Paul Walter

LibLink: Lynne Featherstone – ‘Church stuck in dark ages’

By Paul Walter | Mon 12th March 2012 - 4:54 pm

In an interview in yesterday’s Sunday Times (£), Lynne Featherstone said plans for same-sex marriages are a ‘gentle measure’ but she will not bear intolerance.

Pink News reports the interview under the heading “UK Equality Minister: Church’s opposition to same sex marriage is ‘Dark Age’ homophobia”:

Lynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat minister for equality has said that the language the Church of England and the Catholic Church has used is homophobic and that the views that the leaders are expressing belong in the Dark Ages.

Mrs Featherstone told the Sunday Times: “This is about love and commitment and things that

…

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Paul Walter

LibLink: Simon Hughes – The rich must be made to pay their share

By Paul Walter | Mon 12th March 2012 - 3:24 pm

In the Independent on Sunday, Simon Hughes writes:

Our economy will never recover if we continue to allow a privileged few to squirrel away increasing amounts of money into tax havens. But allowing people to take home more of what they earn both alleviates the squeeze on households and can boost spending where it is needed – on the high street, and in the community – creating demand and jobs.

We have already made great progress on making the tax system fairer. We have raised the rate of capital gains tax to 28 per cent, ending the scandal whereby people paid

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged and | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

Campaign Corner: How do we get more people phoning?

By Mark Pack | Mon 12th March 2012 - 2:25 pm

The Campaign Corner series looks to give three tips about commonly asked campaign issues. Do get in touch if you have any questions you would like to suggest.

Today’s Campaign Corner question: You’ve talked before about how to get more leaflet deliverers and how to doorstep canvass, but what about the telephone? How do I get more people in my branch doing phone canvassing?

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The Voice

How you can help Liberal Democrat Voice

By The Voice | Mon 12th March 2012 - 1:54 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:

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 | 2 Comments
Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett

Opinion: Lynne is our Champion for equality and everyone should know it!

By Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett | Mon 12th March 2012 - 1:17 pm

Contrary to the pernicious article in the Guardian on Saturday, Lynne Featherstone MP, Minister for Equalities has worked her socks off to put equality and women’s rights at the top of the agenda for this Coalition Government.

And not only at the top of the agenda, but driving in every possible direction to ensure the rights of women (and also in particular the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people) are catapulted on to the front page of every tabloid and broadsheet paper and into the mainstream political debate and discussion.

So with all this extraordinary work, you would hope …

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Maria Pretzler

A new start: Liberal Democrats for Electoral Reform

By Maria Pretzler | Mon 12th March 2012 - 12:24 pm

On Saturday, 10th March, at Spring Conference in Gateshead, we launched a new organisation – Liberal Democrats for Electoral Reform. At the moment, LDER has over 70 members and is aiming to gain the status of an Accredited Organisation (AO) at the earliest possible opportunity.

Electoral reform is not exactly a new cause, you might think, and the voters have told us exactly what they think about it. As I went around the conference centre asking Liberal Democrats to sign up for LDER, I was asked repeatedly: ‘Why electoral reform?’ ‘Why …

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Joe Bourke

Extending the LibDem youth contract to self-employment

By Joe Bourke | Mon 12th March 2012 - 10:54 am

Small and medium sized businesses account for 51% of turnover and 55% of employment (DTI figures). They primarily employ UK based staff and pay full UK tax on the value generated here.

Equipping young people with the training and skills for self-employment has the advantage of developing a more flexible and resilient workforce, better able to adjust to a fast changing economy, as well as enlarging the pool of entrepreneurs capable of starting and growing small business concerns.

An enhanced Liberal Democrat youth contract aimed at developing a base of budding entrepreneurs, would establish a core of upwardly mobile, aspirational self-starters, a …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 7 Comments
Stephen Gilbert MP

Steve Gilbert MP writes… Church opposition to gay marriage is “intolerant, out of touch, and wrong”

By Stephen Gilbert MP | Mon 12th March 2012 - 9:24 am

Another Sunday and another set of intolerant and out of touch comments from senior Church leaders who have set their face against the Coalition plans for equal marriage. It’s clear that some parts of the Church are on a collision course with Parliament and the people. But, rather than showing themselves to be modern defenders of values we all share, they are showing how out of touch they are with British society today and the institution they seek to protect. They are also plain wrong: extending marriage to same-sex couples will not undermine the institution; it will renew and reinforce …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 22 Comments
Stephen Tall

EXCLUSIVE: What Lib Dem members say about the party’s direction and Nick Clegg’s leadership

By Stephen Tall | Mon 12th March 2012 - 7:45 am

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Over 500 party members responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

Big drop in satisfaction with party’s direction

LDV asked: Do you think, as a whole, the Liberal Democrats are on the right course or on the wrong track? (Comparison with December’s figures.)

