Today’s Guardian has a profile of Lib Dem peer Lord (Matthew) Oakeshott:
Lord Oakeshott is the master of the one-liner. Treasury officials, in his opinion, “couldn’t negotiate themselves out of a paper bag”. Bankers’ pay particularly irks him: “If this is bonus restraint, my name is Bob Diamond,” is one of the most memorable remarks uttered by any politician this year…
Writing speeches with Paddy Ashdown sometimes happened at difficult times, like when we’d spent weeks preparing his announcement that he would run for the leadership in 1988 – only for it to dawn on us that we’d have to produce another one for the next day, then another, followed by almost a speech a day for the next three weeks.
Nor was it much fun when the party was at 4% in the opinion polls or, and this was probably the most difficult one of all, working on his first speech as High Representative to the parliament of Bosnia Herzegovina.
…
We’ve covered in various forms the moves by the traditionally Labour pressure group Compass to reach out across party lines (such as in this guest post from its chair Neal Lawson and in this review by Paul Walter of one of his articles). Compass this week took a further step by opening up its membership:
68% of our members have voted in favour of constitutional amendments which end the rulings that restrict membership to those already in Labour or entitled to be so.
The vote represents a clear sign as to the future direction of progressive politics, a resounding
…
A quick search on my own blog for “Gary McKinnon” will show that I have written several times, at some length, on the reasons why I believe that he should not be extradited to the US. I believe that to do so to such a vulnerable person would be a disproportionate action which would seriously and adversely affect his health. For an Asperger’s sufferer, change can be really difficult to deal with. The National Autistic Society website states that routine and familiarity are key elements in living with their condition.
In my view, it would …
The FactCheck blog has been running its eyes over the claims made by No2AV about how much introducing the alternative vote would cost (the subject too of my letter published in yesterday’s Independent).
Here’s what they conclude:
No to AV claims that the combined costs of a referendum, implementing electronic vote counting and educating voters will cost Britain a cool £250 million. And just over half of this will be splashed out on shiny new electronic vote counting machines, the campaigners say…
The problem is however, that there are no current plans to implement electronic voting machines in the event AV passes…
No
…
Today’s Times (£) features an interview with Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, which touches on Coalition cuts, the Budget, banks, Nick Clegg, electoral pact rumours – and even red squirrels.
Here’s a taster:
“One of the things about a coalition is it’s two different parties, with different policies and different thinking. The only way you can deal with things is through discussion based on evidence and it does mean that you have a bit more formality about the processes of government than perhaps existed before.”
When he took over at the Treasury, his predecessor left him a note saying
…
Last month I spoke at an event organised by the University College London’s Constitution Unit on how the Liberal Democrats ended up in coalition with the Conservatives and the progress of the coalition so far:
Here’s your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…
Either actual or projected falls in house prices are almost always described as bad news in both the media and political circles. Yet it is also common to hear people complain about the lack of affordable housing, difficulties getting together a sufficient deposit or problems with the cost of mortgages – and those complaints have been common in both times of boom and bust.
So if predictions for a fall in house prices this year turn out to be right, will that be …
Two significant changes of staff are happening at the CentreForum think tank, with current director Julian Astle leaving in April after three years as director and with Tim Leunig joining as Chief Economist. Tim will be familiar to many of our readers as a regular commenter and occasional contributor on this site.
It’s Friday. It’s five o’clock. Here’s a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week:
(25th February, 2007-10)
(excluding Liberal Democrat Voice or its variants)
A hip-hop musical based on Nick Clegg’s role in forming the Coalition government is to be staged later this year.
The show (working title: “Nicked”) also features David Cameron in a “rap-off” with his backbenchers as well as the student demonstrations and the run-up to the AV referendum.
From BBC News:
Steven Atkinson, artistic director of the HighTide Festival in Suffolk, said “They are all in there, Cameron, Clegg, Brown and the Milibands.”
He added that as Mr Clegg acted as a student, he might see the funny side.
The play is due to be staged from 30 April – just before the 5
…
Why did the Government drop its proposals for the Forestry Commission (FC) and the forests and woodlands it manages? I thought it would happen but I was astonished by the speed of it. It comes down to three things. An ill-considered and foolish policy. Incompetent presentation. And a stupendously successful and largely under the radar campaign which burst through with stunning effect.
The Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) included a target of £100million from selling around 15% of the national forestry estate in England. This is the most that can be sold under existing legislation. But over the summer DEFRA Ministers …
Oh wait, hang on. That’s a a 32 year low for divorces in the latest figures for England and Wales:
The Office for National Statistics says,
In 2009 the divorce rate in England and Wales fell to 10.5 divorcing people per thousand married population compared with the 2008 figure of 11.2, a fall of 6.3 per cent. The divorce rate is at its lowest level since 1977 when there were 10.3 divorcing people per thousand married population.
