Tag Archives: nick clegg

Paul Pettinger

Should religious worship be part of school assembly?

By Paul Pettinger | Wed 11th August 2010 - 2:20 pm

Last week LDV ran an article from Sara Bedford asking whether prayers should be a part of council meetings. The issue of compelling people to engage in religious worship is not just confined to Parliament or some of our more old fashioned council chambers, but affects a significant proportion of our population.

Unbeknown to many, all state maintained schools in England and Wales are legally required to provide their pupils with daily Collective Worship. In faith schools the worship is supposed to be provided in accordance with the school’s designated religion or religious denomination, while in all other schools …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 33 Comments
Helen Duffett

Autumn conference agenda and papers now online

By Helen Duffett | Tue 10th August 2010 - 10:25 am

Liberal Democrat autumn conference agenda 2010All the papers for next month’s Liberal Democrat Conference in Liverpool are now available online at the party’s website.

These include the agenda, which contains details and times of speeches, debates and consultative sessions. There’s also an introduction from the new Federal Conference Committee chair, Andrew Wiseman, and an article by party leader Nick Clegg: “Delivering in Government.”

The training programme, reports to conference, “Accountability to the poor” policy paper and consultation papers on health, IT and volunteering are all …

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Posted in Conference and News | Also tagged and | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Who is popular with party members?

By Mark Pack | Tue 10th August 2010 - 9:20 am

The choice of which Liberal Democrat Parliamentarians to feature in the party’s fundraising letters is usually a hard-headed choice of who is most popular and will bring in the most money, sprinkled with a dusting of covering internal political sensitivities. So it’s interesting to see who was selected to feature in the lastest fundraising letter from Party President, Ros Scott: Vince Cable, Simon Hughes, Lynne Featherstone and Nick Clegg.

All of them came out well in the most recent Lib Dem Voice survey of party members which suggests the evidence the party sees paints a similar to picture to that …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

Lib Dem conference to be asked to approve gay marriage proposal

By Stephen Tall | Sun 8th August 2010 - 11:00 am

Today’s Independent reports:

The Liberal Democrats are to use their first party conference in government to adopt a radical new policy calling for gay marriage.

The paper points out the tensions such a policy could spark with the socially conservative right-wing among the Tories. However, I’m intrigued by the paper’s suggestions that it also “risks causing deep divisions with … the traditional Methodist wing of the Lib Dems”. As a nonconformist myself (albeit not Methodist), I’d never realised that defined me as being part of a clique within the Lib Dems. Nor that my religious views would prevent me from supporting …

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 34 Comments
Helen Duffett

Clegg and Cameron’s joint letter to Cabinet

By Helen Duffett | Tue 3rd August 2010 - 2:25 pm

The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister have issued a reminder of the Coalition government’s priorities in the form of a joint letter to their Cabinet colleagues.

The letter, aimed at the public just as much as ministers, includes a summary of the “central purpose that will guide all our decisions as a government.” The letter says that deficit reduction and economic recovery will be achieved by redistributing power from government to communities and people, and by governing for the long term.

It’s a message, amid criticism of the cuts that the government has announced over its first twelve weeks, that the Coalition is looking at the long haul.

Here’s the text of the letter in full:

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 21 Comments
Helen Duffett

How much will coalition change Liberal Democrat conference?

By Helen Duffett | Wed 28th July 2010 - 9:20 am

Party conference rumour season is well underway, with more special guest speculation than last month’s Glastonbury. But whoever’s doing the briefing, it doesn’t seem to be coming from the Liberal Democrat side.

The story that David Cameron might address Lib Dem conference seems to have originated from the Independent:

David Cameron and Nick Clegg are drawing up plans for closer links between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats and senior figures from the two parties will address each other’s party conference this autumn.

The two leaders are keen to cement the coalition and a special meeting of the Cabinet next month will discuss a joint approach to the party conference season, including co-ordinated policy announcements. One option is for Mr Cameron to address the Liberal Democrat conference in Liverpool and Mr Clegg the Tories in Birmingham. More likely, at present, is that other Cabinet ministers will “change places” and speak at their coalition partner’s event.

