Tag Archives: simon hughes

Simon Hughes MP

Simon Hughes MP writes…My vote on the Same Sex Marriage Bill

By Simon Hughes MP | Fri 24th May 2013 - 11:53 am

I want to say a few personal words to my party friends and colleagues, straight and gay, after this week’s debates and votes on the same-sex marriage bill.

I voted for the second reading of the bill but abstained at third reading. I tried to make clear my reasons in my three speeches on the bill in February and this week. Please read them carefully. Some of you may be pleased or relieved that some Liberal Democrat MPs, including me, voted for amendments and against third reading or abstained on third reading. You may share our beliefs on this issue or …

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Caron Lindsay

11 Liberal Democrat MPs vote for registrars to be exempt from marrying same sex couples

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 20th May 2013 - 10:55 pm

The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill has made fairly easy progress through the Commons tonight. After a Government/Labour compromise on a review for extending civil partnerships to opposite sex couples, and the heavy defeat or withdrawal of amendments, including “son of Section 28”, it looks as though many of the barriers to this Bill’s passage have been removed.

There is still a further day of debate tomorrow, though, and further amendments to be debated.

One of the amendments discussed today, defeated by 340 votes to 150 in favour, was to allow registrars to exempt themselves from marrying same sex couples. Eleven Liberal …

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The Voice

LDVideo: Nick Clegg and Simon Hughes comment on the Lib Dem performance in the local elections

By The Voice | Sat 4th May 2013 - 5:20 pm

The Lib Dem leader and deputy leader on the outcomes from Thursday’s elections…

Nick Clegg on the Lib Dems’ local election performance

Local elections: Simon Hughes defends Lib Dem result

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Julian Huppert

Julian Huppert writes…Update on the Defamation Bill

By Julian Huppert | Tue 16th April 2013 - 6:50 pm

libel-reform-campaign-logoThe Defamation Bill has had a troubled passage through Parliament. Hijacked by Labour over Leveson, attacked by Tory backbenchers concerned about companies and undermined by vested interests, I was glad to see it finally reach one of its last Parliamentary stages in the Commons today.

I was on the Joint Committee that considered this bill when it was a draft – those discussions are already beginning to feel like a distant memory! But we will deliver a huge reform of the UK libel laws.

All the while, Lib Dems have been vociferous in …

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The Voice

Simon Hughes says that Lords reform is still on the Liberal Democrat agenda

By The Voice | Mon 15th April 2013 - 2:25 pm

The Financial Times website carries an article suggesting that senior Liberal Democrats are preparing to make the issue of Lords reform a deal breaker in any future coalition negotiations. It quotes Deputy Leader Simon Hughes as saying:

If the time did come for more coalition negotiations, the experience of coalition the first time will be clearly taken on board when we think through what we would do a second time. The constitutional reform agenda and particularly reform of the Lords would have to be a part of the package.

The article goes on to say that sources close to Nick Clegg …

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The Voice

Equal marriage: the speeches of Stephen Gilbert, Stephen Williams and Simon Hughes

By The Voice | Wed 6th February 2013 - 8:45 am

Last night saw the House of Commons approve the second reading of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill. Three Lib Dem MPs spoke, and here are their contributions to that historic debate…

steve gilbertStephen Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay) (LD):

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Chesterfield (Toby Perkins), who has articulated what many people of faith across our country have struggled with before coming to the conclusion that love should be for one and all and that marriage should not be an exclusive institution.

I declare an interest:

…

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Joe Bourke

Opinion: A Comprehensive Middle East Peace Settlement

By Joe Bourke | Wed 28th November 2012 - 1:10 pm

Simon Hughes said this year,  “We are near to the end of the opportunity of being able to get a peaceful two-state solution because of the extent of the settlements. The separation of Gaza from the West Bank and the increasing encroachment of the settlements mean that an alternative to the two-state model must be explored. We need to be honest and realistic about having a Plan B and a Plan C as well as a Plan A, as an international community.”

