This is a guest cross-post by Ivo Gormley – originally posted on the Political Innovation site here.
Although Government claims to want our participation and wants us to appreciate its policies, it hides the evidence on which it bases its policies in fat documents and reports that are hard to read and only available free at special events at think-tanks around Whitehall.
Today’s Guardian is reporting that David Miliband,
… would like to persuade Nick Clegg to pull out of plans for a referendum on the alternative vote next May.
Instead, Miliband wants the Liberal Democrat leader to consider his proposal of a joint referendum on the House of Commons voting system and an elected House of Lords on the same day – something Miliband has called a democracy day.
Pause for a moment to recall that the Conservatives have agreed to introduce elections for the House of Lords, and by Proportional Representation no less.
So David Miliband’s offer …
The Local Government Chronicle has today published research on how the Lib Dems (and others) have fared in local by-elections since May.
It’s useful to note as there’s been some disagreement. Lib Dems have been pointing to victories and holds as evidence that, where the party campaigns, its vote is holding up very well. Opponents have disagreed (not least in comments on this site) and suggested evidence is being cherry-picked and the Lib Dems vote is actually falling.
Here’s what the research says (as reported by Paul Waugh in the Evening Standard since the LGC site …
Vince Cable, Lib Dem secretary of state for business, skills and innovation, has made plain his views on the Coalition Government’s official policy of an immigration cap. In an interview with the Financial Times, Dr Cable states:
“A lot of damage is being done to British industry,” the business secretary told the Financial Times on Thursday. He said companies were moving jobs overseas in response to punitive caps that left them unable to hire key staff. “I’ve got a file full of examples. This is not just people whingeing,” he said. The cap on non-EU workers was a manifesto pledge for
…
The new LDV members’ survey is now live. So if you are one of the 1,000+ registered members of the Liberal Democrat Voice forum – and any paid-up party member is welcome to join – then you now have the opportunity to make your views known.
We’ll be undertaking a full post-conference survey in a week or so’s time, so this survey focuses on some internal party elections coming up in the Lib Dems and Labour, specifically:
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Welcome to a series where old posts are revived for a second outing for reasons such as their subject has become topical again, they have aged well but were first posted when the site’s readership was only a tenth or less of what it is currently or they got published and the site crashed, hiding the finest words of wisdom behind an incomprehensible error message. Today’s is a comment Gordon Brown made in 1997 that now, looking back after his Premiership, looks all too prescient about his own time at the top.
Speaking to Paddy Ashdown in 1997, Gordon Brown said:
“You
…
It’s a fair bet that much of the media coverage of Liberal Democrat conference will be of the form ‘THEY’RE DOOMED!’, with the more subtle coverage for the more discerning journalists being ‘Are they doomed?’.
That has, after all, been the standard media fare since long before the Coalition, since before Nick Clegg became an MP, since before David Cameron became an MP, since before Tony Blair become Labour leader and since before John Major became Prime Minister. My money isn’t on the old standard formula changing this time round for …
Richard Livsey – Lord Livsey of Talgarth, former Brecon and Radnorshire MP and former Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, died peacefully at home on Wednesday night aged 75.
Kirsty Williams AM, the current leader of the Welsh Lib Dems, has paid tribute to Lord Livsey.
Richard Livsey was a man of immense honour and decency who was loved and respected by his constituents, colleagues and by politicians of all parties.
He will be remembered particularly as a champion for the rural communities in which he lived and an expert on agriculture, which he worked in all his professional life.
Nick …
Oxford West & Abingdon Lib Dems are celebrating their third local by-election victory in a row since the General Election.
Helen Pighills held Northcourt Ward on Abingdon Town Council with an increased majority over the Conservatives.
This means that the Lib Dems retain all 21 seats on the Council.
Helen Pighills said:
I look forward to joining the hard-working and effective team of Lib Dems who are doing such a good job running Abingdon Town Council.
…
This report is from the Lib Dem Voice court reporter. You may also like to read Nick Thornsby’s account of the trial
Helen Mountfield QC today led the special election petition court through the substance of the arguments, case law and disputed facts of the case. Representation of the People Act 1983 section 106 was a specific time limited right of prosecution in relations to the conduct of a particular election. Both Helen Mountfield and Gavin Millar used many of the same pieces of case law and legislation. Amongst these was the Human Rights Act which …
An opinion poll of over 500 Liberal Democrat party members carried out by YouGov for Greenpeace has found that 7% said they supported a like-for-like replacement of Trident.
