Stephen Tall

The ConHome stock-take of Conservative and Liberal Democrat compromises

By Stephen Tall | Fri 5th November 2010 - 10:18 am

ConservativeHome’s Tim Montgomerie has today published a run-down of what he sees as the key compromises and trade-offs on new policies that have been made within government by David Cameron and Nick Clegg since the Coalition Agreement was signed.

The graphic below sums up Tim’s view of the overall effect — that the Tories are being dragged to the liberal-centre as a result of pressure from the Liberal Democrats:

Tim lists 10 separate post-Agreement compromises settled, in his view, in the Lib Dems’ favour and which few Tories will like, including:

Continue reading »
Posted in News | 38 Comments
Advert
Mark Pack

How the legacy of hereditary political power still shapes our political systems

By Mark Pack | Fri 5th November 2010 - 8:55 am

The Australian Parliament building in Canberra is a gem of democratic political architecture. Australia’s capital city was facing the need to expand and replace its existing Parliament building. But where to put the new one? The old one had deliberately been placed at the foot of the hill in Canberra, so that politicians would not be looking down on the public. Now the only suitable free space left was on top of that hill. The solution was clever: chop the top off the hill, build the new Parliament and then stick the top of the hill back on top of …

Continue reading »
Posted in Books, Op-eds and Parliament | Tagged , and | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

Praise for Chris Huhne from The Ecologist

By Mark Pack | Thu 4th November 2010 - 10:31 pm

Kicking off a new series in The Ecologist, earlier today the magazine wrote:

Redoubtable Huhne

But actually, from a purely environmental perspective, it’s hard to stay too depressed because (whisper it) there are some signs that this government may really be serious about its green agenda. The simple presence of the redoubtable Chris Huhne at DECC is cheering for a start: this is a serious and intelligent politician who is showing encouraging signs of knowing how to maneuvre and fight to get what his department wants. DECC didn’t do nearly as badly in the cuts as some had expected; he preserved the

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged and | 6 Comments
Helen Duffett

Nick Clegg’s speech on European growth

By Helen Duffett | Thu 4th November 2010 - 6:53 pm

This morning Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg gave a speech at the Government Leaders’ Forum Europe 2010 in London.

He called for a united response to “a financial crisis that has changed the world” and proposed “four levers for durable, lasting prosperity”:

Openness in trade; more flexible labour markets; greater investment in infrastructure; and a workforce equipped to thrive in the green, digital economy of the future.

Towards the end, he touched on UK university tuition fees and outlined the proposed reforms:

The UK is already blessed with a world-class university sector. But we need to secure it for the future…

Read on:

Continue reading »
Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged , , and | 6 Comments

The Independent View: the Liberal Democrats can deliver civil liberties

By Tim Gee | Thu 4th November 2010 - 4:25 pm

One of the lasting legacies of the Liberal Democrats in power will be the efforts to push through what has been named the ‘Freedom (Great Repeal) Bill’.

A somewhat younger looking Nick Clegg made this the subject of his party conference speech back in 2006 when he was shadow home secretary.

Returning to conference as Deputy Prime Minister in 2010, Clegg triumphantly declared that “In November, we will publish a Freedom Bill to roll back a generation of illiberal and intrusive legislation.”

The Liberal Democrat draft addresses some of the most obvious anti-campaigning laws. For example it proposes …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged and | 4 Comments
Advert
Mark Hanson

The Independent View: an awesome opportunity – can we take it?

By Mark Hanson | Thu 4th November 2010 - 1:18 pm

Two awesome opportunities for a crushing blow to the dictatorial and oppressive policies set in place by the previous Labour government are approaching. The question remains, however, whether our present Conservative-led Government will rise to the challenge, and this makes the historic influence of the Liberal Democrats vital in the next few months.

The two opportunities are thus: the completion of the review into counter-terrorism measures; and the publication of the Freedom Bill, an important Liberal Democrat gain in the Coalition Agreement.

