Liberal Democrat Voice

LibLink: Chris Rennard – The Lib Dems’ three-pronged strategy for success

By Nick T | Fri 28th October 2011 - 2:58 pm

In the House Magazine, Lord (Chris) Rennard – campaigns guru and former chief executive of the party – has set out the ‘three- pronged’ approach that he believes the Liberal Democrats should take over the coming years.

Here’s a sample:

The first of them follows on from Nick Clegg’s first-year priority, which was to show that the coalition government was stable and capable of taking tough decisions. So an early task for Nick Clegg was to show that ‘coalition works’. This test required huge self-discipline in agreeing a four-year Comprehensive Spending Review, and some compromises that were unpalatable to many Lib Dems.

…

Posted in LibLink | Tagged chris rennard and coalition | 4 Comments

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Opinion: How the latest economic data vindicates the Coalition’s strategy

By David Thorpe | Fri 28th October 2011 - 11:55 am

Two pieces of economic data have emerged on the British economy over the past week, and while they paint a somewhat contrasting picture of the economic climate, the main picture which emerges is that the Coalition’s strategy is broadly correct.

The latest inflation statistics show that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is now about 5%, significantly higher than the Bank of England’s target of 2%. It seems to me that the Coalition’s single greatest error on the economy since coming to power has been to underestimate the rate of inflation.

But in this they have not been alone. The received wisdom …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged david blanchflower and economy | 13 Comments

The Independent View: Coalition’s social mobility strategy failing

By Jonathan Clifton | Fri 28th October 2011 - 9:54 am

The government’s plan to improve social mobility has been dealt a series of blows over the past week. New education data show that trends towards a more ‘socially mobile’ Britain are pointing in the wrong direction.

Nick Clegg launched the government’s social mobility strategy last April, promising to ‘open the doors of opportunity’ to children from disadvantaged homes as they move into adulthood. Children from poor homes are half as likely to achieve five good GCSEs as their better off peers, and they account for less than one in a hundred Oxbridge students. Clegg rightly pointed out that …

Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged education, higher education, nick clegg, pupil premium, social mobility, tuition fees and universities | 8 Comments

The best Conservative blog post of the week…

By Mark Pack | Fri 28th October 2011 - 8:24 am

… came from Lord Ashcroft, taking to task fellow Conservatives for their obesssion with Europe:

f there is one thing that unites Conservatives it is the desire to win the next general election outright. Certain things follow from this. The first is that we need more votes at the next election than we received at the last. This means attracting people who voted for a different party last year. This in turn imposes two requirements: to address the things they care about most, and to show that we are changing the things that put them off voting Conservative in the past.

You

…

Posted in News | Tagged lord ashcroft | 5 Comments

Liberal Democrats decide to pass up on fighting Police Commissioner elections (mostly)

By Mark Pack | Thu 27th October 2011 - 7:43 pm

The Liberal Democrat Federal Executive (FE) decided this week that the federal party will not be providing any financial backing to Liberal Democrats wishing to stand for election as Police Commissioners. The expectation is that instead the party will end up backing independent candidates, although it has been made clear that local areas can decide to field candidates if they wish to – albeit without any financial backing from the central party.

The strong preference given, however, is for Liberal Democrats to back independent candidates. As FE chair and Party President Tim Farron wrote to regional parties:

Posted in News, Party policy and internal matters and Selection news | Tagged elected police commissioners, federal executive, policing and tim farron | 35 Comments

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34 PR agencies agree to internship pledge

By Mark Pack | Thu 27th October 2011 - 6:22 pm

A quick update to my previous post about the campaign, backed by Nick Clegg, to get PR agencies to pay interns at least the national minimum wage:

Thirty Four Agencies Sign Up To PRCA Pledge To Pay Minimum Wage To Interns…
But of the ten biggest UK agencies – according to the PRWeek Top 150 Consultancies table – only Edelman and MHP had signed up. (PR Week)

Declaration of interest – MHP Communications is my own place of work.

Posted in News | Tagged internships, mhp communications, nick clegg and PR Week | Leave a comment

LibLink: Paddy Ashdown – Libya’s path to democracy

By Nick T | Thu 27th October 2011 - 10:28 am

Lord (Paddy) Ashdown recently penned a piece for the Guardian with some thoughts on how Libya should now move towards a functioning democracy following its liberation. The rule of law, in the short term at least, is more important than elections, according to Paddy.

