Tag Archives: featured

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…

(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.

Posted in Caption Comp | Also tagged nick clegg and snow wardens | 12 Comments

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%

…

Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged immigration | 16 Comments

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

Today 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 …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged immigration and nick clegg | 134 Comments

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 …

Posted in News | Also tagged bbc question time | 30 Comments

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

Move 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 …

Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged budget 2013, george osborne and tax cuts (Lib Dem) | 13 Comments

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

Climate 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 …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged hinckley point and nuclear power | 30 Comments

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

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%

…

Posted in LDV Members poll and News | Also tagged economy, education, foreign aid, NHS and schools | 8 Comments

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.

Posted in News | Also tagged norman baker | 5 Comments

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

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 …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged iraq and iraq war | 10 Comments

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

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 …

Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged secret courts | 5 Comments

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, …

Posted in Local government and Op-eds | 6 Comments

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

I’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 …

Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged leveson inquiry, nick clegg and secret courts | 67 Comments

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 …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged david rennie, economy and the economist | 65 Comments

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 …

Posted in News | Also tagged dinah rose, henry porter, jo shaw, philippe sands and secret courts | 24 Comments

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.

…

Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged labour, mansion tax and vince cable | 66 Comments

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 …

Posted in News | Also tagged chris huhne, LDV team discuss and vicky pryce | 14 Comments

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

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

Here’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.

Posted in Conference and News | Also tagged 2013 brighton spring conference | 2 Comments

“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

It 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 …

Posted in Conference, News and Op-eds | Also tagged 2013 brighton spring conference, nick clegg, ryan coetzee and secret courts | 19 Comments

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 …

Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged 2013 brighton spring conference, chris huhne, chris rennard, media, secret courts, shirley williams and vicky pryce | 7 Comments

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

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

Here’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 …

Posted in Conference | Also tagged 2013 brighton spring conference | 9 Comments

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, 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

…

Posted in Conference | Also tagged 2013 brighton spring conference and paddy ashdown | 22 Comments

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

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

Huhne, 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”. …

Posted in Conference | Also tagged #ldconf, 2013 brighton spring conference, nick clegg and party strategy | 3 Comments

My Tim Farron interview – the unexpurgated version

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

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 …

Posted in News | Also tagged ad lib magazine and tim farron | 5 Comments

Ming Campbell MP writes… Why I support the Justice and Security Bill

By Ming Campbell MP | Fri 8th March 2013 - 8:50 pm

Last September in Brighton, the Conference voted to remove part 2 of the Justice and Security Bill. That Bill is now completing its final stages in Parliament. But let me assure you, that because of Liberal Democrat pressure, the Bill is now radically different. Amendments have been made such as unfettered discretion for the judge and increased safeguards in order to meet previously raised objections.

The Bill is no longer the one that was before Conference last September and I believe it is now right …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged closed material proceedings, justice and security bill and public interest immunity certificates | 22 Comments

Tim Farron in outspoken and honest interview shock!

By Stephen Tall | Fri 8th March 2013 - 9:35 am

An interview with Tim Farron is never a dull one, that’s for sure. I found that out when I spoke to him for the party magazine, Ad Lib, last month — prompting the headline, Lib Dem brand ‘tainted by Tories’ (£), in The Sunday Times.

Today’s he’s in the headlines for an interview in The House magazione with Paul Waugh and Sam MacRory in which he likens Lib Dem MPs to ‘cockroaches’ (hard to get rid of) and ‘nutters’ (because of …

Posted in News | Also tagged paul waugh, sam macrory, the house magazine and tim farron | 15 Comments

Huhne / Pryce: this is a human drama, not a political story

By Stephen Tall | Thu 7th March 2013 - 8:33 pm

It was the number of voicemail messages on my mobile (having been holed up in meetings for my non-political day-job) that alerted me a story had broken this afternoon. A clutch of requests from news stations eager to know what the political fall-out for the Lib Dems would be from Vicky Pryce being found guilty of perverting the course of justice.

