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Tom Fewins

The Independent View: Liberal Democrats – nature needs you!

By Tom Fewins | Published Sat 22nd September 2012 - 10:25 am

A majestic soaring eagle. The lightning flash of a kingfisher. Feeding the ducks.

For most people, wildlife ignites their first sparks of interest in environmental issues, yet it is currently conspicuously absent from the political discourse. We hear a lot about sustainability and climate change, but if this Government is to realise its ambitions to be “the Greenest Government ever” it has to tackle biodiversity conservation as well.

We desperately need action: the UK has missed its commitment to halt biodiversity loss by 2010; 42% of our most important habitats and …

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Posted in Conference, Op-eds, The Independent View | Tagged , , | 1 Comment
Andreas Christodoulou

Opinion: The Sun has clearly boobed on this issue of free speech

By Andreas Christodoulou | Published Sun 16th September 2012 - 1:55 pm

I’m frankly disgusted that The Sun has decreed that I have a right to see Prince Harry’s penis, but not Kate Middleton’s nipples. I fail to understand how my being unable to see Prince Harry naked is somehow a disgusting breach of the freedom of speech of the UK press but my being unable to see Kate Middleton naked is completely correct because this is a hideous invasion of her privacy.

Let us briefly review. Prince Harry was happily naked in a hotel room where he had a reasonable expectation of privacy, someone took photos of him from a short distance …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , | 25 Comments
The Voice

Cable and Balls cosy sofa body language – while Cable is (reportedly) at loggerheads with his Tory minister

By The Voice | Published Mon 10th September 2012 - 3:04 pm

There is wall-to-wall Cable in the papers today.

Vince Cable will make a statement in the Commons this afternoon about industrial strategy.

The Telegraph says he will “hold the hand” of certain growth industries and encourage them to have a “Team GB” mentality – Learn from Team GB’s success, Cable tells businesses.

The FT says Cable will light a “red tape bonfire“.

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Posted in News | Tagged | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

By Mark Pack | Published Tue 4th September 2012 - 3:50 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.

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Stephen Tall

Reshuffle round-up: it looks like good news for Swinson & Laws

By Stephen Tall | Published Mon 27th August 2012 - 12:00 pm

There’s been plenty of reshuffle chit-chat overt the past few weeks, much of it speculative. However, the Sunday papers appears to included some pretty well-sourced information which went beyond the usual space-filling ‘who knows?’, and appears to suggest good news for both Jo Swinson and David Laws — both of whom enjoyed strong support in our recent survey of members’ preferred back-bencher promotions.

First, The Observer reported that David Cameron’s reshuffle will bring whips back to the fore, with an enhanced whips office incorporating both old-handers and young-turks to help the Tory leader re-assert a grip on his increasingly …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , | 61 Comments
Sara Bedford

The English Baccalaureate is a Mickey Mouse qualification

By Sara Bedford | Published Fri 24th August 2012 - 1:35 pm

Almost two years ago, a fortnight after my daughter confirmed her GCSE choices; Michael Gove announced his latest bright idea for the nation’s schoolchildren. The English Baccalaureate was originally intended to ‘be the equivalent of the old School Leaving Certificate’, but the EBacc, as it became known, has turned into just another of Gove’s personal follys, greeted with less than lukewarm enthusiasm by pupils, teachers, parents and employers.

I’m all for pupils studying a good range of subjects, at a level that reflects their abilities and supports their future studies and career paths. But the EBacc does nothing for pupils or schools, except provide another stick to beat them with, as Gove always intended. The cat has been let permanently out of the DfE bag with the ‘clarification’ that the EBacc is intended as ‘a performance measure’ and ‘not a qualification in its own right’.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , | 24 Comments
Caron Lindsay

That poll on Nick’s leadership – what the papers say

By Caron Lindsay | Published Thu 23rd August 2012 - 4:25 pm

Strangely, that Liberal Democrat Voice poll which showed that members were split 47%-46% on whether Nick Clegg should still be Liberal Democrat leader at the next election has attracted a bit of coverage in the press.

The Guardian suggests that:

Clegg is vulnerable because he is seen as one of the few people at the top of the party who is ideologically sympathetic to the Conservatives.

