Congratulations to Annette Brooke, Liberal Democrat MP for Mid Dorset & North Poole, for winning MP of the Year in the Dods & Scottish Widows Women in Public Life Awards.
The accolade was awarded by a panel of judges which included Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty, Dame Suzi Leather, Chair of The Charity Commission and Dame Barbara Stocking, Chief Executive of Oxfam.
The judges said that Annette Brooke deserved to win thanks to her record of “tirelessly lending her wisdom, position and huge skill to help hundreds …
Here’s your starter for ten in our Saturday slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…
I was struck by this recent article by the Economist’s political columnist Bagehot, headlined When progressive actually means misanthropic, reflecting on the Lib Dem conference, and specifically the debate on free schools.
Highlighting that, while the party may have lacked power at Westminster, the Lib Dems have for decades now been a major player in local government, it observes that:
… local government occupies much of the mental space taken up by national politics in the Labour and Conservative parties. … more
… We’d say a big thank you to the 61,584 ‘absolute unique visitors’* who read Liberal Democrat Voice in September.
That’s almost 30% up on our August figure of c.48,000, and more than treble the equivalent figure for September ’09 of c.20,000.
This brings our absolute unique visitor readership for the last year to date (1 Oct 2009 – 30 Sept 2010) to 698,430, more than double the equivalent figure for 2008-09 of 344,608.
The 5 top-read stories during the month were:
I’ve been surprised how little trouble Europe has caused the coalition so far. For all that we were vilified as ardent Europhiles during the election, it’s not really been mentioned since. In allowing it to drop off the radar, I think we’re now missing an opportunity.
Labour were always too scared of mention the E-word; so paralysed by their terror of the Mail’s wrath were they. Cameron too seems content to let the issue lie. The Coalition agreement makes it clear in no uncertain terms that this government won’t go anywhere near changing our current relationship with the EU – both …
My native Ireland enjoyed a period of unprecedented economic growth in the late ‘90s and early nougties, and while many of the reasons are similar to the reasons Britain enjoyed periodic growth in the same period, one factor in the growth which was unique to Ireland were the use of Social Partnership agreements.
These agreements were principally negotiated between the private sector employers, the government in a dual role as both government and large employer, the unions and social groups and organisations.
Agreements such as these typically last about four years, and the benefit to the economy is that there is a …
Unusual political times indeed courtesy of the front page of today’s Times. For a long time a central part of Liberal Democrat welfare policy was to integrate and simplify the tax and benefits system. The policy faded away from the party’s priorities, partly because the details were never that straightforward; for example, how do you integrate a system based on weekly payments and assessments (benefits) with another one based on monthly and annual payments and assessments (tax, particularly income tax and PAYE)?
A large chunk of that policy is now very much back on the political agenda, as ConservativeHome reports:
A quick aggregation of the declared donations to the Ed Miliband for Leader campaign (so far – I’d expect some donations in the last stages of the campaign still to appear):
£133,000 from trade unions (43% of the total)
£80,951 from other large donors (i.e. over £1,500) (26%)
£95,000 from small donors (31%) £308,951 in total
What difference does it make having Lib Dems in power? How are Lib Dems actually making cuts “fairer”? One example is what we have done in Bristol, when we reviewed redundancy terms. The statutory redundancy payout is a week’s salary – up to a cap of £380 per week – per year worked. Bristol Council had a much more generous scheme: twice the weekly salary, with no cap.
This sounds great until you look at the effects of this a bit more closely: at the bottom of the officer pay-scale the Bristol scheme was about twice as generous as the statutory …
I write this having just got back from a very successful Lib Dem Conference in Liverpool. Everyone seemed to be in good heart, and keen to see what a Liberal Democrat government minister really looked like. Conference is a great occasion to talk and listen to activists directly, and so I really got stuck in. On more than one occasion I was “doing a Simon Hughes” and trying to attend multiple meetings at once! But, though we covered a diverse range of topics, there were two recurring themes – localism and the Big Society.
