Stephen Tall

LDVideo: From the archives – ‘The Work of Local Authorities (1943)’

By Stephen Tall | Sun 6th May 2012 - 11:40 am

There now follows a public information film… During the 1940s, the British Council produced more than 120 short films ‘designed to show the world how Britain lived, worked and played’. They’re now available online, and here’s the wonderfully of-its-time feature on local government — or, as it’s described in the British Council Film Department Catalogue:

‘A simple description of English Local Government, showing the areas into which England is divided, the system of election and finance, and the many services administered by the local authorities.’

Hark back to a time when local authorities had power over all manner of local services — from public health and education, to the fire authorities and water boards — when councillors were invited to stand for election from every walk of life (“for instance, this businessman or even his wife”), and a little boy would utter the deadpan phrase “I’m going to be a councillor when I grow up, daddy”.

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Posted in YouTube | Tagged and | 11 Comments
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Mark Pack

SHOCK NEWS: A bill that wasn’t going to be in the Queen’s Speech isn’t going to be in the Queen’s Speech

By Mark Pack | Sun 6th May 2012 - 10:47 am

The plan wasn’t for an equal marriage Bill to be in this Queen’s Speech, so the news that there will not be an equal marriage Bill in the Queen’s Speech is hardly news – even if some on the Tory right (unenlightened wing)* are trying to turn this into a story about how the government is backing down on the issue.

As Lynne Featherstone, Minister for Equalities, puts it on her blog:

In the aftermath of a tough set of election results for both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats – I couldn’t help but notice a few naysayers popping up in the

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 6 Comments
The Voice

How you can help Liberal Democrat Voice

By The Voice | Sun 6th May 2012 - 9:25 am

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:

1. Let us have your tips for stories. Perhaps there’s something outrageous going on in your local council? Or you’re an expert in a particular area and have spotted a story other people have missed? Or you’ve seen …

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Posted in Site news | 4 Comments
Bill le Breton

Opinion: Time for women, grey hairs and drastic action

By Bill le Breton | Sun 6th May 2012 - 8:50 am

In an email to members, ALDC’s Tim Pickstone wrote, “Winning elections as a Liberal Democrat is never easy … Winning those elections when you’re also in Government is even harder.”

Well Tim, what you say is true, but if we console ourselves with these thoughts we are doomed to become a party which, like the Saxons of Hereward the Wakes’s time, is holed up in a few isolated corners and crevices of the land, where our flag is carried by an MP and a council group, well resourced, skilled and of sufficient mass to evade destruction, but unable to link up …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 79 Comments
Ben Norman

Opinion: Reflections on the elections

By Ben Norman | Sat 5th May 2012 - 5:55 pm

This is the third election since 2010 where I’ve watched results roll in with a feeling of mild despair. Obviously I’m disappointed. Whilst losses are lower than many were predicting, Labour have taken away Cardiff and Cambridge, and we were beaten by a man dressed as a penguin in Edinburgh.

In the London Mayoral Boris Johnson has been re-elected but Brian Paddick – who really has run a campaign streaks ahead of his 2008 attempt – has received a disappointingly low share of the vote. We’ve also seen our presence in the London Assembly reduced, from three to two.

Obviously I’m disappointed, …

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Posted in Op-eds | 168 Comments
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Stephen Tall

LDV Caption Competition: Boris & Dave “Happily ever after” Edition

By Stephen Tall | Sat 5th May 2012 - 4:25 pm

There’s no prize at stake – just the opportunity to prove you’re wittier than any other LDV reader…

Here is re-elected London mayor Boris Johnson with his fellow Etonian, Tory leader David Cameron. After this week’s local election results, what do you think might be being said or thought by or about them?

And the winners of our last caption comp is…

Some fantastic entries for our most recent caption competition, David Cameron & Jeremy Hunt “Human shield” Edition.

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Posted in Caption Comp | Tagged , and | 18 Comments
Mark Pack

How many people are on the electoral register who shouldn’t be?

By Mark Pack | Sat 5th May 2012 - 2:37 pm

The Daily Express reports:

 Nick de Bois cross-checked the names of constituents seeking his help to stay in the UK and found 21 out of a sample 100 had signed up for voting rights.

The Tory backbencher is calling on ministers to tighten registration rules, claiming it is harder to get a library card than a ballot paper…

The MP said some people get on the electoral roll just to obtain credit cards or commit financial fraud.

