Tag Archives: Danny Alexander

Mark Pack

Danny Alexander set to up the ante on anti-Tory rhetoric and housing

By Mark Pack | Sat 11th August 2012 - 12:52 pm

One of the best speeches given by a Liberal Democrat Cabinet Member in the last year was Danny Alexander’s to the GMB conference. It was not only a good speech, it went down well with a tough audience that disagrees strongly with many things the government is doing.

As I wrote at the time:

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 3 Comments
Pawel Swidlicki

The Independent View: Could Europe be an unlikely area of consensus for the revamped Coalition 2.0?

By Pawel Swidlicki | Sat 11th August 2012 - 9:51 am

Following the bad blood within the coalition over the collapse of Lords reform and the constituency boundary review, there has been much speculation that the two parties will enact a policy ‘reset’ after conference season, with Oliver Letwin and Danny Alexander already reportedly working out the details. Most people looking for potential fresh common ground between Tories and Lib Dems would hardly place ‘Europe’ at the top of their list. However, while the parties are unlikely to ever see eye to eye on the EU, given political will, there are a number of areas of potential agreement.

Continue reading »
Posted in Europe / International, News and Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 21 Comments
Stephen Tall

Danny Alexander: UK’s triple-A credit rating “not be-all and end-all”

By Stephen Tall | Mon 6th August 2012 - 9:05 am

Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander has signalled an interesting shift in the government’s economic approach, downplaying the significance to the economy of the UK’s continuing triple-A credit rating. Here’s what he told the BBC (courtesy of PoliticsHome):

“The credit rating is not the be-all and end-all. What matters is have we got the right policy mix for the country to get people back into work, to support economic growth, to deal with the huge problems in our public finances and the credit agencies reflect on those things and the ratings they give are a reflection of

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

David Boyle’s appointment is excellent news

By Mark Pack | Mon 25th June 2012 - 9:53 am

Under Charles Kennedy’s leadership, the party had a simple and generally popular approach to public services: Kennedy consistently supported higher spending on favourite public services and appointed as party spokespeople those with experience of that service. So in education, for example, it was ex-headteacher Phil Willis leading for the party, promoting costed policies to put more cash into the party’s priorities.

Overall, the party’s plans involved raising at least as much in extra taxes or savings as it wanted to spend, so the net effect was fiscally respectable but for each individual public service the party’s answer was pretty much, “we’ll …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , and | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

Danny Alexander: pay tax as I say not as I do?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 23rd June 2012 - 1:45 pm

Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander wrote a powerful article — Rich tax dodgers are as bad as dole cheats — for this week’s Sun newspaper. His condemnation of those, such as Jimmy Carr, who legally avoid paying their taxes couldn’t have been stronger:

… to most people it’s outrageous that a few of the very richest and their expensive financial advisers are devising ever more obscure and underhand ways of not paying their tax. When it comes to paying their fair share, some of the people

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , , and | 32 Comments
NewsHound

Liblink: Danny Alexander to tax dodgers – we are coming to get you!

By NewsHound | Wed 20th June 2012 - 4:27 pm

Following all the publicity about Jimmy Carr’s tax arrangements for his multi million pound fortune which means that he pays just a fraction of the amount the rest of us have to shell out, Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander has written for the Sun newspaper about Government measures to clamp down on those who avoid tax.

Frankly, I think people who dodge the tax system are the moral equivalent of benefit cheats.

Both sets of people think they can bend the rules everyone else lives by for their own benefit.