Localism shouldn’t need any explanation for Liberal …
Knowing what it takes to be a good candidate and then a good councillor is vital to winning elections – and to then making something out of the opportunity the voters have given you. So here are seven questions to ask yourself if you are thinking of standing in the local elections next May or in a council by-election.
What will you do different from a councillor of another party?
There are decent people who will be conscientious and work hard in (just about) every party. And even in the most rural of wards, there is more than one person who is local to the ward. So what …
We have previously reported on Conservative MP David Mundell’s admission that he exceeded the election expense limit in this year’s election. His expense return showed him within the limit but wrongly classified one bill. A correct return would have shown him over the limit.
The police have decided to investigate the matter and news has just emerged that he was questioned by them several days ago.
Mundell can apply for legal relief for making the mistake, though the police’s interest suggest this is not as simple a case as most relief cases are where a simple mistake is involved but …
Marie Claire (and where else would I go for my news) reports
Shocking 37% rape increase in London
As the article later explains, all may not quite be what it seems. The 37% increase is in reports of rapes in London over the last 12 months.
Is that terrible, or is it a good news story? From that statistic alone we just don’t know. It could be that there have been 37% more rapes in London over that time – that would be a shocking increase over any period, even more so in just one year.
Saying something highly uncomplimentary about your own party is one thing. Saying it, denying it and then having a recording surface of you saying it is rather different though. Step forward, Hazel Blears and her “wicked and malicious” comment:
So, Labour has a new leader, and as he enjoys his honeymoon the party is experiencing a surge in the polls. This is to be expected; indeed, it would be an odd thing if Labour slumped in popularity in the immediate aftermath of such an event. They experienced the same effect following the elections of Blair and Brown, and a fine thing it can be for energising the activists and uniting the party. It can also be an effective way of repackaging a failing brand. Changing the leader gives the impression that the past is now ancient history and the …
At our fringe event at last week’s Lib Dem party conference in Liverpool we were pleased to hear fulsome support for the work of charitable and voluntary organisations, and encouragement for them to get more involved in public life and in public service delivery.
And both Sarah Teather and Simon Hughes emphasised something very important in their remarks – David Cameron may have coined the phrase ‘Big Society’ but it’s a concept that chimes with beliefs about responsibility and community held by all parties.
Simon Hughes reminded us the UK had a long history of charitable organisations …
The Tower Hamlets Mayoral election campaign continues to do its best to beat political fiction for implausible twists, witness the appearance and then disappearance of a disgraced ex-Assistant Chief Executive in Lutfur Rahman’s election film as recounted on Harry’s Place.
The Liberal Democrat candidate is John Griffiths, who you can find on Facebook and Twitter for the latest news and how to help his campaign.
By Ramis Cizer
| Thu 30th September 2010 - 12:23 pm
I not a massive fan of the term “Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME)” and in an ideal political world it probably wouldn’t exist. But we don’t live in an ideal world and the term is required to designate certain segments of population in order to address inequalities – an uncontroversial statement in my opinion – so why does it cause such heated discussion? Too complex to answer here so I will leave it to someone else but I have some ideas on why the Diversity Motion caused a stir at the Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference.
By Helen Duffett
| Thu 30th September 2010 - 11:46 am
The question for the proposed referendum on the UK Parliamentary voting system should be made shorter and easier to understand, according to an assessment published by the Electoral Commission.
As I blogged back in July when when the original question was proposed,
The Electoral Commission is statutorily required to consider the intelligibility of the question, before reporting back to Parliament, who will consider the comments and have the final say after Recess.
Today’s report examines the question:
Do you want the United Kingdom to adopt the ‘alternative vote’ system instead of the current ‘first past the post’ system for electing Members of Parliament to the House of Commons?
The Commission undertook research to find out whether people could easily understand the question, and concluded:
It has been a regular finding of both MORI and YouGov research that the public’s trust in members of different professions has been steadily declining for many years. However, the latest survey from YouGov suggests this decline has stopped, with several professions – including politicians – seeing a recent recovery in their standings.
