We have seen much furore over the effects that a restriction on the level of higher rate tax relief for charitable deductions may have on philanthropy. Nine out of ten charities are opposed to such a move and warn that large donations could reduce by as much as 20%. In the Lib Dem 2010 manifesto, we proposed reforming gift aid to operate at a single rate of 23%, giving more money to charity while closing down a loophole for higher rate taxpayers.
The 2010 manifesto also proposed giving tax …
At a meeting organised by Thrive last Friday the usually silent and ignored voices of asylum seekers and refugees were heard by those who need to hear.
For some time now those housed under a contract given by the UK Borders Agency (UKBA) to a local private housing provider had been experiencing problems that no decent person in our country would find acceptable. Some had complained to the housing provider, but been met with …
Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show yesterday, Paddy Ashdown was at his most forthright on the subject of tax relief for charitable donations.
Paddy reminded Marr that he is the President of UNICEF UK, and therefore knows exactly how charities will be hit by the government’s proposal of a £50,000 or 25% of income (whichever is higher) limit on tax exempt donations from one individual.
But he told Marr that it is the poor who pay when tax monies are diverted excessively to charities. He said …
In the Telegraph, Tim Leunig argues that the hosepipe ban falls unfairly on domestic users, and that there are other ways to use less water:
We are among the 20 million people in southern and eastern England affected by a crude prohibition that falls unfairly and disproportionately on domestic users. Drought orders are about to be extended to the Midlands and the South West. Yet there is a better alternative: why can’t those of us who want to fill up our children’s paddling pools, or turn on
…
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 269th 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 (8-14 April, 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:
Over at his personal blog, Steven Fielding, Professor of Political History at the University of Nottingham, takes a look at the work of Lucy Beatrice Malleson who, under the nom de plume Anthony Gilbert, wrote 10 books featuring the gentleman detective — and Liberal MP — Scott Egerton. Here’s an excerpt:
Malleson’s Egerton stories follow a clear pattern in that he usually intervenes on behalf of someone falsely accused of murder and proves their innocence by finding the real villain. … If Egerton closely follows the model of the amateur upper-class detective, one best exemplified by Dorothy L. Sayers’ Lord Peter
…
This weekend Jonathan Calder brought us the news that Lembit Öpik had contrived an appearance in a wrestling ring at Welshpool Town Hall. Distressingly, video footage has now been unleashed:
Mark Pack has posted excerpts here from Nick Clegg’s interview in the Independent today — but it’s worth highlighting also the conclusion of the paper’s leading article today assessing the Lib Dems’ contribution during the first two years of Coalition Government:
There remains much to criticise this Government for, and The Independent on Sunday disagrees with its policy on tax and spending, higher education, the NHS and much else besides. But there was no possible government after the last election that could have delivered all that this newspaper wanted. The effective choice was between a Conservative minority government and
…
Three weeks after the latest funding furore to hit politics — when Tory co-treasurer Peter Cruddas touted influence on government policy for £250k a pop — Ed Miliband has seized the initiative, proposing to limit all donations from individuals, organisations and unions to a maximum of £5,000.
Here’s the BBC report:
Labour leader Ed Miliband has offered to limit donations to his party from trade unions to £5,000, as leaders discuss how to change the system. He told the BBC this would remove the influence of “big money” on politics. The issue has been the subject of an ongoing
…
The UK is approximately 3687 miles from the United States of America, and separated by an ocean. The UK is approximately 22 miles away from France, and separated by a channel.
Yet there has already been more coverage expended on the race for the Republican nomination than there has been on the battle to become President of France. The White House trumps the Élysée Palace every time in the mind of the media even though France is closer and the result is more likely to impact directly on the UK.
However, …
Interviewed in today’s Independent on Sunday, Nick Clegg has called for 65,000 nursery workers to be recruited as part of his social mobility drive:
“Every parent wants their child to do better than they did, and every parent wants their child to fulfil their potential,” he said.
State intervention to teach children as young as two will form the centrepiece of his “obsession” which will see childcare made the coalition’s highest priority social policy. Next month he will make a major announcement on his “passion” for shared parental leave and for extending the rights of flexible working.