The Coalition are already cutting income tax for

…

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , and | 19 Comments
Mark Pack

Danny Alexander addresses the GMB – emerging liberal and successful

By Mark Pack | Wed 13th June 2012 - 3:58 pm

Yesterday Danny Alexander headed off to the annual conference of my old union, the GMB, to give a tricky speech. The GMB isn’t just a consistent critic of the government, it has also criticised Labour for not being different enough from the government in its eyes. Throw in contentious issues such as the pension reforms and merely avoiding uproar would have been a success. In fact, the Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury did far better than that:

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Local pay for the public sector: a row the Lib Dems and the Coalition will want to dodge?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 10th June 2012 - 10:15 am

The Huffington Post published an excellent dissection of the twists and turns the debate on local pay for public sector workers (sometimes called regional pay) is taking within the Lib Dems:

Letters written by the Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander the number two minister at the Treasury appeared wildly enthusiastic about civil servants being paid different amounts depending on where they work as recently as the start of this year.

But subsequent letters show Alexander softening his stance, suggesting he’s come under pressure from fellow Lib Dems over the proposals, confirmed by George Osborne in the

…

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , and | 30 Comments
Mark Pack

Which of the five Lib Dem reshuffle options will Nick Clegg pick?

By Mark Pack | Mon 14th May 2012 - 2:23 pm

Five scenarios for your delectation:

The Lib Dem night of the long beards

The drastic, dramatic and painful option. Clegg says the Liberal Democrats need David Laws’s expertise and media savvy at the heart of economic decision making, restoring him to Chief Secretary to the Treasury and expressing tearful regret that Danny Alexander is off out of the Cabinet, with a resting place as a new Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Cabinet Office where he will not have to handle quite so many tricky TV interviews.

Education, education, education

Too problematic to bring back Laws in a tax and cut role? Bring him …

Continue reading »
Posted in Humour and Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , and | 45 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Tales from the Campaign Trail: Danny Alexander to the rescue

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 2nd May 2012 - 2:55 pm

As we settle down for our afternoon cup of tea, I thought it would be good to share an uplifting tale from the campaign trail.

The other day, Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury was canvassing in the Wimbledon Park by-election for candidate Dave Busby.

While he was there, he came across a woman who found herself locked in her flat. She was able to escape after she passed the keys to Danny through the letterbox so he could unlock the door for her.

I hope she’s voting for Dave tomorrow.

Posted in News | Also tagged and | 8 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV Caption Competition: Osborne, Clegg & Alexander “Three Musketeers” Edition

By Stephen Tall | Sat 14th April 2012 - 5:30 pm

There’s no prize at stake – just the opportunity to prove you’re wittier than any other LDV reader…

Here is Tory Chancellor George Osborne flanked by the two Lib Dem members of the ‘Quad’, Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander. What do you think might be being said or thought by or about them?

And the winners of our last caption comp is…

Some fantastic entries for our most recent caption competition, Tim Farron & Prince Charles “I want that hat” Edition.

Continue reading »
Posted in Caption Comp | Also tagged and | 14 Comments
Stephen Tall

Clegg: “no objection in principle” to publishing his tax return

By Stephen Tall | Sun 8th April 2012 - 11:45 am

Today’s Independent on Sunday reports:

Nick Clegg has “no objection in principle” to publishing his tax return, aides said yesterday, after senior politicians scrambled to respond to calls for greater US-style openness from public figures.

After the four main candidates for London’s mayoral elections revealed their personal tax affairs, the Chancellor, George Osborne, yesterday said he was “very happy” for his own details to be published. The disclosures from Boris Johnson, Ken Livingstone, Brian Paddick and Jenny Jones were seen as a turning point, with some warning that they were succumbing to the “Americanisation” of British politics.

An aide to the Deputy

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 3 Comments
Lorely Burt

Lorely Burt MP writes… Freelancers: championing and protecting the little guy

By Lorely Burt | Thu 29th March 2012 - 6:54 pm

You don’t need me to tell you that things are tough out there for small businesses. I know: having run several small businesses and having previously been our party’s Small Business spokesperson. The UK’s 4.5 million Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) make a huge contribution to our economy, but today they are caught in a perfect storm between contracting markets, a failure of banks to lend, and late payments.  The result of these problems is that many viable small businesses have sadly failed.