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John Alderdice

Lord Alderdice writes… Improving the Justice and Security Bill

By John Alderdice | Thu 22nd November 2012 - 12:53 pm

Last night the House of Lords debated and voted on the Justice and Security Bill at its Report stage. I know from reading Lib Dem Voice and from listening to the recent debate at Conference what a touchstone issue this Bill is for many members. Which is why I want to explain how the Bill, which we have now passed to the Commons, is a very different beast from that originally under consideration.

Some of you will have seen that the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) produced a unanimous report last week. We have two eminent Liberal …

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Mary Reid

LibLink: Simon Hughes – This water tax trickery in the corporate sector is unacceptable

By Mary Reid | Tue 13th November 2012 - 12:30 pm

Simon HughesOver in the Observer, Simon Hughes is making his views on tax avoidance perfectly clear.

Every pound lost to tax avoidance, tax planning, tax efficiency, or whatever other euphemism is used, by people who simply don’t want to make their contribution is a pound that cannot be spent on vital services. At a time when we are asking individuals and households to make great financial sacrifices, behaviour of this kind from the corporate sector is simply unacceptable.

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Caron Lindsay

Nick Clegg does PMQs in style

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 7th November 2012 - 6:55 pm

Nick Clegg did Prime Minister’s Questions today while David Cameron is schmoozing his way round the Middle East. He was so assured, confident and natural and spoke completely without notes. He even answered the question he was given and not the one he wanted to answer, too. He made David Cameron look like a complete amateur, to be honest, and Gordon Brown, too.

My Liberal Democrat Voice colleague Nick Thornsby reminded us on Twitter this morning that four years ago, two days after Barack Obama was elected the first time round, Nick, then a humble third party leader, questioned PM Gordon Brown, who put him down quite snidily. And the subject of his questions? Taxing the wealthy and cutting taxes for the poorest. Nothing if not consistent. Have a look here.

 

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Mark Pack

MP conference fringe league table 2012: Norman Baker is the new Simon Hughes, but he’s no Vince Cable

By Mark Pack | Tue 18th September 2012 - 10:25 am

Back for its fourth year (see 2009, 2010 and 2011) is my conference fringe meeting league table, showing how many fringes each MP will be speaking at. As ever, this is based on the information from the official fringe listings in the printed conference directory. With the reshuffle, I expect a fair number of fringe organisers are reshuffling their panels too; the table is still however a good indicator of the combination of demand for certain MPs and their enthusiasm for working the fringe.

Trends to note include that Cable topped the table the first two times, then slipped to third …

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Helen Duffett

Autumn 2012 Conference agenda: online now

By Helen Duffett | Fri 10th August 2012 - 3:20 pm

Simon Hughes MP emails party members:

We’re now just a few weeks away from our main annual conference.

If you’re already heading to Brighton this year, that’s great. I look forward to seeing you there.

The agenda is now online.

As well as the opportunity to debate with, quiz and meet the Deputy Prime Minister and the Parliamentary Parties, we have a packed programme including speeches from Sarah Teather, Tim Farron and Vince Cable, and policy debates on growth, housing and green jobs.

If you’ve not yet signed up to come to conference, please do so here.

It is a

…

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The Voice

Simon Hughes: Keeping the green agenda on track

By The Voice | Thu 26th July 2012 - 8:15 am

An email from Simon Hughes to party members and supporters yesterday read…

As the Guardian reports today, the Liberal Democrats have stopped George Osborne giving in to his backbenchers and kept the Coalition’s green agenda on track.

Liberal Democrats are determined to make the Coalition Government the greenest ever and prove that going green can be good for business and jobs.

Today’s announcement of subsidy levels for renewable energies gives investors the long term stability they need and should see £20-25bn invested by 2017.

It will help create new green jobs and keep us on track to meet our ambitious climate change targets.

