Caron Lindsay

Leveson Report Open Thread

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 29th November 2012 - 2:13 pm

This is an open thread which will be updated with details of Lord Leveson’s report and initial reaction to it. I will be live tweeting Nick Clegg’s statement this afternoon at 4:15 and the details will be published in a separate post.

14:06

A quick summary of the findings:

Legislation to underpin a new independent system of self regulation to promote high standards of journalism protect the liberty of individuals. This would not contain either politicians or press. There should be legislation to enshrine the freedom of the press and to make sure that the new regulatory system is recognised.

The plan put forward …

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Ed Davey

Ed Davey writes…The Energy Bill: A vital step for a greener, more secure and affordable energy policy

By Ed Davey | Thu 29th November 2012 - 1:22 pm

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Nick T

Cable voices concern over faith school intake

By Nick T | Thu 29th November 2012 - 12:53 pm

The Guardian reports on what it (somewhat exaggeratedly) terms a “furious row” between business secretary Vince Cable and Michael Gove, the education secretary:

A row has broken out within the coalition over the expansion of faith-based schools, with the business secretary, Vince Cable, writing a furious letter to Michael Gove‘s education department accusing him of flouting the 2010 coalition deal.

Department for Education officials, acting on Gove’s direct orders, had undermined the Liberal Democrat/Conservative deal by intervening to ensure a pair of proposed Catholic schools

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Helen Duffett

Nick Clegg: “Let Leveson speak”

By Helen Duffett | Thu 29th November 2012 - 12:17 pm

The Leveson Report on the culture, practice and ethics of the press will be published today at 1:30pm.

Speaking to the BBC this morning Nick Clegg said,

I think we should leave Lord Leveson to speak for himself. But my views on this subject are well known.

I believe in a vigorous free press that holds the powerful to account and isn’t subject to political interference. But a free press does not and cannot mean a press that is free to bully innocent people, or free to abuse grieving families.

I hope when Lord Justice Leveson gives his full statement later today, we will

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Andy Yau

Opinion: A fresh look at China’s road to revival

By Andy Yau | Thu 29th November 2012 - 10:52 am

Great Wall of ChinaOn 14 Nov 2012, Xi Jinping was elected as the new Communist Party of China (CPC) General Secretary in the 18th CPC National Congress of the People’s Republic of China.

In his first speech to the press on 15 Nov, Xi Jinping, together with the 6 new elected members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo, put his focus on continuous open reform and strong CPC governance responsive to the Chinese people’s needs. Also, he mentioned that China’s revival (China’s rejuvenation) will be a continuous important national goal in …

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Nick T

LibLink: Lynne Featherstone in Zambia, part 2

By Nick T | Thu 29th November 2012 - 9:18 am

Lib Dem international development minister Lynne Featherstone is currently on a trip to the southern African country of Zambia. Her first visit was to the capital, Lusaka, and to a UK-funded empowerment programme for adolescent girls.

Over to Lynne:

This programme is supporting more than 1,500 of the most vulnerable girls, providing safe spaces and mentoring to help build their confidence and life skills.

The girls I met told me they were learning about their rights as women. One 16 year old girl said she now felt more confident to say no to unwanted approaches from boys. Another said the girls now

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Neville Farmer

Opinion: What free press?

By Neville Farmer | Thu 29th November 2012 - 8:54 am

Stand strong, Nick. Do not cave to Cameron over Leveson because if you do so, you go against your party’s wishes and, according to the polls, those of 86% of Daily Mail readers!

As a journalist, I have long defended the principle of a free press as a vital plank of democracy. The protests of journalists that we are facing the abyss are not unfounded. Yet there is a myth about the British press that is more fantastic than many of the stories it publishes; the myth that we have a “free” press, at all. The sheer quantity of coverage across …

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Caron Lindsay

Michael Moore MP: Green investment bank good for Scotland and whole UK

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 28th November 2012 - 7:31 pm

Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore has tonight emailed Liberal Democrat members to mark the launch of the Green Investment Bank. Three of the five Liberal Democrat Cabinet ministers were in Edinburgh today for the occasion: Mike, Vince Cable and Ed Davey.

The email said:

Earlier today I joined Vince Cable and Ed Davey in Edinburgh to give the UK Green Investment Bank (GIB) its official launch.

