Tag Archives: david cameron

Alex Marsh

Opinion: The ethics of the case for public sector reform

By Alex Marsh | Thu 24th February 2011 - 6:05 pm

David Cameron’s article on public service reform in the Telegraph was the opening shot in what could be a significant battle both within the Coalition and across the House. The case presented raises at least three important ethical issues.

First, the way in which evidence is being used to justify these proposals is deeply suspect. Mr Cameron states that publicly providing bureaucratic and target-driven services might be worth supporting if they delivered quality services: “but the evidence shows otherwise. Whether it’s cancer survival rate, school results or crime, for too long we’ve been slipping against comparable countries”. These are very …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 25 Comments
Alex Marsh

Opinion: Economic liberalism and public service reform

By Alex Marsh | Tue 22nd February 2011 - 3:33 pm

Are the Liberal Democrats a party of untrammelled ideology – sorry,“principles” – or do ethics and evidence also play a role in thinking? This question struck me forcefully when reading David Cameron’s article on public service reform in the Telegraph. It appears that the imminent Open Public Services White Paper has been formulated with collaboration from the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Nick Clegg is fully ‘on side’. We await the details, but if Cameron’s article gives us an accurate sense of what is to come then I think there is – or should be – a significant …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 61 Comments
Mark Pack

Back from the Brink: the extraordinary fall and rise of the Conservative Party

By Mark Pack | Tue 8th February 2011 - 10:25 am

Peter Snowdon’s history of the Conservative Party in opposition, quickly updated last year to include the final stage in their recovery, has four white men on its cover striding towards the reader – Cameron, Osborne, Hague and Clegg. It tells you immediately the sort of book that Back from the Brink: The extraordinary fall and rise of the Conservative Party is: tightly focused in on politics as seen from and carried out in Westminster.

This is an account of senior political figures and their political, policy and media manoeuvrings. The public feature very rarely (unlike in Deborah Mattinson’s memoirs from …

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Posted in Books | Also tagged , , , , and | 18 Comments
Mark Pack

Crossbenchers increasingly hostile to Labour as government makes boundary changes

By Mark Pack | Wed 26th January 2011 - 10:45 pm

Increasing anger from crossbench peers at Labour’s filibustering in the Lords looks to be preparing the way for either Labour backing down or (for the Lords) highly unusual procedural decisions to end the filibustering. As I put it earlier in the week, if Labour loses the support of the crossbenchers, it will not only lose the struggle over this bill but weaken its ability to successfully oppose other legislation in the future.

At the same time, the government has been showing its willingness to listen to scrutiny rather than filibustering by agreeing to two changes to the ways in which …

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Posted in Election law and News | Also tagged , , , and | 13 Comments
Paul Walter

PMQs: Miliband goes all Ballsy

By Paul Walter | Wed 26th January 2011 - 7:41 pm

Good Lord! Ed Miliband and David Cameron actually agreed on something. They agreed that yesterday’s growth figures were “disappointing”. They even agreed that if you set aside the bad weather impact, the figures were flat over the last quarter. An amazing level of agreement at PMQs! Unheard of!

Miliband asked about the causes of the disappointing figures. Cameron pointed to the UK’s large deficit and the large banking boom and bust. Ed Miliband then asked Cameron to confirm that he still thinks we are “out of the danger zone” (Cameron’s words from 15th December). We are no longer linked with PIG (Portugal, Ireland, Greece), said Cameron.

After Cameron said “If you do not deal with your debts, you will never have growth”, Ed Miliband came back with “If you do not have growth, you will never cut the deficit.” That has to be his best rejoinder ever at PMQs. Cameron dealt with that, however, by quoting the head of the OECD: “if you don’t deal with the deficit you can be assured that there will not be growth because confidence will not recover”.

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Posted in PMQs | Also tagged , , , , , , , and | 6 Comments
Paul Walter

Opinion:We’re in government – get used to it

By Paul Walter | Mon 17th January 2011 - 8:03 pm

Consulting my calendar recently, I was astonished to see that I visited the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election for the first time on 17th and 18th November. A long time ago. I don’t mention this to boast (oh, all right I do!) but to highlight that the Liberal Democrat campaign started in earnest very early. I remember wistfully that “GUILTY” tabloid – that word in red dominating the front page in size 94 font (I think). A classic of understatement.

