Liberal Democrat Voice

Have you nominated your Lib Dem Blog of the Year?

By Helen Duffett | Tue 30th August 2011 - 10:23 am

Time’s ticking till close of nominations for the Lib Dem Blog of the Year Awards 2011, so here’s a reminder of the categories and an exhortation to vote!

Nominate up to 3 favourites in any or all of these categories:

Best new Liberal Democrat blog (started since 1st September 2010)

Best blog from a Liberal Democrat holding public office (The Tim Garden Award)

Best use of blogging / social networking / e-campaigning by a Liberal Democrat

Best posting on a Liberal Democrat blog (since 1st September 2010)

Best non-Liberal Democrat politics blog

Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year 2011

Posted in Best of the blogs | Tagged blog of the year awards | Leave a comment

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Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #236

By The Voice | Sun 28th August 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 236th 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 (21-27 August, 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

LDVideo | Election archive special… 1997

By Stephen Tall | Sun 28th August 2011 - 5:25 pm

Welcome to the fourth instalment of our scavenge through the video archives for footage from bygone elections. We’ve trawled the 1960-70s, 1980s, and 1992 — which can only mean that today’s the turn of the 1997 landslide general election…

That Lib Dem Punch & Judy show

(Available on YouTube here.)

Paddy Ashdown: the Movie

Posted in YouTube | Tagged john cleese and paddy ashdown | Leave a comment

Ken Livingstone: mine won’t be a grassroots funded campaign

By Mark Pack | Sun 28th August 2011 - 9:47 am

It was Ken Livingstone’s poor taste joke about Boris Johnson, Hitler and people who don’t vote for him being sent to burn and flayed for all eternity that got the most attention following his interview in Total Politics.*

Taking a look at the printed version of the interview (and forcing my eyes to move past the awful shirt and dreadful trousers) there was one other comment from Ken Livingstone that stood out: “80 per cent of my funding will come from the trade unions”.

Livingstone made the comment in the context of having a go at the sources of Conservative Party funding …

Posted in News | Tagged boris johnson and ken livingstone | 25 Comments

LDVideo | Election archive special… 1992

By Stephen Tall | Sat 27th August 2011 - 6:15 pm

Last weekend — in a desperate attempt to offer our readers an alternative to The X-Factor — we highlighted some clips from elections of yesteryear: first, the 1960-70s, then the 1980s. Today, we’re scrolling forward to the video footage of the 1992 general election…

Paddy Ashdown on the campaign trail

(Available on YouTube here.)

Don Foster wins Bath from Chris Patten (from 3:05)

Posted in YouTube | Tagged bath, charles kennedy, chris patten, don foster and paddy ashdown | 1 Comment

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Opinion: Why millionaire graduates should stop whingeing about fees

By Jonathan Hunt | Sat 27th August 2011 - 1:18 pm

According to new figures published this week by the Office for National Statistics, graduates earn 85 per cent more than people with only GCSE qualifications over their working lives. Extrapolated over a 40-year career lifetime, graduates are likely to earn almost £1 million more than those on current average pay of some £25,000 pa.

The latest statistics show that the differential has fallen from 95 per cent in 1993, though the level of earnings has increased substantially over those 18 years. Their publication may reopen the debate on student fees – and incite some resentment among non-graduate taxpayers …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged higher education, office for national statistics, tuition fees and universities | 85 Comments

Opinion: Tracey Emin – a litmus test of individualism

By Ed Long | Sat 27th August 2011 - 11:47 am

Last week I spent a drizzly London afternoon wandering around Tracey Emin’s retrospective show at the Hayward Gallery. Having seen several of her pieces individually before and otherwise mostly being exposed to her through (often outraged) media coverage I was sceptical of her practice and had filed her as someone who aimed for controversy and provocation over profundity and human experience. I came away from the exhibition impressed, deeply affected and entirely transformed in my opinion. Now with Emin again in the headlines after donating her neon piece ‘More Passion’ to the government art collection, a variety of commentators are …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged hayward gallery, jake and dinos chapman and tracy emin | 13 Comments

