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How should PMQs be reformed?

Hansard-SocietyPrime Minister’s Questions, the half-hour weekly pantomime that transfixes Westminster and the SW1 media, got a deserved pasting from the Hansard Society this week which released a report, Tuned in or Turned off? Public attitudes to PMQs.

The results couldn’t be clearer. PMQs is a significant ‘cue’ or ‘building block’ for the public’s perceptions of Parliament, and it provides a lot of the raw material that feeds their negative assumptions about politicians.

The public like the ‘theory’ of PMQs but dislike the current practice of it. They recognise that the opportunity

Posted in News | Tagged , , | 15 Comments

Bluff, bluster and bullying, says Salmond. Pot, kettle and black come to mind

That the SNP would dismiss yesterday’s announcement on currency by George Osborne should not come as a surprise to any of us.

Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon have taken to the airwaves to complain of “bluff, bluster and bullying” by those nasty big boys from Westminster. It’s actually quite brazen to sit there and say, having been told a very firm “no” that the answer was really yes. But their aim was to whip up fury amongst their own supporters, to incite an emotional reaction in those who don’t like English Tories telling things like they are.

That was always going to …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , | 30 Comments

Wythenshawe and Sale East by-election: Labour win easily, Ukip beat Tories to 2nd, Lib Dems lose deposit

Labour comfortably won yesterday’s Wythenshawe and Sale East by-election, caused by the sad death of Paul Goggins just five weeks ago. Here are the results:

    Labour: Mike Kane – 13,261 (55%, +11%)
    UKIP: John Bickley – 4,301 (18%, +15%)
    Conservative: Daniel Critchlow – 3,479 (15%, -11%)
    Liberal Democrat: Mary di Mauro – 1,176 (5%, -17%)
    Green: Nigel Woodcock – 748 (3%, +3%)
    BNP: Eddy O’Sullivan – 708 (3%, -1%)
    Monster Raving Loony: Captain Chaplington-Smythe – 288 (1%)
    Turnout: 23,961, 28%

It’s clear there were two winners from the election – though the very low-turn-out (barely one-quarter of the registered electorate bothered to vote in what was a foregone conclusion by-election) …

Posted in News, Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged , | 128 Comments

Ruling out currency union: Locking the horse inside the stable?

MoneyThe currency in an independent Scotland has been the subject of much frenetic debate in recent months. The Scottish Government’s White Paper on independence is clear that their preferred option is to continue to use sterling within a monetary union with what would remain of the UK:

The Commission’s analysis shows that it will not only be in Scotland’s interests to retain Sterling but that – post independence – this will also benefit the rest of the UK.

Under such an arrangement, monetary policy will be set according to economic conditions across

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , | 33 Comments

Wanted: Your views on slavery

“Slavery?” I hear you cry. “In this day and age?”

Sadly, slavery is still very much with us. And it’s not a problem found only in far away countries. It’s happening right here, right now, in Britain.

The extent of the problem and proposed remedies were set out in the Report of the Modern Slavery Bill Evidence Review, chaired by Frank Field MP and published on 16th December 2013.

The government is now proposing new legislation to tackle the problem. As part of the process of preparing this legislation, a Joint Committee on the Draft Modern Slavery Bill has …

Posted in News | Tagged | 4 Comments

Editors’ note: How we intend to handle ‘sponsored posts’ in the future

Last November, LibDemVoice – after some internal debate among the editorial team and with quite a few qualms – published our first (and, to date, last) ‘sponsored post’, an article published in return for payment to the site. Both the principle – publishing an article in return for payment – and the subject matter (support of expansion at Heathrow) made it pretty controversial.

Some readers thought it was quite the wrong thing for the site to do; others thought that, so long as the posts were clearly marked as sponsored, then it was fine. We paused for thought …

Posted in News | 23 Comments

Opinion: Protecting journalists and foreign correspondents – it’s about time

What is currently happening in Egypt in my view is a very sad and violent transformation. Yet as a native of this country, I believe this to be an internal process and should be shaped only by Egyptians living in Egypt.