Well, that’s maybe because Polly Toynbee and the Guardian are always trying to paint him that way. David Cameron, on the other hand, who is probably in a better position to judge, is

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments
Stephen Tall

Review: 101 Ways To Win An Election by Mark Pack & Edward Maxfield

By Stephen Tall | Published Sun 19th August 2012 - 1:25 pm

101 Ways To Win An Election is a welcome and pleasant surprise.

Now that might seem a lukewarm introduction to a review of a book co-written by my co-editor Mark Pack, together with fellow Lib Dem Edward Maxfield. But it’s not intended to be either ironic or half-hearted because what makes this book such an excellent guide to political campaigning is that it succeeds in being a whole lot more than that.

In fact, its 308 pacy pages cheerfully zig-zag between marketing manual, self-help book, and campaigning A-Z — with dollops of political history, pop-psychology, and behavioural economics thrown in for good measure.

The authors have clearly put a lot of thought into creating a book which people will actually want to read — and to re-read — on a subject many but the most obsessed political aficionado might initially dismiss as dull and boring.

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Posted in Books | Tagged , | 2 Comments
The Voice

The LDV Friday Five: 17 August 2012

By The Voice | Published Fri 17th August 2012 - 5:00 pm

It’s Friday. It’s five o’clock. Here’s a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week:

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

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Stephen Tall

69% of Lib Dem members say London right to bid to host the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics

By Stephen Tall | Published Sat 11th August 2012 - 8:55 am

Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum recently to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 500 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

11.5% swing in favour of the Olympics among Lib Dem members!

LDV asked: All things considered and with the benefit of hindsight, do you think London should or should not have bid to host the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games? (Compared with June 2012 results in brackets.)

    69% (+12%) – It should
    23% (-11%) – It should not
    8% (-2%) – Don’t

…

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged , , | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

By Mark Pack | Published Fri 10th August 2012 - 10:45 am

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.

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NewsHound

LibLink: Chris Rennard – Failure to deliver Lords reform will not threaten the coalition

By NewsHound | Published Sat 4th August 2012 - 9:05 am

Over at the Guardian, former Lib Dem chief executive Lord (Chris) Rennard has argued that the fall of Lords reform would be a blow to Lib Dems, but that it was not the key aspect of the coalition agreement to voters:

Failure to deliver on the most important aspects of constitutional reform would, of course, be a bitter blow to Liberal Democrats. But the party will also recognise that the constitutional package within the coalition agreement was not the most important aspect of it to the voters, nor was it nearly as important as the state of the economy as

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , | 3 Comments
Stephen Tall

++ Clegg to announce Lords reform sunk; Tory rebels defeat Cameron; first breach of Coalition Agreement.

By Stephen Tall | Published Fri 3rd August 2012 - 8:44 pm

The Guardian reports tonight:

Nick Clegg is expected to announce next week he has been forced to abandon Lords reform in the face of implacable Conservative backbench opposition that David Cameron has been unable to overcome. … Clegg has to decide whether to respond to the Lords rebuff by insisting legislation designed to cut the number of MPs to 600 should be abandoned. The change is being promoted by Cameron as a way of cutting the cost of politics and equalising the electoral size of constituencies.

Lord Rennard, the Liberal Democrat peer and former party chief executive, denied the reverse on

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , | 55 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Vince v Osborne – the battle for RBS’s future

By Caron Lindsay | Published Thu 2nd August 2012 - 2:26 pm

The future of the Royal Bank of Scotland is back in the headlines today.

The Financial Times reports that ministers are discussing buying the remaining shares in RBS, bringing it fully under state control. This would allow them to force it to lend more to viable small and medium-sized businesses  without having to worry about other shareholders challenging such a direction in the courts.

The Guardian reports that Liberal Democrat   Vince Cable is the driving force behind this plan. He believes that it’s the only way to get money to businesses.

What we do know, and Vince Cable confirmed when taking …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , | 18 Comments
Paul Walter

Menzies Campbell in celebration of Olympians in Parliament

By Paul Walter | Published Thu 2nd August 2012 - 10:54 am

BBC Parliament has shown a documentary, “First past the post”, which celebrates parliamentarians who are Olympians. Needless to say, our own Sir Menzies Campbell, once one of the fastest men on the planet, is featured liberally in the programme.

Menzies reveals the exotic mixture which his mother used to feed him on race days, and shows viewers his old team blazer. He tells us he can still get into it, but the buttons don’t do up.

