Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Over 530 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results this week.
Seven-in-10 Lib Dems back coalition force, but members split on success of action
LDV asked: Do you think Britain, France, the US and other countries are right or wrong to take military action in Libya?
73% – Right to take military action
18% – Wrong to take military action
9% – Don’t know / No opinion
A deaf councillor is being forced to spend a lot of his own money on sign language interpreters in order to fulfil his duties to his constituents.
Lib Dem Councillor David Buxton, who is believed to be the only deaf councillor in the UK using interpreters, says that he pays up to £300 a month for their services, despite only getting £160 a month in expenses from the council.
Epsom and Ewell council’s website recommends that councillors meet with “key local stakeholders” and “deal with all residents enquiries.”
It pays for interpreters for all council meetings, working groups, civic occasions and formal ward surgeries – but is refusing to pick up the bill for other events Coun Buxton attends such as non-official residents meetings.
However the council says that it has contacted the Disability Rights Commission and is fulfilling its obligations under equalities legislation.
Coun Buxton, who represents Court Ward, and is the chief executive of the British Deaf Association which raises awareness of deaf issues , said: “It is very difficult to manage as a councillor with a disability.
“I want to represent my community and campaign, but it is costing me a lot of money to do so.
“The council should do more to help, especially at local resident’s group meetings. The council feels these groups should pay for signers, but they don’t have any funding at all and are voluntary.
“All I want to do is have a full communication with my residents as their local councillor and at the moment I don’t feel this is the case.”
Lib Dem leader Julie Morris said that the money available to Coun Buxton is simply not enough to perform his role as an active councillor as set out on the council’s “how to be a councillor” section of the website.
She said: “The reality is that if he wants to be a good and active councillor he is going to have to fund it himself.
“It is difficult because he is having to pay a lot of money to do his role – far more than any other councillor.”
Back in September, Councillor Buxton spoke in the diversity debate at Liberal Democrat Conference, highlighting the difficulties he faces as a Deaf politician. His speech, which was translated from British Sign Language to English, was featured on BBC’s See Hear, a magazine show for the Deaf community.
On Saturday, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg delivered a speech at an AV rally in Norwich in which he set out the deficiencies of our democracy, and the reasons why AV – combined with other political reforms in the pipeline – will start to fix those problems.
You can read Nick’s speech in full below:
For years now, huge numbers of people have chosen not to vote because they think it doesn’t matter.
At the election before last it got so bad that more people didn’t vote than voted for the winning party.
And when you think how unfair our current electoral system is,
It’s been one of the worst-kept secrets in the media, and today Andrew Marr finally admitted he was one of the 30 people who’ve taken out a super-injunction to prevent reports of their private life being made public.
The BBC interviewer’s legal action dates back to 2008, and has been credited with popularising the use of super-injunctions, which not only prevent reporting of allegations, but also prevent the injunction being reported. Today’s Guardian reports:
Marr said he felt “uneasy” and “embarrassed” about the use of the high court injunction, which he won in 2008 to suppress reports of an extramarital affair.
Yup, you read that right. No need to wait until the referendum. No need even for there to be a Yes vote in the referendum. For this week sees the start of voting for a new Parliamentarian, elected by the alternative vote.
For Wednesday sees ballot papers being issued that curiosity of an election, a by-election for the hereditary peers in the House of Lords. (Weird isn’t it how it’s the hereditaries get a form of election?) Elected by the alternative vote.
This follows the death earlier this year of Lord Monson, and as he was a Crossbencher his replacement will …
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Over 500 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results this week.
Lib Dems reject key health reform measure 61%-24%
LDV asked: The government are currently planning to reform the NHS. Currently health services are commissioned by local Health Trusts. Under the government’s plans local Health Trusts would be abolished, and health services would instead be commissioned by consortiums made up of groups of local GPs. From what you have …
The ‘Yes to Fairer Votes’ campaign has issued a new video highlighting how the first-past-the-vote system can turn an epic fail into a win, with MPs elected with less than 30% of the popular vote:
From among the blizzard of economic forecast, commentary and political point scoring which presently dominates the airwaves, there is very little consensus but the need to get the banks to lend more is something which brings all sides of the debate together.
The dividing line appears to be on how best to achieve this.
Those who subscribe broadly to the neo-classical or neo-liberal economic world view believe that banks will start wanting to lend as the economy recovers and businesses become more viable. This ‘leave it to the market’ approach is something which Lib Dems should (and do) reject, not just on …
After the last election, many thousands who voted Labour in Lib Dem-Tory marginals are furious with the Lib Dems for forming a coalition with the Tories. But when you stop and think about it, if they are angry with anyone, it should be with themselves.
We shouldn’t be too hard on them. The biggest blame lies with the election system.
