Liberal Democrat Voice

How much do the richest 1% in the UK receive?

By Mark Pack | Thu 1st December 2011 - 12:55 pm

Here, courtesy of the Centre for Economic Performance, is how the share of income going to the richest 1% has changed since the start of the last century:

Posted in News | Tagged inequality | 8 Comments

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Ed Miliband’s wonky PMQs’ maths

By Stephen Tall | Thu 1st December 2011 - 11:35 am

Paul Walter’s LibDemVoice review of yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Questions mentioned the Ed Miliband soundbite which has been picked up by much of the media… but so far without the disbelief it’s due. Here’s what the Labour leader said:

The difference is that, unlike the Prime Minister, I am not going to demonise the dinner lady, the cleaner or the nurse, people who earn in a week what the Chancellor pays for his annual skiing holiday.

A quick reminder for those who don’t live in the Westminster bubble that, last January, it was revealed (by which I mean I read it …

Posted in Parliament and PMQs | Tagged ed miliband, george osborne and paul walter | 33 Comments

PMQs: Jo Swinson on the role of women in Aghanistan

By Paul Walter | Thu 1st December 2011 - 10:23 am

Liberal Democrat questions first this week:

Jo Swinson asked:

Ten years on from the military intervention, more than 3 million girls in Afghanistan are now in school. With the Bonn conference on Monday, will the Prime Minister send a clear message that the rights of those girls should not be traded away in a false choice between women’s rights and security? The evidence shows that women’s involvement in post-conflict resolution is essential for stability.

The Prime Minister agreed:

All those of us who have been to Afghanistan and met women MPs and other leaders in that country who want to stand up for women’s

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Posted in PMQs | Tagged bob russell, david cameron, ed miliband, Jo Swinson, pensions bill, roger williams and tax credits | 1 Comment

In defence of Jeremy Clarkson. Yes, really.

By Stephen Tall | Thu 1st December 2011 - 7:45 am

Jeremy Clarkson is an attention-seeking controversialist. That’s his stock in trade. He’s about as close as the British have come to embracing America’s shock-jock cult.

And he was at it again yesterday — seeking attention, being controversial — when he appeared on BBC1’s The One Show and suggested striking public sector workers should be shot in front of their families. Cue VT:

Posted in News | Tagged jeremy clarkson, public sector and strikes | 73 Comments

Lib Dem Bloggers’ Christmas stocking fillers… Part IV

By Stephen Tall | Wed 30th November 2011 - 5:55 pm

What presents are you looking forward to giving or receiving this year? That’s the question LDV posed to a group of Lib Dem bloggers. All this week we’re revealing what they told us, with link-throughs to Amazon for your shopping convenience (and ‘cos the referral fees help support LibDemVoice: so get clicking and ordering). Part I is available here; Part II here; and Part III here. In part three, our fourth trio of bloggers – Jonathan Calder, Caron Lindsay, and Mark Pack – give us the low-down on their Xmas faves…

Jonathan Calder

It is impossible to dislike

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Posted in News | Tagged caron lindsay, christmas, jonathan calder and Mark Pack | Leave a comment

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Brown at 10: the authoritative account – which lays into Ed Balls

By Mark Pack | Wed 30th November 2011 - 3:54 pm

When it first came out Brown at 10 by Anthony Seldon and Guy Lodge was extremely well received for its authoritative detail and the revised paperback edition maintains that standard well. With Seldon being one of the founders of the modern school of contemporary history, it is no surprise that the book follows the thorough, heavily documented approach contemporary historians strive for – with over 1 million words of interviews recorded for posterity (even if many are, for the next 30 years, withheld from public view) and extensive access to private diaries.

The huge depth of research is accompanied by …

Posted in Books | Tagged anthony seldon, ed balls, ed miliband, featured, gordon brown, guy lodge and harriet harman | 3 Comments

Humiliation for MI5 as former boss rules its claims are unfounded

By Mark Pack | Wed 30th November 2011 - 2:55 pm

Not surprisingly, it is the Mike Hancock connection which has got the headlines in the deportation case of Katia Zatuliveter. However, yesterday’s decision by an immigration tribunal to let her stay in the country is a humiliation for MI5.

