Tag Archives: featured

Stephen Tall

Your essential Easter weekend reader — my personal pick of the week’s must-reads

By Stephen Tall | Sun 31st March 2013 - 7:00 pm

Papers - Some rights reserved by NS MewsflashIt’s Sunday afternoon, so here are a baker’s dozen of thought-provoking articles to stimulate your thinking juices, culled from all those I’ve linked to this past fortnight. You can follow me on Delicious here.

Even Britain has now abandoned austerity – Anatole Kaletsky highlights the abandonment of Plan A: “While Osborne repeated his mantra that “you can’t cure a crisis caused by debt with more debt,” he will now do exactly this by creating a British equivalent of government-guaranteed Fannie Mae mortgages to …

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Stephen Tall

Nick Clegg’s Letter from the Leader: “Happy Easter”

By Stephen Tall | Sun 31st March 2013 - 12:00 pm

Nick Clegg’s latest letter to supporters wishes us all the very best for a relaxing Easter holiday. He’s off on a family break visiting his parents — or “holidaying at a millionaires’ ­playground” if you prefer the Mirror‘s styling. My Co-Editor Caron Lindsay has written a reply highlighting the many and various ways Lib Dem members will be spending the break: campaigning. However you spend it — we at LibDemVoice wish you all the best.

libdem letter from nick clegg

Just a quick note this week to wish you a happy

…

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Stephen Tall

A reply to Dan Hodges: why it’s not surprising some Tories aren’t bothered about winning in 2015

By Stephen Tall | Fri 29th March 2013 - 4:10 pm

dan hodgesThe Telegraph’s token Labour blogger Dan Hodges has a typically punchy post today – Do the Tories actually want to win in 2015? – highlighting the fatalism of some Tory MPs who think victory next time is possible but not worth it:

Hardly worth it? What, just managing to scrape a win at the next election, just managing to govern for another five years, just managing to drive through your agenda on health care reform, welfare reform, education reform, etc?

The Conservative Party is currently in the middle of the biggest

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , and | 9 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Secret Courts now a reality after Lords amendments fall – how did Liberal Democrats vote?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 27th March 2013 - 8:07 am

As the sky fell in on open justice, according to Labour whip Angela Smith, Conservative peers were watching the Bond movie Skyfall. The irony actually hurts.

 

Lady Smith might have been better keeping an eye on her own benches. Between the first Division of the Day, on the Growth and Infrastructure Bill, and the crucial vote on whether secret courts should be invoked only as a …

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Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged and | 52 Comments
Jonathan Portes

Jonathan Portes writes: If you want to get serious about growth, you need to be positive about migration

By Jonathan Portes | Tue 26th March 2013 - 1:45 pm

On Monday, I did seven interviews on David Cameron’s immigration speech. Each time I’ve tried to get across one simple fact: that all the available evidence suggests that immigrants – and immigrants from the new EU member states, in particular – more than pay their way. That is, that they pay more in taxes than they cost in benefits and services; overall, from being a burden, they make it easier to finance our welfare state not harder.

It is that basic fact that all three party leaders should be explaining to their constituents. Instead, they seem to be engaged …

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Stephen Tall

EXCLUSIVE: What Lib Dem members think of the Coalition almost 3 years on

By Stephen Tall | Mon 25th March 2013 - 7:55 am

Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum recently to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 650 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

(All comparisons are with our most recent survey conducted in December 2012.)

58% of member say party on “right course”

Do you think, as a whole, the Liberal Democrats are on the right course or on the wrong track?

    58% (-3%) – The right course
    33% (n/c) – The wrong track
    9% (+3%) – Don’t know / No opinion

…

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 12 Comments
Stephen Tall

Boris has a right Mair in live BBC interview

By Stephen Tall | Sun 24th March 2013 - 10:30 am

It was a masterclass in TV interviewing from Eddie Mair, occupying Andrew Marr’s Sunday morning chair on BBC1. (You can watch an excerpt from the interview here.)

mair johnson -mar 2013With documentary-maker Michael Cockerell’s film, ‘Boris Johnson: The Irresistible Rise’, to be screened on Monday evening (BBC2, 9pm), Mair took the opportunity to put to the twice-elected Mayor of London the allegations he’s always previously been able to laugh off. There’s a good feature about it in the Daily Mail (sorry) here.

Usually interviewers indulge Boris; I could say …

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The Voice

LDV Caption Competition: Where we plough, we win

By The Voice | Sat 23rd March 2013 - 12:52 pm

There’s no prize at stake – just the opportunity to prove you’re wittier than any other LDV reader…
teamcleggsnow
(Photo by Ian Turgoose)

An action day this morning in Sheffield Hallam became an impromptu canvassing and snow clearing session. We know what Nick was saying while this photo was being taken, but what do you think could have been said that would have been even wittier?