The Guardian also ran a similar story the same day: David Cameron could speak at Liberal Democrat conference.

– Well, yes he could,* but here are some things to consider:

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged , , , , , and | 11 Comments
Helen Duffett

Labour to oppose voting reform legislation

By Helen Duffett | Wed 28th July 2010 - 7:50 am

The Labour shadow cabinet has decided to vote against the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, insisting that it should not be given a second reading.

From the Press Association,

Labour is to vote against legislation paving the way for a referendum on reforming the voting system.

The shadow cabinet decided to oppose the Government’s Bill because it also includes provisions for equalising the size of constituencies.

The move sets the stage for a major test of the coalition, with Labour MPs lining up alongside rebel Tories in a bid to derail the proposals.

The commitment to a referendum on switching to Alternative

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 27 Comments
Helen Duffett

Revealed: the AV referendum question

By Helen Duffett | Mon 26th July 2010 - 1:35 pm

The wording of the question that voters will be asked in next May’s AV referendum has been published:

Do you want the United Kingdom to adopt the ‘alternative vote’ system instead of the current ‘first past the post’ system for electing Members of Parliament to the House of Commons?

The wording of the question is contained in the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, published last week. (The question will also be made available in Welsh.) The Electoral Commission is statutorily required to consider the intelligibility of the question, before reporting back to Parliament, who will consider the comments and have …

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Posted in Election law | Also tagged , , and | 1 Comment
The Voice

Clegg: I’m not apologising for calling the Iraq war illegal

By The Voice | Sat 24th July 2010 - 5:45 pm

Nick Clegg has hit back at attacks on the coalition and media suggestions that he ‘gaffed’ by terming the Iraq war illegal during Prime Minister’s Questions this week.

In an interview for Channel 4 News following his ‘Nick Clegg meets’ session in Oxfordshire this afternoon, Nick comments on the coalition:

… when you do something new, in politics as much as in any other walk of life, of course people are going to react against it and say: ‘I prefer the old way, I think this isn’t going to work’. And of course you get that in both parties, Conservative and Liberal Democrat. I think it would be more suprising if there was not a ripple of anxiety across both parties. People will always come up with interesting ways to describe the coalition – some flattering and some not so. Of course it’s important in any colaiton that the people at the top know how to work together, but it’s a partnership government.”

And has this to say about his labelling of the Iraq war as illegal:

It was quite obvious to anyone outside the slightly odd world of Westminster that what I was doing was repeating something about which I have strong personal views in a way that wasn’t binding on the government as a whole.

You can watch the interview here:

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Posted in News | 16 Comments
Stephen Tall

Nick Clegg meets … Showing the Lib Dem fight against the Tories is alive and well

By Stephen Tall | Sat 24th July 2010 - 12:55 pm

In just over an hour’s time, at 2pm, the Lib Dem leader is holding the first of his ‘Nick Clegg meets …’ open question-and-answer sessions outside of his own constituency. This isn’t a party event: this is a chance for voters to question the Deputy Prime Minister, and will be broadcast live on TV.

It’s being billed as follows:

An opportunity to ask the Deputy Prime Minister anything you like…
– What will the coalition government’s programme mean for me?
– How will the current spending

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 46 Comments
Will Straw

The Independent View: Labour and Lib Dems must show a willingness to work together

By Will Straw | Fri 23rd July 2010 - 1:50 pm

As a long-term believer in the need for a more progressive politics, I take no great joy in the spate of polls showing the Liberal Democrats in free fall.

The latest projections from UK Polling Report show that a Lib Dem collapse to 15% in the polls would deliver a Conservative majority of 18 and the balance of power being held by the Tory right rather than the Lib Dem right. The Lib Dem concessions on inheritance tax, capital gains tax, and Europe – for which they should be praised – would go in a flash.

