Geoff Crocker

Opinion: A Really Popular Lib Dem Policy Proposal – Free Anti-Viral Software!

By Geoff Crocker | Sun 21st October 2012 - 11:25 am

Free anti-viral software to every citizen. This should be adopted immediately as core Lib Dem policy, and be in the manifesto for the next election. Like Roman bread and circuses, it would be a hugely popular vote-puller. It would propel the party to first place in the polls. Moreover it is also intellectually defensible, a rare combination of virtue in today’s post-modern sound-bite world.

You might smile and think this is typical wacky Lib Dem stuff, the kind of thing which George Orwell’s bearded fruit juice-drinking …

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Bill le Breton

Opinion: Mind the gap – a sceptical view of the need for cuts

By Bill le Breton | Sun 21st October 2012 - 9:50 am

The UK’s economic position has deteriorated, government revenues are lower and welfare expenditure higher than anticipated, worsening the deficit so that austerity must continue further into this decade. Because of this deterioration a combination of increased taxes or cuts must be identified in the Autumn Spending Statement in December.

That is the orthodox view. It is based on the generally accepted proposition that the structural deficit should be eliminated. This has set off widespread debate as to whether the increased scale of the structural deficit should be eliminated by increased taxes (such as a Mansion Tax) or expenditure reductions and where these should be identified, with the Conservatives placing welfare cuts at the top of their agenda.

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Stephen Tall

Kiron Reid resigns from Lib Dems to run as independent police commissioner in Merseyside

By Stephen Tall | Sun 21st October 2012 - 8:30 am

Kiron Reid, three-times Lib Dem parliamentary candidate and a councillor in Liverpool for a decade, has resigned from the party to enable him to run for the post of Police and Crime Commissioner as an independent. He’s explained his decision in an open letter on his website:

It is with regret that I resign from the Liberal Democrats. I joined the Liberal Party in May 1987 and have been a member with the same membership number ever since. Despite the party’s current problems I did not want to leave and had no intention of falling out with the Party. But I believe that the post of Police and Crime Commissioner should not be party political. I have argued this internally for

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Mark Pack

An ironic gift to Miliband from some of his opponents

By Mark Pack | Sat 20th October 2012 - 6:59 pm

Ed MilibandAmongst the political obstacles between Ed Miliband and No. 10 Downing Street are a closely entwined pair related to deficits: how much control over him is wielded by the trade union bosses* and does he have a credible alternative to the government’s economic policies?

Labour has often been very coy about quite what it would cut and how much it would cut. Ed Miliband’s speech at the anti-austerity protest march today did not shed light on matters.

However, rather than that being a problem to him, his political opponents to his left …

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Mark Wright

Opinion: Where now on Electoral Reform? (France!)

By Mark Wright | Sat 20th October 2012 - 12:50 pm

Electoral reform is off the public agenda for now whether we like it or not, but campaigners should be planning the future.

Some argue that the deceptions of the “No” campaign means that a re-run could be won if only the honest arguments are put and/or full PR was offered. But idea that we should have “another go” at similar arguments for AV+ or STV and expect a different outcome is wrong. All the arguments against AV are even stronger so for AV+ and STV. They will be defeated by an alliance of Tory and Labour tribalists, just as AV and House of Lords reform were.

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Phil Ling

Opinion: Two ways to help fix the global crisis

By Phil Ling | Sat 20th October 2012 - 10:50 am

It has long become clear that the financial crisis has been on a scale deeper and larger than many people have suspected. It has also been exacerbated by muddled policy responses from all Governments and policy makers. Whilst the need to control debt is not in doubt, capital expenditure projects should be pursued and tighter bank regulations need introducing (with much clearer splits between retail and investment banks); all economies are still struggling.

Step one: better Quantitative Easing

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Stephen Tall

Your essential weekend reader — 8 must-read articles you may have missed

By Stephen Tall | Sat 20th October 2012 - 8:25 am

It’s Saturday morning, so here are eight thought-provoking articles to stimulate your thinking juices…

Three big things I’ve got wrong since I’ve starting blogging and commenting – ConservativeHome’s Tim Montgomerie confesses to a trio of big errors on the NHS, higher-rate tax and equalities: “One of the many reasons I don’t want to be an MP is that I think this sort of ability to think openly and reflectively is probably impossible when you are standing for office.”

