Tag Archives: nick clegg

In Full: Nick Clegg’s statement from today’s Press Conference: Britain needs a new wave or energy, optimism and liberalism

By The Voice | Mon 16th June 2014 - 1:16 pm

Nick Clegg gave his monthly press conference. This is the statement he had released in advance. We’ll deal with the press conference itself in another post.

Today I want to talk about the Liberal Democrats’ 2015 manifesto. With just 325 days remaining in this Parliament, and the final year’s agenda of this coalition agreed and announced in the Queen’s Speech it is time to start talking about the future. It is time to set out our distinct Liberal Democrat vision for the next Parliament. For a party in government,

…

Posted in News | Also tagged liberal democrat manifesto 2015 | 21 Comments

Opinion: Nick Clegg’s fiscal target – splitting the difference

By Adam Corlett | Sat 14th June 2014 - 10:15 am

Stephen Tall writes that “in terms of policies, there wasn’t much that was new” in Nick Clegg’s Bloomberg speech. Giles Wilkes and others have suggested that, on the contrary, Nick’s fiscal targets are a welcome change from the excessive deficit reduction the Coalition has pencilled in for the next parliament.

These commentators think that Nick’s deficit target (below) is a continuation of Labour and current Coalition policy – to balance the budget excluding capital spending. My understanding, however, is that what Nick said …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged economy, giles wlkes, infrastructure spending and stephen tall | 17 Comments

Cambridge Liberal Democrats back Nick Clegg and reject leadership ballot

By The Voice | Fri 13th June 2014 - 10:50 pm

Cambridge Liberal Democrats have tonight rejected a resolution calling for a leadership ballot by 45 votes for 32. The Liberal Democrat Constitution makes provision for a leadership contest if 75 local parties vote for one at quorate general meetings.

The Cambridge News has the story:

Cambridge Liberal Democrats have decided to back Nick Clegg’s leadership.

Posted in News | Also tagged cambridge liberal democrats, leadership and special general meetings | 130 Comments

Clegg’s “Parental Guarantee”: calls for all schools to employ qualified teachers and teach ‘core curriculum’

By Stephen Tall | Fri 13th June 2014 - 2:10 pm

“We are and always will be the party of education and I’ll be saying more about that in the near future,” promised Nick Clegg in his Bloomburg speech on Monday. Today we saw the start, with the Lib Dem leader setting out the party’s Parental Guarantee that “every parent can be confident that their child will be taught a core curriculum by a properly qualified teacher”.

This isn’t actually a new policy. The ‘parental guarantee’ was first announced last October. And the policy it’s based on was …

Posted in News | Also tagged education, parental guarantee, russell hobby, schools and teachers | 29 Comments

Nick and The Sun – a missed opportunity

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 12th June 2014 - 11:25 pm

I know I am coming late to this, having been out and about for most of the day. It’s only a few minutes since I logged on to Facebook and saw a picture of the leader of my party holding up The Sun. It was not a good idea for him to do this, especially given the renewed pain that relatives of those who died at Hillsborough are going through with the new inquests taking place at the moment. Nick’s picture can only be seen as a support for their unprecedented marketing initiative in delivering a free copy to every home in England at the start of the World Cup.

Now I don’t think for a moment that Nick Clegg has anything to prove when it comes to standing up to Rupert Murdoch. Let’s be clear about that. He instinctively did the right thing on press regulation. He has pandered to nobody unlike some others I could mention. Nothing can take away from that.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged england, the sun and world cup | 160 Comments

“The Lib Dems are setting out plans as if they may have to deliver them”. Giles Wilkes on Clegg’s economic plans

By Stephen Tall | Thu 12th June 2014 - 5:05 pm

Giles Wilkes was, until recently, special advisor to Lib Dem business secretary Vince Cable. He was the SpAd who famously slapped down News International’s advances when they were looking to lobby in favour of their proposed takeover of BSkyB. Before that, he was the chief economist at liberal think-tank CenteForum, where he was author of the award-winning pamphlet, ‘A balancing act: fair solutions to a modern debt crisis’, about which he wrote on LDV.

His Free-thinking Economist blog is a must-read, especially today as Giles covers …

Posted in LibLink and News | Also tagged giles wilkes | 31 Comments

Tales from the Federal Executive: The one where we discussed the elections

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 10th June 2014 - 1:10 pm

The Liberal Democrats’ Federal Executive met last night in a Westminster Committee room looking out on a grey and brooding Thames.

