Tag Archives: featured

Layla Moran MP

Opinion: Performance related pay for teachers: does it drive up standards?

By Layla Moran MP | Thu 25th July 2013 - 11:30 am

Michael Gove’s most recent big idea to improve the teaching profession takes the form of performance related pay. Like many of Gove’s big ideas it has incensed teachers. But it’s also a populist move. One poll estimated that 61% of voters backed the idea. But will it improve teaching standards?

The evidence for performance related pay leading to improving standards in education is inconclusive. Literature shows no causal relationship between performance related pay and standards and results vary enormously depending on the context. In India one study showed that “after controlling for student ability, parental background and the resources available …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , and | 33 Comments
Stephen Tall

POLL EXCLUSIVE: What Lib Dem members think will happen in 2015 – and what we want to happen in the event of a hung parliament

By Stephen Tall | Thu 25th July 2013 - 8:15 am

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. More than 600 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

72% of Lib Dem members predict another hung parliament in 2015

What do you believe is the likeliest outcome of the next general election?

    5% – An overall majority for the Conservatives

    6% – A Conservative minority government

    3% – A Conservative-led coalition with parties other than Labour or the Lib Dems

    11% – A Conservative-Lib Dem coalition

    29% – A Labour-Lib Dem coalition

    3% – A Labour-led coalition with parties other than the Conservatives or the Lib Dems

    20% – A minority Labour government

    9% – An overall majority for Labour

    0% – A “grand coalition” between Labour and Conservatives

    13% – Don’t know

I deliberately offered multiple, mirroring choices to capture the full span of opinion on this. But let’s now group the data together to help us understand what it’s saying:

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Posted in LDV Members poll and News | 50 Comments
Stephen Tall

Alan Turing: is a pardon the best way to excuse our crime against him?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 24th July 2013 - 4:05 pm

Alan_Turing_photoThe campaign to pardon Alan Turing, the father of computer science who was convicted for acts of homosexuality in 1952, troubles me.

I take as a given the good intentions of those Lib Dems such as Lord (John) Sharkey and Manchester MP John Leech who have led the calls in parliament. But I am struck by Matthew Parris’s words in today’s Times:

Why only Turing? Many, many tens of thousands of gay men have been convicted for behaviour that was once against the law. Tens of thousands of careers, reputations

…

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Caron Lindsay

Exclusive…Liberal Democrats: “Go home” poster vans “disproportionate, distasteful and ineffective”

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 24th July 2013 - 2:01 pm

go home illegal immigrant posterThe Liberal Democrats, so I hear, had nothing to do with the poster vans sent by the Home Office into 6 London boroughs which have caused much anger in Liberal Democrat circles  as I wrote earlier.  I said that I had seen no evidence that Liberal Democrat ministers had cleared them and it seems that my instincts were right.

A party spokesman told me:

These poster vans were not cleared or agreed by Liberal Democrats in government. We are totally committed to tackling illegal immigration but this is

…

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Stephen Tall

The good news on university applications in 5 graphs

By Stephen Tall | Wed 24th July 2013 - 10:15 am

While the attention of the world’s media was focused on an 8lb 6oz bundle of Royal joy, there was perhaps even more significant good news about young people that didn’t garner quite so much coverage: demand for higher education from young people is at or near record levels for each country of the UK in 2013. This was announced by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) yesterday, an analysis of patterns of demand from over 20 million applications for higher education from 2004 to 2013 — if ever there were a day to bury good news…

Here are five graphs which tell the story…

Demand for higher education from young people is at or near record levels for each country of the UK in 2013.

ucas figures - application figs 2013

Application rates for English 18 year olds have increased by one percentage point to 35 per cent in 2013. This increase is typical of the trend between 2006 and 2011 and takes the application rate back to the 2011 level, after its decrease in 2012. Application rates for 18 year olds in Northern Ireland have increased to 48 per cent, application rates in Scotland (32 per cent) and Wales (30 per cent) are similar to the 2012 cycle.

Application rates for young, disadvantaged groups have increased to new highs in England.

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Stephen Tall

An Open Letter to The New Prince

By Stephen Tall | Mon 22nd July 2013 - 10:05 pm

Dear Your Highness,
Kate and William
Congratulations on being born! It’s the first universal experience you’ll share in common with your subjects-to-be. From now on, your life and the lives of the 2,000 other babies born in the UK today will begin to diverge. You probably won’t notice this happen for a good, long while (nor will they). But, eventually, one day it will hit you: your life has been marked out to be different from the very start.

