By Andy Boddington | Published Wed 12th December 2012 - 10:59 am
Today, upward of a thousand enthusiasts are descending on Westminster to demand protection for one of the nation’s great heritage assets. Beer.
The Labour government of old was unduly fond of price and tax escalators, which generally take the form of retail price index plus a bit more. I have always regarded this as a rather odd fiscal mechanism because it simply creates a circularity that feeds itself. Costs go up, the RPI duly rises, and costs go up again as a result.
It beats me why the coalition has decided to maintain this blunt policy. Fiscal escalators
By David Thorpe | Published Tue 11th December 2012 - 9:32 am
While the Chancellor’s direction of travel in relation to tackling Britain’s economic challenges is improving, his current approach will leave Britain feeling like Sisyphus, labouring hard to push a rock up a hill but never quite feeling secure that it won’t come crashing back down, destroying the hard work already undertaken.
But just as Sisyphus continued to focus on the mechanics of getting the rock up the hill, rather than indulge in any broader experiment to escape his predicament, Osborne toils at the seams of Britain’s economic malaise.
The Chancellor happily wallows in the Bank of England’s myth that giant infusions of credit from Quantitative Easing and the ‘Funding for Lending’ schemes, are any sort of remedy to Britain’s economic woes.
By NewsHound | Published Tue 4th December 2012 - 12:32 pm
In the Guardian today, Vince Cable says that he understands why people are boycotting Starbucks.
The business secretary, when asked by the Guardian if he would consider boycotting their products, said:
I don’t shop at Starbucks so this doesn’t apply to me, but I can fully understand why people would vote with their feet as a result of their tax dodging.
By Lucy Care | Published Fri 30th November 2012 - 12:51 pm
Our society is energy hungry. Cutting carbon from this diet is vital. And we mustn’t forget gas!
Decarbonising our electricity supply is an on-going hot issue, and challenging too. For example, the technology is not yet all proven – like the uncertainties of carbon capture and storage (CCS) – and for some technologies the reality is harsh – like maintaining wind turbines and tidal barrages in marine environments. There’s also the big challenge of matching a variable supply of power with actual demand.
If we don’t decarbonise our electricity effectively, then transferring from diesel locomotives and petrol cars to electric …
By Helen Duffett | Published Wed 21st November 2012 - 2:43 pm
Last month I asked for your views on the new members’ magazine to replace Liberal Democrat News.
We got loads of really good feedback and we’ve tried to get as much of it into the magazine as possible.
Of course, no one has ever made 100 per cent of Liberal Democrats happy 100 per cent of the time, but we sincerely hope AD LIB lives up to most (if not all of) your expectations.
We’re not giving away too much about the content yet, but Twitter and Facebook profiles for AD LIB are up and running and for a teaser we’ve released the front cover (above right).
I know, I know, as defenders of transparency in public life how can we justify keeping the contents secret?
By Stephen Tall | Published Wed 21st November 2012 - 8:25 am
There’s a fascinating article today in the Telegraph by George Bridges: The Tories have gone astray – and I helped. Who’s George Bridges, you ask? Here’s his summary of his political career to date:
First a researcher for the Conservative Party machine, then a tour of duty in the bunker of No 10 for the last three Major years, followed by a few years advising Michael Howard and David Cameron.
It’s a hefty 1,000-word ‘Consevatism: my part in its downfall’ mea culpa, and it’s fascinating in two ways.
First, for its call to arms for Conservatives to ignore the polling …
By Norman Lamb MP | Published Tue 13th November 2012 - 5:55 pm
The first mandate between the Government and the NHS Commissioning Board was published today, setting out the priorities for the health service over the next two years. It reaffirms our commitment to a comprehensive and universal NHS, available to all based on need rather than on your ability to pay. Its overriding aim is to make the NHS work better for patients.
The Mandate was drawn up following widespread consultation over the summer. Key goals contained within it include:
Improving standards of care, especially for the elderly
By Andy Boddington | Published Tue 13th November 2012 - 8:36 am
Vultures are circling above Lord Patten’s head – he must not resign.
