Tag Archives: nick clegg

Caron Lindsay

Nick Clegg beats James Bond and the Queen

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 19th December 2012 - 6:31 pm

The BBC reports that You Tube has published its top trending videos of 2012 in the UK. That Gangnam Style came top is not really a surprise, I suppose. What caught my eye, though, is that the Poke’s auto-tuned video of Nick Clegg’s apology over tuition fees beat that iconic moment from the Olympic Opening Ceremony with Daniel Craig and the Queen.

The Clegg video has been seen by over 2 million people. Here it is again in case you missed it…

Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 3 Comments
Mary Reid

LDVideo: Nick Clegg – Governing Britain from the centre ground (speech and Q+A)

By Mary Reid | Tue 18th December 2012 - 2:00 pm

Here is the speech that Nick Clegg gave to Centreforum yesterday:

Here is the Q+A session that followed the speech:

Continue reading »
Posted in Lib Dem TV | Also tagged | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

A twin-track differentiation policy

By Mark Pack | Tue 18th December 2012 - 7:50 am

Here’s my take on yesterday’s speech by Nick Clegg, along with some further analysis from the IFS’s Paul Johnson and Conservative MP Robert Halpern, all via the World at One:

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 1 Comment
The Voice

Nick Clegg’s speech: Governing Britain from the centre ground: building a stronger economy in a fairer society

By The Voice | Mon 17th December 2012 - 11:25 am

Nick Clegg at rallyNick Clegg gave a keynote speech at the Royal Commonwealth Society on the eve of his 5th anniversary of his election as Liberal Democrat leader. This is what he had to say:

I don’t suppose it’s exactly controversial to suggest that I and my party have changed over that period. Today I will argue that we’ve changed for the better.
Because my purpose here today is to explain, clearly and simply, what the Liberal Democrats offer the people of
Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 50 Comments
Paul Walter

Nick Clegg signals new distance from “fantasy world” Tories

By Paul Walter | Mon 17th December 2012 - 9:53 am

Nick Clegg in DublinThe Observer reports that Nick Clegg will today seek to put distance between the Lib Dems and the Conservatives. In a key passage of his speech today, Nick Clegg will say:

The Tory right dreams of a fantasy world where we can walk away from the EU but magically keep our economy strong; where we can pretend that the world hasn’t moved on and stand opposed to gay marriage; where we can refuse to accept the verdict of the British people and pretend the Conservatives won a majority of their own.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | 13 Comments
Stephen Tall

Jo Shaw’s reply to Nick Clegg: Thanks for your stand on civil liberties – now it’s time to oppose secret courts as well

By Stephen Tall | Sun 16th December 2012 - 11:50 am

Supreme Court - Some rights reserved by cphoffman42We published yesterday Nick Clegg’s latest ‘Letter from the Leader’, focusing on the liberal stand he’s taken this past week on the internet snoopers’ charter and publicly stating his pro-reform/anti-drugs views. But one vexed issue was missing entirely — the Coalition’s proposal to introduce secret courts in the current Justice and Security Bill which has its second reading this Tuesday.

Secret courts were overwhelmingly rejected by the party’s conference in September, and our recent members’ survey showed a clear majority opposed outright, regardless of what compromises might be reached.

Jo Shaw, who leads the Liberal Democrats against secret courts campaign, has replied to Nick’s letter. Here’s what she has to say…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

Equidistance 2.0 – Clegg attacks “fantasy world politics” of Tories AND Labour

By Stephen Tall | Sun 16th December 2012 - 11:01 am

clegg cameron milibandThe Coalition may be limbering up to announce its mid-term review, billed as Coalition 2.0, early in the New Year. But it looks like Nick Clegg is going from something of a pre-emptive strike, perhaps closer to Equidistance 2.0, in a speech tomorrow. The Observer reports today that he will up the ante of anti-Tory rhetoric, saying:

“The Tory right dreams of a fantasy world where we can walk away from the EU but magically keep our economy strong; where we can pretend that the world hasn’t

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged | 13 Comments
Stephen Tall

Nick Clegg’s ‘Letter from the Leader’: “no use standing up for civil liberties in opposition if you forget all about them in power”

By Stephen Tall | Sat 15th December 2012 - 11:55 am

Nick was spoiled for choice this week on which liberal touchstone issues to focus on in his latest weekly missive… Whether to talk about torpedoing of the Draft Data Communications Bill or perhaps his pro-reform/anti-drugs stance following this week’s Home Affairs select committee report — in fact he talks about both, even linking them to his pro-Leveson position. Manna from heaven to Lib Dem activists. The only surprise is that this week’s equal marriage proposals aren’t mentioned…

