Liberal Democrat Voice

Clegg urges Murdoch to reconsider BSkyB bid

By The Voice | Mon 11th July 2011 - 2:08 pm

Posted in News | Tagged bskyb, milly dowler, nick clegg and rupert murdoch | 16 Comments

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Opinion: The struggle for democracy persists in Europe, not just the Middle East

By Harriet Ainscough and Sam Fisk | Mon 11th July 2011 - 1:18 pm

In December last year, Alyaksandr Lukashenka was re-elected president of Belarus, with 79.7% of the vote in elections deemed to fall massively short of OSCE standards. Under his leadership, the Belarusian regime systematically violates basic liberties. The past week has seen a worsening of the situation, with the oppressive regime using unjustifiable violence against protesters seeking democracy and freedom.

Despite a ban on social networking sites Facebook and Twitter, in an attempt to try and stifle the protests, the capital Minsk has seen huge anti-Lukashenka demonstrations. The response of the Belarusian Government has been appalling. Hundreds of peaceful protesters have been …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged Alyaksandr Lukashenka, amnesty international, belarus, facebook and twitter | 2 Comments

“The pillars of the British establishment are tumbling” – Clegg

By The Voice | Mon 11th July 2011 - 8:53 am

The Independent features an interview with Nick Clegg, given on Friday during his visit to Paris.

He speaks of “politicians falling to their knees ingratiating themselves with media moguls”, “too many vested interests tied up with each other” and “a culture of arrogance and impunity” as he lists the casualties of recent crises: journalism and hacking, MPs’ expenses, and banking.

Here’s an extract:

The deputy prime minister senses a rare opportunity in the hacking scandal to carve out a separate niche. The Liberal Democrats have never wooed or been wooed by the media moguls. Unlike David Cameron and Ed Miliband, Mr Clegg

…

Posted in News | Tagged mps expenses, nick clegg, Phone hacking and press complaints commission | 12 Comments

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #229

By The Voice | Sun 10th July 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 229th 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 (3-9 July, 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

In (partial) defence of Labour’s so-called ‘Lay Off Murdoch’ instruction to party’s MPs

By Stephen Tall | Sun 10th July 2011 - 5:28 pm

‘Lay off Murdoch’ — that was the ever-so-quotable paraphrase that the New Statesman used to accompany this article by Dan Hodges, revealing how the Labour Party press team had issued a circular ‘to all shadow cabinet teams warns Labour spokespeople to avoid linking hacking with the BSkyB bid, to accept ministerial assurances that meetings with Rupert Murdoch are not influencing that process, and to ensure that complaints about tapping are made in a personal, not shadow ministerial, capacity.’

In reality, Labour’s communications chief Tom Baldwin — yes, himself a former Murdoch employee — did not use the phrase, ‘Lay off …

Posted in News | Tagged ed miliband, labour party, les hinton, media, news international, rebekah brooks, rupert murdoch and tom baldwin | 13 Comments

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The Lib Dems on ‘Hackgate’ and Murdoch: Ashdown, Huhne, Hughes, Farron, Oakeshott all join the fray

By Stephen Tall | Sun 10th July 2011 - 4:25 pm

It’s been a frenzied week in British politics, with attention for once focused less on the mis-deeds of politicans than the criminality practised by many journalists, both at the News of the World and beyond. Here’s a brief round-up of what the Lib Dems have been saying…

BSkyB takeover: Lib Dems hint at backing Labour motion to delay deal (Guardian)

The Liberal Democrats have indicated they could back a Labour move in parliament to delay the Murdoch takeover of BSkyB until after the police investigations into phone hacking. …

Hughes told Sky News: “We have to be careful and I would

…

Posted in News | Tagged chris huhne, matthew oakeshott, media, news international, nick clegg, paddy ashdown, rupert murdoch, simon hughes and tim farron | 8 Comments

Opinion: Private sector tenants are disenfranchised

By Duncan Stott | Sun 10th July 2011 - 2:15 pm

There has been a lively debate on Lib Dem Voice this week on housing policy. Well-argued articles from Alex Marsh, Mike Tuffrey and Stephen Gilbert have ignited equally interesting debates in the comments. All sorts of intriguing policy ideas have been proposed to address the growing crisis in housing supply.