Council by-election results: 25 August 2011

By Helen Duffett | Fri 26th August 2011 - 6:49 pm

North Ayrshire UA, Saltcoats and Stevenston
First preference votes:
Scottish Labour Party 1914 (48.7; +13.9)
SNP 1306 (33.2; +1.2)
Scottish Conservative 284 (7.2; -0.4)
All Scotland Pensioners Party 211 (5.4; +5.4)
Independent 114 (2.9; +2.9)
LD Gordon Bain 56 (1.4; +1.4)
Socialist Labour Party 43 (1.1; +1.1)

Turnout 25.42%
Lab hold
Percentage change is since May 2007.
Labour elected at Stage 5.
For full details use the link:
http://www.north-ayrshire.gov.uk/NewsArticles/InfoZone/ByElection2011%20result.aspx

Bolsover DC, Shirebrook South West
Lab 200 (47.8; +15.6)
Green 103 (24.6; +24.6)
Con 72 (17.2; +11.1)
BNP 43 (10.3; +0.7)

Majority 97
Turnout not known
Lab gain from Ind
Percentage change is since May 2011

Full by-election info and commentary at the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors.

Posted in Council by-elections | Tagged gordon bain | 1 Comment

The LDV Friday Five: 26 August 2011

By The Voice | Fri 26th August 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

Opinion: Time to give inheritance tax the chop (75 comments) by Rebecca Tidy
Chris Rennard writes… Can we tell what will happen in four years? (16 comments) by Chris Rennard
At his best and his worst: 5 thoughts on Tony Blair’s analysis of the UK riots (15 comments) by Stephen Tall
Opinion: the battle for the Electoral Reform Society (40 comments) by Simon McGrath
5 posts to read before casting your Electoral Reform Society council vote (10 comments) by Stephen Tall

5 sample LDV Members’ Forum threads

5 from the LDV archive

(26th August, 2006-10)

NEW POLL: what’s the main point of the Lib Dem party conference? (12 comments) by Stephen Tall, from 2008
Those Lib Dem donation figures in full (Q2, 2009) (4 comments) by Stephen Tall, from 2009
Julia Goldsworthy condemns Grayling’s ‘The Wire’ comparison (13 comments) by Stephen Tall, from 2009
The Independent View: are the Lib Dems being Con-ned over electoral reform? (44 comments) by J. Lee, from 2010
Liblink: Nick Clegg on fairness, the Budget and the IFS report (40 comments) by Newshound, from 2010

5 top reader search returns to get to LDV

(excluding Liberal Democrat Voice or its variants)

Posted in Friday Five | Leave a comment

Liberal Democrats moving HQ : the future’s bright

By Helen Duffett | Fri 26th August 2011 - 4:21 pm

As the sun sets on Cowley Street, Lib Dem Chief Exec Chris Fox emails party members with the HQ’s change of address and a brief look back, before taking “another big step for the party and our ambitious modernisation programme”. (He also includes a handy list of contact details for other parts of the party.)

Simon Cooper’s sneak-preview photos show that for LDHQ, the future’s bright:

Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged chris fox, cowley street, featured, ian wrigglesworth, ldhq and simon cooper | 12 Comments

Alex Wilcock writes… Tory boy throws toys out of pram: not exactly Man Bites Dog

By Alex Wilcock | Fri 26th August 2011 - 3:27 pm

British politics is known for its name-calling and point-scoring rather than adult debate, and few sane voters find the bearpit of Prime Minister’s Question Time very edifying. But since no party won the election, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have tried to do the mature thing, with neither getting all of what they want because the voters didn’t give either party absolute power. The voters don’t matter, though, to Tory Boy Tim Montgomerie, who today screams and screams until he’s sick that With every passing day the Liberal Democrats are dragging the Coalition further away from the …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged ConservativeHome and tim montgomerie | 19 Comments

The Independent View: Social media – no longer an easy target

By Peter Bradwell | Fri 26th August 2011 - 11:08 am

Open Rights Group, alongside 9 other human right groups including Amnesty UK, Liberty and Index on Censorship, yesterday wrote to the Home Secretary, Rt Hon Theresa May MP. We were responding to the Prime Minister’s comments that the Government will “look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality”.

