Tag Archives: andrew marr show

Caron Lindsay

Vince on Marr: Corbyn under “tremendous pressure” to support Lib Dems on referendum on Brexit deal

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 4th February 2018 - 10:21 am

Vince was on Andrew Marr this morning. He talked about how public opinion was turning in favour of a referendum on the Brexit deal and that Jeremy Corbyn would come under “tremendous pressure” to stop colluding with the Tories and back a referendum on the Brexit deal. He made the point that most Labour MPs and Labour supporters opposed the Tories’ hard Brexit position.

He spoke about how the political upheaval in wake of Brexit presents opportunities for the Party. He highlighted how the. Lib Dems expanding  and was attracting a higher proportion of young members than Labour  and doing well in Council by-elections. We were in a good place:

I am leading a party  that is fundamentally right, united and clear on the critical issue of the day and we are winning the public argument that have a vote on the final deal.

 

He was also keen to show that we have a wide-ranging policy agenda, talking about his work on homelessness over Christmas and his quest to tackle inequality.

He said that we will be launching a new report on health policy tomorrow which will present a set of proposals relating to financial needs of health service. He predicted that a lot of people will find that package very attractive.

He wasn’t giving away the details but he said that it is built around the idea that we had to have a dedicated form of taxation for the health service.

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Caron Lindsay

Vince Cable on Marr: I can see a scenario where Brexit doesn’t happen

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 9th July 2017 - 12:18 pm

Almost-leader Vince Cable was on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show this morning.

Here are some clips:

I like the way that he casually pointed out  that the last Liberal leader to have a coronation was the mighty Jo Grimond.

He said he was optimistic about the party’s future.

Our position on Brexit is “a longstanding principled position which will become increasingly in line with the mood of the country.

Even though he is the only candidate, he said that we will see the Vince Cable manifesto. He was also keen to talk up the strong team behind him, which was another good sign. There have been criticisms before that he’s not a team player – although, to be fair,  he has tended to be right when he deviated from the message during the Coalition years.

Asked if he would take the party in a different direction from Tim Farron, he said that Tim did a very good job, built up our membership but he situation has moved on from where we were two years ago. Brexit dominates the national agenda and he would  have to approach that consistently but in a different Parliament with different dynamics.

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Caron Lindsay

Tim on telly – the highlights

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 29th January 2017 - 12:43 pm

Tim Farron is fast becoming the grown-up in the room in British politics. He speaks for many, across the Remain/Leave divide and is the strongest voice of opposition to Theresa May’s government – and Jeremy Corbyn’s sorry excuse for an opposition. In fact, we should stop referring to Labour as the opposition while they enable the worst government in my lifetime to wreak havoc on our economy and future prosperity.

Tim has been doing the media rounds this morning. He’s been interviewed by Andrew Marr and Sophy Ridge.

Now is the time for him to be in the form of his life – and he was. He answered the questions clearly and put our point of view very well. It helps when he is actually in the room rather than down the line, even if we miss out on the gorgeous Cumbrian scenery. Here are some of the highlights courtesy of the various Twitter feeds. You can see the whole Marr interview here from around 50 minutes in and you can read the transcript of the Sophy Ridge interview here on the Sky media website.

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Caron Lindsay

Nick Clegg shows why he is such a credible, authoritative leader of the opposition to May’s “hard brexit”

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 16th October 2016 - 12:19 pm

A year ago, Nick Clegg’s career appeared to be pretty much over. Some even wondered if he night have been upset to have clung on to his Sheffield Hallam seat.

Now, former critics are starting to be glad that he is there. He is by far the most experienced politician in the country on both international trade and how the European Union works.

This week has seen the latest in a fairly long line of articles, which started with the Mystic Clegg stuff in June, suggesting that Nick Clegg’s star is in the ascendancy again. The New Statesman, of all things, was even nice about him.

Clegg has previously voiced the hope that a botched attempt at hard Brexit might trigger a desire for an alternative to Tory rule among the British people. For him personally, Brexit is the perfect issue upon which to position himself as a voice of reason. He has the experience, the gravitas and the passion to help win back some of the political credibility he lost during the dark days of the coalition and the tuition fees debacle. Whether he can ever fully lose the traitor tag remains to be seen, but his intervention on Brexit will be welcome among the 16.1 million people who didn’t vote for any kind of Brexit, let alone a hard one.

Over at the Huffington Post, Beth Leslie suggests that Brexit means that it is time to forgive the Liberal Democrats.

Four million UKIP voters in 2015 elected just one MP, but they snowballed an idea that made Brexit a reality. Why couldn’t we centrists do the same? And with the money, resources and national recognition of an established party, the Liberal Democrats are the best-placed vehicle for us to try to do so.

Tim Farron and Nick Clegg have both been brilliant on Brexit all the way through. Tim’s PMQ got the PM to admit she doesn’t give two hoots about the nearly half the country who voted to remain and Clegg continues to work with others to fight the parliamentary campaign against a hard brexit that nobody voted for.

