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Alex Foster

PODCAST: Nick Clegg Q&A

By Alex Foster | Published Sun 19th September 2010 - 4:45 pm

Below is a sound recording of the Nick Clegg Q&A that just happened.

We also live-tweeted it – and the tweets will not be displaced from our feed for a few hours yet.

And m’colleague Stephen Tall was live-blogging the session, and his words can be found here.

Posted in Conference, Podcasts | Tagged , | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

What the papers say: #ldconf Sunday edition

By Stephen Tall | Published Sun 19th September 2010 - 11:45 am

At Lib Dem conference and got no time to read all the papers? Missing Lib Dem conference, and wanting to catch up on all the fun as refracted through the lens of the news media? Then look no further… (Warning: this post contains traces of Daily Mail. Avert your eyes if easily offended.)

  • The Lib Dems should forget frog-fondling and think big (Matthew D’Ancona, Sunday Telegraph)

    • Genuinely interesting article, well worth reading in full, but here’s an interesting snippet:

    The Lib Dems’ private polling shows a peeling-off of the idealist Left, but growing support from a group lumped together as “working

    …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Conference, News | 10 Comments
    The Voice

    The Independent View: Political Innovation No.4 – opening policy research to the public

    By The Voice | Published Fri 17th September 2010 - 1:10 pm

    This is a guest cross-post by Ivo Gormley – originally posted on the Political Innovation site here.

    Although Government claims to want our participation and wants us to appreciate its policies, it hides the evidence on which it bases its policies in fat documents and reports that are hard to read and only available free at special events at think-tanks around Whitehall.

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Op-eds, The Independent View | 1 Comment
    The Voice

    The Independent View: Political Innovation No.3 – assertion-flagging: for less partisan, prejudiced blogging

    By The Voice | Published Tue 14th September 2010 - 12:00 pm

    This is a guest cross-post by Andrew Regan – originally posted on the Political Innovation site here.

    Most political bloggers are motivated to fight what they see as bigotry, prejudice, and ill-informed, unjustifiable assertion.

    Close up of an eye; click for photo credit

    This is a fine and noble cause, because the spreading of false beliefs – without the evidence to support them – is bad for all of us, as is the displacement of informed argument by mere rhetoric. All the more so when the perpetrator …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Op-eds, The Independent View | Tagged | 5 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #186

    By Stephen Tall | Published Mon 13th September 2010 - 7:25 pm

    Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 186th 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 (5th – 11th September, 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:

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment
    Mark Pack

    Worth a second outing: What should you be getting up to on the internet?

    By Mark Pack | Published Fri 10th September 2010 - 10:27 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 a review of a book first published in 2008 which is still going strong.

    Should politicians blog? Does it matter if a local party has a website that allows comments or not? Is it …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Books, Online politics, Op-eds | Tagged , | 1 Comment
    Stephen Tall

    LibLink: Evan Harris – Vince Cable’s science spending cuts: how harsh will they be?

    By Stephen Tall | Published Wed 8th September 2010 - 2:45 pm

    This morning’s news that Vince Cable will announce in a speech today how the cuts to his Business, Innovation and Skills department will impact on science attracted a vigorous reaction from commenters on the Voice today.

    Former Lib Dem MP Dr Evan Harris — whose Political Science blog for the Guardian has quickly established itself as essential reading — has contributed his throughts to the debate there. Evan, as Lib Dems will know well, is firmly on the social liberal ‘wing’ of the party (a staunch defender, for example, of higher taxes for the wealthiest), and has great credibility …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in LibLink | Tagged , , | 17 Comments
    The Voice

    The Independent View: Political Innovation No.2 – the politics of buying things

    By The Voice | Published Wed 8th September 2010 - 12:00 pm

    This is a guest cross-post by Dominic Campbell – originally posted on the Political Innovation site:

    Well, you wouldn’t still be reading had I called it the politics of procurement now would you? (no, stop – don’t go!). No-one who engages with government procurement comes away impressed with it. It’s a process that wastes £billions and rewards process over outcomes.

