Tag Archives: coalition

Caron Lindsay

And I would have succeeded if it hadn’t been for these pesky Lib Dems – Cameron

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 9th May 2012 - 7:55 pm

I read the Daily Mail every day. It’s worth it because in amongst the inaccurate, scaremongering bile, there’s quite often a wee gem which shows off the Liberal Democrat influence in the Coalition.

Today, it carries an interview with David Cameron in which he tells how these pesky Liberal Democrats have stopped him doing things like getting rid of human rights legislation, eroding people’s employment rights and stopping him introducing a tax break for married couples.

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Caron Lindsay

LibLink: David Laws “My second half Coalition agenda”

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 9th May 2012 - 9:25 am

Writing in today’s Financial Times, David Laws sets out his key priorities for the Coalition, discussing what needs to happen in the economy to ensure growth is achieved alongside deficit reduction. He writes about how crucial it is for the Government to get it right on the economy.

The coalition still has the potential to be one of the great reforming governments of the postwar era. The changes we are making in education, welfare and pensions are radical and right. The country will judge us over our full term and not on the basis of a turbulent few weeks of “here

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 7 Comments
Linda Jack

Opinion: 1984 and all that

By Linda Jack | Tue 3rd April 2012 - 8:32 am

If you wanted to pick an issue guaranteed to unite the whole party – protecting our civil liberties has to be it. So the last 48 hours have been a frenzy of claim, counterclaim, the candyflossesque spin of internal briefings and Lib Dems across the blogo/twitto/facebooko/forumosphere reaching dangerously apoplectic levels of disquiet.

Mark Pack, in his inimitable unflappable style offered an informative briefing via LDV – taking the optimistic view, reassuring us that “what the Home Office proposes is not the same as what Parliament will legislate. No matter how flawed the initial proposal put to Parliament by Theresa May are, they put the RIPA rules on the table – giving the opportunity to get them changed to meet what a liberal approach should be – as little intrusion as possible, only for the most serious of offences and with rigorous, independently verified safeguards”.

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NewsHound

LibLink: Nick Thornsby – The coalition was the best option in May 2010, and it’s the best option now

By NewsHound | Sat 10th March 2012 - 2:58 pm

Over at the New Statesman, Lib Dem blogger and Voice day editor Nick Thornsby has a piece setting out why he thinks the arguments for going into coalition remain as strong today as in May 2010.

Here’s an excerpt:

A coalition with Labour and a number of the smaller parties in Parliament was never a serious proposition, both because of the numerical difficulties and because of Labour’s intransigence. In hindsight it’s clear that most in the Labour party weren’t interested in joining a coalition. They’d rather be in opposition.

A confidence and supply arrangement was another option, but in my view those who

…

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Posted in LibLink | 2 Comments
Lynne Featherstone

Lynne Featherstone MP writes: How the Liberal Democrats are delivering for women

By Lynne Featherstone | Wed 7th March 2012 - 4:58 pm

As we celebrate International Women’s Day tomorrow, I’m proud to represent Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government. I know that our involvement has made a positive impact on the lives of thousands of women in a range of ways.

We’ve got lots to shout about, so please spread the word: blog and tweet about it and forward this to your friends.

Here’s how we’re delivering for women –

  • When it comes to shielding women in need from the brunt of the economic squeeze, our policy to free the lowest paid from income tax has played a key role in protecting women. Women make

…

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Stephen Tall

The Labour Party. Remember them?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 3rd March 2012 - 2:55 pm

There’s an excellent must-read post on the New Statesman site by Rafael Behr highlighting how Coalition politics is not only eclipsing the Labour party from the media spotlight, but also paralysing its leadership from engaging with internal debate.

First, he notes how both the Lib Dems and Tories are being given the freedom to differentiate their party’s policies from the Coalition’s programme:

The Conservative party does not like the 50p tax rate. That much is clear. It is just as clear that government policy is, for the time being, to retain the rate. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats support a “Mansion

…

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Prateek Buch

Nick Clegg on being Nick Clegg in The House magazine

By Prateek Buch | Fri 3rd February 2012 - 3:00 pm

Deputy Prime Minister gave a wide-ranging interview to The House magazine, in which he discusses how it’s right for the two coalition parties to differentiate themselves once a stable government was formed:

In the run-up to the general election, you may remember, the tabloids were screaming, saying that if there was a hung Parliament locusts would descend from the sky and the sun would be blotted out, you know… so we needed for those first few months to show the most important thing of all, which is this is a government that works, and actually works rather well.

Of course,

…

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Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged and | 1 Comment
David Thorpe

Opinion: The Coalition are winning the economic argument

By David Thorpe | Fri 20th January 2012 - 12:30 pm

It’s a dark winter night in Westminster but the building from which a group of men emerge is still wreathed in light. The men clamber into a sleek car, which streaks away through the emptying streets. Their journey is short in physical distance, but it’s long on significance for all of them. They are serious of face and purpose as the vehicle stops by one of the quieter spots on the riverbank.

