Search Results for: feed

Cable calls for action on short-selling of bank stocks

By Mark Pack | Published Thu 18th September 2008 - 11:25 am

During party conference, Vince Cable set out his proposals for tackling some of the causes of the current financial crisis:

Short-selling in UK bank stocks should be banned by the City watchdog to stop “aggressive” speculators “betting against the taxpayer”, Vince Cable, Liberal Democrat deputy leader, said …

“The hedge funds are betting against the taxpayer, since they know that if a leading British bank were to collapse, the government would have no alternative but to intervene,” said Mr Cable.

The party’s Treasury team believes a ban on the short trade would halt a cycle of “fear feeding

…

Posted in Conference, News | 8 Comments

An embarrassment of riches

By Alex Foster | Published Tue 16th September 2008 - 8:34 pm

Just earlier this year at Spring Conference, we got a confused email from a member trying to follow conference who didn’t understand feeds in the internet sense, and thought Lib Dem Voice was offering live video coverage of the conf. That, regrettably, is a little beyond our budget and capabilities – although I hope you agree with me that our team in Bourmemouth is producing first rate content in a variety of interesting ways.

It wasn’t possible to follow Spring Conference from home at all. If I remember rightly, it wasn’t broadcast on BBC Parliament and there was little …

Posted in Conference | 2 Comments

Chris Huhne on video

By Will Howells | Published Tue 16th September 2008 - 7:06 pm

Alix has already blogged about Chris Huhne’s speech as Shadow Home Secretary, and you can now watch it in full right here on LDV thanks to the party’s YouTube feed:

Posted in Conference, Lib Dem TV | Leave a comment

Twitter: a hit at conference

By Alex Foster | Published Sun 14th September 2008 - 6:23 pm

Oh dear – here we are again – hashtag taxonomies again, snigger, snigger.

Actually, twittering from conference is working quite well. It’s all the more important when hotels and conference centres are charging obscene fees for access to wireless access and the useful free internet access is massively oversubscribed.

And there have been really useful uses of the system this afternoon. I could commission Gavin Whenmen to write about a fringe because I knew he was there because he twittered about it.

Posted in Conference | Tagged david cameron, Jo Swinson, twitter | 2 Comments

Guardian asks, ‘Are the Tories progressives now?’ A nation replies, ‘Have you gone mad?’

By Stephen Tall | Published Wed 10th September 2008 - 1:44 pm

Here are the opening sentences of today’s Guardian editorial:

There have been moments in the postwar history of Britain when people who would naturally be inclined to vote Labour have been driven to ask themselves whether the return of a Conservative government would be the worst possible outcome for the country or for the general cause of progress? For those in Britain who think of themselves as progressives, the answer has usually been an unhesitating yes. Nevertheless there is a reasonable and sober body of historical work which reaches the judgment that there have, indeed, been times when Labour has

…

Posted in Op-eds | 5 Comments

So what does that Cities Unlimited report actually say? Chs 1-5

By Alix Mortimer | Published Wed 27th August 2008 - 3:59 pm

Reader, unlike 92% of You, and 100% of Them, I’ve read it. It’s taken a few weeks, in odd bursts of ten minutes, but I was sustained by an absurd faith that, contrary to what the newspapers would have us believe, most people do not have the attention span of a chicken in a hurricaine, and are on the whole quite reasonable really.

As a public service to the cause of Lib Demmery, I therefore intend to feed the Cities Unlimited report into your eager brain in bitesize (okay, large bitesize) chunks so that you can decide on its merits and demerits for yourself, free of the rancid rantings of the silly season press.

I will offer a summary of the report in three posts, mostly factual except where I really might burst like a bally balloon if I don’t comment. I will attempt, but do not promise, to make my commentary shorter than the actual thing. This post will summarise chapters 1-5. One note – I have left out the executive summary and I’ll return to it at the end. Alas for the authors, the executive summary may have been their undoing.

Posted in News | 8 Comments

Widespread media coverage for energy policy

By Mark Pack | Published Fri 22nd August 2008 - 9:32 am

Yesterday’s energy policy push by Nick Clegg has received wide coverage in the media, including:

Daily Telegraph:

The thinking of Nick Clegg, the LibDem leader, is both fresh and dramatic. He envisages energy self-sufficiency in this country by the year 2050 and claims this can be achieved cleanly.

