Tag Archives: nick clegg

Stephen Tall

The LDV Saturday caption competition – the ‘never work with children’ edition

By Stephen Tall | Sat 12th December 2009 - 9:05 am

There’s no prize at stake – just the opportunity to prove you’re wittier than any other LDV reader …

nick clegg-baby-bournemouth
(Photograph: Martin Argles, The Guardian).

Here’s Nick meeting a future Lib Dem voter at the 2008 Bournemouth party conference – what do you think they might be saying to each other, or thinking about each other?

The winner of last week’s caption competition, The Nick ‘n’ Vince show, (according to The Voice’s judging panel of one) – was Sesenco.

Posted in Caption Comp | 14 Comments
Philip Young

What the papers say…

By Philip Young | Sun 6th December 2009 - 9:50 am

A new weekly round-up of random press clippings, compiled for The Voice by former Fleet Street News Editor (and former Liberal News Editor) Philip Young, including snippets you might have missed.

“Almost two million Britons have accepted pay cuts or chosen to work part-time in an attempt to stave-off unemployment as the recession bites. But the desperate measures mean that income tax receipts have collapsed by almost a fifth, and now the Government is facing the biggest peacetime deficit in history. Next week Ministers will confirm that they are likely to borrow close to £180 billion this year – the …

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Mark Pack

Referendum: what’s going on?

By Mark Pack | Fri 4th December 2009 - 10:45 am

As The Voice and others have covered this week, the Liberal Democrat policy on a Euro-referendum – or not – has been in the news. Understandably the media reports have caused some confusion over what the party’s current policy is – and on this occasion I don’t think the media is to blame.

The party’s policy has been that if there is to be a European referendum, it should be an in/out referendum. However, lurking behind the word “if” were two different points of view earlier this year. One group of people believed that an in/out referendum was a good …

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Posted in Europe / International and Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged and | 13 Comments
Stephen Tall

PMQs: Nick tackles Gordon on the new strategy for Afghanistan

By Stephen Tall | Wed 2nd December 2009 - 9:25 pm

There’s no doubt today’s PMQs belonged to Gordon Brown. It’s not necessarily that he answered the questions any better than usual – that seems to be an acknowledged superfluity for the Prime Minister – but his performance was miles more energetic and confident than usual.

Mr Brown was also helped by an over-defensive David Cameron, who seemed to have no quips prepared for the inevitable assaults by the Prime Minister on the Tories’ tax cuts for millionaires, and the tax-avoiding non-dom status of Tory candidate Zac Goldsmith. Especially effective were the Prime Minister’s withering put-downs – “The more he talks, …

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

LDVideo: Nick speaks about launch of Lib Dem tax plans

By Stephen Tall | Mon 30th November 2009 - 6:45 pm

Here for LDV readers’ delectation is Nick Clegg speaking to camera just after launching the Lib Dems’ tax proposals for the next election: tax cuts for millions of people paid for by closing tax loopholes, making polluters pay and introducing a mansion tax on homes worth over £2m.

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Posted in News and YouTube | Also tagged | 4 Comments
The Voice

Nick: Government’s Afghanistan strategy “over-ambitious in aim and under-resourced in practice”

By The Voice | Mon 30th November 2009 - 5:05 pm

The BBC reports:

Gordon Brown has confirmed he will send 500 more troops to Afghanistan, taking the total UK deployment to over 10,000. He told MPs all conditions had now been met to send the extra personnel and that eight other countries had also offered additional troops. The UK force level will reach 9,500 but special forces takes this to 10,000.

Here in full is Nick Clegg’s Commons response to Gordon Brown’s announcement:

I join the Prime Minister in recognising and commending the enormously impressive work of our Armed Forces in Afghanistan.
Finally it has become mainstream to talk about the need for a big shift in strategy in Afghanistan.
When I first questioned the effectiveness of our action there six months ago and called for this kind of step-change, I was told it was unpatriotic.
The Prime Minister’s change of tone since then has been dramatic – and welcome.
The Liberal Democrat approach to Afghanistan has always been simple: we should do this properly or not at all.