The meeting had a bit of a comedy start with a last minute change of venue leaving member scurrying from one end of the Parliamentary Estate to the other.

The major item of business was, of course, discussion about the recent elections. Several Federal Executive members had consulted widely amongst members to get their views. Only Candy Piercy, though, had been organised enough …

Posted in News | Also tagged candy piercy, featured, federal executive and james gurling | 229 Comments

Nick Clegg on the Liberal Democrats’ ‘unique mission’

By The Voice | Mon 9th June 2014 - 1:44 pm

This is the full text of the speech given by Nick Clegg today at Bloomberg.

The recent local and European election results were incredibly difficult for the Liberal Democrats. It’s been completely gutting to see good friends, longstanding councillors, outstanding MEPs – people who worked their socks off – lose their seats.

I’ve spent the last two weeks talking to lots of my colleagues in the party, listening to what people say about what we should do next, and I want to take a

…

Posted in News | Also tagged featured | 68 Comments

LibLink: Sam Ghibaldan: Clegg needs to be assertive

By NewsHound | Wed 4th June 2014 - 5:51 pm

I’m not going to lie, I bet a lot of you are thinking Sam who? Chances are if you live in Scotland, you’ll be less curious because you will know that he was a Senior Special Adviser to Scottish Liberal Democrat Deputy First Ministers Jim Wallace and Nicol Stephen. As such, his perspective on who the Liberal Democrats should proceed in the run up to the General Election is highly relevant. In a recent Scotsman column, he said that Nick Clegg needs to get out there and shout about our core beliefs.

Some of the headlines faced by Nick Clegg were also seen in Scotland:

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged coalition government, jim wallace, liberal democrats, sam ghibaldan and scotsman | 28 Comments

Opinion: We must ask the right questions

By Chris Bowers | Sun 1st June 2014 - 11:59 am

In an era of increasingly presidential-style politics, it’s very tempting to fire the party leader when things go wrong – but would this actually help us for next year’s general and local elections?

To answer this, I feel we need to ask what made us successful pre-2010, what is actually going to work for us next year, will doing this be enhanced by having a different leader, and is there a better leader than the one we’ve got?

There are two obvious reasons for our pre-2010 rise. One was that we were …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged future strategy, general election 2014 and leadership | 21 Comments

Nick stands with Anna

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 31st May 2014 - 8:10 am

When a politician says that he might trust a whole specific group of people only to go to the shops for him, you would think that would be a one way ticket to the door marked Ignominious Exit from Public Life. Sadly, Peter Robinosn, Northern Ireland’s First Minister remains in office while Alliance Party politician Anna Lo has said she’s going to quit politics because she’s fed up at all the abuse she’s getting. She spoke to Channel 4 last night about her experience with great dignity. My pride in her was matched by my anger at her treatment. You can watch here.

When people start to be nasty about how you look, the colour of your skin, how your eyes look about your stature, then that is racism and that is wrong and that is uncalled for and that’s what I object to and many people in Northern Ireland would support me in that.

Posted in News | Also tagged anna lo and northern ireland | 25 Comments

Clegg: I will survive

By NewsHound | Fri 30th May 2014 - 10:01 am

Read the exclusive interview with Nick Clegg on his 'tough week' and his election reaction only in tomorrow's Star pic.twitter.com/1QbK0ZTAEz

— The Star, Sheffield (@SheffieldStar) May 29, 2014

Posted in News | 40 Comments

Nick Clegg announces review into local and Euro election campaigns

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 29th May 2014 - 1:30 pm

On his weekly phone-in today, Nick Clegg announced that the Chair of the party’s Campaigns and Communications Committee, James Gurling, would lead a review into our election campaign and strategy which would take advice from a wide range of party members in all parts of the country where we did well and where we did badly.

I was very keen that the grassroots should be able to contribute to this and James Gurling replied to me on Twitter to say that this would be the case:

Posted in News | Also tagged call clegg, internal party organisation and james gurling | 65 Comments

Opinion: We need discipline and compromise from both leadership and members

By Paul Rowen | Wed 28th May 2014 - 2:42 pm

Last week’s local and European elections were truly awful.