However, what should not be accepted as an internal matter is the level of intimidation and violence against journalists and foreign correspondents, particularly foreign journalists and those working for foreign media organisations.

They are unwittingly being sucked into a political turmoil they do not control. They are seasoned professionals caught in the line of fire while doing their …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Julian Huppert welcomes advertising ban rethink

The Advertising Standards Authority is a funny old body sometimes. There are occasions when it overlooks quite outrageous flouting of infant feeding regulations in formula advertisements (although one such ad was banned this week for making misleading claims). Then last week it tried to ban a Cycling Scotland advert on public safety grounds because it showed a cyclist not wearing a helmet and cycling too far into the road. The positioning was later proven to be entirely consistent with the Highway Code and it is not a legal requirement to wear a helmet.

There is, in fact, some controversy in the …

Posted in News | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Marriage tax breaks: Lib Dem members oppose Conservative plans by 62% to 22%

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 750 party members responded – thank you – and we’ve been publishing the full results.

(There were a couple of results I ran out of time to publish during the Christmas holiday period – I’ll be publishing them this week.)

Lib Dems oppose married couple tax-breaks by 62% to 22%

The tax break for married couples and civil partners was a Conservative election pledge that has lain dormant during Coalition. Not because of Lib …

Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Tim Farron’s email to Lib Dem members explaining the suspension of Lord Rennard

The following message from Lib Dem party president Tim Farron has just been emailed to members:

It has been a difficult few days for the party. Many of you have contacted me directly to express your anger and disappointment at Lord Rennard’s refusal to apologise following the recommendations of the investigation into his behaviour. As President, I wanted you to hear from me.

Along with Nick Clegg, I made my view absolutely clear – Lord Rennard’s refusal to apologise is unacceptable. Most importantly, Lord Rennard is actively rejecting calls to apologise from party members and is refusing to comply with a formal

Posted in News | Tagged , | 66 Comments

First Euro poll of 2014 shows Lib Dems at 7%. Can we make being ‘The Party of IN’ work for us by the time of the real election?

The first poll this year asking how people will vote in May’s European elections has been published today by YouGov. It gives the following headline ratings compared with the last elections in 2009:

    Conservative 17% (-11%)
    Labour 24% (+8%)
    Lib Dem 7% (-7%)
    Ukip 19% (+2%)

Feed these numbers (plus those for the Greens, SNP/Plaid and others) into euroelection.co.uk and here’s what it means for numbers of seats:

euro results forecast 2014

The Lib Dems would be reduced from 11 seats to just 4, if these numbers are to be believed. The Tories number of MEPs …

Posted in Europe / International, Polls | Tagged , , , | 40 Comments

10 reasons why Mary from Sherlock should stick with the Liberal Democrats

As this post appears, we’ll be getting ready for the season finale of Sherlock. If my Twitter feed is anything to go by, we includes many of this site’s regular readers.

We’ve waited two years for the third season and it’s all over in a week and a half. I loved the nods to the fandom, the tube line geekery and the usual ingenuity of the first episode. I also liked the fact that the eccentric guy with the beard was right.

The second episode dragged in places but had the best Best Man’s Speech since Four Weddings and a Funeral 20 …

Posted in News | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Should MPs be allowed to take their babies into the voting lobby?

There’s been a bit of controversy over the issue of breastfeeding in the House of Commons and taking babies into the voting lobby sparked by comments by Jo Swinson, who gave birth to her son Andrew on 22 December. The argument goes that you can take a sword into the Commons voting lobby, but not a baby. On face value, it sounds like yet another way in which Westminster needs to be dragged into the 21st century.