Do you want the Home Secretary to be able to

…

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

Nick Clegg: Time to rethink drugs policy

By Mark Pack | Fri 14th December 2012 - 2:01 pm

The Sun running a story about the attitude of politicians to drugs reform is fairly commonplace. A Liberal Democrat politician calling for the drugs laws to be reviewed is fairly commonplace. What is however rather less common – and so all the more significant – is for the former to feature the latter in a positive light as LDV mentioned earlier today:

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 2 Comments
The Voice

LibLink: Nick Clegg declares the ‘war on drugs’ lost

By The Voice | Fri 14th December 2012 - 12:51 pm

It’s unlikely that many of our readers also take The Sun, but it’s probably equally unlikely that a Liberal Democrat would ever give an interview to it in which they spoke so freely about drug policy.

So, today’s headline in the Sun, “Nick Clegg: time to re-think drugs” will be an unexpected one, made more so by the rather supportive polling carried out by YouGov for it and the general tenor of the piece.

Here’s a snippet from the article;

If you

…

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink and News | Also tagged | 8 Comments
Alistair Carmichael MP

Alistair Carmichael MP writes…Why I’ve put the whip away for the Equal Marriage vote

By Alistair Carmichael MP | Wed 12th December 2012 - 6:59 pm

Everybody knows that the first rule of Fight Club is that you do not talk about Fight Club.

I am no Brad Pitt but the same is also true of the Whips’ Office.

It is not normally my practice to discuss whipping arrangements for the parliamentary party, nor to discuss publicly the process by which decisions are reached. Today, however, I am prepared (exceptionally) to do so and to explain the decision taken last night to allow Liberal Democrat MPs a free vote …

Continue reading »
Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged , , and | 68 Comments
Mark Pack

Clegg set to veto Communications Data Bill

By Mark Pack | Mon 10th December 2012 - 10:42 pm

Excellent:

Posted in News | Also tagged | 7 Comments
Stephen Tall

Nick Clegg’s ‘Letter from the Leader’: “You cannot balance the books on the backs of the poor”

By Stephen Tall | Sun 9th December 2012 - 11:20 am

The sixth weekly missive from Nick Clegg hit my inbox this weekend. Here’s what he had to say about the Autumn Statement, in particular the Lib Dem win on helping low-income tax-payers. Oh, and there’s a bit of a dig against the Tories for their ‘irrational phobia’ of taxing the propertied wealthy a bit more…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 57 Comments
Stephen Tall

‘Please give generously’: Tories mail-shot supporters asking for donations to fight Lib Dem mansion tax

By Stephen Tall | Sun 9th December 2012 - 10:05 am

That’s the story in the Guardian this weekend:

The Conservative party privately sent letters to Tory donors and wealthy homeowners promising to defeat Liberal Democrat plans for a mansion tax at the same time as their coalition partners thought they were negotiating on a version of the proposal ahead of the autumn statement, it emerged on Friday. … The letters were sent by the Conservative treasurers Lord Fink and Michael Farmer in November, when Lib Dem cabinet ministers privately believed there was hope that the Conservatives would agree to two extra higher-rate council tax bands as a way of raising

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , and | 5 Comments
Stephen Tall

Nick Clegg’s festive card: “Merry Christmas”

By Stephen Tall | Sun 9th December 2012 - 9:20 am

Just in case you’re not one of the lucky ones to receive your own signed copy this year (I’m still waiting for mine), here’s Nick Clegg’s choice of Christmas card this year…

Here’s what the Guardian has to say about it (yes, really, the paper dedicated a large feature to the leaders’ choices of Christmas cards):

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged | 2 Comments
Gerald Vernon-Jackson

Danny, Don and Nick stand up for Local Government in a way that Pickles never has

By Gerald Vernon-Jackson | Fri 7th December 2012 - 12:51 pm

The Autumn Statement has announced no further cuts to local government in the next financial year, with a 2% cut the following year.

We’re grateful to Danny Alexander, Don Foster and Nick Clegg for stepping in and saying “no” to further cuts to local services over the next year – in a way we just haven’t seen from the DCLG Secretary of State, Eric Pickles.

Liberal Democrat Ministers have stopped an across-the-board cut of 1% to local government next year. That means up to £240m extra that will be in council budgets every year which will help fund youth services, streets, parks, …

Continue reading »
Posted in Local government and News | Also tagged , and | 1 Comment
Caron Lindsay

Autumn Statement: the good, the bad and the ugly

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 5th December 2012 - 2:17 pm

So, the Chancellor has given his Autumn Statement. Liberal Democrat reaction is likely to be at best mixed. Will people feel that the balance of tax and benefit measures is sufficient to support our claims that we are making the system fairer?