George Entwistle may or may not have made a good director general of the BBC. He took over from the maverick Mark Thompson, who had wreaked havoc across the BBC with his Delivering Quality First cuts. Entwistle might just have provided a steady pair of hands to guide the BBC and rebuild its confidence after the Thompson era. But coping with the Savile crisis proved beyond him and his fate became inevitable.
By Mark Valladares | Published Fri 9th November 2012 - 9:15 am
Welcome to Dublin!
Today, for the first time, Liberal Democrat Voice comes to you live(ish) from the Annual Congress of the European Liberal Democrats (ELDR) and, although we haven’t got a full team here to cover the event – the budget doesn’t stretch that far, I fear – I am hoping to provide updates throughout the day.
Highlights will include a speech from Nick Clegg, reports from the ELDR Council, the English Council equivalent of our European umbrella group, and a major policy debate on energy and the European dimension.
So, drop in throughout the day, and feel free to watch the live …
By Caron Lindsay | Published Thu 8th November 2012 - 10:31 am
Nick Clegg’s performance at Prime Minister’s Questions has been widely commented upon in today’s press. If you want to see a blow by blow account of the event, then I have collected tweets here and the official Hansard report is here. For me, the absolute highlight of an excellent performance from Nick was how he dealt with a question by Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming, who asked a question about giving people who had been in care access to their files. Nick’s reply was sensitive and genuine as he promised help for those who had been abused.
By David Thorpe | Published Wed 7th November 2012 - 1:59 pm
One of the few tactically savvy moves made by the coalition recently has been its muted response to UK economy’s return to growth. This article examines what the return to growth means for the wider economy.
The first point to make is that, just as the double-dip phase of the recession was caused by international events, the return to growth has similarly been caused by external factors. The coalition deserves neither blame for the double-dip, nor credit for its ending.
Many of those who oppose the coalition’s economic policies on political rather than economic grounds question the validity of the …
By Paul Walter | Published Tue 6th November 2012 - 1:53 pm
It can often be a mathematical nightmare trying to work out who’s winning as US Presidential Election night progresses. Sometimes, some poor souls even end up having to rely on David Dimbleby to explain what’s going on! Poor things!
Here are three nifty tools to help you make sense of what is happening tonight:
By Mark Pack | Published Mon 5th November 2012 - 2:53 pm
Why not join hundreds of other Lib Dem Voice readers in getting our latest headlines by email?
Some people like regularly visiting a site to see if there’s new stories of interest. Some people like subscribing to its news feed (RSS) and checking that way. But if you prefer email, you can instead sign up to get a daily early morning email with a summary of the previous day’s posts from Lib Dem Voice, complete with a note of how many comments each post has got and convenient links to click on if any take your fancy and you want to take a read.
By Phil Ling | Published Thu 1st November 2012 - 9:06 am
Dundonald ward, in Merton, was awarded the “most canvassed ward in London” at the London Liberal Democrats regional conference. As one of the people co-ordinating the campaign in the ward, it was great that the hard work was recognised, but I was also a bit surprised.
Not surprised as in “can’t believe we’d won”, but surprised in the fact it didn’t feel like hard work, once the initial groundwork had been done. In reality, although there were times where we were out doing surveys, recruiting or canvassing twice a week, it averaged about once a week. The canvass teams were never huge, 3-5 people, with the
By Caron Lindsay | Published Tue 30th October 2012 - 4:40 pm
One of the moments I will never forget from the heartbreaking night of the 2011 Holyrood election was our Edinburgh Central candidate Alex Cole-Hamilton’s tweet:
Ending Labour’s horrendous policy, whereby children were locked up for indeterminate periods in horrible institutions like Yarl’s Wood and Dungavel, is one of the great things to come out of this coalition. Nobody’s saying the UK Border Agency is now perfect. Far from it. But on this, there can be no doubt that the Liberal Democrats ended an unacceptable, inhumane scandal.
By Mark Pack | Published Mon 29th October 2012 - 2:53 pm
A new set of automatically updated campaign buttons is now available for Liberal Democrat websites.
As I wrote in September, during my time working at party HQ doing online campaigning one of our most successful projects (cooked up with the help of Rob Fenwick and Martin Tod) was the ‘campaign buttons’ – a simple piece of code which let bloggers and those with other websites easily display campaign adverts and news stories from the party.
