway town.
Mike Thornton began by thanking all those who campaigned with him during last month’s by-election, and the voters of Eastleigh for putting their faith in him.
Mike’s full speech, as recorded in Hansard:
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for allowing me to make my maiden speech during this important
…
The reason Vince Cable stood so far above his Labour and Tory counterparts during the financial crisis was his unique combination of economic subtlety and political guile; his rivals possessed those attributes the reverse way around.
In his much mentioned essay in the New Statesman entitled ‘When the facts change should I change my mind?” Cable shines a light on the dilemma serious politicians face in trying to balance the economic and political concerns inherent in policy making.
The essay, which takes its title from a famous JM Keynes quote, debunks a number of the left’s cherished myths, and delivers …
On Sunday, former Lib Dem parliamentary candidate and Federal Executive member Jo Shaw — the moving force behind LibDemsAgainstSecretCourts — announced her resignation from the party while proposing the motion opposing the extension of Closed Material Procedures (CMPs, aka secret courts) that was overwhelmingly carried by members.
Her resignation followed the announcement by Dinah Rose QC that she was resigning from the party in protest at the party leadership’s decision to back secret courts. That came the same day as Observer columnist Henry Porter, a long-time friend to the Lib Dems, publicly denounced what he termed Nick Clegg’s …
His crime was speeding then lying (and lying some more). Her crime was lying and self-immolating revenge. Last night they spent their first night in prison.
Few people will spare much sympathy for either Chris Huhne or Vicky Pryce. They are, as Mr Justice Sweeney said yesterday when sentencing the pair to eight months each, the architects of their own downfall. Though I also think it would take a particularly stony heart not to look at the ashen-faced photos of them, besieged by a mob-handed press as their humiliation is played out in real-time in the full glare of publicity, and …
This evening, the Liberal Democrats have confirmed they won’t vote for Labour’s mischievous Opposition Day debate on mansion tax, instead tabling a Coalition amendment stating our support for the mansion tax and the Conservatives’ opposition to it. Vince Cable, architect of the mansion tax, has issued a statement explaining why:
This amendment allows Liberal Democrats in Parliament to back our long-held policy of the mansion tax. We created it and will continue to champion it.
The amendment also makes it clear that although we are in coalition with the Conservatives, we have different views on the desirability of a mansion tax.
…
It may not surprise you to know that the team at Liberal Democrat Voice quite often talk to each other about how we’re feeling about events in the news. We tend to write our own posts, though. I thought it might be a good idea to occasionally do a single post where several of us contribute our opinions on an issue of the day.
I think all of us share a sense of sadness at the way the destruction of a family has unfolded in front of us, disappointment that a highly effective minister is now in a prison cell in …
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