Until the end of …

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The Voice

Lib Dems push for ‘blind marking’ to level the playing field for ethnic communities

By The Voice | Published Tue 31st July 2012 - 3:10 pm

The Observer this weekend reported on the Lib Dems’ latest attempts to push for more equal treatment of citizens from different ethnic backgrounds:

Ministers are seeking to introduce “blind marking” of pupils’ schoolwork by teachers as part of a push to tackle a history of underachievement among black and ethnic minority groups, while banks will be required to carry out ethnic monitoring of people to whom they lend money. Under the proposals, the identities of pupils would not be a factor when teachers mark work, and banks could be held accountable for the racial profile of their customers. The controversial

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , | 33 Comments
Giles Goodall

Opinion: Brussels vs. the banksters

By Giles Goodall | Published Sat 28th July 2012 - 1:21 pm

European Parliament building European Parliament building

Almost no-one in the UK would these days dispute the fact that the country’s banking sector needs a serious overhaul to correct the runaway behaviour which helped nudge Britain (and others) into the financial crisis. The Liberal Democrats have rightly been most persistent in demanding reforms, in particular a break-up of retail and casino banking, as recommended by the independent Vickers Inquiry.

The latest scandal about fixing the benchmark Libor interest rate plumbs new depths – even by the standards of Britain’s banks. Here were …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , | 14 Comments
Craig Bennett

The Independent View: Will Osborne gas the Lib Dems’ green credentials?

By Craig Bennett | Published Fri 27th July 2012 - 9:05 am

Ed Davey’s announced this week that he’d secured an important concession from the Chancellor over wind farm subsidies – but at what cost?

Although there was understandable relief over the certainty this move gave to investors in clean British energy it seems the victory may have come with a hefty price tag: an agreement to burden our electricity system with dirty and increasingly expensive gas for decades to come – despite the enormous damage this could cause to both the economy and planet.

Ed Davey’s success in securing a 10 per cent cut in wind farm subsidies – to reflect the …

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Posted in Op-eds, The Independent View | Tagged , , , | 21 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Vince in Edinburgh – what the members said.

By Caron Lindsay | Published Thu 26th July 2012 - 2:33 pm

Edinburgh was spoiled last weekend. Not only was there a Madonna concert and a performance of the Hitch Hikers’ Guide to the Galaxy radio show (which I went to), but Business Secretary Vince Cable answered questions from Liberal Democrat members on Sunday evening.

Readers will be glad to see former Edinburgh West MP John Barrett, sufficiently recovered from illness and on his usual sparkling form, chairing the session.

Vince answered questions for well over an hour on subjects ranging from renewable energy to high executive pay to winning back …

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Mark Pack

Local liberal heroes: Flick Rea

By Mark Pack | Published Thu 26th July 2012 - 10:25 am

A while back, I penned a series of posts profiling forgotten liberal heroes (to which a couple of other people also kindly contributed), looking at some of those who achieved great things for liberalism in their time but have been unjustly forgotten – such as Margaret Wintringham, the very first female Liberal MP.

There is also another group of people who I think are often unjustly obscure – those local campaigners who are often at the heart of their local community and local party, delivering liberalism and helping others, but as their stage is a local one they are often unacknowledged in the wider party.

Today it is the turn of Camden councillor Flick Rea.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , | 4 Comments
Paul Walter

Opinion: Vince Cable’s leadership comments are unwelcome

By Paul Walter | Published Mon 23rd July 2012 - 8:54 am

A few months ago we received advice from Tim Montgomerie:

… you need to change party leader. Not now. Not, I suggest, until 2014. But you can’t go into the next election with Nick Clegg at the top of your ticket.

OK, on that occasion, the advice was asked for in the form of an invitation to write for this esteemed website.

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Posted in News | 47 Comments
Stephen Tall

In other news… Trident, MI6, DECC, defections & other stories

By Stephen Tall | Published Sun 22nd July 2012 - 5:25 pm

Here’s a round-up of stories we haven’t had time to cover on the site this past few days…

Coalition set for new split on cut-price Trident plan (Scotsman)

COALITION splits over Britain’s nuclear deterrent are set to be reopened after an internal Ministry of Defence review suggested a slimmed-down version of the £25 billion Trident replacement could be an option. … The report, led by Lib Dem armed forces minister Nick Harvey, looks set to reopen coalition divisions with many Tory back-benchers concerned that Britain’s replacement for Trident could end up being sacrificed for political reasons. However, with final decisions not

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments
Michael Moore

Michael Moore’s Westminster Notes

By Michael Moore | Published Wed 18th July 2012 - 9:25 am

Every week Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore writes a column for newspapers in his Borders constituency. Here’s this week’s edition.

