Fred Carver

Opinion: Condorcet 101, or We Can Do Better Than AV

By Fred Carver | Fri 29th October 2010 - 10:42 am

Attentive readers may have noticed I am not a fan of the alternative vote. I don’t think it is proportional – because it isn’t. However, it is not a bad system for selecting a candidate for a single vacancy. On this basis the Lib Dems use it extensively for internal elections when there is only one vacancy. However it is, to my mind, not the fairest such system.

No single vacancy system can be proportional. That is why the Lib Dems rightly push for Single Transferable Vote in every election they can. However, there will always be single vacancy elections: for …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 34 Comments
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NewsHound

LibLink: Reel in the non-doms – Matthew Oakeshott

By NewsHound | Fri 29th October 2010 - 9:27 am

Writing for the Guardian earlier this week Liberal Democrat peer Matthew Oakeshott said,

It’s time to put a time limit on non-dom status, the widest tax loophole of them all. Did you know you can inherit non-dom status? Just like a hereditary peerage, it passes down the male line. You are born a non-dom and stay one – unless you disclaim it. Hereditary peers and hereditary non-doms must both go…

Cheating tax is a deep-seated, pervasive, pernicious disease that infects our body politic. Tax cheats are the Bad Society, not the “big society”. Of course it has always gone on and it’s

…

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Posted in LibLink | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

Dear John Gray…

By Mark Pack | Thu 28th October 2010 - 9:26 pm

Dear John Gray,

You have me  baffled, I’ll confess.

Writing recently in the London Review of Books you talked about how in your view Vince Cable and others in the Orange Book a vision of a “small government”.

I’m confused because it’s true that Vince Cable’s chapter does call for a cap on the maximum that the state can raise in taxation. However, that maximum was set higher than the Labour government was taking in at the time in 2004, several years after they had ‘turned on the taps’ on public expenditure and left previous Conservative Party spending targets well behind.

Blair and …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 24 Comments
Helen Duffett

Tom Brake writes to David Cameron on control orders‏

By Helen Duffett | Thu 28th October 2010 - 5:25 pm

Tom Brake MP wrote to the Prime Minister yesterday, to push for the scrapping of Control Orders, and for a reduction in the pre-charge detention period. The letter is co-signed by the other Liberal Democrat Co-Chairs of the Home Affairs, Justice and Equalities Parliamentary Party Committee: Baroness Sally Hamwee and Lord Martin Thomas.

The full text of the letter is as follows:

We believe we represent the broad view of the Liberal Democrat membership, both from past policy statements agreed at Conference and set out in the Lib Dem Manifesto, and from current soundings within the Party.

We have been delighted by the

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , and | 3 Comments
Ryan Cullen

Welcome to the new bloggers…

By Ryan Cullen | Thu 28th October 2010 - 4:18 pm

Eight blogs have recently joined my Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

Good luck to all the new bloggers, and why not take a moment to pop over to their blogs, take a read and post a comment?

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Jonathan Featonby

Opinion: Bob Russell’s advice over housing benefit should be heeded by the coalition

By Jonathan Featonby | Thu 28th October 2010 - 10:55 am

During yesterday’s PMQs, the most vocal Lib Dem rebel MP today made an exceptionally well-stated and compassionate plea for the coalition government to rethink their plans to cut housing benefit.

Bob Russell, who stood to cries of “hear, hear” from those on the benches opposite when John Bercow called his name, voiced his concerns that as a result of the changes, thousands of children could possibly become homeless.

It is certainly a consideration that has to be taken seriously by David Cameron, Nick Clegg and their cabinet colleagues.

They may well respond – as the Prime Minister did this afternoon – by saying …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 103 Comments
Mark Pack

Part 2 of the Nick Clegg reshuffle

By Mark Pack | Thu 28th October 2010 - 8:55 am

Over the summer Nick Clegg shuffled round his special advisers having had the benefit of several months experience seeing how government works from the inside. Now it’s the civil service side of his team which is being adapted:

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader and deputy prime minister, has moved to boost his firepower inside Whitehall by appointing Chris Wormald, the head of the economic and domestic affairs secretariat in the Cabinet Office, as the head of his office.

He is also considering expanding the deputy prime minister’s office by appointing what would, in effect, become his mini-policy unit inside the Cabinet

…

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 9 Comments
Mark Pack

Is the Met’s secret joker now penning words for Boris Johnson?

By Mark Pack | Thu 28th October 2010 - 8:40 am

I only ask, because after the Met Police’s triumphant document that stated it would “Contribute to the step change in the walking experience”, we now have London Mayor Boris Johnson talking of “my role driving forward the Cycling Revolution”.