And the winner of our last caption comp is…

Some fantastic entries for our most recent caption competition, “Knowing Me” Nick Clegg, “Knowing You” Steve Coogan Edition.

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Posted in Caption Comp | Also tagged and | 12 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV Poll: Immigration – Lib Dem members have their say

By Stephen Tall | Sat 23rd March 2013 - 9:15 am

Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum recently to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 650 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

Big majorities say immigration has had positive effect on UK

On balance, do you think immigration into the UK from the following areas has had a positive or negative effect on the UK?

    From Western European countries, such as France and Germany
    85% – On balance, has had a positive effect on Britain
    1% – On balance, has had a negative effect

…

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged | 16 Comments
Stephen Tall

Nick Clegg’s illiberal hat-trick: now immigration joins ‘secret courts’ and media regulation on the pyre

By Stephen Tall | Fri 22nd March 2013 - 5:55 pm

nick cleggToday Nick Clegg made a speech on immigration. He was due to deliver it in February but decided to delay it until after the Eastleigh by-election: I guess it wasn’t an issue he wanted to stir-up for Ukip’s benefit. Or perhaps he realised that his position would be as well-received by many activists as a bucket of cold sick.

I have read it all the way through, which is more than it deserved. It’s a lazy, lazy speech. It genuflects in the direction of liberalism with some stirring …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 134 Comments
Nick T

An open letter to the BBC about tonight’s Lib-Dem-free Question Time

By Nick T | Thu 21st March 2013 - 8:56 am

Here’s an email I sent to the BBC’s acting Director of News, Fran Unsworth, last night. Hat-tip to Richard Morris for highlighting the issue.

Dear Fran,

On the front of the 2010 Liberal Democrat manifesto were four priorities. The first of these was a pledge to deliver “fairer taxes” by raising the threshold at which people begin to pay income tax to £10,000.

In his Budget speech this week, the chancellor stood up in the House of Commons and announced that next year the coalition will deliver this policy in full. It would not be an understatement to say, therefore, that this …

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 30 Comments
Stephen Tall

Budget 2013: Osborne crosses fingers and hopes ‘steady as she goes’ will come good by 2015

By Stephen Tall | Wed 20th March 2013 - 8:05 pm

George Osborne with Red Box, Budget 2012Move along, nothing to see here… This was a steady-as-she-goes budget at a time when the economy is anything-but-steady.

Of course as Lib Dems it’s great to welcome the final push towards lifting all those paid less than £10,000 out of income tax. As my Co-Editor Caron Lindsay notes here, this is a policy direct from the front page of our 2010 manifesto to the Coalition’s budget. That’s no mean achievement — we know that because the Tories keep trying to claim it as …

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Ed Davey

Ed Davey MP writes: Hinkley Point – we need to have all low carbon options in play

By Ed Davey | Wed 20th March 2013 - 2:00 pm

Davey Windmills - Some rights reserved by Liberal DemocratsClimate change is one of the greatest threats facing our planet – if we don’t tackle it we will continue to see extinction of species on an industrial scale, parts of our world will become uninhabitable for humans, and we will see increasing conflict between nations over scarce resources and the mass migration of impoverished peoples.  We need to step up to this environmental challenge and use all of our ingenuity and resourcefulness to meet it head-on.

As the Secretary of State I’m determined …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 30 Comments
Stephen Tall

On Budget day: What Lib Dem members think of the Coalition’s economic policy and ring-fencing of spending

By Stephen Tall | Wed 20th March 2013 - 8:10 am

Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum recently to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 650 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

George Osborne with Red Box, Budget 2012

Just 26% of Lib Dem members support Osborne’s ‘Plan A’

Thinking of the current state of the economy and the Coalition’s approach, which of the following statements is closest to your own view?

    20% – Cutting the deficit isn’t enough: alongside public spending cuts, the Coalition should be

…

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Posted in LDV Members poll and News | Also tagged , , , and | 8 Comments
Mary Reid

Norman Baker launches his first single

By Mary Reid | Tue 19th March 2013 - 5:33 pm

It’s been a long political day, and we have the Budget to look forward to tomorrow. So sit back and enjoy Norman Baker’s first single ‘Piccadilly Circus’, with his band The Reform Club.

The Guardian provides these passnotes:

 Baker fits the rockstar profile perfectly. He has been a troublemaker in the House of Commons, and campaigns for environmental and animal welfare causes.

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Ming Campbell MP

Ming Campbell writes: Britain lost moral authority as a result of its participation in Iraq

By Ming Campbell MP | Tue 19th March 2013 - 2:01 pm

Some rights reserved by mashleymorgan Today is the 10th Anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. We are marking it by publishing reflections on the war and its aftermath by senior Liberal Democrats.

The second is by Ming Campbell.