Those of us who joined the Liberal Party back in the dark days of the 1970s remember the many false dawns and disappointments that followed local and General Elections.

We built our base bite by bite from the bottom up and fighting Labour it was tooth and nail.

The loss of all our Councillors in Manchester or seeing Liverpool reduced to just three Councillors or in my own Rochdale where we have gone from 33 to …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged european elections 2014, leadership and lynne featherstone | 54 Comments

LDVideo: Nick Clegg – It’s time to come together and focus on 2015

By The Voice | Tue 27th May 2014 - 8:07 pm

Nick Clegg has recorded the following video, which has just been emailed to party members:

Posted in News | Also tagged european elections 2014 and local election results 2014 | 58 Comments

Well, that’s one way to wake up in the morning: “Can you come on the Today Programme in 5 minutes”

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 27th May 2014 - 2:35 pm

This morning I was in bed at that stage when you start to get that vague inclination that there is a world beyond the cosy warmth and snuggliness of the duvet but can still pretend it isn’t really happening.

When my phone started ringing, I had to come to rather faster than I’d planned. It was a producer from the Today Programme on Radio 4 asking if I’d talk to Jim Naughtie about the election results and Nick Clegg’s leadership pretty much there and then. Now, when I’ve done these things before, I’ve always got up early, mugged up on what’s …

Posted in News | Also tagged jim naughtie and today programme | 19 Comments

Opinion: Six reasons why Lib Dems need to support the leader

By Paul Reynolds | Tue 27th May 2014 - 12:20 pm

(Warning. This is not comfortable reading)

The decline in popular support for the Lib Dems since 2010 has been painful, culminating in Sunday’s near-wipeout in the European elections – and being beaten in the popular vote by the Greens.

We are a year away from the general election. The improving economy and Lib Dem policy successes like the Pupil Premium and larger tax allowances have not fed, so far, into electoral success. Can and should anything be done to recover the situation in the coming year ? Is ‘holding one’s nerve’ (or as critics might say, ‘doing nothing different’) a viable option ?

There have been a few calls for the leader to resign. Uncomfortable though the reasons are, here are six why the leader should stay beyond the general election:

Posted in Op-eds | 44 Comments

Research on impact of change of leader on four key seats

By Mary Reid | Tue 27th May 2014 - 8:25 am

The Guardian today leads with a sorry tale headlined: Clegg taking Lib Dems to wipeout.

An unnamed Lib Dem supporter has commissioned ICM to carry out research in four key Lib Dem constituencies, including Nick Clegg’s own seat, and the report has been leaked to the Guardian.

Voters were asked how they would vote in a General Election if the party were led by Nick Clegg, Vince Cable or Danny Alexander.

Posted in News | Also tagged Danny Alexander, featured and vince cable | 83 Comments

Opinion: Political scalps grow back

By David Schmitz | Mon 26th May 2014 - 5:34 pm

Until Friday, I was a Lib Dem Councillor in the London Borough of Haringey, where I enjoyed a reputation as an effective local representative. As one constituent put it

I have never been able to fathom why for example, people express their anger at the government in Westminster by voting out of office the guy in the next street who gets your drains unblocked or your broken windows fixed. And the same here is true of David. I hope that when election time comes around, people

…

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged leadership and local elections 2014 | 16 Comments

++ Breaking.. Vince Cable: There is no leadership issue

By The Voice | Mon 26th May 2014 - 4:46 pm

Statement from Vince Cable who’s away in China on Government business:

These were exceptionally disappointing results for the party. Many hard working Liberal Democrats, who gave this fight everything they had and then lost their seats, are feeling frustrated and disheartened and we all understand that.

Nick did a bold thing in standing up to the eurosceptic wave which has engulfed much of continental Europe. We are the only party to have taken that on and he personally deserves tremendous credit for that. There is no leadership issue. We

…

Posted in News | Also tagged european elections 2014 and vince cable | 36 Comments

Opinion: An open letter to Nick Clegg

By Benjamin Mathis | Mon 26th May 2014 - 4:16 pm

Dear Nick,

When I joined the party in 2006, one of the first things I did was to hit the streets of Dudley, my hometown, delivering Focus and canvassing voters. I’ve been an active, campaigning party member ever since.