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged | 42 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo at Conference: Lib Dem activists speak out against NHS Bill

By Stephen Tall | Sun 11th March 2012 - 8:10 pm

If you missed out on today’s key NHS debate at the Lib Dems’ spring conference, this BBC video featuring clips from a handful of the speakers who oppose the Coalition’s NHS reforms gives you a flavour. You can also catch up with what happened via Mark Pack’s live-blog of the debate here, and my round-up of the immediate reactions to the vote against the party leadership here.

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The Voice

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #264

By The Voice | Sun 11th March 2012 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 264th 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 (4-10 March, 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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Stephen Tall

In other news… Vince, Telegraph inaccuracy, Lembit, Eastleigh, Boundary Commission, site news

By Stephen Tall | Sun 11th March 2012 - 5:15 pm

Here’s a round-up of stories we haven’t had time to cover on the site this past week…

Vince Cable on that leaked letter to No. 10 (and other matters (The Guardian)

“We’re no longer arguing about fiscal policy – monetary policy’s now taking on most of the heavy lifting anyway,” he says as he notes that Labour has now accepted the need for fiscal discipline. “So the argument has shifted into a debate around how active government should be in promoting the recovery. Is it getting out of the way or is government being proactive and positive? That was the purpose

…

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Caron Lindsay

Gateshead Gossip #2

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 11th March 2012 - 3:35 pm

As everyone heads home from Gateshead, I thought I’d just share with you a few more snippets of gossip from the weekend.

A certain parliamentarian jumped past everyone in the security queue with a definite air of superiority. They can’t have been in that much of a hurry, because they were able to find time to spend 10 minutes chatting at the entrance.

When Nick Clegg paid tribute to Chris Huhne during his speech, the hall erupted in applause – and none other than his former wife Vicky Pryce was seen joining in.

And, finally, we are glad to bring you the good …

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Stephen Tall

Round-up of initial reactions to the Lib Dem conference NHS Bill vote

By Stephen Tall | Sun 11th March 2012 - 2:03 pm

There’s been no shortage of reaction to the vote by the Lib Dem conference this morning to vote by 317-270 to approve an amendment which implicitly calls on the party leadership to drop its support for the NHS Bill.

I say “implicitly” because the motion as passed — pasted at the foot of this post — does not call on Lib Dems to ‘Kill the Bill’. However, conference did vote (albeit narrowly) to remove the call for Lib Dem peers to support the Bill. This follows yesterday’s pre-debate conference vote (again narrowly) to choose not to debate the motion which would …

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The Voice

Text of Nick Clegg’s speech to the Lib Dems’ 2012 spring conference

By The Voice | Sun 11th March 2012 - 12:15 pm

Nick Clegg is currently speaking to the Lib Dems’ spring conference at NewcastleGateshead — here’s the text of his speech:

This year will show the best of Britain. The Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee, a nation proud of our past, but with our face to the future. A nation that treasures liberty, honours hard work and values fair play and fair chances. That is the character of our country: strong, confident, united.

And our character as a nation is being tested, because even in this year of celebration families are under pressure, worrying about paying their bills, about keeping their jobs,

…

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Mark Pack

Health Bill debate at conference: live blog

By Mark Pack | Sun 11th March 2012 - 9:25 am

Welcome to our live blog. Updates added at the foot.

No, the packed hall isn’t here to see my questions to the reports of the Parliamentary Parties (shocking, I know). It’s people filling up the hall early ahead of the big debate of conference: the NHS.