The reason is simple. It’s not just that, as every media outlet informs us, ‘the

…

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Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged | 31 Comments
Iain Roberts

Opinion: Cameron’s porn ban – what does it mean?

By Iain Roberts | Mon 22nd July 2013 - 3:55 pm

"PC Baan" internet cafe in Seoul, Korea - Some rights reserved by HachimakiDavid Cameron is out to make the world a safer place by tackling what he sees as the problems caused by pornography. We don’t really know the details of the policy yet, but with Cameron doing the rounds on TV and radio today we’ve got a reasonable idea of what he’s got in mind.

Block pornography by default
Web filtering software is very common – most schools and businesses have it installed. It does a passable job of blocking access to undesirable sites whilst allowing others. Inevitably, some sites that you don’t want to block get caught up, but by and large the filters work OK.

Cameron’s concern is that they aren’t being extensively used by parents of younger children, and the suspicion (probably rightly) is that in many cases it’s because parents aren’t tech savvy enough to know they exist or how to implement them.

So this main headline item – that ISPs all implement filtering software for all customers, and that it be turned on by default (with someone in the household having to make a positive decision to turn it off) – is a “nudge” policy.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 45 Comments
Chris Lucas

Opinion: My twin inspirations – The Terminator and The Leadership Programme!

By Chris Lucas | Sun 21st July 2013 - 3:30 pm

Conference Rally2The other day, I was watching ‘The Terminator’ (one of my favourite films) for the umpteenth time and it occurred to me that it perfectly illustrated how the Liberal Democrat Leadership Programme came about…

Picture the scene. The date is Friday, 8th May, 2015, and many Lib Dems emerge bleary-eyed from their homes, council buildings and school halls after attending counts or watching Peter Snow’s swing-o-meter twitch as the results come in on TV.

In this future, we have had a good election, increasing the number of seats we hold. Of course, …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 19 Comments
Shirley Williams

Baroness Shirley Williams writes… Trident review is a remarkable accomplishment for the Liberal Democrats

By Shirley Williams | Wed 17th July 2013 - 8:01 pm

The Trident Alternatives Review is a highly informed and detailed study of the effectiveness, sustainability and cost of this country’s nuclear deterrent. Trident has been based on a rota of four submarines which between them ensure that there is always one nuclear-armed submarine at sea every hour of the day and every day of the year, a deterrent that is undoubtedly expensive but also, as the Review points out, ”as close as each system can get to an assured second strike capacity”.  Trident was developed in close co-operation with the United States and in that sense is not, unlike the …

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Caron Lindsay

The Liberal Democrat Equal Marriage Act Roll of Honour

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 17th July 2013 - 2:30 pm

mark and ros at equal marriage vigilAs the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill receives Royal Assent and becomes an Act, which I’m reliably informed will be around now. I thought it would be a good idea to celebrate those people in the Liberal Democrats whose work made it happen. I know that such an endeavour is fraught with danger because I am bound to leave somebody out and they will be upset, or hate me forever, or both, but I thought it was worth the risk – and if I do …

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Stephen Tall

Trident: the Grand Old Lib Dems have lost this war already

By Stephen Tall | Wed 17th July 2013 - 9:30 am

110301-N-7237C-009Yesterday the Lib Dems published The Trident Alternatives Review. According to Danny Alexander, “it is the most thorough review of nuclear systems and postures the UK has ever made public. It is ground-breaking – thanks to the Liberal Democrats and our insistence that Trident alternatives must be examined.” That may be: but this is a war the party will not win.

