Tag Archives: featured

Helen Duffett

In Government for all the right reasons: the David Laws interview

By Helen Duffett | Tue 23rd November 2010 - 4:41 pm

Yesterday I interviewed David Laws, on the day his book 22 Days in May was published. I asked him about the book, his views on the Coalition Government, as well as about the focus of his current work, plus his thoughts on the Ireland bailout.

In the introduction to the book, David Laws writes that its purpose is to “inform those who are interested in this important period of British politics, and to make sure that an accurate account is left of what really happened in May 2010, before memories fade, myths grow and evidence is lost.”

Why have you published …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 40 Comments
Helen Duffett

Fifteen new Liberal Democrat Peers appointed

By Helen Duffett | Fri 19th November 2010 - 11:33 am

Fifteen new Liberal Democrat working peers have just been announced…

  • Dr Sarah (Sal) Brinton – Executive Director of the Association of Universities in the East of England

  • Dee Doocey OBE – Chair of the London Assembly

  • Qurban Hussain – Deputy Group Leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Luton Borough Council

  • Judith Jolly – Chair of Executive Committee of Liberal Democrats in Devon and Cornwall

  • Susan Kramer – former Liberal Democrat MP

  • Raj Loomba – businessman and campaigner for widows’ rights

  • Jonathan Marks – commercial and family law QC with specialist interest in human rights and constitutional reform

  • Monroe Palmer OBE – Liberal

    • …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Parliament | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and | 77 Comments
    Mark Pack

    Does the alphabet matter when it comes to Liberal Democrat internal elections?

    By Mark Pack | Thu 18th November 2010 - 8:54 am

    There is consistent evidence that in public elections people with names higher up the alphabet, and hence higher up the ballot paper, do slightly better than people lower down. It is not a major effect, though in a marginal seat a small difference can mean you win rather than lose, and seems to be strongest where ballot papers are more complicated, e.g. if all three seats in a council ward are up for election.

    So it is no great surprise that after the Liberal Democrat federal committee and interim peers panel election results were declared on Saturday, several people made comment about how the results looked to benefit people higher up the ballot paper. The large number of candidates means these were just the sort of contest where you might expect an effect to come into play, and with the final few places on committees or panels often decided by small margins, there might be an important prompt here for reform.

    But what does the evidence say?

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Party policy and internal matters | 16 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    EXCLUSIVE: How party members rate the performances of leading Lib Dems

    By Stephen Tall | Sun 14th November 2010 - 10:45 am

    Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of a variety of key issues, and what you make of the Lib Dems’ and Government’s performance to date. Almost 600 party members have responded, and we’ve been publishing the full results of our survey over the past few days.

    Today, in the final part of our survey, we focus on the performances of the leading lights of the Liberal Democrats – those of our MPs in the cabinet, those occupying ministerial positions, and other leading Lib Dems:

    How would you rate the performances of the …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in LDV Members poll | 23 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    What Lib Dem members think of the Coalition, the Lib Dems’ direction, and Nick Clegg’s leadership

    By Stephen Tall | Sat 13th November 2010 - 4:57 pm

    Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of the contest for the party presidency, the Comprehensive Spending Review, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Almost 600 party members have responded, and we’re currently publishing the full results.

    What Lib Dem members think about the party and its leadership


    Do you think, as a whole, the Liberal Democrats are on the right course or on the wrong track?     (Comparison with August’s figures.)

      65% (69%) – The right course
      23% (17%) – The wrong track
      11% (15%) – Don’t know / No

    …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in LDV Members poll | 123 Comments
    Helen Duffett

    More results: party committees and interim peers panel

    By Helen Duffett | Sat 13th November 2010 - 1:20 pm

    Liberal Democrat Federal Conference representatives have voted for members of party committees for 2011-2012 and members of the panel from which future Liberal Democrat nominees for the House of Lords will be drawn.

    The results are as follows:

    Continue reading »
    Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged , , , , and | 6 Comments
    Helen Duffett

    Lib Dem Presidential Contest: Result

    By Helen Duffett | Sat 13th November 2010 - 12:19 pm

    Continue reading »
    Posted in News and Party Presidency | Also tagged and | 26 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    LDV survey: What Lib Dem members think of the Coalition’s economic policies, housing benefit, and the CSR

    By Stephen Tall | Fri 12th November 2010 - 2:28 pm

    Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of the contest for the party presidency, the Comprehensive Spending Review, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Almost 600 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results over the next few days.

