Liberal Democrat Voice

Warning! Do not access Hyndburn Council website from a mobile phone

By Mark Pack | Tue 20th July 2010 - 9:20 am

Just a friendly little warning, given that their terms and conditions only grant the following permission:

You may retrieve and display content from the Hyndburn BC website on a computer screen, print individual pages on paper and store such pages in electronic format on a personal computer for your personal and non-commercial use.

You wouldn’t want to go breaking their rules by accessing the site on a device with a screen but which isn’t a computer now would you?

(Though at least the photocopying strictures are no longer there.)

Posted in News | Tagged hyndburn council | 12 Comments

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Tessa Munt denies council tax claims from Mail on Sunday

By The Voice | Mon 19th July 2010 - 10:07 pm

The BBC reports:

Wells MP Tessa Munt has denied any wrongdoing after a national newspaper reported allegations that she falsely claimed a council tax discount.

It is alleged that the Liberal Democrat MP was sharing her home with broadcaster Andy Kershaw and a GP while claiming the discount for living alone.

Ms Munt said: “Neither of these two people were living with me.” …

Ms Munt said that the Mail on Sunday newspaper had “muddled the difference between council tax and electoral registration”.

She said both Mr Kershaw and the GP, John Laband, were registered to vote at her address as they did not

…

Posted in News | Tagged andy kershaw and tessa munt | 25 Comments

Why suddenly telling the truth is damaging politics

By Mark Pack | Mon 19th July 2010 - 8:50 pm

It’s better that Labour figures are starting to tell the truth in public about the Brown-Blair infighting years than if they were continuing to claim they’d always got along fine, government had never been hindered and Blair loved the idea of Brown becoming Prime Minister.

However, telling the truth is, I fear, coming at a considerable cost to the reputation of politics. Because we’ve now got a succession of people saying, in effect, ‘Don’t bother with what I told the public at the time. Of course that was nonsense. The truth actually was the opposite’. That fits right with the very …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged alastair campbell, jim naughtie and stephen pollard | 18 Comments

Florence and Precious Mhango – a campaign to prevent a mother and daughter being deported

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 19th July 2010 - 8:45 pm

By the time you read this, I’ll have been in a rainy Glasgow attending a humanitarian vigil in support of Florence and Precious Mhango.

This mother and her 10 year-old daughter have lived in the city for seven years since Florence left her husband because of his violence towards her. In that time they have become a much loved part of their local community. They currently face imminent deportation to Malawi after being refused asylum in this country.

If they are deported, Precious, who speaks only English, faces …

Posted in Op-eds | 10 Comments

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #178

By Stephen Tall | Mon 19th July 2010 - 8:15 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 177th 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 (11th – 17th 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:

Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment

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Graduate tax is the fairest way of abolishing tuition fees

By Tim Farron MP | Mon 19th July 2010 - 5:25 pm

I was one of the lucky ones. When I went to university in the late 1980s and early 1990s I didn’t have to pay tuition fees. I left for the world of work without thousands of pounds of student debt hanging over my head.

I would like nothing more than to be able to abolish fees for good and make universities free for all. But to suggest that it is possible to do so now wilfully ignores reality.

The fact is the higher education sector has changed beyond all recognition in just a few short years. Universities face a funding …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged graduate tax, higher education, tim farron and vince cable | 17 Comments

Opinion: Genuine progressives should suggest cuts

By George Kendall | Mon 19th July 2010 - 12:50 pm

When I think of the coming spending review, I’m reminded of a migraine I had last year, which continued, not for days, but months. These cuts will hurt, and they’ll last for years. But it’s one thing to acknowledge that the cuts will be excruciatingly painful, it’s quite another to treat any cut as right-wing and regressive.

Continuing to borrow more and more isn’t progressive, it’s deeply selfish. Every year we delay cutting, compound interest racks up our debt, and we leave a bigger deficit and deeper cuts to the future.

Some economists argue that, to help the recovery,

…

Posted in Op-eds | 124 Comments

Opinion: Have you ever felt ripped off by your bank?