Posted in Election law and News | Tagged and | 10 Comments
Claire Tyler

Baroness Tyler writes… To improve social mobility, we need to shine a spotlight on early years

By Claire Tyler | Sat 5th May 2012 - 1:21 pm

One of the fascinating things I have discovered since joining the Lib Dem group in the Lords last year is the profusion of all party groups in Parliament on virtually every subject under the sun. There are quite simply hundreds of them including some pretty bizarre ones ! About a year ago I decided to join the cross party group on social mobility – a key interest of mine since my time in central government as the Head of the Social Exclusion Unit. On Tuesday we launched our first report at a packed event in hosted by the Policy …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 8 Comments
Caron Lindsay

First thoughts on the Scottish Local Election results

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 5th May 2012 - 8:10 am

There’s no getting away from the fact that the Scottish election results are heartbreaking and disappointing. Some very dear friends of mine, excellent, hard working Councillors,  have lost. I’ve had a few very big sighs of relief as others managed to hold on. We now have just 70 councillors left. It’s not as bad as last year’s Scottish Parliament elections where we lost more than two thirds of our seats, but don’t let anyone tell you that there is anything remotely pleasant about it.

In East Lothian, North Ayrshire, Stirling, Midlothian and Clackmannanshire we were wiped out completely. Large groups in …

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Posted in News | 55 Comments
Mark Pack

Six thoughts on the results so far (UPDATED)

By Mark Pack | Fri 4th May 2012 - 8:50 pm

An update to my earlier post, adding in the YouTube clip and reflecting a couple of other pieces of news, though still pre-London results.

For the overall picture, see my views on BBC Breakfast from the amazing new Salford studios this morning:

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Posted in Local government and Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 80 Comments
The Voice

The LDV Friday Five: 4 May 2012

By The Voice | Fri 4th May 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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NewsHound

LibLink: Mark Pack – Which Liberal Democrat MPs have the media pulling power?

By NewsHound | Fri 4th May 2012 - 3:15 pm

Writing over on his work blog, The Voice’s Mark Pack has been crunching the numbers on the media performances of Liberal Democrat ministers ahead of a likely reshuffle:

No surprise that the top five places are taken by the five Liberal Democrat Cabinet members. Her push for equal marriage reforms has helped put Lynne Featherstone top of the list of non-Cabinet members, whilst Health Minister Paul Burstow’s mid-table ranking is a mixed blessing. He may be a minister in a hugely important area, but given the level of controversy attracted by Andrew Lansley and the Health and Social Care Act, keeping

…

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NewsHound

LibLink: David Laws – Borrowing to cure a debt problem is not the answer

By NewsHound | Fri 4th May 2012 - 1:51 pm

David Laws has been writing for This is Cornwall. He says:

When Bill Clinton fought to become the US President, one of his staff put up a poster on the wall of the campaign headquarters. The poster read: “It’s the economy, stupid!” It was a blunt reminder to his staff to focus on the big issue of the election, and nothing else. For the British Government, and for people in our region, it is still the economy which is the biggest challenge facing us.

Last week, we received the grim news that the UK economy shrunk in size in the first

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged | 32 Comments
Mary Reid

From today’s Lib Dem News

By Mary Reid | Fri 4th May 2012 - 12:15 pm

Lib Dem News cartoon 04-05-12

 

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Mary Reid

London elections results open thread

By Mary Reid | Fri 4th May 2012 - 10:00 am

The count for the Mayor of London and the members of the London Assembly is now underway in Olympia, ExCel and Alexandra Palace.

Once again, the electorate have had to cope with not one but three different voting systems.

Mayor of London

There are seven candidates for the Mayor of London, with Brian Paddick standing for the Liberal Democrats.

Voters had the opportunity to mark a first and a second preference candidate on the ballot paper. If one candidate achieves more than 50% of the first preference votes then that person is elected. If, as is more likely, no candidate passes the 50% ...

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Posted in London and News | Tagged , , and | 21 Comments
Stephen Tall

Elections 2012: It’s another bruising night for the Lib Dems

By Stephen Tall | Fri 4th May 2012 - 8:00 am

Results are still coming in, but the overall picture of this year’s local elections is clear: this has been a second successive disappointing result for the Lib Dems. Here’s a topline summary:

National vote share: The projected currently projected share of the national Lib Dem vote is 16%, with Labour on 39% and the Tories on 31%. This is the same share of the vote for the party as in 2011. So while the anger on the doorstep against the party may have lessened compared to 12 months ago, we’ve fallen a long way short of translating that into enthusiasm to vote Lib Dem. If last year’s elections were a anti-Lib Dem protest, this year’s are an anti-Coalition protest. Though I guess that’s a little fairer — both governing parties sharing the blame for voter discontent — it’s still no help to the party, even if we are now all in it together.

