By Nick T | Published Mon 7th March 2011 - 5:25 pm
There’s what you might think is a somewhat over-the-top headline on Dominic Carman’s piece on the Daily Mail website detailing his experience as the Liberal Democrat candidate in last week’s by-election in Barnsley Central, but after having read the piece it seems somewhat less hyperbolic. Barnsley is not natural Liberal Democrat territory – the content of Dominic’s article will demonstrate why. You couldn’t invent a better example of a Labour stronghold if you tried, and the historic and deep hatred of the Conservative party by many in such seats means campaigning there as a Liberal Democrat now is especially tough.
By Mark Pack | Published Mon 7th March 2011 - 8:55 am
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 Simon Beard | Published Fri 25th February 2011 - 10:17 am
After voting in elections, I doubt there is any civic duty more important than responding to the decennial census. The information it provides to governments for policy making is vital, and often very revealing. It simply is not mentioned enough, but the last time a census was taken, back in 2001, it was found that the population was over a million people smaller than predicted in 2000, and that estimates of the population growth rate, which fueled national hysteria about immigration in the late 1990s were twice what they should have been.
By Mark Pack | Published Thu 17th February 2011 - 10:25 am
After last month’s trip down memory lane looking at how internet campaigning worked in Brent East in the 2003 by-election, here is the piece I wrote for the Hansard Society after the 2001 general election (when I ran the Liberal Democrat online campaign). As with the Brent piece, it shows how many principles have stayed the same even as different internet phases have come and gone. And no, the power to draw up sensible imprint rules for the online world mentioned below still hasn’t been used.
Introduction
Perhaps the most notable Internet innovation during the 2001 general election was the ability …
By Jeremy Browne MP | Published Mon 14th February 2011 - 5:23 pm
I am instinctively very supportive of the Big Society. But it is not a new concept and I have another name for it. I call it liberalism.
My liberalism is a belief that power should start at the bottom and feed upwards. It is about personal empowerment, choice and, sometimes, quirky individualism. It is about self-pride, community and, often, a suspicion of authority. It is human in scale and organic in its development.
I have a nervous attentiveness to the need to protect this precious but delicate grassroots liberalism from the steam-roller of the overbearing state. What my liberalism is emphatically not is authoritarian or bleakly conformist. It does not idealise the placing of power at the top in the hands of the mighty and then working downwards. It is instinctively unsettled by orthodoxy and drab uniformity.
By Donald Reid | Published Mon 14th February 2011 - 4:10 pm
Now that the UK’s 1400 top scientists have spoken (“Climate Change, A summary of the science” from the Royal Society), there’s no longer any doubt that human activity is a significant cause of the steady warming of the planet over the last hundred years. So, unless we change our habits, we face an increasingly unstable climate, with rising sea levels and worsening floods and droughts leading to major disruption to food production. With the predicted rise in world population from six to ten billion by 2050, it is clear that humanity is in serious trouble.
1. What’s your formative political memory?
A toss up between my Mum voting in favour of joining Europe in the referendum and my Dad feeling agitated about and improving workers rights in industry.
2. When did you start blogging?
In January, so please be gentle with me! (though all constructive feedback from fellow LibDems welcome).
3. Why did you start blogging?
Have been thinking of doing it for some time, as occasionally you need a few more words than Twitter or broadcasting allows – plus the New Statesman asked me!
4. What five words would you use to describe your blog?
Politics, liberalism, media, coalition, punditry.
5. What five words would you use to describe your political views?
Liberal – that is all.
6. Which post have you most liked writing in the last year (and why)?
As a total novice there is little to choose from. However I enjoyed having a pop at the Daily Telegraph in this one about Nick Clegg’s Red Box.
7. Which post have you most liked reading in the last year (and why)?
I thought this was the most astounding blog of 2010. It’s by Peter Watt, former General Secretary to the Labour Party, and it summed up in so many ways why working with Labour right now would be such a challenge because, as Peter describes, they currently have an inability to listen and struggle to believe that others in politics wish to do good.
8. What’s your favourite YouTube clip?
God would love to do something political but I LOVE this Virgin Atlantic ad soooooooooo beautifully done I could watch it over and over. Enjoy!