    What Lib Dem members think of the Coalition’s economic policies

    Which of these statements comes closest to your opinion about how the Coalition should go about reducing the deficit?

      45% – It is important to cut spending quickly even if this means immediate job losses, because it will be better

    …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged , and | 36 Comments
    Hilary Stephenson

    Oldham East & Saddleworth: It’s already on

    By Hilary Stephenson | Wed 10th November 2010 - 7:27 pm

    We currently expect a parliamentary by-election for the Oldham East & Saddleworth constituency to take place well before Christmas. This will be one of the shorter by-election campaigns we have seen but it is important that people in Oldham are not left unrepresented after what has happened there.

    Within 24 hours of Phil Woolas being found guilty of breaking election law last Friday, we had a new campaign HQ up and running. There is an experienced campaign team already in place: veterans of many victories, including the last by-election in this area, Littleborough and Saddleworth in 1995.

    My experience of by-elections (and …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged and | 14 Comments
    Mark Pack

    How to defeat Al Qaeda

    By Mark Pack | Wed 10th November 2010 - 8:55 am

    The cover of Bruce Riedel’s The Search for Al Qaeda shows a group of armed men working their way up a hillside overlooking a beautiful valley that stretches away to rolling hills. It captures the wonder and the tragedy of Afghanistan in one frame.

    The book itself is similarly crisp, packing a wide-ranging history of Al Qaeda and its key figures into only 150 pages of moderate size print. It is penned by an ex-CIA man of thirty years service who was frequently closely involved with the figures and events painted in the book, but not so closely as to make the reader fear it is more a justification of his career than a fair account of events.

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Books and Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , , , and | 3 Comments
    Paul Burstow

    Paul Burstow writes… We are taking radical action to deliver better health and care

    By Paul Burstow | Tue 9th November 2010 - 11:05 am

    Much has been made of the tough choices Liberal Democrats have had to make since we entered government. But not enough has been made of the victories we’ve gained. Unlike the last Labour administration, this coalition is delivering on its promises to reform health and social care for the better.

    Let’s start with social care. The funding of care and support is one of the most urgent of all social policy issues we face as a society. Make no mistake; the way we organise and pay for care for older and disabled people is a broken. That’s why we’re taking action …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 16 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    Why a part of me is cheering on Rupert Murdoch

    By Stephen Tall | Fri 5th November 2010 - 11:57 am

    At face value, the figures released by News International this week showing that The Times and Sunday Times had registered some 105,000 customer sales since its paywall was erected in July sounded like good news. As analysts attempted to decipher the company’s ‘fuzzy numbers‘, doubts began to creep in.

    Understanding those paywall figures

    The reality appears to be that roughly 50,000 individual users have subscribed to gain access to the newspapers’ content, whether online or through the iPad app or the Kindle edition. The other c.50,000 customer sales are for single-use or pay-as-you-go access to the website, and will …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , , and | 8 Comments
    Mark Pack

    How the legacy of hereditary political power still shapes our political systems

    By Mark Pack | Fri 5th November 2010 - 8:55 am

    The Australian Parliament building in Canberra is a gem of democratic political architecture. Australia’s capital city was facing the need to expand and replace its existing Parliament building. But where to put the new one? The old one had deliberately been placed at the foot of the hill in Canberra, so that politicians would not be looking down on the public. Now the only suitable free space left was on top of that hill. The solution was clever: chop the top off the hill, build the new Parliament and then stick the top of the hill back on top of …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Books, Op-eds and Parliament | Also tagged and | Leave a comment
    Mark Pack

    Market Research Society rules that it is ethical to poll about false personal allegations

    By Mark Pack | Wed 3rd November 2010 - 8:55 am

    The Market Research Standards Board (MRSB) has cleared YouGov of all the complaints made about its polling of 16-19 April during the general election – but in so doing has raised a big question about what now counts as ‘ethical’ polling. The MRSB’s ruling gives the green light to pollsters asking questions on behalf of their clients which contain false allegations about a person, even if those allegations have not previously been made in public.