The Freedom Bill is due to be published in draft form any day now, and it is, as yet, …

Continue reading »
Posted in The Independent View | 10 Comments
Mark Pack

Not so much an immigration cap as an immigration colander

By Mark Pack | Thu 4th November 2010 - 12:55 pm

Immigration was one of the issues on which Nick Clegg and David Cameron repeatedly clashed during the general election, so it is no surprise that it has continued to be a source of tension in the coalition. More surprisingly, the fault line in the coalition has not been a simple Lib Dem versus Conservative because many Conservatives are persuaded by the pleas from universities (that they need high fee paying foreign students else the funding higher education would be an even bigger political problem) and from business (that many firms in the UK cannot get the right skilled staff except through immigration).

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , and | 12 Comments
Stephen Tall

Vince orders Ofcom investigation of News Corp’s bid for BSkyB

By Stephen Tall | Thu 4th November 2010 - 11:58 am

The last few months has seen a curious coalition emerge, uniting media foes of right and left and non-aligned, ranging from the Daily Mail to the Guardian, Trinity Mirror to the Telegraph, the BBC and Channel 4. What has brought them together? Opposition to the bid by News Corporation, controlled by Rupert Murdoch, for full control of BSkyB (the company currently owns a minority 38% stake).

Well, today Vince Cable offered them some cheer — he has referred News Corp’s bid to the media regulator, Ofcom. The BBC reports:

The Business Secretary, Vince Cable, has ordered Ofcom to investigate News

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , , , , , and | 3 Comments
Geoff Crocker

Opinion: Martians report humans are mad (particularly Brits) – they are cutting their own economy

By Geoff Crocker | Thu 4th November 2010 - 10:55 am

Some time ago a TV ad reported the bemusement amongst Martians at human behaviour with mashed potato. They fell over themselves laughing at how we humans grow potatoes in the ground, collect them, peel them, boil them in water, cut them up and then smash them to pieces before eating them. Very bizarre behaviour! Martians began to worry whether humans were sane or not.

Now the Martian press is equally dumbfounded at reports coming from planet Earth that humans are cutting their own production economies because they say they don’t have enough money.

Martians always thought that humans made this …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , and | 23 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Julian Glover – Ten tips for the Liberal Democrats

By NewsHound | Thu 4th November 2010 - 10:15 am

The Guardian’s Julian Glover is one of the very few commentators to emerge as a True Believer in the Coalition, and a champion of the Lib Dems’ role within it… much to the undisguised fury of regular inhabitants of the paper’s Comment is Free website. He’s popped up again to offer the party 10 tips to prove the Coalition-sceptics wrong, preserve our identity, and try to establish a distinctive message. It’s well worth reading in full, but here’s three…

1) Don’t panic. There is no crisis. Don’t believe people who tell you that there is. The polls are poor, not catastrophic

…

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Tagged | 67 Comments
Mark Pack

Wanted: a hyperactive online MP

By Mark Pack | Thu 4th November 2010 - 8:55 am

Last week I talked about the role reversal facing the Liberal Democrats, with the party’s traditional stronger record at political tactics than strategy having been flipped around. In that, and the subsequent post Part 2 of the Nick Clegg reshuffle, I highlighted some tactical communication needs the party must get better at. Given my own habit of pointing out that people should not just criticise but should also offer solutions, here are my own suggestions.

Middle-ranking ministers need to communicate more

The large majority of Liberal Democrat ministers are not in the Cabinet. However, the departmental communication structures are set-up to …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV doesn’t do statporn, but if we did (October ’10)

By Stephen Tall | Thu 4th November 2010 - 7:30 am

… We’d say a big thank you to the 62,745 ‘absolute unique visitors’* who read Liberal Democrat Voice in October.

That’s a notch up on our September figure of c.61,000, and double the equivalent figure for October ’09 of c.30,000.

This brings our absolute unique visitor readership for the last year to date (1 Nov 2009 – 31 Oct 2010) to 651,902, getting on for double the equivalent figure for 2008-09 of 353,311.