There is however one sector of small business that is growing. Over the last three years we have …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 5 Comments
Donna Richardson

Independent View: IGEM makes a splash at the Liberal Democrats Spring conference

By Donna Richardson | Sat 24th March 2012 - 10:42 am

The Institution of Gas Engineers & Managers (IGEM) exhibited at the Liberal Democrats Spring 2012 Conference, which took place at The Sage centre in Gateshead from 9th – 11th March 2012.

It is the first time IGEM has exhibited at a political party’s conference and it gave the organisation a chance to raise its profile with senior Liberal Democrats holding key posts in the Coalition Government. IGEM met Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg, Vince Cable (Business Secretary), Danny Alexander (Chief Secretary to the Treasury) and Ed Davey (Energy Secretary).

During visits to IGEM’s area, the ministers …

Continue reading »
Posted in Conference | Also tagged , and | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

The 50p tax rate is not for dropping – the leadership’s line

By Mark Pack | Sat 10th March 2012 - 12:46 pm

Given some of the recent speculation over the 50p tax rate, the speech from Stephen Williams (Co-Chair of the Parliamentary Party Committee on the Treasury) opening the debate on tax policy was significant:

Now is not the right time to drop the 50p tax rate.

The full context left open if there might ever be a right time, but unlike speculation in The Times a few days back, there was no offer of trading off the 50p rate against the introduction of a mansion tax.

His comments also reflected the text of the motion passed, which included:

Continue reading »
Posted in Conference and News | Also tagged , , , and | 2 Comments
Helen Duffett

Nick Clegg’s speech to Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference

By Helen Duffett | Sat 3rd March 2012 - 10:25 am

Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference started yesterday in Inverness and runs until tomorrow (Sunday). Nick Clegg addressed Conference yesterday afternoon; here is his speech in full:

Liberals from the Highlands and Islands have always been at the heart of our party. From the late great Jo Grimond and Russell Johnston, great leaders like Bob Maclennan, Charles Kennedy and Jim Wallace in Scotland, to our current team at Westminster, Highland and Island voices have shaped who the Liberal Democrats are.

In Danny Alexander and Alistair Carmichael, I have Liberals from the Highlands and Islands with me right at the heart of British Government. …

Continue reading »
Posted in Scotland and Speeches | Also tagged , , , , , , , and | Leave a comment
Caron Lindsay

What’s on at Scottish Liberal Democrat conference this weekend?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 29th February 2012 - 1:55 pm

This weekend, Scottish Liberal Democrats gather in Inverness for their annual conference. This is the second most important event to take place in the city this year, next to  my sister’s wedding in the Highland Capital on 8 April.

Every Council seat in Scotland is up for election in May so the Conference will be a good launch pad for the campaign. It’s also new leader Willie Rennie’s first Spring Conference speech, a chance for him to map out where he wants to take the party over the next year and remind us of how the small but strong Liberal Democrat …

Continue reading »
Posted in Conference and News | Also tagged , , , , , and | 3 Comments
Helen Duffett

Danny Alexander “an acknowledged authority on dinosaurs”

By Helen Duffett | Thu 16th February 2012 - 2:21 pm

A new insight into Danny Alexander MP’s carefree childhood, from the Corncrake*, the hyperlocal website for the Scottish island of Colonsay, where the Chief Secretary to the Treasury grew up –

Ian McAllister attended the primary school with Danny and remembers,

As wee boys, Danny and I used to play on the seaside rocks near Glen Cottage. Danny was very interested in cricket and fishing and we regarded him as the man to ask if we had any questions about dinosaurs, on which he was the acknowledged authority.

