A Christmas Carol. Stave Five: The End of It

By Andy Boddington | Sun 23rd December 2012 - 2:15 pm

LibDemVoice is delighted to bring you A Christmas Carol, a contemporary re-imagining of Charles Dickens’ classic tale, told in five staves (as Dickens called them). The fifth stave, The End of It, follows. You can catch up with the story so far here: Stave One, Mensch’s Ghost; and Stave Two, The Ghost of Avarice Past; Stave Three, The Ghost of Arrogance Present; and Stave Four, The Ghost of Austerity Future.

LDV scrooge story

As sketched by Bodz

“Osborne, you are late!” Cameron said sternly. The wretched Chancellor mumbled …

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Posted in Humour | 2 Comments
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Stephen Tall

Nick Clegg’s Letter from the Leader: “Lib Dems are on the side of reasonable welfare reform, not indiscriminate welfare cuts”

By Stephen Tall | Sun 23rd December 2012 - 10:45 am

Nick Clegg’s latest letter has hit my inbox, this week reflecting on his five years as party leader — and in particular how he believes the Lib Dems are “anchoring this government in the centre ground”. The example he uses is one that is likely to dominate politics in 2013: welfare reform. As Nick points out, the Tories had wanted swingeing cuts: it was the Lib Dems who at least ensured parity between public sector pay and benefits payments, both receiving a below-inflation 1% cash rise.

And if I had a Christmas wish, by the way, it would be this …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 234 Comments
Jo Shaw

Jo Shaw: Secret Courts update – please support our new motion to the Lib Dems’ Spring Conference

By Jo Shaw | Sun 23rd December 2012 - 8:35 am

Supreme Court - Some rights reserved by cphoffman42The Justice and Security Bill, which introduces secret courts into almost all civil cases, was rushed into its second reading in the House of Commons on Tuesday this week.

The Minister in charge of secret courts in the Commons, Ken Clarke, made an opening statement in the debate which made it clear that the Coalition Government does not accept the amendments proposed by the Joint Committee on Human Rights, some of which were passed by the Lords. It is still …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , , and | 18 Comments
NewsHound

Pizza entrepreneur’s £775,000 gift to Lib Dems questioned – Telegraph

By NewsHound | Sat 22nd December 2012 - 11:32 pm

The Sunday Telegraph reports that “the Liberal Democrats are facing an investigation into one of the party’s largest donors”. Part of the reports reads as follows:

The Electoral Commission has been asked to examine whether £775,000 paid to the Lib Dems by Rumi Verjee, the entrepreneur who brought Domino’s Pizzas to Britain, is an “impermissible donation”.

The payments were made through Brompton Capital Limited, a company with no staff that has not recorded a turnover since 2003.

Mr Verjee dined with Nick Clegg at Chevening, the grace and favour mansion in Kent used by the Lib Dem leader, a month after the second

…

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Posted in News | Tagged | 9 Comments
Stephen Tall

Your essential weekend reader — 12 must-read articles you may have missed

By Stephen Tall | Sat 22nd December 2012 - 5:45 pm

It’s Saturday evening, so here are twelve thought-provoking articles to stimulate your thinking juices culled from the 50+ I’ve linked to this last week. You can follow me on Delicious here.

Kings, queens and the political chess match – Sue Cameron ponders what the invitation to HM The Queen to attend cabinet this week could portend: ‘Charles III might point to that precedent and say he would like to follow it. Moreover, he would like to attend more regularly and speak at it …

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Caron Lindsay

Tavish Scott: Christmas would be cancelled if Santa had to pay these delivery charges

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 22nd December 2012 - 1:42 pm

DSC_0326In recent years I have resorted to doing virtually all of my Christmas shopping online. I’ve never been a fan of trudging round the shops at the best of times, and the festive crowds bring out the worst in me.

It’s lucky that I live in the central belt of Scotland. If I were to live up north in the rural highlands or the northern or western isles, I’d be looking at ridiculous surcharges for delivery.

Shetland MSP Tavish Scott is fed up with this state of affairs and has put retailers and

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Lynne Featherstone

Lynne Featherstone writes… Three Lib Dem policies really stand out for me in 2012

By Lynne Featherstone | Sat 22nd December 2012 - 10:50 am

International Development minister Lynne Featherstone writes a monthly column for one of her local newspapers. Here is the latest one…

What a year 2012 has been! There are three Lib Dem policies that really stand out for me this year: the Pupil Premium, income tax reductions for low paid and middle income workers and equal marriage.