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Posted in Europe / International and Parliament | Also tagged , and | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

Nick Clegg announces new Lib Dem tax policies with emphasis on fairness

By Stephen Tall | Mon 30th November 2009 - 11:35 am

As I write, Nick Clegg and Vince Cable are setting out the framework of ‘the party’s tax policies, the philosophical basis that underpins them and the contrast between the Liberal Democrats’ policies and those of the other two parties.’

This has been well trailed in the media this morning, with Nick conducting a series of media interviews. Much focus so far on the tweak to the ‘mansion tax’ proposals that Vince mooted at conference to public acclaim, but some disquiet among his own Parliamentary colleagues (many of whom knew nothing about it in advance).

The party has responded to criticisms made of the tax, especially in marginal seats in the south of England, by lifting the threshold at which the annual levy is paid to cover all houses worth more than £2m, and doubling the levy from 0.5% to 1% to ensure even more money is raised by the new tax.

The revenue raised from this and other measures (such as green taxes) will be ploughed back into the party’s spending priorities, including raising the tax threshold for the poorest in society.

Here’s some of the media coverage so far:

BBC Online:

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Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 5 Comments
The Voice

‘Who is Nick Clegg?’ Find out tonight on BBC Radio 4

By The Voice | Sun 29th November 2009 - 3:45 pm

Tune in tonight, at 10.45 pm, to BBC Radio 4 if you want to hear Richard Reeves, director of think-tank Demos, examine the intellectual and philosophical roots of the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, for the Political Roots: Liberals programme. (Repeated on Wednesday 2 December at 8.45 pm).

The BBC website carries an article by Richard, trailing the programme, with some revealing quotes from Nick – for example on the influence of his family in creating a liberal within him:

There was something floating around in my family … I don’t want to make it sound as earnest as it does –

…

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Stephen Tall

LDVideo … Mandy, Clegg and Coulson

By Stephen Tall | Sat 28th November 2009 - 10:30 am

Welcome to the latest LDVideo instalment, featuring three of the most memorable video clips doing the rounds on the blogosphere.

First up, is a rather catchy little email ditty in honour of Lord Mandelson’s implausible-but-deadly-serious Digital Econmy Bill, courtesy of Dan Bull:

As Dan would wish me to add: If you disapprove of the Bill, sign the petition, or write your own message to Lord Mandelson.

Second up, here’s Nick Clegg’s second question from this week’s PMQs – and it’s a real barnstormer, which has earned Nick deserved acclaim from across the political spectrum:

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Mark Pack

Nick Clegg’s Eid greeting message

By Mark Pack | Fri 27th November 2009 - 7:06 pm

Via the LibDem website, here’s the text of Nick Clegg’s Eid message:

Eid Al-Adha is preceded by the day of `Arafah and is one of the important days of Hajj. Eid Al-Adha is a joyous time and reminds us of all of the importance of hard work, togetherness and family.

I send my warmest wishes at this very special time.

Posted in News | 3 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink … Nick Clegg: Crying wolf in 2003 destroyed all trust in Britain’s leaders

By NewsHound | Thu 26th November 2009 - 9:55 am

In today’s Telegraph, Nick Clegg writes about the opening of the Chilcot inquiry into the invasion of Iraq, and launches a broadside against Labour’s botched foreign policy, and calls on the Prime Minister – who as Chancellor signed the cheques for the Iraq war – to apologise for his part in the devastation that has unfolded. Here’s an excerpt:

The opening of the inquiry into the Iraq war reminded me that one of the greatest tragedies of Labour’s foreign policy is that they focused on Iraq, not Afghanistan. They focused on winning the argument for an unjustified war, instead of winning

…

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Stephen Tall

PMQs: Nick tackles Gordon on Labour’s “suffocating and shameful culture of secrecy”

By Stephen Tall | Wed 25th November 2009 - 9:05 pm

Ah, the joy of PMQs – Nick asks Gordon a question, Gordon fails to answer a totally different question to the one Nick asks. It’s a regular pattern, but today it was clear to everyone that the Lib Dem leader had floored the Prime Minister over the issue of Sir John Chilcot’s inquiry into the events leading up to the invasion of Iraq.