It is hard now to find anyone who will defend British participation in the American-led invasion of Iraq ten years ago. Labour’s current frontbench seek now only to distance themselves from personal involvement in the decision to go to war and it has been all but airbrushed out of recent Tory history. Even in …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 10 Comments
Stephen Tall

What Lib Dem members say about ‘secret courts’: 66% back repeal, 64% say Clegg has handled issue “very badly”

By Stephen Tall | Mon 18th March 2013 - 8:50 am

Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum recently to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 650 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

66% say party should commit to repealing ‘secret courts’ legislation

The House of Commons has approved legislation extending the use of Closed Material Procedures – also known as ‘secret courts’ – in any civil proceedings (except, at present, for inquests) in cases where national security is said to be at risk. Do you support or oppose the repeal of this legislation featuring …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged | 5 Comments
Libby Local

Libby Local, Episode 13: “Brighton Secrets”

By Libby Local | Sun 17th March 2013 - 2:45 pm

My arrival at Brighton was a something of a financial shock. A huge £3.90 for a coffee in the Metropole. You can buy a coffee and a pint of beer for less than four pounds in Demsbury. A good slug of Pinot Grigio is only a few pence more!

The Liberal Democrat Spring Conference was not at all as I expected. I’m an avid conference goer in my professional life, but this conference proved totally different. Okay. I have never encountered so many bad taste yellow ties before. But what struck me most was the diverse group of people, disabled, young, …

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Posted in Local government and Op-eds | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

I’m a liberal and I’m against this sort of thing. Leveson-style press regulation, that is (as well as secret courts)

By Stephen Tall | Sun 17th March 2013 - 8:55 am

Leveson report front pageI’ve got used to describing myself as “a liberal first, a Lib Dem second”. Most of the time the Venn diagram works out pretty well. But not the last couple of weeks.

First, there was ‘secret courts’ and the decision by Nick Clegg, backed by most Lib Dem MPs (though not by party members), to extend legal proceedings which directly conflict with natural justice and that elevate the state above the individual.

And now there’s Nick Clegg’s decision, again likely to be backed by most Lib Dem …

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Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 67 Comments
Nick T

The boom years were the dream. This is reality

By Nick T | Thu 14th March 2013 - 11:44 am

Pieces of writing can do lots of things: challenge, comfort, exasperate, inform, entertain. Occasionally, though, one reads a piece that, in prose far more clear, lucid and fluent than one’s jumbled thoughts, nonetheless perfectly describes those thoughts.

I’ve long been a fan of The Economist’s David Rennie, and have praised him here on the Voice before. Last summer he took over the paper’s Lexington column (in tragic circumstances), but before that he was for two years British political editor and author of the weekly Bagehot column.

In May last year he wrote one of those columns I describe …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 65 Comments
Stephen Tall

Secret courts: another prominent Lib Dem resigns

By Stephen Tall | Tue 12th March 2013 - 8:30 am

On Sunday, former Lib Dem parliamentary candidate and Federal Executive member Jo Shaw — the moving force behind LibDemsAgainstSecretCourts — announced her resignation from the party while proposing the motion opposing the extension of Closed Material Procedures (CMPs, aka secret courts) that was overwhelmingly carried by members.

Her resignation followed the announcement by Dinah Rose QC that she was resigning from the party in protest at the party leadership’s decision to back secret courts. That came the same day as Observer columnist Henry Porter, a long-time friend to the Lib Dems, publicly denounced what he termed Nick Clegg’s …

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Helen Duffett

Vince Cable on Labour’s opposition day debate on Mansion tax

By Helen Duffett | Mon 11th March 2013 - 8:55 pm

This evening, the Liberal Democrats have confirmed they won’t vote for Labour’s mischievous Opposition Day debate on mansion tax, instead tabling a Coalition amendment stating our support for the mansion tax and the Conservatives’ opposition to it. Vince Cable, architect of the mansion tax, has issued a statement explaining why:

This amendment allows Liberal Democrats in Parliament to back our long-held policy of the mansion tax. We created it and will continue to champion it.

The amendment also makes it clear that although we are in coalition with the Conservatives, we have different views on the desirability of a mansion tax.

…

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Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged , and | 66 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Liberal Democrat Voice team discusses…..the Huhne/Pryce sentencing

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 11th March 2013 - 8:45 pm

It may not surprise you to know that the team at Liberal Democrat Voice quite often talk to each other about how we’re feeling about events in the news. We tend to write our own posts, though. I thought it might be a good idea to occasionally do a single post where several of us contribute our opinions on an issue of the day.

I think all of us share a sense of sadness at the way the destruction of a family has unfolded in front of us, disappointment that a highly effective minister is now in a prison cell in …

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Stephen Tall

That Was The Day That Was – your essential Lib Dem conference round-up

By Stephen Tall | Sun 10th March 2013 - 3:50 pm

Lib Dem Conference app screenshotHere’s a few highlights from the second day’s action at Brighton… (You can catch up on my round-up of the first day-and-a-bit here.)

