I'm at Conference and fresh out of the Local Government Association (LGA) fringe meeting on this issue where I heard Ruth Dombey, leader of Sutton Council make the case for devolving more powers to local authorities, and Don Foster MP, Under Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government remind us of the great initiatives [...]
Scouting has been a force for good in the world, and Michael celebrates the achievement of being awarded the Wood Badge and thinks about the paths that we all take. Be Prepared. Good advice, but Scouting needs more adult volunteers. Watch the video. Think about it. Get involved. Join the adventure.
In an entirely predictable development Lord Bonkers reports that former Lib Dem head of policy Richard Grayson has joined the Labour Party. So predictable that I wrote in February last year on the setting up of Grayson's self help group Liberal Left: "... its leading lights are seeking to work their passage into the Labour party - where their ridiculous and ill thought out views will no doubt be taken far more seriously than they are being taken in the Lib Dems."
Yesterday at the Lib Dem conference in Glasgow a noisy group of protestors gathered outside the entrance. I couldn't tell exactly what they were protesting about, except that I caught a reference to the so-called "Bedroom Tax" on a banner. There were fewer protestors braving the wind and rain this morning, but some of them got close enough to press leaflets about the Bedroom Tax into our hands. By the time I reached the security tent at entrance to the centre the rain had pretty much destroyed them, and I accepted the the scanning machine operator's offer to throw them ...
Since I started this blog there have been many comments over the years detailing so-called healing by tribal healers and so on from countries around the world. I entered into conversation with one of them but have since become convinced that they are nothing more than the usual scams. So, to all those would-be commenters......
I won't be at Lib Dem Conference in Glasgow over the next few days. It is the first time since 1993 that I have missed Conference. 20 years ago I missed the gathering in Torquay as I was in the final stages of writing my PhD thesis and I had a deadline looming. This year, I am missing Glasgow because of completely different reasons. The photo above gives a hint of the reasons why. The two goats
Note from the county council Temporary Closing of St Albans City public Footpath No.071 NOTICE is given that the Hertfordshire County Council intend to make an Order under Section 14[1] of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, to prohibit all pedestrians from using that length of St Albans City Public Footpath No.071 from its junction with Lemsford Road south eastwards to its junction with Jennings Road, a distance of approximately 100 metres. The purpose of the Order is to enable water main installation works to take place. The section of public footpath will be closed for approximately 20 days during ...
In July Richard Grayson used the Compass website to announce that he was leaving the Liberal Democrats. This evening he has used Comment is Free to announce that he is joining Labour.
When the story about Cyril Smith abusing boys reappeared in the media last year I wrote: I first heard of the allegations against Cyril Smith when I read them in Private Eye in 1979. The Eye had picked them up from the Rochdale Alternative Press (RAP - those were the days when any self-respecting town had an 'alternative' newspaper). Northern Voices reprinted the original RAP story in 2010. My instinct has always been to assume that they were true, if only because I could not see why anyone would trouble to invent anything so tawdry - he "'told me to ...
Monday morning's debate on economics at the Liberal Democrat conference is the most significant of the conference. It is significant because it is effectively the first time that the party has ever been consulted about Orange Book editors David Laws and Paul Marshall's plan to convert the Liberal Democrats to neoliberalism. The key votes will come on the Social Liberal Forum's amendments. If these amendments succeed, members will know that the Orange Book project has finally been defeated. If they fail, it will be a Pyrrhic victory for the right, because the party will haemorrhage active members. I've provided further ...
The Lib Dem Conference has just held a debate on a motion that would have seen us have a policy in favour mandatory filtering of pornography unless people opted-out. It was deeply illiberal and impractable. Fortunately, conference voted for it to be "referenced back" to the Federal Policy Committee. Here is what I would have said, had my card been picked: Conference, there can't be many people in this room who would say their sensibilities are reflected on the pages of The Daily Mail. indeed, I imagine it's somewhat the opposite. With the exception of Secret Courts, on which that ...