Nick laid the trap neatly, asking the simple and straightforward question:

It is vital that the Iraq inquiry, which started its work this week, is able to reveal the full truth about the decisions leading up to the

…

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Posted in PMQs | Also tagged , , , and | 1 Comment
Iain Roberts

Cameron’s totally, completely new idea

By Iain Roberts | Wed 25th November 2009 - 5:52 pm

David Cameron has had a new idea – a real original. As the Guardian reports:

A new Conservative government may keep parliament sitting through next August in an attempt to show its determination to implement its manifesto commitments, a source has disclosed. The move would send a message of a symbolic break with the current parliament’s self-serving practices, the source said.

Clearly, this is in no way related to Nick Clegg’s 100 days campaign earlier this year in which Clegg said:

Together, over the next 100 days, we could achieve nothing less than the total reinvention of British politics, underpinned

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Follow the yellow brick road? The Liberal Democrats’ general election campaign

By Mark Pack | Wed 25th November 2009 - 10:20 am

Guide to 2010 election book coverHere is my chapter from the Total Politics Guide to the 2010 General Election, looking at the prospects for the Liberal Democrats:

The 1997 general election turned out to be a once in a generation opportunity for many local Liberal Democrat campaign teams to gain a Parliamentary seat from the Conservatives. At the tail end of a by then deeply unpopular Conservative Government, the election saw unprecedented numbers of seats falling to the party. A few seats that were not quite gained from the Conservatives in 1997 did subsequently fall in 2001 and 2005, but it was the 1997 election with the Conservatives in government that was the main opportunity. Nearly every campaign that missed then did not subsequently win.

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Posted in Books and General Election | Also tagged , , , , , , and | 7 Comments
The Voice

Nick Clegg’s speech to the CBI conference

By The Voice | Mon 23rd November 2009 - 2:55 pm

Nick Clegg addressed the CBI conference in London this moring, “set out how to foster a rapid recovery and shape a new competitive, sustainable economy.” Here’s the full text of what he said:

We are in the teeth of one of the most difficult and unpredictable recessions we have ever faced.
The origins of the recession, at the heart of the financial services sector on which we have relied too heavily for far too long, begs profound questions about how we can rebuild the British economy on a different, more sustainable footing in the future.
As the CBI said this morning – this recession can be a catalyst for positive change.
In the short time we have today, I want to run through the five main areas where I believe urgent action is required not only to foster a rapid recovery in the short term, but to shape a new competitive, sustainable economy for the long term.

  • First: stabilise, decontaminate and re-balance our financial industry.
  • Second: a strong, credible plan to sort our Britain’s finances, to maintain confidence in our credit-worthiness.
  • Third: invest in infrastructure, to create jobs now and the right environment for sustainable growth later.
  • Fourth: decentralise decision-making and business support to drive growth in industries and regions that have been left behind
  • And fifth: change our tax system to put money into the pockets of people who both need it and spend it, helping rebuild consumer demand.
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Stephen Tall

Lib Dem HQ: read what Nick said, not what the press reported!

By Stephen Tall | Mon 23rd November 2009 - 10:25 am

An email pings into LDV’s email inbox from the Lib Dems’ director of election communications, Jonny Oates, stating categorically that Nick Clegg did not express a preference for dealing with the Tories over Labour.

Now it has been known, just occasionally, for Nick to speak a little faster than he thinks. But, as I posted here, yesterday Nick really was crystal clear about how he would approach the vexed question of a ‘hung Parliament’ – and still the media managed to distort his remarks! In rebutting today’s inaccurate press reports, all Jonny had had to do is reproduce the …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 69 Comments
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
Iain Roberts

Tory lead falls to 6% in Ipsos MORI poll

By Iain Roberts | Sun 22nd November 2009 - 8:11 am

The latest Ipsos MORI poll for the Observer has Labour support jumping by 5% at the expense of the Conservatives and narrowing the gap between the two biggest parties to just 6%.

The poll has the Conservatives on 37%, Labour on 31% and the Lib Dems on 17%. That’s well into hung parliament territory and really quite surprising just six months out from a General Election.