    Yet we all know that, deep down, it’s a symptom of a political problem. It is a system set up to manage …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Op-eds, The Independent View | Tagged | 5 Comments
    Ian Manders

    Decision time on energy for the Coalition

    By Ian Manders | Published Tue 7th September 2010 - 3:57 pm

    Energy is precious – surely? The UK faces a decline in gas and oil output from the North Sea and for the first time in decades is importing the bulk of its fossil fuels. Despite long-term subsidy, renewable energy only satisfies a tiny part of the energy demands of the UK.

    So, you would think we would be using our precious energy stocks efficiently, would you not? Everyone knows that our buildings are draughty and expensive to heat – but did you know how inefficient our electricity supply system is? Do you know how much energy is thrown away before it …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 10 Comments
    Mark Pack

    Tracking the Royal Navy: data visualisation meets open government

    By Mark Pack | Published Tue 7th September 2010 - 11:25 am

    Over on the Royal Navy’s website is a striking map, showing where all the navy’s main vessels are currently deployed. It’s striking for two reasons. First, it demonstrates how the current drive towards opening up government data and presenting it in visually illuminating ways is reaching all sorts of unlikely corners of the public sector. Second, twenty-five years ago that sort of openness would have been unthinkable. The security needs the navy has to meet now are very different from those of the Cold War.

    HMS Chiddingfold…

    Continue reading »
    Posted in News | Tagged | 12 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    LDV doesn’t do statporn, but if we did (August ’10)

    By Stephen Tall | Published Fri 3rd September 2010 - 3:45 pm

    … We’d say a big thank you to the 47,689 ‘absolute unique visitors’* who read Liberal Democrat Voice in August.

    Though that’s a touch down on our July figure of c.50,000, it’s up some 143% on the equivalent figure for August ’09 of c.20,000.

    This brings our absolute unique visitor readership for the last year to date (1 Sept 2009 – 31 August 2010) to 636,846, some 89% higher than the equivalent figure for 2008-09 of 336,902.

    The 5 top-read stories during the month were:

    1. Knowsley Council pays Labour over £250,000 for conference appearances (11) by Mark Pack
    2. Coalition puts

    …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Site news | Leave a comment
    Tam Langley

    Opinion: Can pregnant women stand for Parliament?

    By Tam Langley | Published Fri 3rd September 2010 - 2:23 pm

    Standing in the crypt of St Mary’s Church Lewisham asking local Lib Dem members to select me as their parliamentary candidate last summer I did wonder if my very pregnant stomach would put them off. During the selection campaign only one had asked me how I was going to do it with a new baby. “With the help of my partner, several doting grandparents and how about you too?”, was my reply.

    Having fought an election campaign while pregnant, then through the first eight months of my baby daughter’s life, I want to let other women thinking of doing the same know that it is possible. It even has some advantages provided you get the help you need to do it.

    Why should other Lib Dem Voice readers care? Because as Dinti Batstone highlighted in her research for the party into the under-representation of women among our MPs, ‘too many experienced female candidates self-select out just as their male contemporaries are fighting winnable seats’. And the main reason for that is the perceived incompatibility of the task with family life.

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

    Worth a second outing: Blogging – what’s in it for political parties?

    By Mark Pack | Published Fri 3rd September 2010 - 10:27 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 a piece I wrote in 2007 for Iain Dale’s annual blogging guide. Three years and one general election on, my views on the matter are much the same – and in particular the …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Online politics | Tagged | Leave a comment
    Stephen Tall

    Half a defence of Paul Staines (aka @guidofawkes)

    By Stephen Tall | Published Wed 1st September 2010 - 8:50 pm

    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.

    Iain writes: “We at Lib Dem Voice wish both the Hagues and Christopher Myers well,” and I agree 100%. However, there are two further points I’d make.

