Helen Duffett

Liz Lynne MEP to stand down

By Helen Duffett | Mon 7th November 2011 - 6:50 pm

Liberal Democrat MEP Liz Lynne has announced she plans to stand down as Euro MP for the West Midlands Region in three months’ time, saying ‘the time is right’ to move on after 12 and a half years representing the region in the European Parliament. She will be succeeded by Phil Bennion, the second candidate on the party’s list at the election in 2009.

The Euro MP revealed her decision in her speech to the regional Lib Dem party conference at Birmingham Chamber of Commerce on Saturday afternoon, saying:

I have decided to stand down as MEP at the beginning of February.

…

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged and | 4 Comments
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Mark Pack

Campaign Corner: How to make Focus leaflets look better

By Mark Pack | Mon 7th November 2011 - 4:50 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: I understand some of the principles of graphic design, but I’m not a professional designer. What are the easiest ways to make my Focus leaflets look better?

  1. Headlines: make your headlines big, short and clear. Put the leaflet on the floor and stand over it. If you glance down can you (a) easily read the headlines and (b) get from them the main messages? If not, make the headlines better/bigger – as a quick glance at the headlines is often all a leaflet will get before someone decides to read more or bin it. Even if they do decide to bin it, with the right headlines they will have got the main messages.
  2. Captions on photos:
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Posted in Campaign Corner | Tagged | 23 Comments
Paul Burstow

Paul Burstow MP writes: Getting better at waiting

By Paul Burstow | Mon 7th November 2011 - 12:53 pm

Most of us know what it feels like to sit in a hospital waiting room, and it is not often a pleasant experience. The time spent waiting can be worrying, stressful and uncomfortable. Indeed, waiting for any kind of treatment is never going to be easy – which is why the Liberal Democrats are committed to keeping waiting times low. We aim to do this while engaging in the difficult task, set in motion by the last Labour Government, to find £20 billion of efficiency savings by 2015.

Last year I said that people needed to be seen and diagnosed …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Lucy Care

Opinion: Feed-in tariffs and the Lib Dem fight to ensure the Coalition really is ‘the greenest government ever’

By Lucy Care | Mon 7th November 2011 - 11:40 am

Feed-in tariffs, a policy mechanism designed to accelerate investment in renewable energy technologies, have been used successfully in many countries to increase the amount of electricity being generated from renewable sources.

The UK has actually been fairly slow off the mark on this. Our aim to be ‘the greenest government ever’ included support for feed-in tariffs.

Indeed, in the Coalition Agreement the preamble to the section on Energy and Climate Change said: ‘We need to use a wide range of levers to cut carbon emissions, decarbonise the economy and support the creation of new green jobs and technologies.’ It went on to say ‘We will establish a full system of feed-in tariffs in electricity,’ and ‘We will encourage community-owned renewable energy schemes where local people benefit from the power produced.’

So what is happening to the system of feed-in tariffs? And how are the changes going to encourage community-owned renewable energy systems?

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 14 Comments
Brett Wigdortz

The Independent View: Educational disadvantage is one of the most unjust and pervasive problems

By Brett Wigdortz | Mon 7th November 2011 - 9:35 am

The link between family income and educational attainment is greater in the UK than in almost any other developed country. We must all be concerned with a situation where 96% of young people educated in independent schools progress to university, but only 16% of pupils eligible for free school meals make the same progression. This statistic should be hugely troubling to anyone who believes in a society of equal opportunities.

The evidence shows that even when children start school at age five on a reasonably even footing, those from disadvantaged backgrounds begin to diverge dramatically from their peers in terms of attainment.

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged , and | 7 Comments
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Stephen Tall

“We need to up our game.” As a Liberal Democrat, I endorse this message.

By Stephen Tall | Mon 7th November 2011 - 7:55 am

The Independent this weekend carried a brief article reporting that Nick Clegg’s aides are urging the party’s ministers to be more ‘out and proud’ of the Lib Dems’ successes:

Nick Clegg’s ministers have been told to go on TV and declare proudly “I’m a Liberal Democrat” in an effort to improve the party’s poll ratings. Party strategists are demanding better “messaging” from politicians. It includes using the phrase “as a Liberal Democrat …” at every opportunity, and regularly uttering the word “coalition”, which research finds is popular with voters.