Jo said to the Guardian:

“I think it’s been lovely the way people have been really supportive in parliament of my pregnancy,” she said. ” I think some of the structures of the institutions of the House of Commons probably don’t make it as easy as it could be, in particular that you don’t get maternity cover. As a minister, I get cover for my work … but nobody else will be being the MP for East Dunbartonshire.”

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , , | 29 Comments

Opinion: Foodbanks: Are there more hungry people than a decade ago?

There are far more foodbanks, and foodbank users, than a decade ago. Many people have assumed that if more people are using foodbanks it must mean there are more hungry people in need – more having to choose between heating and eating – than there were.

But is that true? Does the evidence support it?

If a charity opened new refuges for abused women, we wouldn’t automatically take it as proof that domestic violence was shooting up. Similarly we can’t take the increase in foodbanks in itself as evidence of increased need.

There are three possibilities:

  • more people are in need than before
  • the increase

Posted in News | Tagged , | 25 Comments

LibLink: Stephen Tall – Five predictions for 2014

Over on ConHome, LDV’s Stephen Tall has been gazing into his crystal ball.

Here are his first two prophecies:

1) The four current main party leaders – Cameron, Clegg, Miliband and Farage – will still lead their parties in a year’s time. They’ll all face threats. Cameron will when Ukip beats the Conservatives in May’s Euro elections; Clegg will when the Lib Dems likely suffer another disappointing set of results in both the locals and the Euros; Miliband will if Labour gets beaten in the Euros and he is forced into an embarrassing compromise with the union paymasters at the special conference he called in the wake of the Falkirk / Unite row; and Farage will as his party and his leadership comes under closer public scrutiny (as already shown by this week’s ‘reverse ferret’ over admitting only Christian but not Muslim refugees from Syria).

2) The economic recovery will pick up pace and start to be noticed by voters. Growth is forecast to be 2% and unemployment to keep falling – that will start feeding into a more general feel-good factor. However, as real wages won’t begin to rise for another year, you can expect to hear more, much more, from Labour about the ‘cost of living crisis’. Conservatives will hail George Osborne as an economic saviour (as Geoffrey Howe was a generation before) while ignoring how he diluted Plan A when it was failing and how he has back-dated much of the public spending cuts to after the 2015 election. Whatever the facts of the matter, the politics of it is straightforward: a fragile economic recovery suits the Conservatives, who will have only to point at Eds Miliband and Balls and ask “Do you really want to hand the economy back to Labour?” The Lib Dems meanwhile will, I suspect, receive increasing traction for our ‘Stronger economy, fairer society’ pitch to the electorate, acting as a buffer between the worst excesses of either Labour or Conservative single-party rule.

Posted in News | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Opinion: Attending Lib Dem Conference on a Shoestring

In an ideal democratic world, all Lib Dem members should be able to attend Lib Dem conference and have equal opportunity to participate in the running and the policies of the party without personal finance being a hindrance.

In reality of course conferences are expensive, and it is mostly the well-off members of the party who attend. For that reason it is likely that conference attendees are not representative of the party as a whole.

We do not live in an ideal world for a very simple reason; the national party has limited funds and lots of spending commitments some of which …

Posted in Conference | 13 Comments

LibLink: Nick Clegg: Slam the door on EU migrants and it is Britain that will get hurt

There are many Liberal Democrats, myself included, who feel distinctly uneasy about the changes that the Coalition has made to EU benefits changes, agreed to by Nick Clegg. My personal view is that while these changes save the country a very small amount of money, tackling a problem that doesn’t really exist, we lose a lot more by ceding ground to UKIP and the Tory right.

From Nick’s point of view, though, he feels that he’s agreed to it to make the system fairer and acceptable to British taxpayers in the current climate. He’s fine with free movement around the …

Posted in LibLink | Tagged , , , | 41 Comments

EDMWatch #6 Pubs, badgers and elephants – but what about people?