Two years ago I chose Restless, a track by the 1990s British country rock band The Rockingbirds, as a Sunday music video. The good news is that they have just released a new CD. No Depression writes about it and the band: For the uninitiated, and that will be the majority of people, this is the Rockingbirds third album, with the previous one being released in 1995 and, mercifully, absolutely nothing has changed with the passing of time. In the early 1990's, the music industry - and especially British music - was in the doldrums. A small number of hardy ...
In Hansard you can find this interchange. Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when the local housing allowance will be extended from the nine Pathfinder authorities to all local authorities. [R] [146690] Malcolm Wicks: There will be a comprehensive evaluation of local housing allowance Pathfinders including interviews with claimants, landlords, local authority
The text is here.
Lord Ashcroft has obtained opinion polls about the bills tabled by the tories to show what would happen were there to be an overall conservative majority. He wrote about them here. Quoting from that: Mr Bone's favourite among this assortment of "true blue bills" is the proposal to name the August Bank Holiday "Margaret Thatcher Day". Unfortunately it is also the least popular. Only 13% of
The motion calling for internet filtering was defeated overwhelmingly via a reference back earlier today. I was not called to speak – apparently, there was a "huge stack" of cards put in to speak, "most on one side of the debate". But if I had been called to speak, here's what I would have said. Conference, I am what many of you might regard as a geek. I have worked in IT for many years, including over a decade of experience working for Internet Service Providers. But that is not why I am up here today. I am also a ...
It's the enduring burden placed upon liberals that we are often found to have made the correct policies calls in the crucible of history. But we fail to turn such perspicacity into a victory in the more immediate court of public opinion. Whether it is on major issues such as the Liberal party's historic pioneering of the welfare state before any other; the commitment to green issues which predated Cameron's hugging of a husky by two decades; Caroline Pidgeon's proposal for a bicycle hire scheme before either Boris or Ken; liberals have historically been ahead of the policy curve, nut ...
In a triumph of common sense, the party conference has OKed an ongoing nuclear power program. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24100833 The alternative to this was "who knows what.." though we do know what for the Germans have dabbled, and will seemingly fail at enormous cost, in their attempt to remain a competitive industrial power and eschew nuclear energy at the same time. This article in the Daily Telegraph late last week pretty much sums up the own goal that Germany has kicked against itself and will continue to kick for decades to come. The Japanese on the other hand with their constant ...
Plans to impose a blanket £3,000 'bail' bond on all visitors from Nigeria, Ghana, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are on hold after Clegg refused to "sign them off", according to the Guardian . However speaking on the Andrew Marr show this this morning Clegg confirmed that a pilot scheme would go ahead. He suggested the bail bond becomes a general tool for border officials rather than a blanket policy covering all visitors irrespective of how genuine they appear. The danger is that border staff could now have a new weapon in their armoury to disproportionately exercise against citizens of colour ...
Conservative Home uses the arrival of Lib Dem conference to argue that the problem with the party is that: No-one likes them, and they do care Part of that waking up process is the acceptance that quite often government involves doing things that some people don't like. Suddenly, when your job involves deciding to support [...]
Sun 15th
15:15
Hung Parliament: what Lib Dem members think will happen... and what you want to happen
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Almost 700 party members responded – thank you – and we're publishing the full results. 76% of Lib Dem members predict another hung parliament in 2015 What do you believe is the likeliest outcome of the next general election? 8% – A Conservative minority government 6% – An overall majority for the Conservatives 2% – A Conservative-led coalition with parties other than Labour or the Lib Dems 14% – A Conservative-Lib Dem ...
The defence of the realm is the foremost responsibility of any government. The defence policy paper that will be debated in Glasgow this week is not only worrying, but potentially dangerous. The first business of any defence policy is to recognise that the armed forces are to wage war in the name of our interests. We must be clear what these interests are. We can then be clear as to when we will deploy our armed forces into combat, what equipment they will need, the training they will require and the size and composition they must be. War is, after ...
