Paul Haydon

Opinion: We need to counter the perception that we are no longer a political force to take seriously

By Paul Haydon | Mon 9th July 2012 - 3:53 pm

Many of my friends are quite bemused when I say am working for the Liberal Democrats. “They’re a bit of a laughing stock at the moment,” one will say. “They’ll be wiped out at the next election,” another comments. These are not die-hard Labour tribalists or Tory hardliners, who yearn for the end of the Lib Dems and the return to a two-party system. They are just ordinary members of the public, with nothing more than a passing interest in politics.

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Posted in Op-eds | 34 Comments
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Mark Pack

Albert Einstein, the good liberal

By Mark Pack | Mon 9th July 2012 - 2:25 pm

I’ve commented before that Albert Einstein is a good example of the power of brevity, something some politicians and campaigners forget when insisting they need to write a long story or give a length speech in order to properly explain an issue:

It’s far harder to write clear, precise and brief text than it is to write long, imprecise and waffly pieces. So don’t confuse brevity with dumbing down. Unless of course you think Albert Einstein was a stupid, idiotic scientist for lazily using just using five characters (not even five whole words!) to try to explain complex science when

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 10 Comments
Kevin McNamara

Opinion: The case for a Republic – and why Lib Dems should support it

By Kevin McNamara | Mon 9th July 2012 - 12:53 pm

This is a long fought argument and, maybe, one that everyone that will read this is tired of hearing. Nonetheless, it is an argument that all liberals should support.

As liberals, we oppose the arbitrary concentration of power – and you don’t get more arbitrary than your head of state being hereditary!

As a short disclaimer, I do not intend to go into arguments about cost et cetera, but rather the principle of having a monarchy.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 23 Comments
Chris Rennard

Chris Rennard writes…The inspiration behind Alcoholics Anonymous

By Chris Rennard | Mon 9th July 2012 - 11:23 am

Last week I was asked to speak to a group of charity fundraisers in Geneva. You can see my speech below this article on YouTube.

I was asked to inspire them based on work that I had done with the Liberal Democrats as a senior manager between 1989 and 2009 to help spend resources more effectively, raise substantially more money from large donors and make the party more electorally successful.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 5 Comments
Norman Lamb MP

Norman Lamb MP writes…Employee ownership: moving from niche to mainstream

By Norman Lamb MP | Mon 9th July 2012 - 9:53 am

I’ve written about employee ownership on these pages before – but today am doing so from a very different position. As the Coalition’s minister for employment relations, employee ownership is part of my remit. I’ve gone from being an enthusiastic advocate of greater employee ownership, to being the Liberal Democrat minister responsible for delivering it.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 3 Comments
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Paul Walter

Baroness Betty Boothroyd blusters on the BBC

By Paul Walter | Mon 9th July 2012 - 8:23 am

Betty Bothroyd is furious. So furious that this morning, on Today, she could hardly speak coherently at one point. Spitting feathers, she was.

She is livid about the “reckless” plans to make the House of Lords mainly elected. She spoke of her outrage at the idea that “millions of people” will be able to vote for House of Lords members, giving them some sort of democratic authenticity. This will create “chaos” she said.

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 43 Comments
The Voice

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #281

By The Voice | Sun 8th July 2012 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 281st 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 (1-7 July, 2012), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

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:

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Mark Pack

What to make of the new Electoral Reform Society rules?

By Mark Pack | Sun 8th July 2012 - 4:05 pm

Members of the Electoral Reform Society have been getting a weighty mailing through the post, ahead of a special meeting on 14 July to accept or reject a thorough rewrite of the ERS’s ruling documents such as its Memorandum and Articles of Association, Election Byelaws, Membership Byelaws and the Standing Orders for (Annual) General Meetings.

As the mailing indicates, 13 of the 14 Council members back the change, with one dissenting. As a result, I’ve been taking a read through all the details to see which way to cast my vote.