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Stephen Tall

+++ Andrew Mitchell quits as Chief Whip over ‘Plebgate’

By Stephen Tall | Fri 19th October 2012 - 6:47 pm

Breaking news this Friday evening:

Andrew Mitchell has quit as government chief whip after criticism for making rude remarks to police officers at the gates of Downing Street. Mr Mitchell apologised for his conduct but denied using the word “pleb” in exchanges last month. … The Prime Minister has accepted his resignation.

Maybe he’d have fared better with a more frank apology right from the start – I suggested some options here.

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The Voice

The LDV Friday Five: 19 October 2012

By The Voice | Fri 19th October 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. Vince Cable MP writes… My view on George Osborne’s employee ownership scheme (73 comments) by Vince Cable MP
  2. Opinion: Clegg’s cock-up over Page 3 – he should sign the “No More Page Three” petition now (58 comments) by Daisy Cooper
  3. Opinion: Britain should join the Euro (157 comments) by Geoff Crocker
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David Thorpe

Opinion: Clegg was right to refuse to sign Page 3 protest

By David Thorpe | Fri 19th October 2012 - 4:22 pm

In common with most of you, when I saw that Nick Clegg was The Sun newspaper’s hero of the week – I grew worried that the path to populism which Clegg has embraced in recent months had led to a particularly illiberal precipice.

Clegg has, since the unveiling of the differentiation strategy come to resemble politically the drunken man wandering from bar to bar trying to get served one final time, as the Deputy Prime Minister lurches from one initiative to another, hoping to turn the alchemy of populism into the solid gold of popularity. I discuss this further here and here

But in declining to back the banning on Page 3 girls, Nick has taken a position which is

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Lynne Featherstone

Lynne Featherstone writes… Local services matter!

By Lynne Featherstone | Fri 19th October 2012 - 2:50 pm

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

What would we do without our schools, hospitals, post and sorting offices, small businesses and pubs? Our local services are the backbone of our community and need to be protected – but they have been under threat in Haringey for years.

Right from our childhood, we begin to benefit from one of the most important local services – schools. It is vital that schools have enough money to provide a good education and pay their teachers decent wages. Haringey’s schools, however, faced

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The Voice

From today’s Lib Dem News

By The Voice | Fri 19th October 2012 - 1:00 pm

“And I thank Big Chief Boris and all his tribe for their gestures of support…”

By Howard from Liberal Democrat News

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Mark Valladares

Next week in the Lords: 22-25 October

By Mark Valladares | Fri 19th October 2012 - 11:53 am

I thought that I’d try a different format for the preview this week, so let’s see how it goes…

Monday sees the Third Reading of the Local Government Finance Bill. After this week’s drama, when the Government suddenly came up with an additional £100 million to support local council tax support schemes during the transition phase, one might expect the Bill to be passed relatively comfortably. However, Labour will almost certainly endeavour to ambush this if they can.

Perhaps more interestingly, and certainly a more emotional moment than …

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Bharat Mehta

Opinion: paying the Living Wage makes business sense, so what are you waiting for?

By Bharat Mehta | Fri 19th October 2012 - 10:52 am

The Living Wage is something that all the main political parties endorse. According to the Prime Minister it is an idea ‘whose time has come’; Nick Clegg is behind it; Ed Miliband praised it at the Labour conference; and Boris Johnson is a staunch supporter of the campaign. It is therefore unfortunate that, for an idea that enjoys such strong cross-party support, to date, the only local councils accredited as Living Wage employers are of one political colour – red.

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John Carlisle

Opinion: time to march for the Civil Service

By John Carlisle | Fri 19th October 2012 - 9:22 am

At the moment we are being outmanoeuvred by the Tories on the PR front, as the Osborne distortion of employee ownership illustrates, and we are not differentiating ourselves in an increasingly right wing government. We need to issue two challenges, right now, in addition to the clamour around the Employee Share Ownership issue – especially with the TUC demonstration looming on Saturday, which I shall be attending (hopefully I will see other yellow rosettes there).