The letter was written to coincide with a meeting that took place at lunchtime yesterday between the Home Secretary and Twitter, Facebook and Research in Motion, to discuss what that …

Posted in The Independent View | Tagged amnesty uk, index on censorship, interception modernisation programme, liberty, open rights group and theresa may | Leave a comment

LibLink | Nick Clegg: “Human beings need human rights – in Britain as well as Libya”

By Helen Duffett | Thu 25th August 2011 - 10:05 pm

Nick Clegg writes this evening at Comment is Free on the need for the British government to uphold human rights at home as well as abroad. He describes the strengths of British human rights laws, and reminds that the Liberal Democrats will continue to support them in the face of the Tories’ rhetoric or moves to renegotiate them.

Britain has a proud history of international leadership on human rights. It was our political leadership and legal expertise that led to the creation of the European convention on human rights in 1950, a convention modelled on centuries of English law.

…

Posted in LibLink | Tagged european convention on human rights, human rights, human rights act and nick clegg | 16 Comments

Opinion: #HandsOffTwitter

By Richard Morris | Thu 25th August 2011 - 7:54 pm

So, good news everyone – according to reports in the Guardian and others, the Home Office have decided that introducing legislation to allow the police to turn off access to Social Networks would be, ahem, inappropriate, and will instead work in cooperation with the networks going forward. To quote the Home Office after talks today

“The discussions looked at how law enforcement and the networks can build on the existing relationships and co-operation to prevent the networks being used for criminal behaviour”.

Good.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged david cameron, louise mensch and twitter | 3 Comments

Brian Paddick writes: Building a better future for Londoners

By Brian Paddick | Thu 25th August 2011 - 11:54 am

Since I retired from the police I have not had a car. Since then ‘the world is my Oyster card.’ I rely on trains, tubes and buses to get around London and I’m appalled by what I see.

Vanity projects and electoral gimmicks like the new Routemaster and replacing bendy buses are soaking up millions of pounds of the transport budget. The new Routemaster will cost nine times as much as a conventional bus – never mind the millions spent on development! On the right routes and properly regulated so they don’t end up stuck together, bendies do a perfectly adequate …

Posted in London and Op-eds | Tagged bendy buses, london mayoral selection, oyster card and transport | 3 Comments

The Independent View: Vince needs to consider his legacy

By Laura Chappell | Thu 25th August 2011 - 10:20 am

Plan A is looking shakier than ever. After a slow climb out of recession, growth is now stalling and unemployment rising again, the approach taken thus far – cutting the deficit, and waiting for a spontaneous boom in the private sector – feels ever more risky, both politically and for our pockets. Vince Cable, who has always looked uneasy with a “plan for growth” that involves little except sitting back with fingers crossed, must feel increasingly unnerved.

And he’s right to be worried. His credibility is on the line and his legacy at BIS is yet to be secured. Now is …

Posted in The Independent View | Tagged asian century, chris huhne, department of business, enterprise zones, green investment bank, innovation and skills, ippr and vince cable | 21 Comments

Opinion: Rebalancing taxes – eliminating the carbon externality

By Simon Oliver | Wed 24th August 2011 - 2:53 pm

What I term “The Carbon Externality” is that cost being borne by current and future society as a result of greenhouse gas emissions, being produced over the past century or so at a rate that exceeds the capacity of the planet to absorb them without perceptible harm.

Externality is an accounting/economics term for any cost that is borne by an external party, and therefore not part of the internal cost analysis. It is the fundamental flaw in Friedman economics and why those calling for small government are missing the point.

Government exists to account for and address externalities. Effective regulation of the market reduces or eliminates externalities so that the costs of doing business are increasingly borne by those who benefit from the business, in the form of reduced profits and higher end-user costs. Taxes are the principle mechanism for this.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged environment and tax | 20 Comments

Campaigning In Your Community: new book out

By Mark Pack | Wed 24th August 2011 - 11:54 am

Phew, book number 18 that I’ve been involved in as author or editor is now out. It’s written by myself and Shaun Roberts, called “Campaigning In Your Community”. Think of it as as guide to getting going with community politics, starting from your own doorstep.