By Mark Pack | Published Sun 13th February 2011 - 8:55 am
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 Prateek Buch | Published Thu 10th February 2011 - 2:20 pm
Prime Minister David Cameron’s speech on security and tackling terrorism in Munich in has re-ignited a debate over whether ethnic and racial segregation is the root cause of so-called home-grown terrorism, in particular the species that manifested itself so tragically on July 7th 2005 in London. Given my ethnicity (I’m the UK-born son of Hindu Indian immigrants) you may expect me to be apoplectic over the tone and content of Cameron’s rhetoric; at least I should be according to Labour’s Sadiq Khan MP, who accused the PM of ‘writing propaganda for the English Defence League.’ Yet I find …
By Stephen Tall | Published Mon 31st January 2011 - 9:58 am
Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum recently to discover what Lib Dem members think of a variety of key issues, and what you make of the Lib Dems’ and Government’s performance to date. Over 660 party members responded, and we’ve been publishing the full results of our survey over the past couple of weeks.
Today, in the final part of our survey, we focus on the performances of the leading lights of the Liberal Democrats — those of our MPs in the cabinet, those occupying ministerial positions, and other leading Lib Dems:
For the first time since his election as leader of the Labour party, I found myself agreeing with Ed Miliband during Prime Minister’s Questions this week.
With his new Shadow Chancellor sat next to him and in response to the news earlier in the week that the economy had contracted by 0.5% during the final quarter of 2010, Miliband urged David Cameron to think again over the upcoming spending cuts and VAT rise.
To make matters worse for the Coalition, the outgoing director-general of the CBI accused the government of putting politics before growth. Sir Richard Lambert argued that “politics …
By Jason Mehmet | Published Wed 19th January 2011 - 2:06 pm
The last article I wrote conjoured up a utopian vision of Liberal Democrat e-campaigning. However, it might not be a realistic aim for individuals or groups who lack social media expertise, or time, to develop a fully fledged social media presence. How, then, should Liberal Democrats prioritise the different elements of social media?
The first choice is an absolute no-brainer. If you do nothing else, start a Facebook page. Don’t mistake a Facebook ‘group’ for a Facebook ‘page’. Though they share some features, they are different beasts. A local Party group should have an ‘official’ Facebook page. Individuals may …
By Mark Pack | Published Wed 19th January 2011 - 12:25 pm
A press release from the Local Government Boundary Commission for Wales explains,
The Minister for Social Justice and Local Government has announced that he will not be making any changes to the present electoral arrangements for any local authorities in Wales until after the 2012 local government elections.
However, despite this the Local Government Boundary Commission for Wales is pressing ahead with some of its boundary reviews, with draft proposals for County Borough of Caerphilly published on Monday and feedback requested by 22 March. The reviews for Wrexham are also continuing, but those for Swansea are on hold after their proposals …
By Jason Mehmet | Published Mon 17th January 2011 - 2:33 pm
The internet is a regular topic on LibDem Voice and one of the most incisive comments I’ve seen about the how the internet applies to the Liberal Democrats was written here:
…at a local level – whether for council or parliamentary elections – email and Facebook, blogs and Twitter, websites and YouTube can each make a real difference to an individual candidate’s campaigning efforts, offering them the chance to motivate supporters, and communicate directly with voters. None of these are a replacement for regular Focus leaflets and door-to-door personal contact; but they are an increasingly essential addition to our traditional
By Mark Pack | Published Wed 12th January 2011 - 8:55 am
In November I blogged my suggestions for how the party’s internal election rules should be changed. In brief – fewer restrictions on candidates and voters being able to talk about the contests and who they support, more leeway for online campaigning and a series of steps to encourage more debate and discussion within the party about the elections and merits of candidates. The last point was fuelled by my experience of standing (successfully) for the Interim Peers Panel – and being asked almost no policy questions by voters in the process.