    The questions were fair enough…

    Paul Staines blogged about the issue on 24th August, using the Freedom of Information Act to ask three questions inquiring as to the suitability of Mr Myers acting …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , | 34 Comments
    The Voice

    The Independent View: Towards interactive government

    By The Voice | Published Wed 1st September 2010 - 5:52 pm

    This is a guest cross-post by Tim Davies – originally posted on the Political Innovation site:

    The communication revolution that we’ve undergone in recent years has two big impacts:

    • It changes what’s possible. It makes creating networks between people across organisations easier; it opens new ways for communication between citizens and state; it gives everyone who wants it a platform for global communication; and it makes it possible to discover local online dialogue.
    • It changes citizen expectations of government. When I can follow news from my neighbour’s blog on my phone, why can’t I get updates on local services on the mobile-web?

    …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Op-eds, The Independent View | Leave a comment
    Stephen Tall

    Tony Blair’s A Journey: 3 reasons I’m impressed without having read a single page

    By Stephen Tall | Published Wed 1st September 2010 - 4:25 pm

    No, I haven’t read Tony Blair’s A Journey yet (though it should be waiting for me at home). I haven’t even had time to read more than a handful of the preview articles, such as The Guardian’s trailer. With that confesion of near-total ignorance of A Journey established, I think there are three points worth making…

    1. It’s an Event.

    The decision that Mr Blair’s book would not be serialised (apparently modelled on the strategy for Alastair Campbell’s diaries) has made publication day much more of an Event-with-a-capital-E, the political anoraks’ equivalent of a release of a new Harry …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Books, Op-eds | Tagged | 6 Comments
    Paul Evans

    The Independent View: Political Innovation

    By Paul Evans | Published Wed 1st September 2010 - 2:47 pm

    When bloggers meet, I often find that old allegiances (be they left right, or Unionist/Republican often dissolve into a different political spilt. Those of us who imagine that we ‘get’ the read-write web against the political colleagues that we have who, we believe, fail to foresee the possibilities or the threats.

    I’ve occasionally witnessed left-right-and-centrist bloggers in (non) violent agreement with each other – not about political direction, but about what is possible in harnessing the power of the web. About how a more effective participative political culture can bring about a range of subtle changes – to reverse the broken politico/media relationship out of some of the cul-de-sacs that it appears to have stuck in.

    Today, a few of us have come together to launch a project called ‘Political Innovation’. It’s for anyone who has ever asked themselves ‘why is politics still done like this?’

    We’ve put a call out through our personal networks for initial contributions and we’ve already had promises of more than ten essays suggesting serious political innovations that are based upon an understanding of what interactive social media and the web can achieve.

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Op-eds, The Independent View | Leave a comment
    Mark Pack

    Tory donor, tax affairs, Oakeshott on the case: some things haven’t changed

    By Mark Pack | Published Wed 25th August 2010 - 8:11 pm

    Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oakeshott is clearly not put off by coalition from his pursuit of Tory donors and their tax statuses. Today it is Jon Wood, whose tax affairs have been in the papers with Lord Oakeshott saying, “Now is the time to take big money out of British politics”. You can read more here.

    Posted in News | Tagged , , | 3 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #183

    By Stephen Tall | Published Sun 22nd August 2010 - 7:27 pm

    Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 183rd 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 (15th – 21st August, 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:

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Best of the blogs | 1 Comment
    Helen Duffett

    Have you nominated your Lib Dem Blog of the Year?

    By Helen Duffett | Published Fri 20th August 2010 - 12:20 pm

    Time’s ticking till close of nominations for the Lib Dem Blog of the Year Awards, so here’s a reminder of the categories and an exhortation to vote early!

    Nominate in any or all of these:

  • Best new Liberal Democrat blog (started since 1st September 2009)
  • Best blog from a Liberal Democrat holding public office (The Tim Garden Award)
  • Best use of blogging / social networking / e-campaigning by a Liberal Democrat
  • Best posting on a Liberal Democrat blog (since 1st September 2009)
  • Best non-Liberal Democrat politics blog
  • Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year

    • Continue reading »
    Posted in Best of the blogs, Conference | Tagged | Leave a comment
    Alan Belmore

    Opinion: it’s about more than A-levels

    By Alan Belmore | Published Thu 19th August 2010 - 9:24 am

    I write as a former chair of Liberal Youth, currently studying at York University who was educated at an independent school. Yet with A-Level results out today, I am backing calls for universities to consider students from state schools who have achieved lower grades than their counterparts from private institutions.