Posted in Humour and London | Tagged | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Changes coming to Scottish Parliament election rules

By Mark Pack | Wed 27th October 2010 - 7:15 pm

The Scottish Parliament (Elections etc.) Order 2010 has been tabled in Parliament this week bringing about changes in the law for the Scottish Parliament elections. As it is a Statutory Instrument (SI) it cannot be amended – either it gets Parliamentary approval or it is rejected outright. It is extremely rare for an SI to be rejected and there are no signs that this one will be in that class.

The main changes people can therefore expect for the next Scottish Parliament elections are:

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Posted in Election law and Scotland | Tagged | 3 Comments
Paul Walter

PMQs: Bob Russell teaches Ed Miliband how to do it

By Paul Walter | Wed 27th October 2010 - 6:02 pm

These days, Ed Miliband is getting a lot of advice on how to deal with Prime Minister’s Questions. A leaked memo advised him to “get to your feet looking as though you are seizing on something new”, and to ensure that he has a “cheer line” so his speech can be “clipped by the broadcasters”.

David Cameron, of course, reminded Ed Miliband of this advice today. But the best advice came in the form of an example of excellent questioning by Bob Russell, Liberal Democrat MP for Colchester.

In the last question today, Bob referred to the “fun and games” that …

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Posted in PMQs | Tagged , and | 69 Comments
Simon de Deney

Opinion: emotional cleansing or ‘oops, your metaphor’s slipped’

By Simon de Deney | Wed 27th October 2010 - 4:15 pm
Fluff over substance
I have a confession. While I have reservations about the current policy on social housing, that’s not what this piece is about. Andrew Stunell has written compellingly about our policy as has Dominic Curran.

All I’ll say is that successive Labour and Tory governments have failed abysmally over the last thirty years to invest in affordable housing. They’ve helped exacerbate social and community division, inflate housing price bubbles and distort the economy and our attitudes to wealth. Unwittingly or not, they are the architects of the ghetto. So

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 20 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Now Nick Clegg is leading the Tories by the nose

By NewsHound | Wed 27th October 2010 - 3:19 pm

Ann McElvoy, writing in the Evening Standard, adds an interesting perspective on Coalition life:

Look, for instance, at the policy writhing on tuition fees of the main party in power. On Monday, I chaired a meeting at the University of London on the future of higher education. David Willetts, the universities minister, ran the gauntlet of students shouting “F*** the fees” with the look of a man who knows that he is to this generation of uppity students what Keith Joseph was in my youth: permanent quarry.

Yet his message, through clenched teeth, was that fees would still be capped under

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged and | 10 Comments
Matt Gallagher

Opinion: Labour needs to be honest with its core supporters

By Matt Gallagher | Wed 27th October 2010 - 2:03 pm

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. This quote, usually attributed to Abraham Lincoln, goes to prove that some things in politics never change.

After thirteen years of spin, media manipulation and bare-faced lies (don’t believe the rumours folks, Gordon and Tony really do have a very good working relationship), one might be forgiven for thinking that there was no one left who believed a word the Labour party had to say on anything. Nevertheless, they …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 26 Comments
Mark Pack

Interception Modernisation Programme: no, it’s not coming back

By Mark Pack | Wed 27th October 2010 - 1:26 pm

There’s been quite a lot online and in some traditional media in the last few days about how the government is supposedly resurrecting Labour’s plans for online snooping (the cuddly sounding Interception Modernisation Programme). Zoe O’Connell has covered this story well on her blog so here are a couple of quotes followed by a link to her full stories:

I dropped a note to the Home Office contacts I had, such that they are, asking if what has been announced as part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review was in fact the Interception Modernisation Programme. For those who

…

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 8 Comments
Mark Pack

Yes, ministers can disagree and the world doesn’t end

By Mark Pack | Wed 27th October 2010 - 12:25 pm

Better late than never, it’s worth highlighting Peter Oborne’s thoughtful piece on the politics of coalition which came out last month:

Cameron and his Liberal Democrat partner Nick Clegg have fundamentally changed the nature of British public discourse. For years, mainstream politicians haven’t questioned the dominant orthodoxy that robust argument is incompatible with good government. In particular, this doctrine lay behind New Labour’s humourless apparatus of strong central control. Those who spoke out of turn or questioned official policy were threatened, punished and if necessary eliminated…

We are already starting to take this courteous and civilised method of doing business for granted.