Aides to the Deputy Prime Minister fear too many low-profile Lib Dems

…

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 25 Comments
The Voice

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #246

By The Voice | Sun 6th November 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 246th 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 (30 Oct-4 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:

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The Voice

Isle of Wight Lib Dems withdraw support from council candidate over masonic bank account allegations

By The Voice | Sun 6th November 2011 - 6:35 pm

The Isle of Wight County Press online reports:

MIKE Carr, the Liberal Democrat candidate for the West Wight Isle of Wight Council by-election, has been de-selected by the party days before the poll. An investigation prompted by an anonymous e-mail, suggesting Mr Carr had wrongly withdrawn money from the bank account of The Needles Lodge of the Freemasons. The money is now being paid back.
…

In a statement, Mr Carr’s election agent, Bob Blezzard, said when Mr Carr was adopted the party had been unaware of the situation that had come to light. “As a result of this information, the Liberal

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 4 Comments
Nick Perry

Opinion: Nick Clegg’s sixth language is Tory

By Nick Perry | Sun 6th November 2011 - 4:45 pm

It’s important to find things to be cheerful about in these serious days. So I was pleased, last weekend, to be recognised publicly as an errant lefty by my good friend Stephen Lloyd, the MP for Eastbourne, in his speech to the South East Regional Conference in Whitstable.

It’s been a difficult Coalition so far for many of us, particularly the social liberals (or left-leaning liberals as I am very happy to be known).

At the time of the tuition fees debacle, a group of 104 of our 2010 general election slate got our 15 seconds of ‘media’ as we called for

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 10 Comments
Merlene Emerson

Opinion: Shedding Light on Community Outreach

By Merlene Emerson | Sun 6th November 2011 - 2:55 pm

A recent British Election Survey commissioned by the Runnymede Trust asked if the Government should make the effort to improve equal opportunities.

The results of those in agreement were roughly as follows: Indians 65%, Pakistani 71%, Black Caribbean 74% and Black African 75% — but in the case of the white majority, only 19% agreed.

This was a huge eye-opener for me. I had previously assumed that most educated and fair-minded members of the public would support an equalities agenda to address the democratic deficit. However, that was clearly not the majority point of view.

The survey also found …

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Posted in Op-eds | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Laws advises Clegg: oppose Tories’ “arbitrary and vindictive” benefits cuts

By Stephen Tall | Sun 6th November 2011 - 1:10 pm

The Financial Times this weekend reported what it labelled ‘one of the fiercest and most fascinating political battles of the year’ — a battle which looks set to pitch David Laws and Nick Clegg against George Osborne and the Labour leadership.

The issue concerns the amount by which the Coalition should increase benefits: based on September’s inflation figure, this should be 5.2%. The Tories are pushing for a below-inflation settlement, but Mr Laws — co-editor of The Orange Book, and firmly identified as an economic liberal — is urging the Lib Dems to reject such a move:

Mr Laws, considered

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , , and | 7 Comments
Mike Tuffrey

Mike Tuffrey AM writes… The question I asked top London Tory: “Is there anything you would not privatise?”

By Mike Tuffrey | Sun 6th November 2011 - 10:10 am

“Is there anything you would not privatise?” That was the question I asked Brian Coleman, the controversial chair of London’s Fire Authority — a public body which sadly is in the grip of an ideologically-driven Conservative administration thanks to shameless gerrymandering by London’s Tory mayor Boris Johnson and unelected political appointees.

My question to him was prompted by the Tories’ current plans to privatise the London fire 999 emergency control room.

Mr Coleman’s answer? It was a bald and brazen “No”: there’s nothing he wouldn’t try to privatise if he could.

It’s true that in the London fire service …

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Posted in London and Op-eds | Tagged , and | 6 Comments
Gareth Epps

Opinion: Saving the Pub – an opportunity for Liberal Democrats in Government

By Gareth Epps | Sat 5th November 2011 - 4:25 pm

In September, the BIS Select Committee unanimously delivered a devastating verdict on the pubcos for the third time running and lambasted them for repeatedly breaking promises to change their business practices. They also found unambiguously that ‘the tie’, as operated by them, is unfair to licensees, many of whom can’t earn minimum wage despite healthy turnover figures; is bad for pub customers who are overcharged for a pint, due to the hugely inflated prices the licensee has to pay for beer; and it is closing pubs that need not and should not close.

The Committee found that, even after four …

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Posted in Op-eds | 7 Comments
Mark Pack

How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

By Mark Pack | Sat 5th November 2011 - 1:15 pm

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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Stephen Tall

LDV Caption Competition | John Hemming “you’ll have had your tea” Edition

By Stephen Tall | Sat 5th November 2011 - 11:05 am

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


(Hat-tip to international development action group Tea Time for Change.)

Here’s Lib Dem MP for Birmingham Yardley John Hemming enjoying a cuppa a in a good cause. What do you think might be being said or thought by those pictured?

And the winner of our last caption comp is…

Some fantastic entries for our most recent caption competition, Liam Fox “was he pushed?” Edition.