The key question asked was:
As you may know, there is currently debate about whether or not the UK should replace its Trident nuclear weapons system. Current policy is to replace the Trident submarines with a new fleet of boats, and to replace the ballistic nuclear missiles they carry at a later date. Which of the following options would you favour most?
Replace Trident with a broadly comparable system: 7%
Replace Trident with a cheaper system: …
We are unique amongst the main political parties in having a democratic internal structure. This weekend is our opportunity, denied to both Labour and Tory members, to decide the future of our party and proclaim what it means to be a Liberal Democrat.
In addition to major policy announcements, there are six possible emergency motions listed in Conference Extra. Only one of these will be chosen for debate on Wednesday morning, following a ballot of conference attendees on Sunday.
Bermondsey and Old Southwark have submitted one of these emergency motions, and it is not without controversy. It is in direct response …
In just five days the Liberal Democrat Conference will be gearing up to what for some is the highlight of their week. The tradition will again be honoured of singing songs from the history of Liberalism as well as more recent topical and light-hearted offerings. There will be a brand new edition of the Liberator Songbook with new songs, and I’m sure some offerings to mark the return of Liberals to Government.
A further tradition of the Glee Club is that new MPs ‘do a turn’; we know some of them are regular members of the Glee Club, …
The Liberal Democrats are getting a huge amount out of being in government: protection for the lowest paid, the most ambitious political reforms since universal suffrage, restoration of civil liberties… in fact the only thing we’re not getting is the credit we deserve!
That’s why I’ve decided to run to be President of the Liberal Democrats.
It’s not easy being in Government. As part of the Coalition, our distinctive message has often got buried, what we stand for has got blurred and our ability to campaign is blunted.
I’m not having that.
In a statement to Parliament yesterday, Mark Harper (Minister for Constitutional Reform) announced that the Government will speed up the introduction of individual electoral registration by axing Labour’s plans for an interim phase of voluntary individual registration. Instead, individual electoral registration will be introduced in 2014.
The principle of switching to individual registration has been supported by all the main parties. I previously wrote about the reasons for this support for individual electoral registration:
The current electoral registration system is based on one registration form being delivered to each household, with the head of the household completing the form on behalf of
…
Nick Clegg has written an article on welfare in The Times (£) , which the fine organ is keen to portray as putting him “on a collision course with his party by championing radical benefit cuts and arguing that the state must not compensate the poor for their predicament”.
Having read the article, I don’t believe many Lib Dems will find themselves disagreeing with much of what Nick has to say.
Instead of turning the system from a “safety net” into a “trampoline” as Labour promised, people have been stuck on benefits, year in, year out. One and a half
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With the Conference season now upon us and with Labour preparing to crown their new Leader it seems appropriate that we lay to rest the myth that BSF (Building Schools for the Future) was some great effective scheme. In fact it was a bureaucratic joke with too few beneficiaries and huge expensive processes. The Liberal Democrat Conference is a good chance to cheer and toast the end of BSF and focus on education and pupils and real improvements.
It was 2005 and the local elections in London were scheduled for 2006. It was clear, we were clear, parents were clear, that there was a need for additional secondary school places in north west London in the Borough of Camden. The case for more places in the south of the Borough was also compelling – the campaign for a school ‘south of the Euston Road’ was pretty noisy and indeed compelling. And yet Camden Council had got itself to a place whereby it looked inactive, unable to articulate a more pro-active vision and lacking the political leadership to secure a new school.
I remember very clearly the conversation in Cllr Keith Moffitt’s front room in West Hampstead about the need for a new school.
Help support Phones4Zimbabwe by giving us your old, neglected and unused mobile phones (ideally with chargers). We will send them over to Zimbabwe to schools and health clinics.
You get a warm fuzzy feeling from helping a community in Zimbabwe to improve communications and information flow in an often forgotten part of the country.
The health clinics and schools receiving the phones can use them for emergencies, for every day use, to share and coordinate information and make life a little easier.
We are focussing on Binga, a remote and neglected area of North West Zimbabwe, to ensure the are has …
It’s less than a week since Baroness (Ros) Scott announced she would not be standing for a second term as President of the Lib Dems, the only post directly elected by all party members other than that of Leader.
But with nominations closing in less than a fortnight — and 200 nominations to be secured from conference representatives of at least 20 local parties — those looking to contest the position are going to be scrambling to get their supporter networks up and running.