The LibDem plan is based on a combination of greater energy efficiency and a step-change in the provision of renewable energy from wind, wave, biomass and solar power.

This stands in sharp contrast with the energy policies of both Labour and the Conservatives which are

…

Posted in News | 1 Comment

Book review: What should you be getting up to on the internet?

By Mark Pack | Published Mon 11th August 2008 - 2:55 pm

Should politicians blog? Does it matter if a local party has a website that allows comments or not? Is it a good idea for a councillor to stick a film of themselves up on YouTube? Is the local party organiser really doing something useful on Facebook?

Answering any of these questions requires more than a technical understanding of how you use the services. It requires instead an understanding of what your organisational and communication objectives are, and then how these technologies may, or may not, help you achieve them.

Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff’s Groundswell makes this point for commercial organisations. It sets out to help organisations answer the question of whether, and if so how, they should be making use of social computing – those tools which heavily rely on interaction between people, feedback and content generated by the public such as YouTube, Wikipedia, MySpace and blogs.

Posted in Books, Online politics | Tagged facebook, myspace, wikipedia | 1 Comment

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #77

By Ryan Cullen | Published Sun 10th August 2008 - 9:05 pm

As Stephen is off on his hols, I’ve offered to collate the 77th of our weekly round-ups (27th July – 2nd August) of the seven most popular click-throughs from LibDemBlogs, plus another five that you might have missed.

Let’s get straight down to it, in traditional descending order:

Posted in Best of the blogs | 3 Comments

Liberal Democrat Voice says, the party acts…

By The Voice | Published Thu 7th August 2008 - 4:10 pm

In May Liberal Democrat Voice carried a piece from Lynne Featherstone about the lessons from May’s elections, in which she laid out five challenges for the party including,

We should ensure that we have at least a modest local internet presence covering every part of the country, helping point the public at more news about the party, how to join, how to get in touch with the local team etc. With the number of existing sources of news and information about the Liberal Democrats, I am sure it can’t be beyond the wit of a clever programmer or two to be able to put together an effective mini-site system that covers our internet black holes at a minimum of cost and effort.

A few days ago the following email went out to local parties:

We have agreed a deal to put in place a local website for every party of the country which does not have its own local Liberal Democrat website.

This deal, with Prater Raines Ltd , will mean that wherever someone lives in the country, they can find the Liberal Democrats easily on the internet and get informed and involved. It will also mean that the party’s campaign buttons and films are much more widely publicised around the internet.

Where a local party does not have a website (e.g. because it is very small and has not been able to afford one or find a suitable volunteer) this deal will ensure that there is a simple, professional looking site. It will contain relevant local contact details, as used currently on www.libdems.org.uk, along with up to date news about the party and its campaigns.The party will also provide an appropriate local web address for each of these sites that can be used in any local activity to help promote it.

Posted in Online politics | Tagged prater raines | 4 Comments

Blog of the Year Awards 2008

By Will Howells | Published Mon 4th August 2008 - 4:31 pm

The Blog of the Year Awards, run in conjunction with Liberal Democrat Voice, are back for their third year. As usual, they’ll be awarded in a ~~budget~~ lavish ceremony at the party’s autumn conference in Bournemouth.

We have retired a few categories from last year and introduced some new ones. This year’s awards are:

Best new Liberal Democrat blog (started since 1st August 2007)
Best blog from a Liberal Democrat holding public office
Best use of blogging or social networking by a Liberal Democrat
Best posting on a Liberal Democrat blog (since 1st September 2007)
Best non-Liberal Democrat politics blog
Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year

The …

Posted in Best of the blogs | Tagged blog of the year awards | 55 Comments

The PPC Files (5): How has becoming a PPC affected your career?

By Stephen Tall | Published Fri 1st August 2008 - 9:20 am

Imagine what it’s like to be a Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate – tasked with leading and motivating a group of diverse volunteers against all the odds, and organising foot-slogging campaigns on a shoe-string budget that will get you and the party noticed.

Lib Dem Voice contacted a dozen PPCs to find out what they really think about the experience. We guaranteed anonymity to ensure those responding felt able to say what they think, and not simply stick to the obligatory it’s-such-a-privilege line. Of the 12, seven are men and five women, and they include one ethnic minority candidate. The constituencies …

Posted in News | Tagged ppc files | 3 Comments

Get the party’s latest films on your iPod

By Mark Pack | Published Wed 30th July 2008 - 6:40 pm

You’ve probably seen the Liberal Democrat TV feed which appears on numerous sites (such as this one), carrying the latest YouTube films from the party.