However, a great idea is just the starting point on the long journey to create a successful policy. For a mainstream party with ambitions to form the next government, it is crucial that ideas enjoy popular support with voters. Housing development invokes strong feelings amongst the electorate, both …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged alex marsh, electoral reform, housing, mike tuffrey and stephen gilbert | 13 Comments

‘Yates of the Yard’ should have listened to Huhne on ‘Hackgate’

By Stephen Tall | Sun 10th July 2011 - 12:05 pm

Today’s Telegraph carries an interview with the Metropolitan Police’s Assistant Commissioner John Yates with a full mea culpa for his failure to get to grips with British journalism’s criminal free-for-all. As the paper notes:

Mr Yates had the opportunity to reopen the case in 2009 but chose not to do so after just eight hours’ consideration, including consultations with other senior detectives and Crown Prosecution lawyers. … In his interview, Mr Yates addresses last week’s revelation that Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator working for the News of the World, had allegedly hacked into teenage murder victim Milly Dowler’s mobile phone

…

Posted in News | Tagged chris huhne, john yates, media, news international and rupert murdoch | 1 Comment

Opinion: Paper victory?

By Jonathan Hunt | Sun 10th July 2011 - 10:48 am

OK, so most of the country is totally repulsed by the Screws and News International. Rupert Murdoch is “the devil incarnate” and Rebecca Brooks the most reviled woman since Marie Antoinette.

Many of us have been convinced of this for years, if not decades. I once had the misfortune of working for a paper taken over by Murdoch. And seeing happy, friendly creative colleagues suddenly stop working for each another, poisoned by a culture of cynicism, suspicion and toadying to the bosses.

But as we devour the final copy of the News of the World, who will think ahead to what happens …

Posted in Op-eds | 18 Comments

Ed’s learning: he’s done a Dave over Murdoch

By Stephen Tall | Sun 10th July 2011 - 9:15 am

Credit where it’s due, fair’s fair, and well-played.

As Paul Walter noted here on LDV on Wednesday, Labour leader Ed Miliband is having a good war, sticking up for clear and proper principles — a judge-led public inquiry, referring News International’s BSkyB bid to the Competition Commission, and the public call for the resignation of Rebekah Brooks — that resound well with the public.

By contrast, David Cameron is on the back-foot over the unravelling scandal at News International, compromised both by having hired former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as his director of communciations (despite warnings), …

Posted in News | Tagged david cameron, ed miliband, media, news international, rebekah brooks and rupert murdoch | 13 Comments

The News of the World and giving readers what they want

By Helen Duffett | Sat 9th July 2011 - 5:54 pm

No, not a trailer for your super soaraway Lib Dem Voice on Sunday, but a quick quirk-alert on reader figures at our site this week.

It’s one of my jobs at Lib Dem Voice to keep an eye on the stats, including visitor numbers, popular posts, search terms and lots of other data.

These give us blogging ideas, help us to plan (and sometimes crow), and are another strand of audience feedback – alongside the comments threads, survey responses, emails and phonecalls, and of course the articles themselves that people submit.

So I thought I’d briefly share a surprising finding from …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged mark thompson, news of the world and statporn | 8 Comments

LDVideo: Vince and Shirley’s war on Murdoch, while Nick savages PCC as “busted flush”

By Stephen Tall | Sat 9th July 2011 - 5:20 pm

There’s no doubt about the big story this week: Rupert Murdoch being forced to close the biggest-selling British newspaper in a brazen bid to ride out the illegal hacking story that threatens his media empire.

Vince Cable’s prophetic powers first came to prominence during the economic storm that came close to collapsing the banking system. Last December, he accidentally went on the record to make clear his wish to clip Rupert Murdoch’s wings. Ironically, it was the Telegraph’s widely condemned subterfuge which stopped Vince in his tracks, and prevented his ability to hold to account the company where illegal hacking was rife. Here’s what he inadvertently revealed to the Telegraph last year:

Posted in YouTube | Tagged media, nick clegg, rebekah brooks, rupert murdoch, shirley williams and vince cable | 15 Comments

Opinion: Trade unions, pensions and Labour

By David Warren | Sat 9th July 2011 - 2:45 pm

I have been following very closely the pensions dispute as it unfolds and one of my concerns is public sector workers could lose a lot of pay through strike action in what I am starting to believe is a political strike which they cannot possibly win.

I am also a little surprised at the way the government have handled things so far and, as a former national union representative, I have been amazed at times by their ineptitude.

