Helen Duffett

Nick Clegg’s New Year message to Liberal Democrat members

By Helen Duffett | Wed 29th December 2010 - 12:05 am


Video also available on YouTube here.

Nick Clegg has released his New Year message to Lib Dem members, a simple and positive riff on the party’s four key manifesto commitments from the 2010 General Election.

In fact, for a New Year’s message, it’s very much about continuity; there are no fireworks or surprises, as I found when I played a little game earlier with a couple of colleagues – “Guess what’s in Nick’s New Year message?”

And we guessed correctly, almost to the word: a reiteration of the party’s “big four” commitments, with examples of where we’ve delivered (more examples here); a quick mention of coalition politics, without dwelling overly on “incredibly difficult decisions”; a look towards three themes for 2011: political reform, social mobility and economic recovery – each with a helpful, yet sparing definition in plain language. (AV, after all, is best presented as a fairer system which makes MPs work harder for your vote, rather than a mathematical conundrum.)

Nick rounds off with a rallying cry, to prove the naysayers wrong, and “continue to build the Liberal fairer, greener Britain that we all believe in.”

Here’s Nick’s message in full:

Four key Lib Dem manifesto commitments

Well what a year! A white-knuckle election; a new coalition government; Liberals in power for the first time in 70 years.

Just eight months ago we were campaigning on our four big manifesto priorities – fairer taxes; extra money for disadvantaged children in schools; a green, rebalanced economy; a new, open politics.

And now we are delivering on every single one, and more.

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The Voice

The 12 Op-Eds of Xmas (Day 4)

By The Voice | Tue 28th December 2010 - 6:45 pm

Throughout the festive season, LDV is offering our readers a load of repeats another chance to read the 12 most popular opinion articles which have appeared on the blog since 1st January, 20109. The ninth most-read LDV op-ed of 2010 was by LDV co-editor Stephen Tall, and originally appeared on 7th May …

The morning after the night before: 10 questions we need to answer (but maybe not today)

Here’s a few to ponder … Or perhaps best to sleep on them.

1. What happened to the predicted Lib Dem surge? Did people change their mind at the last minute? Did young people not turn out? Did floating voters turn their back on us?

2. How did the opinion polls get the Lib Dem share of the vote so badly wrong? They were pretty accurate in terms of the Labour/Tory vote, but all nine of the final polls put the Lib Dems in the 26-29% range when in fact we scored 23%.

3. What happened to our targeting strategy? Given our share of the vote was higher than in 2005, how did we lose so many seats? Did we over-reach ourselves? Or did we underestimate the residual Labour/Tory vote?

4. Why were there such differences between results in individual Lib Dem seats, sometimes making gains against the Tories (eg, Wells, Eastbourne), sometimes suffering horrendous swings (eg, Oxford West & Abingdon, Montgomeryshire). Incumbency seems to have helped in some places, not in others: why?

5. Should Nick Clegg have ruled out any form of coalition before the election to avoid a week of the campaign getting bogged down in the usual hung parliament media process stories? Was it a mistake to state openly the party wouldn’t work with Gordon Brown if Labour came third?

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Posted in Op-eds | 2 Comments
Helen Duffett

The Liberal Democrat manifesto in practice

By Helen Duffett | Tue 28th December 2010 - 6:09 pm

It’s an unnecessarily well-kept secret that the Liberal Democrats have already achieved much in Government since the General Election.

Despite the Guardian saying today that “the Liberal Democrats have rushed out a checklist of 67 party manifesto commitments already or nearly achieved in eight months in office” it’s not that easy to find the checklist online, nor to understand why the newspaper used the word “rushed” when the party has waited two thirds of a year before compiling and releasing it in a low-key way to Lib Dem campaigners.

Nonetheless, the list is impressive, and deserves to be shared widely. So I’m publishing it below,

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 12 Comments
Stephen Tall

What will happen in the May 2011 local elections?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 28th December 2010 - 4:25 pm

The Guardian takes a look today at the Lib Dems’ prospects in next year’s local elections, focusing on England rather than the national assembly and parliament elections due in Wales and Scotland.