The 5 top-read stories during the month were:

  1. Nick Clegg writes to Lib Dem MPs over tuition fees (180) by The Voice
  2. Vince Cable’s statement on tuition fees

…

Continue reading »
Posted in Site news | Tagged | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

Updates on earlier stories: Kitcat and Davidson cleared

By Mark Pack | Wed 3rd November 2010 - 11:25 pm

Excellent news about Brighton Green Party councillor Jason Kitcat, who has been cleared of standards charges for posting footage of a council meeting on YouTube (story covered previously by us here and here).

Meanwhile in Scotland, charges against Labour councillor Gilbert Davidson for inappropriate behaviour towards a female colleague (which we briefly covered here) have been dropped.

Posted in News | Tagged and | Leave a comment
Jo Swinson MP

Jo Swinson MP writes on tuition fees

By Jo Swinson MP | Wed 3rd November 2010 - 6:49 pm

Today the Government has outlined its response to the Browne review, and the future of higher education funding. This is arguably the most challenging issue for Liberal Democrats in the coalition so far.

Our party has long prided itself on its commitment to education as the great leveller; the best way to create social mobility and equality of opportunity in society. The flagship “penny on income tax for education” was one of the reasons I joined the party in 1997. My first conference speech was in a debate about student funding, as we passed our policy …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | 140 Comments
The Voice

Vince Cable: this is a fair deal for students

By The Voice | Wed 3rd November 2010 - 6:00 pm

Vince Cable, Lib Dem secretary of state for business, innovation and skills, has sent the following email to Lib Dem members following today’s announcement of the Coalition’s proposals for higher education funding in England:

The Liberal Democrats have always championed our universities. We have long fought for a fair deal for students.

Now in Government we are in a position to turn that campaigning into real action.

The higher education package I am announcing today will promote high-quality university teaching and research. It will guarantee fair access for all, regardless of background. It will deliver a progressive, sustainable funding structure.

The key points are

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 36 Comments
Paul Evans

The Independent View: Political Innovation events in Edinburgh and Belfast

By Paul Evans | Wed 3rd November 2010 - 4:58 pm

Mark has invited me to write (yet another!) guest-post on Lib-Dem Voice about the Political Innovation project. Specifically, this one is to promote the events that we’re doing in Edinburgh and Belfast over the next few weeks – details can be found here.

The agenda? Well, these are ‘unconference’ events – largely bereft of big-name speakers or tied-down timetables. It’s a good deal more democratic than that, and anyone who hasn’t been to one of these type of conferences is particularly welcome. It’s a very democratic way of organising a day, and one that, ironically, works very well in …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Leave a comment
Alex Marsh

Opinion: Spinning the death of affordable housing

By Alex Marsh | Wed 3rd November 2010 - 4:03 pm

At the heart of politics lie battles over meaning. In an uncertain world there is plenty of scope to contest the definition of problems and the perceived effectiveness of solutions. Under Labour we came to think of agenda management as “spin”, and to condemn it. But the Blairites were simply the most egregious and effective exponents of the political arts. All politicians face decisions about the message and how one would ideally like it interpreted.

This seems particularly pertinent in relation to current discussions about affordable housing. We’re seeing the government providing some creative readings of what is on offer.

One component …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 27 Comments
Paul Walter

PMQs: Barry White asks the questions

By Paul Walter | Wed 3rd November 2010 - 3:02 pm

Ed Miliband had an unusually deep voice at Prime Minister’s Questions today. I don’t know whether he had a cold, or perhaps he’d been gargling with liquid chocolate on the advice of his spin doctors. But it sounded as though he could do a passable Barry White voiceover. He started in a very subdued way about “Friends of Yemen” and I was expecting the Speaker to turn down the lights and play “I’m Gonna Love You Just A Little More” in the background.

Ed Miliband’s main point was about a breakage of trust based on tuition fees. He talked about anger in “Sheffield, Twickenham and Eastleigh” over the betrayal of solemn promises made to vote against increases in tuition fees. A good point – which is difficult, if not impossible, to answer.