My return for a couple of days at the beginning of last week confirmed that our campaign was as good as …

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Posted in Op-eds and Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged , and | 59 Comments
Mark Pack

Brian Coleman: the secret shrinking violet

By Mark Pack | Mon 10th January 2011 - 8:03 pm

It’s not often that Conservative London Assembly Member Brian Coleman comes over as a shy, quiet, introverted man who likes to shun the public spotlight.

But I’m sure that’s why he is proposing to ban members of the London Fire Authority from asking him questions at future meetings. Nothing to do with wanting to avoid scrutiny for his actions, I’m sure.

Just as it was his shrinking violet nature that previously made him ban both questions and TV cameras from a meeting.

But a little unfortunate given the national Conservative Party’s frequent message about how important transparency and accountability is, don’t …

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Stephen Tall

Why Cameron’s a credible candidate for 2010’s Liberal Voice award

By Stephen Tall | Mon 3rd January 2011 - 3:15 pm

Lib Dem Voice is currently running our fourth annual Liberal Voice of the Year poll. The purpose of this award since we launched it in 2006 has been to find a liberal from beyond the ranks of the Lib Dems — a Good Thing for a party committed to pluralism.

Equally traditionally, this has attracted some flak. Last year, it was Peter Tatchell’s inclusion which sparked strong views from those irate that the Voice should have recognised one of the Green Party’s leading lights. This year it’s the inclusion of two Tories — Ken Clarke and David Cameron — which …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 62 Comments
Mark Pack

Big Society vs Community Politics: grounds for agreement, grounds for disagreement

By Mark Pack | Sat 18th December 2010 - 12:24 pm

David Cameron’s recent speech laying out his vision of the Big Society provides a yardstick to judge it against traditional Liberal Democrat (and before that Liberal) beliefs in community politics.

The underlying motivation for the Big Society, as expressed by Cameron, could have come from one of the many Lib Dem / Liberal pamphlets or articles about community politics:

It comes from the belief that over many decades this country has become too centralised, too bureaucratic and too top-down.

And this is not just inefficient and overly-bureaucratic but also has an insidious cultural effect, because it robs people of responsibility.

Regaining this shared

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 13 Comments
Mark Pack

Nick Harvey outlines the UK’s objectives in Afghanistan

By Mark Pack | Thu 16th December 2010 - 9:43 pm

Minister of State for the Armed Forces and Liberal Democrat MP Nick Harvey set out the government’s objectives in Afghanistan in a speech he gave during his visit to Denmark this week. He made clear the limits to what the government is now seeking to achieve:

We do not seek a perfect Afghanistan, but one able to maintain its own security and prevent the return of Al-Qaeda.

This is primarily a mission of national security.

We are neither colonisers nor occupiers.

We are there under United Nations Security Council endorsement and at the invitation of the Afghan Government.

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Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 21 Comments

The Independent View: Advice for the Lib Dems – be strong, but also be selfish

By Jason O'Mahony | Sat 11th December 2010 - 2:20 pm

Watching the Liberal Democrat angst over tuition fees takes me back to 1989, when I was a young, considerably trimmer and clean shaven young Progressive Democrat activist. There had just been an Irish general election, and we had been devastated, dropping from 14 seats to just 6, which in Westminster terms would be like dropping from 50 odd seats to the early twenties, so you can imagine the howls of anguish. But that wasn’t even the worst bit: we were now faced with the nightmare scenario of entering coalition with Charles Haughey’s Fianna Fail, which in British terms was like …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged , and | 36 Comments
Mark Pack

Nick Clegg on life with the Conservatives, tuition fees and the coalition’s future

By Mark Pack | Sun 5th December 2010 - 9:36 am

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is interviewed today in the Independent on Sunday, with the report inevitably featuring tuition fees:

He says he is still determined to tackle social disadvantage and educational underperformance, and says that a £150m national scholarship scheme will give a year’s free tuition to 18,000 students on free school meals. Universities wanting to breach the £6,000 cap on fees, to charge up to £9,000, will have to give another free year to the poorest students.