Not surprisingly, they come to the conclusion that Nick Clegg’s party is likely to be most vulnerable in those areas where the Lib Dems face a strong Labour opposition — and most likely safer in areas where the local fight is with the Tories.

Here’s their assessment:

In England, the Liberal Democrats will be defending 1,830 seats, Labour 1,600 and the Conservatives just over 5,000. In the equivalent

…

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Posted in News | 24 Comments
David Warren

Opinion: The tyranny of the state and my conversion to social liberalism

By David Warren | Tue 28th December 2010 - 2:25 pm

I came into politics thirty years ago believing that the abolition of nuclear weapons, private education, health care and a massive expansion of the public sector represented a socialist programme that if implemented would make Britain a fairer country.

All these were Labour party policy and as a socialist I was an active member of the party that was happy to use the ‘s’ word. In fact it looked for a while as though the socialist left were going to take total control of the party driving out the remaining social democrats.

What actually happened was the party moved in the other …

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Posted in Op-eds | 60 Comments
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Alex Marsh

Opinion: Piecing together the housing policy jigsaw

By Alex Marsh | Tue 28th December 2010 - 11:25 am

The Coalition government is seemingly intent upon drowning us in a blizzard of consultation papers, green papers, white papers, and hasty legislation. No doubt there is also a bit of kite flying taking place for good measure. One problem with all this activity is keeping track of overlapping agendas. How do we sum the parts in a way that allows us to get a sense of the likely cumulative impact of change?

One area in which this is particularly acute is housing. Policy which impacts upon housing and the housing market sits with a number of government departments. Housing policy and …

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Mark Pack

Found something interesting on the internet? Share it with other LibDems

By Mark Pack | Tue 28th December 2010 - 10:25 am

You may have seen mentioned in the weekly Golden Dozen round-ups reference to LibDig – but there’s much more to the site than sharing a story for hopeful inclusion in the round-ups. Thanks to LibDig, Liberal Democrat members can easily share interesting, useful or enjoyable stories, videos or blog posts.

You can either post up content you have seen, or vote on content that other people have posted up; either way it’s a way of saying, “I found this interesting. I think you’ll find it interesting too.”

Social bookmarking sites like this have been around for a while, but they tend …

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Posted in Online politics | Tagged , and | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

A trio of good news on political reform

By Mark Pack | Tue 28th December 2010 - 9:47 am

First, fuelled in part by Labour’s debate about how it should be seen relative to the trade unions, we have the news that Ed Miliband may be about to break the logjam on party funding reform:

Ed Miliband is to distance Labour from its trade union paymasters by diluting the party’s financial dependence on them and reducing their role in electing the party leader.

Labour has proposed introducing a ceiling on donations to any political party which could be as low as £500, The Independent has learnt.

The move could break the long-running deadlock between the parties on agreeing a new system of

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , and | 15 Comments
The Voice

The 12 Op-Eds of Xmas (Day 3)

By The Voice | Mon 27th December 2010 - 7:45 pm

Throughout the festive season, LDV is offering our readers a load of repeats another chance to read the 12 most popular opinion articles which have appeared on the blog since 1st January, 20109. The tenth most-read LDV op-ed of 2010 was by party member Mat Smith, and originally appeared on 15th November …

Opinion: Clegg has not betrayed us!

Many left-leaning liberals in the media are outraged at what they consider to be broken pledges on the part of Nick Clegg.

Johann Hari writes in The Independent, “In just a few days after the election, he cleared a space in his …

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Posted in Op-eds | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo ‘Sleb Special: Cyril, Scriven & Steel

By Stephen Tall | Mon 27th December 2010 - 5:45 pm

A festive edition of the Voice’s occasional round-up of political videos, with three Lib Dem politicians showing, erm, quirkier sides of their personalities.

M’colleague Helen Duffett has already brought you the delights of Vince’s turn on the Strictly Come Dancing floor. But he’s by no means the first Liberal politician to hit the mainstream — here’s Sir Cyril ‘Nice One’ Smith’s famous Access ad from the 1980s:


(Also on YouTube here.)

