Tag Archives: hung parliament

Stephen Tall

Clegg asserts Lib Dems’ ‘hung parliament’ equidistance. (The headline you won’t read in today’s papers).

By Stephen Tall | Mon 23rd November 2009 - 10:10 am

It’s a long time since LDV has carried a ‘Media Moron Watch’ feature … but if we were still running it, the spoils today would be shared by pretty much every newspaper. Here are the headlines from the so-called quality press today:

From which headlines a disinterested reader would conclude the following: Nick Clegg has categorically ruled out doing a deal …

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

David Owen: Lib Dems should “campaign for a role in a government of national unity”

By Stephen Tall | Fri 16th October 2009 - 9:55 am

To be a fair, a former Labour minister, ex-SDP leader and Tory voter is probably the natural person to advocate a national unity government – and that’s exactly what David Owen has done today in an article in The Times:

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, and his deputy, Vince Cable, need to position themselves as ready to shoulder the burden of responsibility for hard economic choices, and help to provide, with one of the big parties, the principled, practical government that the country so sorely needs. That means talking to voters about participating in a government of national unity.

The

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Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV members’ survey: is electoral reform a hung Parliament ‘deal-breaker’? And are Labour or Tories most likely to deliver it?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 22nd September 2009 - 9:55 am

A couple of weeks ago, Lib Dem Voice invited the members of our private forum (open to all Lib Dem members) to take part in a survey, conducted via Liberty Research, asking a number of questions about the party and the current state of British politics. Many thanks to the c.250 of you who completed it; we’ve been publishing the results on LDV over the last few days. You can catch up on the results of our exclusive LDV members’ surveys by clicking here.

Yesterday, we looked at how Lib Dem members would respond in the event of a hung Parliament, assuming electoral reform was on the agenda. Today we’re looking at just how important you think electoral reform is, and which of the other two main parties you think are most sympathetic to the idea of electoral reform.

LDV asked: In the event of a ‘hung parliament’, and if the Lib Dems were prepared to cooperate with Labour/Conservatives in some way, do you believe a referendum on electoral reform should be a ‘deal-breaker’?

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

LDV survey: What Lib Dem members actually think about a hung Parliament

By Stephen Tall | Mon 21st September 2009 - 1:10 pm

Today’s BBC2 Daily Politics is touting a highly misleading poll by ComRes feigning to know which of the other two main parties – Labour or the Tories – Lib Dem members would wish to shack up with in the event of a hung Parliament where the party holds the balance of power. The Guardian reports it here:

Liberal Democrat activists would overwhelmingly prefer their party to enter a coalition government with Labour rather than the Tories, according to a poll published today. Fewer than one in five said that they would want to see Nick Clegg team up with

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 6 Comments
Andrew Lewin

Opinion: How the Prospect of a Hung Parliament could bolster a Liberal Democrat Election Campaign

By Andrew Lewin | Sat 25th April 2009 - 5:20 pm

Discussion surrounding “Hung Parliaments”, prospective coalition deals and the Liberal Democrats are as familiar to supporters of our party as any issue of policy or leadership.

In an attempt to add something new to this longstanding debate, this article outlines a strategy for how the party could tackle the question of how it would act in a Hung Parliament in the next General Election campaign. I am convinced that, if managed correctly, drawing attention to the prospect of the Liberal Democrats holding the balance of power could prove to be an electoral asset, as opposed to an …

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Posted in Op-eds | 28 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV readers say: mixed response to Hung Parliament scenarios

By Stephen Tall | Sat 11th April 2009 - 2:20 pm

A couple of weeks ago, LDV started a new poll based on a Hung Parliament scenario floated by PoliticalBetting.com’s Mike Smithson – that the next election might result in the Tories winning the popular vote, and Labour winning the most seats. What, he asked, would the Lib Dems do in such a situation? We turned the question over to our readers, and asked: In the event of a Hung Parliament, should the Lib Dems allow the seat winners or the popular vote winners to form a government?

Here’s what you told us:

>> 38% (97 votes) – The winner of the

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Posted in Op-eds and Voice polls | 10 Comments
Stephen Tall

That hoary old Hung Parliament chestnut

By Stephen Tall | Tue 17th March 2009 - 8:38 pm

There’s an interesting article by The Independent’s Steve Richards today, focusing – as the media does every three months or so – on the prospect of a ‘Hung Parliament’, and what the Lib Dems would do in such an eventuality.

Actually the article’s a bit broader than that, and I can’t let the opportunity pass without briefly digressing to agree wholeheartedly with his snipe at the Tories’ two key initiatives of the past week: David Cameron’s ‘apology’ for failing to anticipate the economic crisis until way too late (Steve accuses the Tories of “still playing student-like games”); and yesterday’s …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , and | 12 Comments
Stephen Tall

ConHome: ‘Tories ponder “generous outreach to Lib Dems”’ Love-bomb or genuine?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 23rd February 2009 - 5:20 pm

ConservativeHome co-editor Tim Montgomerie has authored a piece today in which he outlines a debate he claims is being had by senior Tories concerning ‘the extent of outreach that should be made to the Liberal Democrats in the event of the Conservatives becoming the governing party at the next General Election.’ Here’s the meat of it:

I understand that a group of shadow ministers believe that one of Tony Blair’s bigger strategic mistakes was to row back on co-operation with the Liberal Democrats when he won such a large Commons majority in 1997. These shadow ministers believe that –

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

Clegg set to spell out Lib Dem post-election demands

By Stephen Tall | Mon 2nd February 2009 - 10:10 am

There’s a rather remarkable feature in today’s Independent – a fair and balanced feature article highlighting Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg’s town hall tours. The first part focuses on what Nick’s learned from the process, and how he feels these Q&As have helped keep him grounded as leader:

The public meetings have convinced him that all politics is personal as well as local; people want to know what it will do for them. He is straight, not flashy, very good at connecting with people, and genuinely enjoys the town-hall circuit. “It’s good to know what people are thinking; sometimes you see

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , and | 39 Comments
Stephen Tall

In today’s Vince Cable news…

By Stephen Tall | Sat 10th January 2009 - 12:04 pm

Today’s Times has an in-depth interview with the Lib Dem shadow chancellor and deputy leader Vince Cable today. Lots of good stuff, as you might expect:

While Gordon Brown was declaring the end of boom and bust and David Cameron was sledging with huskies, Dr Cable, a former chief economist at Shell, was foretelling dark times. For years he was ridiculed for suggesting that property prices were too high, that household debt was out of control and that the banking system was fundamentally flawed. But now everyone wants to hear his prophecy for 2009. … Dr Cable supports a fiscal stimulus

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 7 Comments
Stephen Tall

NEW POLL: if offered the job by Gordon, should Vince accept the post of Chancellor?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 3rd January 2009 - 5:30 pm

The right-wing blogosphere is fairly wetting itself today, picking up on the ‘exclusive revelations’ of the Daily Mail’s Peter Oborne that Labour is allegedly cosying up to the Lib Dems in anticipation of a pact which would see Ming Campbell elected as Commons Speaker and Vince Cable installed as Chancellor:

Although the PM recognises that it would be inconceivable to elect another Labour Speaker, soundings have been taken among the Liberal Democrats. The Whips’ Office has already launched a campaign to get Labour MPs to back former LibDem leader Sir Menzies Campbell to become the new Speaker. This

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Posted in News and Voice polls | Also tagged , , , and | 37 Comments
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