    The Market Research Society Code of Conduct (to which YouGov subscribes, along with other British political pollsters), states that “researchers shall be … honest” and …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in News and Polls | Also tagged , , , , and | 6 Comments
    Mark Pack

    Kramer versus Farron: what sort of President does the party want?

    By Mark Pack | Tue 2nd November 2010 - 7:27 am

    Party members are unusually lucky with the current contest for President of the Liberal Democrats. It is rare for there to be two credible, high-profile candidates standing at the same time but this time there is a real choice between two such people.

    Some differences between Susan Kramer and Tim Farron were obvious from the start of the campaign and are swaying some voters, depending on their views on matters such as how important (or not) it is for one of the party’s most prominent posts to be held by a woman, whether an MP has enough time to do the job, whether a current MP from outside London or an ex-MP from London is more outside the Westminster bubble and so on.

    However, two further differences between the candidates have come out clearly during the campaign.

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Party Presidency | Also tagged and | 18 Comments
    Mark Pack

    Role reversal for the Liberal Democrats

    By Mark Pack | Wed 27th October 2010 - 8:55 am

    Hopi Sen has blogged thoughtfully several times recently about the risk to Labour of slipping into focusing on the tactics without getting the strategy right. In Labour’s case that means, for example, an undue focus on how to next best shout – “those cuts are awful!” rather than working out how to deal with the public mostly blaming Labour for the need to cut in the first place. Tactical triumphs at PMQs only gets you so far; rebuilding a reputation for economic competence is what is needed to win – as William Hague found in his time as Conservative …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 10 Comments
    Helen Duffett

    Making short political videos: three top tips

    By Helen Duffett | Tue 26th October 2010 - 12:18 pm

    Candidates and councillors find videos a real complement to their other campaign methods and, done well, they can be a powerful way for voters to get to know issues and personalities. They’re especially useful in internal party elections where candidates may not be able to meet all of their large electorate in person. They’re also great for campaigners at a local level, where there’s usually a lack of good quality information on hyperlocal matters.

    Recently I’ve noticed a surge of interest from people who are keen to try it themselves, so here are my top tips for making your own short political videos, and they all begin with “V”.

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Online politics | Also tagged and | 1 Comment
    Mark Pack

    I agree with Adrian Sanders and 22 Conservative MPs

    By Mark Pack | Tue 26th October 2010 - 10:27 am

    Yesterday in Parliament Adrian Sanders and 22 Conservative MPs voted to reduce the maximum number of ministers allowed in the Commons in line with the forthcoming reduction in the number of MPs:

    If the number of constituencies in the United Kingdom decreases below 650, the limit on the number of holders of Ministerial offices entitled to sit and vote in the House of Commons referred to in section 2(1) must be decreased by at least a proportionate amount.

    ParliamentReducing the number of ministers is something I’ve supported …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Op-eds and Parliament | Also tagged , , , , , , and | 10 Comments

    Opinion: New Labour, New Machiavelli?

    By David Rundle | Sat 23rd October 2010 - 4:55 pm

    What has already become the best-known anecdote in Jonathan Powell’s The New Machiavelli is a snippet of conversation he had with his then master, Tony Blair. Powell asked him how he could put up with having a three-hour conversation with Gordon Brown, to which Blair responded by asking him whether he had ever been in love. ‘“Not with a man”, I replied’ — and we know he was lying. This book is testimony to his devotion to Blair.