Another of the first things I did was to locate and read a copy of the Orange Book. And I liked it. I agreed with a lot of it, and “Orange Booker” has been a badge I have worn with slightly perverse pride ever since.

I like what you’re doing, Nick – and I like …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged leadership | 73 Comments

Opinion: Let’s not throw away all we have worked for just as it’s starting to pay off

By Paul Scriven | Sun 25th May 2014 - 7:36 pm

As a working-class Northern lad it would be fair to say that in terms of personal background I don’t have much in common with Nick Clegg. And like Carl Minns and Richard Kemp I’ve been on the wrong end of some tough election results in recent years. But I totally disagree with George Potter – I passionately believe Nick should lead our party into the next General Election and beyond.

I’ve probably had more arguments with Nick than most commentators on

…

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged featured, general election 2015 and leadership | 49 Comments

Paddy Ashdown: This is moment we need to campaign through Summer and get good message out for the General Election

By The Voice | Sun 25th May 2014 - 5:59 pm

Paddy Ashdown, not surprisingly, came out strongly in Nick Clegg’s defence on the Sunday Politics this morning.

He said that we had a good message to proudly proclaim in the run up to the General Election.

Ditching Nick now would irreparably damage the party, he said, as it would show that we can’t hack being in Government.

He reminded us of his drubbing 25 years ago at the first European elections the party fought where we ended up as an asterisk.

He has upset some of the people who are unhappy at the moment by appearing to trivialise their concerns by suggesting that more people had signed up to Lib Dem Friends of Cake than had signed the letter. However, he later clarified on Twitter that he thought they were wrong but respected them:

@lordbonkers @caronmlindsay Unfair. I fully respected the sincerity of the critics. Its their proposal I think wrong, not their intention.

— Paddy Ashdown (@paddyashdown) May 25, 2014

You can watch the whole interview here.

Posted in News | Also tagged andrew neil, leadership, paddy ashdown and sunday politics | 8 Comments

Now is not the time for a bitter and bloody leadership battle

By Nick T | Sun 25th May 2014 - 2:10 pm

One of the most interesting (and logistically challenging – though that’s another story) conference fringe events I have had a hand in organising through my involvement with Liberal Reform was a panel of fellow liberals from across Europe talking about their experiences of being members of a coalition.

I wanted to hold such an event to counter the all too prevalent assumption that the problems facing the Liberal Democrats are somehow unique to us. Because they are most certainly not.

Where parties enter …

Posted in News | Also tagged coalition, european elections 2014, local elections 2014 and party leadership | 87 Comments

Nick Clegg’s leadership: A summary of the coverage

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 25th May 2014 - 9:37 am

Well, there was a certain inevitability that poor election results would lead to calls for Nick Clegg to resign. Today, the papers are full of comments from activists and MPs critical of the Deputy Prime Minister.

John Hemming, John Pugh and Adrian Sanders have all gone public with their criticism of Clegg. It should be noted that none of them are particularly noted for being his biggest fans. There is a certain irony that where there were elections on their patches, they did reasonably well. In Pugh’s Southport …

Posted in News | Also tagged adrian sanders, Danny Alexander, des wilson, john hemming, john pugh and sarah ludford | 46 Comments

Opinion: Prince Charles has gone too far this time

By Steve Coltman | Sat 24th May 2014 - 10:07 am

It was ironic to watch the news today. Two politicians who (I suspect) do not much care for Prince Charles’s views in general were speaking in his defence, whereas one who might be expected to be more sympathetic was being more critical. It was the latter, Nigel Farage, who was right. He said of Prince Charles’s comments, likening Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler, that there are some things the Prince should leave to the professional politicians.

Nick Clegg and Ed Milliband, on the other hand, were arguing that the Prince had a right to have his views and express them, or words to that effect. Prince Charles does indeed have a right to have his own private opinions, and he is not the first to have compared the actions of today’s Russia with yesterday’s Nazi Germany.

