Alex Foster

PODCAST: Diversity debate in full

By Alex Foster | Sun 13th March 2011 - 2:51 pm

Following overwhelming demand from our twitter colleagues, we are now publishing in full the debate we had yesterday on diversifying our elected representatives.

You can find my written review of the debate here.

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Alex Foster

PODCAST: Nick Clegg’s speech in full

By Alex Foster | Sun 13th March 2011 - 2:00 pm

After a few minutes amplifying and chopping stuff off the beginning and end, and then many more minutes uploading large files to the internet, we can now bring you the audio recording of Nick Clegg’s conference speech.

You can play it by scrolling down and clicking the “play in another window” link.

And if you’d like to CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY, you will also find the published text here.

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Mark Pack

Nick Clegg’s conference speech

By Mark Pack | Sun 13th March 2011 - 12:48 pm

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, wearing a Yes To Fairer Votes badge, closed the party’s Sheffield conference with a return to his theme of Alarm Clock Britain:

We’re on the side of the people I call Alarm Clock Britain. On the side of everyone who wants to get up and get on. People who, unlike the wealthy, have no choice but to work hard to make ends meet. People who are proud to support themselves but are only ever one pay cheque from their overdraft. People who believe in self-reliance but who don’t want to live in a dog-eat-dog world.

Who want everyone who can

…

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Posted in Conference and News | Tagged , and | 134 Comments
Mark Pack

The party strategy debate: rolling highlights

By Mark Pack | Sun 13th March 2011 - 10:05 am

Note: If you’re catching up with this post after it was published, read it from the bottom up.

Final result – both amendment and motion passed overwhelmingly. The overall tenor of the debate was more good natured than might have been expected – people did not take the opportunity to express any unhappiness in strident tones, and the party being in coalition with the Tories until 2015 was accepted and expected, explicitly or implicitly, by all speakers. Tuition fees and NHS got mentions, but brief ones. Norman Lamb’s comments about the health debate (see below), however, were unexpected and welcome.

James Gurling, …

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

Emergency motion: tougher action on banks and bonuses

By Mark Pack | Sun 13th March 2011 - 9:52 am

Sunday morning’s emergency motion debate was on banking, moved by sometime Lib Dem Voice contributor Prateek Buch. The motion called for “banks supported by the taxpayer to be broken up into smaller, safer entities” alongside criticising banker remuneration and the Merlin project which is called “weak” and “insufficient”. Investment and retail banking should also be separated according to the motion.

The motion also called for Liberal Democrats to “ensure that the recommendations of the Vickers Commission are carried out in full”. As the commission has yet to report, that is a rather risky proposition – but with the general …

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Mark Pack

Tim Farron to lead Lib Dem Yes to Fairer Votes campaign

By Mark Pack | Sun 13th March 2011 - 9:27 am

A party news release brings the news:

Liberal Democrat Party President, Tim Farron has been appointed as Chair of the Liberal Democrat Yes to Fairer Votes campaign.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg said:

“I am delighted that Tim will be spearheading our campaign for a Yes to Fairer Votes.

“This referendum is an historic chance to give voters more say and is something so many British people have fought so long for.

“Tim will lead an excellent campaign and I look forward to working with him.”

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Mark Pack

Conservative party in Hornsey & Wood Green packs up

By Mark Pack | Sun 13th March 2011 - 8:48 am

Conservative Party member and Telegraph journalist Ed West reports,

My local constituency, Hornsey and Wood Green, certainly is closed to new members – it was recently wound up altogether, and I’ve heard that other party organisations in north London are in trouble (admittedly not Tory heartlands). All I get for my party membership are bulk emails from “David Cameron”, “William Hague” and “Baroness Warsi”, all of which now go straight in the junk filter with emails from Nigerian fraudsters.

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Alex Foster

PODCAST: Nick Clegg Q&A

By Alex Foster | Sat 12th March 2011 - 9:25 pm

The Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, Nick Clegg MP, made himself available for a question and answer session with party members this afternoon, and a packed Oval Hall at Sheffield’s City Hall called in to hear his answers.

