Tag Archives: alan reid

Mark Valladares

19 May 2025 – yesterday’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 20th May 2025 - 10:35 pm

A day later than usual, as I was busy being “gloriously” re-elected as Chair of Creeting St Peter Parish Council…

  • Davey on UK-EU deal: “positive first steps” but PM must ignore Reform and Conservative “dinosaurs”
  • Youth Mobility Scheme: UK needs “explicit details” not “woolly commitments”
  • UK-EU deal: with “more ambition” economic benefits could have been “ten times greater”
  • Scottish Water failure to follow up Holy Loch spilling “woefully complacent”

Davey on UK-EU deal: “positive first steps” but PM must ignore Reform and Conservative “dinosaurs”

Responding to reports that the UK and EU have reached a deal to be announced later today, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

These seem to be some positive first steps in rebuilding our relationship with Europe after years of a Conservative Party that wrecked trust and broke our relationship with our closest allies.

The Prime Minister must ignore the naysayers and dinosaurs in Reform and the Conservative Party and be more ambitious in getting the best deal in the national interest.

Youth Mobility Scheme: UK needs “explicit details” not “woolly commitments”

Responding to reports that a youth mobility scheme has been agreed only in principle, Liberal Democrat Europe Spokesperson, James MacCleary MP said:

After months of flip-flopping, it appears the Government won’t get a youth mobility scheme over the line today.

That’s incredibly disappointing – we need more than just a woolly commitment. While an agreement in principle marks progress after months of Lib Dem pressure on this issue, we should have been able to negotiate a scheme at today’s summit, rather than kicking the can once more down the road.

The Government must make it an urgent priority after talks end to map out explicit details on how and when the youth scheme will be introduced.

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Caron Lindsay

Nick Clegg does PMQs in style

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 7th November 2012 - 6:55 pm

Nick Clegg did Prime Minister’s Questions today while David Cameron is schmoozing his way round the Middle East. He was so assured, confident and natural and spoke completely without notes. He even answered the question he was given and not the one he wanted to answer, too. He made David Cameron look like a complete amateur, to be honest, and Gordon Brown, too.

My Liberal Democrat Voice colleague Nick Thornsby reminded us on Twitter this morning that four years ago, two days after Barack Obama was elected the first time round, Nick, then a humble third party leader, questioned PM Gordon Brown, who put him down quite snidily. And the subject of his questions? Taxing the wealthy and cutting taxes for the poorest. Nothing if not consistent. Have a look here.

 

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Paul Walter

PMQs: Listen very carefully, I shall wave this shroud only five times

By Paul Walter | Wed 15th June 2011 - 2:23 pm

Someone must have told Ed Miliband that he shouldn’t flit around, butterfly-like, between subjects at Prime Minister’s Questions. He did that last week and got a caning for it. So this week he was doggedly persistent – monomaniac even – on just one subject. Indeed, just one question. He repeated the same words over and over and over and over again. The impression was that he had gone from the sublime to the ridiculous, but it worked and he ostensibly wrong-footed David Cameron.

Ed Miliband said that the government’s welfare reform plans would make 7,000 cancer sufferers worse off by up …

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Stephen Tall

Revisiting Jo Swinson and the Telegraph’s #mpexpenses stories

By Stephen Tall | Thu 11th June 2009 - 6:30 pm

Remember the Telegraph’s hatchet job on Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson during their series of revelations about MPs’ expenses? (Lib Dem blogger James Graham has followed-up the issue on his own Quaequam Blog! HERE).

Well, on Monday evening, as billed here, I had the chance to put these points direct to the Daily Telegraph’s assistant editor, Andrew Pierce, at a debate posing the question, A triumph for journalism? (You can watch the debate online here – worth watching in full, but the section focusing on Jo starts about 29 minutes in).

The issues of dodgy …

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Alix Mortimer

The Telegraph should apologise to Andrew George and Alan Reid

By Alix Mortimer | Thu 14th May 2009 - 9:57 am

Not the kind of stern injunction I was expecting to come out with after a day of Liberal Democrat expenses revelations, I must say. I was all prepared to be angry, disappointed, humbled and even-handedly condemnatory. It has become a sort of communally agreed ceasefire in the political blogosphere and the media in the past few days – no-one’s allowed to query, say “eh?” or doubt the word of the Telegraph. That would be being cocky and partisan. One must only observe the same humilities as everybody else. Shock horror expressions must be worn at

…

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Alix Mortimer

The Telegraph: descending into gutter reportage

By Alix Mortimer | Wed 13th May 2009 - 11:19 am

Two more Lib Dem MPs’ expense details are now in the public domain, bringing the total to ten.

Nick Harvey

Has a £30 subscription to Sky Sports at his second home. Pay attention, football fans, Sky Sports =/= necessary to perform the duties of an MP. Not a huge sum, but still. 2/5

Alan Reid

Now, at the time of writing Alan Reid’s page isn’t linked from the Telegraph’s main Lib Dem Expenses feed page, and to be honest I wonder if that’s because they’re bloody ashamed of it. They ought

…

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Stephen Tall

Those Lib Dem donation figures in full (Q4, 2008)

By Stephen Tall | Wed 25th February 2009 - 5:20 pm

The Electoral Commission has published the latest donation and borrowing figures for the political parties this week, and LDV’s own Mark Pack has already blogged his success in getting the Commission to report the figures accurately.

The Commission’s website does allow us, though, to gain a picture of the Lib Dems’ fundraising efforts over the years. Below is the full breakdown of cash and non-cash donations received by quarter since 2005, and annually between 2001 and 2004.

Overall, the figures suggest that the party’s efforts have stepped up a level during this time. For instance, rather astonishingly, in 2001 – the year of a general election – the party raised less than half the total it achieved in 2006, our annus horribilis.

But, since 2004 – and most notably in 2005, with that Michael Brown donation – the party’s annual donations have never dipped below £2m. 2008 has again seen the party continuing that relatively impressive track record, albeit the figure is lower than 2007 (the year of the-election-that-never-was).

Lots of familar names on the list, including several MPs, and – interestingly – Lord Jacobs, who you may recall quit the party back in December; but who contributed £15,000 to Lib Dem coffers six weeks earlier. Other five/six-figure gifts came from: C & C Business Solutions Ltd (£40,000), Peter Thurnham (£10,000 bequest), Brian Roper (£15,000), Betterworld Limited (£25,000), Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust (£250,000), Christopher Nicholson (£20,000), Raymond Cecil Mitchell (£10,000 bequest), Opal-Chant Ltd (£10,000), and Mr W M M Rayner (£10,000). The most generous MP I spot-checked was Alan Reid, MP for Argyll & Bute, who gave £6,948.84.

Here are the full figures:

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