Further confirmation I am afraid that the Tories and sadly many in our party don’t understand the real world of industrial relations.

So why do …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged mark serwotka, pensions, strikes and unions | 56 Comments

In Praise of Nick Davies, the British Bernstein & Woodward to Murdoch’s Nixon

By Stephen Tall | Sat 9th July 2011 - 11:50 am

One man, above all, deserves to be singled-out for his single-minded pursuit of the lies, deceit and criminality that have stained British journalism: The Guardian’s special correspondent, Nick Davies.

His has been a lonely crusade. Despite the mounting evidence of corrupt practices, the tentacles of which have extended right into the very centre of the Establishment in this country — Parliament, media barons, senior police officers, Downing Street — Nick Davies has doggedly pursued a campaign which has resulted in the closure of this country’s most-read newspaper. That is some accolade.

But, as he would be the first to point out, it should never have got this far.

The closure of the News of the World would have been avoided if those who knew the truth, or at least had the power to uncover the truth, had done their jobs properly, had fulfilled their duty to the public. And that’s as true of Rebekah Brooks as it is of ‘Yates of the Yard’.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged featured, john yates, media, nick davies, rebekah brooks, rupert murdoch and the guardian | 10 Comments

Opinion: Driving better performance across public services

By Chris Nicholson | Sat 9th July 2011 - 10:20 am

25 years ago, when I was Leader of Kingston Council, Margaret Thatcher was planning to introduce Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT) for services like bin collection and road sweeping. The Council Director responsible for these services started working out what measures he would take to improve efficiency and cut costs. But then the government announced a delay in CCT so he proposed shelving these plans. I said no.

I often recall this incident when the subject of competition in public services comes up. Liberals should never be afraid of competition where it is likely to lead to better public services. Nor …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged compulsory competitive tendering, huhne commission, margaret thatcher and open public services | 11 Comments

Consider the impact of cuts on women, warns Lynne Featherstone

By Helen Duffett | Sat 9th July 2011 - 8:49 am

From the Guardian:

In an interview with the Guardian, Featherstone issued her reminder that any public sector job cuts or other deficit reduction plans that failed to consider equality rules would fall foul of the law.

Under the Equality Act 2010, a new equality duty was introduced in April dictating that any public body must have regard to the equality implications of its decisions.

She said: “The equality duty means that the public sector will have to look at who is losing jobs and how those jobs are being lost because there is a duty to do so with regard to the

…

Posted in News | Tagged deficit, equalities, equality act 2010 and lynne featherstone | 8 Comments

Opinion: Our party must keep its Equitable pledge

By Paul Braithwaite | Fri 8th July 2011 - 8:31 pm

For a decade now I have been the general secretary of EMAG, the Equitable Members’ Action Group, a campaigning group for those who lost out because of maladministration and regulatory failure at the once venerable insurance firm Equitable Life. Our pursuit of justice for Equitable Life policyholders started in the summer of 2000. Shortly after, Vince Cable took up the cause and together we walked to Downing Street to deliver a protest letter to Gordon Brown on 6th August, 2001. It was the start of my personal politicisation and I became a Liberal Democrat Councillor in Camden in 2006. …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged bob blackman, equitable life, fabian hamilton, stephen lloyd and vince cable | 4 Comments

Video: Clegg says PCC is “a busted flush” and “needs to be replaced”

By The Voice | Fri 8th July 2011 - 5:55 pm

Posted in News | Tagged andy coulson, david cameron, nick clegg and press complaints commission | 23 Comments

The LDV Friday Five: 8 July 2011

By The Voice | Fri 8th July 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

What does the Inverclyde result mean for the Scottish Liberal Democrats? (25 comments) by Caron Lindsay
John Hemming MP: Why I’m calling for a review of the smoking ban (70 comments) by John Hemming MP
Labour holds Inverclyde with reduced majority (27 comments) by Helen Duffett
LDVideo: That Ed Miliband TV interview car crash in full (8 comments) by Stephen Tall
Tim Farron MP writes: Out of the Westminster bubble (7 comments) by Tim Farron MP

5 sample LDV Members’ Forum threads

5 from the LDV archive

(8th July, 2007-10)