They are related. The first is the austerity measures translated into

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Mark Pack

The pointlessness of political opinion polls

By Mark Pack | Fri 19th October 2012 - 7:50 am

Leo Barasi’s piece over on Liberal Conspiracy raises an interesting point about the frequency of political opinion polling in the UK. We now have far more polls than before giving national voting intention figures (this Parliament so far: 878, 2001-5 312 in total, 1987-92 548 in total – to give some examples). But do we have too few?

Due to the vagaries of random sampling, a poll that shows a party’s support going up or down a couple of points doesn’t really show anything. It’s like tossing a coin 10 …

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Posted in Op-eds and Polls | Tagged | 12 Comments

Opinion: Lord Matthew Taylor must recognise that planning is for everyone

By Andy Boddington | Thu 18th October 2012 - 2:54 pm

There was near universal welcome for the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) when it was launched last March. Environmental groups moaned about details. Developers grumbled that they had expected a greater relaxation of rules. But planning is about solving spatial conflict in our very crowded country. The NPPF is not too bad at doing that.

Lord Matthew Taylor has now been given an equally demanding task. The broad structure of planning is controlled by policy statements, but the devil is in the detail.

…

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Posted in Op-eds | 4 Comments
Helen Duffett

Lynne Featherstone MP wins Attitude magazine’s Politician of the Year Award

By Helen Duffett | Thu 18th October 2012 - 1:40 pm

At the inaugural Attitude Awards, former Liberal Democrat Equalities Minister and current Minister for International Development, Lynne Featherstone received the Politician of the Year Award for her work to secure equal marriage for same-sex couples.

From the Attitude website:

As much of the debate over the issue has descended into hysterical farce, we salute Lynne Featherstone for her clear and concise defence of the reforms. The minister has refused to be sidetracked, stating in March: ‘The

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Mark Pack

MPs and expenses: return to an unwelcome past

By Mark Pack | Thu 18th October 2012 - 1:15 pm

Oh dear:

MPs are trying to block publication of material which could show they are renting their taxpayer-funded homes to each other, it is claimed.

Expenses watchdog The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) is considering an Freedom

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Paul Walter

PMQs: The Chief Whip’s brain is missing*

By Paul Walter | Thu 18th October 2012 - 12:23 pm

*Conservative Chief Whip, that is.

Does Andrew Mitchell have some embarrassing photos of David Cameron? Or is there some disaster coming up, known only to the Prime Minister, for which he is conserving the Chief Whip for dumping overboard at an expedient moment as “cover”?

There has to be some reason that the PM preserves in post a man responsible for one of the longest public aftermaths ever for an intemperate outburst.

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Tim Farron MP

Tim Farron MP writes… This week could have been very different

By Tim Farron MP | Thu 18th October 2012 - 11:20 am

Last weekend was the fifth anniversary of the day that Gordon Brown changed his mind at the last minute and didn’t call the widely anticipated 2007 autumn General Election. Given the remainder of his tenure it is easy for many of us to forget that following his succession to No. 10 Downing St, Gordon Brown did received a popularity bounce. Brown was 10% ahead in the polls, David Cameron was floundering following a difficult period as opposition leader, and of course the banking collapse of 2008 had not yet happened.

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Nick Tyrone

Opinion: Clegg tourettes – the three party conferences

By Nick Tyrone | Thu 18th October 2012 - 9:50 am

My occupation took me to all three major conferences this year and I’d like to share my impressions with you.

First up, our lot. As usual, the press marched on us, expecting a revolt. Wanting to be there as Vince made his big move. As usual, nothing much really happened on that front. A few more grumbles about Nick than last year, that was all. The biggest complaint I have about my time in Brighton was the weather (particularly …

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | 9 Comments
Helen Duffett

Marisha Ray selected for Lib Dems in Croydon North

By Helen Duffett | Wed 17th October 2012 - 11:13 pm

The Liberal Democrats have tonight selected Marisha Ray as Parliamentary Candidate for the Croydon North by-election, caused by the death of Malcolm Wicks MP.

