Mark Pack

Little known reshuffle fact: there are now MORE Lib Dem ministers

By Mark Pack | Thu 6th September 2012 - 9:25 am

Compared to many a previous government reshuffle, this week’s went at a pretty standard rate. It felt, however, slower. Slower because our speeded up news cycle and appetite for instant updates, fed above all by Twitter, means that spreading out a series of announcements over several hours feels slow and bitty.

You don’t have to go very far back in time for a reshuffle that takes a good part of the day still to feel quick to most as it would all be heard about in one wrap-up report in the evening news, a further one in the next day’s paper …

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Posted in News | Tagged | 15 Comments
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Alison Garnham

The Independent View: How David Laws can help children and the economy at the same time

By Alison Garnham | Thu 6th September 2012 - 8:57 am
When David Laws arrived as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, he famously found a note from his predecessor telling him ‘there’s no money left’. With the IFS warning child poverty levels have reached a turning point and will shoot upwards again, we have to hope that any handover note left for him this time is more optimistic, particularly on improving opportunities for poor children.

As Minister for Schools, David Laws will oversee the development of the party’s flagship policy to tackle child poverty, the Pupil Premium, which Sarah Teather lists as one of her main achievements in her time

…

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Posted in The Independent View | Tagged and | 16 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dems should have had no part in ‘Knights of the Long Knives’ reshuffle honours

By Stephen Tall | Wed 5th September 2012 - 11:50 pm

Nick Harvey’s had a tough week. On Tuesday his ministerial career was brought to an abrupt and surprising halt when Nick Clegg told him he was ‘trading’ his post of armed forces minister for a Lib Dem foothold in another department.

The North Devon MP has been a victim of his own success. So shrewdly has he overseen the Trident nuclear weapons review — the crunch defence decision which divides Lib Dems and Tories — that it is highly likely to produce more effective, better value deterrent options, with a final decision not needed until 2016, after the next …

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The Independent View: Why we must talk about the EU now

By Petros Fassoulas | Wed 5th September 2012 - 3:35 pm

I guess talking about Europe is not what a party wants come September. With the conference fast approaching, the polls painting a gloomy picture, debate about the leadership raging and the small subject of the economy hanging over everybody, the last thing one needs is a debate about Britain’s place in the EU.

But in politics there is no escaping the big issues. The EU is not just a club we are members of. We are the EU. Our economy is deeply integrated in the wider European economy and our ability to influence the global events that affect us depends to …

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Posted in Europe / International, Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged | 42 Comments
Mark Pack

Sarah Ludford praises European Arrest Warrant’s latest use in London

By Mark Pack | Wed 5th September 2012 - 2:55 pm

From a press release:

London MEP Sarah Ludford has welcomed the use of the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) in a bid to apprehend a former Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing children at St Benedict’s School in Ealing, west London. After failing to answer bail the man, named by police as Lawrence Soper, is believed to have fled to Italy.

Sarah Ludford commented:

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 9 Comments
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Paul Walter

A postcard from… Australia

By Paul Walter | Wed 5th September 2012 - 1:47 pm

From reading The Australian during an antipodean holiday over the last three weeks, a few national Australian issues stand out:

The state of the Australian government

There are great paralells with the UK here in terms of the actual form of the government. Both countries had elections in 2010 where no party had an overall majority. Despite her many faults, Julia Gillard has been remarkably successful in holding together her government, some might saying “clinging on by her fingernails”, relying on a handful of independent MPs and

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Posted in Europe / International | Tagged and | 5 Comments

Transfer deadline day: Laws, Brake, Foster & Swinson in, Burstow, Teather, Harvey & Stunell out, Clarke loan finishes

By James Percival | Wed 5th September 2012 - 1:32 pm

I love reshuffle days, they’re just like transfer deadline day. You sit there at your office computer pretending to work while secretly updating the Guardian live blog to see who your side has brought in and let go.

So, have we strengthened the side for the second half of the season or left gaping holes in our defence?

Well, we have managed to hold on to all our big players – Cable, Alexander, Davey and Moore – and, despite losing his place to Alexander after his suspension early in the season, we now have a fighting fit Laws back and ready …

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Caron Lindsay

LibLink: Stephen Tall – Will the reshuffle actually matter?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 5th September 2012 - 12:55 pm

Our own Stephen Tall has been analysing the Reshuffle over at Endeavour Public Affairs.