Hear him as he talks about Lords reform and tuition fees and takes questions within topic from speakers on the floor.

And did he really forget he was in charge of the country? Find out by clicking the “play in another window” link below.

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Alex Foster

PODCAST: Q&A with Business, Innovation and Skills team

By Alex Foster | Sat 12th March 2011 - 8:11 pm

Earlier today, Simon Hughes, Lorely Burt, Vince Cable and Ed Davey joined chair Sal Brinton to answer questions from the audience about post offices, tuition fees, the education maintenance allowance and cutting red tape for small businesses.

You can hear the session in full by clicking the “play in a new window” link below.

Coming up later today: our podcasts of the Nick Clegg Q&A and a recording of our own fringe meeting, which is happening right now.

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Mark Pack

Ten comments on Saturday at party conference

By Mark Pack | Sat 12th March 2011 - 7:00 pm

1. Being introduced at a meeting or in a debate as a “Minister” is still a plus point, often triggering a round of applause. People at conference like the fact that the party is in government.

2. The Social Liberal Forum (SLF) is growing quickly in influence in the party, partly thanks to a smartly organised set of fringe meetings, amendments and motions. However, the SLF is very keen to repeatedly stress that it is not anti-coalition.

3. The NHS debate was a decision delayed. All sides are happy with the idea that a conference debate is used to set out or …

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Alex Foster

Diversity motion passes

By Alex Foster | Sat 12th March 2011 - 6:37 pm

Welcome news from the conference floor this afternoon as the party finally votes for a diversity motion without referring it back or dithering further.

There were only a handful of people opposing the motion, led by Sophie Bridger, a candidate in the general election for Glasgow. She said what was proposed was against key Lib Dem values. It would entrench unfair advantage and tokenism. It would undermine the status quo where everyone gets a fair shot. It would even, she said, make a mockery of the selection process.

It sounded familiar to me – and Alistair Carmichael put his finger on …

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Alex Foster

EVENT: LDV’s Conference fringe – tonight, 8pm

By Alex Foster | Sat 12th March 2011 - 4:45 pm

A final reminder about our conference event here in Sheffield, tonight at 8pm – and with the podcast recording brought to a wider, internet audience as soon after that as possible.

With attempts to control the internet ranging from drastic actions of dictators in the Middle East to democratic debates in the US Congress over an internet ‘kill switch’, and not forgetting the continuing debate over the Digital Economy Act in Britain, The Voice’s fringe meeting tonight at the Liberal Democrat spring conference is looking at who has control over what on the internet:

Who runs the internet? Wikileaks, piracy and censorship

…

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Mark Pack

Public sector pensions: cuts amount to 7%

By Mark Pack | Sat 12th March 2011 - 3:26 pm

Robert Peston’s analysis of the proposed public sector pension reforms from John Hutton contains this key calculation:

The estimate – made by the analyst John Ralfe – that the switch would save just £2bn a year, out of the estimated total annual cost of state pensions (much of which is hidden) of £30bn.

That £30bn is Ralfe’s estimate of the annual cost. It is double the official estimate, with the disparity due to a disagreement on the appropriate discount rate for valuing future liabilities.

A reduction in the value of retirement benefits of 1/15th would of course be unpleasant. But compared

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 41 Comments
Nick T

LibLink: David Hall-Matthews – Barnsley: a Lib Dem communication failure

By Nick T | Sat 12th March 2011 - 2:25 pm

Over on the Guardian’s Comment Is Free site, chair of the Social Liberal Forum, David Hall-Matthews, has a piece urging Liberal Democrats – both members and the party’s leadership – to be a little more vocal in our trumpeting of Lib Dem successes in government; not just those things we are doing, such as raising income tax threshold, but also those things we are stopping the Tories doing.