By Lorely Burt | Mon 19th July 2010 - 11:20 am

Have you ever felt ripped off by your bank? I’m not talking about the scandal of banker irresponsibility which has helped land us into the deepest recession in living memory. I’m talking about the sense of injustice you feel when you get your statement to discover you’ve been charged outrageous fees for having stepped over an agreed overdraft limit.

If this has happened to you, you’re in good company. Which? estimated that we paid over £4bn in unauthorised bank charges last year, averaging £120 from each one of us. If you go over your limit, even by a few pence, you’ll …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged bank charges and office of fair trading | 18 Comments

What’s Norman Lamb up to?

By Mark Pack | Sun 18th July 2010 - 10:42 pm

The BBC Politics Show East today profiled Norman Lamb and his new role at the heart of government. As Norman says, “This is all extraordinary. We’re conditioned to being on the outside, looking in.”

It gives an insight into how the party is adapting to government, what Norman thinks the big challenges are in his role as Chief Parliamentary and Political Advisor to Nick Clegg and, er…, has a short clip of me talking.

The piece is

Posted in News | Tagged norman lamb | 1 Comment

Ask Simon Hughes a question: the sequel

By Mark Pack | Sun 18th July 2010 - 6:11 pm

Not surprisingly, the sequel to Ask Simon Hughes a question is … Simon Hughes answering the selected questions. His video answers are now up on Yoosk for you to watch. (Click on “Your Questions Answered” under the scorecard.)

Posted in News | Tagged simon hughes and yoosk | Leave a comment

Opinion: The importance of ideas and policy

By Chris Nicholson | Sun 18th July 2010 - 4:50 pm

It is only a few months ago that my whole life, as Lib Dem PPC for Streatham, revolved around knocking on doors, meeting with community and tenant groups, delivering leaflets and doing casework. Nothing could seem more distant from the world I now inhabit, as Director and Chief Executive of CentreForum, of think tanks and discussions on reforming welfare or what the Big Society means.

But one thing which was clear from the election result on May 6th was that knocking on doors and putting hundreds of thousands of leaflets through letterboxes is not enough to win. Yes, ‘where we …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged centreforum | 13 Comments

Lord Mike German’s maiden speech

By Mike German | Sun 18th July 2010 - 3:30 pm

In recent weeks, LDV has been bringing its readers copies of our new MPs’ first words in the House of Commons, so that we can read what is being said and respond. You can find all of the speeches in this category with this link. Alert LDV reader and bureaucratic blogger Mark Valladares, himself a husband to a Lib Dem Peer, our party’s president Ros Scott, has drawn to our attention that we have more new parliamentarians in the Other Place, who are also making maiden speeches. Earlier today we brought you the words of Baroness …

Posted in Parliament | Tagged maiden, mike german, prison reform and prisons | Leave a comment

LDV weekend meme: what is the state of the Lib Dem blogosphere?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 18th July 2010 - 2:10 pm

When Iain Dale asked if Lib Dem Voice would once again co-sponsor Total Politics’ Best Blog Poll 2010, he also set me some homework: to write c.1,500 words on ‘the State of the LibDem blogosphere’ by the end of the month. As you will see from the date, my deadline is fast approaching.

I’ve got a few ideas of what I intend to write, but I’d greatly appreciate the assistence of Lib Dem Voice readers – as well as Lib Dem bloggers – to ensure my analysis is suitably rounded and informed. I’ve come up with seven questions I …

Posted in LDV meme | Tagged blogging, iain dale and total politics | 10 Comments

Baroness Meral Hussein-Ece’s maiden speech

By Meral Ece | Sun 18th July 2010 - 10:20 am

In recent weeks, LDV has been bringing its readers copies of our new MPs’ first words in the House of Commons, so that we can read what is being said and respond. You can find all of the speeches in this category with this link. Alert LDV reader and bureaucratic blogger Mark Valladares, himself a husband to a Lib Dem Peer, our party’s president Ros Scott, has drawn to our attention that we have more new parliamentarians in the Other Place, who are also making maiden speeches. So today, Baroness Hussein-Ece’s words are reproduced below.