The triumvirate of Ministers underlines that this is a Liberal Democrat-led initiative that will stimulate renewable energy innovation in

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Stephen Tall

Whatever the Leveson Report recommends, it’s worth remembering the value of the Leveson Inquiry

By Stephen Tall | Wed 28th November 2012 - 6:25 pm

I’m as clueless as anyone else at the moment about what Lord Justice Leveson will recommend in his report, to be published tomorrow, on press standards in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal.

I’ve said already I oppose any form of state regulation which would allow the government of the day, whether explicitly or (far more likely) implicitly, to interfere in the content of the free press. My co-editor Mark Pack has a different take on things here. But, regardless of whether Mark or I end up most agreeing with Lord Justice Leveson’s recommendations tomorrow, two points I …

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The Voice

Danny Alexander: Your money, back where it belongs, in your pocket

By The Voice | Wed 28th November 2012 - 4:56 pm

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Mark Pack

Individual electoral registration: Northern Ireland shows that the annual canvass must be kept

By Mark Pack | Wed 28th November 2012 - 3:50 pm

Electoral Commission logoOne of the key disputes over how individual electoral registration should be introduced in England, Scotland and Wales is whether having people join and leave the register regularly through the year, alongside better use of other information about people moving (e.g. prompting people who take out a new TV license to register), would mean that the once-a-year check on all addresses – the ‘annual canvass’ – can be dropped.

The Electoral Commission has just published the results of its research into how individual electoral registration has …

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Paul Haydon

Opinion: Focusing on the size of the EU budget is side-lining the wider issue of what it is spent on

By Paul Haydon | Wed 28th November 2012 - 2:47 pm

The outcome of the EU budget summit last week was not as bad as it could have been. Cameron did not wield his veto, as he was threatening to just a few days before. And while EU Leaders did not reach a final agreement, progress was made towards reaching a compromise at the next Council meeting in early 2013. Crucially, the UK was able to drum up support for a real-terms freeze amongst like-minded member states such as Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. This is …

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Joe Bourke

Opinion: A Comprehensive Middle East Peace Settlement

By Joe Bourke | Wed 28th November 2012 - 1:10 pm

Simon Hughes said this year,  “We are near to the end of the opportunity of being able to get a peaceful two-state solution because of the extent of the settlements. The separation of Gaza from the West Bank and the increasing encroachment of the settlements mean that an alternative to the two-state model must be explored. We need to be honest and realistic about having a Plan B and a Plan C as well as a Plan A, as an international community.”

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Michael Moore

Michael Moore’s Westminster Notes

By Michael Moore | Wed 28th November 2012 - 11:37 am

Every week Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore writes a column for newspapers in his Borders constituency. Here’s this week’s edition.

David Steel book launch

Last week I attended the launch of the latest biography of David Steel in Westminster, this one written by David Torrance.  At the event I was pleased to be able to thank David publicly for the support and inspiration he has been to me over the years.

The book, to which I contributed the foreword (but otherwise none of the writing or research!) is certainly a testament to all David has achieved in his political career and, as his successor as Borders MP, I owe him a significant debt of gratitude. This new biography reflects on what I believe to be one of the most important and diverse political careers of recent times and I would encourage everyone to get a copy and give it a read!

Grocery Code Adjudicator

In my constituency, farming is an extremely important industry and as local MP I have been campaigning for fair prices for our farmers in a market which, for too long, has been balanced in favour of big supermarkets.  This is why last week I welcomed further progress on the Government’s Grocery Code Adjudicator Bill which received its Second Reading in the House of Commons.

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The Voice

Cyril Smith: The decision made in 1970 would not be made today

By The Voice | Wed 28th November 2012 - 10:11 am

On 13th November Lib Dem Voice covered an article by Paul Waugh in the Spectator which publicised allegations of child abuse against the former Liberal MP Sir Cyril Smith.

Yesterday the Crown Prosecution Service issued a statement about Cyril Smith.

It begins by describing decisions that were made in 1970 about a file of evidence handed to the Crown Prosecution Service.

The file, from Lancashire Constabulary, contained allegations made by eight men that they had been subjected to indecent assaults by Cyril Smith as teenagers. The allegations were very similar in nature, and were allegedly conducted on the pretexts of either

…

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Mary Reid

Parliamentary candidate sought for Richmond Park

By Mary Reid | Wed 28th November 2012 - 8:49 am

As Chair of Kingston Liberal Democrats I do have to declare an interest in this advert….