The whole piece is well worth a read, but I thought this line was particularly good: “Losing protest votes – or those who thought the Lib Dems were to the left of Labour …

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged and | 40 Comments
Alex Foster

PODCAST: (almost) the full NHS debate

By Alex Foster | Sat 12th March 2011 - 2:10 pm

Earlier today we brought you Mark Pack’s live coverage of the two key debates happening this morning in Sheffield, followed by his view of the aftermath.

To amplify that, we can now bring you an almost full recording of the debate. Thrill at procedural niceties! Coo at the applause for Baroness Williams! And bask in the self-righteous glow from delegates that no other party still has debates like this.

Apologies that the recording starts halfway through Paul Burstow’s introductory speech. It took longer than expected for me to wake up and eat breakfast clear security at City Hall.

The …

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Mark Pack

Disability Living Allowance and NHS motions: the aftermath

By Mark Pack | Sat 12th March 2011 - 12:13 pm

There’s a common theme to the party’s official reactions to both the Disability Living Allowance (Mobility Component) and health reform motions being passed at conference today. That is to welcome the party staking out its own views on the issues, even where they clearly contradict those of Conservative ministers, and for two reasons.

First, it more clearly sets out where the coalition partners disagree on policy. As having a relaxed, adult approach to admitting in public that people in government don’t always agree on everything is something I’ve talked about in the past, this is certainly good to see – and …

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Mark Pack

Rolling news from conference: Saturday morning

By Mark Pack | Sat 12th March 2011 - 10:31 am

Richard Kemp summates on motion, asking people also to back both amendments; i.e. cooperation rather confrontation to improve bill. Some MPs vote for amendment 1, some abstain. Amendment overwhelmingly carried. As is amendment 2. Lines 6-15 deleted from motion, amended motion carried. All MPs can spot voted for.

Evan Harris summates on amendment 1. “It is unusual for me to summate on a debate where there have been no speeches against my amendment”. Says government ministers must work hard to change the bill radically. Amendment 1 lays out how it should be improved – and Liberal Democrats in government “should follow …

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Dee Doocey

Dee Doocey writes… Getting Olympic ticketing right

By Dee Doocey | Sat 12th March 2011 - 8:54 am

At one minute to midday on Tuesday 15 March, applications for tickets for the 2012 London Olympics will open.

Over the past twenty years, ticketing arrangements for every Games have created bad headlines. Controversy has ranged from empty seats to excessive prices, ticket touting and counterfeit tickets.

It’s a tough challenge to get the right balance between maximising income to cover the costs and ensuring that each event is accessible – especially as the actual running of the Games by the London Organising Committee for the Olympic & Paralympic Games (LOCOG) is paid for entirely by non-public money.

As ticketing is such a …

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Posted in London and Op-eds | Tagged | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Will money for cancer drugs be available for alternative medicine asks astrology MP

By Mark Pack | Sat 12th March 2011 - 8:26 am

Bosworth Conservative MP David Tredinnick, the man who claimed for astrology software and training on expenses, has been asking in Parliament about switching funds from cancer drugs to alternative medicine:

David Tredinnick: The cancer drugs fund is available only for pharmaceutical drugs, but can it be used for wider support services, such as healers, aromatherapists, those using therapeutic touch and other such practitioners?

Andrew Lansley: We are finalising the design of the future cancer drugs fund from April, and we will publish shortly. The interim cancer drugs fund is designed to support new effective medicines, …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 5 Comments
Mark Pack

Lib Dem candidate jailed after killing cat

By Mark Pack | Fri 11th March 2011 - 11:28 pm

The Shuttle reports,

A FORMER parliamentary candidate from Kidderminster was locked up for bludgeoning the family cat to death with a walking stick in a fit of rage.

Michael Dixon was sentenced to four months in prison with a lifetime ban on keeping animals, after he lost his temper and battered the pet, leaving her to die in a pool of blood, before calmly telling his family: “I’ve killed the cat.”