My short answer? I just can’t see it. Vicky Pryce is the ex-wife of an ex-MP. Yes, it’s a compelling human drama, a modern morality tale of how …

Posted in News | Also tagged chris huhne, james kirkup and vicky pryce | 22 Comments

The Green Book – new directions for Liberals in government

By Mike Tuffrey | Tue 5th March 2013 - 12:04 pm

Yesterday saw the launch of a book project that I’ve been working on with colleagues over the last year. Between us, we persuaded 27 authors to put pen to paper and say what should be in a programme for government, one that’s fit for the world we live in today. Some 70 people from business, NGOs, academia, think-tanks and political parties joined us in Westminster for the launch.

Our choice of the title “Green Book” is a very conscious nod towards the Orange Book of a decade ago and indeed Lloyd George’s Yellow Book – really authored by John Maynard Keynes – 85 years ago. Last week I wrote how times have changed since then.

Each author has a specific point of view but all were united in saying we can’t go on as we are, both as a country and as a party. As editors, we were clear that the LibDems are now a party of national government; we need a programme to put before the voters that’s frank about the challenges Britain faces: the first industrialised nation that has largely exhausted its natural resources and now has to compete for energy, food and raw materials with the burgeoning economies of India, Brazil and China.

Posted in Books, News and Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged green book and liberal philososophy | 10 Comments

7 ‘rebel’ Lib Dem MPs back party policy as rest vote for secret courts

By Stephen Tall | Tue 5th March 2013 - 7:45 am

After the excitement of Friday’s Eastleigh by-election result, it’s back to earth with a bump for Lib Dems, after most of our MPs last night ignored the party conference’s overwhelming opposition to ‘secret courts’ and voted into law a measure that flies in the face of natural justice.

Here’s the BBC report:

MPs have voted to back plans to allow more civil courts to examine secret intelligence in private, despite calls for more safeguards. MPs from all sides had tried to press for so-called secret courts to be used only as a last resort. But the government successfully saw off the

…

Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged secret courts | 60 Comments

A warm welcome to our new Co-Editor, Caron Lindsay

By Stephen Tall | Mon 4th March 2013 - 8:15 am

I guess that, in the end, it was quite fitting that Mark Pack’s final day with LibDemVoice should have been last Thursday, the day of the Eastleigh by-election: it’s always good to go out on a high. For those who missed the news first time round, Mark has — after over six years as my Co-Editor in name/spirit — stepped down from the team to spend more time with his other 73 roles within the party (plus two day jobs).

So the end of one era, but I hope also the dawn of a new one. I’m delighted to say that Caron Lindsay, already a member of the site’s editorial collective, has agreed to become this site’s new Co-editor alongside me. Few Lib Dems will need an introduction to Caron. She is the author of the superb Caron’s Musings blog, elected member of the party’s Federal Executive, treasurer of the Scottish Lib Dems, and a former case-worker for Willie Rennie. She is also one of the nicest, most grounded, full-of-common-sense Lib Dems I know. Thank you, Caron, for saying yes so willingly.

Posted in Site news | Also tagged caron lindsay, Mark Pack and paul walter | 5 Comments

Eastleigh shows why the Tories and Labour should now support PR in local elections

By Stephen Tall | Sun 3rd March 2013 - 2:15 pm

If only, if only… Instead of holding out for a referendum on the Alternative Vote the Lib Dem negotiators had secured proportional representation for all local council elections instead.

Hindsight’s easy, I know. At the time of negotiating the Coalition Agreement, electoral reform at Westminster was the party’s deal-breaker. The Lib Dem vote had gone up by a million, our number of MPs down by five. The public were in favour, or so the polls said. It’s possible the party wouldn’t even have approved entering the Coalition if the Westminster voting system had been left untouched.

And yet, and yet… Proportional representation at a local council level would’ve been a far more transformational way of shifting the power dynamics in this country, of introducing genuine electoral competition into contests up and down the country. Eastleigh shows us how.

Posted in Local government and Op-eds | Also tagged eastleigh by-election, electoral reform and proportional representation | 27 Comments

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Tag Archives: featured

And the winner of our last caption comp is…

Big majorities say immigration has had positive effect on UK

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

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

Let’s start with the positive…

Secret courts rouse conference passions – on both sides

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