Overall …

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Posted in News | Tagged | 17 Comments
Stephen Tall

The word ‘straight’ isn’t homophobic. Now can we get on to the stuff that matters, please?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 8th July 2012 - 12:20 pm

Two significant events this week in the campaign for equal LGBT rights…

First, as we reported this week, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg asked that the ‘Pride flag’ be flown from Whitehall to symbolise Government support for Saturday’s rally in London. As The Sun’s political editor Tom Newton-Dunn tweeted:

(The picture show here was taken by Verity Harding: you can follow her on Twitter here.)

Secondly, Nick Clegg voiced his personal support for religious gay marriage for those which wish to recognise and celebrate a same-sex union:

… in an interview with the London Evening Standard to mark the World Pride event, Mr Clegg said: “This is a personal view at the moment, but I think that in exactly the same way that we shouldn’t force any church to conduct gay marriage, we shouldn’t stop any church that wants to conduct gay marriage. I don’t see why two individuals who love each other and want to show commitment to each other should not be able to do so in a way that is socially recognised as being marriage.”

A couple of weeks ago, Nick recorded this message — described by Attitude as “a really passionate, well-articulated support for equal marriage” — for Out for Marriage:

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , and | 51 Comments
Helen Duffett

Welsh Lib Dems select Dr Bablin Molik to fight the Cardiff South & Penarth by-election

By Helen Duffett | Sun 8th July 2012 - 10:40 am

Dr Bablin Molik selected for Cardiff South and Penarth

Cardiff South and Penarth Liberal Democrats have selected Dr Bablin Molik as their candidate for the Cardiff South and Penarth by-election at a hustings with local party members.

Dr Bablin Molik, a researcher and mother of two, plays an active part in the community. She has helped set up a Saturday school in the area and she had worked with organisations helping women gain confidence and skills to be able to take an active role at every level in their communities.

Bablin …

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Posted in News and Parliamentary by-elections | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

By Mark Pack | Sun 8th July 2012 - 9:25 am

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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Mark Pack

A striking party funding statistic

By Mark Pack | Sun 8th July 2012 - 7:40 am

From Democratic Audit’s latest, er…, democratic audit:

Posted in News | Tagged and | 3 Comments
Lynne Featherstone

Lynne Featherstone writes… The worst roads in the country?

By Lynne Featherstone | Sat 7th July 2012 - 10:55 am

Home Office minister Lynne Featherstone writes a monthly column for one of her local newspapers. Here is the latest one, turning on the local council’s record on road repairs.

It sometimes seems that the only thing Haringey Council is good at is finding new ways to fail local people. So maybe we shouldn’t be too surprised to read that the borough has the worst maintained roads in England.

A new survey by the Department for Transport shows that one in five of Haringey’s main roads are in need of some kind of repair. No other council area in England has …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 3 Comments
The Voice

The LDV Friday Five: 6 July 2012

By The Voice | Fri 6th July 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

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Kirsten de Keyser

Is education the key to social mobility?

By Kirsten de Keyser | Fri 6th July 2012 - 4:22 pm

We’ve all read the statistics: in the United Kingdom, 7% of the population who were educated in independent schools make up 95% of our politicians, judges, journalists and business bosses. And let’s not forget our actors and sports stars. You’re twenty times more likely to play cricket for England if your parents mortgaged themselves to send you to a private school.

But do we all want to be Yuppies? Not everyone wants to be a politician, judge or journalist, many are thankfully still in possession of their full set of faculties. Moreover, our average western society requires roughly 20% …

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 20 Comments
The Voice

How to get the most out of your Lib Dem Voice comments

By The Voice | Fri 6th July 2012 - 2:50 pm

How to get a photo to appear next to your comments

You may have noticed that next to some people’s comments is a small picture of themselves, such as:


If you want a picture to appear next to your comments you need to do two things.