And he pledged to take
…
From WalesOnline:
Labour has pulped 5,000 copies of a Cardiff council election leaflet because it contains a resident’s comment that they “can’t apply for most jobs in Wales because you need to speak Welsh”…
A Welsh Labour spokesman said: “Following external production of a leaflet for the Ely ward in Cardiff, the local party identified a small paragraph which contained words from a local resident that clearly ran contrary to Welsh Labour’s policy position and core beliefs…
“The leaflet in question – leaked to the South Wales Echo with the claim that it was being distributed – was stolen from a storage
…
Next time that esteemed family newspaper the Daily Mail screams at the permissive society for its outrages against decent family values it will be worth recalling this article and its beyond-parody headline:
Hard to believe she’s just 16! Kendall Jenner looks older than her years as she shows off her model shape in stunning bikini shoot
There’s no prize at stake – just the opportunity to prove you’re wittier than any other LDV reader…
Here is Tory Chancellor George Osborne flanked by the two Lib Dem members of the ‘Quad’, Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander. What do you think might be being said or thought by or about them?
Some fantastic entries for our most recent caption competition, Tim Farron & Prince Charles “I want that hat” Edition.
Federal Conference this autumn takes place in Brighton, and as you would expect FCC and conference office staff are in discussion with Sussex police about security arrangements for conference.
1. Security at conference
Most security arrangements will be those we always have at conference and are not controversial among conference-goers (as shown by reps’ feedback). The Brighton venue is of course very used to these levels of security, both for our conferences and those of other parties.
The police and security services have however also requested that we use ‘accreditation’ for conference reps. There are widely different views within the party on …
“I am an English Liberal. I hate the Tory Party, their men, their words and their methods.” So said Winston Churchill in 1903.
As a Liberal, Churchill held high government office and, along with Lloyd George, was regarded as one of the driving forces of Asquith’s reforming administration. Was Liberalism his true political ideology? Or should we judge his position from his re-ratting in 1924 and his long association and later leadership of the Conservatives?
Those were the questions posed in the latest Liberal Democrat History Group meeting, held at the party’s spring conference. In case you were not at conference, or were there but not able to make it into the standing room only venue!, you can now watch the meeting online:
Here’s your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…
Incumbent Mayoral candidate Boris Johnson has developed plans for Londoners to keep more of the tax revenue generated in the city to spend on better public services. Boris said the capital should be getting a greater return from the tax it contributes to the exchequer.
According to the Evening Standard the equivalent of £2,500 for every Londoner goes to other parts of the UK rather than being spent on public services in the capital.
Boris Johnson said that London should no longer be …
It’s Friday. It’s five o’clock. Here’s a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week:
This month marks a clutch of anniversaries ranging from the sinking of the Titanic 100 years ago to John Major’s astonishing election victory in 1992.
More tumultuous events were taking place in Europe that same year, notably the escalation of war in Yugoslavia. While a 6-week conflict had marred Slovenia’s break-away from Belgrade the previous year, Croatia’s bid for independence quickly became ugly. It was, arguably, the announcement of independence by Bosnia-Herzegovina in March 1992 which triggered the most vicious and intractable conflict since World War II. At its heart, was the cruel siege of Sarajevo which lasted almost four …
There’s a battle on across the country, to elect people who will respond to the needs of their local communities, who will fight to protect vital services for vulnerable people.
Liberal Democrats without local elections don’t have to be spectators. If you do travel to campaign in another area, your help is especially valuable.
It’s not just the help you’ll be giving: knocking on doors and delivering leaflets. Morale is important in a campaign. If you offer help from outside, you’ll give them a real boost. Just by coming and helping, you will make things happen that otherwise wouldn’t have happened.
You are …
Here is the Liberal Democrats’ 2012 English local election broadcast, first shown earlier this week.
I guess there always has to be some humility when you see that an opposition candidate has had a bit of a proof-reading failure. After all, it could just as easily happen to you.
That said, Labour candidate for the Spotland and Falinge ward of Rochdale Council Shefali Begum will no doubt be very embarrassed after reading her pitch on the Rochdale Online website in which she says:
I believe to make a prosperous thieving borough we need united and strong communities which are dedicated and passionate about where they live and their future generations will reside.