It had confidently asserted that she was a spy and should be deported. It is not only that the Immigration Appeals Tribunal rejected MI5’s claims, but one of its three members hearing the case was Stephen Lander, himself the former boss of MI5. He and his colleagues concluded that she was not employed by the Russian secret service and that all …

Posted in News | Tagged katia zatuliveter, mi5, mike hancock and stephen lander | 23 Comments

Jo Swinson MP questions BBC on all male Sports Personality shortlist

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 30th November 2011 - 2:25 pm

The very first thing that Alex Jones said on Monday evening when the shortlist for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year was announced live on the One Show was “they’re all men”. She sounded quite shocked – and rightly so.

She was not alone. World champion swimmer Rebecca Adlington took to Twitter to say that there were many women in sport who deserve recognition this year.

Attention was also given to how those shortlists were made up – voted for predominantly by male sports editors of national newspapers and, inexplicably, representatives of lads’ Mags Nuts and Zoo.

Four MPs, …

Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged bbc, Jo Swinson and sport | 15 Comments

Lib Dem donation figures in full (Q3, 2011)

By Stephen Tall | Wed 30th November 2011 - 12:57 pm

The Electoral Commission has this past week published the latest donation and borrowing figures for the political parties, showing that the Lib Dems raised £1,199,623 between July and September this year.

(At the foot of this post is the full breakdown of donations (excluding public funds) received by quarter since 2005, and annually between 2001 and 2004.)

By comparison, the party raised £571,715 in the third quarter of 2006 (the equivalent stage of the parliamentary cycle), suggesting a far more sustainable level of fundraising success is now being achieved; although the party has been hit very hard since its move …

Posted in News | Tagged donations, donations (Lib Dem) and fundraising | 8 Comments

Opinion: European Liberal Democrat Parties vote against war with Iran

By Paul Reynolds | Wed 30th November 2011 - 10:54 am

At the 2011 Annual Congress of the European Liberal Democratic and Reform (ELDR) parties in Palermo last week, a major initiative from the UK Lib Dems was the successful tabling of an emergency resolution on the growing likelihood of war with Iran. Media and intelligence reports have described the ‘planned’ action as a multi-pronged attack on Iran by the United States and Israel, with military support from the United Kingdom and Canada. In Palermo, the UK Lib Dem resolution against the war, and against European involvement, was passed with a large majority. The ELDR resolution also condemned Iran for not …

Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Tagged eldr, iran and mahmoud ahmadinejad | 4 Comments

Opinion: Green light for Light Rail

By Paul Rowen | Wed 30th November 2011 - 9:24 am

Six years ago amid a huge amount of controversy, the then Transport Secretary Alistair Darling announced the scraping of several “tram schemes” designed to serve Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Hampshire. In doing so he effectively scrapped plans outlined by the then Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott for a network of 30 Light Rail schemes to serve our major conurbations. The reason – escalating costs.

Light Rail was deemed too expensive in this country compared to costs on the continent.

Despite a subsequent report from the Transport Select Committee on what could be done to reduce costs little was done by the Department …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged alistair darling, norman baker and trains | 5 Comments

Feltham and Heston by-election – come and help Lib Dems’ Roger Crouch make an impact today!

By Munira Wilson | Wed 30th November 2011 - 7:55 am

At this time of year, Christmas lights start to be switched on in towns and cities across the country — but for a lot of Liberal Democrat activists Christmas celebrations won’t be starting so early! Many of my friends and colleagues are postponing Christmas shopping to join Roger Crouch’s campaign for Feltham and Heston.

In just over two weeks’ time the voters of Feltham and Heston will have a new MP. The last parliamentary by-election of 2011 takes place on 15th December and the only early Christmas present I’m asking for …

Posted in News and Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged featured, feltham and heston, roger crouch, teddington and hanworth and vince cable | 3 Comments

The Independent View: Autumn Statement makes the best of a bad situation

By Ben Norman | Tue 29th November 2011 - 5:53 pm

How did George do then? The Chancellor needs to walk the line between providing stimulus on the one hand and protecting Britain from the bond markets on the other. It really isn’t easy to decide which side he should err on.

