Tag Archives: henry porter

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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Nick T

Henry Porter: Why we should believe Nick Clegg when he promises to restore liberties stolen by Labour

By Nick T | Mon 14th February 2011 - 6:53 pm

In yesterday’s Observer, Henry Porter, who has written widely on civil liberties ‘stolen’ by the previous government, talked to Nick Clegg about the government’s recently-announced Protection of Freedoms Bill. As you probably gleaned from the headline, Porter is generally extremely enthusiastic about the Bill, though he takes the deputy prime minister’s advice to “hold the government’s feet to the fire” by listing some additional illiberal measures which he would like to see removed.

Here’s a short excerpt from the piece:

Negotiation over the bill has been long and intense, especially with the Home Office and police over the deletion of innocent people’s

…

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Mark Pack

“Liberal Democrats lead on liberty” – Henry Porter

By Mark Pack | Thu 15th April 2010 - 11:20 am

Henry Porter writes in The Guardian:

By far the best undertakings on liberty come in the Liberal Democrat manifesto, which is hardly surprising, given that it has been stalwart in its defence of liberty under all three of its leaders since the last election. Nick Clegg’s attack on Labour’s authoritarian streak is especially welcome and will be significant if there is a hung parliament on May 7, which – astonishingly – is what 32% of voters desire.

The party will introduce a freedom bill, regulate CCTV, reduce local council surveillance, restore the right to protest, protect free speech, offer guarantees to investigative

…

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Helen Duffett

House of Commons reform: contact your MP about tomorrow’s vote

By Helen Duffett | Wed 3rd March 2010 - 2:44 pm

MPs will vote tomorrow on an amendment to the Government’s resolutions on the reform of Parliament, put forward by Evan Harris MP on behalf of the Wright Committee. (Select Committee on Reform of the House of Commons.)

The Wright Committee was set up as a response to the expenses scandal in 2009 to make recommendations on how Parliament could be reformed to carry out its functions better.

The reforms being put to a vote tomorrow will include the amendment approving the establishment of a House Business Committee. This committee would decide the scheduling of all business before the House, including scrutiny of legislation, and to put an agenda before the House for decision. This would be vast improvement on the current state of affairs:

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Stephen Tall

NEW POLL: Who is your Liberal Voice of the Year?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 9th January 2010 - 11:45 am

Ten days ago, in the dying days of the last decade, LDV launched our search for the Liberal Voice of 2009, to find the non-Lib Dem individual or group which has had the biggest impact on liberalism in this country in the past 12 months.

Our thanks to all who put forward nominations, all of which were considered carefully by the LDV editorial collective, which has agreed to short-list the following (in no particular order):

  • Guy Herbert, general secretary of NO2ID, for his campaigning work against the database state;
  • Peter Tatchell, for his tireless and fearless international human

…

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Stephen Tall

Henry Porter: “Labour is about as conservative as my grandmother”

By Stephen Tall | Sat 31st January 2009 - 10:26 am

The question of which political party might have the best claim to the title of the most progressive force in British politics has been much debated here on the pages of LDV recently – Alix Mortimer posed the question, Yes, but is it progressive?, Mark Pack enquired into the motivation of Progressive London here, and I questioned the Tories’ attempt to reclaim the word here.

In his Guardian blog today, Henry Porter surveys the progressive scene – here are his judgements:

The Tories:

It is true that Conservatives have said they will scrap both the third runway and ID

…

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Stephen Tall

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Henry Porter – Information overload

By Stephen Tall | Sat 17th January 2009 - 9:51 am

Earlier this week, Nick Clegg announced the membership of the Lib Dems’ new Commission on Privacy, “which will examine the use, abuse and retention of private data, and propose new safeguards to protect the rights of individuals.” Its membership comprises:

* David Heath MP (Chair) – Liberal Democrat Shadow Leader of the House
* Simon Davies – Privacy International; Fellow at LSE
* Shami Chakrabarti – Director of Liberty
* Baroness Sue Miller – Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson in the House of Lords
* …

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