…

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Oranjepan

Opinion: the IFS, the buts and the maybes – questions of fairness and the CSR

By Oranjepan | Wed 27th October 2010 - 10:25 am

Last week Nick Clegg and the Institute of Fiscal studies squared up over the issue of whether the cuts proposed in the Comprehensive Spending Review are fair.

It is a debate which strikes at the heart of Lib Dems in the coalition government and it will determine the shape of politics in this country for next decade.

For the first time ever the Treasury included an impact analysis of the announced changes within the CSR, the effect of pressure from Lib Dems. These were calculated according to the sections of society that will bear the burden of the changes (ie how …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 55 Comments
Mark Pack

Role reversal for the Liberal Democrats

By Mark Pack | Wed 27th October 2010 - 8:55 am

Hopi Sen has blogged thoughtfully several times recently about the risk to Labour of slipping into focusing on the tactics without getting the strategy right. In Labour’s case that means, for example, an undue focus on how to next best shout – “those cuts are awful!” rather than working out how to deal with the public mostly blaming Labour for the need to cut in the first place. Tactical triumphs at PMQs only gets you so far; rebuilding a reputation for economic competence is what is needed to win – as William Hague found in his time as Conservative …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 10 Comments
Mark Pack

I guess Nadine Dorries didn’t really notice the bill she repeatedly voted on

By Mark Pack | Wed 27th October 2010 - 8:50 am

On her blog the Conservative MP Nadine Dorries recently wrote,

For those who may not know – you become a ‘prospective candidate’ from the moment of selection until the legal election period begins which is when you transfer to being a candidate. You cannot be a candidate from selection because if you do call yourself such, the period of time you incurr election expenses kick in. Parliamentary candidates are Prospective Parliamentary Candidates, PPCs from selection until the election is called and then become Parliamentary Candidate from that time for the period of the short campaign. I imagine the same law applies to

…

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 6 Comments
Mark Pack

West Midlands to get an extra MEP

By Mark Pack | Tue 26th October 2010 - 8:50 pm

Back in July we reported how Britain was set to gain an extra Member of the European Parliament following the Lisbon Treaty. The Electoral Commission has now crunched the numbers using the same rules as previously to allocate MEPs to the different Euro-constituencies and it is West Midlands which comes out with an extra MEP.

Technically the government still has formally to accept the Electoral Commission’s recommendation, but in practice the Commission’s recommendation in this field is what will happen.

Posted in Election law and News | Tagged and | Leave a comment
Iain Roberts

Liblink: Liberal Vision grills Kramer and Farron

By Iain Roberts | Tue 26th October 2010 - 5:34 pm

Liberal Vision have published interviews conducted with each of the candidates for the Liberal Democrat presidency: Susan Kramer and Tim Farron.

Read the Farron interview here and the Kramer interview here.

As a taster:

Liberal Vision: In one sentence why should people who read our blog back your campaign?

Susan Kramer: Overwhelmingly it’s to be the voice for the grass roots of the party, creating that two-way connection between the grass roots and the leadership, and keeping us unified. We shouldn’t let other pull us apart

Tim Farron: Because they want the Liberal Democrats to win, and because

…

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Posted in LibLink and Party Presidency | Tagged and | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

An unusual approach to cleaning up politics

By Mark Pack | Tue 26th October 2010 - 3:57 pm

News from Nigeria:

Senior politicians and businessmen are among more than 100 people listed by Nigerian anti-fraud police as being unsuitable to run for political office…

The BBC’s Caroline Duffield, in Abuja, says fraud charges are no barrier to standing in elections, and some of those named are already campaigning.

But EFCC officials say that they believe those facing prosecution should not be endorsed as candidates.

The commission is appealing to political parties to select only “credible candidates” and not those on the list.

You can read the full story here.

Posted in News | Tagged | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

“Press conferences are private meetings”

By Mark Pack | Tue 26th October 2010 - 2:15 pm

Cornish Conservatives clearly do things differently as Lib Dem Cllr Alex Folkes has reported:

Cllr Robertson and Council Chief Executive Kevin Lavery held a press conference to announce the proposed budget. Lib Dem Group Leader Doris Ansari went along to hear what they had to say, only to be thrown out of the event because apparently:

“Press conferences are private meetings”

Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 4 Comments
Don Foster MP

Don Foster writes…the BBC licence fee settlement is a win for the Lib Dems

By Don Foster MP | Tue 26th October 2010 - 1:13 pm

The BBC is at the centre of a continuous storm of criticism over everything from pay to politics. Some of it is even contradictory – it sometimes seems like everyone on every side of every debate is convinced that the BBC is biased in favour of the other side. This is a symptom of the BBC’s situation, unique amongst broadcasters: because it is funded by everyone, it is in the unenviable position of having to please everyone.