As the graph on page three of this “getting opinion polls right” pdf shows, the Labour lead over John Major’s government from August 1996 to Februrary 1997 was consistently between 12 and 25% across …

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Posted in Polls | Also tagged and | 15 Comments
Stephen Tall

The LDV Saturday caption competition – Nick Clegg’s microscope

By Stephen Tall | Sat 21st November 2009 - 12:30 pm

There’s no prize at stake – just the opportunity to prove you’re wittier than any other LDV reader …

nick clegg microscope

Here’s Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg campaigning in Winchester – what do you think he might be saying/thinking?

The winner of the most recent caption competition, Nick Clegg’s desk-job (according to The Voice’s judging panel of one) – Andy Mayer.

Posted in Caption Comp | 16 Comments
The Voice

Nick’s response to the Queen’s Speech: ” fantasy Queen’s Speech from a government that has run out of road”

By The Voice | Wed 18th November 2009 - 6:15 pm

So in the end the Queen’s Speech wasn’t cancelled – as the BBC reports:

Clegg, who had called for the speech to be cancelled and the remaining Parliamentary time before an election to be used to clean-up politics, said there was nothing in the proposed legislation to help create jobs, boost bank lending and fix the UK’s “rotten” political system.

And here in full is what Nick said today in response to the government measures announced by HM The Queen:

All the pageantry in the world cannot cover up the fact that this is a fantasy Queen’s Speech from a government that has run out of road in a Parliament that has lost the people’s trust.

This Queen’s Speech won’t give people the help and jobs they need in this recession and it won’t fix our rotten politics.

After 12 long years, in which this government has passed nearly 500 different laws, along with countless thousands of statutory instruments, it is right to stop and ask the question: what is this Queen’s Speech really for?

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The Voice

Nick’s Sheffield Hallam opponent quits as Tory candidate after just 10 days

By The Voice | Wed 18th November 2009 - 2:38 pm

Last week, LDV reported the Tories’ embarrassment in Nick Clegg’s seat of Sheffield Hallam, where news had just emerged that the party’s newly selected candidate had been kicked off a town council for failing to attend meetings.

The Tories’ Daniel Gage vowed at the time to fight on, promising a 20-year plan to take the seat from the Lib Dems. Just a few hours later he was ‘resigned’ by the local Tory association.

The Sheffield Telegraph tells all:

Daniel Gage, aged 24, was selected on November 7 as the Conservative representative to challenge Mr Clegg for his Sheffield Hallam seat.

But his campaign

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 17 Comments
Stephen Tall

Three reasons Nick Clegg was right to call for the ‘cancellation’ of the Queen’s Speech

By Stephen Tall | Tue 17th November 2009 - 6:15 pm

When I woke up yesterday morning to news reports that Nick Clegg had called for the Queen’s Speech to be cancelled – because with limited time before the general election it would be far better to use the time focusing on reforming Parliament ready for the new batch of MPs – I was impressed.

First, because it was one of the leading news items, and for a Lib Dem leader to be that high up the running order in peace-time is no mean achievement. Secondly, because he was focusing public and media attention once again on a key liberal …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , and | 19 Comments

Opinion: Six months to make the difference in Oxford East and across the UK

By Steve Goddard | Mon 16th November 2009 - 11:00 am

I’m writing this in the wake of Nick Clegg’s 54th Town Hall meeting since he became leader – held in fact in the Wesley Memorial Church in Oxford East. It’s always good to be reminded just how good Nick is when performing in front of an audience of any size: he was articulate, passionate and persuasive.

It was striking, chatting to people afterwards, that Nick was felt to be at his best when speaking with a little bit of passion – when he gets slightly riled, he articulates a liberal approach very effectively indeed. I’m pleased that we can …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 2 Comments
The Voice

LibLink … Nick Clegg: Don’t waste our time… bring forward real reform

By The Voice | Mon 16th November 2009 - 10:30 am

In today’s Independent, Nick Clegg makes a bold pitch – that Parliament should use the few months it has left before the election to try and actually achieve something to solve the big political issue of the year: restoring the public’s trust in Parliament. Here’s an excerpt:

On Wednesday, all the pomp and ceremony that Parliament can muster will be rolled out for the Queen’s Speech, setting out the Government’s list of new laws for the coming year. But the glitz and glamour will be based on a complete fiction. Parliament will find it difficult to pass any of the

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , and | 14 Comments
Mark Pack

Two converts to Twitter’s political benefits

By Mark Pack | Sun 15th November 2009 - 5:50 pm

Yesterday was London Region’s autumn conference, during which I heard from two recent converts to Twitter.