Liberal Democrats …

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Mary Reid

LibLink: Simon Hughes – Polly’s advice to the Lib Dems is double-edged

By Mary Reid | Fri 8th June 2012 - 2:03 pm

Simon Hughes has a letter in the Guardian today responding to Polly Toynbee’s article “Now is the perfect time for Liberal Democrats to wield the knife“.

Simon writes:

Polly Toynbee’s argument, like some arguments she has made before, is based on a false and misleading premise – that this government is embarking on some ideological dismantling of the state. This does everyone a disservice.

Here are three reasons why: first, by the end of this parliament the government will be spending about £730bn a year, a full 42% of GDP and roughly the same as we did in 2008. Hardly back to

…

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Mark Pack

Simon Hughes challenges Harriet Harman over Labour’s record in Sheffield

By Mark Pack | Sun 29th April 2012 - 9:55 am

From a party news release:

Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader, Simon Hughes, joined Liberal Democrat councillors in Sheffield to highlight more than £4m of wasteful spending by Labour locally.

The figures were revealed while Labour Deputy Leader, Harriet Harman, visited the city, attempting to defend Labour’s waste on Sheffield City Council.

Local Liberal Democrat councillors are campaigning to save Sheffield’s weekly bin collections, vital recycling services and local dementia homes, placed under threat of closure by Labour councillors.

Senior Sheffield Labour councillors have argued that no money is available, but there has been a staggering £4.2m of wasteful spending.

In the last 12 months Labour councillors have:

  • Approved

…

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Stephen Tall

LDVideo: Clegg – we don’t need Hunt inquiry. Hughes – we need Hunt inquiry

By Stephen Tall | Sat 28th April 2012 - 2:55 pm

Here’s Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg saying that the Leveson Inquiry is the best place for culture secretary Jeremy Hunt to give evidence about his role in the BSkyB takeover bid…

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Stephen Tall

Simon Hughes calls for independent inquiry into Jeremy Hunt

By Stephen Tall | Fri 27th April 2012 - 8:48 am

As the BBC News reports here, Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes last night called for the independent advisor on the ministerial code to investigate whether the allegations that Conservative culture secretary Jeremy Hunt was too friendly to the Murdochs are accurate:

Deputy leader Simon Hughes has become the first senior Liberal Democrat to join calls for an inquiry into whether Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt breached the ministerial code of conduct. Downing Street says there are no plans to investigate the contact between News Corp and Mr Hunt’s ex-special adviser. Mr Hughes said he could not understand why the issue

…

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Stephen Tall

In other news… Michael Brown extradited, unpaid party internships, Jo Swinson for cabinet? & other stories

By Stephen Tall | Tue 24th April 2012 - 5:37 pm

Here’s a round-up of stories we haven’t had time to cover on the site this past few days…

Lib Dem donor Michael Brown to be extradited to UK (BBC News)

Convicted fraudster and former Lib Dem donor Michael Brown is facing a hearing in Spain for extradition to the UK. He was flown to Madrid on Saturday to be handed to UK officials after being arrested in the Dominican Republic. In 2008 Brown, who had gone on the run to the Dominican Republic from the UK, was jailed in his absence for seven years for stealing £36m from clients after posing

…

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Stephen Tall

LDVideo Conference Special: the views of Nick Clegg, party members & Simon Hughes

By Stephen Tall | Sun 11th March 2012 - 7:15 am

If you’re missing out on the thrills and spills of the Lib Dems’ spring conference in NewcastleGateshead, hopefully these videos will offer you some flavour of proceedings…

Nick Clegg to tell Lib Dems: Stop lamenting, start celebrating

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Stephen Tall

In other news… Richard Kemp for Liverpool, Kennedy on the UK, defection in Cambridge, Hughes at Leveson

By Stephen Tall | Sun 4th March 2012 - 3:45 pm

Here’s a round-up of stories we haven’t had time to cover on the site this past week…

Richard Kemp to represent Liberal Democrats in Liverpool mayor election in May (Liverpool Echo)

‘He said: “I am standing because I believe that only the Liberal Democrats have the long term strategies which will place this city in a leading position able to create the jobs and investment which this city so badly needs. Liverpool needs an encompassing vision and direction that everyone in the city, residents, business and friends can buy into and support.”