Last night the 'no to secret courts' campaign won an award at the annual Lib Dem Voice ceremony. Now we need to roll back the illiberal laws. First off , a quick thank you to all who voted for Jo Shaw, Martin Tod and I to be the recipients of Lib Dem Voice's 'Best Online [...]
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... Marbury: rachel reeves is still upset Harsh, probably a bit unfair. But not totally unfair."Rachel Reeves is still upset" by @ianleslie » http://bit.ly/1dfkxGq Nick Clegg tells the Lib Dems, we're the party of jobs » Spectator Blogs Gah, the Spectator again says jobs at record high. Simply not true of employment rate (diff from absol numbers) http://bit.ly/15unUYl The Real Blog: The Sound of Gunfire revisited David Boyle showing why he was named LD Blogger of the Year last night » "The Sound of Gunfire revisited" http://bit.ly/161Kpqb EXCLUSIVE: What Lib Dem members think ...
Lord Shipley gives some of the background to Amendment 2 to the Economy Motion. A year ago our Party committed itself to building up to 300,000 new homes a year. The proposals were outlined in the housing policy paper Decent Homes for All. The aim was to achieve this by supporting private investment and by giving greater powers to local councils and social landlords. A shortage of homes has made it extremely difficult for young people to buy their own home. Rents continue to rise to unaffordable levels for many and 500,000 people in work now receive housing benefit because ...
I believe that it's important for the Liberal Democrats and its members that more people get more involved more widely in the party. I've been trickling out posts about background and procedure, but it's time to flip around the Kolb learning cycle from Abstract to Active, and encourage you to do something. Mostly, I've been [...]
Sunday: If the Conservatories are the dastardly DALEKS... and Hard Labour are the soulless CYBERMEN... are the Liberal Democrats: a) The SILURIANS - green-tinged former rulers of Earth; now caught in a suspended animation time-warp... b) The SONTARANS - bit shouty; always keen for a fight; treated as a bit of a joke by everyone else... or c) The WEEPING ANGELS - kill you with kindness; change position suddenly when you're not looking; can't even look at each other...
[IMG: Political Ravishment] According to the Independent, Nick Clegg wants to take on the 'left' in his Party. In doing so he accuses the Social Liberal Forum's amendments to the economics motion as "ending the Bank of England's independence by ordering it to do more to create jobs" and "tearing up the fiscal mandate." Let's deal with the first accusation. The 1998 Bank of England Act granted the Bank independence to set interest rates. That is instrument independence. However, the remit for the Bank is set by the government and so The Bank does not have goal independence, it takes ...
[IMG: Embedded image permalink] Would you believe it. I can't quite believe it myself, but you are now reading the Lib Dem Blog of the Year 2013. I feel slightly embarrassed to admit this, because I have only been blogging seriously since February, and I was among a number of really brilliant fellow nominees, any of whom could have won. So I am ever so grateful to those who nominated me - and very grateful to my fellow nominees who I have read to learn how to do it. I have run this blog since 2007, but in rather a ...
Our policy piece of yesterday on trailer parks (let's call a spade a spade) in the UK left some readers hungering for more detail than just a moratorium on new "parks" and a timeline for elimination of the practice. Here we shall elucidate one way in which this might be achieved. It might be useful though for us to pin our colours to the mast first by saying that we regard the Prince of Wales' Poundbury initiative (pictured below) in Dorset as the most significant town planning model worth emulating since World War Two. With that declaration followers can get ...