The heaviest of the men is the first to get out, he flashes a look along the river bank, and seeing it deserted, nods quickly to his companions, all of whom …

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Sam Cannicott

Opinion: LibDems should run a big-spending department

By Sam Cannicott | Mon 9th January 2012 - 12:53 pm

Writing in The Times, Danny Finkelstein (here for subscribers) predicts that the Coalition Government will stick together in 2012 and that those who think there will be a general election this year are wrong.

I agree. The coalition will survive and there will not be a general election. But I hope that the coalition will look rather different. The Liberal Democrats need to be running a big spending department responsible for a key public service. A problem that the party faces is that it struggles to explain to non-politicos what the Liberal Democrats actually do. …

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Posted in Op-eds | 7 Comments
Simon Titley

Opinion: which twin is the Tory?

By Simon Titley | Fri 23rd December 2011 - 9:00 am

Earlier this month, my home town of Lincoln hosted its annual Christmas market. Lincoln was the first city in the UK to host a German-style Christmas market. Since the first market in 1982, it has grown from just 11 stalls to more than 250. This year’s was the most successful yet, attracting a record 335,000 visitors to the city and contributing millions of pounds to the local economy.

The Christmas market is the most visible product of Lincoln’s twinning arrangement with the German wine-producing town of Neustadt an der Weinstrasse. Besides the market, the twin-town relationship has …

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Nick T

Opinion: The coalition will now change; the Lib Dems must ensure it does so for the better

By Nick T | Thu 15th December 2011 - 1:26 pm

When, earlier this year, David Cameron sanctioned the Conservative-dominated No to AV campaign to attack his until then unfailingly loyal deputy, he precipitated the end of coalition phase one. It had not meant to happen so quickly, but the Liberal Democrat reaction – the strategy of differentiation – soon followed.

The prime minister’s actions in Europe last week are a similar turning point. By pandering to the extremes in his party – by acting as Tory leader rather than prime minister, as Paddy Ashdown put it – David Cameron has forced Nick Clegg to once again rethink the Liberal Democrat approach …

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Nick T

LDVideo: David Laws interviewed by Mark Littlewood

By Nick T | Thu 1st December 2011 - 5:57 pm

Last week, the Director General of the Institute of Economic Affairs, Mark Littlewood, spent an hour talking to David Laws at the IEA’s Westminster headquarters. Before a packed room, Mark and David touched on a whole range of issues – taxation, Europe, the formation of the coalition, just exactly how liberal the Liberal Democrats are, and many more.

The hour-long exchange, which you can see below, is well worth a watch:

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Posted in News and YouTube | Also tagged , , , and | 2 Comments
Nick T

LibLink: Chris Rennard – The Lib Dems’ three-pronged strategy for success

By Nick T | Fri 28th October 2011 - 2:58 pm

In the House Magazine, Lord (Chris) Rennard – campaigns guru and former chief executive of the party – has set out the ‘three- pronged’ approach that he believes the Liberal Democrats should take over the coming years.

Here’s a sample:

The first of them follows on from Nick Clegg’s first-year priority, which was to show that the coalition government was stable and capable of taking tough decisions. So an early task for Nick Clegg was to show that ‘coalition works’. This test required huge self-discipline in agreeing a four-year Comprehensive Spending Review, and some compromises that were unpalatable to many Lib Dems.

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged | 4 Comments
Steve Bolter

Opinion: Caroline Lucas is wrong

By Steve Bolter | Wed 14th September 2011 - 3:43 pm

As a campaigner on environmental issues since the 1960s, I have admired the way Caroline Lucas has publicly championed green issues. However, while I am sad that the Lib Dems have not been able to implement all of their manifesto, I am even sadder that Caroline’s lust for power has overtaken her commitment to the environmental cause.

While the Green Party has played an important role in helping inform the public, it has only a very small proportion of councillors and just one UK MP. The Liberal Democrats, with their far greater number of councillors, their participation in the Coalition …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 23 Comments
Greg Judge

Opinion: What the US debt ceiling crisis can teach Britain on coalition and compromise

By Greg Judge | Thu 4th August 2011 - 1:51 pm

The crisis in the US Congress has finally come to an end and President Obama was able to raise the country’s debt ceiling without invoking the 14th Amendment. It has been a weekend of worry and apprehension as to how far extremist factions such as the Republican Tea Party were willing to go and whether they were prepared to bring the country to the lowly depths of economic default.

Neither major party had seemed prepared to give up what means most to them; the preservation of continued support for Medicare and Social Security (Democrats) or the need for heavy fiscal cuts …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 14 Comments
Chris White

Chris White writes: Is it possible to change Coalition policy?

