Mark Pack

Crossbenchers increasingly hostile to Labour as government makes boundary changes

By Mark Pack | Wed 26th January 2011 - 10:45 pm

Increasing anger from crossbench peers at Labour’s filibustering in the Lords looks to be preparing the way for either Labour backing down or (for the Lords) highly unusual procedural decisions to end the filibustering. As I put it earlier in the week, if Labour loses the support of the crossbenchers, it will not only lose the struggle over this bill but weaken its ability to successfully oppose other legislation in the future.

At the same time, the government has been showing its willingness to listen to scrutiny rather than filibustering by agreeing to two changes to the ways in which …

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Posted in Election law and News | Tagged , , , , and | 13 Comments
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Paul Walter

PMQs: Miliband goes all Ballsy

By Paul Walter | Wed 26th January 2011 - 7:41 pm

Good Lord! Ed Miliband and David Cameron actually agreed on something. They agreed that yesterday’s growth figures were “disappointing”. They even agreed that if you set aside the bad weather impact, the figures were flat over the last quarter. An amazing level of agreement at PMQs! Unheard of!

Miliband asked about the causes of the disappointing figures. Cameron pointed to the UK’s large deficit and the large banking boom and bust. Ed Miliband then asked Cameron to confirm that he still thinks we are “out of the danger zone” (Cameron’s words from 15th December). We are no longer linked with PIG (Portugal, Ireland, Greece), said Cameron.

After Cameron said “If you do not deal with your debts, you will never have growth”, Ed Miliband came back with “If you do not have growth, you will never cut the deficit.” That has to be his best rejoinder ever at PMQs. Cameron dealt with that, however, by quoting the head of the OECD: “if you don’t deal with the deficit you can be assured that there will not be growth because confidence will not recover”.

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Posted in PMQs | Tagged , , , , , , , , and | 6 Comments
Mark Pack

The political thought of the Liberals and Liberal Democrats since 1945: book review

By Mark Pack | Wed 26th January 2011 - 10:25 am

Kevin Hickson’s volume, The political thought of the Liberals and Liberal Democrats since 1945, may be a short volume from an academic publisher with an academic book price tag to boot (look out for cheaper second-hand copies) but its contributors include many political practitioners. With Vince Cable, Steve Webb, David Howarth , Richard Grayson and Duncan Brack amongst them, this book has a very strong representation of people at the coalface of policy making rather than simply those who know of it only in theory.

As Hickson points out in the book’s introduction, the policies of the Liberal Democrats – even more so than other aspects of the history of the party and its predecessors since 1945 – have had very little coverage in books, an omission which this volume sets out to remedy and which political fortunes in the year after the book’s publication has made all the more useful a task to tackle.

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Posted in Books, Op-eds and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged , , , , , , and | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

Anti-terrorism review: 6 questions to judge the government by

By Mark Pack | Tue 25th January 2011 - 8:56 pm

With the publication of the government’s anti-terrorism review just about to happen, and likely to include a large number of details, what are the key points to look for in judging how the review has gone?

So far, we know one outcome – the reduction in the maximum period people can be held without charge from 28-days to 14-days (which is in line with the Liberal Democrat manifesto). Yet to be published are the plans on control orders (the abolition of which has been another key Liberal Democrat demand) and on a host of other anti-terrorism legislation.

What to look out for

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , , , and | 38 Comments
Mark Pack

Today’s the anniversary of the Limehouse Declaration

By Mark Pack | Tue 25th January 2011 - 2:55 pm

On 25 January 1981, four senior Labour politicians – Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams – issued the Limehouse Declaration, so called after David Owen’s East London home. It set out their plans which were to result in the formation of the SDP. As you can see, many of their policy concerns are still highly relevant:

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 53 Comments
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Iain Roberts

Economy shrinks by 0.5%

By Iain Roberts | Tue 25th January 2011 - 12:08 pm

Initial economic figures for the UK surprised economists with the news that the economy shrank by 0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2010, and would have been “flattish” without the impact December’s bad weather.  This follows four quarters of growth and will raise concerns over whether the figures mark a short term blip or a worrying longer trend.