BUT, Prince Charles does not have the right to drop a bomb into the middle of British-Russian relations like this. It’s not just indiscreet, it is downright dangerous. There is no knowing what sort

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged diplomacy, ed miliband, nigel farage and prince charles | 35 Comments

LibLink: Nick Clegg: UKIP would pull the rug out from under the City

By NewsHound | Wed 21st May 2014 - 11:47 am

In Monday’s Evening Standard, Nick Clegg had this to say about how the diverse, modern capital would be affected if Nigel Farage and UKIP got their way. While Farage’s party offers change, it’s not the sort of change that we want:

But don’t be fooled: it’s change of the worst kind. Behind the crowd-pleasing, pint-swilling banter is a party that wants to turn the clock back. Ukip’s only answer to the complexities of the modern world is pulling up the drawbridge, shunning the outside world and hankering for some

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged london, sarah ludford and the evening standard | 5 Comments

MP recall: 73% of Lib Dem members approve of voters’ right to sack their representatives

By Stephen Tall | Wed 21st May 2014 - 10:10 am

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Over 830 party members responded – thank you – and we’re publishing the full results.

73% of Lib Dem members approve of MP recall; 19% disapprove

The government has said that voters should have a means to ‘sack’ MPs who are guilty of ‘serious wrongdoing’. It proposes to allow voters in individual constituencies …

Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged recall and zac goldsmith | 11 Comments

Nick Clegg in Scotland: Liberal Democrats are guarantors of more powers

By The Voice | Mon 19th May 2014 - 12:59 pm

Nick Clegg is coming to Scotland today to lend his support to George Lyon MEP ahead of Thursday’s European elections. He’s also going to be speaking to the Scottish Chambers of Commerce in Edinburgh.

There has been hardly any mention of actual European issues in this election as politics up here is dominated by the independence referendum. Nick’s remarks will concentrate on the question of more powers for the Scottish Parliament. He’ll say that a no vote is a positive choice and will repeat his …

Posted in News | Also tagged Scotland and Scottish independence referendum | 7 Comments

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Vince Cable writes…Labour and Fiscal Rules (Vince Cable)
Josh Babarinde writes…The Lib Dem Summer of Strategy (Josh Babarinde)
Mathew on Monday: “We need to be bold” (Mathew Hulbert)
As a party we must be better defined for the 2029 general election (Chris Bowers)
From national averages to local realities: inequality in our communities (Tom Walker)

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Josh Babarinde writes…The Lib Dem Summer of Strategy

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Tag Archives: nick clegg

In Full: Nick Clegg’s statement from today’s Press Conference: Britain needs a new wave or energy, optimism and liberalism

Opinion: Nick Clegg’s fiscal target – splitting the difference

Cambridge Liberal Democrats back Nick Clegg and reject leadership ballot

Clegg’s “Parental Guarantee”: calls for all schools to employ qualified teachers and teach ‘core curriculum’

Nick and The Sun – a missed opportunity

“The Lib Dems are setting out plans as if they may have to deliver them”. Giles Wilkes on Clegg’s economic plans

Tales from the Federal Executive: The one where we discussed the elections

Nick Clegg on the Liberal Democrats’ ‘unique mission’

LibLink: Sam Ghibaldan: Clegg needs to be assertive

Opinion: We must ask the right questions

Nick stands with Anna

Clegg: I will survive

Nick Clegg announces review into local and Euro election campaigns

Opinion: We need discipline and compromise from both leadership and members

LDVideo: Nick Clegg – It’s time to come together and focus on 2015

Well, that’s one way to wake up in the morning: “Can you come on the Today Programme in 5 minutes”

Opinion: Six reasons why Lib Dems need to support the leader

Research on impact of change of leader on four key seats

Opinion: Political scalps grow back

++ Breaking.. Vince Cable: There is no leadership issue

Opinion: An open letter to Nick Clegg

Opinion: Let’s not throw away all we have worked for just as it’s starting to pay off

Paddy Ashdown: This is moment we need to campaign through Summer and get good message out for the General Election

Now is not the time for a bitter and bloody leadership battle

Nick Clegg’s leadership: A summary of the coverage

Opinion: Prince Charles has gone too far this time

LibLink: Nick Clegg: UKIP would pull the rug out from under the City

MP recall: 73% of Lib Dem members approve of voters’ right to sack their representatives

73% of Lib Dem members approve of MP recall; 19% disapprove

Nick Clegg in Scotland: Liberal Democrats are guarantors of more powers

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Josh Babarinde writes…The Lib Dem Summer of Strategy

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What’s going on with party strategy?

A strange but welcome feeling

Tag Archives: nick clegg

73% of Lib Dem members approve of MP recall; 19% disapprove

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