Opinion: A Cornish perspective on the Budget and VAT (18 comments) by Andrew George MP, from 2010
Vince: “This is not so much a White Paper as a blank paper” (0 comments) by Stephen Tall, from 2009
It’s a three-way contest for next Scottish Lib Dem leader (1 comment) by The Voice, from 2008
Opinion: Why we should back liberal Free Schools (71 comments) by Christopher Leslie, from 2008
Isn’t this perfectly reasonable? (6 comments) by Geoffrey Payne, from 2007

5 top reader search returns to get to LDV

(excluding Liberal Democrat Voice or its variants)

Posted in Friday Five | Leave a comment

Opinion: Claiming the centre ground

By Helen Flynn | Fri 8th July 2011 - 3:40 pm

As (at least) one Lib Dem member commented after the local council elections, “the only way is up” from now on. But to win back support and indeed increase our base we need to refocus. It is right that we should be emphasising our distinctiveness in the coalition, but we need to do a lot more. We need to clearly articulate what we stand for, and communicate it relentlessly to the electorate. In the same way that the more tribal parties will repeat over and over again the same phrase so that people end up parroting them (regardless of …

Posted in Op-eds | 41 Comments

Council by-election results: 7 July 2011

By Helen Duffett | Fri 8th July 2011 - 2:26 pm

Derbyshire CC, Sawley
Lab 1351 (41.7; +30.9)
Con 1197 (36.9; +12.8)
LD Fiona Aanonson 692 (21.4; +10.7)

Majority 154
Turnout 30.56%
Lab gain from Ind
Percentage change is since June 2009.

Wakefield MBC, Horbury and South Ossett
Lab 1776 (51.5; +2.4)
Con 1061 (30.8; -10.6)
UKIP 232 (6.7; +6.7)
LD Mark Goodair 200 (5.8; -3.8)
Horbury Independent 93 (2.7; +2.7)
Ind 88 (2.6; +2.6)
Majority 715
Turnout 28.6%
Lab gain from Con
Percentage change is since May 2010.

Purbeck DC, Lytchett Matravers
Con 669 (52.8; +5.4)
LD John Brian Taylor 599 (47.2; -5.4)
Majority 70
Turnout 41.8%
Con gain from LD
Percentage change is since May 2010.

Southwark LBC, Peckham
Lab 1754 (70.1; +7.7)
LD Jennifer Blake 554 (22.1; +4.4)
Con 86 (3.4; -5.1)
Trade Unionists and Socialists …

Posted in Council by-elections | Tagged aldc, brian taylor, fiona aanonson, jennifer blake, mark goodair and nicholas brewin | 19 Comments

Opinion: Cameron should be as ruthless as Murdoch‏

By Tim Leunig | Fri 8th July 2011 - 1:10 pm

In shutting the News of the World, the Murdochs have shown themselves to be ruthless. Their ruthlessness changed the story, although it has not killed it.

David Cameron needs to be as ruthless. So long as the Murdochs have a powerful media presence, his hiring of Andy Coulson and his closeness to Rebekah Brooks are real issues. The retoxification of the Tory party is underway.

Cameron should announce that he was lied to by Coulson, and that the level of rot can only have happened if people at the top were not managing the paper properly. It was Brooks and …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged andy coulson, david cameron, news of the world, ofcom, rebekah brooks and rupert murdoch | 19 Comments

Brian Paddick writes: The Lib Dem Guide to phone hacking

By Brian Paddick | Fri 8th July 2011 - 11:53 am

Uniquely perhaps, I was a victim of the News of the World’s private investigator, Glen Mulcaire, when I was a senior police officer at New Scotland Yard, working along the corridor from the officers who conducted the first phone hacking inquiry in 2002. But they never told me I was victim.

It was only a couple of years ago when my solicitor received a call from a Guardian journalist, that I knew Mulcaire had my name and mobile phone number in his notebook.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged andrew gilligan, bskyb, glen mulcaire, ian blair, ipcc, metropolitan police, milly dowler, news international, news of the world, operation weeting, Phone hacking and rebekah brooks | 10 Comments

Stephen Gilbert MP writes: UK housing policy in crisis

By Stephen Gilbert MP | Fri 8th July 2011 - 10:18 am

Last year I was probably the only MP to be elected while still living with my parents. Of course, I’d moved out of home and, like many others, had to move back again. It’s a symptom of the fact that housing policy in the UK is in crisis. We have millions of people languishing on social housing waiting lists, first-time-buyers priced out of the market and in private rented sector tenants facing increased rents with decreased security of tenure and standards.