As the BBC reports, a surprise 3.3% contraction in the construction industry has worried analysts, whilst the strongest growth came from manufacturing.

Posted in News | Tagged | 67 Comments
Mark Pack

E-voting: why it was abandoned in the UK

By Mark Pack | Tue 25th January 2011 - 11:55 am

Back in the early years of this century, the UK was at the forefront of testing out e-voting for public elections. An extensive series of pilots were held and then … e-voting fell out of favour, because the pilots were not a success for a wide range of reasons. The issue still keeps on popping up, so having recently come across again what I wrote back in 2003 about those pilots, those lessons are worth restating. Here is what I wrote back in the summer of 2003. Luckily the last paragraph turned out to be wrong.

E-voting: triumph or disaster?

According to …

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Posted in Online politics and Op-eds | Tagged and | 10 Comments
Tony Greaves

Tony Greaves writes: Coalition, Government and the Lords

By Tony Greaves | Tue 25th January 2011 - 10:43 am

We are in a new situation which started with the coalition being negotiated. Nobody in the political parties had thought it through. It had to be made up as they went along and it is still being made up, week by week, month by month. It has had a major effect on the resulting policies. It has also had an effect on the ongoing processes of government.

The coalition was put together in five days. An important lesson must be that future coalition-building in this country after an election really ought to take place at a slightly more measured pace, and …

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Posted in Op-eds and Parliament | Tagged and | 46 Comments
Iain Roberts

Graduate jobs up nine percent

By Iain Roberts | Tue 25th January 2011 - 8:25 am

Coalition ministers will be glad to see that predictions last year of a continuing fall in graduate jobs seems to have been wide of the mark, with the latest survey by the Association of Graduate Recruiters showing an 8.9% increase in graduate jobs, with a forecast of further improvement in 2011.

Average new graduate salaries remain rooted at £25,000  and there’s clearly some way to go before the graduate jobs market fully recovers (though £25 is a figure the typical parliamentary researcher can only gaze at longingly).

As the job prospects for graduates improve, Lib Dem ministers will be keen to …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 16 Comments
Mark Pack

Compromise and conflict in the air in Lords stand-off over filibustering

By Mark Pack | Tue 25th January 2011 - 12:02 am

There’s a finely balanced stand-off in the Lords over the Parliamentary Voting Systems and Constituencies Bill. Many Labour peers feel they are just a few days of filibustering away from achieving, for them, a major political objective – forcing the government to change the date of the AV referendum – and, or perhaps instead, forcing major changes to the Bill, such as a change in the new rules for drawing up Parliamentary constituencies.

However they also face a major risk of the delaying tactics going wrong. Over-play their hand, annoy the cross-bench peers and spur the government into action and the …

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 21 Comments
Raj Loomba

Lord Raj Loomba’s maiden speech

By Raj Loomba | Mon 24th January 2011 - 3:41 pm

In recent months, LDV has been bringing its readers copies of our new MPs’ and Peers’ first words in Parliament, so that we can read what is being said and respond. You can find all of the speeches in this category with this link. On Friday, Lord Loomba made his maiden speech in the House of Lords during a debate on the Rehabilitation of Offenders (Amendment) Bill . His words are reproduced below. We featured Baroness Doocey’s and Baroness Kramer’s maiden speeches over the weekend.

My Lords, it is with some trepidation, but a lot

…

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David Rogers

Opinion: Health & Social Care Bill – a local government perspective

By David Rogers | Mon 24th January 2011 - 2:11 pm

Media coverage and comment so far since the Bill was published last week has been largely about GP commissioning, and the abolition of Primary Care Trusts and Strategic Health Authorities. Naturally there will be risks associated with such an enormous transfer of financial responsibility, but we should most certainly not overlook the underlying localist and patient-centred philosophy, and the opportunities for GPs to become more engaged with a wider health and wellbeing approach in every locality.