For full details on how to apply please go the Lib Dem members’ website.

The Local Party Executives of Kingston Borough and Twickenham & Richmond Liberal Democrats invite applications for selection as Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the constituency of RICHMOND PARK.
 Completed applications must be received by the Returning Officer by noon on Friday 14 December 2012.
Richmond Park is one of the most high profile constituencies in the country and a key Conservative/Liberal Democrat marginal that is a top priority for the Regional and National Party. The

…

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NewsHound

LibLink: Lynne Featherstone on ending violence against women and girls in Zambia

By NewsHound | Tue 27th November 2012 - 10:49 pm

International Development minister Lynne Featherstone is currently visiting Zambia and blogging her trip for the Huffington Post. In her first post she writes:

My first visit since arriving in Zambia was to a UK aid adolescent girls empowerment programme in one of the poorest neighbourhoods of the capital, Lusaka. This initiative is supporting more than 1,500 of the most vulnerable girls, providing safe spaces and mentoring to help build their confidence and life skills.

The girls I met told

…

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Mary Reid

Knight: How can we get MPs to take their own fire safety more seriously?

By Mary Reid | Tue 27th November 2012 - 4:53 pm

This story would have been so appropriate on 5th November. But London Assembly member Stephen Knight took an opportunity last week to ask this question  at the meeting of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority.

In August 2012 it was reported that another fire in the Palace of Westminster had left the House of Commons and other areas closed off, and that a report to the House of Commons Commission has apparently identified significant fire risks with boilers “ready to blow”! Is the Chairman concerned at the

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Tony Koutsoumbos

Opinion: Come back Nad! A layman’s guide to public engagement

By Tony Koutsoumbos | Tue 27th November 2012 - 3:52 pm

Nadine Dorries has been unfairly judged. In fact she should not be judged at all. We have been so busy arguing whether she has brought herself and Parliament into disrepute by flying out to Australia to share a platform with B-list celebrities and eat Marsupial genitalia, that we seem to have forgotten all about the original question she was trying to answer: how can MPs and indeed all public officials of every office, from mayors to parish councillors, reach out and re-connect with the public?

My answer …

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Mary Reid

Chris Rennard: Youth is not a barrier to being anything in our party

By Mary Reid | Tue 27th November 2012 - 2:31 pm

Chris RennardChris Rennard spoke to the Liberal Youth Conference at the weekend. Courtesy of The Libertine here is an extract from his speech:

Party youth groups were always crucial in the key by-elections that I was involved in during the 1980s and later when some of the great by-election wins that I helped to deliver rescued our party and helped it to gain many more parliamentary seats. Active Liberal youth helped to make the difference in many of the seats that we now hold at different levels.

I often talk

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John Leech

John Leech MP writes… Remembering the reasons for Leveson

By John Leech | Tue 27th November 2012 - 1:25 pm

The Manchester Evening News has a regular slot in the paper where they get a number of MPs to write an opinion column on topical issues of their choice. This week just happened to be my turn, so I thought that I would comment on the eagerly awaited Leveson report, due out on Thursday.

For those of you who don’t know, the MEN is owned by Trinity Mirror, and along with other major newspaper groups, are totally opposed to independent regulation of the press. They claim that regulation will be the end of freedom of expression. How ironic then, that the …

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Helen Flynn

Opinion: Pity Gove’s 400?

By Helen Flynn | Tue 27th November 2012 - 12:38 pm

You may have seen the list of the 400 “worst primaries in England”, according to M. Gove.  If not, you can download it here: Primaries.

I am not about to re-visit the bone of contention that is academy status among Lib Dem colleagues, but I do think we have to look very carefully at the whole issue of forcing schools to become academies–and look at it as Liberal Democrats, who value both devolution of powers and liberalism.

I know that those to the right of the party will say that there is …

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William Hobhouse

Making the Industrial Strategy Work, Part 1

By William Hobhouse | Tue 27th November 2012 - 11:15 am

As the economy slowly rebuilds, Vince Cable’s Industrial Strategy will play a key role in whether we will manufacture more in Britain. The challenge is to replace imports, export more and to be at the cutting edge of new technologies.