We take  an occasional look at the Early Day Motions tabled by MPs. These are basically House of Commons petition and are used to raise awareness of an issue. One of the biggest elements of an MP’s postbag or inbox is a pile of requests from supporters of a particular organisation or charity to sign a particular EDM. As a rule, ministers don’t sign EDMs.

Most popular

Winning for this session so far is our own Greg Mulholland’s EDM 57, on getting pub tenants a fair deal from breweries, signed by 166 MPs.

Now this is where I get annoyed, …

Posted in Parliament | Tagged , | 4 Comments

++ Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes replaces Lord McNally as Justice Minister

Simon HughesNews just in:

Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Simon Hughes has replaced Lord (Tom) McNally as the Liberal Democrat Minister of State for Justice.

Lord McNally has been appointed as the new Chair of the Youth Justice Board, a post which he will take up in mid-March 2014. Simon Hughes will take over as Justice Minister with immediate effect.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said:

“Tom McNally has been a fantastic minister who has pushed through a Liberal agenda in the Ministry of Justice. He will now bring the same

Posted in News | Tagged , , , , | 20 Comments

Hirsute “Hipster” Huppert, the Hashtag King, wins Parliamentary Beard of the Year with John Thurso in third place

huppert_caption compA couple of weeks ago, we brought you the news that Cambridge MP Julian Huppert had made the shortlist for Parliamentary Beard of the Year, a competition organised by The Beard Liberation Front. That’s an organisation that has always struck me as weird. If you liberate a beard, aren’t you left with a clean shaven face? Oh well, never mind.

Today it was announced that our Julian has won with 46% of the vote with Jeremy Corbyn coming in second place and another Liberal Democrat MP, John Thurso, coming third.

And he celebrated in style, inventing the hashtag of the year in the process.

Posted in News | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Norman Lamb MP writes…Have your say on dementia care

Back in 2008, when I was Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary, I spoke out about poor diagnosis rates for dementia sufferers, saying that “the NHS must do more to ensure people are encouraged to seek early help and that they have access to care from their GP, specialist assessment and accurate diagnosis.” Dementia diagnosis rates across the country vary significantly – and although they are improving, they are still not good enough. And, while there is some excellent dementia care – there has also been much that is inadequate.

I could never have imagined then that – 5 years on – …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 3 Comments

Botched deportation of dying man highlights need for humanitarian overhaul of asylum system

On Wednesday, Roger Roberts wrote an extremely moving article about the fate of Isa Muaza, a Nigerian asylum seeker who had been on hunger strike for 90 days in protest at the conditions in which he was being kept at an immigration detention centre. His removal from the UK, even in his frail, close to death condition, was planned for Friday morning.

Through Thursday, many of our readers signed the petition asking for Theresa May to reconsider her decision to deport Muaza. Huge effort was put in by Liberal Democrats including Sarah Teather, Julian Huppert and Tim Farron as well …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , , , | 11 Comments

“Hipster” Huppert and Thurso make Parliamentary Beard of the Year shortlist

Julian Huppert, Lib Dem PPC for CambridgeJohn ThursoThe Liberal Democrats have 2 entrants in this year’s Parliamentary Beard of the Year shortlist.

Julian Huppert is described as the “rising star of hirsuteness”:

University lecturer. One of the few people in the Commons who has a clue about science. Supporter of real ale pubs. We’d be dissapointed if the MP for Cambridge didn’t have facial hair.

Flett tells us: “The Lib Dems have got the rising star of hirsuteness in Julian Huppert – it’s a

Posted in News | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Rebecca Taylor MEP writes…Can you help me campaign against e-cigs being regulated as medicines?

The EU is currently deciding how best to regulate e-cigarettes. Opinion is divided, with many public health organisations and most national governments – including the UK – pushing for the regulation of e-cigarettes as medicinal products, while consumers, manufacturers, along with some doctors and public health experts asking for a less stringent approach.

The European Parliament also voted against medicines regulation, adopting instead a Liberal amendment drafted by Frédérique Ries, myself and Chris Davies which aims to guarantee essential safeguards without resorting to medicines licensing.