    It is, for sure, a curious billet doux -– less like a bunch of roses than a handful of thorns. Comparing, however …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Books and Op-eds | Also tagged , , , and | 8 Comments
    Mark Pack

    Our Christmas presents guide

    By Mark Pack | Tue 19th October 2010 - 10:26 am

    Wondering what to get people for Christmas presents? Here’s a selection of what various Liberal Democrat bloggers suggest:

    Jonathan Calder recommends Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain’s Visionary Music by Rob Young: “Anyone with an interest in folk music will find this book engrossing. Young traces the rise of the genre from Cecil Sharp and other Edwardian song collectors like Ralph Vaughan Williams and George Butterworth, through the post-war radialism of Ewan MacColl and Charles Parker, to its electronic heyday in the hands of Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span. He finds the visionary spirit living on in unlikely artists such as …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , and | 8 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    “Loathe this government if you will…” – 4 points following on from Julian Glover’s must-read Guardian article

    By Stephen Tall | Mon 18th October 2010 - 7:45 pm

    Julian Glover, writing for The Guardian’s Comment Is Free, puts forward a trenchantly pro-Coalition, pro-Clegg line — one that’s guaranteed to attract the ire both of Guardianistas, and of some Voice readers, too. This excerpt offers the substnance of his argument:

    Loathe this government if you will, but at least acknowledge that neither side in it got all it wanted at the election and that neither has sold out all of its principles. The strangeness of co-operation exposes its component parts to the easiest of attacks: of promising one thing before an election and doing another after it. But as

    …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 100 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    EXCLUSIVE: What Lib Dem members think about Browne and tuition fees

    By Stephen Tall | Sat 16th October 2010 - 8:15 am

    Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem party members think of the party’s reponse to The Browne Report into higher education funding and student finance in England. Some 567 party members have responded, and we’ll be publishing the full results of our survey this weekend.

    How you want higher education to be funded

    First, we asked: How would you prefer higher education is funded?

    Here’s what you told us:

    • 54% – Through general taxation (as was the case before 1998)
    • 26% – Tuition fees paid by students after they have graduated according to their earnings

    …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged , , and | 41 Comments
    Mark Pack

    General Sir Richard Dannatt’s verdict: more cash, more time please

    By Mark Pack | Fri 15th October 2010 - 10:25 am

    General Sir Richard Dannatt’s memoir of his time in the British army manages somehow to be both fascinating and banal.

    Fascinating because of the detail he provides to back-up his severe criticism of Ministry of Defence civil servants and politicians, Labour ones in particular but Gordon Brown above all, for failing to fund the army sufficiently for the jobs they demanded of it. Banal because, despite his long experience of counter-insurgency and peace-keeping operations starting with Northern Ireland in the 1970s, his repeated message through the book is one of ‘give the army more money, give the army more time’.

    …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in Books | Also tagged | 8 Comments
    Mark Pack

    Clegg secures £7 billion extra to fund education for the most disadvantaged – from pre-school through to university

    By Mark Pack | Fri 15th October 2010 - 6:25 am

    Just as plays have a classic three-act structure, so too do tricky political decisions: first you rule out a potentially popular alternative, then you put out the bad news and finally you sweeten the pill as you try to avert people’s worst fears.

    Last weekend saw act one on the tuition fees message, with Vince Cable taking to email to rule out a graduate tax – and trying to pre-empt Labour support for it by emphasising that party’s own previous opposition to the idea. (Given the subsequent news of now Shadow Chancellor Alan Johnson’s continued opposition to a …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , and | 32 Comments
    Mark Pack

    Paperwork gone mad at the Ministry of Justice

    By Mark Pack | Wed 13th October 2010 - 10:25 am

    Despite the government’s rhetoric of cutting bureaucracy, the Ministry of Justice – one of the largest Whitehall departments and responsible for many important administrative systems – is spectacularly failing to set a good example with its own hugely bureaucratic approach to health and safety when people are driving as part of their work according to information I’ve unearthed in a series of freedom of information requests.

    The MoJ has two specially produced full colour booklets, a flowchart, an FAQ document, more than six different forms and training sessions for managers in how to make the whole system work all in the …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in News | Also tagged | 6 Comments
    Mark Pack

    Government scraps target – Met Police sets up new committee

    By Mark Pack | Tue 12th October 2010 - 10:10 am

    You might have thought that scrapping central government targets would result in local bodies being able to cut at least some of their own monitoring and reporting setups. But in an Alice in Wonderland style twist, Home Secretary Theresa May’s decision to scrap the “confidence target” for the police has been followed by the Met Police setting up a new “Confidence and Satisfaction Board”.

