Tag Archives: featured

Stephen Tall

NEW POLL: Who do you least want to be Prime Minister in a year’s time: Gordo or Dave?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 16th November 2009 - 9:00 pm

Oooh, here’s a nasty ‘forced choice’ question to thrust upon LDV’s readers … let’s assume for a moment that, by some quirk of electoral fate, the Lib Dems do not storm to victory at the next general election, and Nick Clegg is not asked by Her Maj to form the next government. A far-fetched scenario, I know, but go with me on this. If those were the circumstances, who would you rather have as Prime Minister: Gordon Brown or David Cameron?

And, yes, those are your only two choices in this poll. We’re not giving you an easy ‘neither of …

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Posted in Op-eds and Voice polls | Also tagged and | 55 Comments
Alex Foster

Context is king – link for victory

By Alex Foster | Sat 14th November 2009 - 8:50 am

Welcome to part six of our “Introduction to blogging” guide for Liberal Democrat bloggers or would-be bloggers. It’s appearing each Saturday between now and Christmas, with all the posts available via this page. The series will then be revised and collated into an e-book, so please do post up your comments as the series progresses. Today it’s the turn of Alex Foster.

When writing for a blog, perhaps the default view I have of my reader is someone who is familiar with my entire body of work, someone who started at the first thing I wrote, and read it through in …

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Posted in Blogging guide | Also tagged | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

How do the messages on the main political party websites compare?

By Mark Pack | Fri 13th November 2009 - 10:20 am

Comparing the popularity of different words in the latest stories from the the Liberal Democrat, Conservative and Labour Party websites reveals striking differences in the messages being put out by each party online.

Reproduced below are three word clouds, where the bigger a word is the more often it appeared on that party’s latest website stories. The word clouds were generated yesterday (Thursday) based on the then state of each of the three websites.

First, let’s look at the Conservative Party:

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Posted in Online politics | Also tagged and | 13 Comments
Paul Walter

How to handle comments

By Paul Walter | Sat 7th November 2009 - 8:50 am

Welcome to part five of our “Introduction to blogging” guide for Liberal Democrat bloggers or would-be bloggers. It’s appearing each Saturday between now and Christmas, with all the posts available via this page. The series will then be revised and collated into an e-book, so please do post up your comments as the series progresses. Today it’s the turn of Paul Walter, who looks at the question of how to handle comments which appear on your blog.

There are a number of approaches on handling comments. It’s a question of finding a method which you are comfortable with.

It’s probably best, at …

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Posted in Blogging guide | Also tagged | 4 Comments

Introducing the all-new LibDems.org.uk website

By David Loxton | Wed 4th November 2009 - 1:33 pm

If you’ve visited the Liberal Democrat party website in the last 24 hours, you’ll have noticed quite a dramatic change. Here, David Loxton, the party’s director of marketing, fundraising and members’ services explains the thinking behind the new site, and previews some of the other exciting new changes emerging within the party’s web strategy.

The new Liberal Democrat web strategy has been launched with a redesigned libdems.org.uk as its first stage. The new version is much more focused on setting out what the Liberal Democrats stand for, who we are and what visitors to the site can do to …

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Posted in Online politics and Op-eds | Also tagged | 39 Comments
Helen Duffett

Edinburgh, brace yourself: the first Lib Dem Bloggers’ Unconference

By Helen Duffett | Tue 3rd November 2009 - 5:34 pm

Just under three weeks to go now – but there’s still time to register for the feast of blogging talent and advice that is the Lib Dem Bloggers’ Unconference.

I’m pleased to announce that Tavish Scott, Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, has agreed to give a Bloggers’ Interview around lunchtime.

Also joining us: Jo Swinson MP, John Barrett MP, Mike Crockart (newly-selected PPC for Edinburgh West), leading Scottish bloggers, Andrew Reeves (prolific blogger and Deputy Director of Campaigns for Scotland) as well as Lib Dem Blogfather Jonathan Calder and members of the Lib Dem Voice team.