    ‘This is discrimination’ the wealthy middle classes cry. ‘They both sat the same exams’, it is pointed out to me. Yet this faux fairness is exaggerated, a continued belief that seems to run through education that wishes children and young adults to develop in a different system to that which us …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Op-eds | 18 Comments
    Mark Pack

    Council website spending put under scrutiny

    By Mark Pack | Published Mon 16th August 2010 - 1:13 pm

    Today’s Telegraph has a piece looking at the large sums being spent by many councils on new or revamped websites.

    In itself, an expensive website is not necessarily a poor use of funds as good, popular sites often also save costs (e.g. by reducing the number of phonecalls the council has to handle). As a result, Medway Council – one of those picked out in the article – may have a good case for spending £250,000 in revamping its site given that the last major revamp was in 2003. In the last seven years the internet has changed significantly as have …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Local government, News, Online politics | Tagged , , | 4 Comments
    Mark Pack

    Book review: Blog Theory by Jodi Dean

    By Mark Pack | Published Thu 12th August 2010 - 11:20 am

    Jodi Dean’s analysis of the economic, political and social impacts of blogging (and social networking more generally) covers broad themes that will be familiar to readers of technology authors such as Clay Shirky or media commentators such as Charlie Beckett. However, the particular aspects, the style of argument and even the vocabulary are heavily different – for this is a work of critical literary theory. The lack of overlap in cited sources, points of debate and choice of jargon highlights how even in the interconnected world of online punditry (all three frequently write online) there are many distinct niches and communities who rarely overlap even when the broad subjects of their interest are the same.

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Books, Online politics | Tagged , | 2 Comments
    Mark Pack

    How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

    By Mark Pack | Published Thu 12th August 2010 - 10:20 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 convenient links to click on if any take your fancy and you want to take a read.

    Just go to our email sign up page to start getting these emails. You can also sign up for a special once-a-week email, bringing you …

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    Posted in Site news | Leave a comment
    Stephen Tall

    Vince: Cameron is “100% behind” my graduate tax proposals

    By Stephen Tall | Published Sun 8th August 2010 - 10:00 am

    Lib Dem Business Secretary Vince Cable is interviewed in the Sunday Telegraph (“in open-neck pink shirt and slippers”, intriguingly).

    The paper chooses to headline it, Vince Cable: ‘I’m not having fun in government’, trying to feed into the narrative that Vince is a semi-detached member of the coalition government, though he’s certainly loyal in all his utterances. Incidentally, the headline quote set in context reads rather more uncontroversially: “People sometimes ask me ‘are you having fun?’ ” he says. ” No! It’s hard work and it’s tough, but it’s important.”

    The paper largely ignores what seems to me a …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in News | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    LDV doesn’t do statporn, but if we did (July ’10)

    By Stephen Tall | Published Thu 5th August 2010 - 8:55 pm

    … We’d say a big thank you to the 50,627 ‘absolute unique visitors’* who read Liberal Democrat Voice in July.

    That’s 5% up on our June figure of c.48,000, and up some 129% on the equivalent figure for July ’09 of c.22,000.

    This brings our absolute unique visitor readership for the last year to date (1 Aug 2009 – 31 July 2010) to 608,812, some 84% higher than the equivalent figure for 2008-09 of 330,218.

    The 5 top-read stories during the month were:

    1. Have you seen Zac Goldsmith’s Channel 4 News car-crash interview yet? (75) by Stephen Tall
    2. Opinion: I admit it,

    …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Site news | Tagged | 3 Comments
    Helen Duffett

    How much will coalition change Liberal Democrat conference?