The horrific attack happened at the former LibDem candidate’s home in Warbler Place on May 14 last year, after five-year-old Tipsy scratched his grandson.

Posted in News | Tagged | 21 Comments
The Voice

What’s in the bag?

By The Voice | Fri 11th March 2011 - 8:17 pm

Hello from Liberal Democrat Conference in Sheffield.

Many of you will have been to party conference before. Many of you will have experienced the delights of the goody bag attendees receive. To help Liberal Democrat Voice bring you the true conference experience even if you can’t make it here yourself, Will Howells – you may remember him from such blogs as this one – has made us a quick video checking out his junk. Enjoy.

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The Voice

Tim Farron’s speech at the Liberal Democrat conference rally

By The Voice | Fri 11th March 2011 - 7:05 pm

So this is the Sheffield Rally. And you know what normally happens when a party holds a Sheffield rally? Well, traditionally, some ginger bloke gets on stage, makes an absolute prat of himself, and completely wrecks his party’s election chances. And I’m a great believer in tradition, so here goes…

Ros has been an outstanding President. A baroness who is also a pavement politician, approachable, effective and one of us. Ros led us internally to an election result and aftermath that was beyond historic. And I am certain that we all want to show our appreciation. On a personal note she …

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Nick T

Interview: Nick Clegg – I told Cameron he was talking complete bilge

By Nick T | Fri 11th March 2011 - 5:25 pm

Bilge! Now there’s a word that gets far too infrequent an airing. It happens to be the word Nick Clegg used to describe David Cameron’s despatch box-defence of our voting system during this week’s PMQs, revealed in a lengthy interview with the deputy prime minister in today’s Independent. Other topics covered include NHS reform, Libya, Prince Andrew and why the Liberal Democrats must see this coalition government through for its full term. Nick’s conference speech on Sunday needs to provide an uplift to party members after a bruising few weeks and months, and from this interview it looks like …

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The Voice

The LDV Friday Five: 11 March 2011

By The Voice | Fri 11th March 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

  1. Barnsley Central result: Labour win, Lib Dems sixth (197 comments) by The Voice
  2. LibLink: Dominic Carman – What it’s like to be the most despised man in the town political correctness forgot (and come SIXTH in a by-election) (69 comments) by Nick Thornsby
  3. Nick Clegg: we’re making the rich pay their fair share of tax (40 comments) by Mark Pack
  4. Linda Jack writes: Nick Clegg – demonstrating what he’s for (18 comments) by Linda Jack
  5. Opinion: NHS reforms need careful examination (38 comments) by Felix Greaves

5 sample LDV Members’ Forum threads

  1. Yesterday’s by-elections in Burnley and Southwark
  2. Caroline Pidgeon
  3. Special Members’ Lib Dem news
  4. RollCall
  5. MPs and tithing

5 from the LDV archive

(11th March, 2007-10)

  1. LibLink: Nick Clegg’s demands for a post-election deal (12 comments) by NewsHound, from 2010
  2. Huhne: police officers with criminal convictions should be sacked. (Question: should they?) (15 comments) by Stephen Tall, from 2009
  3. Voters want double Euro referendum – Times poll (7 comments) by Stephen Tall, from 2008
  4. Opinion: The ‘five tests’ raise deeply worrying questions about strategy (0 comments) by Charles Anglin, from 2007
  5. Legal trouble ahead for the Tories? (5 comments) by Mark Pack, from 2007

5 top reader search returns to get to LDV

(excluding Liberal Democrat Voice or its variants)

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Toby Fenwick

The Independent View: How the Stephen Williams plans for the banks would work

By Toby Fenwick | Fri 11th March 2011 - 3:54 pm

Portman Capital, an independent corporate advisory firm, has been asked to comment upon the technical issues raised by Mark Pack’s column on Stephen Williams’ proposal to privatise RBS and Lloyds by distributing the shares to the public. Portman Capital is not politically aligned and its comments are intended to explain the technical feasibility of the proposal rather than its political aspects.