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Posted in Blogger Interviews and Events | Also tagged , , , , , , , and | 2 Comments

Blogging style and etiquette

By Jonathan Calder | Sat 31st October 2009 - 8:50 am

Young woman, blogging by windowWelcome to part four of our “Introduction to blogging” guide for Liberal Democrat bloggers or would-be bloggers. It’s appearing each Saturday between now and Christmas, with all the posts available via this page. The series will then be revised and collated into an e-book, so please do post up your comments as the series progresses. Today it’s the turn of Jonathan Calder with a set of essential writing tips.

Blogging is a very personal thing that we do in public. And there …

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Posted in Blogging guide | Also tagged | 3 Comments
Andy Darley

Opinion: Campaigning for F1

By Andy Darley | Thu 29th October 2009 - 9:18 am

Somewhere around 2003, after almost 20 years of ALDC-approved campaigning and concentrated Rennardism, I burned out and resigned from every bit of Libdemmery I was involved in bar party membership.

Goodbye campaigning, I thought, and went off to do quieter things, like setting up a motorsports website supporting British drivers, www.BritsOnPole.com.

All went well until a chancer named Simon Gillett met a bigger chancer named Bernie Ecclestone and won a deal to take the Formula One British Grand Prix to cosy old Donington Park. Quite how the necessary redevelopment work would be paid for was unclear.

Since then, the slow, painful, but wholly predictable collapse of Gillett’s plans have led to worried fans of British motorsport arriving in droves at our site in search of news and reassurance.

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Posted in News, Online politics and Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , and | 11 Comments
Stephen Tall

NEW POLL: would you support Tony Blair as the first President of the EU?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 28th October 2009 - 7:15 pm

The speculation that Tony Blair might become the first President of the European Union – a post created by the soon-to-be-ratified Lisbon Treaty – continues to swirl around. The BBC reports today:

Gordon Brown has said he would be “very happy” to support a bid by his predecessor Tony Blair to be the first president of the European Council. But the prime minister told MPs the post did not yet exist as the Lisbon Treaty creating it had not become law. The BBC understands Mr Brown will put Mr Blair’s case to other EU leaders in Brussels later this week after previously denying it would do so.

But there are major potential obstacles in Mr Blair’s way – first, other qualified candidates, especially from the EU’s smaller nation states, and, secondly, the opposition of the Lib Dems and Tories to his candidacy. Here’s what Nick Clegg today said:

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Posted in Europe / International and Voice polls | Also tagged , , , and | 48 Comments
Mark Thompson

Where to get ideas for blogposts

By Mark Thompson | Sat 24th October 2009 - 9:00 am

Welcome to part three of our “Introduction to blogging” guide for Liberal Democrat bloggers or would-be bloggers. It’s appearing each Saturday between now and Christmas, with all the posts available via this page. The series will then be revised and collated into an e-book, so please do post up your comments as the series progresses. Today it’s the turn of Mark Thompson (the one with the blog rather than the one with TV empire) addressing one of the problems that befalls many would be bloggers: how do you keep on coming up with ideas for new posts?

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Posted in Blogging guide | Also tagged , and | 6 Comments
Patrick Murray

Opinion: A Liberal Line on Immigration

By Patrick Murray | Fri 23rd October 2009 - 12:30 pm

For me one of the key tenets of liberalism is our commitment to human rights and fairness. This is why I think fighting the fight on immigration is so important.

On last night’s Question Time, a member of the audience asked whether the rise of the BNP had been down to Labour’s failure on immigration. I think there is an element of truth in that, but perhaps not the element of truth that our home affairs spokesman, Chris Huhne, thought.