Osborne painted a fairly gloomy economic picture. The growth forecast is under 3% for the next 5 years. Austerity will continue way beyond the next election. It’s in that context that his measures must be judged.

Let’s take a brief look at the key points from a Liberal Democrat activist’s point of view:

The good – Lib Dem gains

Steve Webb’s Pension …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 38 Comments
Stephen Tall

Nick Clegg’s Letter from the Leader, No. 5: Leveson – “the Prime Minister and I disagreed”

By Stephen Tall | Sun 2nd December 2012 - 10:15 am

Here’s Nick Clegg’s latest missive to Lib Dem members and supporters — and no prizes for guessing which topic is the subject this week: Lord Justice Leveson’s report into media standards…

On Thursday afternoon I made a statement in Parliament on the Liberal Democrat response to the Leveson Inquiry. I spoke after the Prime Minister, to outline my view that we must implement Leveson’s plans for an effective new press watchdog, underpinned by legal guarantees.

As you may have picked up, the Prime Minister and I disagreed; there is not yet an agreed “government line”. That’s in part why we had to make separate statements – a major departure from Parliamentary protocol, apparently.

I’m often non-plussed by the arcane rules of the House of Commons, most of which make no sense to ordinary human beings. To me it felt like the most natural thing in the world: two opinions, two statements.

Rather than repeat here what I said in the Commons do watch for yourself here.


Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

Mail on Sunday’s smears and innuendo against Miriam and Nick: Lib Dem statement released

By Stephen Tall | Sat 1st December 2012 - 10:30 pm

Well, there’s a turn-up for the books — the Mail on Sunday in its first post-Leveson front page decides to play the man (and woman) rather than the ball, and splash on a desperately thin story implying some form of scandalous link between Miriam González Durántez’s support for Booktrust and the charity being given a government grant.

The paper’s baseless accusations get short shrift from the Lib Dems in this statement issued by the party tonight:

The decision to continue the funding for Booktrust was made by the Prime Minister

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 25 Comments
Stephen Tall

Is this the week Nick Clegg will ditch support for the draft Data Communications Bill?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 1st December 2012 - 5:50 pm

The days of the draft Data Communications Bill (aka internet snoopers’ charter) may well be numbered if reports in the last few days are true that Nick Clegg is about to ditch the controversial plans. Here’s the BBC’s James Landale:

Party sources say leader Nick Clegg is ready to use a parliamentary report, due out next week, to oppose the plans. The draft Communications Data Bill would allow police access to details of people’s email and internet use,

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 10 Comments
Stephen Tall

Leveson, the morning after the Report before: what Lib Dem bloggers say

By Stephen Tall | Fri 30th November 2012 - 9:35 am

Caron Lindsay blogged about Nick Clegg’s Commons statement here on LibDemVoice: Nick Clegg: We won’t find better solution than Leveson’s. Here’s a quick round-up of other reaction so far from Lib Dem bloggers to Lord Justice Leveson’s report on media standards…

Contributors split on broadly pro/anti-Leveson Report lines. Let’s start with the pro-Leveson bloggers:

Shock as politician behaves like a grown-up! (Caron Lindsay)

I can’t, for the life of me, see what the problem is with Leveson’s clever proposal for a self regulating body with true independence – ie not full of newspaper editors or chaired by politicians. It seems pretty

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , , and | 22 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Nick Clegg: We won’t find better solution than Leveson’s

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 29th November 2012 - 4:58 pm

Nick Clegg has just told Parliament that the victims of phone hacking and tabloid abuse deserve swift progress on Lord Leveson’s “proportionate and workable” reforms. After the Prime Minister had told the House that he was unconvinced for the need for any changes in the law, Nick said that it was important that Leveson’s incentive scheme was recognised in law so that the courts could take account of it. He also cited the example of the Irish system as having statutory underpinning. He said he wasn’t aware of complaints from the many UK newspapers with Irish editions.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 10 Comments
Helen Duffett

Nick Clegg: “Let Leveson speak”

By Helen Duffett | Thu 29th November 2012 - 12:17 pm

The Leveson Report on the culture, practice and ethics of the press will be published today at 1:30pm.

Speaking to the BBC this morning Nick Clegg said,

I think we should leave Lord Leveson to speak for himself. But my views on this subject are well known.

I believe in a vigorous free press that holds the powerful to account and isn’t subject to political interference. But a free press does not and cannot mean a press that is free to bully innocent people, or free to abuse grieving families.