Farming

It has been a challenging few months for farmers here in the Borders with the extreme weather putting pressure on feed and bedding supplies and causing untold damage to crops and disruption to livestock. We have also heard the worrying news that processors are aggressively cutting the price they pay to our dairy farmers at the farm gate. These cuts are extremely disappointing because they appear to fly in the face of rising prices in global markets …

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Paul Haydon

Opinion: Britain and the EU-Liberal Democrats need to help reduce the democratic deficit

By Paul Haydon | Published Tue 17th July 2012 - 4:14 pm

Following the launch of the Balance of Competences review of EU powers last week, the next major debate within the coalition looks set to be over Britain’s relationship with Europe. Nick Clegg has emphasised that the review should not be used as a way to exploit the eurozone crisis and carve out a special EU deal forBritain. However, many Tory eurosceptics will no doubt view it as a platform to push for a significant repatriation of powers, in the run-up to an eventual referendum on EU …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 36 Comments
The Liberator Collective

New edition of Liberator

By The Liberator Collective | Published Tue 17th July 2012 - 11:05 am

 

The latest issue of Liberator magazine (issue no.354 – July 2012) was mailed to subscribers last week. If by chance you have not yet got round to taking out a subscription, here’s a summary of the contents:

  • The editorial column Commentary calls for tougher bank regulation in the wake of the Barclays scandal. It also calls on the party’s Federal Finance and Administration Committee to produce the evidence for its decision to defy both the conference and the Federal Conference Committee and persist with police accreditation for conference representatives.
  • The insider

…

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Posted in News | Tagged | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

How Jeremy Thorpe (and then Nick Clegg) broke the electoral system

By Stephen Tall | Published Sun 15th July 2012 - 2:45 pm

Democratic Audit this week published its latest analysis, its depressing conclusions summed up by The Guardian’s headline British democracy in terminal decline.

A fascinating aspect of the Audit, even for those of us still scarred by the rejection of electoral reform in the 2011 referendum, is its detailed dissection of how the First-Past-The-Post system is failing democracy. And in particular the pinpointing of the year when FPTP started to go bad: 1974, and the Liberal insurgence under Jeremy Thorpe, when the party increased its support from 7.5% in 1970 to 19.3%.

This, say the Audit’s authors, marked a turning point in the UK’s electoral history, a moment when ended the dominance of the ‘Golden Age’ of FPTP (1950-70) and introduced instead its ‘Dysfunctional Age’ (1979-2005):

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , | 41 Comments
The Voice

LDVideo: Introducing the Land Value Tax

By The Voice | Published Sat 14th July 2012 - 3:05 pm

The Liberal Democrat campaign for Action on Land Tax and Economic reform has recently released a new video to explain the virtues of a Land Value Tax — described by ALTER as ‘making taxation more progressive and addressing the injustice of economic rent, it would encourage development and boost the economy. It’s the kind of measure that our country is in desperate need of right now.’

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Posted in YouTube | Tagged , | 78 Comments
Paul Burstow

Paul Burstow MP writes… Radically reforming social care

By Paul Burstow | Published Wed 11th July 2012 - 12:55 pm

Most of you will have a friend or family member who needs some kind of care and support to help them get through the day.

In fact, more than 80% of us will need some form of care once we turn 65 – which is why getting social care right is so important.

It’s important because it touches upon some of the most essential things in life, like being healthy, happy and independent.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , | 12 Comments
Mark Pack

How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

By Mark Pack | Published Sun 8th July 2012 - 9:25 am

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.

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Stephen Tall

Lib Dems should back a judge-led inquiry into financial scandal

By Stephen Tall | Published Wed 4th July 2012 - 10:55 pm

I get why the Tories are opposed to a judge-led inquiry into the scandalous rate-rigging practices employed by Barclays and other banks: their experiences of the Leveson Inquiry show how scandals, even ones that blend across the red/blue parties, have a habit of rebounding on the government of the day.

I get why Labour are in favour of a judge-led inquiry: so complicit were Labour (and Ed Balls in particular) in the catastrophic financial mess of the last few years, of which the banks are just one part, that they are desperate to appear transparent in the hope the inquiry will rebound on the government of the day.

But I don’t get why the Lib Dems are lining up with the Tories to oppose a judge-led inquiry.

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Posted in News, Op-eds | Tagged , , , , , | 58 Comments
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Recent Comments

  • 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...