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Caron Lindsay

Clegg: “Liberalism youthful, optimistic philosophy”, Ashdown threatens to eat Murnaghan & Grender reminds us of Labour’s NHS deals with private sector

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 18th January 2015 - 12:43 pm

It’s been a marathon this morning. Nick Clegg has been on the Andrew Marr Show and Pienaar’s Politics, Paddy Ashdown has been on Murnaghan talking about the debates and the Counter Terrorism Bill and Olly Grender took part in a panel on Pienaar’s Politics.

I have done a Storify thingy of all my tweets from all the interviews here but I shall outline the key themes in this post.

This was a morning when, as we’ve seen, there have been two powerful initiatives from the party on ending illiteracy by 2025 and improving mental health crisis care so that people don’t end up in police cells. These weren’t mentioned very much in any of the interviews.

Clegg – Lib Dems in Government have been obsessed with ensuring kids get best start in life

Clegg really came into his own in the Pienaar interview where he had more opportunity to talk about Lib Dem values and priorities than on the Marr Show. He outlined how initiatives like protecting the schools budget and giving extra money to disadvantaged kids in school had started to close the attainment gap. He talked about liberalism being a “youthful, optimistic philosophy which seeks to create a society where everybody can get ahead.

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The Voice

Vince speaks out against “devastating and ideologically driven” Tory spending cuts plan

By The Voice | Sun 14th December 2014 - 11:00 am

Vince Cable Social Liberal Forum conference Jul 19 2014 Photo by Paul WalterThe Tories have been “well behaved” over the past few years because the Liberal Democrats have kept them on a tight leash, apparently. So said Vince Cable on the Andrew Marr Show this morning. He said that we were now getting a glimpse of what they would be like without that leash, adding that the consequences of their spending decisions would be that there would be around half as much money to spend on Police, defence, local government and social care.

He highlighted the differences between the Conservative and Liberal Democrat approaches to the economy and what a vote for each would mean:

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Caron Lindsay

Danny Alexander earns a reprieve after strong performance on Andrew Marr

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 8th December 2013 - 10:57 am

Danny Alexander went on the Andrew Marr Show this morning to talk about the Autumn Statement and the Liberal Democrats’ contribution to the economic recovery.  If I had to pull him up on anything, it’s not getting in any mention of shared parental leave. No Liberal Democrat interview should be complete without it. It ticks all the stronger economy, fairer society, enabling people to get on in life boxes and is one of the best practical demonstrations of  Liberal Democrat values in action that we’ve delivered in government.

He said that the proposed MPs’ pay rise would be wholly inappropriate when there’s pay restraint in other areas of the public sector.

In terms of differentiation from the Tories, he said that Liberal Democrats wanted more taxes on the wealthy, opposed what he called the tax penalty for unmarried people and opposed the removal of housing benefit from young people, which we had stopped in this Parliament.

He also confirmed that free school meals for younger children was a permanent commitment and reports that it was unfunded after 2015 were not true. He said the money was there but the work had not yet been done to allocate them to individual departments.

I’ve done a quick Storify which covers the main points of the interview.

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Caron Lindsay

Vince Cable: “Go home” poster vans “stupid and offensive”

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 28th July 2013 - 12:55 pm

Those of you who have not been willing to take the word of senior Liberal Democrat sources on those notorious poster vans, and have been waiting for a minister to say something will not be disappointed by Vince Cable’s comments on today’s Andrew Marr show:

It’s stupid, as Trevor Phillips said, the idea that illegal immigrants have got a sophisticated grasp of English, read at a distance and I think it is offensive. It is designed, apparently to create a sense of fear within the British population that we have a vast problem with illegal immigration. We have a problem, but

…

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  • User AvatarSue Sutherland 18th Dec - 1:57pm
    I’m glad you mentioned the sixties Joe because otherwise I would have had to point out that not everyone over the age of 55 voted...
  • User AvatarMichael 1 18th Dec - 1:50pm
    @John Marriott Thanks (I think!) for your comment and I appreciate the sentiment although this IS a site were we discuss things and disagree. I...
  • User AvatarDJ 18th Dec - 1:46pm
    When Sturgeon debated with Cameron (back in GE debates) one pundit suggested part of the reason she did so well was that Cameron didn't know...
  • User AvatarSue Sutherland 18th Dec - 1:24pm
    Thank you for your post Geoff. The main lesson I’m taking away from this is that you and two other Lib Dem councillors represent a...
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    I fear now that the Government is driving the bus straight over the no deal cliff and, principally because of the awfulness of Her Majesty’s...
  • User AvatarDavid Evans 18th Dec - 12:56pm
    Don, the problem is not that "It is time for MPs to collaborate on a plan to get a vote in Parliament between the existing...