Meanwhile, Lib Dem leader of Sheffield City Council Paul Scriven shows off his ‘Perfect’ singing skills in the service of a hotel’s internal training video. It’s attracted the ire of critics, but Paul is unrepentant:

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Posted in YouTube | 2 Comments
Geoff Crocker

Opinion: How Lib Dems make policy – or fail to – and the consequences

By Geoff Crocker | Mon 27th December 2010 - 3:25 pm

Causal chains can be very long, with surprising connections between initiating events and final outcomes. Severe violence between protesters and police on the streets of London resulted from the debacle over student fees, broken pledges, and continuing double talk as to whether this is a coalition compromise, or has now somehow magically become best policy. But it has its roots further back in a faulted policy making process in the Lib Dem party. How did an intelligent political party get such policy so wrong less than a year ago, when it already knew all the current economic issues? To understand …

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Posted in Op-eds and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged and | 40 Comments
Mark Pack

The Liberal Democrat challenges for 2011: recap

By Mark Pack | Mon 27th December 2010 - 10:25 am
Over the last week I’ve had a series of posts about the main Liberal Democrat challenges for 2011. In case you’ve missed any of them over the Christmas festivities, here is a quick recap:

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

Our new year signing: Mark Valladares

By Mark Pack | Mon 27th December 2010 - 8:55 am

In the new year Mark Valladares, of Liberal Bureaucracy and a sometime contributor to this site, will be starting up a regular fortnightly guest piece for The Voice concentrating on letting members know what party bodies are getting up to in their name and how they can influence their decisions.

If there’s any particular topic you’d like Mark to cover, just pop up a comment below…

Posted in Site news | Tagged | 10 Comments
The Voice

The 12 Op-Eds of Xmas (Day 2)

By The Voice | Sun 26th December 2010 - 8:55 pm

Throughout the festive season, LDV is offering our readers a load of repeats another chance to read the 12 most popular opinion articles which have appeared on the blog since 1st January, 2010. The eleventh most-read LDV op-ed of 2010 was by LDV co-editor Mark Pack, and originally appeared on 17th April …

Poll surge continues: is this 2003 or 1974?

“I will only really believe it when I see it in print!” – so read a text message to me from one of the party’s senior campaign strategists after news started spreading about the latest poll:

BPIX/Mail on Sunday: Lib Dem …

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Posted in Op-eds | 9 Comments
Helen Duffett

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #201

By Helen Duffett | Sun 26th December 2010 - 7:22 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 201st 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 (19th -25th December, 2010), 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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Stephen Tall

Diffindo! Has Daniel Radcliffe hexed the Lib Dems?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 26th December 2010 - 5:55 pm

Daniel Radcliffe has declared himself to be “underwhelmed” by the Lib Dems in the wake of the tuition fees controversy, according to a report in the Daily Mail:

A source inside the party said: ‘Daniel does not in any way support the violence of the rioters, but to say he is underwhelmed by his party is an understatement. Like millions of others he was under the impression that the Liberal Democrats had no plans to increase the cost of studying.

‘While Daniel will never have to worry about his finances again, a tuition fee hike is a serious issue which

…

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Stephen Tall

Who’s your Liberal Voice of 2010?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 26th December 2010 - 4:45 pm

LDV wants to find out who our readers think merits the title Liberal Voice of the Year 2010, and we’ll be running a New Year poll to find the individual or group which has most inspired you in the last year. But, as is our traditional little twist, we want to look outside the Liberal Democrats – and find the greatest liberal who’s not a member of our party.