Marisha, a married mother of one, is a former IT professional. She spent much of her childhood with close family friends in Croydon. Marisha served as a councillor in Islington between 2002 and 2010, and was an executive member with special responsibility for tackling crime (2006-08), implementing a groundbreaking gang prevention strategy.

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Caron Lindsay

LibLink: Nick Clegg writes for Netmums on Post Natal Depression

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 17th October 2012 - 7:55 pm

Last Wednesday was World Mental Health Day. As we would expect from a leader who is so interested in the subject, Nick Clegg issued a message on his Deputy Prime Minister’s website.

He also wrote a blog for Netmums on Post Natal Depression. He said:

Postnatal depression is an illness. If left untreated, it can have very harmful long-term effects, for both the mother and child. For example, a mother’s long-term depression can lead to her child developing behaviour problems and issues with bonding, sleeping and eating. It can also lead to her child developing learning difficulties at school and depression

…

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Michael Moore

Michael Moore’s Westminster Notes

By Michael Moore | Wed 17th October 2012 - 6:55 pm

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

Independence Referendum

Over the past month, I have been working with the Scottish Government to agree the terms of the independence referendum and I am pleased to say that this week, the Prime Minister and the First Minister signed the agreement. This agreement is the culmination of months of debate and several weeks of talks I have held with the Deputy First Minister on this issue.

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Jenny Ricks

The Independent View: Fill your 4 x 4 with biofuel, or feed an African child for 200 days?

By Jenny Ricks | Wed 17th October 2012 - 4:40 pm

From time to time the solution to a problem ends up being worse than the original dilemma. Such is the case with making fuel from food crops – biofuels – in place of burning fossil fuels. What started off as such a well-intentioned idea to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has ended up not only doing the opposite, but also contributing to world food price rises and driving poor people off their land in developing countries and into hunger.

But as the tide turns against biofuels, there are sustainable alternatives which can take their place. And that’s where the Lib

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged , and | 11 Comments
Tim Gordon

Tim Gordon writes… Gearing up for the next General Election

By Tim Gordon | Wed 17th October 2012 - 4:04 pm

With Paddy’s appointment as Chair of the General Election Campaign, an imminent start to the 2015 manifesto process, and clarity on the GE electoral boundaries, the party has very clearly entered a new strategic phase. This requires an organisational shift to ensure that we are focused on both the 2015 General Election task ahead, as well as the series of vital elections before then.

There were five key priorities for Liberal Democrat Headquarters (LDHQ) to consider when approaching the

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged , , , and | 40 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Nick Clegg gets sassy at DPMQs

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 17th October 2012 - 3:51 pm

Yesterday saw the monthly “Pick on Nick Clegg” day at Westminster. Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions is not known for its searching scrutiny of Government. Instead, Labour and Tories line up to take cheap shots at Nick. The experience he gains there is probably why he’s so good at town hall meetings and question and answer sessions at Conference.

DPMQs usually passes by unnoticed by the press. Yesterday, however, was different. Nick had a “Stalin

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Opinion: Who’s the odd one out?

By Charles Beaumont | Wed 17th October 2012 - 2:57 pm

Name the odd one out: Timothy Edmonds (convicted paedophile), Hussain Osman (convicted terrorist), Julian Assange (Wikileaks founder wanted for questioning by Swedish police) and Abu Hamza (Egyptian-born militant Islamist now facing terrorism charges in a New York court). Not too difficult – it’s Abu Hamza, who was extradited to the USA after an eight-year legal battle.

The other three are currently, or have been in the past, the subject of European arrest warrants. All of them, if Theresa May gets her way, would have been able to evade justice for as long as

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged , and | 23 Comments
Hannah Bettsworth

Opinion: Liberal Youth Scotland calls for Votes@16

By Hannah Bettsworth | Wed 17th October 2012 - 1:57 pm

Votes at 16 has been brought back onto the political agenda at the moment, with the news that 16 and 17 year olds will get the vote for the Independence Referendum in 2014. This decision is probably one of the most important ones people living in Scotland will take in their lives, and young people’s views must be taken into account about Scotland’s future.

16 and 17 year olds can leave school, get a job, and start a family. They can join the army, with the intention of fighting

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