Here’s the party’s sound-bite version of the policy:

We oppose the like-for-like replacement of Trident. We believe there is a ‘nuclear ladder’ of capabilities. Alternative systems or postures could bring

…

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

Nick Clegg’s Letter from the Leader: “The Lib Dem vision for future economic growth and prosperity”

By Stephen Tall | Sun 14th July 2013 - 3:15 pm

The Lib Dem leadership — as I noted here yesterday — is determined to get on the front foot on the economy. This autumn will see a leadership-proposed motion backing further capital investment (“within the fiscal envelope”) while retaining the commitment to deficit reduction. Nick’s letter this week is coordinated with that message, and in particular the importance for growth throughout the regions of the UK. Here’s what he has to say…

libdem letter from nick clegg

On Thursday I visited the Toyota and Rolls Royce factories in Derbyshire to announce the

…

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Stephen Tall

Our pick of the 17 top books to read this summer

By Stephen Tall | Sun 14th July 2013 - 12:15 pm

2011-10-06 12.38.58 SpainThe newspapers are awash with summer best-reads at the moment, as well-known writers pick the books to relax with by the pool. You know the kind of thing: “It’s at this time of year I typically embark on re-reading Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu, translating it into Russian (which I’m learning to relax as I prepare for my Grade 8 piano exam) from our rustic cottage in Tuscany.” Or, alternatively: “Here’s a book written by my mate.”

Always eager to copy a trite-and-tested and formula, here’s …

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Posted in Books | 8 Comments
Iain Roberts

Opinion: Does the School Food Plan really ban packed lunches?

By Iain Roberts | Sat 13th July 2013 - 11:30 am

school mealsIf you’re an independent person involved in writing a report for Government, I offer some advice. Take a holiday for the week after the report’s published. Somewhere remote. Ideally without internet.

How else to avoid your blood-pressure shooting through the roof as the media – both social and traditional – ignore 99% of your work and misrepresent the rest?

For the latest example, look no further than the School Food Plan, a 149 page practical guide to improving the health and attainment of young people by improving their diet in …

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Stephen Tall

Nick, Vince and Danny lead Lib Dem charge to “balance the books, find new ways to create jobs and growth”

By Stephen Tall | Sat 13th July 2013 - 12:01 am

Nick Clegg addresses Birmingham Liberal Democrats conference. Photo courtesy of the Liberal DemocratsBe warned: we’re under starter’s orders for the general election. Today, the Lib Dem leadership sets out its plans on the economy for approval by the party conference this autumn, striking a neat balance between a strong defence of the Lib Dem record in government and a recognition that much still needs to be done to get the economy growing.

The motion to be debated in Glasgow in September can be found at the foot of this post. Tabled by …

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Stephen Tall

The Tories’ 35% strategy shows they know they cannot win outright in 2015

By Stephen Tall | Fri 12th July 2013 - 9:45 am

George Osborne with Red Box, Budget 2012“The 35% Strategy”. The phrase was initially coined by Dan Hodges to decry the Labour leader’s soft-left leadership:

Forget the One Nation strategy, Ed Miliband is pursuing what is known within his inner circle as the 35 Per Cent Strategy. Come 2015, he thinks he can stagger over the line with 35 per cent of the vote.

Less commented on is that the Tories have also been adopting their own 35% strategy under the tutelage of strategist Lynton Crosby. Today’s news that George Osborne has ruled …

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Stephen Tall

The British public, eh? What do they know?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 9th July 2013 - 10:21 am

rss - PerilsofPerceptionThat’s the question the Royal Statistical Society and King’s College London decided to find out with the help of polling firm Ipsos MORI. They asked the British public a range of questions on current social issues. And they found the public mostly gave answers that were factually wrong. Not just fractionally out: a long way out.

See how you do on the 10 most common misperceptions held by the British public…

Teenage pregnancy:
What proportion of girls under 16 do you think become pregnant each year?
a) 0.6%
b) 3.6%
c) 6.3%

Crime:
Is violent …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 27 Comments
Caron Lindsay

What has my marriage got to do with the Liberal Democrats?

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 8th July 2013 - 7:53 am

More than you would think, I guess. My long-suffering husband at least went into our union with his eyes open. If there wasn’t actually a large bird of liberty in the room at the registry office, he knew that the party would play a large part in our lives together. And even then, I think it’s played an even bigger part than he anticipated and he’s dealt with it with patience, fortitude and humour. Most of the time, anyway.

Why is this even relevant? Well, it’s a Summer of 25th anniversaries. Next month, we will have been married for 25 years. Yesterday, it was 25 years since Paddy Ashdown was elected as leader and this video was released by the Party to celebrate.