Here’s an extract:

If there is one thing more fraught, more attended by failure and more difficult to do than fighting a war, it is building the peace which follows. Our modern wars are fought in weeks or months – but building the peace is measured in decades. Wars are violent and swift. Building peace is long, painful

…

Posted in Europe / International and LibLink | Tagged libya and paddy ashdown | 2 Comments

Tim Farron: good speech, but wrong message

By Mark Pack | Thu 27th October 2011 - 8:54 am

Sometimes the toughest speaking gigs for MPs is when they are talking to a friendly audience – but something interesting is happening behind them. So it was a few months ago with Julian Huppert talking to Putney Liberal Democrats. Very thoughtful speech, well received by the members and supporters present – but Julian had to struggle to avoid being upstaged by the cute, preening, attention-seeking cat paddling back and forth behind him.

When Tim Farron came to speak to Haringey Liberal Democrats last night, there was no cat to distract – but instead the minor drama of the stalwart member who …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged caron lindsay, Danny Alexander, featured, jonathan calder, julian huppert, nick clegg and tim farron | 21 Comments

A trio of Tory / Liberal Democrat disagreements in government

By Mark Pack | Wed 26th October 2011 - 11:55 pm

Like London buses, Tory / Liberal Democrat disagreements are coming along all bunched together at the moment:

Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has criticised “climate sceptics” and others who he argues are decrying the UK’s potential for renewable power … His comments are being interpreted by some as a riposte to Chancellor George Osborne who is believed to be more sceptical about the investment needed. (BBC)

Vince Cable rejects proposal to abolish unfair dismissal laws: Business secretary said plan devised by strategist Steve Hilton was unnecessary and unlikely to improve labour market flexibility (The Guardian)

In order to safeguard the NHS, free at

…

Posted in News | Tagged chris huhne, climate, george osborne, health and social care bill, NHS, steve hilton, tom watson and vince cable | 2 Comments

PMQs: Nadine Dorries asks question. No-one dies.

By Paul Walter | Wed 26th October 2011 - 6:54 pm

Today was the fiftieth anniversary of Prime Minister’s Questions. And it was a fairly typical session. As always, it was in two parts.

Part one: Lots of jeering, cheering, knockabout, winding-up and prepared lines exchanged between the PM and opposition leader.

Part Two: Generally hum-drum but important questions from various back-benchers, largely heard in earnest silence.

The bit that most people will see will be the short bit on the telly, which will be a few seconds of ya-boo politics. In itself, that is a good piece of democracy in that it highlights the weaknesses of the government and the opposition. The longer …

Posted in Europe / International and PMQs | Tagged david cameron, duncan hames, economy, ed miliband, european union, stephen lloyd and tom brake | 5 Comments

Dee Doocey writes… Questions now must be answered over the Met’s record of undercover policing

By Dee Doocey | Wed 26th October 2011 - 3:58 pm

Last week, it was revealed that an undercover Metropolitan police officer, Jim Boyling, had been arrested and tried for a public order offence under his cover name, Jim Sutton. Yet at no time during the trial did he reveal the fact that he was using a false identity. At the time, in 1996, he had been posing as a member of the non-violent, pro-cycling ‘Reclaim the Streets’ campaign.

At the trial, Boyling would have given evidence under oath about who he was and what had happened – while maintaining a false identity. He had allowed himself to be arrested, charged, prosecuted and potentially convicted of a criminal offence. As it turned out, he was found not guilty. But Sutton’s police minders were prepared to allow him to face possible conviction for a criminal offence – an offence committed by a serving undercover police officer, giving evidence on oath with the benefit of privileged legal advice that he shouldn’t have had.

Posted in London and Op-eds | Tagged independent police complaints commission and jim boyling | 3 Comments

Opinion: Gaddafi’s Death – a conflict of emotion

By Layla Moran MP | Wed 26th October 2011 - 2:27 pm

As is customary in my family, any major news event (especially one in the Arab world) is first alerted to us by a text or call from my mother. While neither of my parents are party political, politics has permeated every hour of our family life for a long as I can remember. These days, usually as a result of either BBC World News or Al-Jazeera being the TV channel of choice at all times.

My father is currently operative as the EU head of ‘mission’ (in as much as one can exist) in Libya and so we have been watching …

Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Tagged colonel gadaffi and libya | 5 Comments

Don’t Take No For an Answer: Lewis Baston and Ken Ritchie on the AV referendum

By Mark Pack | Wed 26th October 2011 - 10:35 am

The May 2011 electoral reform referendum is not a happy memory for Britain’s electoral reformers, which makes this book from two long-standing electoral reform campaigners surprisingly positive. As the title indicates, their view is that the overwhelming No vote does not signal the death of electoral reform in the UK.