At the last election, the Lib Dems and Labour had a combined vote of 52%, but together, they only had 315 MPs, ten short of a majority. To their great credit, many Labour supporters used their vote tactically, but there were not …
Lib Dem cabinet minister Chris Huhne has ratcheted up the war of words against the Tories ahead of next week’s AV referendum, suggesting legal action might be necessary to stop Coalition colleagues spreading untruths. Today’s Guardian reports:
Huhne said the claims made by David Cameron, George Osborne and other Tories undermined their credibility. He is concerned about two claims made by the Conservatives – that a move to AV will need new counting machines, and so cost as much as £250m, and that it will favour extremist parties. He said: “If they don’t come clean on this, I am sure
1. What’s your formative political memory?
The 2005 election was the one I was probably first properly aware of as a 15/16 year-old. I remember reading the Liberal Democrat manifesto and seeing posters up in my area (mainly Labour, though I’m pleased to say that’s no longer true, and orange diamonds are now far more pervasive during election campaigns).
2. When did you start blogging?
September 2009.
3. Why did you start blogging?
I’d been reading various blogs for a while, and had previously thought about starting my own, but the catalyst was probably chatting to a number of bloggers at Lib Dem Voice’s BOTY awards at the 2009 conference.
4. What five words would you use to describe your blog?
Straightforward, rational and occasionally random.
5. What five words would you use to describe your political views?
In every possible way: liberal.
6. Which post have you most liked writing in the last year (and why)?
Attending and blogging about the court case which ultimately led to Phil Woolas being kicked out of Parliament was obviously quite an experience, and I also particularly liked writing this post on a rather daft claim by Ed Balls, which was very short and simple but which, I think, demonstrates the value of blogging as a medium.
7. Which post have you most liked reading in the last year (and why)?
I hope the rules can be bent, as this was just over a year ago, but I found this post by Stephen here on Lib Dem Voice on why Clegg should rule out a coalition (!) extremely compelling. It was faultless in its logic, and I agreed with Stephen at the time, but its arguments were based on a number of assumptions which we all made but which ultimately proved to be false (particularly that the Conservatives would never give enough ground, including on electoral reform, to ever make a coalition even remotely possible). Speculating on what might have been had the Lib Dem leadership followed Stephen’s advice is an interesting game, and I can’t help coming to the conclusion that we would now be in a (perhaps significantly) worse position than that which we are currently in.
8. What’s your favourite YouTube clip?
My Twitter followers won’t be surprised that I’ve picked this clip from the magnificent West Wing, the script-writing and acting in which demonstrate just why the show is so brilliant.
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 218th 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 (17-23 April, 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:
Today’s Independent on Sunday has a much-publicised interview with deputy prime minister Nick Clegg in which he rebukes – in strong terms – the tactics of the No to AV campaign. He makes no visible attempt, either, to exclude the prime minister from his comments – not least because he is one of those guilty of repeating the untruth, for example, that the alternative vote will require expensive electronic counting machines. As the piece makes clear, some of this rhetoric is undoubtedly part of a strategy designed to aid the Liberal Democrats in various upcoming elections, but there is clearly …
Today the world of politics was rocked to its foundations by revelations that, with just 10 campaigning days to go before crucial elections and the first national referendum in a generation, rival Liberal Democrat and Conservative politicians are openly disagreeing with each other.
“We just never expected this,” confided one insider. “We all thought that once there was a Coalition they would agree on everything all the time. To see them carrying on like this, it’s almost as if there are fundamental disagreements of principle and policy separating them.”
I’m afraid I can’t find it in myself to join in the …
I’ve mixed feelings about celebrities endorsing a campaign one way or the other. They certainly should be as free as the rest of us to express their views in public, but unless the cause of their celebrity gives them a particular expertise in the subject there’s no particular reason to be swayed by their views beyond those of anyone else.
However, there is one other exception to this, which is when a celebrity is so at least in part because they are an expert communicator – and then getting them to argue a case and so make use of their communications skills makes a lot of sense.
Cameron launched a paternalistic attack on potential Yes to AV Voters in The Evening Standard this week. I would have commented earlier but I was incredulous that such arguments could be put across to persuade people against voting for AV in the forthcoming referendum.
The strongest reason Cameron dictated was that FPTP allowed the public to kick out “dog-tired” governments. The irony therein is that the Coalition has created fixed term parliaments.
As a result, a “dog-tired” government can only be removed with a motion of no confidence outside of this period. The last Motion of No Confidence was
The initial promise of Canadian Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff’s campaign is fading badly as polling day approaches on Canada and one of the main reasons is one very familiar to British politics. It’s the failure to have a good answer to the question, “What would you do in a hung Parliament?”