Over the last ten years we have been subjected to Home Office and Immigration policy made to please the xenophobic, right wing agenda of papers such as the Daily Mail.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 61 Comments
Stephen Tall

NEW POLL: How should the Lib Dems increase their number of female MPs?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 21st October 2009 - 7:40 pm

At the Speaker’s Conference yesterday, Nick Clegg delivered a frank assessment of the Lib Dem Parliamentary Party, calling it “woefully unrepresentative of modern Britain”. It’s not hard to see why. No ethnic minority MPs, and just nine female MPs among our 63 representatives. Woeful is the word.

The real question is: what to do about it? Nick has previously indicated – and repeated the point in his submission yesterday – that he would consider recommending all-women shortlists be adopted by the party after the next election if he’s unable to point to real progress in improving the Parliamentary party’s representativeness. …

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Posted in Voice polls | Also tagged , and | 60 Comments
Mark Pack

The inside story of how the Lib Dem general election manifesto will be drawn up

By Mark Pack | Tue 20th October 2009 - 12:20 pm

The debates and disputes around the Liberal Democrats’ Bournemouth conference give a taste of what is likely to be a tricky process of drawing up the party’s manifesto for the next general election.

Formally, there is a three part process to that manifesto: the manifesto working group chaired by Danny Alexander will present work to the Shadow Cabinet which will then in turn (quite possibly amended) go to the Federal Policy Committee (FPC).

How will this process work and who will the key people be in drawing up the manifesto?

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged , , , , , , , and | 10 Comments
Mark Pack

Jan Moir: the dilemma for the PCC (and what you should say in your complaint)

By Mark Pack | Sat 17th October 2009 - 12:54 pm

The reaction to Jan Moir’s article about the death of Stephen Gately has been widespread and swift. Fuelled primarily by Twitter and Facebook, complaints about homophobia flooded in on the Daily Mail, the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) and the firms who were unlucky enough to have their adverts appearing on the page. The headline was changed, the PCC’s website crashed, the adverts were pulled and many members of the public got a taste of how effective a simple tweet, email or phone call can be.

The big dilemma now is for the Press Complaints Commission because, although many of the messages urging people to complain to the PCC were helpfully specific about which clauses of its code should be referenced, the real issue for the PCC to decide is not in the code itself.

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , and | 17 Comments
Mat Bowles

What’s the best blogging platform for new bloggers?

By Mat Bowles | Sat 17th October 2009 - 7:20 am

Young woman, blogging by windowWelcome to part two of our “Introduction to blogging” guide for Liberal Democrat bloggers or would-be bloggers. It’s appearing each Saturday between now and Christmas, with all the posts available via this page. The series will then be revised and collated into an e-book, so please do post up your comments as the series progresses. Today it’s the turn of Mat Bowles, advising on the technical side of getting started with a blog.

So, you’re thinking of starting a blog of your own. You could do what most people seem to do at this stage, and go sign up directly to Google’s Blogger service and just get writing. Personally, I don’t think that’s necessarily the best idea. I’m a Lib Dem, my membership card says on the back:

No one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity

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Posted in Blogging guide | Also tagged , , , , and | 13 Comments
Stephen Tall

Bedford Mayoral Election … Lib Dems’ Dave Hogdson WINS!

By Stephen Tall | Fri 16th October 2009 - 3:28 pm

Result just in …

First preferences:

Lib Dem 9428
Con 9105
Indy 7631
Indy 4316
Lab 3482
Green 1183

After second preferences:

Lib Dem 13352
Conservative 11543
Turnout: 30%

Many congratulations to Dave Hodgson and his team on a fantastic victory!

Update: Nick Clegg has issued his congratulations …

This is a sensational victory for Dave Hodgson and I congratulate him and the Bedford Liberal Democrats for an outstanding campaign. By electing Dave Hodgson as Mayor the people of Bedford have put their trust in the Liberal Democrats to work hard on their behalf.

“The fact that the Tories are losing in their South of England heartland is proof the General Election is not the foregone conclusion they think it is.