Before entering Government, the Lib Dems knew there were serious social mobility problems in the UK. Only one in five young people from the poorest families achieve five good GCSEs compared to three out of four from the richest families. Through the …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , and | 13 Comments

A Christmas Carol. Stave Four: The Ghost of Austerity Future

By Andy Boddington | Sat 22nd December 2012 - 8:55 am

LibDemVoice is delighted to bring you A Christmas Carol, a contemporary re-imagining of Charles Dickens’ classic tale, told in five staves (as Dickens called them). The fourth stave, The Ghost of Austerity Future, follows. You can catch up with Stave One, Mensch’s Ghost, here; and Stave Two, The Ghost of Avarice Past, here; and Stave Three, The Ghost of Arrogance Present, here.

LDV scrooge story

As sketched by Bodz

Osborne stared at the umbrella and blinked. All around him the Olympic stadium was burning and crashing to the ground …

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Posted in Humour and Op-eds | Tagged | 2 Comments
The Voice

The LDV Friday Five: 21 December 2012

By The Voice | Fri 21st December 2012 - 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. A Christmas Carol. Stave One: Mensch’s Ghost (5 comments) by Andy Boddington
  2. Y’know those stories about the death of the Lib Dems? Turns out, they might’ve been exaggerated… (57 comments) by Stephen Tall
  3. Did you know the Lib Dems have lost half a million voters to Ukip? Here’s what I think it means. (48 comments) by Stephen Tall
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Posted in Friday Five | 1 Comment
Caron Lindsay

Caron’s LDV Pick of the Year Part 1

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 21st December 2012 - 3:57 pm

It’s the time of year to be nostalgic and I thought I’d add my pick of Liberal Democrat Voice posts to that of Mary Reid the other day. My original plan was to pick one post for each month, but  there were a couple of months where I couldn’t choose which one to pick, so I decided to pick two and allow myself the luxury of an extra post next week. Many of the posts I’ve chosen are not the burning issues of the day, but thoughtful, considered posts that I felt deserved another airing. So here we go …

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NewsHound

This week in Europe: 17-20 December…

By NewsHound | Fri 21st December 2012 - 2:51 pm

EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement signed

Catherine Bearder, the Liberal Democrat European spokesperson on international trade, has welcomed the EU trade deal with Singapore as a potential gateway for the UK’s insurance and banking sector into the Asian market.

This free trade deal with Singapore will bring huge benefits to the UK’s financial services sector in particular. Negotiating as a block of 27 countries with the biggest single market in the world has given Brussels the necessary weight to insist that European banks will enjoy a level playing field with US competitors. Britain on its own would have struggled to achieve

…

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged , and | 1 Comment
Nick Barlow

Eric Pickles’ 50 money-saving ideas show that he has no idea about local government

By Nick Barlow | Fri 21st December 2012 - 1:53 pm

Wedenesday saw the announcement of the local government funding settlement for 2013-14. As expected, councils across England will be facing even more cuts in their already-stretched budgets, and wondering just how they continue to deliver services in the face of ever-widening budget gaps. (See here or here for examples of how a funding squeeze and rising costs are impacting councils)

Of course, local government should be glad that we have a Secretary of State who understands the issues affecting the sector and is prepared to fight its cause in Whitehall while puncturing some of the myths that are propagated …

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Posted in Local government and Op-eds | Tagged and | 10 Comments

Why the UKIP surge is good for Liberal Democrats

By Tom Richards | Fri 21st December 2012 - 12:51 pm

Party activists should be cheering on UKIP’s rise in the polls. Why? Because a UKIP surge would most likely end up making it easier for Liberal Democrats to win in Conservative marginals. By my reckoning, every 1% on UKIP’s popularity increases the Lib Dem majority over the Conservatives in these areas by about 90 votes. If last weekend’s polling, putting UKIP at 14%, is correct, that gives Lib Dems in Con-Lib marginals about a 1000 vote head start.

Where do these numbers come from? A recent ComRes poll found that, of people who said they were going to vote for …

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Posted in Op-eds and Polls | Tagged | 43 Comments
Brendan Glynane

The ludicrous story of Northamptonshire’s new Police and Crime Commissioner

By Brendan Glynane | Fri 21st December 2012 - 11:21 am

Across the country the controversial newly elected Police and Crime Commissioners are supposed to be getting down to business. The reality in several areas is that many are hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons, and nowhere is this truer than in the case of Adam Simmonds, the Northamptonshire PCC, who has stacked his new “sprawling” 17-person commission with his campaign staff.

The whole story is an ‘omnishambles’ – a toxic mixture of high farce, cronyism and arrogance potentially leading to an unacceptable politicisation of our police force.