Baroness Hussein-Ece: My …

Posted in Parliament | Tagged arsenal, cyprus, islington, maiden, meral ece, prison reform, prisons, ros scott and sue garden | 2 Comments

Book review: The Gods that Failed by Larry Elliott & Dan Atkinson

By Mark Pack | Sun 18th July 2010 - 9:20 am

Alas, but despite the positive reviews from some for The Gods that Failed, I found it a book that was long on rhetoric about how awful much of the world is, but rather short of evidence to back-up the arguments and even skimpier on solutions.

First, the good bits of the book: it’s a lively and passionate account of not only the financial markets but also much of modern life, looking widely at things that have gone wrong. Despite having come out in 2008 and so being written before much of the recession, it does not read like a work …

Posted in Books | Tagged dan atkinson and larry elliott | 3 Comments

Opinion: Why a graduate tax is progressive

By David Thorpe | Sat 17th July 2010 - 6:20 pm

There has been at best, a muted response among Lib Dem members to the graduate tax proposals announced by Vince Cable on Thursday.

There appears to be a general agreement that these proposals are better than the status quo but not really ‘progressive’ and that the only really Liberal outcome is so-called free education.

It could however be argued that this phrase is a misnomer. Nothing is free. It may be free at the point of use, but it still has to be paid for. The suggestion of its advocates is that it be funded through general taxation, and specifically through a …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged graduate tax, higher education and vince cable | 34 Comments

One from the archives … Chris Huhne slams the Alternative Vote

By Stephen Tall | Sat 17th July 2010 - 4:20 pm

Actually, I’ve not trawled back that far – just five months, February this year, when the Lib Dems’ Chris Huhne launched a salvo on The Guardian’s Comment is Free against the Alternative Vote as a means of electoral reform:

is very similar to first-past-the-post in two key respects. Because it is based on single constituencies – a virtue for its proponents, who say they prize the constituency link – the parties continue to select one candidate each, and the voters only have one choice for each party. …

Conservative opposition to electoral reform gives the lie to David Cameron’s pretence that

…

Posted in News | Tagged alternative vote, chris huhne and david cameron | 10 Comments

The LDV Saturday caption competition: “Mark Pack points at pothole” edition

By Stephen Tall | Sat 17th July 2010 - 2:25 pm

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

Here’s Mark Pack, my Co-Editor at Lib Dem Voice, posing as a very un-glum councillor while out campaigning recently. What do you think he might have been saying or thinking?

The winner of our most recent caption competition, the “Ed Davey in fete worse than death” edition – according to The Voice’s judging panel of one – was this one by Nigel Bennett, with an honorary mention to

Posted in Caption Comp | 31 Comments

Zac Goldsmith and election law: what doesn’t count towards your limit?

By Mark Pack | Sat 17th July 2010 - 1:19 pm

The allegations made against Zac Goldsmith highlight three areas of electoral law where the law leaves considerable latitude for interpretation and where the usual clarity that comes from an accumulation of case law is missing because of the paucity of cases that have considered the issues.

The first area is the question of reusable materials. If, for example, a local party buys some clipboards they may end up getting used over several elections and also outside of elections for activities such as street stalls. What therefore should the cost be to an individual campaign of using the clipboards? Calculations involving …

Posted in Election law | Tagged electoral commission and zac goldsmith | 13 Comments

Opinion: The Lib Dems need a better communications strategy

By Ben Johnson | Sat 17th July 2010 - 11:15 am

An opposition party can only be truly effective via the media. Government has its own spin and PR, but the opposition must cultivate this through good press stories for them and bad ones for the government.

Blair understood this better than anyone and used it to great advantage in the dying days of the Major administration, mostly through the fanaticism of Alastair Campbell.

Fast forward to today and a small party perpetually in opposition is now in government. When in opposition, projecting a clear party line was a key goal. For the Lib Dems in government, …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged andy coulson, jonny oates and nick clegg | 32 Comments

The Saturday debate: are public elections the only ones political parties should fight?

By Mark Pack | Sat 17th July 2010 - 9:20 am

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

Why should a political party restrict itself to fighting public elections? Why not also take part in the myriad of other elections that exist, including those for directors of companies?