The bond markets are currently a ravenous pack of hyenas who have tasted blood in Greece, Italy and Portugal. Although they’re currently distracted by Belgium, Spain and now France even the slightest hint of weakness on Britain’s part will draw their perilous attention our way.

That said, protecting Britain from a bond market savaging must not be done at the expense …

Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged economy and george osborne | 30 Comments

Sarah Teather MP writes… More two-year olds to get free early education, thanks to Lib Dems in Government

By Sarah Teather | Tue 29th November 2011 - 4:53 pm

Sarah Teather and Nick Clegg with children at Church Street Nursery. Photo: Department for Education.

When the dust has settled from the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement I hope that one of the things that Liberal Democrats will remember will be the doubling of the offer of free early years education for two-year olds.

In last year’s Comprehensive Spending Review Nick Clegg announced that the 20% most disadvantaged families would be guaranteed 15 free hours …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged education | 9 Comments

What does the public think about income inequality?

By Mark Pack | Tue 29th November 2011 - 3:54 pm

Here, courtesy of the latest British Social Attitudes survey (published last year) is the answer:

Posted in News | Tagged inequality and pupil premium | 2 Comments

Opinion: How much smaller would Labour’s cuts have been?

By Nick T | Tue 29th November 2011 - 2:27 pm

“Too far, too fast” – until recently you could scarcely switch on a TV without hearing Ed Balls repeating his four-word analysis of the coalition’s fiscal policy. It seems to be a line that Balls and Miliband are no longer sticking to. If I were to give them more credit for economic analysis than they deserve I’d speculate that this might be because they realised it is utter nonsense. More likely, their polling showed them that the public just weren’t buying it.

And the public would be right not to believe it, because, on a key measure, the difference between the …

Posted in News and Op-eds | Tagged deficit, ed balls, public spending and toby young | 43 Comments

Danny Alexander on the Autumn Statement

By The Voice | Tue 29th November 2011 - 1:50 pm

Here’s the email from Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, on the Autumn Statement:

Today’s Autumn Statement has been delivered in incredibly difficult and uncertain economic times. But as Liberal Democrats, Nick, myself and the Ministerial team have worked hard to ensure the Autumn Statement as a package of measures remains true to our party’s values and to the commitment we made to the British people when the coalition was founded. Every decision has been informed by our desire to help to people working hard to make ends meet in difficult times and to put the economy on the …

Posted in News | Tagged Danny Alexander and economy | 15 Comments

Ed Davey: someone getting the messaging right

By Mark Pack | Tue 29th November 2011 - 10:54 am

Having previously criticised other Liberal Democrat speech makers for having speeches which have positive things to say about the past but only gloom about the future, it is only fair to point out that there is one I have heard who does painting a picture of a positive liberal future well – Ed Davey.

I’ve heard Ed speak a handful of times now, but it was his latest speech that was the most striking in this regard as it was at a South West London Lib Dem fundraiser for Munira Wilson, just after Tim Farron had spoken. Tim’s …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged ed davey, munira wilson and tim farron | 11 Comments

LibLink: David Laws – George Osborne must stick to austerity Plan A

By Nick T | Tue 29th November 2011 - 9:57 am

Over at the London Evening Standard, Lib Dem MP for Yeovil and former Treasury chief secretary, David Laws, has a piece urging the chancellor to maintain the coalition’s deficit reduction plan to avoid importing the debt-driven eurozone crisis to Britain.

Here’s a sample:

Before the general election, many people said that a coalition would be weak and unstable. They don’t say that any more. By comparison with the eurozone and the US, our Government looks strong, stable and united. It is set to stay that way.

The Chancellor will be able to report that borrowing has been falling as planned. Borrowing from April

…

Posted in LibLink | Tagged david laws, deficit, economy and george osborne | 7 Comments

Thinking long-term: the government’s alternative to PFI

By Mark Pack | Mon 28th November 2011 - 10:01 pm

Back in February I wrote about the government’s aim to think long-term and the problems with turning that rhetoric into action:

“We must think long term” is a common cry in politics and government. Far easier said than done, but whether it is investing in early years education, making decisions over building new physical infrastructure such as railways, setting rules for pensions or a myriad of other decisions, government repeatedly makes decisions which only work well if they are stuck to for a long period of time and whose positive impact may not be directly felt for many years. For

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Posted in News | Tagged economy | 5 Comments

Campaign Corner: Is there such a thing as too many leaflets?