GP practices operate in local communities, and councillors are elected to represent those same communities. How should we work with them more …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , and | 19 Comments
Mark Pack

Sal Esposito: the mythical story of the cat and the jury summons

By Mark Pack | Mon 24th January 2011 - 12:25 pm

Even if you follow the news only lightly, the chances are you’ve seen a story in the last few days about how a cat received a jury summons in the US and, when the owners pointed out it was a cat, the local bureaucracy ordered the cat to turn up to court anyway.

So far, so normal as far as daft bureaucrats go?

Well, not quite. Because you don’t exactly have to be a fan of American judicial bureaucracy to stop and think, “Is it really true that the person organising the jury just ignored it when someone told them they had …

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Posted in News | Tagged | 16 Comments
Jo Shaw

Jo Shaw writes: Counter Terrorism and Security Review latest

By Jo Shaw | Mon 24th January 2011 - 10:23 am

The long awaited outcome of the review of counter-terrorism and security powers is to be announced this week. Already last week, the expected and widely trailed outcome was confirmed that the length of time for pre-charge detention has been halved from 28 to 14 days – this 28 day power will lapse on Tuesday. It now appears that Theresa May will announce the outcome of the review on Wednesday, after Cabinet presumably discusses the issue on Tuesday.

The most thorny issue for the Liberal Democrats is what will go and what will remain of the highly controversial Control Order regime. David …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , and | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

Ed Balls and his praise for light-touch regulation in the City

By Mark Pack | Mon 24th January 2011 - 8:45 am

As Caron Lindsay pointed out in her write-up of Nick Clegg’s interview with Andrew Marr yesterday morning, the question of Ed Balls’s record in government compared with Labour’s current policies is likely to become all the more pointed now that Balls is back in an economic role:

There’s no sign of timidity in the Coalition camp at the appointment of Ed Balls as Shadow Chancellor. It’s clear that no opportunity will be lost to remind people of his culpability in the current mess:

Labour never owned up to their responsibility. Ed Balls as Minister for the City was lauding light

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 30 Comments
Mark Pack

Chris Huhne speaks out over phone hacking

By Mark Pack | Sun 23rd January 2011 - 10:35 pm

As I mentioned earlier today, Chris Huhne went somewhat further in his Independent on Sunday profile in making critical comments about Andy Coulson and the phone hacking allegations than the party’s rather bland official statement. He’s now gone further, as the FT reports:

A cabinet minister has sharply criticised Scotland Yard for accepting what he called News International’s “implausible” account of phone hacking at one of its tabloids, as it emerged that Gordon Brown had acted on fears that he was targeted.

Chris Huhne, the energy secretary, raised the political stakes in the illegal surveillance scandal by claiming the police

…

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 9 Comments
The Voice

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #205

By The Voice | Sun 23rd January 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 205th 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 (16th-22nd January, 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:

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Mark Pack

Federal Executive elects people to key party posts

By Mark Pack | Sun 23rd January 2011 - 4:55 pm

During the week, the Federal Executive elected the following:

Deputy Chair, Federal Executive – Alison Goldsworthy
Chair, Federal Finance and Administration Committee – Duncan Greenland
Treasurer – Richard Duncalf
Chair, Campaigns & Communications Committee- James Gurling
Chair, International Relations Committee – Robert Woodthorpe-Browne
Chair, Campaign for Gender Balance – Ros Gordon

Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged | 8 Comments
Mark Pack

Chris Huhne profiled by the Independent on Sunday

By Mark Pack | Sun 23rd January 2011 - 4:06 pm

Today’s Independent on Sunday has a long profile of Chris Huhne and his work as a Cabinet minister and including some hints of criticism of Andy Coulson:

The one time he appears to choose his words carefully is when discussing Andy Coulson. On a biting Friday morning, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change does not yet know that the chill wind blowing along Downing Street will signal the resignation within hours of the coalition’s director of communications.