E-cigarettes are a new and increasingly popular product used almost entirely by existing or former smokers (see …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , | 55 Comments

Only 2 days left to have your say on Spring Conference

Last Friday, James Gurling asked for party members’ views on the future of Spring Conference. These have to be submitted by Friday 29th November, so this is a reminder to make sure you have your say before then. Janes’  article is reproduced in full below:

As part of the budget setting process, earlier this year, the Federal Executive were asked to look at how the Party runs its Spring Conference and the costs it incurs. With pressures on Party finances as they are, the challenge was therefore to look at how to make spring conference, at worst, a ‘break-even’ event.

From

Posted in Conference, Party policy and internal matters | Tagged | 2 Comments

Opinion: Let many flowers bloom (though not too many Flowers)

The Cooperative scandal, it’s got the lot.

Sex + drugs + religion + money = media feeding frenzy.

Liberals mustn’t join in too much. Especially where mutual ownership and public services are concerned.

Like the Cooperative Bank, most mutuals and co-ops operate in market conditions. Unlike it, most are small. In public service, as free collaborations, mutuals provide an alternative to collective state monoliths. In commerce, properly run, they avoid public companies’ shareholder short-termism. Indeed, in some ownership models, they confer real power on consumers. The Cooperative Party gives Labour significant reach across mutual enterprises. But it doesn’t control all …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 16 Comments

Free school meals for infants – the controversy over Nick Clegg’s pledge rumbles on

Clegg WatfordI wrote yesterday about Sir Nick Harvey’s forecast that the next election is Labour’s to lose. But there was another issue he focused on in his Huffngton Post interview – Nick Clegg’s conference pledge that all 5-7 year-olds should have free school meals, regardless of their family’s income status.

“It was absolutely astonishing. It came from nowhere,” he exclaims. “It seemed to be part of some coalition deal where it was meant to make the Lib Dems feel better about allowing the Tories to progress their wretched married

Posted in News | Tagged , , , , , | 44 Comments

The future of Lib Dem Spring conference – how to have your say by 29th November

As part of the budget setting process, earlier this year, the Federal Executive were asked to look at how the Party runs its Spring Conference and the costs it incurs. With pressures on Party finances as they are, the challenge was therefore to look at how to make spring conference, at worst, a ‘break-even’ event.

From the start, FE recognised that answering this challenge involved potentially significant changes to Spring Conference, and produced a paper which looks at three broad options – continuing as we do with a two day spring conference (and seeking to make cost …

Posted in Conference, Party policy and internal matters | Tagged | 15 Comments

Opinion: Benefits cap – right or wrong?

There’s a lot in the news about the Benefits Cap following yesterday’s dismissal of the case where three single mothers took forward a legal challenge to the cap on their benefits.  They lost, but perhaps we as Liberal Democrats should question the logic behind the benefits cap.

Now, on one hand, when you look at it, £500 per week seems like a lot of money. Even for a family of three. With this in mind, it seems completely legitimate to cap the amount of support families receive to £26,000 per year. With the average earnings in the UK resting at …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , | 57 Comments

Opinion: Conservative run Shropshire takes independence away from disabled and elderly

Shropshire LinkA month ago, we heard from Matt who wrote bravely about how he feels denigrated by Conservatives attacking welfare claimants. Today, Ian – a disabled bus user in Shropshire living in sheltered accommodation – writes about problems with transport as his Conservative council slashes bus services.  

I am writing this article because I am campaigning on behalf of registered users from Three Crosses, Clee Hill near Ludlow and other scheme managers, users and their carers in South Shropshire. We were users of Shropshire Link, a regular, bookable bus service that served all the rural areas.

We have lost our independence thanks to the Conservative Cabinet member for Highways and Transport, Claire Wilde, who abolished the Link service as of 8 October. It has been replaced with a community bus service.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , | 8 Comments
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