In the coming weeks, months and years he will need to “grit my teeth, display a bit of resilience, and explain calmly and

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , and | 93 Comments
Paul Walter

PMQs: Moustaches, strawberries and anoraks

By Paul Walter | Thu 25th November 2010 - 10:49 pm

There were signs this week that Prime Minister’s Questions was getting serious and considered at long last.

Ed Miliband asked a very anorakky question about the government taking away “all the funding from the highly successful school sport partnerships”

There followed an almost scholarly exchange of statistics which left me none the wiser. Miliband’s stats said Labour improved school sports. Cameron’s said they ruined it. Was Miliband right? Was Cameron right? It was beyond me. Except I did notice that Cameron seemed to be almost exclusively quoting figures on “competitive sports”. Ah. The old Tory Daily Mail rant. “Schools don’t do races …

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Posted in PMQs | Also tagged , , and | 23 Comments
Helen Duffett

Nick Clegg wins Spectator’s Politician of the Year

By Helen Duffett | Thu 18th November 2010 - 12:09 pm

The Spectator’s annual Parliamentarian of the Year Awards ceremony took place last night.

Nick Clegg was named as the magazine’s Politician of the Year, while Danny Alexander and George Osborne were awarded Best Double Act.

The Mail has the photos, and Standard diarist Olivia Cole reports David Cameron’s topical joke:

Best was his line on the “spectacular” coupling. “I can’t believe,” he said, “that someone middle class, from the Home Counties, could get together with someone so wealthy whose family own a string of mansions.”

Not Kate … he was talking about his beautiful relationship with Nick Clegg. Touché.

You can read …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , and | 15 Comments
Paul Walter

PMQS: Cameron promised faster wheels amidst squeaky bums

By Paul Walter | Wed 17th November 2010 - 4:52 pm

What a relief! For a change, Prime Minister’s Questions gave more cause for Tories to be uneasy than it did for LibDems. Don’t get me wrong, LibDems care passionately about frontline policing. Of course they do. But the Tories tend to see it as more of a cojones (or should I invent the adjective “cojonal” here?) measurement issue – it’s closer to the nerve with them. So I think there must have been a lot of uncomfortable shifting around on the benches behind David Cameron today. “Squeaky bum time”, as Sir Alex might put it.

For once there was a good …

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Posted in PMQs | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , and | 18 Comments
David Thorpe

Opinion: for a market to be free you must have regulation

By David Thorpe | Fri 5th November 2010 - 1:32 pm

Whenever I utter the phrase ‘free trade’ within those Liberal Democrat circles in which I am permitted to mix, the reaction is akin to that which I might get if I suggested making it compulsory for all party members to worship statues of me.

And that’s a pity (the reaction to the free trade, not the statues) because most people when they meet an advocate of free trade, mutter darkly about the effects of ‘light touch regulation’. But free trade and light touch regulation are not the same, indeed in many ways they are inimical to each other.

The debate should not …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 17 Comments
Mark Pack

Not so much an immigration cap as an immigration colander

By Mark Pack | Thu 4th November 2010 - 12:55 pm

Immigration was one of the issues on which Nick Clegg and David Cameron repeatedly clashed during the general election, so it is no surprise that it has continued to be a source of tension in the coalition. More surprisingly, the fault line in the coalition has not been a simple Lib Dem versus Conservative because many Conservatives are persuaded by the pleas from universities (that they need high fee paying foreign students else the funding higher education would be an even bigger political problem) and from business (that many firms in the UK cannot get the right skilled staff except through immigration).

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 12 Comments
Stephen Tall

Vince orders Ofcom investigation of News Corp’s bid for BSkyB

By Stephen Tall | Thu 4th November 2010 - 11:58 am

The last few months has seen a curious coalition emerge, uniting media foes of right and left and non-aligned, ranging from the Daily Mail to the Guardian, Trinity Mirror to the Telegraph, the BBC and Channel 4. What has brought them together? Opposition to the bid by News Corporation, controlled by Rupert Murdoch, for full control of BSkyB (the company currently owns a minority 38% stake).