In 2003 on average 49% of people said they trusted different professions on average to tell the truth a great deal or a fair amount. This fell to 42% in 2006 and 37% in 2007 but was 39% this August. The two point rise is not statistically significant …
By Stephen Tall
| Thu 30th September 2010 - 9:55 am
Julian Huppert, newly elected Lib Dem MP for Cambridge, has made something of a splash in his first months in Parliament, taking up a number of liberal causes, such as the need for more evidence-based and scientific rigour in government decision-making. The Digital Economy Act is one such cause.
TechEYE.net reports:
Julian Huppert said it was wrong to rush the controversial Act through Parliament before the last election and that the proposed measures warrant more discussion. … The new MP for Cambridge said: “Most of the Act is fine, I just don’t agree with every bit of it – and with
By Simon McGrath
| Thu 30th September 2010 - 9:20 am
Leaving aside the actual results there are many points of interest in the detail of the Labour leadership election. Here are 10 things you may not have seen…
Even her own members don’t want Diane Abbott to be leader
She has the eighth biggest party (850) but only 21% of them voted for her as Leader.
The big parties are all in London
Of the 11 CLPs with more than 800 members 10 are in London, the exception being Luton.
Union members really weren’t that interested
The union turnout was astonishingly low –overall only 8.75%. For some unions it was lower – out …
One of the (many) disappointing moments from the general election was the defeat of Willie Rennie, the Lib Dem by-election victor in the famous 2006 Dunfermline contest. He was subsequently appointed a government special advisor in the Scottish Office.
Well now he’s back in the saddle of elected politics again. Here’s how the Dunfermline Press reports it:
Local members put Mr Rennie in prime position to win one of seven places as a list MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, which covers all of Fife and parts of Clackmannanshire, Perthshire and Stirling.
He secured first place ahead of Fife councillor Tim
We’ve often covered the issue of press standards on Lib Dem Voice, including posts such as those from myself calling for the Press Complaints Commission to be reformed – which was also the subject of a speech I gave at party conference. So it is only fair to give credit where some is due – as it is in the case of the PCC ruling against the Daily Star:
The Press Complaints Commission has upheld a complaint against the Daily Star about an article titled “Muslim-only public loos”, ruling that it was inaccurate and
“The most objective way of assessing the coalition at this early stage is the coalition agreement. An analysis of this text and the roots behind each policy would give the best description of how this government is formed.
Happily the Guardian have done exactly this analysis and provided it as a spreadsheet.
So what are we as Lib Dems going to say on the doorsteps to voters during the next General Election campaign to justify ourselves in reply to the ‘I voted Lib Dem to keep the Tories out’ challenge? I can imagine it will be a common enough question, especially in close Lib Dem/Conservative constituencies where we appealed to Labour voters to ‘lend us their vote’.
To me the answer seems quite simple. We reply to the voters “We asked you to vote Lib Dem to help keep the Tories out, and it worked. Thank you and well done.”
We don’t have a Tory government; we have a Coalition government – a very different thing. In voting for us in such large numbers, our supporters achieved their aim of preventing a Conservative majority. So that means no £1 million Inheritance Tax threshold, no fiddling with the tax system to promote marriage, no brushing the expenses scandal under the carpet. It means instead raising the level people start to pay income tax, having Lib Dems in the Treasury to help ensure fairness in the upcoming cuts, and the cleaning up of our political system. As a party, we must make it clear just how different things would have been if there had been a Tory majority, and the hugely important part our supporters played in preventing that.
But what then when Mr or Ms Hypothetical voter on the doorstep accuses us of jumping into bed with the Tories?
‘Red Ed’? Congratulations! To all the newspapers that preferred easy rhyme over rigorous analysis. Because anyone who watched or read Milliband Minor’s Conference speech can see where he is aiming to position Labour: “This new generation that leads our party… will fight for the centre ground…”. And it’s this aim that shows why we must disagree with Nick.