By Mark Pack | Mon 28th November 2011 - 3:54 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: Is it possible to deliver too many leaflets?

Posted in Campaign Corner | Tagged featured | 26 Comments

Opinion: Nick Clegg and Scarman

By Lester Holloway | Mon 28th November 2011 - 2:27 pm

We have grown used to politicians approaching the issue of ‘race’ in the context of immigration, crime, or the aftermath of a tragedy.

So it was enormously refreshing to hear Nick Clegg offer up a well-informed speech on the quest for true race equality, without a negative backdrop.

Delivering a Scarman Lecture on the 30th anniversary of the ground-breaking report into the 1981 Brixton riots, Clegg gave arguably the best speech on race equality by a Cabinet minister.

It was Liberal Democracy at its best, bravely shattering the conspiracy of silence on one of the biggest issues of the day – the …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged equalities, lord scarman, lynne featherstone and nick clegg | 9 Comments

Tim Gordon appointed new Liberal Democrat Chief Executive

By The Voice | Mon 28th November 2011 - 1:01 pm

Here’s the news from the party:

Tim Gordon brings to the role a lifetime of commitment to the Party, as a volunteer, campaigner and candidate, but also a strong commercial background and clearly demonstrated leadership qualities.

Tim Gordon has been a Party activist since his teens, when he first volunteered for the SDP “Yes to Unity” campaign, and has since campaigned in every major election. He stood as parliamentary candidate in Rotherham in 2005. He worked as a researcher for David Steel when he was Foreign Affairs spokesperson, and has been a member of several policy working groups over the years. He …

Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged chris fox, hilary stephenson, tim farron and tim gordon | 11 Comments

Kirsty Williams writes… The Welsh Pupil Premium

By Kirsty Williams AM | Mon 28th November 2011 - 11:51 am

Last week I announced that the Welsh Liberal Democrats will be voting with the Welsh Labour government for the budget on the 6th December.

We have agreed to support the 2012-2013 budget on the basis that we will be introducing a Welsh Pupil Premium. This means that from April 2012, every child in Wales on free schools meals will recieve an extra £450 of funding – no matter where they live, or what school they go to. This is a total Pupil Premium spending of £32 million, of which £20 million is brand new money for the education budget.

Some …

Posted in Op-eds and Wales | Tagged education, nick clegg and pupil premium | 2 Comments

A welcome shift in international interventions

By Mark Pack | Mon 28th November 2011 - 10:55 am

News of the Arab League’s sanctions against Syria brings to mind the Curate’s Egg – good in parts. That such sanctions are unprecedented shows a welcome increase once more in the Arab League’s willingness to stand up to dictators where mass violence against the population is involved. (Other dictators are another matter of course.) After the steps in Libya and now Syria, the Arab League is looking rather more like a body that does good rather than excuses evil.

That transformation only goes so far. For it has taken months and around 3,500 deaths to bring about sanctions which are …

Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Tagged benjamin valentino, foreign aid, iraq and syria | 1 Comment

Ed Davey writes… Glass half full – or half empty?

By Ed Davey | Mon 28th November 2011 - 9:54 am

My announcement last week on pubs hasn’t won me or the Government three cheers from the likes of CAMRA or Fair Pint. Yet I believe it is a notable success for tenants and lessees across the country – and time will prove it so.

For the pubcos have till Christmas to make their Codes of Practice legally binding – so tenants and lessees can enforce their rights – and they know that if they don’t, Parliament would be very happy to make it legally binding for them.

Coupled with the other reforms we negotiated from the pubcos and brewers, real change has …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged greg mulholland, martin horwood, pubcos and pubs | 36 Comments

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #249

By The Voice | Sun 27th November 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 249th 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 (20-26 November, 2011), 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:

Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment

Opinion: Party funding plans to be kicked into the long grass – but what’s the alternative?

By Dave Smithson | Sun 27th November 2011 - 9:54 am

Proposals from the Committee on Standards in Public Life for state funding of political parties were kicked into the long grass by all three major players before the report was even officially published.