…
Home Office minister Lynne Featherstone writes a monthly column for one of her local newspapers. Here is the latest one, looking at the legal action over people wearing crosses at work.
I was walking down Crescent Road in my constituency the other day when a woman came up to me and said something to the effect of, ‘I think you are a fantastic MP – but I am so upset that you are banning people from wearing the cross’.
So – from the mischievous misinformation from the pages of our print …
One of the aspects of the furore over the Coalition’s Charity Tax that has struck me is that charity is a more divisive issue than I’d realised.
Those of us who work in the charity sector probably take for granted that our organisations provide a public good, that the aggregated generosity of donors and the endeavours of staff make for a better society. That’s probably a majority view among the wider public, but it clearly isn’t a universal attitude.
Look at the reader comments on major news …
This Election Broadcast by Brian Paddick and the London Liberal Democrats has just been shown on the BBC. Even from 400 miles away, it’s blatantly obvious to me that Paddick is the most professional and capable candidate for mayor. What impresses me most is that he is innately liberal in his approach, hence the mention of abuse of stop and search powers. He knows how to keep people safe without trampling all over your civil liberties.
Enjoy!
A new network of grassroots activists under the leadership of the veteran peer, Roger Roberts, has been formed to develop communications with the party’s senior management. and parliamentarians.
Grassroutes to Government is drawn from across the membership and we launch today via a virtual launch on all the party’s social media platforms.
We can already point to a range of new lines of communication that will ensure the members have a clearer voice and we expect to have continuing discussions to underpin the importance of our activists.
Planning for the new group began soon after Federal Conference in Birmingham last September. Roger Roberts says:
“Pressure
…
We have played the waiting game before. It didn’t work in the 1980s, and it won’t work now.
In the 1983 Election, the Alliance reached a high water mark with a 26% vote. But there was discord. The Liberals, who won most seats, felt they should take the lead. The SDP, with their heavyweight experience, saw things differently. Problems grew when Owen took over, refused to collaborate properly, and set out to undermine theAlliancefrom within. A stalemate developed, and a waiting game began.
The Alliance announced to a stunned public that two-headed leadership was the new future. Their slogan “Not Left, Not …
Writing in today’s Times, former leader Paddy Ashdown, a key ally of Nick Clegg, has condemned Government’s proposals to increase internet surveillance and warned that we must not “part company with our principles.”
He wrote:
The Government claims that it will have unfettered access only to “data” (ie, sender, recipient, time and duration) rather than content, so this does not constitute “a communications interception”. That is sophistry.
It is one of our rights as free citizens to talk to whom we wish, when we wish and wherever we wish without the State knowing about it, unless there is good cause for it to
…
Yesterday Nick Clegg set out the Government’s agenda on energy efficiency and the role of a green economy in delivering growth. Important announcements on energy efficiency, tackling fuel poverty and helping consumers find the best tariffs all caught the media’s attention. But for me the real story is that the Liberal Democrats remain the champions of plans to build a green economy.
Nick was right to attack those who say that there is a zero sum game between economic growth and protecting the environment. As the Liberal Democrats have argued for decades, it isn’t about choosing – the two go …
News that the National Autistic Society is planning to set up a free school highlights an impending policy dilemma. Currently, the party’s policy is officially one of opposition to free schools. However if, by the time of the 2015 general election, free schools started by popular and worthy organisations such as the National Autistic Society are up and running, would it be either sensible education policy or practical politics simply to say, ‘we don’t like free schools; they have got to go’?
A different option would be …
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Proper Grimond liberalism (Jack Meredith)
Is Conference still supreme? (John Kelly)
Ed Davey’s Conference speech (Hugh Andrew)
Conference or What? (Roderick Lynch)
Where next on the Triple Lock? (Shaun Ennis)
Lib Dems just miss out on another council by-election gain.
Surgery tomorrow
Let me eat cake
Buried alive: A 1954 rescue of a teenager from a Surrey chalk cave
Lord Bonkers' foreword to the new Liberator Songbook
The continuing cost of Brexit
Alan Garner: The Edge of The Ceiling
My days in the Lib Dem News broom cupboard with Jock Gallagher
Candy Piercy 
Adam 
Peter Davies Peter Davies 
paul barker 