“I have no reason to doubt his position,” he says precisely, when asked if he was happy with Mr Coulson continuing in

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 7 Comments
Dee Doocey

Baroness Dee Doocey’s maiden speech

By Dee Doocey | Sun 23rd January 2011 - 1:51 pm

In recent months, LDV has been bringing its readers copies of our new MPs’ and Peers’ first words in Parliament, so that we can read what is being said and respond. You can find all of the speeches in this category with this link. On Friday, Baroness Doocey made her maiden speech in the House of Lords during a debate on the Rehabilitation of Offenders (Amendment) Bill . Her words are reproduced below. Baroness Susan Kramer also made her maiden speech in the Lords during the same debate; we featured it yesterday.

My Lords, I also begin

…

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Mark Pack

‘No’ campaign vetoes public funding for Welsh referendum campaign

By Mark Pack | Sun 23rd January 2011 - 11:25 am

The No campaign for the March 3rd referendum on increasing the powers of the Welsh Assembly, True Wales, has decided not to seek official designation, thereby depriving both the Yes and No sides of public funding.

Referendum legislation makes funding available to both sides in a referendum if there is an officially designated campaign on both sides. As a result of the No campaign declining to seek official designation, this funding – £70,000 in cash, a free mailshot and TV broadcasts – along with higher spending limits, will not be available to either side.

The No campaign has explained its decision …

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Posted in Election law and Wales | 7 Comments
Mark Pack

Book review: Hung Together – The 2010 Election and the Coalition Government

By Mark Pack | Sun 23rd January 2011 - 8:55 am

Adam Boulton and Joey Jones, the authors of Hung Together: The 2010 Election and the Coalition Government, have produced a book of the sort that, after previous general elections, would have been deserving of praise and interest. Their bad luck for the 2010 election is that there are several high quality alternatives available, in particular the revitalised Nuffield general election series in the form of The British General Election of 2010 and David Laws’s 22 Days in May, not to mention the Nick Robinson BBC documentary.

Compared to those this lively book is a little lightweight. It does …

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Posted in Books | Tagged and | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

Controversy over pay in the university sector

By Mark Pack | Sat 22nd January 2011 - 7:06 pm

The Daily Telegraph reports:

The pay packets of Britain’s university heads rocketed by as much as a fifth last year, just as institutions lobbied for a huge hike in student tuition fees…

More than 950 university staff, including all vice-chancellors, were paid more than the Prime Minister – an eight per cent increase on the year before.

One senior administrator at Oxford was given a salary of almost £600,000, thought to be the highest-paid university post in the country…

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the Universities and Colleges Union, added: “Staff and the general public are tired of the hypocrisy from vice-chancellors and

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 29 Comments
Susan Kramer

Baroness Susan Kramer’s maiden speech

By Susan Kramer | Sat 22nd January 2011 - 1:51 pm

In recent months, LDV has been bringing its readers copies of our new MPs’ and Peers’ first words in Parliament, so that we can read what is being said and respond. You can find all of the speeches in this category with this link. Yesterday, Baroness Kramer made her maiden speech in the House of Lords during a debate on the Rehabilitation of Offenders (Amendment) Bill . Her words are reproduced below. Baroness Dee Doocey also made her maiden speech in the Lords yesterday; we will be featuring it tomorrow.

My Lords, as I rise to make

…

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Mark Pack

Becky Harvey passes away

By Mark Pack | Sat 22nd January 2011 - 10:25 am

Yesterday I got the tragic message from Jon Ball that, “Many of you know that Becky Harvey has been very ill for a number of years now. Sadly, Becky passed away this morning at home in Devon. I’m fondly remembering the time we shared and the amazing energy and sense of fun she had”.