“Dave has lived in Bedford for thirty years and has built an outstanding record of action for local people. As Mayor he will work hard to keep Bedford’s roads safe, cut waste and make sure that the people of Bedford get the quality local services they deserve.

“People told me and Vince Cable at our visits to Bedford that they are enthusiastic about our message for real change

“This result shows how misplaced the Conservatives’ complacency about the next election really is. The Liberal Democrats have never taken a single vote for granted. With Labour lagging behind at a disastrous fifth this is yet more evidence that the real choice is now between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.”

You can watch a video of Nick congratulating Dave here:

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Posted in Local government and News | Also tagged and | 31 Comments
Mark Pack

How do you get people to do things?

By Mark Pack | Thu 15th October 2009 - 1:00 pm

Here’s a smattering of experimental research findings, courtesy of the Fostering Sustainable Behaviour site (which also provides sources for the data):

  • When asked if they would financially support a recreational facility for the handicapped, 92% made a donation if they had previously signed a petition in favor of the facility, compared with 53% for those who had not been asked to sign the petition.
  • Residents of Bloomington, Indiana, were called and asked if they would consider, hypothetically, spending three hours working as a volunteer collecting money for the American Cancer Society. When these individuals were called back three days later by

…

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Posted in What do the academics say? | 4 Comments
Callum Leslie

Haggis, Neeps and Liberalism #10

By Callum Leslie | Thu 15th October 2009 - 9:55 am

Last month – in Haggis, Neeps and Liberalism #8 – Ruaraidh Dobson wrote about the upcoming Freshers’ season, and how it was an exciting time to be in student politics. He wasn’t disappointed.

Liberal Youth Scotland and university societies across the country signed up droves of new party members, and vastly increased our university presence. St Andrews in particular, a society which had been in the doldrums for many years and has only recently been re-started, is now the largest political society at the University.

Aberdeen, who only re-started in January, signed up 60 new members to their society, making them one of the biggest university societies in the country. Glasgow University Lib Dems signed up 57 new party members, more than any other society in the UK in 2008.

These societies were all supported in their efforts by Liberal Youth Scotland, providing materials and manpower to help achieve these phenomenal successes. However, the work does not stop here.

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Posted in Op-eds and Scotland | Also tagged , , , , and | Leave a comment
Gareth Aubrey

Y Barcud Oren #12

By Gareth Aubrey | Mon 12th October 2009 - 3:15 pm

To Wales, then, where it’s goodbye from him, and it’s au revoir from him …

And So, With Tears In Either Eye

In fairness to him, Rhodri Morgan pretty much kept to his end of the bargain in announcing that he would stand down as First Minister after the Assembly budget was agreed on December 8th (but since the promise was that he’d announce his intentions on or around September 29th, his end of the bargain wasn’t that hard to keep up). The inevitable political and journalistic encomium followed and you can’t begrudge it him; whatever his political failings, his personal popularity is unmatched in recent memory.

With the flag dropped, Larry, Moe and Curly were soon off and running to succeed him (not that they hadn’t been before, unofficially).

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Posted in Op-eds and Wales | Also tagged , , , , , and | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

What does the future hold for British political blogging?

By Mark Pack | Mon 12th October 2009 - 12:20 pm

Predictions that the next general election will be the one in which the internet will make a huge impact have regularly come and gone. Post-Obama ready yourself for another such clutch of predictions, but underneath this punditry froth the internet has got on with quietly shifting the way politics works. It’s been more at the unglamorous organisational end (imagine trying to organise a campaign without email) than at the eye-catching systems-shattering dramatic end beloved of pundits, but it’s been a major change nonetheless.

Following in the footsteps of email, blogging has also established a firm place in the logistics of politics, even if its impact on the overall style and conduct of politics is less clear and less dramatic. Blogs have become a key news medium for people involved in or significantly interested in politics, they have become a key part of the flow of news to and from journalists and for some MPs and candidates they reach local audiences large enough to be a significant factor in their election efforts.