The figures were published this month by …
Charles Kennedy MP has urged Liberal Democrat members and supporters to take action by registering their disappointment and disgust at the advertising tactics of the No2AV campaign.
The No campaign recently took out a two-page advertisement in the Birmingham Mail claiming that a sick baby “needs a new cardiac facility NOT an alternative voting system”. The ad misleadingly implies that the public must choose between an alternative voting system and frontline services.
Here’s what Charles said in his email this morning:
Over recent days No2AV have published a series of ads in local papers that can be described as distasteful at best,
…
After voting in elections, I doubt there is any civic duty more important than responding to the decennial census. The information it provides to governments for policy making is vital, and often very revealing. It simply is not mentioned enough, but the last time a census was taken, back in 2001, it was found that the population was over a million people smaller than predicted in 2000, and that estimates of the population growth rate, which fueled national hysteria about immigration in the late 1990s were twice what they should have been.
It therefore makes me very sad that …
Courtesy of a written answer in Parliament, we have a top-level comparison of how the previous Labour Government’s spending plans for the end of this Parliament compare with what the Coalition Government is now planning.
Against the benchmark of what public spending would have been if welfare rules and the like had been left unchanged and other public expenditure increased in line with inflation (i.e. DEL spending increased in line with inflation, AME spending based on no rule changes), Labour was planning to cut spending by £56 billion.
By contrast, the Coalition Government is planning to cut spending by £81 billion. …
David Cameron’s article on public service reform in the Telegraph was the opening shot in what could be a significant battle both within the Coalition and across the House. The case presented raises at least three important ethical issues.
First, the way in which evidence is being used to justify these proposals is deeply suspect. Mr Cameron states that publicly providing bureaucratic and target-driven services might be worth supporting if they delivered quality services: “but the evidence shows otherwise. Whether it’s cancer survival rate, school results or crime, for too long we’ve been slipping against comparable countries”. These are very …
The world is becoming increasingly ‘globalised’ and interdependent, driven by technological innovation and the now virtually unlimited movement of people and capital. This has opened up extraordinary opportunities for businesses and individuals all around the world, but it also poses many problems for national policy makers and governments.
Perhaps the most important and publicised change brought about thus far by the global age is the rise of China and India as economic powerhouses. China is now the second largest economy in the world and will overtake the United States to be the biggest in a couple …
The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) is a Conservative think tank, founded by Margaret Thatcher and Keith Joseph in 1974. In November last year, it published an article by David Martin entitled Abolish NICs – towards a more honest, fairer and simpler system .
In the forward, Jill Kirby (at the time Director of the CPS), said: “National Insurance (NI) has become income tax by another name. Yet… it is riddled with inconsistencies”
Do the arguments presented in David Martin’s paper indicate the beginning of the end for National Insurance Contributions? Certainly, the arguments are pretty compelling.
The paper summarises …
Nick Clegg often talks about social mobility, but is it the right focus for the party’s social efforts?
The day after he was elected Liberal Democrat Leader, Nick Clegg set up a commission to look at social mobility in the UK. In the two years since then, he has regularly returned to the topic, and it has become a priority of his for party and then government policy-making, alongside making frequent appearances in speeches, slogans and soundbites from leading party figures.
Yet it is a phrase that risks becoming over-used, for it fails to communicate effectively what makes us Liberal Democrats …
Not quite what Liberal Democrats always says about Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles, but his pronouncement this week about access to local government meetings was spot on.
His department’s press release says,
Councils should open up their public meetings to local news ‘bloggers’ and routinely allow online filming of public discussions as part of increasing their transparency, Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said today.
To ensure all parts of the modern-day media are able to scrutinise Local Government, Mr Pickles believes councils should also open up public meetings to the ‘citizen journalist’ as well as the mainstream media, especially as important budget
…
The BBC reports:
A rival who falsely claimed a Liberal Democrat MP was a paedophile has been convicted of attempting to affect a result in the general election.
Les Cummings, 66, made the false statement about Portsmouth South MP Mike Hancock.
Mr Hancock had strenuously denied the allegations made in an election leaflet pamphlet.
Cummings, who stood for the Justice and Anti-Corruption Party, was fined £500 at Southampton Magistrates’ Court.
He had falsely written on the flyer: “Mike Hancock is a paedophile.”
It then showed a picture of Mr Hancock with children and the words: “Would you let him get this close to your children?”
This …
Cambridge First reports:
The MP for Cambridge was handed the accolade by the magazine Asian Voice after its readers cast their votes in the publication’s annual political and public life awards.
Asian Voice – which launched 35 years ago to forge links between British and Asian communities – reported: “Julian Huppert has quickly established himself as one of the most refreshing and exciting MPs to have been elected in the last General Election.”
Dr Huppert said: “I am delighted to receive this highly prized award from such a prestigious magazine. I thank the readers of Asian Voice for their encouragement.”