Reaction from various interested sources and commentators has been almost unanimously opposed to the idea with some, notably the Taxpayers’ Alliance, outraged by the proposals.

The key thrust of most of the arguments against the plan is simply that the time is wrong to burden tax payers with state funding of politic parties at a time when so many budgets are being cut, jobs being lost and deficits being …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged christopher kelly, committee on standards in public life and party funding | 16 Comments

Lib Dem Bloggers’ Christmas stocking fillers… Part III

By Stephen Tall | Sat 26th November 2011 - 4:45 pm

What presents are you looking forward to giving or receiving this year? That’s the question LDV posed to a group of Lib Dem bloggers. All this week we’re revealing what they told us, with link-throughs to Amazon for your shopping convenience (and ‘cos the referral fees help support LibDemVoice: so get clicking and ordering). Part I is available here, and Part II here. In part three, our third trio of bloggers – Paul Walter, Jennie Rigg, and Richard Flowers – give us the low-down on their Xmas faves…

Paul Walter

iPad 2 (or any other tablet)
It allows a

…

Posted in News | Tagged jennie rigg, paul walter and richard flowers | Leave a comment

LibLink: Mark Pack – The Graph May Be Boring; The Political Message Isn’t

By Nick T | Sat 26th November 2011 - 1:58 pm

Over at the Huffington Post, the Voice’s Mark Pack has a post examining some interesting – and surprising – polling data, complete with a graph (don’t say Mark doesn’t spoil you).

Here’s Mark explaining what the graph shows:

It comes from polling carried out by MORI, asking the same question over the years: “How interested would you say you are in politics?” The graph shows how many people gave one of the two positive answers (“very” or “fairly”) – and so also shows how the public’s interest in politics has been pretty consistent, at a high level. (You can get the

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged Mark Pack, mori and Polls | 5 Comments

Op-eds

Observations of an Expat: When Donald met Xi (Tom Arms)
Conference from the other side of the barrier (Barry Rhodes)
Proper Grimond liberalism (Jack Meredith)
Is Conference still supreme? (John Kelly)
Ed Davey’s Conference speech (Hugh Andrew)

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Christine Jardine to stand down as MP at next election

What does a Lib Dem “trans activist” look like?

Caron’s kitchen table diary

Victoria Collins MP writes.. The ask that changes everything

How much do the richest 1% in the UK receive?

Ed Miliband’s wonky PMQs’ maths

PMQs: Jo Swinson on the role of women in Aghanistan

In defence of Jeremy Clarkson. Yes, really.

Lib Dem Bloggers’ Christmas stocking fillers… Part IV

Jonathan Calder

Brown at 10: the authoritative account – which lays into Ed Balls

Humiliation for MI5 as former boss rules its claims are unfounded

Jo Swinson MP questions BBC on all male Sports Personality shortlist

Lib Dem donation figures in full (Q3, 2011)

Opinion: European Liberal Democrat Parties vote against war with Iran

Opinion: Green light for Light Rail

Feltham and Heston by-election – come and help Lib Dems’ Roger Crouch make an impact today!

The Independent View: Autumn Statement makes the best of a bad situation

Sarah Teather MP writes… More two-year olds to get free early education, thanks to Lib Dems in Government

What does the public think about income inequality?

Opinion: How much smaller would Labour’s cuts have been?

Danny Alexander on the Autumn Statement

Ed Davey: someone getting the messaging right

LibLink: David Laws – George Osborne must stick to austerity Plan A

Thinking long-term: the government’s alternative to PFI

Campaign Corner: Is there such a thing as too many leaflets?

Opinion: Nick Clegg and Scarman

Tim Gordon appointed new Liberal Democrat Chief Executive

Kirsty Williams writes… The Welsh Pupil Premium

A welcome shift in international interventions

Ed Davey writes… Glass half full – or half empty?

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #249

Opinion: Party funding plans to be kicked into the long grass – but what’s the alternative?

Lib Dem Bloggers’ Christmas stocking fillers… Part III

Paul Walter

LibLink: Mark Pack – The Graph May Be Boring; The Political Message Isn’t

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Victoria Collins MP writes.. The ask that changes everything

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