First up, moving the motion is Judith Jolly: “No one thinks this bill is perfect … but it is a hugely better, safer bill because of Lib Dems”. Shirley Williams is presumably waiting in the wings to make the last speech of the debate. She goes on to detail many of the doors opened to privatisation …

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Posted in Conference and News | Tagged and | 22 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo Conference Special: the views of Nick Clegg, party members & Simon Hughes

By Stephen Tall | Sun 11th March 2012 - 7:15 am

If you’re missing out on the thrills and spills of the Lib Dems’ spring conference in NewcastleGateshead, hopefully these videos will offer you some flavour of proceedings…

Nick Clegg to tell Lib Dems: Stop lamenting, start celebrating

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Caron Lindsay

Opinion: Let’s unite behind the Protecting the NHS motion

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 10th March 2012 - 8:28 pm

I adore Shirley Williams, always have, always will. She’s one of my political heroes. The way she has fought for women’s rights and helped emerging democracies to develop shows a truly liberal and compassionate spirit. So that’s my declaration of interest out of the way. But I’m not alone. I’d say most of us in Gateshead this weekend feel the same way. Policy decisions we make, though, are not about her.

The future of the NHS is not something that you can pin to personalities. That’s why I was not best chuffed when Nick Clegg said this afternoon that you were …

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Posted in Conference | Tagged and | 26 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo: Nick Clegg – “If I thought this Bill was about privatising the NHS, it would never have seen the light of day”

By Stephen Tall | Sat 10th March 2012 - 6:55 pm

Nick Clegg took part in an afternoon Q&A at today’s Lib Dem conference, and vigorously defended the changes to the NHS being implemented by the Coalition as amended by the party. Conference representatives earlier voted, by a slim margin of 309 votes to 280, to debate tomorrow morning Shirley Williams’ motion, ‘Saving the NHS’, rather than the ‘Drop the Bill’ motion put forward by Winchester Lib Dems.

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Stephen Tall

LDVideo: Nick Clegg – ‘It is only fair millionaires pay their share’

By Stephen Tall | Sat 10th March 2012 - 5:55 pm

‘Nick Clegg goes after the ultra-rich’ is how the Telegraph today trails its interview with the Lib Dem leader, in which he signals his determination to write into law a ‘Tycoon Tax’ — a specific minimum rate of tax to ensure people are “paying their fair share” and not “massaging” the system.

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Caron Lindsay

Gossip from Gateshead #1

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 10th March 2012 - 4:08 pm

This is a brief foray into the lighter side of Liberal Democrat Conference in Gateshead. There may well be more issues before the weekend is out but that depends on the amount and quality of the information I receive.

The most pressing matter, of course, is the mystery of the missing chocolate. Yesterday, I put a box of Celebrations and a bag of Minstrels in the Liberal Democrat Voice office. By the time Mark Pack arrived here at the crack of dawn this morning, it had disappeared. What could possibly have happened?  I’m sure that we could run to a small …

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Posted in Conference | Tagged , and | 2 Comments
Mark Valladares

Vince Cable speaks to the adoring masses… and Liberal Democrat Conference…

By Mark Valladares | Sat 10th March 2012 - 3:11 pm

And we go to our commentary team at Liberal Democrat Conference as kickoff approaches…

Thank you, and welcome to the Sage, here in Gateshead. As the home supporters take their seats for this afternoon’s critical six-pointer, I can confirm that controversial midfielder, Vince Cable will be taking his usual place in the line-up this afternoon.

So, settle down with a cold beer (priced accordingly to combat binge drinking), for our live commentary on this Premier League fixture, Liberal Democrats versus the Undeserving Rich…

And as a warm-up, I can confirm that the Saving the NHS – Shirley Williams motion has been taken up …

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NewsHound

LibLink: Nick Thornsby – The coalition was the best option in May 2010, and it’s the best option now

By NewsHound | Sat 10th March 2012 - 2:58 pm

Over at the New Statesman, Lib Dem blogger and Voice day editor Nick Thornsby has a piece setting out why he thinks the arguments for going into coalition remain as strong today as in May 2010.

Here’s an excerpt:

A coalition with Labour and a number of the smaller parties in Parliament was never a serious proposition, both because of the numerical difficulties and because of Labour’s intransigence. In hindsight it’s clear that most in the Labour party weren’t interested in joining a coalition. They’d rather be in opposition.

A confidence and supply arrangement was another option, but in my view those who

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

The 50p tax rate is not for dropping – the leadership’s line

By Mark Pack | Sat 10th March 2012 - 12:46 pm

Given some of the recent speculation over the 50p tax rate, the speech from Stephen Williams (Co-Chair of the Parliamentary Party Committee on the Treasury) opening the debate on tax policy was significant:

Now is not the right time to drop the 50p tax rate.