Continue reading »
Posted in PMQs | 5 Comments
Richard Morris

Opinion: Why we should be trying to win the London Mayor contest

By Richard Morris | Wed 3rd November 2010 - 1:55 pm

Earlier this month, LDV published a piece of mine suggesting Vince Cable would make an excellent candidate for London Mayor, which I wrote because I happen to think that he can win.

Some people agreed with my supposition, others for various reasons disagreed. It was the third set of responses that surprised me. That it was the very fact that Vince could win that made him a poor choice – because the allegedly approved strategy in London was to find a candidate ‘who understands that their role is not to try and win the mayoral election but to help our …

Continue reading »
Posted in London and Op-eds | Tagged | 9 Comments
Stephen Tall

Will the tuition fees concessions be enough to win over Lib Dem MPs?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 3rd November 2010 - 12:25 pm

It’s three weeks since Vince Cable announced in the House of Commons that he, on behalf of the Coalition Government, supported the broad thrust of The Browne Report’s recommendations — in particular, that tuition fees in England should be increased.

This Lib Dem policy U-turn sparked the biggest outcry among party members of the Coalition to date, with many members regarding opposition to tuition fees as fundamental to a belief in free education and to the party’s broader identity. (See the comments threads here, here and here, for example.)

Lib Dem Voice’s survey of party members …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , , and | 28 Comments
Chris White

Chris White writes: FPC, tuition fees and party policy – the inside story

By Chris White | Wed 3rd November 2010 - 11:15 am

No. I don’t like Vince Cable’s announcement today on higher education either.

Nevertheless, Party Policy is clear: we want fees to go. This means that we don’t need to spend a six figure sum on a special conference just to repeat ourselves. Or to say we’re cross with Vince. Nor is there any need of a grand public statement in the Guardian letters page. Or a row at Federal Policy Committee.

FPC is still asking itself what it is for. On the one hand, it must get on with developing new Party policy – but with sharply limited resources. On the …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , and | 7 Comments
Mark Pack

Market Research Society rules that it is ethical to poll about false personal allegations

By Mark Pack | Wed 3rd November 2010 - 8:55 am

The Market Research Standards Board (MRSB) has cleared YouGov of all the complaints made about its polling of 16-19 April during the general election – but in so doing has raised a big question about what now counts as ‘ethical’ polling. The MRSB’s ruling gives the green light to pollsters asking questions on behalf of their clients which contain false allegations about a person, even if those allegations have not previously been made in public.

The Market Research Society Code of Conduct (to which YouGov subscribes, along with other British political pollsters), states that “researchers shall be … honest” and …

Continue reading »
Posted in News and Polls | Tagged , , , , , and | 6 Comments
Paul Elgood

LDVUSA: The mid-term view from Boston

By Paul Elgood | Wed 3rd November 2010 - 7:50 am

Paul Elgood is a Lib Dem councillor in Brighton & Hove, but has been out in Boston, in the USA, watching closely observing the mid-term elections. Here’s his early morning dispatch…

Four years ago, Boston politics looked very different. Teddy Kennedy had just won what was to be his last campaign, Congressman Barney Frank romped re-election to make it 26 years in Congress, and new Governor Deval Patrick, backed by a then little-known Senator called Barack Obama won the State House, following on from Republican Mitt Romney.

Obama’s historic election followed just two years later, but so too did the …

Continue reading »
Posted in LDVUSA | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #193

By Stephen Tall | Tue 2nd November 2010 - 7:27 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 193rd 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 (24th — 30th October, 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:

Continue reading »
Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment
Susan Gaszczak

Tuition Fees – East of England Conference response

By Susan Gaszczak | Tue 2nd November 2010 - 3:45 pm

This weekend I had the pleasure of chairing a debate for the East of England Conference. Before the day began I had trepidation about the emergency motions.

Normally emergency motions are unusual, if not rare. However this year we faced a choice of Community Hospitals versus Tuition Fees, both controversial, both worthy of debate.

In my heart of hearts I really wanted Tuition Fees to be debated and I knew I had to remain neutral as chair of the session. Although my stance on tuition fees has never been hidden, I have as a parliamentary candidate signed the pledge, I …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , and | 16 Comments
Iain Roberts

Is yours a party of principles or scoundrels?