Now you can also get the films on your iPod, with the latest films automatically appearing as they are released.

The feed to subscribe to is:
http://feeds.libdems.org.uk/LDiTunes

(In iTunes, go to the Advanced menu and then Subscribe to Podcast. Enter the above address in the URL: window.)

This feed supplies the non-subtitled versions of the party’s films. …

Posted in News, Online politics | Leave a comment

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #75

By Stephen Tall | Published Wed 30th July 2008 - 6:26 pm

Welcome to the 75th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (20-26th July), together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed.

Let’s get straight down to it, in traditional descending order: (Lembit fans may care to avert their eyes).

Posted in Best of the blogs | 2 Comments

Join us on Facebook!

By Alex Foster | Published Tue 22nd July 2008 - 3:05 pm

Lib Dem Voice now has a page on the social networking site Facebook – you can find us here – and show your support by becoming a fan.

If the social networking revolution has so far passed you by, you can still join Facebook for free here.

32 on-the-ball Facebookers have already marked themselves as fans on Facebook even before this official launch, as news of the new page spread like wildfire through people’s recent actions, profiles and newsfeeds. Now the rest of us can join in as we take LDV to never-before imagined heights.

You can use the Facebook site …

Posted in Site news | Tagged facebook | 1 Comment

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #73

By Stephen Tall | Published Thu 17th July 2008 - 7:45 am

Welcome to the 73rd of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (6th-12th July), together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed.

Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment

Something for the Weekend: A day in the life

By Will Howells | Published Sun 6th July 2008 - 3:27 pm

Afternoon. Welcome to this week’s collection of odds and sods from the twin worlds of Politics and Not-Politics. Just step this way…

If you see Doug, tell him

Labour MP Doug Henderson wants your views – if you’re one of his constituents in Newcastle North.

Doug Henderson MP - Tell Doug !

His household survey is a mix of leading questions (“Should tougher penalties be imposed on those who deal in drugs, blighting our communities and inflicting misery on individuals?”) and absent proofreading (I know, I can talk).

The pièce de resistance, though, is question 6, which I present for your delectation:

Voting intention question

Meanwhile, in Tyne Bridge…

Doug’s local Labour colleague David Clelland, the MP for Tyne Bridge, also takes an unorthodox approach to dealing with his constituents’ voting intentions.

In a textbook example of the drawbacks of the safe seats producted by the first-past-the-post electoral system, 23-year MP Mr Clelland responded to criticism from a constituent thus:

I accept your offer not to vote for me again I do not want your vote so you can stick wherever best pleases you.

The constituent in question, IT salesman Gary Scott (who was around four years old when David Clelland became an MP), had written a letter to Mr Clelland complaining that he was supporting an out-of-touch and authoritarian government.

You can read the full exchange on Paul Walter’s blog.

Book him, Dannie

Wales’s culture minister Rhodri Glyn Thomas took a leaf out of Terry Wogan’s book this week when he announced the wrong winner of the Wales Book of the Year award – before announcing the correct winner, 84-year-old writer and poet Dannie Abse, for his memoir The Presence.

Another gong for Vince

While we’re on the subject of awards, congratulations to our Shadow Chancellor and Deputy Leader Vince Cable who was recognised again this week for his sterling work.

Posted in Something for the Weekend | 5 Comments

I’m writing to the taxman

By Hywel Morgan | Published Fri 4th July 2008 - 4:44 pm

Letter sent to Liverpool tax office today:

4th July 2008
Dear Sir/Madam

I wish to bring your attention to an individual who is claiming to be self-employed who I believe may not be registered as such.

Yesterday Mr Peter Kilfoyle MP stated that “I’m technically self-employed” .

My understanding, having previously been self-employed myself, is that a person who is self-employed is required to register as such with 3 months and is liable for class 2 and class 4 NI contributions.

I would be grateful if this matter could be investigated.

Yours faithfully

Hywel Morgan
CC Mr Peter Kilfoyle MP

Posted in Parliament | 6 Comments

Something for the Weekend: Here is the news

By Will Howells | Published Sun 22nd June 2008 - 10:32 pm

Good evening and welcome to this week’s Something for the Weekend. Allons-y…

There’ll be bluebirds over…

Tory MEP Den Dover has been back in the news again amid claims that he bought two BMWs using parliamentary expenses. He’d already been accused of channelling public money into a company run by his wife and daughter. Fellow Conservative MEP Giles Chichester has also been accused of paying hundreds of thousands of pounds of expenses to a family business.

