Sara Bedford

Social housing: a home for life?

By Sara Bedford | Wed 4th August 2010 - 8:55 am

None of us, especially those who are councillors, can fail to understand the huge crisis of social housing waiting lists. It’s not simply the homeless or those in desperate need of a decent home. Many families will never be able to afford to buy their own home, yet face many years in unsuitable and overcrowded accommodation because of a shortage of affordable homes to rent.  Currently social housing tenants are granted secure tenancies, not only for their lives, but often to pass onto their children. This continues regardless of the needs of future tenants. So would fixed-term tenancies be a fairer way to allocate the limited supply of cheap housing?

Certainly David Cameron seems to think so. Speaking in Birmingham yesterday, the Prime Minister said it makes sense for tenants to be given fixed-term deals in future – so they can be moved on if their circumstances change and those in most need can be housed.  After hearing from a mother living in overcrowded accommodation, he said:

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 32 Comments
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The Voice

Sarah Teather pays tribute to Lib Dem volunteer killed in lorry accident

By The Voice | Tue 3rd August 2010 - 6:40 pm

The Standard reports:

Children’s minister Sarah Teather today paid tribute to a Liberal Democrat party volunteer who died after he was hit by a lorry near his home.

Library assistant Ismaeel Ebrahimsa, 29, was walking in Cricklewood when he was hit by the vehicle at lunchtime on July 22.

He had been active in local politics for years and helped Ms Teather fight two general election campaigns, most recently for Brent Central in May.

Sarah Teather said,

Ismaeel was a lovely young man who worked hard for his community and really cared about the area where he lived. He was very interested in

…

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Helen Duffett

Julian Huppert says all MPs should brush up on their science

By Helen Duffett | Tue 3rd August 2010 - 4:40 pm

Julian Huppert MP promoting scientific researchThe Independent today carries an interview with Julian Huppert, Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge, who is also the only scientist in the House of Commons:

Julian Huppert, a research biochemist who became the Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge at the last election, said he was alarmed at the lack of scientific knowledge among colleagues.

In an interview with The Independent, he also accused political leaders of paying “lip service” to the importance of scientific proof and warned that looming cuts

…

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 21 Comments
Helen Duffett

Clegg and Cameron’s joint letter to Cabinet

By Helen Duffett | Tue 3rd August 2010 - 2:25 pm

The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister have issued a reminder of the Coalition government’s priorities in the form of a joint letter to their Cabinet colleagues.

The letter, aimed at the public just as much as ministers, includes a summary of the “central purpose that will guide all our decisions as a government.” The letter says that deficit reduction and economic recovery will be achieved by redistributing power from government to communities and people, and by governing for the long term.

It’s a message, amid criticism of the cuts that the government has announced over its first twelve weeks, that the Coalition is looking at the long haul.

Here’s the text of the letter in full:

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , and | 21 Comments
NewsHound

Wallace: “We were the responsible party”

By NewsHound | Tue 3rd August 2010 - 1:15 pm

There’s an interesting interview today in the Scottish herald with former Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Jim Wallace, assessing the party’s prospects ahead of next May’s Holyrood elections. Here are some snippets …

On the Scottish Lib Dem experience of power-sharing:

We were told in 1999 when we entered coalition in Scotland with Labour we were going to get whacked and it didn’t happen. We’re not going to sit back. We’ve got an election campaign to fight and we will have to fight it on explaining why we have done things.”

On the UK Coalition between the Lib Dems and Conservatives:

I don’t think people

…

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Posted in Scotland | 13 Comments
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Duwayne Brooks

Opinion: Who is really responsible for the lack of BAME Councillors and MPs?

By Duwayne Brooks | Tue 3rd August 2010 - 11:15 am

There is a popular saying out there, expressed in many ways but always conveying the same message: ‘Black people don’t read’.