First though, a little background. Mr Simmonds was the Conservative political assistant at Tory-run …

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 27 Comments
The Voice

A Christmas message from the President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe

By The Voice | Fri 21st December 2012 - 9:48 am

It is that time of year when Christmas messages start appearing, and here at Liberal Democrat Voice, we are no exception. And so, for your delight, here is a message from Sir Graham Watson, Liberal Democrat MEP for the South West, and President of ALDE…

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged and | 11 Comments

A Christmas Carol. Stave Three: The Ghost of Arrogance Present

By Andy Boddington | Fri 21st December 2012 - 8:15 am

LibDemVoice is delighted to bring you A Christmas Carol, a contemporary re-imagining of Charles Dickens’ classic tale, told in five staves (as Dickens called them). The third stave, The Ghost of Avarice Past, follows. You can catch up with Stave One, Mensch’s Ghost, here, and Stave Two, The Ghost of Avarice Past, here.

LDV scrooge story

As sketched by Bodz

Osborne was struggling to keep warm on a deserted platform at Corby rail station. He dare not sleep, for fear of imagining yet again the Ghost of Avarice Past that …

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Posted in Humour and Op-eds | 2 Comments
Mark Valladares

Welcome to my day… 21 December

By Mark Valladares | Fri 21st December 2012 - 7:45 am

Sea otterYes, it’s the end of the week again, and time once again for the attack sea otter to turn from the mysteries of double entry bookkeeping to the drama of what to publish on our humble website. So, what do we have…

Firstly, just in case you missed it, this week saw a Wednesday by-election, for the Sunbury Common ward of Spelthorne District Council, on the London fringes, where the sitting Liberal Democrat councillor had stood down due to ill health. And, despite the intervention of a UKIP candidate, Brian Spoor successfully …

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Posted in News | 4 Comments
Nick T

Jeremy Browne on his upbringing, an unusual encounter with Michael Portillo and why he is staying put in the only liberal party

By Nick T | Thu 20th December 2012 - 4:34 pm

Jeremy Browne - Some rights reserved by Foreign and Commonwealth OfficeThis month’s Total Politics magazine carries an interview with Jeremy Browne, Lib Dem MP for Taunton and home office minister, by the Conservative MP for Reading East, Rob Wilson. He talks, among other things, about his aspirations for the Liberal Democrats as a true party of government, about his unusual upbringing (he was schooled in both Iran and Zimbabwe) and about why the Liberal Democrats is the party for him.

Here are some excerpts, starting with his time at school and university:

Aged 10, Browne was now at school in Harare with what he described as

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 4 Comments
Mike Bird

Opinion: The Welfare Uprating Bill is a mistake; this is not economic liberalism

By Mike Bird | Thu 20th December 2012 - 2:26 pm

I was saddened to hear during the Autumn Statement that increases in many benefits would be capped at 1% for the next three years, particularly because I was in total agreement with David Laws when he opposed a similar policy last year. I was also disappointed that after months of party figures grandstanding about any welfare cuts being contingent on reformed property taxes, no higher council tax bands were announced.

Abandoning indexation for benefits does not just affect them in the year that benefits are not indexed. To use Job Seeker’s Allowance as an example, if inflation is 3% …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 21 Comments
Sunny Hundal

The Independent View: Why Ed Davey should support Tim Yeo for the sake of our energy and environment’

By Sunny Hundal | Thu 20th December 2012 - 12:34 pm

Wind turbine - Some rights reserved by thomas vlIt feels very odd praising a Conservative MP on a Lib Dem website as a member of the Labour party, but that’s exactly what I’m doing today.

The Conservative MP Tim Yeo is taking a principled stand on the Energy Bill and plans to include a ‘decarbonisation target’ amendment as the Bill gets debated in Parliament. He says the Treasury must stop supporting gas and focus on getting a significant percentage of our all electricity from clean sources by 2030.

He told a group of energy investors (FT) in the City:

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Posted in The Independent View | Tagged , , and | 8 Comments
Nick T

Do US politicians have a mandate for big changes to gun control laws?

By Nick T | Thu 20th December 2012 - 10:56 am

Assault rifle - Some rights reserved by thebmagThis article, by the Economist’s Lexington correspondent, David Rennie, is one of the best I’ve read on the inevitable debate on gun control following the appalling shooting in Connecticut last week. His argument is essentially that the only change that might actually have an effect is stopping most people having guns, with the rest only allowed under a tough licensing regime.