By Chris White | Fri 22nd July 2011 - 2:53 pm

Is it possible to change Coalition policy? Council leaders certainly hope so if the letter to today’s Times is to be believed. Over a hundred have supported – and no doubt many more councillors, deputies, backbenchers and the like might have done so had there been more time to hone the message and gather support.

The issue should be core to the localist agenda – although we need to be rather clearer about what we really want.

Not so long ago the police were governed (at least in non-operational terms) by the police committees of county councils. There was not much …

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Mark Pack

How coalition government means better government

By Mark Pack | Fri 24th June 2011 - 1:53 pm

Last night I headed over to Enfield to hear Nick Harvey talked to a packed restaurant of Liberal Democrats about his experiences of a minister. It was an impressive turnout from one of our smaller local parties in London and an impressive speech from Nick, who cut his political teeth in the borough.

One part was about how coalition government made for better government. Nick Harvey gave the example of how troops were deployed to Helmand Province in Afghanistan.

As a defence minister learning about one of the most important issues facing him and colleagues, he had wanted to get his head …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 12 Comments
Helen Duffett

Nick Clegg’s speech on NHS reforms: “We’ve listened, we’ve learned”

By Helen Duffett | Tue 14th June 2011 - 12:15 pm

Nick Clegg has given a speech today at a joint press conference with David Cameron and Andrew Lansley, on NHS reform and the results of the listening exercise.

This comes on the morning that a Telegraph leader declared:

The Lib Dem conference changed everything. Grass roots activists made it clear to Nick Clegg that they would not accept the wider involvement of the private sector championed by Mr Lansley or what they considered to be his undue emphasis on competition. Ever since, the reforms have been in trouble and the three-month “pause” ordered by Mr Cameron sealed their fate. The NHS

…

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Posted in News and Speeches | Also tagged , , and | 5 Comments
Robert Hazell

The Independent View: Coalition Works! The inside story from the Constitution Unit

By Robert Hazell | Sun 5th June 2011 - 12:39 pm

The coalition is working well, but the Lib Dems could do better, is the overall message from the Constitution Unit’s first report on how the coalition works in Whitehall and Westminster. We are conducting a 12 month study, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, with a research team of five, including two former senior civil servants, and one senior broadcaster. David Cameron and Nick Clegg have authorised access to all the key figures in Whitehall, and so far we have interviewed 90 ministers, special advisers, officials, parliamentarians, and external interest groups.

Everyone we interviewed in Whitehall says …

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Mark Pack

The Cameron-Clegg Government: or the perils of publishing a book early in the Parliament

By Mark Pack | Mon 30th May 2011 - 3:54 pm

Simon Lee and Matt Beech’s new book The Cameron-Clegg Government: Coalition Politics in an Age of Austerity has, at first glance, a lot going for it. A line-up of significant academic names, a well-known and reputable publisher (Palgrave Macmillan) a subject matter that is rarely out of the news and (unlike for books about the 2010 general election) a field relatively clear of rival publications.

A second glance suggests one of its problems: although nominally about both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, there are five contributors who are listed as having published books purely about the Conservative Party but …

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John Pugh

John Pugh writes: is an apology in order?

By John Pugh | Mon 16th May 2011 - 2:29 pm

There was little real choice about choosing to enter the coalition. There was little real choice about addressing the nation’s colossal budget. There was no way to avoid risking unpopularity.

As the Liberal Democrat councillors took the bullet for the coalition on local election day and Conservatives emerged relatively unscathed, it must be asked whether the extent of our defeats was avoidable. To put it another way could we have played the coalition game better – both in terms of presentation and in terms of policy?

The answer is unequivocally yes and for that reason MPs owe an apology to …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 60 Comments
Helen Duffett

Nick Clegg’s speech – “One year on: The Coalition and Liberal Politics”

By Helen Duffett | Wed 11th May 2011 - 10:15 am


This morning, Nick Clegg gave a speech to party members to mark the first anniversary of the Coalition Government.

In the light of the past year, and of last week’s election results, Nick set out to answer what these mean for the Liberal Democrats – both as a party and in government.

Nick described the Liberal Democrat economic agenda in government as one of “short-term repair and long-term reform,” while promising “a strong liberal identity in a strong coalition government”, “muscular liberalism”, and “a louder Liberal Democrat Voice” .

Nick said that having created a strong, stable government and set out credible plans to reduce the deficit, it was time to “make the Liberal Democrat imprint and influence on government more visible.”

Now read on:

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 31 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Mark Pack on seven reasons the Coalition will last

By NewsHound | Mon 11th April 2011 - 11:57 am

Over on his work’s blog, The Voice’s co-editor Mark Pack has been giving seven reasons why he expects the Coalition Government will last the distance. His list includes,

5. The Labour Party is not acting like a party that is seriously trying to get back into power before the next general election. Ed Miliband’s call for a widespread policy review is a sensible move for a party voted out after such a long period in power, but it also is based on an assumption that Labour does not need to have a program for government for a good few years yet.