Before we criticise any individual political party in London, in my humble opinion we need to persuade black voters to adopt a different approach to elections. They should first find out who are the candidates; then vote for those they believe have a better understanding of their own issues

At the last election, too many black voters displayed total ignorance about the people whose names were on the ballot paper. They just went out and voted on purely national issues …

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Posted in Op-eds | 27 Comments
Stephen Tall

David Miliband adopts Lib Dem mansion tax policy

By Stephen Tall | Tue 3rd August 2010 - 10:05 am

The Guardian reports today:

Owners of homes worth more than £2m should pay an annual “mansion tax” to help the poor, Labour leadership contender David Miliband said today. The shadow foreign secretary said the levy would raise £1.7bn to restore housing benefit for the least well-off.

The proposal – outlined in an interview with the Evening Standard – appears designed to drive a wedge between the coalition partners, as well as appealing to Labour grassroots.

Business secretary, Vince Cable, put the idea in the Liberal Democrat general election manifesto – but it was lost during negotiations with the Tories. Under the plan,

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 9 Comments
Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #180

By Stephen Tall | Mon 2nd August 2010 - 7:15 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 180th 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 (25th – 31st July, 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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Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment
Dan Roper

Opinion: A liberal approach to the Jon Venables case and rehabilitation

By Dan Roper | Mon 2nd August 2010 - 4:05 pm

The Jon Venables case – one of the two children convicted in 1993 of the murder of James Bulger – raises challenges both to liberals and for liberals.

This is apparently a high profile repudiation of rehabilitation, particularly given enhanced levels of resources dedicated to supporting and apparently “curing” this individual. A second challenge for the liberal is how to respond to the baying sections of the press and public demonising a single offender.

The natural liberal reaction is to reject the “demands of the mob” as the way offenders are treated carries multiple messages about the values of …

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Posted in Op-eds | 9 Comments
Tim Farron MP

Tim Farron MP writes … Labour’s staggering hypocrisy on the Alternative Vote

By Tim Farron MP | Mon 2nd August 2010 - 1:45 pm

The decision by what remains of the Labour high command to vote against legislation bringing a referendum on the Alternative Vote is one of the most hypocritical and staggeringly self-interested political decisions in recent years.

After 13 years of promising reform, in which precious little materialised, each and every Labour MP campaigned at this election on the promise of a referendum on AV. That referendum has now been proposed by the Coalition Government and a Bill to make it happen put forward, yet Labour’s shadow cabinet has now decided to oppose the legislation.

What an astonishing decision.

It is even more astonishing given …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 66 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: John Kampfner – Yes, I feel queasy. But I don’t regret backing the Lib Dems

By NewsHound | Mon 2nd August 2010 - 11:45 am

Back in March, former editor of the New Statesman and current Chief Executive of the Index of Censorship John Kampfner publicly came out as a Lib Dem supporter – as reported by Lib Dem Voice here. Fast forward five months, does he have any regrets?

Doubts – yes, citing the Lib Dems’ failure to gain credit for Ken Clarke’s liberalising justice reforms, and the Tories’ zeal for austerity:

… in spite of various opportunities to do so, I have not repudiated my original decision. For sure, a number of attributes and decisions of this coalition government have left me feeling

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged | 22 Comments
The Voice

“Private sector will build nuclear plants,” says Huhne

By The Voice | Mon 2nd August 2010 - 10:30 am

The BBC reports:

New nuclear plants will be built in the UK as part of the move towards a green economy, Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has said.

Mr Huhne told the BBC that breaking the dependence on traditional fossil fuels was vital. The minister said the market would decide which types of low-carbon energy would be used, but he believes nuclear investors are waiting to come forward.

He ruled out specific government subsidies for the new power stations.

Chris was speaking on the BBC1’s Andrew Marr programme, Sunday AM, and confirmed:

My position and my party’s position was always one

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 19 Comments
Stephen Tall

Huhne on Lib Dem poll ratings: “Frankly, it doesn’t worry me”

By Stephen Tall | Mon 2nd August 2010 - 9:40 am

We’re into August, the dead political season, so doubtless we can expect plenty more media stories about the collapse of the Lib Dem vote, the imminent collapse of the Coalition, the collapse of Nick Clegg’s ratings etc, etc.