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The Voice

From today’s Lib Dem News

By The Voice | Fri 6th July 2012 - 1:32 pm

By Howard of Lib Dem News

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Lord Tom McNally

Lord McNally writes… Conscience and reform

By Lord Tom McNally | Fri 6th July 2012 - 12:23 pm

Shirley Williams has recently been made Peer of the Year in one of the regular Parliamentary Awards. Eric Avebury was recently given a life time achievement award at a ceremony in the Speaker’s House. Matthew Oakeshott received praise for his persistence in pointing out that there is much in our banking system which is rotten and in need of reform. When issues affecting children are debated in the Lords it is often Joan Walmsley who holds the House with informed and practical opinion. Ditto when Margaret Sharp speaks on science, technology and higher education. Sally Hamwee and Martin …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , , , , and | 45 Comments
Keith Porteous Wood

Why won’t the Government get rid of this pesky threat to free speech that nobody wants?

By Keith Porteous Wood | Fri 6th July 2012 - 10:51 am

On Wednesday evening, Lord Mawhinney tabled an amendment (no.155) in the House of Lords to remove the word “insulting” from Section 5 of the Public Order Act to flush out the Government’s attitude on this catchall provision with a very low prosecution threshold that tarnishes our reputation for freedom of expression.

Section 5 has served to nobble those engaged in mischievous, but harmless, pranks, street preachers, and those pouring scorn on religion, but, worse, also those speaking truth to power. Of even greater concern is the chilling effect: what, for fear of prosecution, has not been said but should have …

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Posted in News, Parliament and The Independent View | Tagged and | 11 Comments
The Voice

Clegg orders Government to fly LGBT pride flag

By The Voice | Fri 6th July 2012 - 10:33 am

PinkNews today reports:

In a first for central Government, the Cabinet Office is flying a rainbow flag to mark World Pride being held this weekend in London.

The iconic flag has been flown on the personal request of Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. Officials say that Mr Clegg thought it ‘was about time for Whitehall to bring itself up to date’ by flying the flag in solidarity with the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) community.

Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said: “There has to be a first time for everything – flying this iconic flag in the heart of

…

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 6 Comments
Jonathan Davies

Selection of European Parliamentary candidates for 2014

By Jonathan Davies | Fri 6th July 2012 - 9:22 am

The English and Scottish Liberal Democrats are now inviting applications for selection for the Liberal Democrat Party lists for the English Regions and for Scotland for the next European Parliamentary elections (which take place in 2014). The formal advert has been published in Liberal Democrat News. The closing date for applications is 6 p.m. on Friday 27 July.

Potential applicants should contact the Returning Officer for the region(s) in which they are interested for an application pack. Applicants can apply for as many Regions as they wish, but must obtain a separate application pack and submit a separate application to …

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Posted in Europe / International, News, Party policy and internal matters and Selection news | Tagged | 2 Comments
Nick Harvey

Nick Harvey writes on yesterday’s Army re-structuring announcement

By Nick Harvey | Fri 6th July 2012 - 7:51 am

With Britain’s combat role in Afghanistan coming to an end, so ends the predictability of our Army’s main effort. Looking beyond 2014, we need to restructure our armed forces to face an increasingly uncertain world: ready to intervene to protect our national interest, with the agile and adaptable ability to project force and prevent conflict, as set out in the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR).

So yesterday’s Army 2020 announcement was about restructuring the British Army for the future. Contrary to many claims, it is not about personnel cuts.

Of course, we cannot avoid the fact that the economic situation …

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Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged , and | 15 Comments
Nick T

Norman Lamb: “I am incredibly excited by the prospect of establishing a mutual Post Office”

By Nick T | Thu 5th July 2012 - 5:54 pm

Following a consultation, the government has announced its intention to press ahead with proposals to mutualise Post Offices. Here’s what Norman Lamb – who has previously set out his vision for the future of Post Offices here on the Voice – had to say, as reported by the Independent:

Post Office branches are relied upon by communities the length and breadth of the country.

That is why we have committed £1.34 billion of funding to the business and why there will be no closure programme under this Government. I want to make sure that the Post Office becomes a successful

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 5 Comments
The Voice

How you can help Liberal Democrat Voice

By The Voice | Thu 5th July 2012 - 4:50 pm

The Voice is only a success because of the interest and support from our readers. For many people just lurking and reading the site is all they want to do – and that’s fine, we’re grateful for people taking the time to read the site.