The full context left open if there might ever be a right time, but unlike speculation in The Times a few days back, there was no offer of trading off the 50p rate against the introduction of a mansion tax.

His comments also reflected the text of the motion passed, which included:

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Stephen Tall

Do Lib Dem members’ views differ from conference representatives’ views? Here’s what our survey says…

By Stephen Tall | Sat 10th March 2012 - 12:15 pm

We published yesterday the results of our survey of Lib Dem members’ views of the Coalition’s NHS reforms. Given the importance of this weekend’s debate at the party’s spring conference, we have also tried to test how Lib Dem members who are conference representative might vote on Sunday, when there is likely to be an emergency debate on the future of the Health & Social Care Bill.

All party members registered on the LibDemVoice forum were able to vote: 507 did so, including 147 who said they would be attending the conference as a voting representative. To compare their views …

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Mark Pack

Brian Paddick: It is vital that we maximise our vote for the London Assembly

By Mark Pack | Sat 10th March 2012 - 11:43 am

The fantastic Sage conference hall was the venue for Brian Paddick’s speech to the Liberal Democrat spring conference.

Or rather, his co-speech. Because for the purposes of the London 2012 campaign, Brian Paddick is no more. Instead he has been merged into Brian-Paddick-Caroline-Pidgeon.

It is one of the lessons from previous London campaigns that the party needs to be far better at turning profile for a Mayor candidate into votes for the London Assembly list, the best prospect for the party to gain new seats.

This then was not Brian Paddick’s speaking slot. It was the Brian-Paddick-Caroline-Pidgeon speaking slot, preceded by the Brian-Paddick-Caroline-Pidgeon …

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Nick T

The Independent: Lib Dems should “make peace and move on” from the Health Bill

By Nick T | Sat 10th March 2012 - 10:54 am

Today’s Independent has an editorial with some friendly advice for the Liberal Democrats. The paper praises the party for the amendments made to the Health and Social Care Bill but advises that it’s now time to “make peace and move on” by passing the Bill:

With the Liberal Democrats in Gateshead for their spring conference this weekend, NHS reform is once again top of the agenda. And once again grassroots activists are threatening rebellion. It would be a mistake – for the NHS and also for the party. It is time to make peace and move on.

Last year’s conference was a

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged , and | 7 Comments
Mark Pack

Two useful steps forward in party business at conference

By Mark Pack | Sat 10th March 2012 - 10:05 am

Despite a resurgence in recent years, the tabling of questions to party committee reports at Liberal Democrat conference is still very much a minority sport. So much so that 100% of questions to the Federal Policy Committee came from a certain North London Doctor with an penchant for chocolate…

The questions do however provide a good opportunity to ferret out information or push for a decision where you know the door is half-open. In my case this morning at Gateshead that resulted in questions to both the Federal Conference Committee and the Federal Policy Committee asking them to start publishing reports …

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Mark Pack

Major investment in Post Offices announced

By Mark Pack | Sat 10th March 2012 - 9:25 am

The BBC reports:

More than 6,000 branches of the Post Office are to be revamped by the government in the next three years.

An investment programme costing £1.34bn will modernise the sub-branches…

The government repeated its pledge that there would be no further closures of post office branches…

The postal affairs minister, Norman Lamb, said: “This government has made a commitment that there will be no closure programme and invested £1.34bn to secure the long term future of the Post Office.

“However, change is needed to secure the long term future of post offices; the pilots are showing the new ‘locals’ and ‘mains’ models

…

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Clare Algar

The Independent View: why proposals for secret trials should be opposed

By Clare Algar | Fri 9th March 2012 - 8:35 pm

A “chilling threat to liberty and justice” an “excessive and dangerous” move which would “shake our constitution to its common law roots” tilting it “towards the closed courts…so favoured by despots” and miring individuals in “Kafkaesque cases.”

As the Liberal Democrat Spring conference approaches, the disturbing potential of the Government’s plans to extend secret justice across the country’s civil courts has hit the headlines, with the Mail, Times, Guardian, Independent and FT all united in condemnation.

That sense of alarm is also becoming apparent within the party. Tom Brake, chair of the backbench …

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