Well, today Vince Cable offered them some cheer — he has referred News Corp’s bid to the media regulator, Ofcom. The BBC reports:

The Business Secretary, Vince Cable, has ordered Ofcom to investigate News

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , , and | 3 Comments
Paul Walter

PMQs: Bob Russell teaches Ed Miliband how to do it

By Paul Walter | Wed 27th October 2010 - 6:02 pm

These days, Ed Miliband is getting a lot of advice on how to deal with Prime Minister’s Questions. A leaked memo advised him to “get to your feet looking as though you are seizing on something new”, and to ensure that he has a “cheer line” so his speech can be “clipped by the broadcasters”.

David Cameron, of course, reminded Ed Miliband of this advice today. But the best advice came in the form of an example of excellent questioning by Bob Russell, Liberal Democrat MP for Colchester.

In the last question today, Bob referred to the “fun and games” that …

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Posted in PMQs | Also tagged and | 69 Comments
Oranjepan

Opinion: the IFS, the buts and the maybes – questions of fairness and the CSR

By Oranjepan | Wed 27th October 2010 - 10:25 am

Last week Nick Clegg and the Institute of Fiscal studies squared up over the issue of whether the cuts proposed in the Comprehensive Spending Review are fair.

It is a debate which strikes at the heart of Lib Dems in the coalition government and it will determine the shape of politics in this country for next decade.

For the first time ever the Treasury included an impact analysis of the announced changes within the CSR, the effect of pressure from Lib Dems. These were calculated according to the sections of society that will bear the burden of the changes (ie how …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 55 Comments
Tom King

Opinion: cuts in welfare are the hallmark of a selfish society

By Tom King | Fri 22nd October 2010 - 10:45 am

During the Conservative Party Conference, George Osborne announced a simple change to child benefit. He took a difficult and historic decision to remove payments to households with at least one higher rate taxpayer, saving an estimated £1 billion of public money from going directly to the highest paid 12% in our society.

In what turned out to be my last blog post, I railed – somewhat hysterically – against the reaction to this modest cut. It was clear that the right wing press would oppose such a move. But what was less clear, and more galling, was the way the …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , and | 44 Comments
Paul Walter

PMQs: Ed Miliband finally grows out of Pampers

By Paul Walter | Wed 13th October 2010 - 11:37 pm

Ed Miliband made a reasonably good start at Prime Minister’s questions today. However, ultimately he failed to score a substantive point against David Cameron. Indeed, Ed Miliband painted himself into a corner. He is now basically defending the retention of child benefit for the top 15% earners in the country. Since Osborne’s breakfast announcement of the child benefit changes, up until now, Labour have avoided this stance.

Miliband started his questioning today focusing on the unfairness for families with one earner over £43K losing child benefit against families with two earners of £40K keeping their child benefit. However, he lost this …

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Posted in PMQs | Also tagged | 50 Comments
Helen Duffett

Nick Clegg averted the axe from over-16s’ child benefit

By Helen Duffett | Mon 11th October 2010 - 8:53 am

Paul Walter has spotted an under-reported point in the child benefit coverage of the past few days: that payments for children aged 16 to 18 were originally intended to be stopped, but that this plan was dropped after Nick Clegg intervened.

Paul spotted this in a “deep trawl” of the Telegraph:

The controversial decision to “pre-announce” the child benefit decision was made 10 days ago by the key Conservative power-broking trio of David Cameron, Mr Osborne and William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, it is understood.

A couple of days later they informed Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, and his party

…

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Iain Roberts

83% support child benefit cut

By Iain Roberts | Wed 6th October 2010 - 7:55 am

A YouGov poll in The Sun this morning has 83% supporting the plans to scrap child benefit for high-rate taxpayers, with only 15% opposing the idea and an astonishingly small 2% who don’t have an opinion.

Whether that will calm Cameron’s nerves when faced with the full fury of the Daily Mail remains to be seen.