You can though help us continue to produce interesting content for a growing audience. Here are four simple ways:

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Posted in Site news | 1 Comment

Opinion: How CONNECT helped hold Chelmsford

By Nick Edwards | Thu 5th July 2012 - 2:23 pm

On Thursday 28th June, activists from all over the country and beyond helped secure two vital by-election wins in Chelmsford. Stephen Robinson was elected to the Chelmsford North division of Essex County Council, and Paul Bentham for the Patching Hall ward on Chelmsford City Council. In both elections, the Conservatives were well beaten into second place.

Stephen said:

I am extremely grateful to everyone who helped us make this victory possible. Having so many activists available helped us secure the legacy of long-serving Lib Dem incumbent Cllr. Tom Smith-Hughes, who sadly died earlier in the year.

Saffron Walden Constituency Chairman Nick Edwards, …

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Posted in Council by-elections | Tagged , , and | 2 Comments
Samuel Barratt

Opinion: Tuition fees – a progressive model for welfare?

By Samuel Barratt | Thu 5th July 2012 - 1:22 pm

Given the proportion of public sector spending it accounts for, in austere times welfare spending has come under the spotlight, with sizeable cuts having already being made.

Looking at who is accessing benefits to ensure those in receipt of them should be is to be welcomed. A blind eye should not, however, be turned to wealthier individuals in receipt of things like winter fuel allowance whilst cuts are made to some of the poorest in our society.

It is right that Liberal Democrats have distanced ourselves from Cameron’s musings that everyone under 25 should not be able to rely on support from …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 49 Comments
Edward McMillan-Scott

Edward McMillan-Scott MEP writes… Our voice on human rights is amplified by the EU

By Edward McMillan-Scott | Thu 5th July 2012 - 11:54 am

The Coalition pledge to put human rights at the heart of our foreign policy is bearing fruit. Thanks especially to pressure from the European Parliament – where as Vice-President for democracy and human rights I have lobbied hard – and the Foreign Office, civil society, the EU’s 27 governments recently adopted a comprehensive new approach. Jeremy Browne, our excellent minister for human rights, and I co-authored a recent article published by the Independent explaining the background of the ambitious new EU Human Rights package.

Although the EU’s foreign ministers gave the green light to a new Strategy with an  associated …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 3 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo: Julian ‘most intelligent MP’ Huppert explains the Higgs boson to Andrew Neil

By Stephen Tall | Thu 5th July 2012 - 10:25 am

Two seismic events occurred yesterday. First, the Higgs boson ‘God particle’ has probably been discovered by scientists at CERN. Then, even more extraordinarily, Andrew Neil had a good word to say for a Lib Dem MP, as Julian Huppert offered a succinct summary of why it matters…

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Posted in YouTube | Tagged , and | 3 Comments
Paul Walter

PMQs: My honourable friend makes an important point

By Paul Walter | Thu 5th July 2012 - 9:23 am

I think David Cameron broke his own record this week:

(To Nicolas Soames) My right honourable Friend makes an important point.

(To Julian Brazier) My honourable Friend makes two very important points.

(To Duncan Hames) My honourable Friend raises an important point.

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Posted in PMQs | Tagged , and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dems should back a judge-led inquiry into financial scandal

By Stephen Tall | Wed 4th July 2012 - 10:55 pm

I get why the Tories are opposed to a judge-led inquiry into the scandalous rate-rigging practices employed by Barclays and other banks: their experiences of the Leveson Inquiry show how scandals, even ones that blend across the red/blue parties, have a habit of rebounding on the government of the day.

I get why Labour are in favour of a judge-led inquiry: so complicit were Labour (and Ed Balls in particular) in the catastrophic financial mess of the last few years, of which the banks are just one part, that they are desperate to appear transparent in the hope the inquiry will rebound on the government of the day.

But I don’t get why the Lib Dems are lining up with the Tories to oppose a judge-led inquiry.

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Posted in News and Op-eds | Tagged , , , , and | 58 Comments
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