    By Helen Duffett | Published Wed 28th July 2010 - 9:20 am

    Party conference rumour season is well underway, with more special guest speculation than last month’s Glastonbury. But whoever’s doing the briefing, it doesn’t seem to be coming from the Liberal Democrat side.

    The story that David Cameron might address Lib Dem conference seems to have originated from the Independent:

    David Cameron and Nick Clegg are drawing up plans for closer links between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats and senior figures from the two parties will address each other’s party conference this autumn.

    The two leaders are keen to cement the coalition and a special meeting of the Cabinet next month will discuss a joint approach to the party conference season, including co-ordinated policy announcements. One option is for Mr Cameron to address the Liberal Democrat conference in Liverpool and Mr Clegg the Tories in Birmingham. More likely, at present, is that other Cabinet ministers will “change places” and speak at their coalition partner’s event.

    The Guardian also ran a similar story the same day: David Cameron could speak at Liberal Democrat conference.

    – Well, yes he could,* but here are some things to consider:

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Conference | Tagged , , , , , , , | 11 Comments
    Helen Duffett

    Lib Dem Blog of the Year Awards 2010 – nominations now open

    By Helen Duffett | Published Mon 26th July 2010 - 10:20 am

    BOTY 2
    The Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year Awards, run by Lib Dem Voice, are back for their fifth year. As usual, they’ll be awarded in a budget lavish ceremony at the party’s autumn conference in Liverpool. (There’s further information on the event over at the Lib Dems’ Flock Together site). Click on the following links to see last year’s Shortlist and the Winners.

    This year’s awards are as follows:

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Best of the blogs, Conference | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment
    Helen Duffett

    The LDV Friday Five: 23 July 2010

    By Helen Duffett | Published Fri 23rd July 2010 - 9:20 am

    It’s Friday, so here’s a fistful of lists that sum up the past week on LDV:

    5 most-read stories on LDV this week

    1. Have you seen Zac Goldsmith’s Channel 4 News car-crash interview yet? (73) by Stephen Tall
    2. John Pugh MP asks for Lib Dem members’ feedback on health issues (159) by John Pugh
    3. How the Westminster Village media is still struggling with concept of coalition (45) by Stephen Tall
    4. Opinion: Genuine progressives should suggest cuts (121) by George Kendall
    5. Official: 4,500 new Lib Dem members have joined party since election and coalition agreement (79) by Stephen Tall

    5 active LDV Members’ Forum threads

    Academy schools
    Trident
    Zac Goldsmith
    Do We Talk About ‘Industrial Democracy’ Any More?
    Great Policies of the Coalition

    5 from the LDV archive

    1. LibLink … Chris Huhne: Britain must stop locking up innocent children by Newshound, December 2009
    2. Adrian Sanders MP calls for new focus on Community Politics by Adrian Sanders, January 2007
    3. The power of blogs, or the weakness of journalism? by Stephen Tall, October 2007
    4. OPINION: An Elephant’s Voice by Millennium Elephant, August 2007
    5. Opinion: The Air We Breathe by Merlene Emerson, March 2009

    5 top reader search returns to get to LDV

    (excluding Liberal Democrat Voice or its variants)

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Friday Five | Leave a comment
    Mark Pack

    Alright, assuming we get an elected second chamber, what can we do before the election that follows?

    By Mark Pack | Published Thu 22nd July 2010 - 11:57 am

    The good news: the Liberal Democrat have secured a commitment to introduce elections by PR for the Upper House. The bad news: the Liberal Democrat record at fighting PR records is decidedly mixed. So what should we do?

    There plenty of campaigning still to be done to ensure that an elected Upper House happens, but that needn’t stop thinking about the elections too.

    As with the AV referendum, one of the most important acts of preparation is upping the number of local election candidates we stand because of the impact that has on the public’s perception of whether or not we are a party that can win things. As I wrote about the AV referendum, if people go to vote in a local election but find no Lib Dem on the ballot paper:

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments
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