At conference Nick Clegg quite rightly rejected creating “some synthetic differences” that would trade short term headline wins for long term damage to the Coalition. But that ‘synthetic’ misses the point. When the two other parties are leaping into the centre ground, playing …
In your speech today you warn against “the destruction of a 200-year-old constitution” and give this as a reason to oppose AV.
But aside from our voting system, there is another part of that 200 year old constitution that is also currently up for change before Parliament.
200 years ago the size of Parliamentary constituencies varied hugely. Much more than 5% or 10% and not simply on islands or in the Highlands. Massive variations were built into the system, specially to protect particular vested interests.
So if you are wanting to protect our 200 year old constitution, I …
One of the fringe meetings I spoke at during the Liverpool conference was ResPublica’s on the topic of “Growing a civil economy through a civil society”. Accompanying ResPublica’s fringe program is a pamphlet with pieces accompanying the talks we all gave and here is my piece from it.
Both a successful market economy and a healthy democracy require individuals from all walks of life to feel they have the power to change the future. The belief that you can make a success of your own business, that your firm can innovate and that existing suppliers are not locked in to permanent dominance creates the vibrancy which generates wealth in a market economy. The optimism that your voice can count and your actions can alter your community gives live to a democracy, making it more than a token intermittent meeting of pencil and paper in the polling booth.
Our economy and our democracy therefore present us with a common challenge – to tackle that lack of confidence in your own ability to alter the future which suffocates far too many communities and far too many parts of society. Removing that malaise requires a mix of many policies, only a few of which I highlight in this piece.
One of the most important is improving education in people’s early years. Those formative early years leave intellectual and psychological marks that can be very hard to shift in later years. It is a tough question for government, because so much of the evidence shows that what matters above all is the commitment of parents to their children. That is a deeply private and personal affair which the state can only touch the edges of. Nick Clegg’s commitment to the Pupil Premium to channel extra funds to help educate the most disadvantaged children is one example of the exceptions to that where the government can take effective action.
A second strand is the sort of political reform the coalition government is embarked on, devolving power from Westminster to local councils, to the Scottish Executive and offering a referendum in Wales. Going too is the worst sort of insular political elitism –one of the two houses of Parliament still completely locking out the public from electing its members. It shows a fantastic contempt by for the public that when MPs are booted out at a general election, how does the political establishment react? By giving a good number of those defeated MPs a seat for life in Parliament courtesy of the Lords.
A third strand is – or should be – tackling the elitist insularity in the commercial sector. Whether it is the deeply lopsided rules that give the favoured company directors a huge head-start in elections or the widespread use of “commercial confidentiality” clauses to keep scrutiny at bay, what would cause outrage if tried by a politician is far too often par for the course by those who like to look down on politicians.
Tying the different strands together needs to be a stronger sense of how people can successfully work together, because so often the collective voice has the strength and skill to succeed where lone individuals are thwarted. Whether it is the Community Politics of the Liberal Democrats or the Big Society of the Conservatives, success will come not from seeing voluntary collective action as an excuse for cost cutting but as a means to a vibrant and successful country.
By Stephen Tall
| Wed 29th September 2010 - 10:38 am
Let’s leave to one side, at least for the purposes of this post, David Miliband’s record as foreign secretary in the last Labour government. It would take a heart of stone not to feel sympathy for him over the events of the last week.
To lose the Labour leadership for which he fought long and hard is a tough thing. To lose it by a wafer-thin majority having won over, pretty convincingly, majorities of the party’s membership and his parliamentary colleagues is a tough thing. To lose it to his younger brother is a tough thing. To lose it and know …
expats Chris Bowers...Where is that ‘Yesss’ moment going to come from?
It looks like 'from Andy Burnham'.....
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...
Our economy and our democracy therefore present us with a common challenge – to tackle that lack of confidence in your own ability to alter the future which suffocates far too many communities and far too many parts of society. Removing that malaise requires a mix of many policies, only a few of which I highlight in this piece.
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