Many years later, the schoolmates were unexpectedly reunited:

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged | 4 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: James Plunkett – Budget 2012: 20 minutes in, 1-0 Team Clegg

By NewsHound | Mon 13th February 2012 - 12:25 pm

Over at the New Statesman, James Plunkett, who is leading the Resolution Foundation’s Commission on Living standards, looks at what we’ve learned from the recent interventions by Nick Clegg (pushing for a £10k income tax threshold to help the lowest-paid) and Danny Alexander (urging this be paid for by ending higher-rate pension relief) — and what those interventions might mean for George Osborne’s budget this March…

If there’s one thing Alexander’s intervention confirms it’s this: the key question for the 2012 Budget is no longer whether the Lib Dems will get anything on personal allowances but how the next

…

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , , and | 3 Comments
The Voice

Danny Alexander: it’s time to axe higher-rate tax relief on pensions to fund tax-cuts for lowest-paid

By The Voice | Sat 11th February 2012 - 5:58 pm

A couple of weeks ago, Nick Clegg signalled his determination to cut the taxes of the lowest-paid — now Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander is pressing for the tax-rise that would enable the Coalition to get on with it.

Here’s how the Telegraph reports it:

Danny Alexander, a Liberal Democrat Cabinet minister, says the better-off are receiving overly-generous tax relief when they invest money for their retirement. Mr Alexander’s proposals would see tax relief halve from 40 per cent to 20 per cent. He also wants workers on the minimum wage, who earn up to

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 8 Comments
Mark Pack

Lib Dems put pension tax breaks for the richest under scrutiny again

By Mark Pack | Sat 11th February 2012 - 10:25 am

Liberal Democrat pressure in the coalition government has already secured significant reductions in the tax breaks for the very richest. However, these tax breaks are still sufficiently generous that there is the scope for raising plenty more money without introducing punitive tax rates.

For example, restricting the tax relief on pension contributions to 20% (the standard rate for most people) rather than the current 40% for those earning over £100,000 would raise over £3.5 billion more each year. Last year, in a clear sign of the way in which senior Liberal Democrats are thinking, David Laws asked a series of Parliamentary …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 10 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo: Danny Alexander – ‘No-one wants bonus culture’

By Stephen Tall | Mon 30th January 2012 - 8:00 pm

Here’s Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander interviewed on Sunday lunchtime, defending the Coalition’s decision not to demand RBS chief executive Stephen Hester return his controversial bonus — a few hours before Mr Hester voluntarily forfeited it to defuse the row:

Continue reading »
Posted in YouTube | Also tagged and | 12 Comments
Stephen Tall

In other news…

By Stephen Tall | Sun 29th January 2012 - 4:45 pm

Here’s a round-up of stories we haven’t had time to cover on the site this past week…

  • Lib Dem MP Tessa Munt is taking on sexism in the BBC: ‘The BBC must ensure there are more women presenters and executives working on its radio network if it is to justify its licence fee, MP Tessa Munt said today after she found that in some cases there were fewer female voices than 25 years ago.’
  • The FT reports how Danny Alexander, Lib Dem Treasury chief secretary, has highlighted a crackdown on high pay in the public sector: Danny has

    • …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | Leave a comment
    Stephen Tall

    LDVideo: Danny Alexander on the Coalition’s economic record

    By Stephen Tall | Thu 26th January 2012 - 10:10 pm

    Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander was grilled by BBC Newsnight’s Jeremy Paxman on Wednesday night about the UK’s negative growth figures — here’s what Danny had to say about the Coalition’s economic strategy:

    Continue reading »
    Posted in YouTube | Also tagged , and | 3 Comments
    Mark Pack

    Nick Clegg unites with Lords in battle to alter benefit cuts

    By Mark Pack | Sat 14th January 2012 - 8:29 pm

    So reports tomorrow’s Observer:

    David Cameron has been lobbied by the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, on the need to rewrite the government’s flagship benefit reform to help children suffering as a result.

    Clegg proposed a series of changes to the £500-a-week cap, including exempting current claimants, in an attempt to ameliorate some of the worst consequences of the change, which critics claim will make 40,000 families homeless by making their current homes unaffordable.

    It is understood Clegg made his appeal during a meeting attended by the chancellor, George Osborne, and Danny Alexander, chief secretary of the Treasury. Cameron asked the Liberal Democrats

    …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 13 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    EXCLUSIVE: Party members vote Vince Cable Lib Dem minister of the year

    By Stephen Tall | Thu 29th December 2011 - 6:50 pm

    Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 564 party members responded, and we are publishing the full results here over several days.