He says that an opportunity to pursue a more radical economic agenda has been missed:

The Government should be building on this with a radical and popular agenda to create a more competitive and much, much fairer economy, as I argued here on LibDemVoice.  This would mean further banking reform than currently proposed, for example by separating completely retail and investment banking, and parcelling up and selling on the currently state-owned banks into a number of smaller ones to create greater plurality in the system.  More than this, it

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged , and | 7 Comments
Jim Killock

The Independent View: only 24 hours left to have your say on adult filtering

By Jim Killock | Wed 5th September 2012 - 11:55 am

Default blocking of online adult material is a controversial and illiberal policy, which has attracted criticism from plenty of Liberal Democrats – and rightly so. Default Internet censorship takes decisions about what is appropriate for families and households out of parents’ hands. In the process the Government would be constructing an infrastructure of censorship that will be inefficient, error-ridden and open to abuse.

Default blocking will mean the Government and technology companies, rather than parents, deciding what is ‘appropriate’ for children and young people. Filtering can give parents a false sense of security and also inevitably leads to the the ‘wrong’ …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged and | 13 Comments
Andrew Wigley

Kill the cull – it’s bad for badgers, science and the Government

By Andrew Wigley | Wed 5th September 2012 - 10:23 am

A new term and the Government looks set to walk straight into a public relations disaster. In a bid to ‘manage’ the spread of bovine TB, Defra will commence a badger cull starting in two areas of the South West – West Somerset/Taunton Deane and in the Forest of Dean/Tewkesbury. It is not just the pictures of indiscriminate shooting and maiming of an icon of the British countryside which will be so damaging for the Government; it is the fact that the cull is based on flawed science.  This is an ill-conceived policy.

The decision by Defra, one of the few …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 34 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Some random reshuffle observations

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 5th September 2012 - 9:52 am

I hope that you liked our marathon 6 hour live blog yesterday as the Reshuffle unfolded and our analysis from Nick, Stephen and Mark. Chances are you may have seen one or other of them on the television yesterday. Here’s Stephen on the Daily Politics, at about 16 and 27 minutes in.

I thought I’d briefly add my random observations on the reshuffle.

Nukes, kids and jobs

As a long term supporter of David Laws, albeit for his skills rather than his economic outlook, I’m delighted to see him back. However, he has to have one of the …

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Posted in News | 11 Comments
David Thorpe

Opinion: Danish economy shows now is not the time for Plan B

By David Thorpe | Wed 5th September 2012 - 8:54 am

Critics of the coalition’s economic policy come from many and diverse perspectives, from those such as John Redwood who advocate the traditional Tory neo-classical approach of cutting taxes and spending until growth is achieved to those who advocate forgetting the deficit and spending until growth occurs.

The traditional Tory arguments were largely demolished by the great Liberal economist JM Keynes in the 1930s, and their reheated version disproved by JK Galbraith in the 1980s.

The arguments of those who wish to see stimulus spending are more cogent but the latest data concerning the Danish economy should provide them with food for thought.

In …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 48 Comments
Mark Pack

Reshuffle thoughts: how does it score against my four criteria?

By Mark Pack | Tue 4th September 2012 - 9:31 pm

Ahead of the reshuffle, I posted four criteria against which the Liberal Democrat part of the shuffling should be judged. Now nearly all the details are in, how does it look?

 

Most importantly, have people been put in jobs they’ve got a decent chance of doing well? It’s hard enough being a minister in the smaller party in a coalition government without having lots of people thrown into policy areas they are completely new to.

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Stephen Tall

What the three departing Lib Dem ministers have said as they leave government

By Stephen Tall | Tue 4th September 2012 - 8:05 pm

You can catch up on the rolling LibDemVoice live-blog of today’s reshuffle here and the current list of official Lib Dem appointments here.

Three Lib Dem ministers are at the time of writing departing the Coalition Government for the backbenches. Each of them has issued statements as follows:

Sarah Teather, Liberal Democrat MP for Brent Central:

It has been a huge privilege to serve as an education minister in the coalition government over the last two and a half years. I’m hugely proud of the part I have been able to play in ending child detention, and rolling out the

…

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Nick T

The reshuffle – who’s in and who’s out

By Nick T | Tue 4th September 2012 - 6:30 pm

We’re still updating our reshuffle live blog but now we’re starting to get a clearer picture of who’s in and who’s out, here’s a list of Lib Dems who we know are members of the government. This list will be updated when further appointments are confirmed.