I hope when Lord Justice Leveson gives his full statement later today, we will

…

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

Whatever the Leveson Report recommends, it’s worth remembering the value of the Leveson Inquiry

By Stephen Tall | Wed 28th November 2012 - 6:25 pm

I’m as clueless as anyone else at the moment about what Lord Justice Leveson will recommend in his report, to be published tomorrow, on press standards in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal.

I’ve said already I oppose any form of state regulation which would allow the government of the day, whether explicitly or (far more likely) implicitly, to interfere in the content of the free press. My co-editor Mark Pack has a different take on things here. But, regardless of whether Mark or I end up most agreeing with Lord Justice Leveson’s recommendations tomorrow, two points I …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 2 Comments
John Leech

John Leech MP writes… Remembering the reasons for Leveson

By John Leech | Tue 27th November 2012 - 1:25 pm

The Manchester Evening News has a regular slot in the paper where they get a number of MPs to write an opinion column on topical issues of their choice. This week just happened to be my turn, so I thought that I would comment on the eagerly awaited Leveson report, due out on Thursday.

For those of you who don’t know, the MEN is owned by Trinity Mirror, and along with other major newspaper groups, are totally opposed to independent regulation of the press. They claim that regulation will be the end of freedom of expression. How ironic then, that the …

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

Nick Clegg’s fourth Letter from the Leader: “The only way out of the housing crisis is to build our way out.”

By Stephen Tall | Sun 25th November 2012 - 1:15 pm

Here’s Nick Clegg’s latest missive to Lib Dem members and supporters — this week focusing on his efforts to get Britain building again to help those households in need of decent, affordable housing…

I’m writing this as we come to the end of an incredibly hectic week in politics.

The negotiations over the budget in Europe, securing of a much needed ceasefire in Gaza, rising speculation about the upcoming Leveson report. And Ed Davey’s important announcement of a landmark coalition deal on low carbon energy that will deliver

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 12 Comments
Stephen Tall

As Leveson reports… Why I’m sticking up for ‘Press freedom with no buts’

By Stephen Tall | Sun 25th November 2012 - 8:30 am

Lord Justice Leveson’s inquiry into the phone-hacking scandal will report this week. His recommendations on the future of press regulation are the subject of intense speculation, with essentially three positions being staked-out:

What’s being proposed

‘Independent regulation backed up by statute’
Advocates, who include Evan Harris and the Hacked Off campaign group, argue that the only way to ensure the press does not abuse its position in the future is for it to be regulated. But, they insist, this should be independent both of government and the press, the two main …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , and | 38 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Nick Clegg – I’m the daddy

By NewsHound | Sat 24th November 2012 - 12:55 pm

The London Evening Standard carries a feature interview with Nick Clegg, focusing on his and Miriam’s home life and its influence on his political views — here’s some excerpts:

His startling lack of machismo is mirrored in his policies: he wants more time for dads at home, more time for women to chase high-flying careers. From 2015, parents can share up to one year of “parental leave” after the birth of a child. They can take time off together, take it in turns, or

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Also tagged | 1 Comment

Opinion: Could Garden Cities be Nick Clegg’s legacy?

By Andy Boddington | Thu 22nd November 2012 - 3:57 pm

It is May 2032 and I am cycling through the green leafy lanes of Coalition Garden City.

There is something remarkable about this new town that sets it apart from Cumbernauld and Cwmbran, even from fabled Letchworth and iconic Milton Keynes. I am on my way to interview the Mayor of Coalition Garden City to find out how this town of 60,000 people achieved the highest happiness ratings in Britain.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 10 Comments
Stephen Tall

What did George Osborne agree to do that Nick Clegg refused to do?

By Stephen Tall | Thu 22nd November 2012 - 3:25 pm


(You can like and share this graphic via LibDemVoice’s Facebook page by clicking here.)

Compare and contrast:

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 8 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Tristan Ward
    @David Allen "Thanks for the link". No trouble! Neidle is worth following. "we also need to persuade middle-income people to pay more tax" Thus cl...
  • Neil Sandison
    Perhaps in this increasingly busy political market . The bird of liberty needs sharpen its beak and talons and regain some street credibility on the core issues...
  • David Allen
    Tristan, Thanks for the link, which is interesting. Neidle's "taxes people want to raise" are ideas like wealth tax, which Neidle thinks wouldn't work well....
  • David Allen
    Peter, In the 2025-2026 financial year, the UK government is expected to spend approximately £111.2 billion on central government debt interest. This repres...
  • Peter Martin
    "If we pumped loads of money into schools and hospitals, and insisted on getting all the money by borrowing rather than taxing, the bond markets would righ...