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged and | 20 Comments
James Firth

Opinion: ‘l’iberalism and ‘L’iberalism

By James Firth | Wed 30th March 2011 - 4:21 pm

Rumours in the Telegraph this weekend of a rebrand, a name change, a leadership challenge? Notwithstanding the dubious origins of a story attempting to rub salt on wounds open since 1988 I mulled over the possibilities. Having debunked 2 assertions in the article I didn’t even bother to consider the prospect of a leadership challenge.

Would we ditch the freedom bird for scales of justice? Considering the People’s Justice Party and more recently the Jury Team used scales, I should hope not.

And renaming the party to include the word “social”? Some members in my local party born after …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 16 Comments
Paul Walter

Opinion: Labour’s preparations for the next hung parliament

By Paul Walter | Tue 15th February 2011 - 4:44 pm

Compass have published a document written by Dr Mathew Sowemimo called “The next hung parliament – how Labour can prepare”.

Dr Sowemimo is co-founder of The Social Liberal Forum network, established in 2008 to promote progressive policies within the Liberal Democrat party. He joined the Labour party in September 2010.

This document is generally very encouraging and forward-looking. Dr Sowemimo identifies a list of areas which were important in the May 2010 post-election period, and from which Labour should learn. These include:

  • Tone – as in Cameron’s inclusive tone towards Clegg, compared with Brown’s dismissive attitude to Clegg.
  • Don’t destroy

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 20 Comments
Richard Morris

Opinion: Coalition needs a new approach to collective responsibility

By Richard Morris | Fri 11th February 2011 - 3:12 pm

In my recent piece on LDV, a fairly gentle poke at the rebranding of the opposition, two themes emerged from those with opposing views. They can be summed up as ‘Why don’t you lot ever disagree with the Tories’ and ‘get your own house in order first’.

Well you know, I think they have a point.

Even as a strong supporter of the coalition, I’d long disagreed with the ‘not a cigarette paper between us‘ approach to government. We get tarred with policy we don’t agree with, get no credit for Lib Dem inspired legislation, and fail to build up …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 13 Comments
Tony Greaves

Tony Greaves writes: Coalition, Government and the Lords

By Tony Greaves | Tue 25th January 2011 - 10:43 am

We are in a new situation which started with the coalition being negotiated. Nobody in the political parties had thought it through. It had to be made up as they went along and it is still being made up, week by week, month by month. It has had a major effect on the resulting policies. It has also had an effect on the ongoing processes of government.

The coalition was put together in five days. An important lesson must be that future coalition-building in this country after an election really ought to take place at a slightly more measured pace, and …

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Posted in Op-eds and Parliament | Also tagged | 46 Comments
Helen Duffett

In Government for all the right reasons: the David Laws interview

By Helen Duffett | Tue 23rd November 2010 - 4:41 pm

Yesterday I interviewed David Laws, on the day his book 22 Days in May was published. I asked him about the book, his views on the Coalition Government, as well as about the focus of his current work, plus his thoughts on the Ireland bailout.

In the introduction to the book, David Laws writes that its purpose is to “inform those who are interested in this important period of British politics, and to make sure that an accurate account is left of what really happened in May 2010, before memories fade, myths grow and evidence is lost.”

Why have you published …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 40 Comments
Helen Duffett

A day in the life of Stephen Lloyd MP

By Helen Duffett | Sun 14th November 2010 - 4:18 pm

There’s an interesting short video from the BBC’s Politics Show South East, featuring the new Liberal Democrat MP for Eastbourne, Stephen Lloyd.

“Every single decision I take goes through the prism of Eastbourne,” says Stephen, as he shares his thoughts on coalition government and tuition fees.

You can also read about a typical Westminster work day for Stephen:

His Wednesday starts at 9 am with a two-hour long Work and Pensions select committee.

He goes straight from there to Prime Minister’s Questions and the big topic of debate is the government’s decision to allow universities to charge tuition fees of up to £9,000.

…

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Posted in Parliament | Also tagged , , and | 3 Comments
Tony Butcher

A new member writes… Why I’ve decided to join the Liberal Democrats now

By Tony Butcher | Tue 9th November 2010 - 9:55 am

We had news yesterday that a former Lib Dem parliamentary candidate has announced his defection to the Labour Party. So I think it only fair to provide a bit of balance: I joined the Lib Dems last week because I believe they offer the best opportunity for providing fair government.

I believe in democracy and I feel that the Lib Dems are the most democratic of the three major parties. The Lib Dem base is, by and large, ordinary people who want their voices heard, not big business and not the unions both of whom want their own agendas …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 66 Comments
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