    In June Theresa May announced that the police would be judged on cutting crime, ending both the set of performance targets bundled up as the Policing Pledge and also ending the judging of police by whether or …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in London and News | Also tagged and | Leave a comment
    Stephen Tall

    The Browne Review and university funding: what’s likely to happen next…

    By Stephen Tall | Mon 11th October 2010 - 11:57 am

    The publication of the Browne Review into university funding has been brought into even sharper focus for Lib Dems by Vince Cable’s email to party members over the weekend ruling out a ‘pure’ graduate tax to replace tuition fees.

    This has sparked vigorous debate, both here on Lib Dem Voice, and beyond, with Lib Dem MPs coming under pressure to stick by their pre-election pledge to oppose any increase in tuition fees.

    Some of this sound and fury has been overdone. None of us has yet seen the detail of the funding proposals being brought forward by Vince Cable, which …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in News | Also tagged , , , and | 41 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    Mail readers attack paper’s ‘Hypocrisy’ slurs on Nick Clegg

    By Stephen Tall | Sun 10th October 2010 - 11:35 am

    Ah, the Daily Mail and its stable-mate the Mail on Sunday: bastions of enlightened reason and liberal decency. Or something. Today, the paper takes it upon itself to scream ‘Hypocrisy’ at Nick Clegg.

    Not on grounds of policy, but because of the options Miriam and he are considering for their eldest child’s school, including a voluntary-aided Catholic school in London, the Oratory: as the Mail so subtly fulminates, ‘Nick Clegg is an atheist whose party doesn’t believe in school selection. So where does he want to send his sons… the same exclusive Catholic school as the Blairs’.

    You can gauge the extent of the Mail’s self-righteous fury from the comparison of Nick Clegg to Tony Blair. The only thing missing from the usual Mail checklist-of-outrage is the accusation that Nick Clegg causes cancer. Next week, perhaps.

    What do the Mail’s online readers make of the paper’s tirade? Here are the top three ‘best rated’ comments so far submitted:

    Why is atheist Nick Clegg considering sending his son to an exclusive Catholic school?
    erm – his wife is Catholic.
    – Paul, Richmond, 9/10/2010 23:39

    Continue reading »
    Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 41 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    Vince: why I’m saying ‘No’ to the graduate tax

    By Stephen Tall | Sat 9th October 2010 - 7:05 pm

    Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, has tonight written to all Lib Dem members in anticipation of the publication next week of the report of the Browne Review (‘The Independent Review of Higher Education & Student Finance in the UK’ to give it its official title).

    Here’s what Vince has to say:

    Dear Friend,

    As you know, one of the most urgent tasks facing the Coalition Government is to reform the funding of Higher Education. Our objectives are clear: high-quality university teaching and research; fair access for all, regardless of background; and a progressive funding structure.

    At the same time,

    …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , and | 97 Comments
    Mark Pack

    Lords reform: 100 years in the making, another 50 to go?

    By Mark Pack | Wed 6th October 2010 - 9:27 am

    One of the major achievements in the Coalition Agreement is the commitment of the Conservatives to support not merely a “wholly or mainly” elected Upper House but also one elected by proportional representation no less.

    The timetable has started to slip, from the original agreement’s decision to “come forward with a draft motions by December 2010” to talk about draft legislation in January and then, slipped in near the end of Nick Clegg’s conference speech, the intention that the first elections will not be held until the latest possible moment while still keeping the commitment to act in this Parliament – …

    Continue reading »
    Posted in News | Also tagged , , , and | 15 Comments
    Advert

    Recent Comments

    • Rob Heale
      The boldest option would be to adhere to our aims set out in the Party Constitution to be free from poverty. People living in poverty can rarely be free because...
    • Chris Moore
      Battling on against the current with scarce means or attention from the media. Excellent radical liberal focussing on the issues that really matter. An...
    • Adam
      4,700 Jewish soldiers fought for the Prussian army in the Franco Prussian war. They fought with distinction - many of them received the Iron Cross. When Germany...
    • Paul
      Thank you Jane for your tireless work over the last decade. You stood for leader when it would have been easier not to, you’ve fought elections when it would ...
    • Adam
      "The problem is that being ‘understanding’ of anti-immigrant views led to the holocaust." This is both wrong, and bloody insulting to those German Jews w...