Posted in News | Also tagged and | 23 Comments
Ben Johnson

Emergency motion: speak out on council housing

By Ben Johnson | Thu 16th September 2010 - 4:01 pm

We are unique amongst the main political parties in having a democratic internal structure.   This weekend is our opportunity, denied to both Labour and Tory members, to decide the future of our party and proclaim what it means to be a Liberal Democrat.

In addition to major policy announcements, there are six possible emergency motions listed in Conference Extra.  Only one of these will be chosen for debate on Wednesday morning, following a ballot of conference attendees on Sunday.

Bermondsey and Old Southwark have submitted one of these emergency motions, and it is not without controversy.  It is in direct response …

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | Also tagged | 26 Comments
The Voice

Clegg: Governing for the long term

By The Voice | Fri 10th September 2010 - 11:57 am

Nick Clegg gave the following speech to the Institute for Government yesterday:

Successful governments require a number of ingredients: strong leadership, public support, dedicated ministers, and a good dose of luck, to name but a few.

But above all they need a clear sense of purpose.

When governments lose sight of their overriding purpose for being in power, the glue that holds them together dissolves. We saw this in the latter years of Labour’s time in office. A directionless government, without the underpinning of a clear purpose, inevitably ended in factionalism, intrigue and bankruptcy.

This is a mistake we will not repeat.  In my speech …

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Stephen Tall

Book review: Campaign 2010 by Nicholas Jones

By Stephen Tall | Sun 5th September 2010 - 3:45 pm

Anyone who has read Nicholas Jones’s previous books – especially Soundbites and Spin Doctors (1995) and Sultans of Spin (1999) – will look forward to a new tome from the BBC’s former political correspondent, who has proved himself to be an acute observer of the Westminster scene, and a fearless revealer of politicians’ trade secrets.

Campaign 2010, Mr Jones’s new work, is billed by publisher Biteback as “political theatre brought to a fresh level”. Can it live up to such hype? Sadly – and it genuinely pains me to say it, as I have high regard for …

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Posted in Books | Also tagged , , and | 1 Comment
NewsHound

LibLink: Nick Clegg & David Cameron – We will not budge on voting reforms

By NewsHound | Sun 5th September 2010 - 1:14 pm

Over at the Sunday Telegraph, David Cameron and Nick Clegg have jointly penned an article marking the start of the new political year by re-asserting the Coalition’s determination to reform British politics. Here’s an excerpt:

We came together to change our country for the better in every way. And as we go about fixing our economy, society and political system, our government’s purpose will be to make two major shifts in our national life.

First, our decisions will be taken with eyes fixed firmly on the long-term. This is a horizon shift for government, moving away from short-term obsessions towards investment in

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged | 10 Comments
Stephen Tall

Pollwatch – State of the Leaders: how Clegg and Cameron are rated by the public (Summer 2010)

By Stephen Tall | Sun 29th August 2010 - 12:45 pm

Last week, Pollwatch looked at the state of the parties in July and August; today it’s the turn of the coalition government leaders.

As with all polls, what follows comes with caveats. Only two polling companies – YouGov and Mori – this past month asked questions specifically to find out the public’s views of the Lib Dem and Tory party leaders. (Harriet Harman’s performance as Labour leader is not being measured). And each asks variants on the basic question – do you think Clegg/Cameron are doing a good job – to come up with their figures, so comparison ain’t easy. …

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Posted in Polls | Also tagged and | 9 Comments
Stephen Tall

Dave reckons Mili-D’s the biggest threat: for the record, so do I

By Stephen Tall | Sat 28th August 2010 - 3:04 pm

David Cameron has ‘let it be known’ (ie, his press team briefed the Guardian) that shadow foreign secretary David Miliband “poses the greatest threat to the Conservative party of all the candidates in the Labour leadership contest”.

How to interpret this? Is Dave’s backing of David a cunning bluff: the Tory leader backing the most New Labour-identified candidate to put Labour members off backing him? Or could it be an even cunninger double bluff: the Tory leader, knowing his endorsement could be read as a bluff, backing the most media-awkward candidate in the hope Labour members will vote for …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , , and | 18 Comments
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