... and I'm not sure the messaging quite hits the spot. Today's Telegraph contains a piece entitled Vote Libdem for another Coalition, Nick Clegg says. On closer inspection it turns out that the article is based on the advanced briefing. But, nonetheless, the statements attributed to Clegg in the article seem to be framed rather unwisely. It is surely true that a coalition government is one of the likely outcomes of the General Election. It is also the case that a coalition in which Liberal Democrats are involved, alongside either Labour or the Conservatives, is likely to have a more ...
[IMG: Christine jardine] Liberal Democrat PPC for Gordon is receiving offers of help from people who campaigned for a No vote in the independence referendum last September. These include supporters of both Labour and Conservative parties who are prepared to vote for her to stop Alex Salmond's return to Westminster. There will be no official pact between the parties but Christine won a lot of friends during the referendum campaign with her infectious enthusiasm and endless energy so it's hardly surprising that they think she's more than a match for Salmond. Scotland on Sunday has the story: Despite the Conservatives ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 405th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (28 December 2014 – 3 January, 2015), together with a hand-picked quintet, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. Is UKIP's attempt ...
We have had yet more stunning sunsets over our local communities in recent days. Here are a few of them that I have captured:- [IMG: Taken from the end of Southport Pier 3rd January] Taken from the end of Southport Pier 3rd January [IMG: Sky over Lydiate 4th January] Sky over Lydiate 4th January [IMG: Southport sunset 3rd January] Southport sunset 3rd January [IMG: Another Lydiate sunset 4th January] Another Lydiate sunset 4th January These photos are amongst those on my Flickr site at:- www.flickr.com/photos/86659476@N07/
No one should vote Liberal Democrat to get a coalition, argues Andrew Page. Sam Freedman is puzzled: "given the improvements in behaviour; the reduction in criminality; the falls in truancy; the increase in aspiration; the improvements in home lives - all of which are known to link to academic attainment - why haven't we seen a commensurate, observable, rise in academic standards?" As Political Scrapbook shows, the buck for chaos on the railways over Christmas stops with Patrick McLoughlin. "Shelly Asquith, the student union president at University of the Arts London, says students feel locked out of universities' new 'flagship ...
1, The Labservative parties will be equal (or as near as dammit) on vote share but Labour will nudge ahead on seats. 2, Seat distribution will be roughly as follows: Lab - 277 Tory - 265 LD - 45 SNP - 35 (Northern Ireland I'm not confident to predict so their 18 go here) Plaid - 4 Independent - 3 Kipper - 2 Green - 1 Deliberately not giving Respect a seat cos Galloway is toast. Kippers will retain Carswell but lose Reckless & probably gain Farage. 3, My big prediction is that turnout will be massively depressed: I genuinely ...
Lib Dem leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has urged voters to back his party as a means of securing a coalition government. The Sunday Telegraph has reported that Clegg said that has made the case for coalition government and wants the electorate to embrace it: "A strong coalition government, with Liberal Democrats anchoring it in the centre ground and not lurching to the extremes of left or right, remains the best way to make sure we finish the job and finish it fairly" said the Deputy Prime Minister. Clegg is also warning that the Conservatives and Labour alone ...
Sun 4th
17:26
Interesting - I do however agree with the hypothesis that many cases of depression should be treated...
via Facebook
The financial clout of the China means that the communist party's censors now hold sway over much of what you see at the cinema. In a fascinating article for Foreign Policy, Isaac Stone Fish suggests that the sound and fury regarding North Korea's efforts to have the Interview pulled distract from a bigger problem regarding free speech in [...]
From The Liberals in Hampshire - a Part(l) History Part 2: Eastleigh 1965-72: out in the suburbs something stirred! by Martin Kyrle: [IMG: Liberal Party Christmas Card 1965 (probably)] Note: the book dates the Christmas card to probably 1965 but further discussion on Facebook points towards 1964.
The news that the Conservatives intend to legislate for a £95,000 cap on public sector redundancy pay-offs is a somewhat depressing way to start the New Year. That's not because I had any hopes of receiving such a thing myself - no, I'm fully hoping to fulfil my role for many years yet, but because it appears so contradictory to much of what is supposedly desirable. Firstly, such a proposal flies in the face of the concept of localism. Shouldn't it be the case that a local authority, led by councillors who are directly elected, and deciding that a particular ...