In part the optimism comes from the gory details it gives of the appalling mistakes and mismanagement in the referendum Yes campaign. This was not a superbly organised push for electoral reform that got defeated; the weakness of the campaign gives some hope for a future if, as the authors express the hope, the book helps people learn from the mistakes made.

Posted in Books | Tagged av referendum, ken ritchie, lewis baston and nick clegg | 30 Comments

Opinion: Tories advised to make it easy to fire people, for the sake of growth

By Lee Chalmers | Wed 26th October 2011 - 10:23 am

The Telegraph reports today that a leaked paper advises the Government to consider changing the law to make it easier to dismiss ineffective workers without risk of being sued for unfair dismissal. The report’s author, Adrian Beecroft, a venture capitalist, apparently believes that Britain’s employment laws are a serious factor in affecting the success of companies and that freeing managers up from having to consider unfair dismissal claims would encourage growth. He claims:

The rules both make it difficult to prove that someone deserves to be dismissed, and demand a process for doing so which is so lengthy and

…

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged adrian beecroft and employment law | 18 Comments

Liam Fox set for £17,207 pay off

By Stuart Bonar | Wed 26th October 2011 - 8:56 am

It’s official. Liam Fox is set to receive a severance payout of £17,207 for quitting his post as Defence Secretary, and that hefty wedge is due to drop into his bank account on 30 November. That’s not idle speculation or even what I picked up after reading some newspaper report or other. It’s what a Ministry of Defence official personally confirmed to me yesterday.

I asked a Freedom of Information Act request about it only last Monday, and the answer appeared in my inbox only six working days after it was asked, which is record quick time in my experience. What …

Posted in News | Tagged liam fox | 8 Comments

LibLink: Paddy Ashdown – To be stronger, Europe must give away power

By Nick T | Tue 25th October 2011 - 5:28 pm

Former Liberal Democrat leader Lord (Paddy) Ashdown has a piece in today’s Times arguing that the European Union must reform if it is to regain public support and fulfil its original objectives.

Here are a couple of excerpts:

The reasons for European integration are not weaker today than they were when this all started; they are stronger. The EU’s founding fathers saw European integration as a means to avoid repeating our past and as the right response to postward turmoil. We should see it as the best means to assure our future and the right reaction to the global turmoil that we

…

Posted in Europe / International and LibLink | Tagged european union and paddy ashdown | 1 Comment

Liverpool’s listening exercise and the Green Agenda

By Paula Keaveney | Tue 25th October 2011 - 10:25 am

Liverpool Liberal Democrats have just kicked off the next stage in our work toward regaining power in Liverpool.

We don’t run the council, in fact we are some way off running the council. But we know that the ruling Labour administration has no real vision, and as part of our way back towards running the City we wanted to develop and articulate one.

So we have published a document and started a “listening exercise”. Headlines include our aspirations for Liverpool to be the Green Capital of Europe and for us to take real advantage of the opportunities in the Localism Bill. You can find the …

Posted in Local government | Tagged environment, liverpool city council and richard kemp | 5 Comments

Electoral administration lessons from the AV referendum: the Electoral Commission’s view

By Mark Pack | Tue 25th October 2011 - 8:24 am

Last week, the Electoral Commission published its report into the administration of the May’s AV referendum. Despite the high political temperatures during the campaign, the administration got little criticism at the time and so the report rightly reflects that. However, amongst the details are some important pointers to issues that are likely to come up at future elections.

10pm cut-off for voting

Posted in Election law and News | Tagged av referendum, electoral commission and postal voting | 3 Comments

How do the university application figures match up against my five questions?

By Mark Pack | Mon 24th October 2011 - 11:00 pm

On Sunday, ahead of the publication of the first tranche of university application figures, I posed five questions for judging what they meant. Now the full figures are out, how to do they compare to those five tests?

Let’s see…

Posted in News | Tagged featured, higher education, tim leunig, tuition fees and universities | 22 Comments

LibLink: Nick Thornsby – A simple change to the tax system could ease Britain’s economic woes

By NewsHound | Mon 24th October 2011 - 10:16 pm

Over on Comment is free, Nick Thornsby is arguing for income tax cuts:

Political leaders in the eurozone must sort out their problems – and there is finally some hope on that front. When it comes to inflation, while George Osborne’s options to tackle the problem itself may be limited, he can certainly take action to negate its effects on the people on whom it impacts most severely. One of the most effective things he could do is to let those on low and middle incomes keep more of the money they earn. The coalition agreement already commits the government to

…

Posted in LibLink | Tagged income tax, nick clegg, nick thornsby and tax cuts (Lib Dem) | 2 Comments

Julian Huppert MP writes… The Public Order Act: More than a little insulting

By Julian Huppert | Mon 24th October 2011 - 3:25 pm

What do Peter Tatchell and the Christian Institute have in common? Before you answer, this isn’t some deeply unfunny jibe from a Coalition colleague, but one of many unexpected alliances which have formed to oppose Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986.