So, who would you pick? It could be a member of another political party, or one of the majority of Britons who belong to no party; or a group of people, or …

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Posted in LDV Awards | Tagged | 28 Comments
Helen Duffett

Vince is the business on the dance floor

By Helen Duffett | Sun 26th December 2010 - 3:28 pm

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Posted in Lib Dem TV | Tagged , and | 4 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Norman Baker – Despite the doomsayers’ predictions of failure from Day One, the Coalition has bedded down well

By NewsHound | Sun 26th December 2010 - 2:40 pm

Over at the Mail on Sunday, Lib Dem transport minister Norman Baker talks about his own experiences of being on the wrong end of the Telegraph’s ‘sting’ operation, in which the paper targeted MPs’ constituency surgeries to entrap them into confessions of Coalition discord. Here’s an excerpt:

Over the years, I have seen thousands of constituents at my surgeries. Many have had big problems. Many have been in a highly emotional state. Some have even been crying. Every week, up and down the country, constituents like this access their MP for help. They come along because they trust their MP to

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged | 3 Comments
Merlene Emerson

Opinion: In pursuit of excellence

By Merlene Emerson | Sun 26th December 2010 - 12:45 pm

Earlier this month David Lammy MP highlighted the problem of the low number of black students admitted to Oxford and Cambridge Universities and called it the ‘Oxbridge Whitewash’. He wrote in the Guardian (6 Dec):

“Just one British black Caribbean student was admitted to Oxford last year. That is not a misprint: one student. Merton College, Oxford, has not admitted a single black student for five years. At Robinson College, Cambridge, a white applicant is four times more likely to be successful than a black applicant. Last year, 292 black students achieved three A grades at A-level and 475 black

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , , and | 15 Comments
Mark Pack

The Liberal Democrat challenges for 2011: defining and explaining economic fairness

By Mark Pack | Sun 26th December 2010 - 10:25 am

This is the final piece in a series of posts on the main Liberal Democrat challenges for 2011. You can find all the posts in the series here.

Having started this series with the economy and then moving on to more internal issue in latter posts, it seems fitting to return to economic issues for the final post in this series.

Getting the substance on economic fairness right is and should continue to be a top priority for the party. In addition, getting the messaging right will help differentiate not only the Liberal Democrat contribution to the coalition from that of …

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Helen Duffett

Convictions for historic gay sex offences to be erased

By Helen Duffett | Sun 26th December 2010 - 8:55 am

Convictions for historic gay sex offences will be erased as part of the Freedom Bill, the Sunday Telegraph reports:

Lynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat equalities minister, will announce firm proposals for new legislation within days, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.

The move will benefit thousands of men who were prosecuted for gay sex with someone over 16 during decades when the practice was against the law.

Currently, they must disclose the information as part of the programme of Criminal Records Bureau checks if they apply to work or volunteer for charities and other organisations.

Getting such a conviction expunged currently

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 13 Comments
The Voice

The 12 Op-Eds of Xmas (Day 1)

By The Voice | Sat 25th December 2010 - 5:45 pm

Throughout the festive season, LDV is offering our readers a load of repeats another chance to read the 12 most popular opinion articles which have appeared on the blog since 1st January, 2010. The twelfth most-read LDV op-ed of 2010 was by LDV co-editor Stephen Tall, and originally appeared on 1st September …

Half a defence of Paul Staines (aka @guidofawkes)

My Voice colleague Iain Roberts has already blogged about this afternoon’s big political news that William Hague’s special advisor Christopher Myers has quit his post following allegations — vehemently denied by both — that they might be having an affair. …

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Don Liberali

Don Liberali Messaggio di Natale

By Don Liberali | Sat 25th December 2010 - 3:00 pm

So, lot of people asking me, where you been? Last thing remember it 2008. I step outside Cowley Printworks for crafty cigarette with Don Clegg and all go very quiet.

See glint of sunlight on metal, trip over pile of discarded papers, (something about silly promises not worth keeping by Signor Alexander) and fall in front of Don Clegg.

After bang sounds, remember nothing until waking up in hospital few days ago.

Gotta say Family change quite a bit while away.

Walk down street in Little Sicily yesterday and where is the respect?

Liberali Junior minding show for me say we …

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Posted in Humour | 6 Comments
The Voice

Merry Christmas!