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Stephen Tall

Miliband vs McCluskey: 2 points that strike me about the Labour/Unite row over alleged candidate selection rigging

By Stephen Tall | Sun 7th July 2013 - 8:45 am

Looking in from the outside, albeit as a former Labour member myself, two points strike me about the Labour/Unite row over the alleged attempt by the union to rig the selection of the party’s general election candidate in Falkirk.

The first is this:

How lucky is Ed Miliband in his opponent, Len McCluskey?

Yes, you read that right. Ed is lucky in Len. The reason why is simple: Len McCluskey has gone about his attempted putsch of Labour in an extraordinarily cack-handed manner.

If you wanted to set up a comedy caricature trade union boss, you’d make sure he had a salary of £122,000, had called for a general strike, have him make threats against prominent Labour ‘Blairites’, and then protest against the lefty New Statesman when it reports accurately what you’ve said.

If you wanted to be a smart trade union leader, however, you’d operate below-the-radar. You’d do things just the same: ensure your chosen candidate was elected Labour leader (however dubiously), line up your mate to head up the party’s election campaigns, and guarantee loyal union members are installed in as many key seats as possible.

But you’d do so sotto voce.

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Stephen Tall

Lib Dem MP Martin Horwood socks it to the Tories over their “dramatic flip-flopping” on in/out EU referendum

By Stephen Tall | Sat 6th July 2013 - 11:15 am

martin horwoodWhile most of the country was enjoying yesterday’s sunshine, the Tory party indulged its own carnival of (to coin a phrase) banging on about Europe.

James Wharton’s private member’s bill legislating for an in/out referendum on the European Union to take place by 2017 (a pledge David Cameron has already conceded to his rebellious backbenchers, who don’t believe him) passed its second reading in the Commons by 304 votes to zero.

Only one Lib Dem MP made a speech: Cheltenham’s Martin Horwood. It’s a punchy tour de force which details …

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Posted in Europe / International, News and Parliament | Also tagged , , , and | 45 Comments
Tim Farron MP

Holding out for a liberal hero

By Tim Farron MP | Tue 2nd July 2013 - 11:55 am

Every year at Conference I get the chance to thank the people in our Party that have given the most.

They’re people who have worked tirelessly in their local area to make sure liberal voices are heard – or people who have given years of time and support as councillors or council leaders.

They’re political assistants to council groups who support Lib Dems in local government with all the valuable work they do.

And they’re local parties who have worked to increase representation of ethnic minorities in everything they do.

This is your chance to let me know who we should be rewarding. Click here for an information pack.

You have until 31st July to get in touch and nominate a Party member you know has given a huge amount to the Party.

This is a great chance to make sure our ordinary members are recognised for all the fantastic work they have done for the Party. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Liberal Democrat Party Awards Pack 2013 by Liberal Democrat Voice

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged | 5 Comments
NewsHound

David Laws – “I thought the note was a joke”

By NewsHound | Tue 25th June 2013 - 10:59 am

no money leftITV has revealed the contents of the infamous note left by Liam Byrne for David Laws. Unfortunately it is not possible to embed the video in this post, but you can watch it here.

Three years ago David Laws reported that his predecessor had written ‘There’s no money left’, but it seems that wasn’t quite what the note said.

 

 

Posted in News | Also tagged and | 12 Comments
Nick T

Interview: Nick Clegg on the economy, welfare, Cleggism and the “superb” Kung Fu Panda films

By Nick T | Mon 24th June 2013 - 1:02 pm

CleggWe brought you a taste of the Voice’s exclusive interview with the deputy prime minister yesterday. Here is the full interview, covering the economy, welfare reform, pensions, Cleggism, our approach to the manifesto, Kung Fu Panda and Clegg’s cooking.

Nick Thornsby: What’s your take on where the economy is now, three and a bit years into the coalition?

Nick Clegg: My overall assessment is that it is healing. There are signs of confidence slowly seeping back into the sinews of the economy. Some of the latest data on consumer confidence are better …

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Stephen Tall

‘Red lines’ v ‘a long shopping list’: Clegg sets out plan for slimline 2015 manifesto

By Stephen Tall | Sat 22nd June 2013 - 9:55 am

Nick Clegg will be speaking today at the party’s local government conference in Manchester (Nick Thornsby will be covering it throughout the day here on LDV) and The Independent is one of the newspapers which trails what he’ll say.