This rather insidious Section criminalises all those who use “threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour” within the hearing or sight of a person “likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress”. It also applies to those who display “any writing, sign or other visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting”.

A rather wordy …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged christian institute, peter tatchell and public order act | 9 Comments

Tim Farron MP writes… EU referendum: the Conservatives are not acting out of patriotism

By Tim Farron MP | Mon 24th October 2011 - 12:53 pm

This is not likely to win me any votes, but I am proudly pro-Europe and in favour of our continued membership of the EU. That doesn’t make me an apologist for every aspect of the EU: the EU could definitely operate more transparently, efficiently and effectively, and we as Liberal Democrats should say so more often and with more conviction.

Nevertheless, our main challenge has to be to win hearts and minds in favour of our broader membership of the EU, and reverse the completely poisonous anti-European narrative. So many of those who were so indignant this summer about Mr Murdoch’s …

Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Tagged av referendum, conservative party, European referendum and rupert murdoch | 36 Comments

The Independent View: Feeding cars or people? The case for food sovereignty

By Greg Muttitt | Mon 24th October 2011 - 10:22 am

Zero-carbon energy from plants might sound like a good idea. But that’s not the view of Luis Muchanga, a peasant leader from Mozambique, who spoke at a seminar on the global food crisis in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

Mozambique, Luis pointed out, ought to be well placed to feed its people, with 70% of the population living in rural areas and practising subsistence agriculture. In reality though, around 35% of families go hungry, as the government prioritises export agriculture. And an increasing proportion of this export production is devoted to feeding the appetite of the rich world’s cars and …

Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged international development and luis muchanga | 5 Comments

Free casework software coming for ALDC members

By Mark Pack | Mon 24th October 2011 - 8:53 am

A great new benefit is on the way for members of ALDC, the Liberal Democrat body for councillors and campaigners – access to the CONNECT database’s casework system.

Starting early in 2012, all ALDC members will get access to CONNECT’s casework facilities for free (or rather, for no extra charge beyond their ALDC membership subscription). It is a logical extension of ALDC’s similar free provision of its MyCouncillor blogging system and will make a good system available to thousands of councillors.

One of the nice touches of …

Posted in Local government and News | Tagged aldc, connect, ears, mark sullivan and VAN | 2 Comments

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #244

By The Voice | Sun 23rd October 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 244th 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 (16-22 October, 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

“The best pensions minister we have had in a generation”

By Mark Pack | Sun 23rd October 2011 - 6:54 pm

I think you can guess who this quote is about… but here is what Andrew Hilton wrote in the Evening Standard this week:

is the best pensions minister we have had in a generation.

Hat-tip: Vote Clegg, Get Clegg

Posted in News | Tagged andrew hilton and steve webb | 1 Comment

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

LibLink: Chris Rennard – The Lib Dems’ three-pronged strategy for success

Opinion: How the latest economic data vindicates the Coalition’s strategy

The best Conservative blog post of the week…

Liberal Democrats decide to pass up on fighting Police Commissioner elections (mostly)

34 PR agencies agree to internship pledge

LibLink: Paddy Ashdown – Libya’s path to democracy

Tim Farron: good speech, but wrong message

PMQs: Nadine Dorries asks question. No-one dies.

Dee Doocey writes… Questions now must be answered over the Met’s record of undercover policing

Opinion: Gaddafi’s Death – a conflict of emotion

Don’t Take No For an Answer: Lewis Baston and Ken Ritchie on the AV referendum

Opinion: Tories advised to make it easy to fire people, for the sake of growth

Liam Fox set for £17,207 pay off

LibLink: Paddy Ashdown – To be stronger, Europe must give away power

Liverpool’s listening exercise and the Green Agenda

Electoral administration lessons from the AV referendum: the Electoral Commission’s view

10pm cut-off for voting

How do the university application figures match up against my five questions?

LibLink: Nick Thornsby – A simple change to the tax system could ease Britain’s economic woes

Julian Huppert MP writes… The Public Order Act: More than a little insulting

Tim Farron MP writes… EU referendum: the Conservatives are not acting out of patriotism

The Independent View: Feeding cars or people? The case for food sovereignty

Free casework software coming for ALDC members

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #244

“The best pensions minister we have had in a generation”

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