The latest miniplosion of noise has been sparked by YouGov’s latest poll, showing the Lib Dems polling 12% (compared to the Tories’ 42% and Labour’s 38%). For some, strange reason the papers seem much keener to report this poll finding than they were to report ICM’s 19% rating for the party a few days ago. We’ll be looking back fully on July’s polls …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 80 Comments
Paul Walter

Opinion: Tax – the next big political battle in the US

By Paul Walter | Sun 1st August 2010 - 3:22 pm

Tax is emerging as the next big battleground in the US Congress. George Bush’s “tax cuts for the rich” expire at the end of the year. Obama proposes extending them for everyone except those earning over $250,000 (couples) / $200,000 (singles). That means only the top 2% revert to their previous tax rates (about 4 percentage points up on the situation now). The Republicans want all the Bush tax cuts to be maintained and, indeed, extended to everyone.

Well, I suppose we can be relieved that, after simply naysaying all Obama’s proposals for a year, the Republicans have at last come …

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Posted in LDVUSA | 5 Comments
The Voice

LDV readers say: Tax Capital Gains and Income at the same level

By The Voice | Sun 1st August 2010 - 12:25 pm

LDV posed the question last month (even before the Osborne/Alexander austerity emergency budget): Do you believe that as a matter of principle capital gains should generally be taxed at the same level as income?

Here’s what you told us:

    68% (946 votes) – Yes
    27% (371) – No
    6% (80) – Don’t know
    Total Votes: 1397, Poll ran: 10th June – 31st July, 2010

If you missed it at the time, it’s well worth having a read of the comments thread.

Posted in Voice polls | Tagged and | 11 Comments
Stephen Tall

Can you predict what people are thinking based on analysis of online debate?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 1st August 2010 - 10:45 am

That’s the question a company called, somewhat improbably, Onalytica have set out to answer in their paper, Using the Internet as a Market Research Database.

They’ve summarised their key findngs thus:

1. Changes in daily election poll results could be estimated by measuring the changes in the relative amount of online discussion
2. We find that ‘traditional media’ maintains a high level of influence, and that the influence of ‘social media’ was small
3. The Lib Dem’s performance was similar to that of

…

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Posted in General Election and Online politics | 28 Comments
Stephen Tall

“When two ride astride, one must ride behind”

By Stephen Tall | Sun 1st August 2010 - 9:45 am

Okay, the poster’s exactly 100 years old – and the issue highlighted here is Asquith’s Liberal government’s attempts to reform the House of Lords – but somehow it was the caption which to me seemed to resonate down the years into these Coalition days:


(From the LSE archives: COLL MISC 0519-053).

For others it may bring to mind Ming Campbell’s nag in Five Days that Changed Britain: “If you have a dog… for long enough, eventually you begin to look like your pet. Well, if you have a coalition …

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Posted in Humour | Tagged and | 10 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: James Graham – Labour’s accusations of gerrymandering are self-defeating

By NewsHound | Sat 31st July 2010 - 6:20 pm

Over at The Guardian’s Comment is Free website earlier this week, Lib Dem blogger James Graham dismissed Jack Straw’s overblown accusations that the Coalition is ‘gerrymandering’, and urged the voting reform bill to receive the more serious scrutiny it deserves. Here’s an excerpt:

Every time a Labour politician uses the word “gerrymandering” a puppy dies. … Gerrymandering is the act of deliberately fixing a boundary in order to give a political party an unfair advantage. Yet the proposed changes will not to lead to any more political interference in the boundary review process. …

One of the main effects of the

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged and | 50 Comments
Stephen Tall

NEW POLL: Is the Coalition right to allow us to work beyond 65?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 31st July 2010 - 4:35 pm

This was the statement issued by Lib Dem Employment Relations Minister Ed Davey this week when announcing the end of the default retirement age of 65, and give people the freedom to choose their own retirement date:

With more and more people wanting to extend their working lives we should not stop them just because they have reached a particular age. We want to give individuals greater choice and are moving swiftly to end discrimination of this kind. Older workers bring with them a wealth of talent and experience as employees and entrepreneurs. They have a vital contribution to make

…

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Posted in Voice polls | Tagged and | 15 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV Saturday caption competition: “Kramer vs Zac” edition

By Stephen Tall | Sat 31st July 2010 - 1:45 pm

There’s no prize at stake – just the opportunity to prove you’re wittier than any other LDV reader …


(Image courtesy: FromPlay.com).