As Adam Radwanski puts it The Globe and Mail when looking at how Ignatieff and Conservative Premier Stephen Harper are faring:
If the two men were being graded by civics teachers, Mr. Ignatieff would indeed be winning. His explanation of how another Conservative minority would work – the need
It’s not quite Jeremy Paxman vs Michael Howard, but there’s a definite echo of it with Adam Boulton’s repeated questioning and Baroness Warsi’s unwillingness to answer. So if you’ve missed it doing the rounds on Twitter and Facebook so far, here it is to enjoy (or is that suffer?):
The story of Adam being enticed to take the apple by Eve is not merely an amusing insight into the human condition, its an example of the very first market at work.
Markets work on the principal that people respond to stimuli, economics tries to ascertain what those stimuli are, and what the impact of those stimuli on the wider community are.
The idea that the government, can or should, protect certain sectors of the economy from the market is a fallacy.
While I don’t agree with the Coalition’s (or indeed Labour’s) policy on University funding, the argument occasionally made, that charging fees …
Recently Ed Miliband’s Labour Party TV broadcast expressed his frustration that the world of politics wasn’t like the real world. Considering that the entire broadcast was along the lines of painting Ed Miliband as an ordinary guy, it got me thinking on the subject of whether we really want our politicians to be ordinary people. It seems common sense that we want the people who represent us, to be like us. I would question this assumption, especially when we look at some of the other requirements we place on them.
The first requirement is obviously that they are knowledgeable about the …
22 voting theory specialists voted to select the “best voting procedure” to elect one out of three or more candidates.
Each voter chose from a list of 18 nominated voting procedures as many as she/he approved of. From a possible maximum of 22 votes, First Past The Post (FPTP) – also known as Plurality Voting – received no votes. Approval Voting won the contest with 15 votes. The Alternative Vote (AV) took second place with 10 votes.
Here’s your starter for ten in our Saturday slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…
‘Can a progressive alliance between the Lib Dems and Labour work?’ That is the question asked in this month’s issues of Total Politics magazine, debated by Neal Lawson of the left-leaning Compass pressure group (who argues Yes) and Labour MP Michael Dugher (who says No).
Neal’s is a thoughtful piece, which recognises the ebbs and flows of history — but does not view them as inevitable. After al, it was only 13 years prior to the Coalition being formed that Paddy Ashdown …
I was one of about 20 on the Team London coach to Leicester last Saturday to help our candidate, Zuffar Haq
The lucky people of Leicester South will have 4 ballot papers to fill on May 5th: to vote for their ward Councillors, elect their Mayor, their MP as well as vote in the referendum on Fairer Votes.
We were briefed to keep our canvassing strictly to the by-election. Fortunately our man, Zuffar was easy to sell at the door step. He is the only candidate of the 3 major parties who is local, born and educated in Leicester.
There’s a kind of doomed inevitability to this story, which we’ve seen over the years with candidates from all parties… New person stands for council, with all the right qualifications — community-spirited, motivated, wanting to succeed — except one: they’re not safe.
They have an ‘alternative’ background. You may not find them propping up a saloon bar, or biding their time quietly waiting to become mayor, or ‘turning native’ the moment they’re elected… or any …
I noticed that around half the recent stories about phone hacking on the Guardian website with photos feature a photograph of Sienna Miller. Does she make up around half of all the people whose phones were hacked?
Yesterday morning, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg delivered a speech at the Institute for Public Policy Research think tank on political reform, particularly on the need to change the UK’s voting system as part of the ‘new politics’. The speech was trailed on the Voice here.
You can read the text of Nick’s speech below. (We also linked to Nick’s Telegraph piece yesterday here.)
Liberals have been champions of political reform since the formation of our party more than a century and a half ago.
House of Lords reform, party funding, devolution – and of course, reform of the voting
Miranda Pinch Simon Lytton. Thanks for pointing out the issue with the expense of going to conferences. I have given up on York and Brighton is now so expensive and shabby. B...
Drew Durning Conference stopped being supreme the day Ed Davey became leader. Conference had voted (albeit with provisos on timing) to rejoin the EU. Just about Ed's first p...
Jason Connor Please clarify specifically how they miss the mark?
Christine is a very popular and highly capable Lib Dem MP, if not one of the most popular. If she is ous...
David Blake If Alex Cole-Hamilton has anything to do with this he should resign....
Steve Trevethan Thank you for an interesting and relevant article.
Might the rise of extreme right, populist parties be a/an (unsurprising) consequence of Neoliberalism, aka...
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Does money buy votes?
The Joy of Six 1583
Inside the refurbished library
Is the Labour government split on immigration?
Miranda Pinch
Drew Durning
Jason Connor
David Blake
Steve Trevethan