By Iain Roberts | Tue 2nd November 2010 - 2:56 pm

Party A is in politics to gain power so they can put their policies and principles into action.  Without power, what they can achieve is limited so they – sensibly – are willing to compromise and indulge in some give-and-take.

Some policies are dropped or changed because to not do so would see less of the programme getting through over all.   Deals have to be done, compromises made, unexpected situations dealt with – this is the real world, after all.

The party pushes through some policies it doesn’t really believe are in the the best interests of the country – because they’re …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | 40 Comments
Mark Pack

Newspaper readership habits of Liberal Democrat voters

By Mark Pack | Tue 2nd November 2010 - 1:28 pm

The following figures show (approximately – see notes below) the number of Liberal Democrat voters from May 2010 who read different newspaper titles:

The Sun: 796,000
Daily Mail: 576,000
Daily Mirror: 396,000
The Times: 340,000
The Guardian: 331,000
Daily Telegraph: 278,000
The Independent: 233,000
Daily Express: 190,000
Daily Star: 136,000

These figures have been calculated from the data provided in The British General Election of 2010 and are based on survey data for newspaper readership, party support and turnout. The newspaper readership figures include people from age of 15 and also adults who are not eligible to vote. Therefore all the figures for individual titles are a little on the …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged | 15 Comments
Dawn Barnes

The Future of Lib Dem Thinking

By Dawn Barnes | Tue 2nd November 2010 - 12:32 pm

I managed to get myself on the list for the Institute for Government’s (IfG) debate on the Future of Lib Dem Thinking and attended the discussion in the beautiful John Nash building that adjoins the official London residence of the Foreign Secretary.

So what is the future for us? The line up saw Lord Clement-Jones, Julian Astle of Centre Forum, Timothy Cox of Liberal Vision and Neil Sherlock, who has advised both Paddy Ashdown and Nick Clegg, discuss the coalition and where next.

Lord Clement-Jones kicked off with the admission that the coalition is hard to swallow and that we need …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | 11 Comments
Mark Pack

Kramer versus Farron: what sort of President does the party want?

By Mark Pack | Tue 2nd November 2010 - 7:27 am

Party members are unusually lucky with the current contest for President of the Liberal Democrats. It is rare for there to be two credible, high-profile candidates standing at the same time but this time there is a real choice between two such people.

Some differences between Susan Kramer and Tim Farron were obvious from the start of the campaign and are swaying some voters, depending on their views on matters such as how important (or not) it is for one of the party’s most prominent posts to be held by a woman, whether an MP has enough time to do the job, whether a current MP from outside London or an ex-MP from London is more outside the Westminster bubble and so on.

However, two further differences between the candidates have come out clearly during the campaign.

Continue reading »
Posted in Party Presidency | Tagged , and | 18 Comments
Mark Pack

Susan Kramer answers 10 questions about her campaign for Party President

By Mark Pack | Tue 2nd November 2010 - 7:26 am

Susan Kramer and Tim Farron were both asked the same ten questions about their bid to be LibDem President and given the option to reply in whatever format and at whatever length they wished. Susan’s answers are below and you can find Tim’s answers here. My own commentary on the answers and race more generally is here.

Continue reading »
Posted in Party Presidency | Tagged | 3 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Peter Davies
    Housing is unlikely to be an election winner. Parties for decades have put forward targets for masses of new houses and schemes for bringing existing houses int...
  • Nick Baird
    @Jana - so your argument is that the UK shouldn't take *any* refugees, and the burden should fall entirely on countries that happen to neighbour those suffering...
  • Peter Wrigley
    Surely our defining issue must be the the preservation, improvement and extension of Liberal Democracy in this country and beyond. By all means support it with...
  • Chris Cory
    Community politics should not be a technique for winning elections. It should be about the redistribution of power to local people. It is not about all the thi...
  • Jana
    Burnham plans a National Care Service for England and electoral reform for the UK. So what makes us distinctive for General Election 2029?...