Sun 15th
11:02
F17 Alternative Motion: Protecting Children from High Street Coffee #talknottech #ldconf
Lib Dem conference is going to be debating Protecting Children from internet pornography. However, over a coffee decided to slightly reword the motion based on something close to hand. Conference welcomes the fact that:A.Caffeine has the power to transform our society by empowering citizens, improving and extending services, and enabling innovation. B. It is vital both for our economy and our society that we teach children how to use caffeine from an early age. C. Liberal Democrats have a long tradition of protecting free speech and the right for adults to make informed choices about their own caffeine habits. However, ...
Everyone's talking about Localism now – we've even got a Government Act. Yet when that very Act gives the Secretary of State 126 new powers over local government, you have to wonder if we all mean the same thing. Liberal Democrats have been advocating devolution, double devolution and subsidiarity for many years. But central government continues to tighten its throttlehold over local authorities with little trust in local politicians and local communities and their ability to do what's best for local people. London boroughs receive 74% of their income through central government grants, compared to 31% for New York, 18% ...
Today's Observer includes these comments from myself on the outlook for the Liberal Democrats: [IMG: Parliament - Big Ben] The basic maths of government are very simple: 303 Conservative MPs and 55 Liberal Democrat ones. It is inevitable (and indeed democratic) therefore that any coalition between the parties involves a significant number of Conservative policies being enacted. It is the inevitable downside of taking the opportunity actually to wield a share of power and get a slug of Lib Dem policies through too. The list is good - helping the least well-off of pupils with the pupil premium, creating green ...
Contrary to what is often claimed, nations do not have psyches they have populaces. An individual mind contains contradictions, in a nation these contradictions are multiplied exponentially. Take Germany: the land of both Beethoven and Hitler, the Stasi and Gestapo but also some of the toughest privacy laws in Europe today, and has been home [...]
With Liberal Democrat conference in Glasgow, it is understandable that journalists are breaking out the hung Parliament speculation file. Yet almost all the speculation is deeply flawed, repeating long-standing errors and failing even to learn from 2010. Speculating about whether the Lib Dems might prefer Labour or the Tories in a hung Parliament may be fun, yet also mostly pointless. That is for two reasons. First, it is the voters who get nearly all the power as it is the Parliamentary arithmetic that determines which party combinations are feasible. The chance of the third party leader having a full choice ...
Sun 15th
10:03The Independent View: Coalition should do more to promote the creative industries as a growth sector
[IMG: Wordle] The Coalition Government's record for the creative industries is mixed. On the plus side, innovations such as the Creative Industries Council are welcome and have enabled a lot of cross industry collaboration on common issues affecting different sectors, such as skills and access to finance. The enabling of the Live Music Act to come into law and promises of further entertainment deregulation are of huge benefit to my sector. Creative industries have benefited from tax breaks to enable them to continue to compete globally. On the other side, the UK Government has embarked down a road of potentially ...
Michael Gove is right: some poor families do budget badly - but it's not their fault (tags: ) 'Doctor Who' at 50: Is Colin Baker the greatest Doctor of all? Yes. Next question? (tags: ) http://pinterest.com/pin/164803667587264707/ via @stephentall, Tony Benn's five powerful questions. http://t.co/9d6l4NGLt7 (tags: (from twitter) ) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24081267 Sad to hear that Tony Benn is ill. http://t.co/BFcc78HAF1 Hope he gets well soon. (tags: (from twitter) ) @lordbonkers this is my favourite: http://t.co/vZsQLNw91N - appropriate for #ldconf too, cos it's scottish (tags: (from twitter) ldconf ) posted My Peeps at #ldconf: I have a favour to ask - ...
Nick Sutton at #tomorrowspaperstoday has pointed out that the fist edition of the Observer ran a rather different headline from the second edition... First edition Second edition Do you think the change could have anything to do with this?... Ouch
If we, as Lib Dems, have learnt anything from the march from complete local authority control, through self-management of schools and on to the drive for academies and free schools, it is that localism in education should not just be about empowering head teachers and governing bodies but must also raise standards across the board. If this means bringing back some of those vital local authority-run ancillary services that allow heads to concentrate on the quality of teaching, so be it. Dogmatic opposition based on historic myth or anecdotal evidence has no place in education policy. As we have witnessed ...