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Posted in Caption Comp | Tagged | 6 Comments
Carl Quilliam

The weekend debate: Is it time to end the ban on political TV advertising?

By Carl Quilliam | Sat 5th November 2011 - 8:47 am

Here’s your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…

A few weeks ago a campaign advert made by ONE, an organisation founded by Bono (of U2 fame) was banned from TV because it breaches political advertising rules. 

Many people seeing this story for the first time might be quite pleased not to have to deal with the unbearable smugness of Bono on their TV screen again. But outside of any personal dislike of a particular celebrity, politician or political party is this an issue where broadcast regulations are simply out of …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 8 Comments
Paul Walter

PMQs: Tim Farron asks “Question of the week” – Ed Balls signals four runs

By Paul Walter | Fri 4th November 2011 - 7:53 pm

In my ever-earnest toil to prepare this review, this week I have been reviewing web sites which explain cricket umpire signals. I also checked the umpire signals for netball, American football and baseball.

There is no doubt about it. Ed Balls was signalling a four at Prime Ministers’ Questions. His hand was a bit lower than normal, but it would pass to signal a boundary at Morley Cricket Club.

For a change, I’m going to stand this review on its head this week and concentrate on questions from backbenchers, starting with Liberal Democrats.

Question of the week came from Tim Farron:

The world population

…

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Posted in Parliament and PMQs | Tagged , , , , and | 3 Comments
The Voice

The LDV Friday Five: 4 November 2011

By The Voice | Fri 4th November 2011 - 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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The Voice

How you can help Liberal Democrat Voice

By The Voice | Fri 4th November 2011 - 1:56 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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Stuart Bonar

Poking Big Brother in the eye. (Or ‘How I turned the tables on an illegally parked council CCTV spy van.’)

By Stuart Bonar | Fri 4th November 2011 - 9:15 am

I have moaned a lot about those spy cars and vans that patrol our streets, filming us in those brief moments when we’re not being filmed by omnipresent static CCTV cameras. I have even written about them here on Lib Dem Voice.

What annoys me in particular is the number of times I have seen them seeming to break the rules they are there to enforce. Take this example from southwest London, highlighted for me by Jason Hunter. These people are exercising power over us, filming us as we go peacefully about our everyday lives. I don’t like at all the idea that they might feel themselves to be above the law.

It may to some sound petty, but to me this is important. What I am driving at was summed up recently by Norman Baker in this vox pop interview at the Birmingham conference. Asked about the values of the Lib Dems his first instinctive answer is about ensuring the balance of power between the State and the individual is not too heavily weighted in favour of the State. Spot on.

It’s because I see this issue in this light that I was simultaneously annoyed and overjoyed when I spotted one of the vans parked in a restricted parking zone and across a cycle lane, whilst out walking the other week. I casually leaned against a nearby lamppost, whipped out my BlackBerry and shot this footage:

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 14 Comments
Mark Pack

Dishonourable Insults by Greg Knight

By Mark Pack | Fri 4th November 2011 - 7:46 am

Over the years, Conservative MP Greg Knight has made a mini-cottage industry out of collections of political insults, wit and invective, of which the new Dishonourable Insults is the fifth.

Spot checking the content of this volume against one of his previous works – Parliamentary Sauce – you find that there is a fair amount of reused content, including whole passages which reappear with varying degrees of editing. Generally the 19th and early 20th century figures have had their range of insults edited down, losing as a result one of my favourite Disraeli insults, directed at a backbench MP: “He is not …

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Posted in Books | Tagged , , , and | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

Moving to CONNECT

By Mark Pack | Thu 3rd November 2011 - 4:25 pm

The all-member edition of Liberal Democrat News recently posted out included this piece from myself about the party’s new electoral database software, CONNECT:

One of the big talking points amongst party activists at the Birmingham conference was CONNECT, the party’s new electoral database software which was put through many demonstrations to different groups of future users – data officers, treasurers, campaign organisers and so on.

Like others, I am impressed by its ability to make what we have tried to do in the past easier, more effective and quicker – especially given my experience using existing systems since the 1990s and also …

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged , and | 1 Comment

The Independent View: Slashing early years spending contradicts the desire to improve social mobility

By Chris Paterson | Thu 3rd November 2011 - 1:45 pm

In its Social Mobility strategy launched last April, the government made clear the dual priorities shaping its agenda:

“Tackling the financial deficit is the Coalition’s most immediate task. But tackling the opportunity deficit – creating an open, socially mobile society – is our guiding purpose.”

These are strong words indeed, marking an unequivocal commitment to improving the life chances of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. At a very minimum, they indicate a clear intention to manage the necessary public spending cuts in a way that recognises this laudable goal.