But the Lib Dems …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged and | 42 Comments
Stephen Tall

Tom Brake: ending of Yarl’s Wood child detention “a sign of Lib Dem influence in Government”

By Stephen Tall | Wed 21st July 2010 - 7:30 pm

Tom Brake, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Committee for Home Affairs and Justice, has given a warm welcome to the announcement by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg today that the family unit at Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre, where children are detained awaiting deportation, will be closed.

Tom commnets:

Locking up innocent children for months on end can lead to serious physical and psychological harm. It is a disgrace the Labour Government allowed this to take place in 21st century Britain. The Liberal Democrats have had a huge influence in Government and the closure of Yarl’s Wood family unit is a …

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 3 Comments
Stephen Tall

How the Westminster Village media is still struggling with concept of coalition

By Stephen Tall | Wed 21st July 2010 - 6:40 pm

It can be surprisingly easy to excite some journalists. Today is a case in point. Nick Clegg stood in for David Cameron at Prime Minister’s Questions. During his exchanges with Jack Straw (who was standing in for Labour’s Harriet Harman), the Deputy Prime Minister referred to the invasion of Iraq as “illegal”.

To most people watching this is not a surprise. The Lib Dems’ opposition to the Iraq war, which was supported by both Labour and the Tories, is pretty well-documented, I think it’s fair to say. The fact that the Lib Dems and Conservatives have reached a coalition agreement does not alter the past, nor does it alter politicians’ individual views. Why should it?

And yet the response from some journalists has been to label this a “gaffe” – a term otherwise known as a politician saying something he believes which a journalist hopes to be able to spin into a story.

Indeed, it’s interesting to see how a story like this can develop.

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Posted in Op-eds and PMQs | Also tagged , , , , and | 56 Comments
Ben Johnson

Opinion: The Lib Dems need a better communications strategy

By Ben Johnson | Sat 17th July 2010 - 11:15 am

An opposition party can only be truly effective via the media. Government has its own spin and PR, but the opposition must cultivate this through good press stories for them and bad ones for the government.

Blair understood this better than anyone and used it to great advantage in the dying days of the Major administration, mostly through the fanaticism of Alastair Campbell.

Fast forward to today and a small party perpetually in opposition is now in government. When in opposition, projecting a clear party line was a key goal. For the Lib Dems in government, …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 32 Comments
Mark Pack

Nick Clegg: delivering a Liberal Parliament

By Mark Pack | Fri 16th July 2010 - 12:39 pm

Nick Clegg has been giving a speech at the think-tank Demos today, setting out his vision for what this Parliament should achieve – and what the Liberal Democrats should get from it.

The heart of the argument is in this early section:

Now that the Liberal Democrats are in government, liberal ideas are being deployed directly. What you are seeing is liberalism in action. And I can tell you that as Deputy Prime Minister, my liberal instincts are stronger than ever. Our goal is clear.

By the time of the next election, on 7 May 2015, Britain will be a more liberal nation.

This

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 13 Comments
Stephen Tall

What a difference three months makes #nickcleggsfault

By Stephen Tall | Thu 15th July 2010 - 11:20 am

Three months ago, Thursday, 15th April, witnessed the UK’s first televised debate between the main party leaders.

Here’s a reminder of the close of the first debate, which sparked ‘Cleggmania’ as well as the catchphrase “I agree with Nick”, and the subsequent Twitter hashtag craze #nickcleggsfault …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 16 Comments
Stephen Tall

Nick Robinson notes Lib Dems’ “important injection of democracy” into Coalition’s NHS plans

By Stephen Tall | Wed 14th July 2010 - 10:10 pm

Mark Pack yesterday noted Lib Dem health minister Paul Burstow’s hand at work in the NHS White Paper – it’s a theme also picked up today by the BBC’s political editor Nick Robinson, who comments on his blog:

The proposals for a re-organisation of the NHS included a fundamental and little-noticed change from those contained in either the Conservative manifesto or the coalition agreement. The government now plan to give councils a major new strategic health role, examining the purchasing decisions of GPs and fitting them together with their plans for public health and social care. For the Lib

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 12 Comments
Stephen Tall

How Clegg switched sides at half-time

By Stephen Tall | Wed 14th July 2010 - 6:58 pm

No, not more revelations from the memoirs of New Labour’s svengali, Lord (Peter) Mandelson – rather a diary piece by Hugh Muir in the Guardian.