But since I read the piece a couple of days ago, it is this penultimate paragraph that has had me thinking:

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 15 Comments
Nick T

Cable orders inquiry into Comet failure

By Nick T | Thu 20th December 2012 - 9:43 am

Comet - Some rights reserved by ell brownThe Guardian reports:

The business secretary, Vince Cable, has ordered an inquiry into the collapse of high street electricals chain Comet after the government was left with a £50m bill in unpaid taxes and redundancy costs.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) confirmed that the Insolvency Service had begun a “fact-

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 3 Comments

A Christmas Carol. Stave Two: The Ghost of Avarice Past

By Andy Boddington | Thu 20th December 2012 - 8:10 am

LibDemVoice is delighted to bring you A Christmas Carol, a contemporary re-imagining of Charles Dickens’ classic tale, told in five staves (as Dickens called them). Part One, Mensch’s Ghost, was published yesterday. Here’s the second stave, The Ghost of Avarice Past…

LDV scrooge story

As sketched by Bodz

Osborne sat on the stone bench and shivered. Mensch’s Ghost bothered him exceedingly. “It couldn’t have happened,” he moaned to himself. “There must have been something in that damned Starbucks coffee. Perhaps it is a revenge for my tax crackdown. Bah! Starbucks!”

Very …

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Posted in Humour and Op-eds | 2 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Large-scale redundancy consultation period to be halved, says Swinson

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 19th December 2012 - 7:22 pm

Liberal Democrat Employment Minister Jo Swinson has announced that the formal consultation period employers must carry out by law when making more than 100 employees redundant will, from April, be cut from 90 days to 45 days.

According to this  BBC report, a consultation showed “strong support” for the changes. I can only imagine this must have been amongst employers because, frankly, it would take a special employee to favour doing themselves out of six and a half weeks’ pay.

It is worth pointing out, though, that people who work for very small employers have the right to individual consultation, but …

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Posted in News and Op-eds | Tagged , and | 52 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Nick Clegg beats James Bond and the Queen

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 19th December 2012 - 6:31 pm

The BBC reports that You Tube has published its top trending videos of 2012 in the UK. That Gangnam Style came top is not really a surprise, I suppose. What caught my eye, though, is that the Poke’s auto-tuned video of Nick Clegg’s apology over tuition fees beat that iconic moment from the Olympic Opening Ceremony with Daniel Craig and the Queen.

The Clegg video has been seen by over 2 million people. Here it is again in case you missed it…

Posted in News | Tagged , , , and | 3 Comments
Caron Lindsay

A year in the life of…..the Scottish independence referendum

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 19th December 2012 - 2:30 pm

Saltire - St Andrews Flag - Scotland - Some rights reserved by byronv2I thought it might be a bit amusing to trawl through the Lib Dem Voice archives and have a look at how certain stories have developed during 2012.

This time last year, it looked like it was all going wrong for the Scotland Bill that Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore was piloting through Parliament. On top of that, confusion reigned over the forthcoming referendum on independence with the Scottish and Westminster Governments seemingly on a collision …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , , , , and | 5 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Clarke’s concessions on secret courts will not satisfy Liberal Democrat campaigners

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 19th December 2012 - 12:59 pm

Ken ClarkeIsabel Hardman has written a piece on the Spectator’s Coffee House blog which essentially says that Liberal Democrat MPs and campaigners are on a bit of a collision course over Part II of the Justice and Security Bill. Liberal Democrat conference voted overwhelmingly in favour of this measure being withdrawn because of its provisions on secret courts.

The article suggests that Liberal Democrat MPs are likely to support the measures now that Ken Clarke has accepted an

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , and | 1 Comment
Michael Moore

Michael Moore MP’s Westminster Notes

By Michael Moore | Wed 19th December 2012 - 11:30 am

The Queen attends UK Government cabinet 18 12 12Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore MP writes a weekly column for newspapers in his Borders constituency. Here’s this week’s edition, illustrated with a photograph of the Queen attending Cabinet yesterday. 

Trip to US and Canada

Last week, I spent a few days in the US and Canada to promote Scotland and Scottish exports such as textiles and Scotch whisky. In Washington, I was pleased to be able to highlight the importance of the Scottish textiles industry which has its …

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Stephen Tall

Andrew Mitchell – victim of a police stitch-up?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 19th December 2012 - 9:55 am

Andrew MitchellThat’s the heavy implication of Michael Crick’s revelations on Channel 4 News last night.

The bare facts appear to be that, when told the police wouldn’t open the gates at Downing Street to allow him to ride his bike through, then Tory chief whip Andrew Mitchell swore at them, saying “I thought you guys were supposed to f****** help us”, a sentence he admits uttering in exasperation. He then cycled off and thought no more of it, until contacted by Downing Street and told The Sun was about to run

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , and | 18 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Paddy Ashdown: “The time for action is imminent”

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 19th December 2012 - 9:29 am

Paddy Ashdown video screenshotIf you thought Paddy Ashdown had been a bit quiet since he was appointed General Election chair, then I can confidently predict that our time of peace is soon to come to an end. Have a good break this Christmas, Liberal Democrat activist, because if our energetic peer has his way, it’ll be the last chance you get until May 7 2015.

He emailed members yesterday to let them know 3 things.

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Posted in General Election and News | Tagged , , , and | 2 Comments
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