You can read Richard’s own account of …

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Stephen Tall

LDVideo: Simon Hughes on the Coalition Budget, 50p tax rate and NHS reform bill

By Stephen Tall | Wed 29th February 2012 - 7:55 am

Simon Hughes, the Lib Dem deputy leader, was interviewed by the BBC’s Andrew Neil at the weekend on some of the key issues currently facing the party and the Coalition. These included the Lib Dem push for tax-cuts for the low-paid, maintaining the 50p tax-rate for those earning more than £150,000, and the NHS reform bill.

Here’s what he had to say:

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Nick T

Laws and Hughes up pressure on Osborne to cut taxes for the lowest paid

By Nick T | Mon 20th February 2012 - 4:58 pm

Yesterday’s Independent on Sunday carried the news that Lib Dem MPs will this week step up the pressure on the chancellor, George Osborne, to move more quickly to raise the income tax personal allowance to £10,000. This follows Nick Clegg’s speech last month in which he called publicly for the upcoming budget to go faster than previously anticipated in implementing the policy.

As the Indy reports:

This week the Lib Dems will mount a major campaign to persuade Mr Osborne to agree to a sharp increase in the allowance. Simon Hughes, the party’s deputy leader, has urged all members and

…

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Stephen Tall

In other news… Vince upsets Tories, Liverpool to choose mayor, Radcliffe hexes Clegg, and Hughes settles with Murdoch

By Stephen Tall | Sun 12th February 2012 - 5:27 pm

Here’s a round-up of stories we haven’t had time to cover on the site this past week…

  • Cable sticks by Les Ebdon as his choice of ‘university tsar’ – the Lib Dem business secretary is opening up a rift in the Coalition:

    Business Secretary Vince Cable is standing by his candidate to head the university fair access watchdog, despite a rejection by MPs. Les Ebdon had been put forward by ministers as their preference for director of the Office for Fair Access. But MPs on a select committee have voted to try to block the appointment. However ministers are not backing

    • …

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    Helen Duffett

    LibLink: Simon Hughes MP – Students are not being put off university by tuition fees

    By Helen Duffett | Tue 31st January 2012 - 8:53 am

    Simon Hughes MP writes at Comment is Free, following the publication of the latest UCAS figures.

    He acknowledges the top-line 8% decline in applications and the mass protest that followed the original decision, but points out that applications from students in deprived areas have barely declined at all:

    …a more objective analysis of the data shows a clearer picture. Although applications were down by a significant number, the total number of 18-year-olds in England this year is significantly down as well. If you adjust the figures to take account of changes in demographic, the application rate in England – which

    …

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    The Voice

    Lib Dem MPs win concessions ahead of benefits cap vote

    By The Voice | Tue 31st January 2012 - 7:35 am

    Lib Dem MPs, including the party’s deputy leader Simon Hughes, look set to obtain concessions from Iain Duncan Smith to win their support for the Coalition’s controversial welfare bill, which will introduce a benefit cap of a maximum of £26,000. Here’s how The Guardian reports the news:

    The government is expected to make a series of concessions in the coming days on it controversial £26,000 household benefits cap to win over wavering Liberal Democrat MPs. Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, is expected to agree that a discretionary fund should be established to ease the burden on families

    …

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    Tim Farron MP

    Tim Farron MP writes… Are two Eds better than one?

    By Tim Farron MP | Wed 18th January 2012 - 12:54 pm

    Are 2 Eds better than one? I’m not sure – but the two Eds said something very interesting over the weekend: apparently they don’t have a ‘Plan B’ for the economy after all!

    As I drove into the village of Haverthwaite on Saturday morning to do some residents’ surveying, I was preparing to turn the radio off and then Ed Balls popped up. I listened with amazement. In his interview he admitted not only that the programme of cuts being carried out by the Coalition government were right, but that Labour would not over turn them if they were in Government. Unfortunately however he didn’t go as far as to admit that the cause behind all the cuts – the dire economic situation – was in fact largely his fault.