Cabinet

With no changes to Lib Dems at Cabinet level, the line-up remains:

– Nick Clegg – Deputy Prime Minister and Lord President of the Council

– Danny Alexander – Chief Secretary to the Treasury

– Michael Moore – Secretary of State for Scotland

– Vince Cable – Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills

– Ed Davey – …

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Posted in News | 15 Comments
Mark Pack

Maria Miller’s appointment: have you forgotten what was said when Theresa May got the role?

By Mark Pack | Tue 4th September 2012 - 6:22 pm

Maria Miller’s appointment to, amongst other things, the Women and Equalities brief has received quite a lot of criticism from non-Conservatives today.

One part of that is wrong, but understandable – a simple mistake in not realising that the role she’s taken on isn’t the one Lynne Featherstone had but rather the one Theresa May had. As the BBC got this wrong, it’s no surprise many others followed in also getting it wrong, even though the accurate information is readily accessible in many places such as in Theresa May’s own write-up on the Home Office website. Not double-checking something the BBC …

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Mark Pack

How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

By Mark Pack | Tue 4th September 2012 - 3:50 pm

Why not join hundreds of other Lib Dem Voice readers in getting our latest headlines by email?

Some people like regularly visiting a site to see if there’s new stories of interest. Some people like subscribing to its news feed (RSS) and checking that way. But if you prefer email, you can instead sign up to get a daily early morning email with a summary of the previous day’s posts from Lib Dem Voice, complete with a note of how many comments each post has got and convenient links to click on if any take your fancy and you want to take a read.

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Sean Davey

Opinion: Reshuffle to the Right

By Sean Davey | Tue 4th September 2012 - 1:19 pm

The official line is that today’s reshuffle is all about prioritizing the economy – with reasonable evidence for this with Ken Clarke staying on with an economic brief; Cameron beefing up the Whip office and thus backbench discipline; and appointing someone with previous experience of that role – Patrick McLoughlin – to Transport to push through infrastructure projects like HS2.

But the commentary from Twitter to the BBC is already painting this as a move to the right. Lib Dem tweeters are suddenly gloomier about the lifetime of this coalition, but here’s what I think: the Tories have inadvertently given us …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 90 Comments
Mark Pack

Reports to party conference: two good things

By Mark Pack | Tue 4th September 2012 - 11:50 am

In amongst the paperwork for the Autumn 2012 Liberal Democrat Conference in Brighton is the bundle of reports from various party committees and bodies. The idea of the reports, and the ability to question them, is a great one. The content of the reports can have a tendency to be a little too banal or general to make for a meaningful report back from committees to people who elected them.

Take this shock news from the FCC report, for example:

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Posted in Conference and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged , , and | 2 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Government Reshuffle live blog

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 4th September 2012 - 9:12 am

As I’m going to be doing little else than sip Earl Grey while watching the News channel for reshuffle news, I thought it might be a good idea to have an open thread to cover events. If you want a laugh, you can have a look at the predictions I made last night.

So, what do we know so far?

Well, Andrew Mitchell, the former International Development secretary was last night appointed Chief Whip.

Sayeeda Warsi is not going to be Party Chairman any more.

Ken Clarke is moving from Justice and is expected to have a Minister without Portfolio role to advise …

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Posted in News | Tagged | 63 Comments
Caron Lindsay

SNP MP’s Twitter tirade against Moore and Swinson

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 4th September 2012 - 8:09 am

One of the problems faced by the SNP is the army of so called cybernats who spew nasty, insulting bile across the internet at anyone who dares to question SNP policy or independence – which, of course, are one and the same thing. Alan Cochrane from the Telegraph wrote earlier this year about these toxic, often anonymous individuals.

Those who cannot take part in this great debate without questioning the patriotism, and often the parentage, of those who don’t agree with them are much more accurately described as Cyberscum. As such they are, of course, a legitimate target for those

…

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Stephen Tall

LDVideo: George Osborne booed at Paralympics

By Stephen Tall | Tue 4th September 2012 - 6:45 am

This was the scene last night when Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne turned up at the Olympic stadium to present the medals at the 400m T38 victory ceremony:

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Stephen Tall

ComRes poll: Vince leadership would boost Lib Dem fortunes

By Stephen Tall | Mon 3rd September 2012 - 10:02 pm

It’s not often that polling companies ask how alternative Lib Dem leaders would impact the party’s popularity — in fact, I’m struggling to recall a single example — but ComRes has asked what difference Vince Cable leading the party would have on its fortunes. Here’s the result:

Two findings of note:

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Posted in News and Polls | Tagged , , and | 12 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Nick Clegg: in politics you’ve got to get your hands dirty

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 3rd September 2012 - 9:08 pm

Jo Swinson MP has today emailed party members to draw their attention to an interview Nick Clegg gave to The Times over the weekend. I’m not sure that many Liberal Democrat Voice readers will have a subscription to the heart of the Murdoch Empire, but, never fear, Liberal Democrat Voice will do its best to give you the general jist.