Most important in this, of course, is that we get more of Den Dover in the news and the chance to hear his great name over and over again.

In the news

Following on from last week’s news about top secret documents being left on a train, annoying minister Hazel Blears has had a computer containing “restricted government information” stolen from her constituency office.

A United airline flight from Salt Lake City to Denver was cancelled after the pilot was left too upset to fly by an argument about his hat.

Posted in Something for the Weekend | 6 Comments

Top Lib Dem media tarts: March – May 2008

By Stephen Tall | Published Tue 10th June 2008 - 6:43 pm

Which Lib Dem MPs received the most media mentions between 1st March and 31st May, 2008? To find out I trawled Lexis-Nexis’s online database of all UK national newspapers (and a huge number of regional ones), feeding in the names of each of our MPs in turn, and seeing how many returns were generated.

To qualify, the MP must have been mentioned either as a Liberal Democrat or Lib Dem. This will disadvantage those MPs who are working their regional media hard, but whose names do not appear under the party’s banners. Sorry, but them’s the rules.

Anyway, here’s the list in descending order of media mentions (with their Dec ‘07-Feb ‘08 positions in brackets):

Posted in News | 1 Comment

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #67

By Stephen Tall | Published Tue 3rd June 2008 - 8:08 pm

Welcome to the 67th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (25th-31st May), together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed.

Let’s get straight down to it, in descending order of popularity:

Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #66

By Stephen Tall | Published Thu 29th May 2008 - 6:46 pm

Welcome to the (belated) 66th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (18th-24th May), together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed.

Let’s get straight down to it, in descending order of popularity:

Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment

Lessons from May’s elections

By Lynne Featherstone | Published Mon 26th May 2008 - 2:13 pm

To start, three pieces of promising news: in six of the last seven annual rounds of local elections, the number of Liberal Democrat councillors has gone up. Secondly, the change in our vote in Crewe & Nantwich was pretty much the same as in Dudley West, South East Staffordshire and Wirral South – the three big Labour gains from the Conservatives in the run-up to 1997 – a general election at which we then made huge gains in the numbers of MPs we had.

Add in to that the steady but very clear improvement in our poll ratings since Nick Clegg became leader, and there’s plenty of cause for quiet optimism about our electoral prospects – provded we put in the hard work necessary.

But we shouldn’t be complacent that just any sort of hard work will deliver the right results, and there are two signs in that news that we need, in particular, to broaden our strength across the country.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged chris rennard, lynne featherstone | 44 Comments

Opinion: A performance to be proud of, but not to settle for

By Neale Upstone | Published Tue 6th May 2008 - 9:03 am

A great set of local election results – but to say that we did “well” or “better than expected” is, in my view, an understatement.

On our resources, which do not include the money of (Lord) David Sainsbury (of Turville), or (Lord) Michael Ashcroft (of Tax Haven) or (Lord) Irvine Laidlaw, we’ve done fantastically. Apologies for the brackets, but I think we can say that their ‘titles’ are optional.

Can we do better? You bet!

Here in Cambridge, for example, I doubt that a single leaflet mentioned Nick Clegg’s name. I think they should have. Our local election campaigns should be …

Posted in Local government, Op-eds | Tagged lord ashcroft | 45 Comments

Eat less meat!

By Alexis Rowell | Published Mon 5th May 2008 - 9:47 am

Food is something that affects us all. We all have to eat. But very few people know the extent to which oil underpins our food system, how much carbon is used in the production of food, how much water is used, and the impact the food system therefore has on climate change.

The current all-time highs in oil prices – $117 a barrel in April 2008 – is sending convulsive shudders down the food chain because every part of the system requires fossil fuel. Food prices have rocketed all over the world as oil prices have risen. Fertiliser, pumping water, ploughing, transportation, refrigeration – it all uses oil. And that’s being compounded by the current mad dash for biofuels, most of which require more fossil fuel to create than the energy derived from them, and which are taking up land that would otherwise be used for crops.