Let’s start with the positive…

First, if you haven’t yet, do read the Independent’s editorial today (I suspect someone in Nick Clegg’s office will have it framed for him):

The Lib Dems are walking tall
the party is gathered in Brighton for its spring conference this weekend in better heart than it has been at any time since that glad confident morning in the Downing Street garden. The immediate source of its good spirit was its success in holding Huhne’s seat in Eastleigh in the by-election last month. … the party is buoyant because it is more than just a vote-harvesting machine.

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Posted in Conference and News | Also tagged | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

“On message. In volume. Over time.” That’s the real text of Nick Clegg’s speech today

By Stephen Tall | Sun 10th March 2013 - 2:30 pm

Double Clegg 2 - Some rights reserved by Liberal DemocratsIt took 3,000+ words and Nick Clegg 30 minutes to deliver them — but there was only one message he wanted to be heard in his leader’s speech today:

Only the Liberal Democrats can deliver a stronger economy and a fairer society, enabling everyone to get on in life.

That’s the core message, one that’s been tested in polling and was tested in real polling in Eastleigh. And it’s the message the party leadership wants the party to get sick of repeating ad infinitum …

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Posted in Conference, News and Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 19 Comments
Stephen Tall

It’s not just the Lib Dem leadership trying to ignore the ‘secret courts’ row: the news media is too

By Stephen Tall | Sun 10th March 2013 - 12:10 pm

I had an odd experience on Friday. I was doing a round of media interviews – 3 for TV, 3 for radio – previewing the Lib Dem conference. I’d been called by researchers in advance to ‘get my take’ on the key issues. Each time, I said there was a big issue on which the party leadership could expect to be defeated and which would see activists from across the broad spectrum of the Lib Dems united: opposition to secret courts. This received an “Uh-hum” response which I took for baffled boredom. And as expected, each interview in turn dwelt …

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Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , , and | 7 Comments
Stephen Tall

That Was The Day That Was – your essential Lib Dem conference round-up

By Stephen Tall | Sat 9th March 2013 - 7:10 pm

Autumn 2012 conference - Some rights reserved by Liberal DemocratsHere’s a few highlights from the first day-and-a-bit’s action at Brighton…

Secret courts rouse conference passions – on both sides

It’s no secret that many Lib Dem members are angry with the vast majority of Lib Dem MPs for their decision to over-ride the vote of the party conference last September and approve legislation extending the use of Closed Material Procedures, aka ‘secret courts’. Ming Campbell is one of the few MPs so far publicly to make the case in favour – which …

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged | 9 Comments
The Voice

Paddy: “You’ve heard the saying it’s not the winning that matters, it’s the taking part. That’s b*****ks.”

By The Voice | Sat 9th March 2013 - 11:00 am

Paddy Ashdown video screenshotPaddy Ashdown, Chair of the Liberal Democrat General Election Campaign, is about to speak to the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference. Here’s what he’ll say:

You know, making this speech today gives me a strong sense of déjà vu. I gave a speech at the Conference here in Brighton, right after the last time we won a by election in Eastleigh!

Some things haven’t changed. Orange diamonds. Fighting against the odds, Simon Hughes. But one big thing has changed. We were a Party of Opposition then. We’re a party

…

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged and | 22 Comments
Nick T

Nick Clegg’s speech to conference: what I’ll be looking out for

By Nick T | Sat 9th March 2013 - 10:17 am

nick cleggHuhne, Pryce, Rennard, Eastleigh. A mass of events converge this weekend as Brighton once again becomes centre of the Lib Dem universe for a weekend.

These topics will inevitably dominate conversations in the conference bar. But when Nick Clegg stands up on Sunday lunchtime to make his speech he has to look beyond the short-term events that have dominated Liberal Democrat discourse for the last few weeks and months.

It’s often said of a speeches that they are “one of the most important X has made in the course of his leadership”. …

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged , , and | 3 Comments
Stephen Tall

My Tim Farron interview – the unexpurgated version

By Stephen Tall | Sat 9th March 2013 - 9:55 am

faron ad lib intvw I interviewed Lib Dem president Tim Farron for the February issue of the party magazine, Ad Lib. Here’s what I wrote… together with a few quotes at the foot that didn’t make the final cut…

I meet Tim Farron – the party’s un-spun, down-to-earth, heart-on-his-sleeve president and über-campaigner – in his Westminster office. A vast grid, running almost the entire length of one wall, pin-points Tim’s campaigning activities over the next few weeks. It’s hard to imagine his well of enthusiasm ever running dry.

Yet the previous night …

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