Instead of complaining from the sidelines about how a council behaves, we fight elections to change its decisions and methods. The same logic could apply to companies, hospital trusts, housing bodies and may more, all of which – like the bodies we fight elections for – have significant power over communities and individuals.

Trying to …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged featured and weekend debate | 10 Comments

Have you seen Zac Goldsmith’s Channel 4 News car-crash interview yet?

By Stephen Tall | Fri 16th July 2010 - 8:30 pm

Phew! I’ve just finished watching Channel 4 News’s Jon Snow attempt to interview Tory MP for Richmond Park Zac Goldsmith about suggestions that he has serious questions to answer about the accuracy of his election expenses.

It’s true car-crash telly, with Zac Goldsmith spending the first seven minutes of the interview ranting against Channel 4 News in a way that will have had Tory HQ cringeing with embarrassment. You can watch the full 13-minute broadcast here:

Posted in News | Tagged channel 4 news, jon snow and zac goldsmith | 75 Comments

Combining referendum with elections will save £17m

By Mark Pack | Fri 16th July 2010 - 3:20 pm

The decision to schedule the planned referendum on AV for the same day next Spring as other elections are due has two primary arguments in its favour: turnout and cost.

The record of combining elections is that it increases turnout for the election type which traditionally has the lower turnout without depressing turnout for the other. Similarly, combining elections reduces costs as, for example, polling stations only have to be open for one day rather than two separate days.

The turnout factor is hard to estimate for a referendum/public elections combination but working out the likely costs is much easier and in …

Posted in Election law | Tagged av referendum | 8 Comments

Can you help Dr Huppert improve Lib Dem policy on IT & the Internet

By The Voice | Fri 16th July 2010 - 2:59 pm

The Federal Policy Committee is setting up a Policy Working Group on Information Technology and Intellectual Property, to be chaired by Dr Julian Huppert MP.

The working group will review all aspects of policy on IT and the internet. It will be necessary to give significant attention to intellectual property issues, with particular attention to their application to the digital economy.

The group will take forward the issues raised by the conference motion Freedom, Creativity and the Internet adopted by the Spring Conference 2010.

Party members interested in joining the group should contact Debbie Enever on [email protected] for more details. …

Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged debill and julian huppert | 3 Comments

Opinion: Burqa ban splits the liberal minded

By LW | Fri 16th July 2010 - 1:50 pm

As a long time liberal, I was shocked, but perhaps not surprised, when I listened to the Today programme on my iPlayer earlier this week (I’m spending the summer in the US), and heard that the French parliament had voted to support legislation that would outlaw the wearing of the burqa and niqab in public places, including on the street, in France. Yet, many of my liberally-minded friends (well Liberal Democrat and Labour members) on Facebook were celebrating this action.

I know why people would argue that this is a positive action. As a young graduate, I started my first …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged france | 56 Comments

Lib Dem MP Simon Wright delivers his Mpinions

By Stephen Tall | Fri 16th July 2010 - 12:40 pm

Simon Wright, the Lib Dem MP for Norwich South who did the nation a service by vanquishing Charles Clarke, is the first of the newbie MPs to take part in a viral video campaign called ‘Mpinions’. Here’s the spiel from its creators:

Mpinions is allowing new MPs to properly introduce themselves to you and all in a few easily-digestible minutes! Consider it the speed dating of the political world! The video campaign itself will be running until the end of August and is being sponsored by The Electoral Reform Society and supported and promoted online by the Hansard Society, Operation

…

Posted in Online politics and YouTube | Tagged catch 21 and simon wright | 2 Comments

Nick Clegg: delivering a Liberal Parliament

By Mark Pack | Fri 16th July 2010 - 12:39 pm

Nick Clegg has been giving a speech at the think-tank Demos today, setting out his vision for what this Parliament should achieve – and what the Liberal Democrats should get from it.

The heart of the argument is in this early section:

Now that the Liberal Democrats are in government, liberal ideas are being deployed directly. What you are seeing is liberalism in action. And I can tell you that as Deputy Prime Minister, my liberal instincts are stronger than ever. Our goal is clear.