Asked about his decision to go into Government with the Tories, Nick was clear that he was in the business of getting things done:

I marvel at some people who think it’s better to have completely clean but entirely useless hands. What’s

…

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Anuja Prashar

Why BUILD an Indian organisation in the Liberal Democrats?

By Anuja Prashar | Mon 3rd September 2012 - 6:57 pm

BUILD founding executive committee left to right – Anuja Prashar (Chair), Mehul Thrivedi (Events Officer), Ishvinder Singh Matharu (Vice Chair), Avril Coelho (Membership Secretary), Rajinder Jhooti (Communications Officer), Vina Amin (Treasurer), Marisha Ray (Secretary) – not in photo.

On 31st August 2012, British United Indian Liberal Democrats (BUILD) held its first founders’ meeting. The seven founding members agreed to work together at grassroots level to help London local parties recruit and mentor people of Indian origin, in order to encourage them to stand for local council elections and to increase the …

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Posted in News | Tagged | 12 Comments
Mark Pack

Mid Term Review: not much to show for it in the end

By Mark Pack | Mon 3rd September 2012 - 4:25 pm

As I predicted, the Mid Term Review is peetering out into a Q&A session as the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton. As the report from the party’s Federal Policy Committee explains, glossing over a little how the plans have changed from the original ambitions:

The Coalition Government has stated its intention to have a Mid Term Review of its programme, which will be published in Autumn 2012. However, this will not be a general re-opening of the Coalition Programme for Government. Instead, it will essentially be a progress assessment exercise to identify which of the goals set out in the

…

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Posted in Conference and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged | 7 Comments
Toby Fenwick

Opinion: Is Tutu right on Tony Blair?

By Toby Fenwick | Mon 3rd September 2012 - 2:56 pm

Like so many of us for whom the anti-apartheid struggle was a political awakening in the 1980s, I revere Bishop Desmond Tutu. A voice of humanity, moderation and forgiveness when there was every chance that South Africa’s transition could have gone very differently, Tutu combines unsurpassed moral leadership with no political ambition.

It was therefore with great interest I awoke on Sunday to Tutu’s call for Tony Blair to face the International Criminal Court on charges for aggression resulting from the 2003 Iraq invasion. Tutu goes on to question why Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe should go to the ICC whilst Blair …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 41 Comments
Chris White

Opinion: Don’t complain – walk out!

By Chris White | Mon 3rd September 2012 - 12:55 pm

The story of UK banks is the one that just keeps on giving.

While we may be shocked by the LIBOR scandal (even though – let’s face it – we don’t really understand whether we have lost out or benefitted by the bankers’ manipulations) and stand aghast at various episodes of mis-selling and worse, what really matters to you and me is the service provided, well, to you and me.

If I complain about a bank will anything actually happen? Is there actually anyone there to complain to? Or someone who actually gives a damn?

All of us grumble to each other but …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 11 Comments
Mark Pack

How to write, with the help of Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway and Tim Leunig

By Mark Pack | Mon 3rd September 2012 - 11:50 am

How to speak. That’s a common topic in training for would-be candidates and a frequent chapter in books for would-be campaigners. How to write? Much less so.

That’s an omission I plead guilty to, for 101 Ways To Win An Election has a chapter called “Making speeches” with no accompanying “Writing words”. Implicit in many of the other chapters are ideas that will help you to write effectively. Yet on reflection there should really have been explicit advice too.

Short, sharp writing has always been important for leaflets and news …

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Posted in Campaign Corner | Tagged , , and | 4 Comments
Andrew Haldane

Opinion: Could there still be a bright future for Lords reform?

By Andrew Haldane | Mon 3rd September 2012 - 10:25 am

Unless we are admitting defeat or  consider the electorate agog with admiration of the status-quo, we perhaps need to look beyond  the seemingly  compelling case for democratic legitimacy and begin developing some more imaginative ideas about what a reformed second chamber  might do  differently and explore its potential for transforming  politics.

Limiting the level of ambition for our shiny new democratic institution to the pursuit of the same old objectives of itself does not seem like a great leap forward.

It also leaves us vulnerable to the tactics adopted by the Conservatives and their press allies, who assiduously sought to cultivate public …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 6 Comments
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