View image | gettyimages.com It was the last Autumn Statement before the General Election and Lib Dems were keen to show what we had put into it. Nick Clegg announced £150 million to help improve treatment for young people with eating disorders. Stephen Tall announced he was stepping down as c0-editor of Liberal Democrat Voice. It was impending fatherhood rather than a seven year itch that had led to his decision. He remains part of the team, thankfully, and will still be doing surveys and writing whenever the fancy takes him. The Cleggster did a live Q and A session ...
View image | gettyimages.com Throughout the 12 days of Christmas, we're bringing you the 12 most-read posts on this site of 2014. Here's today's offering... Not everything you read on the internet about UKIP and Nigel Farage is true – Caron Lindsay | Tue 20th May 2014 There is no need to make stuff up about Farage and UKIP - there's more than enough crazy stuff out there that is directly attributable to them. This has always been the way. Five years ago, just before the European election, I wrote about how they are really bad news. I could have ...
The disciples of Tony Blair exist in a strange situation, uncommon to previous followers of former British Prime Ministers. Unlike his predecessors, Blair left office while he was still relatively young and has hovered around the edges of British politics, with his followers still clearly hoping for his glorious return. For all the fervent belief of the Thatcherites, they never seriously expected her to make a comeback, but Blair's still younger than several 20th century Prime Ministers were when they began the job. One can envisage him and the remaining true Blairite believers awaiting that time when a nation turns ...
I chose the other great Argent anthem, Hold Your Head Up, years ago, so here is the other one. God Gave Rock and Roll to You was a minor hit in 1973. When I heard Rod Argent play this at Market Harborough with the Zombies, he hastened to remind the audience that his band, not Kiss, had first recorded it.
[IMG: 7 ver 4 full] Many thanks to the 10,400 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here's our 7 most-read posts... The General Election year is here. Let's make it a good one (100 comments) by Caron Lindsay Craig Murray rejected by SNP as parliamentary candidate for saying he would defy whip to vote against Bedroom Tax (37 comments) by Caron Lindsay Nick Clegg's New Year Message 2015: a year of hope and optimism for all (33 comments) by The Voice Congratulations to Liberal Democrats in the New Year Honours list (0 comments) by The Voice New ...
View image | gettyimages.com PolitcsHome reports: Theresa May was blocked from making former England cricketer Geoffrey Boycott a knight in the New Year's honours list, according to the Mail on Sunday... The Cabinet Office rejected the application because of a conviction for assaulting a former partner. Quite right.
[IMG: sundaypaps] Lots to muse on in the first Sunday papers of 2015. First of all, a very moving article by Debbie Purdy, the woman whose "right to die" campaign led to new guidelines on assisted suicide in 2009. Written just before her death last month, it's published in the Independent. I hadn't realised that she'd had to live apart from her husband for so long. Her account of her struggle to find a way of making life tolerable with her condition is tough to read. She argues that the legislation before parliament now simply doesn't go far enough because ...
Sun 4th
11:15
Fraser Nelson's porkies. AKA: Can we have an informed debate about the economy, please?
Fraser Nelson, editor of The Spectator, is at it again. I've noted before his tendency to use raw figures — ignoring, say, the impact of inflation or population growth — to make specious claims. First, Fraser attacked the Conservatives for their New Year poster, taking exception (along with a chunk of the press) for its claim that the deficit has halved under the Coalition. The poster is correct; Fraser and his journo colleagues are wrong. To quote the OBR (as Fraser was later forced to do), "relative to GDP, the budget deficit has been halved to date" — though the ...
Here are the latest national voting intention figures from each of the main pollsters. To put the numbers into longer context, take a look at my database of polling figures going back to 1945, which is updated quarterly. Polling company Con Lab LibDem UKIP Green Con lead Fieldwork Method ComRes 33% 34% 8% 18% 2% -1% 10-12/12 Online ComRes 29% 32% 12% 16% 5% -3% 12-14/12 Phone ICM 28% 33% 14% 14% 5% -5% 12-16/12 Phone Ashcroft 30% 31% 8% 19% 5% -1% 5-7/12 Phone MORI 32% 29% 9% 13% 9% 3% 13-15/12 Phone Opinium 32% 33% 8% 17% 4% ...
Sun 4th
10:40
Excerpt from the "Domiano Ndege" chapter of "The History of the African Continent", by Dr Thomas Nei...