I’ve heard from one in-the-know source that Jason Zadrozny, a district and county councillor in …
The BBC is reporting that the Government is set to put off a decision on replacing Trident until after the next general election. This move would both assist government finances over this Parliament and would sidestep the division on the Trident in the coalition which pits Liberal Democrats and some Conservatives against Defence Secretary Liam Fox and other Conservatives.
This report is from the Lib Dem Voice court reporter. You may also like to read Nick Thornsby’s blog for more trial news
Mr Woolas took the witness box for a third day in a row to answer questions in rebuttal from his own counsel. He insisted that photograph of a demonstrators often referred to in Labour emails as the mad Muslims had nothing to the article beneath which referred to Liberal Democrat candidate Elwyn Watkins pandering to extremists in the Labour leaflet called the Examiner.
Next to be called to the stand was Miss Rebbecca McGladdery, who was a …
A long time ago, I did a degree in modern languages. To try and keep my skills from fading, I follow a few French and German language users on Twitter. And one of these, the French-speaking arm of the FCO let me know a few weeks ago of a planned event at the end of September.
The UK arm of the European Commission is hoping to celebrate European Day of Languages with a day of multi-lingual blogging. The date is 26th September, and you can read all about it on the EC Facebook page for the …
Like so many Lib Dems, I’m really pleased our participation in the Coalition is leading to the end of child detention. But the crisis in the detention system goes much deeper and wider than locking up children. There is an urgent need to consider how we can use our influence to reform the detention system. To make this happen I’ve helped to organise a fringe meeting with London Detainee Support Group (LDSG), a charity that supports and advises detainees.
Every week I see this crisis when I visit Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre as an LDSG volunteer. My …
The Lib Dems are proud of their internationalism. It was one thing to oppose the intervention in Iraq and to continue as mistakes after the fall of Saddam were laid bare, but Iraqis like myself are keen to see your party develop its policy seven years later towards Iraq and Kurdistan, the region where I come from which is the stable, secure, commercial gateway to Iraq and Britain’s ally. The key question now is how can the LibDems support the Iraqi political process and ensure that Britain isn’t left behind other European countries in business, cultural and educational exchange with …
Liberal Democrats are understandably confused about whether child detention is ending or not.
Nick Clegg got the commitment to end child detention into the Coalition Agreement. Only last Thursday Sarah Teather promised: ‘Rest assured. It will be done.’ She also said: ‘We have to be careful not to rush into this as we are dealing with the safety and well-being of often vulnerable children and it is essential it is done properly.’
Quite how children’s safety might be served by not rushing to end a practice proven to wreck their lives is a mystery that suggests leading Liberal Democrats have been
Another day, another Guardian headline about the wickedness and unfairness of the Coalition. Thus Saturday’s headlines “Coalition cuts will hit poor 10 times harder than rich, says TUC” will have made many Lib Dem hearts sink.
But as with so many Guardian headlines recently, the headlines, and the reports they are based on are not quite what they seem.
The TUC report attempts to take the value of public services and allocate them across different income groups with the aim of showing the cuts are unfairly distributed. They have done this by taking a figure for the cuts over the …
Nicolas Sireau’s study of the Make Poverty History campaign follows the campaign through its creation and then year of existence in 2005. Sireau analyses a number of tensions in the campaign, in particular between those from a marketing and branding background versus those sceptical of such corporate processes and between those who took an insider or moderate approach to the campaign – seeking to win over political decision makers – and those who took …
The Evening Standard has reported:
The Commons public administration committee, chaired by Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin, has launched an inquiry into “What ministers do?”
The MPs are investigating whether there are too many ministers, what they actually do, whether they should be appointed from Parliament or outside and the impact that the number of ministers has on the public purse and effective government if the number of MPs is cut from 650 to 600.
Mr Jenkin added: “Clearly if the House of Commons gets smaller and the number of paid ministers increases or stays the same, it means that
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Labour’s timid leadership election highlighted one significant point. The opposition is getting hostile and vicious to the coalition, especially to the Liberal Democrats. Instead of compromising and trying to remain neutral it is time for us to show some teeth. We need to fight back.
Party activists and elected officials, in the Labour party, believe we despise the coalition and would rather be associated with them. The media are portraying this narrative too. But it is not true. Our special conference overwhelmingly voted in favour of being in government. Liberals have taken 800,000 people out of income tax, a pupil premium …
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