It was a great way for the party to be able to push out quickly and widely adverts for new campaigns, policy launches and the like, whilst for …
By Stephen Tall | Published Sat 27th October 2012 - 8:15 am
It’s Saturday morning, so here are eight thought-provoking articles to stimulate your thinking juices…
Why don’t we trust politicians? – The BBC’s Nick Robinson takes politicians to task, doesn’t let the media off the hook either… while Labour’s Rachel Reeves mouths platitudes.
The BBC regains its honour– Nick Cohen links the Beeb’s problems with Newsnight and Jimmy Savile to the wider question of institutional trust: ‘We ought to be extending anti-managerialism into every private and public hierarchy.’
By Tim Gordon | Published Wed 17th October 2012 - 4:04 pm
With Paddy’s appointment as Chair of the General Election Campaign, an imminent start to the 2015 manifesto process, and clarity on the GE electoral boundaries, the party has very clearly entered a new strategic phase. This requires an organisational shift to ensure that we are focused on both the 2015 General Election task ahead, as well as the series of vital elections before then.
There were five key priorities for Liberal Democrat Headquarters (LDHQ) to consider when approaching the
By Dinti Batstone | Published Mon 15th October 2012 - 2:55 pm
This has already been widely publicised through CGB’s mailing lists and at joint WLD/ CGB events in Brighton, but, for any LDV readers who may have missed it, here are details again. Please note the deadline for applications was today but has now been extended until Monday 22 October.
By Stephen Tall | Published Sat 13th October 2012 - 8:15 am
It’s Saturday morning, so here are eight thought-provoking articles to stimulate your thinking juices…
No, you’re not entitled to your opinion – Patrick Stokes at The Conversation argues that proper debate relies on contested claims based on relevant expertise: just holding to your own view ain’t enough.
By Matt Withers | Published Wed 10th October 2012 - 3:25 pm
Here’s a question which tends to get lost amid the heat and noise generated around the issue of Lords reform – what do the members of the second chamber actually do?
Or at least, what are the Liberal Democrat peers doing on a daily basis? And this isn’t meant in a facetious way. Unless you’re in the gainful employment of the party’s peers, or a broken leg has left you with far too much time in front of BBC Parliament, chances are you might not know how the Lords are working to ensure that every piece of legislation which crosses their …
By Ruth Bright | Published Mon 8th October 2012 - 12:54 pm
The Abortion Act 1967 Act was passed when I was nine months old. Women of my generation have grown up believing our rights were safe and our bodies were our own. Even those who had never heard of a backbench MP named David Steel had reason to be grateful to him for ensuring that women could not be forced by the state to continue with pregnancies they did not want.
Women of my generation and others now have to wake up and realise that the settlement, we thought was so safe, is no longer. Thanks to the Coalition, the Health Service is now in the hands of
By Mark Pack | Published Fri 5th October 2012 - 9:03 pm
Why not join hundreds of other Lib Dem Voice readers in getting our latest headlines by email?
Some people like regularly visiting a site to see if there’s new stories of interest. Some people like subscribing to its news feed (RSS) and checking that way. However if you prefer email, you can instead sign up to get a daily early morning email with a summary of the previous day’s posts from Lib Dem Voice, complete with a note of how many comments each post has got and convenient links to click on if any take your fancy and you want to take a read.
By Tim Farron MP | Published Fri 5th October 2012 - 3:53 pm
As I said in my speech to our conference in Brighton, wherever I go I find Liberal Democrats who are infinitely more upbeat, positive and determined than anyone in the media thinks we should be. We have every right to be upbeat.
Never have our Liberal Democrat voices and values been so important. Never have Liberal Democrat victories been so necessary. Britain needs the Liberal Democrats more than ever. I know that together we can do this. We can make Britain fairer, greener and more liberal.
As I watch Labour (or ‘blank page’ as I call them at the moment!) in Manchester, …
By Geoff Crocker | Published Tue 2nd October 2012 - 8:45 am
Nick Clegg’s conference speech committed Lib Dems to manage debt out of the economy and implement a fair tax regime. But the objectives of economic policy often conflict with each other.