Here’s former Lib Dem MP for Richmond Park Susan Kramer with her Tory successor Zac Goldsmith. What do you think they might have been saying or thinking about each other?

The winner of our most recent caption competition, the “Jeremy Browne passes the hat” edition – according to The Voice’s judging panel of one – was this one by Andrea Gill.

Got a photo of a prominent Lib Dem …

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Posted in Caption Comp | Tagged , and | 21 Comments
The Voice

BBC: Coalition faces Lib Dem revolt on free schools

By The Voice | Sat 31st July 2010 - 11:15 am

Michael Crick reported for BBC2’s Newsnight on a potentially controversial debate at this September’s Lib Dem conference:

September’s Lib Dem conference in Liverpool will be a pretty tame affair, I predict, since most Liberal Democrats are still on cloud nine over the fact they are now in government for the first time in 65 years.

The biggest controversy, I reckon, could well be over a motion denouncing Michael Gove’s radical policies on free schools and academies. The resolution has been specifically picked by Lib Dem conference organisers for a substantial debate.

First, it calls for local councils to keep their role in the “oversight” of the provision of state schools. This is quite contrary to Gove’s strategy of greatly reducing local authority involvement in education. And second, the resolution urges Liberal Democrats not to get involved in Michael Gove’s cherished new policy of free schools.

Given how important local councillors are in the structure of the Liberal Democrat Party and the prevalence of teachers in the party, there must be a pretty good chance that the motion will be passed.

You can watch the 5-minute report here:

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Posted in Conference | Tagged , and | 31 Comments
Stephen Tall

The Saturday Debate: What do we mean by middle-class?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 31st July 2010 - 9:25 am

Here’s your starter for ten in our Saturday slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate:

Class has always been an intangible concept in the UK.

While most countries would define it quite simply as a function of income, in our class-hungover country there are all manner of other factors: state or privately educated, your profession, whether you have a degree, your postcode, your family circumstances (‘where you came from’), even your accent. So while carpenters and plumbers may well earn more than university lecturers there’s no doubt which of those would be regarded as the middle-class occupation.

How …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 13 Comments
Helen Duffett

Parliamentary privilege doesn’t protect against criminal trial

By Helen Duffett | Fri 30th July 2010 - 8:06 pm

Three former Labour MPs and a Conservative peer lost their appeals this morning, over last month’s ruling that they could not avoid trial for alleged expenses fraud by claiming Parliamentary privilege.

From the BBC:

Elliott Morley, David Chaytor, Jim Devine and Lord Hanningfield had argued at the Court of Appeal that only Parliament could hear their case.

The four all deny charges of false accounting over their expenses.

The charges carry a maximum sentence of seven years’ imprisonment.

The men had appealed against a ruling in June by Mr Justice Saunders sitting at Southwark Crown Court in central London.

The judge had rejected

…

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Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged , , , , , and | 4 Comments
The Voice

Ming: Trident must be included in Strategic Defence Review

By The Voice | Fri 30th July 2010 - 3:02 pm

A press release arrives in the Lib Dem Voice in-tray:

Commenting on George Osborne’s announcement that the Ministry of Defence will be responsible for the cost of replacing Trident, Liberal Democrat MP, Sir Menzies Campbell said:

“This confirmation of what had already been predicted makes it essential that the case for like-for-like replacement of Trident should, as the Liberal Democrats have agreed, be part of the Strategic Defence Review.

“How can you possibly take on such a large financial commitment as Trident without considering the military and political implications?

“If fierce cuts are to be made in Britain’s conventional forces, surely we have

…

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 24 Comments
The Voice

Total Politics best blog poll 2010: voting ends tomorrow!

By The Voice | Fri 30th July 2010 - 1:51 pm

A final reminder that time is running out: voting ends tomorrow in the Total Politics Blog Award… We hope readers may be inclined to list Lib Dem Voice somewhere, alongside many of the other fabulous Lib Dem blogging talent listed on Ryan Cullen’s Aggregator.

It’s that time of year again, when Total Politics asks you to vote for your Top 10 favourite blogs. This is the fifth year of the poll. The votes will be compiled and included in the forthcoming book, the Total Politics Guide to Blogging 2010-11, which will be published in September. For the second year running, …

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Posted in Online politics | Tagged and | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

Worth a second outing: Does the Daily Telegraph know its up from its down?