Becky was one of the online pioneers in the Liberal Democrats, playing a key role in the creation of a role at party headquarters dealing with the internet – which I ended up filling – and being one of the key volunteers helping me to run the …

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Posted in News | 5 Comments
Mark Pack

Andy Coulson finally goes

By Mark Pack | Sat 22nd January 2011 - 9:25 am

Over the years we’ve covered Andy Coulson many times on this blog, over both his extremely high salary when working for the Tories (much higher than salaries levels Tories were criticising others for having) and also – more importantly – the phone hacking allegations.

Although yesterday he resigned, he is unlikely to depart the political stage quickly or quietly as the long queue of people at various stage of taking legal action over allegations of phone hacking mean the details of who did what and with whose knowledge will continue to be newsworthy for a good while yet.

The official Liberal …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 18 Comments
Mark Pack

The Saturday debate: Does Britain need nuclear weapons?

By Mark Pack | Sat 22nd January 2011 - 8:55 am

Here’s your starter for ten in our Saturday slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…

One of the achievements of the Liberal Democrats in Coalition Government so far has been to ensure that no Trident replacement is orders during this Parliament. At the next election the party will be able to say, “We said we opposed Labour and Tory plans for replacing Trident – and those plans haven’t happened”. But is that going far enough; should Britain retain nuclear weapons at all – and if not, when and how should it give them up?

Agree? Disagree? Post your …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 47 Comments
Helen Duffett

Lib Dem Peer Lord Goodhart calls for filibuster ban

By Helen Duffett | Fri 21st January 2011 - 7:27 pm

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Posted in Parliament | Tagged , and | 8 Comments
The Voice

The LDV Friday Five: 21 January 2011

By The Voice | Fri 21st January 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. Oldham East and Saddleworth results thread (79 comments) by The Voice
  2. After Oldham: what does the result mean for the party’s targeting strategy? (82 comments) by Stephen Tall
  3. Tim Farron writes… Oldham proves rumours of the Lib Dems’ death have been greatly exaggerated (71 comments) by Tim Farron MP
  4. The Independent View: Confusing, exciting and terrifying times for those on the liberal left (97 comments) by Neal Lawson
  5. “By-election was a hard-fought contest” – Clegg (61 comments) by Helen Duffett

5 from the LDV archive

(21st January, 2006-10)

  1. When should the state intervene? RBS, Kraft & Cadbury and the Eternal Liberal Dilemma (11 comments) by Stephen Tall, from 2010
  2. Mass gathering in defence of street photography #phnat (2 comments) by Helen Duffett, from 2010
  3. MPs expenses – yes we can! (4 comments) by Alix Mortimer, from 2009
  4. Coalitions and minority government across Britain (0 comments) by Centre Forum, from 2008
  5. Confessions of a ‘Newbie’ (4 comments) by Mark Thompson, from 2009

5 sample LDV Members’ Forum threads

  1. Party strategy paper and more at Spring Conference
  2. Lesson to be learnt from Oldham East and Saddleworth
  3. Hidden speed cameras
  4. A letter? To me? From Nick Clegg?
  5. Putting Lib Dems at the forefront of drug policy debate

5 top reader search returns to get to LDV

(excluding Liberal Democrat Voice or its variants)

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Helen Duffett

Lib Dems GAIN Marl, Conwy (and other by-election results from Jan 20)

By Helen Duffett | Fri 21st January 2011 - 4:18 pm

Marl councillors Mike Priestley and Sue Shotter
Photo: Marl Councillors Mike Priestley and Sue Shotter. Also available on Flickr.

Liberal Democrat Sue Shotter gained Marl in Conwy from the Conservatives last night:

LD Sue Shotter 389 (40.4; -10.1)
Con 270 (28.1; +5.7)
Lab 216 (22.5; +14.2)
Ind 87 (9.0; -9.7)
Majority 119
Turnout 31.3%
LD gain from Con
Percentage change is since May 2008

New councillor Sue Shotter said:

This result was achieved through a combination of Mike’s hard work over the years building up the Lib Dem vote, teamwork,

…

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Posted in Council by-elections | Tagged , , and | 29 Comments
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