[IMG: Nick Clegg Cathkin Marsh] Seven key environment groups have given their verdict on the environmental performance of Cameron, Clegg and Miliband. Their report, Green Standard 2013, is pretty condemning. After a promising first few months, the coalition government and the UK's senior politicians have been largely silent about the UK's environmental goals. The prime minister's promise that he would lead "the greenest government ever" has been devalued by the chancellor's framing of high environmental standards as a threat to economic success. David Cameron is castigated for having failed to address climate change scepticism among members of his party. The ...
In terms of internal party discussion, one of the more controversial points at the current Liberal Democrat Conference is motion F17, "Protecting Children from Online Pornography". This calls for opt-out filtering of the internet to protect children from "porn", something I'm quite opposed to. It's attracted criticism from mainstream internal groups as well as anti-internet-censorship campaigners – a conference update mailing from Liberal Reform supported calls to vote against this illiberal policy. Thus was spawned the Talk Not Tech campaign against this motion. And in a survey out today, 81% of Liberal Democrat members agree: only 16% are for opt-out ...
The Lib Dems list a number of achievements in the coalition government. Whatever we might think, one does stand out as a real achievement and that is the increase in the basic tax allowance, which will be £10,000 from April 2014. A manifesto pledge fulfilled then. However, like so many reforms this could easily be left for inflation to erode if we are no longer in government. So, I'd like to see a new policy; a new target. To link the basic tax allowance to the minimum wage and take it out of the political arena altogether. Let's challenge the ...
[IMG: School Uniforms] Liberal Democrat Schools Minister David Laws has announced he is to revamp guidance on school uniforms to help schools cut costs for parents. With family budgets squeezed, Laws believes schools should place more emphasis on value for money for parents when choosing new uniforms. He will urge schools to end the practice of using a single uniform supplier, which stops parents from shopping around to find the best deal. The new guidance, to be issued by the Department for Education tomorrow, will ask governing bodies to: Avoid exclusive single supplier contracts except when regular tendering competitions are ...
[IMG: image] Well done to the LDV team for a fantastic, rejuvenated awards presentation last night. We had Nick Clegg, Paddy, Willie Rennie, Kirsty Williams and a host of parliamentarians there. Special mention goes to Caron Lindsay for giving the awards a shot in the arm. I've liberally criticised Nick Clegg here, so it's only right I praise him where it is due. First of all, it was to his credit that he took considerable time out to attend the awards. Secondly, through his jokes about the arcane inner workings of the party (references back etc) and his remarkable ability ...
Sun 15th
08:25
Saturday at Lib Dem conference: new logo, new fonts and someone lining themselves up to be new leade...
[View the story "New logo, new website - Saturday at Lib Dem conference" on Storify]
So, after staying in the conference bar rather later than intended, I'm hastily typing this before getting ready to head out to the SECC for day 2 of this years Liberal Democrat Conference. Or rather, Conferences. Yesterday I spent a couple of hours in the Scottish Liberal Democrat conference - which was being run concurrently with the start of Federal Conference in order to take advantage of so many people already coming to the Glasgow. It was nice to see the State Party at work - and the highlight was a speech from George Lyon MEP. Most of the rest ...
The Tory lead over the Liberal Democrats in eight key marginal seats held by David Cameron's party has only gone up by 1 per cent since 2010 according to the latest marginal seats poll by Lord Aschroft. In 2010 the Tories won the eight seats of Watford, St Albans, Oxford West & Abingdon, Harrogate & Knaresborough, Camborne & Redruth, Truro & Falmouth, Newton Abbot and Montgomeryshire with a 2% lead over the Lib Dems. In the new poll, that lead is now 3%, well within the poll's margin of error and with a significant amount of Labour voters still willing ...