A free copy is being sent to every ALDC (Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors) member or you can buy copies from the ALDC online shop (sales only open to party members).

Posted in Books | Tagged community politics, featured and shaun roberts | 3 Comments

Reminder: Lib Dem Blog of the Year Awards 2011 – nominations now open

By Helen Duffett | Wed 24th August 2011 - 10:23 am

As announced last week, it’s time to nominate your favourite bloggers, campaigners and social networkers in the BOTYs – the sixth annual Lib Dem Blog of the Year Awards.

This year’s awards are as follows:

Posted in Best of the blogs | Tagged blog of the year awards | Leave a comment

Opinion: Time to give inheritance tax the chop

By Former Organiser | Tue 23rd August 2011 - 1:53 pm

Whilst on my weekly perusal of Lib Dem Voice I spotted an interesting article by my lovely colleague Stuart Bonar. He was discussing inheritance tax; an issue that I hope will not affect me for a while, but nonetheless, an important one to many of us. I was initially inclined to agree with Stuart’s view that individuals should be taxed on these ‘wind-falls’ but then I got thinking…

Inheritance tax used to be a tax on the rich, something not relevant to most of us. But it’s now a tax paid by many, as house and asset prices have risen to extraordinary levels; many being valued at over £325 000, which is the threshold for this tax. However, I do wonder whether many of the rich, the original subjects of this tax, pay it, as they can afford expensive and skilled accountants or leave the country to escape this payment, something that I and many others cannot do.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged inheritance tax and stuart bonar | 105 Comments

Local liberal heroes: Monroe Palmer

By Mark Pack | Tue 23rd August 2011 - 10:25 am

Earlier in the year, I penned a series of posts profiling forgotten liberal heroes (to which a couple of other people also kindly contributed), looking at some of those who achieved great things for liberalism in their time but have been unjustly forgotten – such as Margaret Wintringham, the very first female Liberal MP.

There is also another group of people who I think are often unjustly obscure – those local campaigners who are often at the heart of their local community and local party, delivering liberalism and helping others, but as their stage is a local one they are often …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged barnet council, local liberal heroes and monroe palmer | 3 Comments

Mike Tuffrey writes… Policing: not just a numbers game

By Mike Tuffrey | Tue 23rd August 2011 - 9:25 am

On the streets of Tottenham, Croydon, Clapham, Hackney and Ealing, we saw what happens when adequate numbers of trained police are not deployed at the right time and in the right way.

And we heard how numbers on the streets were subsequently boosted from 3,000 to 16,000 only by drafting in back-up from neighbouring forces. In fairness, it must be said that riot control is very hazardous and officers must have the right training before they are deployed.

Yet Londoners can still be forgiven for wondering where all the police are, that they’ve been persuaded to pay for in higher council taxes.

Go …

Posted in London and Op-eds | Tagged boris johnson and policing | 7 Comments

Local Government Association Lib Dems announce election results

By Helen Duffett | Mon 22nd August 2011 - 4:21 pm

ALDC reports:

The Liberal Democrat Group in the Local Government Association has announced the results of its elections to group positions and the various LGA commissioners, boards and panels. Those elected are listed below with the results available here and the full breakdown of the results by stage available here.

Group Executive

Group Leader – Gerald Vernon-Jackson, Portsmouth (Elected unopposed)
Deputy Leader (Policy) – Chris White, Hertfordshire (Elected unopposed)
Deputy Leader (Political) – Dorothy Thornhill, Watford
Group Chair – Jill Shortland, Somerset (Elected unopposed)
Group Whip – Howard Sykes, Oldham (Elected unopposed)

See the full list of those elected at the ALDC website …

Posted in News | Tagged aldc, chris white, dorothy thornhill, gerald vernon jackson, howard sykes, jill shortland and local government association | 1 Comment

Nick Clegg: Learning the lesson of Iraq, planning the peace

By Helen Duffett | Mon 22nd August 2011 - 2:54 pm

Nick Clegg has given a speech on the Arab Spring today at the British Council. He also included a passage on last night’s dramatic events in Libya:

The advances made by the Free Libya Forces in Tripoli would have been unthinkable just a few months ago. Unimaginable, even, for the generations of young Libyans who have never known a world without Qadhafi. Now, that world is within their reach. The momentum for change is breathtaking and, for the cynics who said change wasn’t possible, who had written off the Libyan uprising, written off the Arab Spring, clearly, they were wrong. The

…

Posted in News and Speeches | Tagged arab spring, colonel gadaffi, iraq, libya and nick clegg | 10 Comments

So you think you know how to improve campaigning? Come to Conference Dragons’ Den

By Mark Pack | Mon 22nd August 2011 - 1:55 pm

Autumn conference in Birmingham will see a new type of campaigning event which sounds rather fun: a Dragons’ Den style fringe meeting at which people pitch their ideas for new approaches to campaigning.

The panel will be Alistair Carmichael MP, James Gurling (Chair, Campaigns & Communications Committee), Hilary Stephenson (Director of Elections and Skills) and Kirsty Williams AM. It will be on Sunday 18th September at 1pm in Room 103 of the Jurys Inn.

Submissions are open to any party member except for Campaigns Department employees.

Step one is to submit your idea by Monday 12th September to Tim Pollard on [email protected]. …

Posted in Conference | Tagged Alistair Carmichael, hilary stephenson, james gurling and kirsty williams | 12 Comments

Dee Doocey writes: Riots – a case for reason and not posturing

By Dee Doocey | Mon 22nd August 2011 - 11:53 am

The TV comedy The Thick of It brilliantly satirised the tendency of New Labour to govern by ‘initiative’. Politics was reduced to public relations. Policies were created on the hoof with an eye to the next morning’s headlines.

If you thought those days ended at the last general election, think again. The recent riots should have given everyone pause for thought. Instead, many politicians and commentators were shooting from the hip or trotting out predictable responses.

Playing to the gallery pays only short-term dividends. Yes, “something must be done”. But politicians of all parties have a duty to think before they open their mouths, and not try to cash in on gut reactions or tabloid hysteria – despite the media’s hunger for sensational news and tendency to incite sensational comment.

Despite the pressure to meet emotionally-driven imperatives, only an intelligent, long-term, considered response will prevent a recurrence of these riots. What needs to be done?

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged adidas, camila batmanghelidjh, david cameron, gang culture, olympics, policing, richard nixon and riots | 14 Comments

Shirley Williams revisits her childhood haunts

By Helen Duffett | Mon 22nd August 2011 - 8:48 am

BBC Radio 4’s latest series of “The House I Grew up In” (which revisits the childhood neighbourhoods of influential Britons) includes an episode featuring Liberal Democrat Peer, Shirley Williams.

Shirley Williams, now Baroness Williams, returns to her childhood homes in London’s Chelsea and the New Forest. Her mother was the writer, Vera Brittain, whose most famous novel – Testament of Youth – was a best-seller when Shirley was a child in the 1930s. Her father, George Catlin, was an academic and and an instinctive feminist whose own mother had been an early suffragette, ostracised by Victorian society. He was a

…

Posted in LibLink | Tagged bbc radio 4, george catlin, shirley williams and vera brittain | 1 Comment

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #235

By The Voice | Sun 21st August 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 235th 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 (14-20 August, 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

LDVideo | Election archive special… the 1980s

By Stephen Tall | Sun 21st August 2011 - 5:25 pm

Yesterday was the 1960-70s, today we fast-forward to the 1980s…

1982 Liberal Party political broadcast

(Available on YouTube here.)

1983 election: Party leaders on the campaign trail (incuding Roy Jenkins at 1:05)

Posted in YouTube | Tagged cyril smith, david steel and roy jenkins | 2 Comments

Lib Dem Women: Amplifying women’s voices at Conference

Christine Jardine to stand down as MP at next election

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

Caron’s kitchen table diary

Have you nominated your Lib Dem Blog of the Year?

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #236

LDVideo | Election archive special… 1997

Ken Livingstone: mine won’t be a grassroots funded campaign

LDVideo | Election archive special… 1992

Opinion: Why millionaire graduates should stop whingeing about fees

Opinion: Tracey Emin – a litmus test of individualism

Council by-election results: 25 August 2011