    You’ll have heard Simon Hughes and me over the weekend rightly calling on the two Eds to apologise. We want them to apologise to the British public for deceiving them for 18 months before finally admitting that what the Liberal Democrats have been doing in Government is broadly the right approach. However, there is one apology we didn’t call for publicly, but which they still should make – that’s an apology to you!

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    Philip Cowley and Mark Stuart

    The Independent View: And then there was one… (Unmasked! The only backbench Lib Dem MP 100% loyal to the Coalition)

    By Philip Cowley and Mark Stuart | Fri 18th November 2011 - 9:45 am

    When a quarter of the parliamentary Conservative party rebels, everyone sits up and takes notice. On 24 October, 2011, 81 Conservative MPs defied a three-line whip to vote in favour of an EU referendum: cue a blaze of negative publicity for David Cameron and the Tory party whips.

    But a week or so later one-quarter of Lib Dem MPs rebelled, and (almost) no one noticed. In nine separate votes on 1 and 2 November, a total of 14 Lib Dem MPs voted against various aspects of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill. The largest …

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    Stephen Tall

    Southwark Lib Dems face questions over Ministry of Sound donations: 3 important points to consider

    By Stephen Tall | Tue 8th November 2011 - 1:30 pm

    Southwark Lib Dem councillors and local MP Simon Hughes have been in the spotlight the past 24 hours following their decisio to oppose a planning application objected to by the Ministry of Sound, a prominent donor to the party. BBC News reports:

    Political donations to the Liberal Democrats from a nightclub chain totalling almost £80,000 went undeclared as its councillors discussed a tower block development opposed by the firm, BBC London has learned.

    The Ministry of Sound, in Elephant and Castle, south London, was fighting to prevent developer Oakmayne building a residential tower block nearby. The club feared noise complaints from

    …

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    Paul Walter

    PMQs: Tim Farron asks “Question of the week” – Ed Balls signals four runs

    By Paul Walter | Fri 4th November 2011 - 7:53 pm

    In my ever-earnest toil to prepare this review, this week I have been reviewing web sites which explain cricket umpire signals. I also checked the umpire signals for netball, American football and baseball.

    There is no doubt about it. Ed Balls was signalling a four at Prime Ministers’ Questions. His hand was a bit lower than normal, but it would pass to signal a boundary at Morley Cricket Club.

    For a change, I’m going to stand this review on its head this week and concentrate on questions from backbenchers, starting with Liberal Democrats.

    Question of the week came from Tim Farron:

    The world population

    …

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    NewsHound

    LibLink: Simon Hughes – It’s our job to rein in the ruthless Tories

    By NewsHound | Sun 18th September 2011 - 9:55 am

    Today’s Observer carries an interview with Simon Hughes:

    At a time when the Tory right is pressing David Cameron ever harder to follow its agenda and trample on the Lib Dems, Hughes is acting as his party’s, and the coalition’s, left-wing brake. “I think the useful role I can play is to be a guardian of the policy and traditions of the left of the party,” he says…

    Hughes has a strong message for such Tories as they demand a more eurosceptic agenda and the end of the 50p rate of tax for those earning more than £150,000. He describes them as

    …

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      Very sad news. I remember many a lively evening of erudite discussion in Leeds - Michael was a true intellect - and a genuinely warm soul. My condolences to his...
    • Jack
      This is bang on. What is the point of a liberal party that won't stand up for rights, especially when both government and opposition want to make hay out of div...
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      I totally understand this is a key issue for many Lib Dems (and I'm not speaking for Lib Dems myself, I'm an ex-member). But I don't understand how this 'vangua...
    • John Grout
      Fully agree with all of this. I've seen a few MPs' Pride Month posts reference Section 28 abolition and Same-Sex Marriage - we need to start talking about this...