LDV readers may recall Nick Clegg’s conflicted loyalties in deciding whether to support Holland or Spain in Sunday’s World Cup final. It appears he found out a way to resolve them:

… at a cross-party reception for the Lib Dem thinktank Centre Forum, the deputy prime minister admitted that while he began watching the World Cup final supporting Holland, as the Diary said he would, he switched sides halfway through and began rooting for

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

What Nick told Gordon (according to Peter) when asking him to quit: “Please understand I have no personal animosity whatsoever.”

By Stephen Tall | Mon 12th July 2010 - 1:20 pm

The first of the post-New Labour memoirs, Lord (Peter) Mandelson’s The Third Man, begins its serialisation in The Times today.

Those who pay for the paper, in print or online, will have the joy of relishing its every detail. If like me you’re reliant on the Press Association’s fillet, it seems the big splash is what we knew already: that Nick Clegg told Gordon Brown he would have no option but to resign if there were to be any chance of Labour and the Liberal Democrats cutting a deal.

Unlike every other Labour MP except James Purnell, however, Nick did …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 23 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Nick Clegg & David Cameron – We’ll transform Britain by giving power away

By NewsHound | Mon 12th July 2010 - 11:20 am

The Pirme Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, David Cameron and Nick Clegg, have jointly authored an article in today’s Telegraph setting out their hopes for the coming Parliament. Dealing with the deficit is vital, they say – but the real mission of the Coalition is to give people control over their lives.

On dealing with the deficit:

… for both of us, sorting out the public finances is a responsibility, not a passion. We didn’t come into politics just to balance the books. We are both ambitious for Britain: we want to change our country for the better. We want to

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , and | 12 Comments
Jason Mehmet

Opinion: National influence, international irrelevance?

By Jason Mehmet | Sat 10th July 2010 - 5:45 pm

I remember the day I self-identified as a Liberal Democrat. I was a teenager, perhaps 16 or 17, (disclosure: I’m now in my mid 30s) and was actually watching a political debate that was taking place on what was, at the time, ‘yoof’ TV.

The three main parties were represented. I can’t recall who the other two people were, but the stand-out performance was from Simon Hughes.  Everything he said just made sense and for the life of me I couldn’t understand why the Liberal Democrats were not in Government.  This was the point at which I became politically aware.

I can’t …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 17 Comments
The Voice

Clegg’s verdict on Labour in opposition: “Collective bile is not a political strategy”

By The Voice | Fri 9th July 2010 - 11:45 pm

There’s an in-depth, wide-ranging and pretty frank interview with Nick Clegg in The Guardian today, in which he defends the coalition, assures those Lib Dem activists worried by the budget cuts that they are “not driven by some ideological zeal”, and attacks Labour for its failure to recognise that coalitions are here to stay: “Something very, very big is happening in politics.”

Here are some of the juiciest Clegg-bites:

On the coalition:

is not an aberration, but a natural consequence of what has been happening for years, which is a loosening of the old tribal ties between the old parties and

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 31 Comments
Cathy Warwick

The Independent View: Public sector pensions – far from gold-plated

By Cathy Warwick | Wed 7th July 2010 - 10:20 am

Teeing up public sector workers like midwives for cuts in their pensions, Nick Clegg spoke recently about the “unreformed gold-plated public sector pension pots” that people like firefighters and soldiers enjoy. We hear a lot about the long-term cost of public sector pension schemes, as if they are a fiscal time-bomb ready to explode at the heart of the public finances.