Number of councillors: The party’s total number of councillors across the UK will dip below 3,000 after these elections (as I write Lib Dem losses stand at 125 on the night) — that’s half Labour’s total number of councillors, and a third of the Tories’. For a community politics-based party which prides itself on its record of action in local government, this hollowing-out of our activist base is worrying.

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 88 Comments
Mary Reid

Good morning, voters

By Mary Reid | Fri 4th May 2012 - 7:32 am

If you have just joined us after a heavy night at the count, or watching the results on TV, then welcome. LDV readers have been reporting and commenting on the results all through the night, so please join in the discussion on the local elections open thread.

Later this morning we will be starting a London elections open thread to reflect on the results at City Hall.

Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 1 Comment
Mary Reid

The local elections results open thread

By Mary Reid | Thu 3rd May 2012 - 10:05 pm

The polls have closed, so where are we?

England

Elections have been held for 128 councils. In most cases one third of the seats were being contested. Altogether 6706 seats were up for election, of which 1170 were held by Liberal Democrats.

Ten English cities have been holding referendums on whether to have a directly elected mayor. They are Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Coventry, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield and Wakefield.

Doncaster was voting on whether to abolish its directly elected mayor.

Three cities – London, Salford and Liverpool – have been electing a mayor.

  • London: 7 candidates, with Brian Paddick waving the Lib Dem flag.
  • Salford: 10 candidates, including

…

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Posted in Local government, London, Scotland and Wales | Tagged , , , and | 35 Comments
Mark Pack

How to show you’re a party member when you post a comment

By Mark Pack | Thu 3rd May 2012 - 8:50 pm

The option to put a photo next to your comment is open to everyone. In addition, if you’re a party member you can also have this indicated when you post a comment.

It’s very simple. You just need to register for our online forum and get a username and password. Then in future before commenting, login with your username. (On most devices for accessing the internet, you can turn on the setting for your login to be remembered so you do not have to do this each time.) You will then see the party logo appearing next to your name when you post up …

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Posted in Site news | 1 Comment
The Voice

Nick Clegg says big question marks hang over Rupert Murdoch

By The Voice | Thu 3rd May 2012 - 1:25 pm

Via The Guardian:

Nick Clegg has said there are “big question marks” about Rupert Murdoch’s fitness to run News Corporation in the wake of a damning House of Commons report on the phone-hacking scandal.

The deputy prime minister said the report, published on Tuesday, raised “serious questions of basic corporate governance in the Murdoch empire”, which allowed its journalists to engage in illegal invasions of privacy on an “industrial scale”…

During a visit to Fife before local council elections, Clegg threw his weight behind the culture committee’s central findings: “What’s striking about it is how much full, cross-party consensus there was behind a number of excoriating

…

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 14 Comments
Mark Pack

Two weeks, two major achievements for the Liberal Democrats in government

By Mark Pack | Thu 3rd May 2012 - 9:50 am

Last week the Green Investment Bank made its first loans, as Nick Clegg mentioned yesterday, and this week the Protection of Freedoms Bill received Royal Assent and became an Act, as Tom Brake wrote about on this site.

The Protection of Freedoms Act includes the banning of rogue private wheel clampers, who are so unpopular that when Lynne Featherstone announced the plans last year it resulted in wall-to-wall positive coverage from the broadcast media, the tabloid press, the broadsheet press and even the pollsters. When the media and 87% of the public love a policy of ours …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 6 Comments
Mark Pack

How to vote – and what to do once you’ve voted

By Mark Pack | Thu 3rd May 2012 - 6:50 am

Got an election in your area today? Here are a few key pieces of information for you.

Voting in person

  • Polling stations are open between 7am and 10pm today. No votes can be cast after 10pm; it’s not like the shops where being in the queue at closing time is enough.
  • You don’t need your polling card to vote.
  • You have to vote at your local polling station, which is indicated on the card. If you’ve lost your card and aren’t sure where to vote, you can contact your local council.
  • In some parts of the country

…

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Posted in Local government and News | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Police investigate Labour in Leeds over fake poll card allegations

By Mark Pack | Wed 2nd May 2012 - 10:04 pm

The Leeds Labour Party is being investigated by the police for over claims it has broken the law against issuing imitation poll cards. Parties and candidates are not allowed to issue leaflets which look like official poll cards, but this is what Labour has been distributing in the Otley and Yeadon ward:

After the legality of the leaflets was raised with them, the Labour Party has said they stopped delivering the leaflets.