First, Keith House – leader of Eastleigh Council and probably the person with the best record of election results at both local and national level year in, year out in any council run by the Liberal Democrats.* Perhaps understandably given his record of electoral success, he hasn’t been chomping at the bit to innovate online  – but even Keith has now seen the benefits Twitter can bring and joined himself.

Keith highlighted how much greater the role of the internet would be at the next …

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Posted in Online politics | Also tagged , , , and | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

Nick Clegg meets Oxford – the live-tweet

By Stephen Tall | Thu 12th November 2009 - 6:10 pm

Nick Clegg’s latest ‘Meets You’ public meeting – in which he gets out of Westminster and meets real people across the UK – comes to Oxford tonight. I’m going to be live-tweeting the event over @libdemvoice – just click here to keep up with what Nick’s asked and what he says.

at Wesley Methodist Church, Oxford, waiting for Nick to speak. Couple of hundred people here.

a rather bedraggled-looking – well, it is raining – Evan Harris (MP for Oxford West) has just arrived.

Steve Goddard (candidate for Oxford East) introducing Nick, looking forward to overturning Labour’s 963 majority.

Nick takes to

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 5 Comments
Chris Davies

Opinion: Pull out our troops

By Chris Davies | Thu 12th November 2009 - 4:25 pm

It’s time that Liberal Democrats called for British troops to be pulled off the front line in Afghanistan. The justifications for their continuing presence vary with the day of the week and the desperation of the advocate.  I am not convinced by any of them.  I don’t know how we would recognise ‘success’ if it were to be claimed, and I don’t believe that our involvement is making the streets of Britain any safer.

Alone amongst the three party leaders Nick Clegg has voiced concerns not simply about shortages of helicopters (in the Great War the call was always for more …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Also tagged , , , and | 8 Comments
Mark Pack

Conservative PPC kicked off council for non-attendance

By Mark Pack | Thu 12th November 2009 - 12:50 pm

The Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Sheffield Hallam, Daniel Gage, would face a pretty uphill task to defeat Nick Clegg in any event. But he’s just made that job a whole lot harder, by being kicked off a town council for failing to turn up to meetings.

The Sheffield Telegraph reports:

Daniel Gage, one of five Tories on Dronfield Town Council, has been disqualified after failing to attend a single council meeting in the last six months.

Mr Gage, aged 24, said he is ‘heartbroken’ to have been kicked off the council just days before he was due to launch his campaign to

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 2 Comments
Iain Roberts

March with Nick and Simon

By Iain Roberts | Wed 11th November 2009 - 1:45 pm

Nick Clegg and Simon Hughes will be taking to the streets of London on Saturday 5th December to demand the Government got further in tackling climate change.

As an email from Simon Hughes stiringly says:

We are the party that has the courage to tackle climate change in Britain. We will go furthest on cutting carbon emissions. Go furthest in generating renewable energy. And go furthest in insulating homes.

But climate change can only be tackled by global action – and that is why the Copenhagen conference is so important. It could prove to be the most important in our lifetimes.

The march on December 5 is a chance for us to show the Government how strongly people in Britain feel. We can’t let this opportunity pass. And a strong Liberal Democrat presence on the march will send a clear message to the nation that we are the only party with the ambition and policies to reverse climate change.

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

Imagine having a well-paid job for life

By Mark Pack | Thu 5th November 2009 - 9:07 pm

So starts Nick Clegg’s comments in the latest Channel 4 Political Slot film from the party, featuring himself and Sarah Teather talking about changing our political system:

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Posted in Lib Dem TV | Also tagged and | 1 Comment
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