By The Voice | Sat 25th December 2010 - 8:00 am

Christmas tree

Posted in News | 1 Comment
Helen Duffett

The LDV Friday Five: 24 December 2010

By Helen Duffett | Fri 24th December 2010 - 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. Probably the most inappropriate Christmas card ever sent … (2 comments) by Stephen Tall – from November 2009!
  2. Vince Cable: I could bring down the government (163 comments) by Mark Pack
  3. Vince Cable: stays in Cabinet, responsibility for takeover ruling moves (109 comments) by Mark Pack
  4. Opinion: It is time to get out of the Coalition (147 comments) by Paul Elgood
  5. Prime Minister removes all Christmas imagery from official Christmas cards (10 comments) by Mark Pack

5 sample LDV Members’ Forum threads

The scrapping of ID Cards
I’ve had enough of this ‘newspaper’
What’s the cost of a jack-knifed lorry?
2011 registrations and security information
Oldham by-election

5 from the LDV archive

(24th December, 2006-09)

  1. LDVideo … Christmas Eve supplement (0 comments) by Stephen Tall, from 2009
  2. Mandelson forcing universities to offer less choice and lower standards, says Stephen Williams (6 comments) by The Voice, from 2009
  3. Strictly Guevara (2 comments) by Alex Foster, from 2008
  4. Which Lib Dem MP would you want to be the next Dr Who? (18 comments) by Stephen Tall, from 2008
  5. Opinion: What should the new leader do in his first 100 days? #6 (8 comments) by Simon Titley, from 2007

5 top reader search returns to get to LDV

(excluding Liberal Democrat Voice or its variants)

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Alex Feakes

Opinion: for the want of a nail

By Alex Feakes | Fri 24th December 2010 - 11:42 am

Joining the traditional Nativity story of revelation followed by deliverance, this festive season we have been able to enjoy even more revealed truths about our world courtesy of Wikileaks, the Daily Telegraph and more or less any senior Army officer near a microphone.

Although there are moral and technical differences between these sources of information, they have each attempted to lift the veil to reveal the ‘truth’ behind the public face of diplomacy, coalition governance and military strategy. But have we liberals been consistent in our responses to these revelations?

With the diplomatic cables released through Wikileaks, there’s been a strong …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 5 Comments
Mark Pack

The Liberal Democrat challenges for 2011: using members and supporters as a campaigning resource

By Mark Pack | Fri 24th December 2010 - 10:25 am

Over the festive season we’re running a series of posts on the main Liberal Democrat challenges for 2011. You can find all the posts as they appear here.

Looking back through the emails I have received from the party centrally since the formation of the coalition, very few have asked me to do anything. Some have asked for money, requested I come to conference or suggested I go and help in elections – but even those, whilst being good stuff, have been drawn from a very narrow conception of what members and supporters can do. When it comes to policy areas, campaigning …

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Posted in Online politics and Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 4 Comments
Chris White

Chris White writes: a chance meeting

By Chris White | Thu 23rd December 2010 - 2:39 pm

I bumped into a young council official yesterday. I was wearing an ID tag so she could see who I was and knew that I was a Liberal Democrat.

It turned out that she had voted Lib Dem in the General Election and had in fact joined the Party under Charles Kennedy because of our clear and unbending stance on the Iraq War. She had recently resigned over tuition fees (quite a rare event but still disappointing). One of the benefits of leaving was that she no longer receives the centrally produced emails to party members justifying (for instance) the position …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 48 Comments
Antony Hook

Opinion: dark Tory reasons surround Clegg for Commission idea

By Antony Hook | Thu 23rd December 2010 - 12:53 pm

The Sunday Times(£) has played echo for anonymous “Downing Street sources” briefing that “if it looks like he will lose his Sheffield Hallam seat, there will be an emergency exit strategy which could see him land one the big jobs in Brussels” namely becoming a Member of the Commission.

The “Downing Street source” behind this must not have Nick Clegg’s or the Liberal Democrats’ interests at heart. It feeds the narrative of “Nick Clegg under siege” of which “Nick Clegg may lose his seat” is the hyperbolic epitome.

Nick Clegg would be extremely well qualified for the Commission, although …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 24 Comments
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