Following the federal committee, interim peers panel and …
By Richard Clare | Published Sun 9th January 2011 - 12:50 pm
With the looming by-election in Oldham East & Saddleworth and each candidate eager to win, with each of their respective parties hoping to be able to boast about the win for years to come, I’d imagine the people of OE&S are probably scratching their heads. A Labour party that endorsed the Phil Woolas who combined pretty much everything we hate about politicians in his lies intended to stir racial tensions? A Liberal Democrat party that, let’s be honest, is not the most glamorous of groups at the moment, still reeling from scandals and broken pledges? A Conservative party barely even …
By Stuart Bonar | Published Thu 6th January 2011 - 2:32 pm
The Government should have stuck to its guns, and ended its relationship with Booktrust.
There was never any withdrawal of funding or cut as far as I can tell. The last government signed a time-limited deal with the charity to dish out books to children of various ages. That contract is due to come to an end next April, and the Coalition has always had every intention of honouring that contract.
From the media coverage and the reaction of some, you might imagine that instead of not renewing a contract, the Coalition had instead decided to indulge in human …
By Mark Pack | Published Wed 5th January 2011 - 10:25 am
Building up traffic to a local party or councillor website is much like building up a delivery network: it brings big benefits, but it’s not the sort of thing you can do overnight. They are both best achieved by making slow and steady progress over a period of time.
Steadily work your way down the list over the next couple of months and by the time this May’s election campaigns proper kick off you should really notice the difference.
Make sure the site is listed:there are numerous websites and blog directories, but generally only two really matter for political sites: DMOZ …
By Stephen Tall | Published Tue 4th January 2011 - 1:58 pm
Today’s increase in VAT from 17.5% to 20% — announced in the Coalition’s emergency budget last year — has triggered a fresh burst of opportunism criticism from Labour. The “wrong tax at the wrong time” claims their leader Ed Miliband.
How Labour’s last Chancellor backed a VAT rise
I suspect there’s a Labour MP we won’t be hearing from today, though: Alistair Darling*, Chancellor until the party’s defeat in May. As Mark Pack noted here last July, Mr Darling was a strong advocate of increasing the rate of VAT in order to tackle the UK’s massive deficit, with The …
By Stephen Tall | Published Sun 2nd January 2011 - 5:58 pm
… We’d say a big thank you to the 51,153 ‘absolute unique visitors’* who read Liberal Democrat Voice in December.
That’s a notch down on our November figure of c.59,000, but almost double the equivalent figure for December ’09 of c.27,000.
Incidentally, if you’re wondering why we publish our readership figures — is it show-off vanity, or pedantic statophilia — I came up with a few reasons at the start of last year. The arguments still stack up, I think.
The 5 top-read stories during the month were:
By The Voice | Published Sat 25th December 2010 - 5:45 pm
Throughout the festive season, LDV is offering our readers a load of repeats another chance to read the 12 most popular opinion articles which have appeared on the blog since 1st January, 2010. The twelfth most-read LDV op-ed of 2010 was by LDV co-editor Stephen Tall, and originally appeared on 1st September …
Half a defence of Paul Staines (aka @guidofawkes)
My Voice colleague Iain Roberts has already blogged about this afternoon’s big political news that William Hague’s special advisor Christopher Myers has quit his post following allegations — vehemently denied by both — that they might be having an affair. …
By Antony Hook | Published Thu 23rd December 2010 - 12:53 pm
The Sunday Times(£) has played echo for anonymous “Downing Street sources” briefing that “if it looks like he will lose his Sheffield Hallam seat, there will be an emergency exit strategy which could see him land one the big jobs in Brussels” namely becoming a Member of the Commission.
The “Downing Street source” behind this must not have Nick Clegg’s or the Liberal Democrats’ interests at heart. It feeds the narrative of “Nick Clegg under siege” of which “Nick Clegg may lose his seat” is the hyperbolic epitome.
Nick Clegg would be extremely well qualified for the Commission, although …
By Mark Pack | Published Sun 19th December 2010 - 9:55 am
Over the summer we reported the welcome news that Transport for London was making more of its data available for others to reuse:
It’s a smart move because it means the emphasis on working out how to make best use of the data shifts from TfL to the wider commercial sector. That means people can experiment (and fail) in a way that is much harder when politicians, media (and yes, bloggers) are looking over your shoulder waiting to shout “Waste of public money!” if an idea doesn’t pan out. It also means that Transport for London can concentrate on what it is (or should be) good at – running transport services, whilst letting those who are good at developing data services and marrying up different commercial ideas can do what they’re good at.
