Tag Archives: joe otten

Good luck, everybody!

As this post goes live, indefatigable Liberal Democrats the length of England will have been up for hours delivering last minute leaflets in the local elections.

They have a tough day of more leafletting and knocking up (which is nowhere near as exciting as it sounds) ahead of them.

One of the best smells in the world is the breakfast roll cooking when you come in from your good morning leaflets.

But after that, there’s still a good 12 hours of work left.

And usually after the local elections, you can put your feet up for a week or so. Well, that didn’t happen in 2017 because some woman had a rush of blood to the head on a walking holiday in Wales and called a general election. It’s not going to happen now either because of the impending European elections.

The polling day operation is a crucial part of the campaign. Voters in local elections aren’t always inclined to go to the polls – the turnout is usually pretty small compared to a general election. Getting more of ours out than the opposition gets of theirs is crucial.

However tired you may feel, hold on to the idea of how brilliant it will feel if we win these elections. It will give us huge momentum going in to the Euros.

Keep going up until 10pm tonight. I’ll be on the phones for candidates across the country this evening.

Special good luck to our regular contributor Ed Fordham who is seeking elected office for himself for a change in the Brockwell ward in Chesterfield, to the North Devon team led by our Kirsten Johnson, to April Preston in Manchester Withington and Tom Gordon in Wakefield’s Knottingley and Ferrybridge ward.

April has the support of Jo Swinson in this video recorded a couple of months ago.

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Another Richmond: LDV’s Joe Otten takes to the stage

Richmond is now always going to be one of these words that brings a smile to Liberal Democrats, along with words like Dunfermline, Brent Central, Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles, Newbury and Christchurch, all great by-election wins.

But there’s another reason that Richmond features on our site today. Our very own Joe Otten takes to the stage in Sheffield for the next four nights as Richmond in a production of Shakespeare’s Richard III with a difference:

In an alternate time-line the climax of the Wars of the Roses coincided with the nadir of trench warfare. The victorious Yorkist commander, the Duke of Gloucester decides that supporting her sibling’s claim to the throne is no longer good enough. She sets out to eliminate all her competition and wear the garland of the realm. However, her success awakens Lancastrian revanchism and the Earl of Richmond leads an invasion force to take back this noble isle.

As Europe commemorates 100 years since WWI The Company transplants William Shakespeare’s biggest villain to 1917. Following the lead of a number of recent high profile Shakespeare productions Richard and a number of other parts have been gender-swapped.

Any parallels with current events are entirely coincidental.

You can find out more and buy tickets here.

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Great election results for LDV team members

Two members of the LDV team were standing for election on Thursday.

Joe Otten has faced the electorate two years running. He was up for election at the end of his four year cycle last year and Sheffield had all-ups this year after new boundaries came in.

The result was impressive:

Joe Otten result

The three Liberal Democrats were 2000 votes ahead of their nearest Labour rivals. That’s a vote of confidence if ever there was one.

Joe wasn’t so lucky in the Police and Crime Commissioner elections, but he put up a good, …

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Billingsgate – a crisis for Labour that can be solved by tactical voting for Lib Dem Joe Otten

I live in Rotherham and on May 5th I will vote to elect a Police and Crime Commissioner for South Yorkshire. Since its inception in 2012 the post of South Yorkshire PCC has been held by Labour. The first incumbent, Shaun Wright did not stay the course and was forced to resign in 2014 following a report into the Rotherham child abuse scandal.  His successor, Labour’s Dr Alan Billings has fared little better and was last week caught up in the aftermath of the Hillsborough inquest verdict. He bungled the suspension and replacement of the South Yorkshire Police chief constable and has subsequently failed to answer questions about the £18m of public money his office authorised to be spent on lawyers who unnecessarily presented false allegations against innocent people throughout the Hillsborough inquest. Incredibly Dr Billings failed to see any of this coming. On the very day of the Hillsborough verdict he was occupied launching his re-election campaign by declaring war on litter.

If the ballot papers for the election had not already been printed it seems unlikely that Dr Billings would have survived to fight another day and his ill-timed poor performance has placed Labour in an impossible position. They must back their candidate 100%, but if successful they can hardly be looking forward to the prospect of facing a growing crisis that seems likely to lead to Dr Billings’ resignation. Win or lose Labour is in trouble. The electorate will decide the good doctor’s immediate fate, but if a historic turnout for South Yorkshire PCC elections of under 15% is maintained a Billings victory is unlikely to convince the general public that he has a legitimate mandate.

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WATCH: Joe Otten interviewed on Sunday Politics

Joe OttenGiven half a chance, Liberal Democrats would get rid of Police and Crime Commissioners. While the positions exist, though, it’s important that voters have the chance to choose a Liberal Democrat.