Let’s be clear: Governments of all hues have failed on housing and, frankly, the Coalition has barely begun to acknowledge …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged housing and localism | 22 Comments

Opinion: Nick Clegg didn’t suck up to Murdoch – that’s why his minions tried to destroy him

By James Percival | Fri 8th July 2011 - 9:22 am

There was a moment during the election campaign last year when many Liberal Democrats realised we had passed through the looking glass.

Nick Clegg’s performance in the first leaders’ debate broke the glass ceiling of British politics and, it seems, caused more than one Tory-supporting newspaper editor to wet themselves in fear.

Then, on the eve of the second debate, the right wing press let slip the dogs of war.

It wasn’t just the Murdoch papers that went for Nick, but they did and they did it viciously. The Sun ridiculed him, splashing outrageous and ridiculous headlines on their front page for days …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged david yelland, leaders tv debate, nick clegg, rebekah brooks, rupert murdoch, steve richards and vince cable | 28 Comments

Opinion: ‘Activate’ – Liberal Youth’s annual renewal

By Tom Wood | Thu 7th July 2011 - 6:52 pm

This weekend was Liberal Youth’s Activate event which, as the new chair of Liberal Youth, meant a weekend of hard work and no sleep; but one stuffed full of inspiration.

Although on paper Activate is our simply our annual training event for young Lib Dems in actuality it’s much more than that.

I see Activate as the annual renewal of our movement, firstly because it’s when our newly elected executive will meet face-to-face and begin setting priorities for the year ahead, and secondly (and most importantly) because this is when we welcome all our newly recruited members to the organisation and give them the skills to become real activists for the party.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged liberal youth and tim farron | 5 Comments

LibLink: Mark Pack – The secret concessions behind the 1911 Parliament Act

By Nick T | Thu 7th July 2011 - 5:53 pm

Before he departed for his blogging holiday, The Voice’s Mark Pack had an interesting piece on the Total Politics site looking at the 100-year history of the 1911 Parliament Act.

Here’s an extract from Mark’s piece:

The 1911 Act had its immediate cause in the 1909 People’s Budget from Liberal Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, which raised taxes for the richest to pay for military armaments and social works. As he put it:

“This is a war Budget. It is for raising money to wage implacable warfare against poverty and squalidness.”

The sums now seem modest – including the equivalent in today’s

…

Posted in LibLink | Tagged Mark Pack, parliament act and total politics | Leave a comment

News of the World to close on Sunday

By Helen Duffett | Thu 7th July 2011 - 4:58 pm

BREAKING: The News of the World, the paper at the centre of the phone-hacking scandal, is to publish its final edition this Sunday.

The BBC reports:

This Sunday’s issue of the News of the World will be the last edition of the paper, News International chairman James Murdoch has said.

In the past few days, claims have been made that the paper authorised hacking into the mobile phones of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler and the families of 7/7 bombing victims.

Mr Murdoch said proceeds from the last edition would go to good causes.

Downing Street said it had no role or involvement in the

…

Posted in News | Tagged news of the world and rupert murdoch | 16 Comments

Opinion: It should be about more than Murdoch

By Nick Tyrone | Thu 7th July 2011 - 3:59 pm

The left of centre in Britain had better figure out what it stands for when it comes to free speech and the monopolisation of power in the media.

There is apparently a flash mob, due to take place in front of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, this afternoon. Well, at least if it isn’t still raining. Then the various protestors will probably head to the pub instead, if I know my protestors.

It’s been organised by several left leaning think tanks and pressure groups to try and achieve two things: 1. To put pressure on the government to delay …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged bskyb and rupert murdoch | 14 Comments

The Independent View: Nuclear subsidies – no thanks!

By Martyn Williams | Thu 7th July 2011 - 1:54 pm

On Tuesday night in the House of Commons, the nuclear industry moved a significant step closer to getting their hands on an extra £1.3 billion of public money, courtesy of a coalition Government that promised no subsidy for nuclear power.

A Labour attempt to claw the money back through a windfall tax failed. And although this was supported by environmentally-minded Conservative MP, Zac Goldsmith, not a single Liberal Democrat MP gave their backing.

Admittedly there were notable abstentions. Sixteen Liberal Democrat MPs did not troop through the Government lobby to block the Labour proposal – including, intriguingly, Danny Alexander.

The issue …