Sun 15th
08:15EXCLUSIVE: What Lib Dem members think about nuclear power, fracking, tuition fees and online pornogr...
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Almost 700 party members responded – thank you – and we're publishing the full results. In advance of this year's federal conference in Glasgow, we asked about a number of hot-topic issues that are going to be discussed here over the next few days. here's what you had to say about the issues being debated today, Sunday... 65% say yes to nuclear power Do you believe that nuclear power, alongside oil and ...
Conference on Monday will debate an amendment from the Social Liberal Forum (SLF) to the Economy Motion which calls the government to "monitor closely the progress of the Bank of England, ensuring it has a refocused mandate that allows monetary policy to aid growth, reduce the unemployment rate to below 6% creating at least a million jobs, and to address weak income growth, targeting a higher level of national/median income." Who could possibly disagree with that? Well, me for a start. In practice this is reducing the independence of the Bank of England. Liberal Democrats have long argued that the ...
Looking for a good Conference fringe event for Sunday evening? Look no further. Topical debate, lively speakers. "Why aren't the Liberal Democrats more liberal? Date/Time: Sunday 15th Sept 1815-1930 Place: Alsh 2 Room, SECC Conference Centre. Chairman: Mark Littlewood, Director General, IEA Speakers: Jeremy Browne MP Emma Carr, Deputy Director, Big Brother Watch Julian Huppert MP Chris Snowdon, Head of Lifestyle Economics, IEA Stephen Tall, Co-Editor of LibDem Voice Hosted by Liberal Vision and the Institute of Economic Affairs. See you there we hope!
[IMG: Paddy Ashdown Glasgow] In an interview with the Guardian, Paddy Ashdown is however unequivocal. He says we should not turn our back on a future liaison with the Tories: Paddy Ashdown has urged his restive party to prepare for the possibility of a second coalition with the Tories, saying the Conservatives have proved surprisingly good and trustworthy partners for the Liberal Democrats in government. As the newspaper recognises, that's not going to go down well with the left of the party. In a mea culpa, Paddy admits that he was wrong to have pushed so hard for a deal ...
This photograph shows the junction known locally as Sinderins, where Dundee's Perth Road and Hawkhill join at the foot of Blackness Avenue. James Maclaren, 'a Soane medallist, and the best educated architect of Dundee's Victorian age' (David M. Walker: Dundee architects and architecture 1770-1914'), designed the uncompleted terrace Nos. 1-5 Blackness Avenue in 1868. Maclaren's other work in Dundee included the famed Cox's Stack (mill chimney) which still features above a leisure park in Lochee), the Savings Bank in Euclid Street and the Congregational Church in Broughty Ferry. He died of a heart attack in June 1893.
In an interview with Welsh Labour MP Ann Clwyd, who is currently conducting a review of the NHS complaints system in England she said: "people don't seem willing to admit there are problems in Wales and yet the messages I've had from all over Wales make it perfectly plain that there are problems here." She added: "I asked for a comparison between Wales and England and the diagnostics for the two countries and Wales is behind England in every instance. It appears that things are very bad." The Welsh Labour Government refuses to face the facts. They ignore the damning ...
Last night's conference rally focussed on the million extra private sector jobs the coalition government have already created and set out our ambition to create a million more. Speakers referred to the huge investment we have put into new apprenticeships, the £700 tax cut that has taken many low earners out of tax altogether and the huge investment in education targeted at the most disadvantaged pupils. There is a lot more that needs to be done, which is why I am pleased to see that we are also pursuing an increase in the minimum wage. The Guardian reports that Vince ...
Returning from the superb Liberal Democrat Voice awards at midnight there was one heck of a police roadblock in Govan. Strathclyde Police force and Siemens were involved in moving this almightily humongous unusual load. [IMG: image] [IMG: image] [IMG: image] [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
In Saturday's Conference Daily (the daily bulletin distributed to delegates at the Liberal Democrat conference):