The case for government nurturing and supporting long term manufacturing growth in the UK is a compelling one. The challenge is to make this intervention work. This article is the first of four articles – brought together by the Lib Dem Campaign for Manufacturing – from around the country and from different industrial perspectives to inform this debate.

Government should have a different agenda from business. This needs to be said, because too often business’s agenda is self-serving. Shareholders want more profit and lower corporation tax, big business interests want favourable government legislation and employers want to lower the cost of employment. But nearly all these issues are valid for large numbers of businesses whether successful or struggling, whether exporting or not, whether investing or not.

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Catherine Bearder

Catherine Bearder MEP writes … The British media is in love with the Euromyth

By Catherine Bearder | Tue 27th November 2012 - 9:02 am

The invented tales about European Union policy have the ability to amuse and terrify the public.

But Catherine Bearder, a Liberal Democrat MEP for South East England, explains why she has launched her Euromyth Buster campaign to make sure fact is not substituted for fantasy.

Let’s face it, is it any surprise people in the UK get exasperated by the European Union? They are swamped with erroneous tales of alleged devious directives and barmy plans from ‘meddling Brussels bureaucrats’. I have my favourites.

  • There was the ‘fear’

…

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Jeremy Browne MP

Jeremy Browne MP writes… Confronting violence against women

By Jeremy Browne MP | Mon 26th November 2012 - 4:54 pm

Since the General Election, crime across England and Wales has fallen by 10%. It is now at its lowest level since the official crime survey began over thirty years ago. This is important news, and as Minister for Crime Prevention, it is my job to scrutinise these trends and to help them continue.

But amidst this positive news we must not lose sight of those statistics and stories which show we have a long way still to go. Violence against women and girls is one of those areas.

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Paul Walter

LibLink: Vince Cable – Where is Africa’s share of the spoils?

By Paul Walter | Mon 26th November 2012 - 3:53 pm

In the Independent, Vince Cable complains that Africa sees little of the vast profits from its natural resources:

Each year, international oil, gas, forestry and mining companies make large payments to the governments of resource-rich developing countries, though their citizens see very little of it. Charities have estimated that in Africa this income is six times greater than the aid the continent receives. Where does all this money go?

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NewsHound

A surprising view on tax from a Tory MP

By NewsHound | Mon 26th November 2012 - 2:23 pm

On MailOnline Tory MP and ally of George Osborne, Nadhim Zawahi says that his house is worth £5 million and that he would like to pay more tax on it:

Already, thanks to the closure of tax loopholes, the richest in this country will be paying a greater share of tax in every year of this Parliament than in any year of the last Labour Government.

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Paul Walter

LibLink: Lynne Featherstone on eliminating violence against women and girls

By Paul Walter | Mon 26th November 2012 - 12:53 pm

On the occasion of her first visit to Zambia and the UN Day for eliminating violence against women, Lynne Featherstone writes on Huffington Post:

Physical and sexual abuse of women is a global scourge, that transcends borders. From the UK, where one in four women will be the victim of domestic abuse in their lifetime to Zambia, where 47% of women have suffered gender-based violence. Much has been done to improve

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Mo Saqib

Opinion: Tuition fees and inconvenient truths

By Mo Saqib | Mon 26th November 2012 - 11:23 am

Wednesday, 21st November 2012 is, to use Mr Roosevelt’s words, “a date that will live in infamy”. Indeed, it was a day that finally brought the government to its knees. The coalition had well and truly been smashed to pieces.

Well, that’s what you’d believe if you were a member of the Socialist Workers’ Party.

What really happened? A student protest that was never aimed at achieving anything (and indeed it didn’t). The protest of November 2010 aimed to lobby MPs in the run-up to the vote on raising tuition fees. For all the cost and effort put into organising it, this week’s

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Joe Bourke

Opinion: Amnesty for 120,000 illegal migrants

By Joe Bourke | Mon 26th November 2012 - 9:54 am

During the 2010 general elections, I campaigned in Barking and Dagenham, where the BNP concentrated much of their electoral effort on the back of council seats they held there.

Our policy of offering families, who have been here for years and want to pay taxes a route to citizenship (provided they want to work, speak English and want to commit to the UK in the long term) came under attack not just from the BNP, but Labour and Tories as well.

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