Domiano Ndege's "All African Republic", as he proclaimed it, was short lived. A man named Mobutu Sese Seko took over Africana and renamed it Kinshasa several months after the revolution which removed the Belgian imperialists. Mobuto turned Domiano's fledgling Central African fiefdom into the country of Zaire. Domiano Ndege and three of his closest cabinet ministers (three men he barely knew, since he'd had all of his closest companions executed by that stage) had to flee the country immediately. How exactly they managed to flee the country remains open to debate. Ndege himself never made any sort of account of ...
View image | gettyimages.com November started with a ministerial resignation as Norman Baker left the Home Office, saying that he wanted to release himself from "walking through mud" of working in a Department that thought it was run by the Conservative party, not the Coalition. In his first broadcast interview, with the BBC News Channel, he had praise for Theresa May and some advice for his successor: Be firm, be fair, be courteous, make sure you promote Lib Dem policies but don't give in. For Remembrance Day, Anthony Hook reminded us what was at stake in the First World War: ...
The Tories have once more managed to turn triumph into disaster as their latest poster campaign backfired spectacularly. At first it was thought that the erroneous claim on the poster that the deficit has been halved would deal the killer blow but those analysing the image on the internet and in the media found a far more satisfying flaw - the picture of a road decisively drawing us towards the promised land is not an image of anywhere in Britain, rather it is a manipulated stock photo of a road in Germany. And, as if to underline the feeling that ...
As the former Readers' Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice, I was obliged to give much thought to the dilemma that faces any debating platform, i.e. how do you create a space which is inclusive yet lively, informative but not aggressive, in the face of accusations of being either overly laissez-faire or unreasonably censorious? My conclusion was that you can never satisfy everyone, so you might as well be true to yourself and as consistent and transparent as you can. Of course, the dilemma is one that predates the Internet, as this guidance, explicitly defining the formal conditions for fruitful conversation, ...
[IMG: rsz_220px-militant] The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above – which takes us back to those dark days when Liverpool City Council had pressed the self-destruct button. Oh how that era damaged the City and gave it an image that has taken a long time to shake off.
Just In Case Anyone Still Thinks Nigel Farage Was A Punk In 1983, He Wasn't (tags: ) We must not let another trans person die because of lack of understanding (tags: ) Cover-Ups and Concern Trolls: Actually, It's About Ethics in Suicide Journalism (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Sun 4th
08:55
Crockart: Liberal Democrats have recalibrated the tax system in favour of low and middle income earn...
Edinburgh West MP Mike Crockart has been poring through tax data and has concluded that Liberal Democrats have successfully recalibrated the tax system so that low and middle earners are paying less tax and big companies are paying more tax. He cites figures which show that tax collected from low and middle income earners has fallen from £3170 million to £2720 million over the last 4 years at the same time as £16 billion more was collected over the last two years from larger companies as a result of HM Revenue and Customs' enforcement activity. He said: Liberal Democrats in ...
Kyle Howie From Sheena Wellington : Happy New Year from Friends of Wighton! We are getting off to an early and lively start with a Lunchtime Recital on Wednesday 7th January featuring Wighton favourites fiddler Karen Hannah and piper Kyle Howie! Kyle Howie is one of the finest young pipers in Scotland and he has already travelled the world with the Red Hot Chilli Pipers. His pipes have also been heard in two Hollywood movies, Disney's "Brave" and Dreamworks Animation "How to Train Your Dragon2". Karen Hannah is another well-travelled musician, having been as far afield as South Korea and ...
Mead House Pension Scheme has submitted revised plans for a new Texaco petrol station and a convenience store on Bromfield Road (14/00563/FUL). The main change from the earlier plans is that the petrol storage tanks have been moved to an above ground location between the proposed café and store. Previously they were sunk into the [...]
Deciphering the peculiar brilliance of Birdman Appropriately enough the sensation I had whilst watching Birdman was that I was flying through the story. Director Alejandro González Iñárritu keeps the camera in near constant motion and apparently never cuts. This creates the impression of swooping, soaring, gliding and occasionally hovering around a Broadway theatre as a [...]
Over on my Patreon, for those who give me money, you can read my thoughts on the fourth 1966 Batman story, while those who are still skint after Xmas can read about the first one on Mindless Ones.
I have made a handful of predictions for the 2015 general election based on my own political instincts and knowledge. It will be interesting to see how many of these predictions turn out to be accurate in a few months time. The purpose of this article is merely to catalogue my own political thoughts in January 2015. There will be another Hung Parliament.With Labour and the Conservatives so close to one another in the opinion polls it appears that like in 2010 there will be another Hung Parliament. However I'm not brave enough to say whether the Conservatives or Labour ...