Here’s my quick take on the top lines on which they’ve been pre-briefed…

The Deputy Prime Minister will take on his internal party critics by demanding a slimline manifesto at the 2015 election setting out the Lib Dems’ non-negotiable “red lines” in another coalition rather than a long shopping list of policies.

There’s been much discussion recently about ‘red lines’ in …

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Nick T

Local Government Conference live blog

By Nick T | Sat 22nd June 2013 - 9:50 am

Good morning from the Mercure Hotel in Manchester, where Liberal Democrats from around the country are gathered at the Local Government Conference jointly organised by ALDC and the Lib Dem contingent of the LGA.

The agenda for the day is here (pdf). I’ll cover as much as I can of some of the talks, as well as some comments from Don Foster, Gerald Vernon-Jackson and others. There will be a bit of a break mid-morning while I interview Nick Clegg for the site (we’ll publish the interview this week).

I’ll also try and post on the Lib Dem Voice twitter account

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Caron Lindsay

Adrian Sanders vs Miss England

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 21st June 2013 - 10:35 am

Torbay MP Adrian Sanders has come under fire after complaining about the area’s hosting of the Miss England finals. This is Plymouth has the story:

A row has erupted between Miss England organisers and a Devon MP who claimed the staging of the contest finals in Torbay sent out the wrong message about the area.

Adrian Sanders, Liberal Democrat MP for Torbay, has come under fire after telling the BBC the event was “an own goal”.

Mr Sanders said: “There are fantastic events happening in this area. Cycling events, art exhibitions, it’s all there, but this one is such an own goal.

“It’s

…

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Stephen Tall

Tory rebels launch their own alternative Queen’s Speech as helpful reminder of why Lib Dems vital to Cameron

By Stephen Tall | Fri 21st June 2013 - 9:05 am

It’s enough to make you feel sorry for David Cameron. The Telegraph report gives the highlights:

Conservative MPs launch attempt to bring back death penalty, privatise the BBC and ban burka

Conservative MPs have drawn up an “Alternative Queen’s Speech” with radical policies such as bringing back the death penalty, privatising the BBC and banning the burka in public spaces.
The 42 bills also include legislation to scrap wind farm subsidies, end the ringfence for foreign aid spending and rename the late August Bank Holiday “Margaret Thatcher Day”. Britain’s relationship with Europe features prominently in the action plan, with draft laws setting

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 21 Comments
Nick T

The Syrian civil war is a humanitarian disaster: the time has come to intervene

By Nick T | Thu 20th June 2013 - 2:57 pm

There are few things about which we can be certain in the Syrian crisis, but there are some. We can be sure that brutal, unspeakable and unimaginable things are happening on a daily basis, particularly and most distressingly of all to the country’s children. We can also be sure that somehow, someday the war will end.

When it will end is anybody’s guess. How it will do so is a slightly easier to guess at. We know that Bashar al-Assad is militarily strong, thanks to the supply of weapons from Iran and Russia, and soldiers from Lebanon’s Hezbollah. We know that …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 36 Comments
Stephen Tall

Nick Clegg’s Letter from the Leader: “Jobs are right at the heart of the Lib Dems’ agenda”

By Stephen Tall | Sun 16th June 2013 - 2:15 pm

lib dems million jobsThis week saw the Lib Dems launch a major new campaign: A Million Jobs for a Stronger Economy. As a party we have a habit of launching major campaigns and then letting them peter out. Remember the ‘John Lewis economy’ for instance? Or that we were the ‘one nation party’ before Ed Miliband? If not, you won’t be alone. So it’s encouraging that the party’s Million Jobs campaign is scheduled to run for a year — the minimum necessary for it to get any traction — and …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dems set to name 7 new peers for House of Lords, says Sunday Times

By Stephen Tall | Sun 16th June 2013 - 11:30 am

rumi verjeeToday’s Sunday Times front page (£) splashes with a ‘Cash for peerages row hits Clegg’ headline. The reality is slightly less exciting: Rumi Verjee, a prominent donor to the Lib Dems, is apparently top of the list of seven names put forward for peerages:

Rumi Verjee, a multimillionaire who brought the Domino’s pizza chain to Britain, is top of a list of seven names compiled by the Lib Dems who are expected to be awarded honours within weeks. He has given £770,000 to the party since May 2010. … Verjee

…

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