The city MP
…
In 2004, the last government merged the prison and probation services into one gigantic super-agency: the National Offender Management Service (NOMS). The changes exacted by NOMS have led to the systematic fragmentation and demoralisation of probation, whose purpose has been altered beyond all recognition.
Unrepresented at the highest management structure of NOMS, neglected and misrepresented, the probation service has for years plodded along in the shadows, only to be thrust into the limelight when the spotlight fell on individual tragedies amid media frenzies.
The creation of NOMS bought with it the mantra of ‘managerialism.’ Staff at all levels experienced a loss …
BBC Politics yesterday profiled the life of John Archibald Sinclair, 3rd Viscount Thurso – better known as John Thurso, the MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross:
John Thurso has spent a decade as an MP, but still regards himself as “an entirely accidental politician”.
Living in the “ruins” of his family castle in the northernmost part of Scotland, he might appear a gentleman amateur in the careerist world of Westminster.
Yet politics is in the blood of this grandson of former Liberal leader Sir Archibald Sinclair.
Mr Thurso, the 57-year-old Lib Dem MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, was the first
…
Take the increasing importance attached to social networking and its ability to influence the political world. Add in a tradition of wanting to influence the public and other governments. Turn down your ethics meter. Shake together and what do you get? This:
The US government is offering private intelligence companies contracts to create software to manage “fake people” on social media sites and create the illusion of consensus on controversial issues.
The contract calls for the development of “Persona Management Software” which would help the user create and manage a variety of distinct fake profiles online. The job listing was discussed in
…
As tyrannical regimes go, Libya is right there at the top and ranks alongside North Korea for the unpredictability of its ruler, the self-styled Colonel Muammar Gaddafy, who used to be referred to by Ronald Reagan as the Middle East’s ‘mad dog’.
Having given up nuclear weapons he is admittedly slightly better than Kim Jong-il, but we cannot know for sure that he has also given up chemical and biological weapons. In a country where tribal loyalties prevail and where the four main tribes occupy the main positions, Gaddafi’s own tribe occupies the top posts and much of his internal repression is carried out through a myriad of different state security institutions as well as a plethora of paramilitary units, recruited from abroad.
The country does not have a constitution, but is run by a revolutionary ruling council which has been in situ for 42 years and cannot be dismissed. There have been regular attempts at coups over this period, which have been ruthlessly put down and there are no evident pointers to a peaceful succession.
Gaddafi’s four sons have long been involved in jostling for the top position and foreign governments were betting on Saif al Islam (the second son) to take over the reins, as he was increasingly the acceptable face of the regime.
Saif al Islam al Gaddafi was awarded a PhD from LSE enticingly titled “The Role of Civil Society in the Democratisation of Global Governance Institutions”. He chairs the Human Rights Commission of Libya, and lest anyone doubt that he is therefore a soft touch, he was his father’s voice last weekend displaying a similar determination to stay in power through putting down the uprising till as he put it, the last man, the last woman, and the last bullet had been expended. He appears to be delivering on his pledge.
Several hundreds have died in the last few days, hospitals are overflowing and as a crackdown has started, anyone moving on the street is shot dead. Reports say that ambulances are also shot at to deter them from trying to save the injured. The air force has been mobilised to bomb civilian residential areas, and the reign of terror has started.
So what should be done now, that the country has descended into chaos?
I’d like to enlist your help.
Time Magazine gives the title ‘Person of the Year’ to the individual who ‘for better or for worse…has done the most to influence the events of the year’. They are clear that the title should not in itself be a prize, but an acknowledgement of influence on world events. Recent winners include Mark Zuckerberg, Ben Bernanke and Barack Obama.
I think – and I know it’s only February – but in 2011 that title should be given to a Tunisian street vendor called Muhammad Al Bouazizi. It would be a fitting tribute to one man who …
‘Little by little, and like a virus, the Big Society idea has lodged itself insidiously in my mind; so that now, everywhere I go, I start to see small things that actually could be done closer to the ground, by and for the people who know about them and need them’.
So wrote Matthew Parris in the Spectator last August, a passage approvingly quoted by Jesse Norman, the Big Society philosopher-in-chief in his book of the same name.
Parris’s summary tells us that the concept has gained a grip – and not only on the Right. Some Liberal Democrats are also …
Previously I’ve dug out a City of London Alderman election leaflet from the 1930s which showed how many of the message in election leaflets have stayed the same over the decades, even if the presentation has changed massively.
This time I’ve dug out a single-sided leaflet from Doncaster in 1950, for Labour MP Ray Gunter who was moving seat from Essex to northern England following the redrawing of boundaries.
It is typical of a style of leaflet that last for many years after women were first given* the right to vote in Parliamentary elections – from the wife of a candidate …
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