Camden Council purchases a lot of food directly (canteens, meals on wheels etc) or indirectly (schools, care homes) each year. We therefore have a huge potential for influencing supply chains. Considerable effort has already gone into improving the sustainability criteria associated with food contracts, and the all-party Camden Sustainability Task Force has had some input into this. According to one survey Camden was in the top five public authorities in Europe for sustainable purchasing. But we would like to go a step further.

Posted in News | 24 Comments

Twitter News

By Alex Foster | Published Thu 24th April 2008 - 10:15 am

Blogger Chick Yog believed that the Lib Dems are staffed by robots.

This proved not to be the case.

Although some believe our fearsome leafleting capability is due to an army of robotic leafleters, the sad truth is in most cases it’s a handful of overworked activists punching way above their weight. And so it is in LDHQ – although the output might look like it is the result of a fearsome supercomputer processing all known political information and spewing it out in dozens of helpful different feeds… in fact, it’s just Will Howells and Mark Pack, with, between them, a …

Posted in Humour, Online politics | Tagged twitter | 3 Comments

The bizarre Olympic budget

By Mark Pack | Published Tue 22nd April 2008 - 9:40 am

Huge project, budget goes horribly wrong. Not much of a surprise there given the track-record of many large projects in Britain, but I do love some of the details as to how the budgets for the 2012 London Olympics went wrong:

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) were criticised for omitting security, tax and contingency costs.

Security? It’s not as if you ever hear the Home Secretary worrying about security. Tax? Never heard of anyone having to pay such a thing. Contingency? Nothing ever goes wrong you know.

Posted in News | 6 Comments

It’s not been a good few days for… (UPDATED)

By Mark Pack | Published Sun 20th April 2008 - 11:35 am

Variants on the question “Is Gordon Brown finished?” continue to dominate much political commentary, with The Guardian today running a fascinating first-hand account of what it’s like working with him:

When Gordon Brown used to hold meetings at the Treasury, coffee would be served with the milk already added. I always thought that summed up his style. Such was his eagerness to get on to business that he had no time for the 20 seconds it would take to pass round the jug and the biscuits, a ritual that broke the ice across the rest of Whitehall.

The pieces goes on to …

Posted in News | 7 Comments

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #60

By Stephen Tall | Published Sun 13th April 2008 - 5:33 pm

Welcome to the 60th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (6th-12th April), together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed.

Let’s get straight down to it, in descending order of popularity:

Posted in Best of the blogs | 1 Comment

Why Gordon Brown is reminding me more and more of John Major

By Mark Pack | Published Sun 13th April 2008 - 1:32 pm

Chancellor takes over as Prime Minister. Has brief burst of popularity. And then it all goes wrong. Sounds familiar?

A big problem for Gordon Brown is that he now seems firmly fixed in the media and public’s mind as someone who took over as Prime Minister, failed and is now in trouble. Once you’ve got a particular image, it’s very hard to shed, as former leaders from all political parties and testify.

But what’s particularly dangerous for Brown – and reminds me of John Major’s fate – is the way that the past is now coming back to bite him. Under both …

Posted in Op-eds | 5 Comments

Vince Cable writes: Drill, baby, drill…or not

Lib Dems must do better on Burnham

Britain should be proud, but never afraid of the stranger

Lib Dem Women: Amplifying women’s voices at Conference

Search Results for: feed

Cable calls for action on short-selling of bank stocks

An embarrassment of riches

Chris Huhne on video

Twitter: a hit at conference

Guardian asks, ‘Are the Tories progressives now?’ A nation replies, ‘Have you gone mad?’

So what does that Cities Unlimited report actually say? Chs 1-5

Widespread media coverage for energy policy

Book review: What should you be getting up to on the internet?

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #77

Liberal Democrat Voice says, the party acts…

Blog of the Year Awards 2008

The PPC Files (5): How has becoming a PPC affected your career?

Get the party’s latest films on your iPod

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #75

Join us on Facebook!

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #73

Something for the Weekend: A day in the life

I’m writing to the taxman

Something for the Weekend: Here is the news

Top Lib Dem media tarts: March – May 2008

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #67

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #66

Lessons from May’s elections

Opinion: A performance to be proud of, but not to settle for

Eat less meat!

Twitter News

The bizarre Olympic budget

It’s not been a good few days for… (UPDATED)

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #60

Why Gordon Brown is reminding me more and more of John Major

Most Read

Op-eds

Recent Comments