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Posted in Online politics | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , and | 5 Comments

Opinion: A Cooperative Coalition

By S | Sun 11th October 2009 - 2:30 pm

The general consensus among today’s politicos is that the dye is now cast for the next General Election. Those at the helm of all “two and a half” major parties are the leaders they assume will take them into the next General Election – the only questions now are “how big will David Cameron’s majority be?” and “what will the LibDem vote share be compared to Labour’s?” And then there’s the ‘C’ word – no not that one. Not that one either…

That’s right: coalition! But with whom? New Labour? Arch-authoritarian, spendthrift, warmongering sycophants… no thanks. The Tories? A party that exists to protect the vested interests of the rich, equally authoritarian and who will most probably crack down on personal freedom like a bitch. Equally unappealing.

If the election goes to a tie break the only party the LibDems should consider forming a coalition with is the Cooperative Party.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 150 Comments
Tom Watson

Tom Watson writes … on the Royal Mail and postcodes

By Tom Watson | Fri 9th October 2009 - 9:10 am

It’s not often that The Voice invites MPs from other parties to do a guest post, but in this case we’ve asked Tom Watson as the postcode issue is one he took a close interest in as a minister and it is an issue that cuts across parties.

The recent decision by Royal Mail to close down the Ernestmarples.com web site shows us how our public institutions are woefully unprepared to seize the new opportunities created by the internet.

Ermenmarples.com is a web site that enables other sites to provide postcode driven, citizen focused web services on a not-for-profit basis. Sites like …

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Posted in The Independent View | Also tagged , and | 16 Comments
Mark Pack

Postcode campaign gears up to save popular web services

By Mark Pack | Wed 7th October 2009 - 7:56 pm

A range of popular websites, providing useful services such as information on local job vacancies and planning applications, have been closed down following the Royal Mail’s decision to crack down on the use they made of its postcode address database.

As Alex blogged previously:

With postcodes so increasingly important to national life, it’s ridiculous that they are not public data that is, as a minimum, free to use for non-profit organisations.

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Posted in LDV campaigns | Also tagged , , , and | 6 Comments
Ed Randall

Opinion: Take care with the economic medicine you prescribe

By Ed Randall | Wed 7th October 2009 - 3:25 pm

If cuts in public spending are savage and premature, then the consequences for our economic health could be even worse than the harm done to public services.

I’m sure you have all heard talk of: green shoots, economic recovery, lights at the end of various tunnels, and a return to growth. It is claptrap designed to support a return to business as usual – what might also be labelled the old order – and we’ve all been hearing it for months now.

Liberal Democrats should not be taken in. While we may be in the first phase of an epic electoral battle, and it may be politic to join the cutters and slashers in order to demonstrate just how serious we are about getting the country’s finances in order, Liberal Democrats know that it is simply mad to stand by while private and public finance are confused. While private austerity isn’t any more likely to be a guarantee of general prosperity than public parsimony is to be a warranty of private affluence, governments can pursue common goals in ways that are not open to us as individuals.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 24 Comments
Mark Pack

Bad systems, not tired people get election counts wrong

By Mark Pack | Tue 6th October 2009 - 12:00 pm

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire:Sleepy person

Both the recent controversies over whether or not general election counts should take place on the Thursday night and whether or not the 2012 London Mayor and Assembly elections should use e-counting touch, in part, on the question of the accuracy of manual counts.

This is an area where systematic evidence is very thin on the ground.

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Posted in Election law and Op-eds | Also tagged | 16 Comments
Baroness Ros Scott

Ros Scott writes… Party President’s report to members, September ‘09

By Baroness Ros Scott | Mon 5th October 2009 - 12:30 pm

September is the transition month from the quiet of the summer recess to the hustle and bustle of Regional and State Party Conferences, although the past month was still pretty busy.