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Posted in The Independent View | Tagged , , , , , and | 4 Comments
Henry Gruijters

The Independent View: Labour is a puppet of the unions – Lib Dems must stand up for non-unionised workers

By Henry Gruijters | Thu 3rd November 2011 - 10:45 am

As a member of the Dutch liberal party the VVD who was studying in the UK during the last election, I was pleased that the Lib Dems formed a coalition with the Conservatives. Yet I feel that a strategy that distinguishes the party from Labour is just as important as one that distinguishes the Lib Dems from the Tories.

Instead of stressing coalition differences, the Lib Dems have the opportunity to show that they are a true alternative to Labour. The Lib Dems should stress that, unlike Labour, they protect ordinary workers by deregulating the labour market, and do not …

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Posted in The Independent View | Tagged , , , and | 95 Comments
Chris Rennard

Chris Rennard writes… How to keep people with diabetes out of hospital

By Chris Rennard | Thu 3rd November 2011 - 8:45 am

On Tuesday, I helped to launch a report ‘Keeping People with Diabetes out of Hospital‘. As a person with diabetes, I know only too well the pressure that our diabetes care services are under.

Whether I’m speaking to my Diabetes Specialist Nurse, to my consultant, or to my colleagues in Westminster, it is clear that the ‘diabetes epidemic’ is increasingly being recognised as of major concern. Of the 2.9 million people in the UK living with diabetes, a worrying proportion will suffer additional complications and will require hospital care. In the last year alone, another 130,000 people have been …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 12 Comments
Stephen Tall

Willie Rennie apologises for ‘unintentional offence’ of Lib Dems’ Alex Salmond cartoon

By Stephen Tall | Thu 3rd November 2011 - 7:15 am

Some embarrassment for Willie Rennie, MSP and leader of the Scottish Lib Dems, this week following the publication by party staff of a cartoon satirising First Minister Alex Salmond’s hailing of the similarities between Scotland and Qatar:

The Stv website takes up the story:

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Posted in Scotland | Tagged , , and | 16 Comments
Nick T

LibLink: Paddy Ashdown – Europe’s free ride on the back of Nato is over

By Nick T | Wed 2nd November 2011 - 6:53 pm

In today’s Daily Telegraph, former party leader Lord (Paddy) Ashdown writes on the challenges facing Nato and the future of European cooperation on matters of defence.

Here’s a sample from Paddy’s piece:

These are confusing times for supporters of Nato. On the one hand, the alliance has completed its mission in Libya without a single casualty. On the other, its future looks less certain than ever in the face of fiscal austerity, increasingly uneven burden-sharing between members, and America’s dwindling faith in its utility.

The fact that the US feels this way is understandable. In 2000, America’s share of Nato defence spending was

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged , , and | 11 Comments
Mark Pack

Individual electoral registration, credit and social mobility

By Mark Pack | Wed 2nd November 2011 - 3:53 pm

One aspect of electoral registration, and the potential problems with making registration voluntary, is the knock-on effect on credit and social mobility. That was the aspect which Liberal Democrat peer (Lord) Chris Rennard took up during a debate in the Lords this week:

Lord Rennard: My Lords, does the Minister accept that it really is necessary to carry out a thorough, door-to-door, face-to-face canvass in order to ensure both the accuracy and the completeness of the electoral register? Does he accept that failure to do so not only threatens the integrity of the democratic process but could also cause problems for

…

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Posted in Election law | Tagged , , and | 3 Comments
Chris White

Opinion: What next for elected Police Commissioners?

By Chris White | Wed 2nd November 2011 - 1:55 pm

In 1951, the Liberal Party fielded just 109 parliamentary candidates. 1959 was better with 216. And in 1979, shortly before the foundation of the SDP, we were fielding 577 – virtually a candidate in every seat.

Most of us have grown up in a political landscape in which our party attempts to field a full slate, at all levels. In the darkest days after the merger, in first-past-the-post European elections cynically rigged against us, we fielded candidates throughout Great Britain even though we knew we would likely win no seats at all. Indeed, I still remember my excitement at the prospect …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 17 Comments
Paul Burstow

Paul Burstow MP writes: Let’s end this silent scandal

By Paul Burstow | Wed 2nd November 2011 - 12:53 pm

1,800 people with dementia are dying every year having been prescribed anti-psychotic drugs, and I am determined to end this silent scandal.

For more than a decade I have been campaigning to reduce the number of people whose lives are cut short thanks to the routine long-term prescribing of drugs by GPs. These drugs have sedative effects which makes it easier to ‘manage’ dementia patients. But they are effectively a chemical cosh which have side effects and can have devastating consequences.

Last year, as minister for care services, I set an ambitious target to reduce the number of patients routinely given anti-psychotic …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , and | 5 Comments
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