    Vince, Danny and Chris: the Lib Dems’ top trio in government

    LDV asked: In your opinion, which Lib Dem government minister has had the best year?

    Unusually for our Voice surveys, this question allowed an unprompted, free-text response, which 408 of our respondents rose to. And here’s what you told us:

      1. Vince Cable — 67 votes
      2. Danny Alexander

    …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged , and | 7 Comments
    Nick T

    Nick Clegg leads business fightback in Europe

    By Nick T | Thu 15th December 2011 - 6:55 pm

    The FT reports:

    Nick Clegg yesterday made a very public display of engagement with business over Europe as the deputy prime minister convened a business breakfast with Business For New Europe, a pro-single market group. Mr Clegg, flanked by Vince Cable, Danny Alexander, Chris Huhne David Laws, wanted to get the message across that he had dusted himself down and was ready to begin work on rebuilding relations on the continent after a bruising week for Britain.

    But beyond the photo shoot and crafted media message lines, was a second, more exclusive meeting between Mr Clegg and the director-generals of key lobby

    …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , and | 2 Comments
    Zadok Day

    Opinion: Danny Alexander is right

    By Zadok Day | Sun 11th December 2011 - 11:52 am

    As far as momentous television appearances go it was hardly Frost/Nixon, but Danny Alexander nonetheless made quite a stir on 29th November’s Newsnight. Our Chief Secretary to the Treasury confirmed that, post-Autumn Statement, the budget deficit would not be eliminated by 2015, and that further cuts would be required beyond then if this goal was to be achieved. For most of us this was stating the obvious, as well as in keeping with our manifesto policy on the deficit which called for it to reduced at a slower rate than that taken up by the Coalition, …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 29 Comments
    The Voice

    Pack & Tall Debate… What’s the Lib Dem economic narrative now?

    By The Voice | Fri 2nd December 2011 - 8:15 am

    In the week of the Chancellor’s autumn statement, LibDemVoice co-editors Mark Pack and Stephen Tall debate what it all means for the Lib Dems…

    Stephen Tall: So we now all know the painful financial reality. With growth forecasts revised down by the Chancellor in his autumn statement, austerity is here to stay.

    Both Lib Dems and Tories had hoped and expected that three years of painful cutbacks would be followed by a year or two of pre-election giveaways — the Lib Dems would press for a balanced mix of increased public spending …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , and | 30 Comments
    The Voice

    Danny Alexander on the Autumn Statement

    By The Voice | Tue 29th November 2011 - 1:50 pm

    Here’s the email from Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, on the Autumn Statement:

    Today’s Autumn Statement has been delivered in incredibly difficult and uncertain economic times. But as Liberal Democrats, Nick, myself and the Ministerial team have worked hard to ensure the Autumn Statement as a package of measures remains true to our party’s values and to the commitment we made to the British people when the coalition was founded. Every decision has been informed by our desire to help to people working hard to make ends meet in difficult times and to put the economy on the …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in News | Also tagged | 15 Comments
    Advert

    Recent Comments

    • cim
      This is where Coalition comes in. Sure, you didn't make a lot of centre-left voters very happy by backing the Conservatives, but more importantly you went into ...
    • FS People
      Expats If we are being “fair to the police” we need full facts: A neighbour called 999 saying someone had been stabbed, The brothers call contains signif...
    • Peter Martin
      @ Peter Davies, " you don’t really own anything unless you have the option to consume it" ??? I'm struggling to understand this. Am I missin...
    • expats
      David Raw 8th Jun '26 - 6:27pm..“After all George Formby paid 19/6d in the £ on his income and still remained the greatest entertainer ever”. David, the...
    • Peter Martin
      @ Kira, I asked Google's AI two questions: "is government spending higher per person in Scotland than England?" Ans: Public spending per pe...