It’s good to see that the party is putting more effort into contesting these positions than we did four years ago. Two members of the LDV team are even standing, Chris White in Hertfordshire and Joe Otten in Yorkshire.

Last Sunday, Joe was interviewed, along with the other candidates, on BBC Sunday Politics. Have a watch here.

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Lib Dem campaigners in the snow #2

Following on from our post on Thursday night, here are some more pictures of Liberal Democrats campaigning in the snow. Keep sending them in.

Danny Alexander went for a walk (remember #dannyswalks) in the streets of Aviemore:

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Liberal Democrats campaign all year round – even in the snow

When I woke up to an icy white blanket in my garden this morning, my first thought was for all those Liberal Democrat campaigners who are out and about in the freezing cold risking life and limb to talk to voters and get our message across.

I will never be one of them. I am a total wuss where snow and ice are concerned.  Or, to be more accurate, a chionophobic. Ever since a fall on ice meant that I wasn’t able to walk for five months, I don’t do snow or ice if I can possibly avoid it.

My admiration for those who do go out in the horrible white stuff knows no bounds. I had presumed if we had snow in the central belt, that the North East would be under feet of the stuff, but both West Aberdeenshire and Gordon reported bak that they were enjoying beautiful weather. However, Christine had posted a photograph of some lethal looking local pavements last Saturday:

Dyce death trap pavements

South of the border, we find our own Joe Otten  out with a team in Sheffield. They looked very happy in their work:

Joe in Hallam Snow

 

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The LDV Festive Fashion Parade

The members of the LDV team are in a relaxed state at the moment, replete with the joys, food and drink of the season.

Some of us have been showing off our best Christmas fashion and I thought you’d like to have a look over your morning coffee.

We’ll start with the tasteful. Mary Reid’s wonderful green coat. I bumped into her at LDHQ the other week and I can promise that it feels amazingly soft. I don’t really care that much about clothes, but I like this coat.

Mary Reid's coat

I guess Joe Otten’s new funky Christmas shirt could be described as tasteful, too. It’s kind of like the duvet I had as a teenager.

Joe Otten's shirt

 

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Conference Photo Gallery Part 1 – What the LDV team did

The LDV team had a busy and fun Conference in York. Here are a few of the things we got up to:

Co-editors, hard at work

Caron Stephen York broom cupboard

 

Thanks to Paul Walter for taking this.

Caron meets Liberal Youth

Screen Shot 2014-03-10 at 09.00.57With Claire Boad, Maelo Manning and Alex White.

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Lessons of Coalition (14): what do the Lib Dems need to learn from the first 3 years?

ldv coalition lessonsLibDemVoice is running a daily feature, ‘Lessons of Coalition’, to assess the major do’s and don’ts learned from our experience of the first 3 years in government. Reader contributions are welcome, either as comments or posts. The word limit is no more than 450 words, and please focus on just one lesson you think the party needs to learn. Simply email your submission to [email protected]. Today Joe Otten shares his thoughts.

Government is hard

As it should be. There is an idea that there are easy solutions to all the world’s …

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“Who agrees with Nick?” – BBC Radio Sheffield’s Nick Clegg documentary

There’s still time to listen to BBC Radio Sheffield’s documentary about Nick Clegg, which features an exclusive interview with Nick, as well as comments from Paul Scriven (Leader of Sheffield City Council), Allan Wisbey (Nick’s election agent in Sheffield Hallam for the 2010 General Election) and Joe Otten (Lib Dem blogger and Chair of Sheffield Hallam Liberal Democrats).

From the accompanying blurb on the BBC Sheffield and South Yorkshire website:

“It’s been a real rollercoaster year.”

Nick Clegg’s own assessment of the last few months could be seen as something of an understatement.

Go back to December

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Daily View 2×2: 18 March 2010

How to sign "Thank you" in BSLOf all the days in history I’ve had to write about so far, March 18th seems about the dullest. Nothing particularly interesting has ever happened today, so that’s a bit of a challenge for the day just leaving the starters blocks.

About the best the wikipedia page for today can offer up is that John Updike was born today and the Tolpuddle Martyrs were sentenced to transportation. Terry Schiavo’s feeding tube was disconnected and BSL was first recognised as an official British language.

2 Big Stories

Ashcroft’s lawyers silence ‘Panorama’

The Independent reports:

The BBC has shelved a Panorama documentary about the business affairs of the Tory billionaire Lord Ashcroft, because of a threat of legal action.

The Corporation has received what one insider described as “several very heavy letters” from Lord Ashcroft’s lawyers. There is now little or no prospect of the investigation being broadcast before the general election, if it goes out at all.

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