Let’s take it that there are three objectives for current economic policy:
to reduce deficit and the debt it accumulates
to inject demand into the economy
to have a fair tax system
In the following table, I’ve had a try at evaluating recent and proposed economic policies against these objectives.
A baby in a sling makes an amazing Conference icebreaker. Over the five days I lost count of the number of people who stopped to admire my darling and ask questions, to the point where occasionally I gave the answers without being asked (“11 weeks”, “Nicholas”, “no, not after the Leader, after his father’s uncle). During the day, when I wasn’t carrying him, I frequently got stopped and asked “where’s your baby?”
By Mark Pack | Published Sun 30th September 2012 - 12:50 pm
If so, I’ve got a question for you. Below is the text of an email sent out by 38 Degrees following their lobbying campaign around Liberal Democrat conference.
The lobbying itself – over the climate change debate – was pretty well done, in particular firing up supporters to want to lobby the Liberal Democrats – but doing so without throwing the sort of brickbats at the party that would make the lobbying less likely to be effective. (It’s a common problem with lobbying campaigns: you whip up an audience by saying the target is evil, and then found the said recipient …
By Mark Pack | Published Wed 26th September 2012 - 10:34 am
Tax, tax and a bit more about tax: that’s been the main theme of the Liberal Democrat conference, from the slogan on badges and the banner outside the building through to the content of speeches and the main policy focus of the media coverage.
When it comes to new policy announcements, however, it is education that has had a strong showing.
By Mark Pack | Published Sun 23rd September 2012 - 12:45 pm
News snippets from today:
Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show this morning, the Liberal Democrat leader ruled out the possibility of the Government filling the gap in public finances through cuts to the welfare budget – something reportedly being mooted on the Conservative benches.
He said the Government would “start at the top and work down”, and was optimistic about his chances of persuading his Conservative colleagues to agree to a so-called ‘wealth tax’.
Cable said that introducing regional pay was “completely unacceptable” and “terrible economics”. He said that although the Lib Dems were prepared to contemplate a measure of public sector pay
By Helen Duffett | Published Sat 22nd September 2012 - 7:33 pm
Nominations for the Liberal Democrats’ Blog of the Year Awards 2012 closed on 14 September. Since then, the judges, Kirsty Williams (Assembly Member for Brecon and Radnorshire and Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats), Nick Thornsby (Lib Dem Blogger of the Year 2011), Tim Gatt (ITV News Digital Output Editor), Stephen Tall (Co-Editor, Lib Dem Voice), Alan Muhammed (Lib Dem Voice’s social media manager), & Helen Duffett (that’s me – Co-Editor (Associate) Lib Dem Voice) have been poring over the entries for the five categories.
It’s been a big task, and a fun one, to distil so many excellent examples of Lib Dem blogging and e-campaigning into lists of the best.
Congratulations if you’ve been shortlisted, but if you haven’t: remember that the shortlists are based on the judges’ subjective opinions. The awards are intended to be a fun way to celebrate the talent in the Lib Dem blogosphere, whilst introducing you to some blogs you might not have read before.
Next, a plug for the awards ceremony itself. If you’re at party conference in Brighton, do come along to the Pavilion Room, Grand Hotel, Brighton, from 9.45pm tonight, Saturday 22nd September.
Now, without further ado, here are the shortlists: (Drumroll, please)
Steve Trevethan Might we have a definition of government debt?
Might we have a definition of democracy?...
David Raw @ Tristan Ward. Given your views on carers, I would strongly advise you to remain healthy and not to grow old....
Katrin Harding Thanks for grasping this issue! On the consultation sessions- I’d love to join one but the timings are impossible as a parent of young children. I’m happy t...
Peter Martin @ Kira,
The words you quoted were from Peter Davies'. Not me. I wouldn't agree with raising VAT on energy to 15% right now. I'd leave it as is.
The point ...
Peter Martin “‘why can’t social care and NHS spending be treated as ‘investment’’. Of course, that wont wash”.
I'd agree if were talking about re...
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Are Labour going to cross another red line?
Martin Wainwright's Guardian obituary of Michael Meadowcroft
Evaluating different electoral systems for the House of Commons
Steve Trevethan 
David Raw 
Katrin Harding 
Peter Martin 