Firstly, let’s take a look at the reality of these bounteous public sector pension pots. Take the average pension for a female NHS worker, £5,000. What is worse, half of all women pensioners who have worked in the NHS get a …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged | 15 Comments
Stephen Tall

Should our MPs give Clegg more support in the Commons?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 6th July 2010 - 10:20 am

Yesterday Nick Clegg stood up as Deputy Prime Minister in the House of Commons and announced there would be a referendum to reform the voting system within the next year.

If I’d suggested just a few weeks ago that I would be able to type that sentence with a straight face I imagine most folk would think I’d lost any grasp on reality. Yet it’s what happened.

True, the route to Nick becoming Deputy Prime Minister is not proving easy: coalition with the Tories is forcing uncomfortable compromises on the Lib Dems. And true, the alternative vote is not a proportional …

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Posted in Op-eds and Parliament | Also tagged , , and | 34 Comments
Helen Duffett

John Sharkey to run Liberal Democrats’ Fairer Votes campaign

By Helen Duffett | Mon 5th July 2010 - 5:20 pm

Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg has announced the appointment of John Sharkey as chairman of the Liberal Democrats’ Fairer Votes Campaign – the campaign for a “Yes” vote in next year’s AV referendum.

Nick Clegg said,

I am delighted that John Sharkey has accepted this role.

This is a vital campaign for the country and I can’t think of a better person than John to run it for the Liberal Democrats.

John Sharkey is one of Nick Clegg’s closest advisors and a former MD of Saatchi and Saatchi, who worked on the Conservatives’ 1987 General Election campaign.

More recently, he chaired the …

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 44 Comments
Helen Duffett

Nick Clegg’s statement on political and constitutional reform

By Helen Duffett | Mon 5th July 2010 - 4:28 pm

Nick Clegg has just made a statement in the House of Commons outlining the Government’s proposals for political and constitutional reform, including plans for a referendum on the use of the Alternative Vote system in the UK.

The statement included the announcement of two important dates: the date for the AV Referendum (in the Bill to be introduced before the Summer recess) is intended for 5 May 2011 and the next General Election on 7 May 2015.

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Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged , and | 22 Comments
Stephen Tall

The Saturday Debate: Time for British troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan

By Stephen Tall | Sat 3rd July 2010 - 8:45 am

Here’s your starter for ten as we continue our Saturday slot posing a view for debate:

Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies has recently written to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg renewing his call for British troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan:

It is very difficult to justify our continued engagement when the reasons for it so often appear contradictory and open to challenge. I suspect one reason why 77% of people in this country tell pollsters that they want our troops out of Afghanistan is because they either do not know what are the objectives for their presence or do not

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 23 Comments
Stephen Tall

David Miliband backs Alternative Vote reform, lays down gauntlet to Cameron

By Stephen Tall | Fri 2nd July 2010 - 9:40 am

With Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg set to announce 5th May, 2011, as the date of the referendum on electoral reform, David Miliband – currently the leading contender to become the next Labour leader – was this morning asked the direct question whether he would back the move to the Alternative Vote. His answer was unequivocal: yes, and he would be infavour of Labour members campaigning for it during the referendum campaign:

I think that it’s important that we move to a system where every Member of Parliament has at least 50 per cent of the vote of their constituents.”

It’s …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 5 Comments
Helen Duffett

Clegg to announce AV referendum date “next week”

By Helen Duffett | Thu 1st July 2010 - 6:35 pm

Reuters reports:

Liberal Democrats want a date to be set for a referendum on the move to the Alternative Vote system as a tangible reward for their role as junior coalition partners with the Conservatives.

The LibDems hope a vote can be held as early as next May, although AV actually falls short of their desire for a genuinely proportional voting system.

“I’m hoping to make an announcement literally in a couple of days, next week,” Clegg said in answer to a question after making a speech in London.

Read the full piece here.

And as Mark’s already blogged, it’s not too soon …

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 4 Comments
Helen Duffett

Nick Clegg launches “Your Freedom”

By Helen Duffett | Thu 1st July 2010 - 6:13 pm

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 23 Comments
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