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Posted in Election law and News | Tagged , and | 13 Comments
Caron Lindsay

UKIP burn picture of Brian Paddick in Soho

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 2nd May 2012 - 7:48 pm

Pink News reports that UKIP supporters burnt a picture of Liberal Democrat mayoral candidate Brian Paddick in Soho this afternoon.

How did they find out? Because UKIP press officer Gawain Towler tweeted the picture.

If you look at his Twitter feed, Towler’s attitude undergoes a significant shift.

From justifiying the photo at 3:46 pm

to saying it was all a big mistake and he hadn’t seen the lighter just 43 minutes later.

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 2 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Stephen Tall – The Coalition’s mid-term blues: a problem shared (is still a problem)

By NewsHound | Wed 2nd May 2012 - 6:45 pm

Over at the Politics.co.uk website, LibDemVoice Co-Editor Stephen Tall looks at the party’s prospects in Thursday’s elections. Here’s an excerpt:

With the Lib Dems’ national poll ratings flat-lining at around 10-12%, the party faces the uncomfortable prospect of a classic pincer-movement: losing to Labour our hard-won gains in the urban north, and losing to the Tories the no-less-hard-won gains in the suburban south. How the party fares against Labour in Sheffield, Manchester and Cambridge – where there are sitting Lib Dem MPs, including Nick Clegg – and against the Tories in Eastleigh, Three Rivers and Cheltenham will be a crucial test

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged and | 7 Comments
Michael Moore

Michael Moore MP’s Westminster Notes

By Michael Moore | Wed 2nd May 2012 - 4:55 pm

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

Scotland Bill

 Last week the Scotland Bill completed its passage through the House of Commons and received Royal Assent today (1st May). As a Liberal Democrat I have always supported devolution and Home Rule and as Secretary of State for Scotland I am proud to have piloted this Bill through Westminster to deepen devolution even further. Despite their initial opposition, I am pleased that the SNP have also come round to supporting the Bill which will bring about the biggest ever transfer …

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Caron Lindsay

Tales from the Campaign Trail: Danny Alexander to the rescue

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 2nd May 2012 - 2:55 pm

As we settle down for our afternoon cup of tea, I thought it would be good to share an uplifting tale from the campaign trail.

The other day, Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury was canvassing in the Wimbledon Park by-election for candidate Dave Busby.

While he was there, he came across a woman who found herself locked in her flat. She was able to escape after she passed the keys to Danny through the letterbox so he could unlock the door for her.

I hope she’s voting for Dave tomorrow.

Posted in News | Tagged , and | 8 Comments
Mark Pack

Something you can do to win Lib Dem votes today

By Mark Pack | Wed 2nd May 2012 - 1:55 pm

The best message to win Liberal Democrat votes varies from contest to contest tomorrow as the issues at the top of voters’ minds in one place are not all the same as in another, especially when it comes to local council elections.

But with the Liberal Democrats in government, national issues cannot be ignored and there are many good messages to get over about what we’re achieving in government, from fairer taxes to banking reform, and from green investment to civil liberties improvements.

You can help get that …

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Posted in Local government and News | 4 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Local elections in Scotland: the key battlegrounds

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 2nd May 2012 - 1:54 pm

Every Council seat in Scotland is up for grabs tomorrow.  There are currently 152 Liberal Democrat councillors in 23 of the 32 local authorities, from the Highlands to Dumfries and Galloway. Liberal Democrats are participants in 13 coalition administrations.

Five years ago, there was some trepidation about how these coalitions would work. It was predicted that they would fall apart in months, but most have lasted the course. The naysayers were mainly from the Labour party, who had lost many of their traditional fiefdoms thanks to the introduction of STV, brought in at the insistence of the Liberal Democrats following the …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , , , and | 3 Comments
Annette Brooke MP

Annette Brooke MP writes: Progresss at last for park home owners?

By Annette Brooke MP | Wed 2nd May 2012 - 12:27 pm

Many of you will know that I have been campaigning on park home issues for many years. Working with Sonia McColl, a constituent and founder of the Park Home Owners Justice Campaign, I have been trying to raise awareness and press the Government to take action over the issue of unscrupulous park owners.

The campaign to end injustices for park home owners and close loopholes in the 1983 Mobile Homes Act has been long running. These loopholes allow some park owners to interfere with the selling of homes and abuse their position by using interviews to put off and intimidate prospective …

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 3 Comments
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