It should not be immune to criticism. The detractors are correct in that the BBC isn’t perfect and doesn’t always get it right. But …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 24 Comments
Helen Duffett

Making short political videos: three top tips

By Helen Duffett | Tue 26th October 2010 - 12:18 pm

Candidates and councillors find videos a real complement to their other campaign methods and, done well, they can be a powerful way for voters to get to know issues and personalities. They’re especially useful in internal party elections where candidates may not be able to meet all of their large electorate in person. They’re also great for campaigners at a local level, where there’s usually a lack of good quality information on hyperlocal matters.

Recently I’ve noticed a surge of interest from people who are keen to try it themselves, so here are my top tips for making your own short political videos, and they all begin with “V”.

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Posted in Online politics | Tagged , and | 1 Comment
NewsHound

Liblink: Liberator interviews the presidential hopefuls

By NewsHound | Tue 26th October 2010 - 11:15 am

Liberator magazine has asked the two Lib Dem presidential contenders those tough questions – read their responses here.

A taster to whet your appetite:

Q5: How will you ensure that you gain regular and meaningful access to the party leader?

Farron: He won’t be able to get rid of me. Being an MP gives me direct access to the media to get our message across and it also gives me close access to Nick. I’ll be a critical friend to the coalition and a candid friend to Nick. As President, I would carry a mandate from the members to ensure that the

…

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Mark Pack

I agree with Adrian Sanders and 22 Conservative MPs

By Mark Pack | Tue 26th October 2010 - 10:27 am

Yesterday in Parliament Adrian Sanders and 22 Conservative MPs voted to reduce the maximum number of ministers allowed in the Commons in line with the forthcoming reduction in the number of MPs:

If the number of constituencies in the United Kingdom decreases below 650, the limit on the number of holders of Ministerial offices entitled to sit and vote in the House of Commons referred to in section 2(1) must be decreased by at least a proportionate amount.

ParliamentReducing the number of ministers is something I’ve supported …

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Posted in Op-eds and Parliament | Tagged , , , , , , , and | 10 Comments
NewsHound

Liblink: Simon Hughes is no rebel

By NewsHound | Tue 26th October 2010 - 9:49 am

Our very own Stephen Tall writes on The Guardian’s Comment is Free:

Simon is neither a stooge nor a destructive malcontent. Not only is he a loyal supporter of Nick Clegg personally – he was one of Nick’s key backers in the contest with Chris Huhne to be leader, and the two meet regularly – but he is a steadfast advocate of the coalition itself – in general, if not always in every particular. The last thing he is, or wants to be seen as, is the Lib Dems’ very own leader of the opposition. So why are his public

…

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Posted in LibLink | 34 Comments
Mark Pack

Is there a secret joker in the Met Police?

By Mark Pack | Tue 26th October 2010 - 8:55 am

Working through the bureaucratic-speak and acronyms in the police’s report to the Metropolitan Police Authority about the draft London Transport Community Safety Strategy I discovered that the police intend to, “Contribute to the step change in the walking experience”. I hope there was at least a smile on the face of the person who typed up that one…

Posted in London | Tagged | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

What Vince told the CBI

By Mark Pack | Mon 25th October 2010 - 8:51 pm

Earlier today Vince Cable gave a pugnacious speech, bashing bankers to use the tabloids’ favourite phrase, but doing so in the name of industry:

I can see Richard covering his eyes and groaning, alarmed that I may be about to embark on a round of “banker bashing”. What I can tell him is that businesses – including a lot of CBI members – keep telling me that I am not bashing them enough.

Of course, there is no point in engaging in a sterile public exchange of insults. But no one listening to the Chancellor’s statement last week will be under any

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 3 Comments
Helen Duffett

LibLink: David Laws – Why I’m proud of the pupil premium

By Helen Duffett | Mon 25th October 2010 - 6:35 pm

Over at the Guardian’s Comment is Free, David Laws writes of the importance of delivering the Pupil Premium – a key Liberal Democrat election pledge.

He corrects two misconceptions. First, that the pupil premium is not additional money:

This is nonsense. Without the pupil premium, I suspect that the budget for schools would have been based on a per pupil cash freeze for the period up to 2015. That would have meant a real cut in schools funding over the next few years. Instead, schools funding will rise by 0.1% (above inflation) each year until 2015.

The second misconception:

It would, however, be

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged and | 34 Comments
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