By the time of the next election, on 7 May 2015, Britain will be a more liberal nation.

This

…

Posted in News | Tagged david cameron, demos, gordon brown and nick clegg | 13 Comments

Vince’s Graduate Tax is no easy win

By Iain Roberts | Fri 16th July 2010 - 11:20 am

Vince Cable yesterday floated the idea of a graduate tax to pay for university funding, as an alternative to top-up fees.

In the early 1960s, around 4% of young people went to university. Today that’s nearly 50%. Undergraduate education has changed beyond recognition over those fifty years and, with money tight, another government is having another attempt to sort out funding. As Vince has made clear, a graduate tax is one option he wants considered.

Encouraging those with the ability

The UK has never quite cracked the problem of getting people from poorer backgrounds into higher education. If you’re in the poorest …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged graduate tax, higher education and vince cable | 30 Comments

Worth a second outing: the best headline in a Labour leaflet – ever

By Mark Pack | Fri 16th 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 is quite simply, still, the best headline in a Labour leaflet – ever:

Courtesy of the Hull Labour Party, from the May 2008 elections. You can’t really argue with that headline can you?

…

Posted in News | 11 Comments

Libel reform bill set for spring publication

By Mark Pack | Fri 16th July 2010 - 9:20 am

The Press Gazette reports:

A newly published Ministry of Justice Structural Reform Plan shows that developing options for reform is expected to take from June this year until March next year.

The plan gives as a milestone the publication next March of a “draft Defamation Bill for the reform of libel laws published for pre-legislative scrutiny”.

But it gives no indication of a timetable for the introduction or passage of the actual legislation…

The Government announced on 9 July, towards the end of the second reading debate on the Defamation Bill introduced into the House of Lords by Lord Lester of Herne Hill QC,

…

Posted in News | Tagged libel, lord lester and lord mcnally | 1 Comment

Op-eds

Vince Cable writes: Drill, baby, drill…or not (Vince Cable)
123 days in power: putting our new strategy for urban Britain into practice (Victor Chamberlain)
Andy Burnham’s speech was good: Here’s how Lib Dems can make the implementation better (Caron Lindsay)
Britain should be proud, but never afraid of the stranger (Anton Georgiou)
Where is that ‘Yesss’ moment going to come from? (Chris Bowers)

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Lib Dems must do better on Burnham

Britain should be proud, but never afraid of the stranger

Lib Dem Women: Amplifying women’s voices at Conference

Christine Jardine to stand down as MP at next election

Warning! Do not access Hyndburn Council website from a mobile phone

Tessa Munt denies council tax claims from Mail on Sunday

Why suddenly telling the truth is damaging politics

Florence and Precious Mhango – a campaign to prevent a mother and daughter being deported

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #178

Graduate tax is the fairest way of abolishing tuition fees

Opinion: Genuine progressives should suggest cuts

Opinion: Have you ever felt ripped off by your bank?

What’s Norman Lamb up to?

Ask Simon Hughes a question: the sequel

Opinion: The importance of ideas and policy

Lord Mike German’s maiden speech

LDV weekend meme: what is the state of the Lib Dem blogosphere?

Baroness Meral Hussein-Ece’s maiden speech

Book review: The Gods that Failed by Larry Elliott & Dan Atkinson

Opinion: Why a graduate tax is progressive

One from the archives … Chris Huhne slams the Alternative Vote

The LDV Saturday caption competition: “Mark Pack points at pothole” edition

Zac Goldsmith and election law: what doesn’t count towards your limit?

Opinion: The Lib Dems need a better communications strategy

The Saturday debate: are public elections the only ones political parties should fight?

Have you seen Zac Goldsmith’s Channel 4 News car-crash interview yet?

Combining referendum with elections will save £17m

Can you help Dr Huppert improve Lib Dem policy on IT & the Internet

Opinion: Burqa ban splits the liberal minded

Lib Dem MP Simon Wright delivers his Mpinions

Nick Clegg: delivering a Liberal Parliament

Vince’s Graduate Tax is no easy win

Worth a second outing: the best headline in a Labour leaflet – ever

Libel reform bill set for spring publication

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