The proposal to distribute the shares to the UK people is innovative, and as the British people will participate without having to provide cash up front, it has fairness at its core. Over time, the scheme is likely to …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged and | 3 Comments
Helen Duffett

This week’s by-election results: Burnley and Southwark

By Helen Duffett | Fri 11th March 2011 - 2:22 pm

Yesterday, Labour gained a seat from the Lib Dems in Burnley and held a seat in the London Borough of Southwark.

Burnley BC, Rosegrove with Lowerhouse:

Lab 521 (43.1; +11.8)
BNP 288 (23.8; +5.5)
LD Kate Mottershead 261 (21.6; -11.8)
Con 81 (6.7; -10.2)
Ind 58 (4.8; +4.8)
Majority 233
Turnout 25%
Lab gain from LD
Percentage change is since May 2010

Southwark LBC, Brunswick Park:

Lab 1981 (65.1; +13.3)
LD Kate Heywood 630 (20.7; -2.0)
Green 231 (7.6; -6.9)
Con 129 (4.2; -6.7)
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition 70 (2.3; +2.3)
Majority 1351
Turnout 34.2%
Lab hold
Percentage change is since May 2010

See the ALDC website for full by-election results and commentary.

Posted in Council by-elections | Tagged , , and | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

Sheffield LibDem conference: preview round-up

By Mark Pack | Fri 11th March 2011 - 12:55 pm

With the Liberal Democrat spring federal conference in Sheffield about to kick-off, here’s a quick reminder of some of our advanced coverage, with tips on which debates to watch out for, the best of the fringes and a taster of some of the arguments:

If you are tweeting at conference, the hashtag is #ldconf.

Further information about the Liberal Democrat federal conference is available in the Party Conference section on the main party website and the official Lib Dem conference Twitter account is @LibDemConf.

Liberal Democrat Spring Conference Agenda and Directory 2011

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Posted in Conference | Tagged | 3 Comments
Chris Huhne MP

Chris Huhne writes… The economics of low-carbon

By Chris Huhne MP | Fri 11th March 2011 - 11:51 am

We Liberal Democrats need no convincing of the urgent need to tackle climate change. Indeed, that’s why there’s a Liberal Democrat minister heading the Department of Energy and Climate Change – one of the most important contributions we bring to the coalition government.

Not everyone in the UK, however, is yet so persuaded, and we also face problems in pressing the case abroad. Last summer, together with my French and German counterparts, I opened a debate in the EU over adopting a more ambitious emissions reduction target for 2020 (of 30 per cent, instead of the current 20 per cent), but …

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

A whistlestop tour of Scottish Conference

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 11th March 2011 - 10:27 am

Scottish Liberal Democrats gathered in Perth last weekend for their Spring Conference.  I thought that LDV readers might appreciate edited highlights of a lively weekend.

It was a bit strange to turn up to find a huge area around the Perth Concert Hall cordoned off, airport style security and Police everywhere.  We’re not used to this sort of thing.

Leader Tavish Scott’s keynote speech hammered home our USP in the forthcoming Scottish election campaign – only the Scottish Liberal Democrats will speak out against a political power grab. SNP, Tories and Labour advocate merging eight police forces to just one. Tavish also …

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Posted in News and Scotland | Tagged , , , , , and | 2 Comments
Simon Wright MP

Simon Wright writes… Make the Green Investment Bank a real bank and transform the economy

By Simon Wright MP | Fri 11th March 2011 - 9:26 am

£500 billion is a lot of money. But that’s roughly how much the UK needs to invest in low carbon infrastructure over the next 10-20 years to have a chance of meeting our ambitious carbon reduction targets. Ernst and Young have estimated that the usual sources of capital can probably raise between £50-£80 billion. That leaves an enormous gap to fill.

One of the government’s top priorities is to put in place the mechanisms needed to unlock the massive investment needed. Given the need to tackle the deficit, the private sector will be needed to deliver this investment – but it …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 2 Comments
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