The month started with a weekend series of visits in the West Midlands, first up being an early evening members’ meeting in Stratford-upon-Avon on the Friday, hosted by local PPC and Chair of the Parliamentary Candidates Association, Martin Turner. The next morning, stopping only for coffee with Martin to discuss some issues related to candidate recruitment, selection and retention, I was off to West Worcestershire to meet the victor of the District by-election that week, before heading to Malvern for a dinner with members.

Richard Burt is our PPC there, and is optimistic about his chances of pulling off a victory against the Conservatives. Sunday saw us head to Hereford to meet Sarah Carr, who is fighting hard to retain Paul Keetch’s seat, although boundary changes have been less than kind.

The next week saw me in Bedford, where the unexpected death of the independent mayor has given us an opportunity to gain only our second directly elected Mayor. David Hodgson, a long-time stalwart of the Party

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Posted in Op-eds | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

Electoral Commission heavily criticise report into plans for 2012 London elections

By Mark Pack | Fri 2nd October 2009 - 8:55 am

The Electoral Commission has published a report laying out a series of detailed and powerful criticisms of the cost-benefit analysis carried out for the Greater London Returning Officer into the use of e-counting for the 2012 London Mayor and Assembly elections.

However, the Greater London Returning Officer (GLRO) appears determined to go ahead with electronic counting, having told a meeting he had made this decision before even hearing the Electoral Commission’s views and despite even the flawed cost-benefit analysis showing that e-counting is more expensive than manual counting.

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Posted in Election law and London | Also tagged , and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

A look back at the polls: September ’09

By Stephen Tall | Wed 30th September 2009 - 7:10 pm

We tend not to be too poll-obsessed here at LDV – of course we look at them, as do all other politico-geeks, but viewed in isolation no one poll will tell you very much beyond what you want to read into it. Looked at over a reasonable time-span and, if there are enough polls, you can see some trends.

Here, in chronological order, are the results of the 18 polls published in September – the number is extra high this month because of the recently instituted daily YouGov tracker poll. (Note to self: we need to find a way of averaging the trackers, otherwise they will dominate and distort LDV’s (very unscientific) monthly poll average).

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Posted in Polls | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

That Andrew Marr question: wrong, wrong, wrong

By Stephen Tall | Sun 27th September 2009 - 5:15 pm

It’s a few weeks since I was emailed an article by John Ward (also sent to a number of other blog-sites), subsequently published at notbornyesterday.org, alleging the Prime Minister suffers from depression and obsessive compulsive disorder, and that these conditions are being treated with prescription pills.

I decided not to publish, or refer at all to the allegations on Lib Dem Voice. As I explained to John in an email at the time, “without named sources for the story it’s not something we could publish on LDV. I appreciate, given the nature of the story, that having sources on the record is difficult, but still.”

The BBC’s Andrew Marr today felt no such compunction, asking Gordon Brown bluntly: “A lot of people in this country use prescription painkillers and pills to help them get through. Are you one of them?” To which the Prime Minister would have been quite entitled to reply – though of course he couldn’t, as Mr Marr would have known – “None of your damned business.”

There are two issues here. First, was the BBC right to pose the question (and I’m sure the line of questioning was cleared at a high level within the Corporation)? And, secondly, should it matter to us what the Prime Minister’s reply was?

Was the BBC right? Absolutely not.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , and | 37 Comments
Lynne Featherstone

Opinion: Where is the British Obama?

By Lynne Featherstone | Sun 27th September 2009 - 10:20 am

Earlier this month Lynne Featherstone gave the Heather Larkin Annual Lecture in Yate:

I am really pleased to be here tonight – yes it is a long trek here and back but worth it to pay tribute to Steve Webb. Steve is a great MP, a great campaigner, a great innovator on the internet – and a great intellectual force. The fact that we often agree on policy may have something to do with that!

But one of the highlights of Parliament is listening to thoughtful and powerful speeches from which you learn and which help shape your own views. Steve’s speeches …

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Posted in LDVUSA and Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 4 Comments
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