By Mark Pack | Fri 30th July 2010 - 10:20 am

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 has been updated with the latest hemline flip-flop.

Daily Telegraph, 12 December 2008: “Recession pulls hemlines down“.

Daily Telegraph, 6 March 2009: “Hemlines rise during economic downturns”.

Daily Telegraph, 9 July 2010: “It’s happening again. Hemlines are …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 6 Comments
Helen Duffett

Waltham Forest election recount at the High Court

By Helen Duffett | Fri 30th July 2010 - 9:10 am

A recount of the May 6 election result in High Street Ward, London Borough of Waltham Forest, is due to begin today.

From the Waltham Forest Guardian:

The Liberal Democrats applied to the High Court to have the ballot boxes re-opened after a member of the public spotted a potential error.

It is possible that the Labour candidates had been mistakenly given 1,000 extra block votes.

This may have led to Steve Terry being elected instead of Liberal Democrat Mahmood Hussain.

The ballot boxes, which are kept in a high-security Town Hall vault, are being be taken to the High Court

…

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Posted in Election law | Tagged , and | Leave a comment
Helen Duffett

The LDV Friday Five: 30 July 2010

By Helen Duffett | Fri 30th July 2010 - 7:50 am

It’s Friday, so here’s a fistful of lists that sum up the past week on Liberal Democrat Voice:

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

1. The Independent View: Labour and Lib Dems must show a willingness to work together (39 comments) by Will Straw
2. Six Lib Dem MPs rebel on Coalition’s Academies Bill (10 comments) by Stephen Tall
3. Opinion: Lib Dems should abstain or campaign for “No” on AV referendum (65 comments) by Fred Carver
4. Nick Clegg meets … Showing the Lib Dem fight against the Tories is alive and well (45 comments) by Stephen Tall
5. Hughes attacks Labour’s “naked opportunism” in opposing vote reform bill (70 comments) by The Voice

5 active LDV Members’ Forum threads

Warning!
Not standing against Tories?
How are the otherside feeling
Liberal Youth on local executives
New Members pack – ideas needed

5 from the LDV archive

1. Labour: choose the next Prime Minister for £12 by the Founding Editor, November 2006
2. Vince Cable: Silver Power, the force that could save us by The Voice, July 2009
3. How to blog successfully as a councillor by Mary Reid, November 2009
4. London Mayor candidate selection process starts by Jonathan Davies, August 2007
5. Voice Podcasts: Alex speaks to Nick Clegg by Alex Foster, September 2006. Nick talks about First Past the Post and about taking on roles under unpredictable circumstances.

5 top reader search returns to get to LDV

(excluding Liberal Democrat Voice or its variants)

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Posted in Friday Five | 5 Comments
Iain Roberts

Two for the freedom bill: seatbelts and drugs?

By Iain Roberts | Thu 29th July 2010 - 3:20 pm

Professor John Adams has submitted a Mill-esque proposal for the Government’s Freedom Bill.

Adams, author of “Risk”, explains on his blog:

The Cream Buns Act would remove all existing laws and regulations that proscribe behaviour that risks only the health or safety of mentally competent adult risk takers.

Two nominations for early repeal: the seat belt law and the set of laws criminalizing the sale or use of drugs. They merit priority not only because they pass the Cream Buns Test but, more importantly, because they have criminalized millions and can be shown to have had highly significant adverse consequences. The

…

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 30 Comments
Iain Roberts

Happy ID carders nearly all government employees

By Iain Roberts | Thu 29th July 2010 - 2:20 pm

Back in the old days, before we had a government that cared about civil liberties, Labour were busy telling us how wonderful ID cards were. No-one was quite sure what they were useful for (beating terrorism? tackling benefit fraud? getting a drink in the pub? travelling to France without a passport?) but whatever it was, they were really good at it.

Now, thanks to some persistent questioning from No2ID National Co-ordinator Phil Booth, we know that of the nine people who featured in the glossy advertising telling us how ID cards had transformed their lives and possibly cured …

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged , and | 6 Comments
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