By Mark Pack | Published Sun 19th December 2010 - 8:55 am
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 Alan Riley | Published Fri 17th December 2010 - 10:55 am
Liberal Democrats should not give up the battleground of higher education finance just yet. The Party should counter-attack by arguing the case within the Coalition for substantial maintenance grants for students paid out of cutting university bureaucracy and cross-subsidy from foreign students. The Party will have to take on the red tape merchants of British higher education and the immigration obsessives in parts of the Conservative Party. However, taking on bureaucrats and right wing obsessives in the cause of student grants is a far better place from which to win the higher education argument.
By Mark Pack | Published Wed 15th December 2010 - 8:55 am
Many Liberal Democrat councillors and campaigners have both a Twitter account and a Facebook profile alongside their blog or website. Linking the three together efficiently can greatly increase the political impact of them individually, especially as many people find that Twitter is one of the best ways of driving traffic and Facebook one of the best places to get comments, whilst it’s on their website that is more convenient for longer or more detailed content. With each having a different role, how best then to put all three together?
The basic option that many people go for is to have a …
If you’re reading this, you’re probably a regular lurker around the blogosphere and the longer, cleverer articles on media websites. You may even go further than that and comment occasionally, “Digg”, share or “like” postings on Facebook. And if you’re very clever with your RSS reader, you may have found a way of getting some of the better quality content to come to you …
By Adam Bell | Published Sat 4th December 2010 - 2:52 pm
Our political discourse has become increasingly dominated by insubstantial ‘buzzwords’ like ‘fairness’ and ‘progressive’ to the point where discussions about politics have begun to focus less on policy differences and more on how these words are to be used. Truly, British politics has entered an era in which the works of Wittgenstein are more relevant to the debate than any properly political philosopher or theorist.
This is perhaps exemplified by the debate within our party over the meaning of the word ‘fairness’. Prompted by Nick Clegg’s Hugo Young lecture, the Social Liberal Forum (SLF) recently wrote in an article here on LDV concerning this subject, and claimed that it means:
“…that society is fairer when absolute poverty is eliminated, the gap between rich and poor is reduced and where people can rise (and fall) through the income hierarchy regardless of their starting point.”
On this definition, fairness is a question of outcomes, rather than principle. It is a term subsidiary to the moral principles that dictate which outcomes are to count as good, and which assign values to the decisions made by individuals inasmuch as they move towards those outcomes.
I am going to argue that this definition is incorrect, that it speaks to an undeveloped concept of liberalism, and that adherence to it will result in our subsumption into a Labour Party moving inexorably rightwards. I will then sketch out a new definition of fairness that aims to avoid these consequences.
By Stephen Tall | Published Thu 2nd December 2010 - 7:45 am
… We’d say a big thank you to the 59,273 ‘absolute unique visitors’* who read Liberal Democrat Voice in November.
That’s a notch down on our October figure of c.63,000, but double the equivalent figure for November ’09 of c.29,000.
https://www.libdemvoice.org/wp-admin/post-new.php
This brings our absolute unique visitor readership for the last year to date (1 Dec 2009 – 30 Nov 2010) to 733,459, getting on for double the equivalent figure for 2008-09 of 333,175.
The 5 top-read stories during the month were:
Conditioned after months of the media drip feed about how Lib Dems had stabbed every conceivable group in the back, I steeled myself to read the list of broken promises I had made to the good people of my home city.
Well, first of all, on the front of my Election Address, I promised fairer taxes that put money back in your pocket. I went into specifics, stating that “you will pay no tax …
Peter Davies "Homes must be what local people can genuinely afford" which is not by any stretch of the imagination what is required by the affordable household threshold....
Hywel "I would expect Jeff is right to say that higher taxation will act as a disincentive to working legitimately"
I was though wondering of the evidence base for...
Peter Hirst Extending the school day should be primarily for children. For it to be done significantly there would need to be an overhaul of timetables. There would need to...
Peter Hirst Predicting the future is not easy. What we can do is predict trends. One of them is that many of our challenges as a nation are likely to increase inequality. C...
Peter Hirst While in favour of some redistribution to create a fairer society, the only long term solution to our challenges is increased economic growth. I favour green gr...
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