Rock legends Spinal Tap come out as Miliband supporters. Exclusive footage here:
Today's leader article in the Independent praises Nick Clegg: Many of the good things the Coalition has done are owed to the Liberal Democrats. Nick Clegg may not personally recover from the tuition fees debacle, despite being right (eventually). But history will record him as the man who turned a party of protest into one of government. As a principled, effective politician who could hold another Coalition together, we hope he keeps his seat in Sheffield Hallam. He has confounded his Tory critics, held his party together, been a fine advertisement for a European kind of government, and championed the ...
Mon 4th
21:47
ICM provides least surprising polling result of election (least surprising to discerning readers, th...
Less than shocking news: naming candidates in a constituency poll in a Lib Dem held seat provides a significantly better result for the Lib Dems than not naming them, which is Lord Ashcroft's approach. The dodgy purveyor of this biased polling technique clearly designed just to fiddle the figures for the Lib Dems (to summarise the usual sage social media reaction to Lib Dem polls which name candidates)? Oh, just ICM. You know, that pollster which keeps on getting things right. But of course, discerning reader, you already knew that. Indeed, as I wrote before of Lord Ashcroft's approach, despite ...
Mon 4th
21:13
Win or lose, Lib Dem candidates need to use their podiums at the count to pour cold water on the pro...
I would urge all Parliamentary candidates, whether they win or lose, to use the podium and any media presence at their counts to reject the prospect of another coalition with the Tories. As the narrative of this general election campaign has played out, it is more clear than ever that the Conservative Party has even less in common with our policy agenda than five years ago, and very little in common with our core values, beliefs and ideals. A renewed deal with the Tories would be a disaster. The common agenda has been exhausted, there will, regrettably, be fewer Liberal ...
The Guardian reports: Nick Clegg is on course to be saved from defeat in his Sheffield Hallam constituency by a tide of Tory tactical votes, according to a special Guardian/ICM poll conducted in the deputy prime minister's constituency. The poll puts Clegg on 42%, seven points clear of his young Labour rival, Oliver Coppard, who is on 35%. Ian Walker, the candidate for the Conservatives, is on 12%. But Clegg achieves his seven-point lead only because almost half the people (48%) who say their nationwide preference is for the Conservatives are planning to support the Lib Dem leader. When ICM ...
I've spent the last weekend partly in the constituency of Wells, to help in the Lib Dem bid to get Tessa Munt re-elected. I was hardly a long visit but I feel I've learned something important about this election. There has been some comment about how tame the national election has been - how few people put posters in their windows these days, and so on. But go to Wells, and you find yourself in one of the epicentres of the campaign - and you can see what happens when Conservative money clashes with Liberal energy. Practically every street and ...
If you live in Ludlow North your polling station may have moved from the Library to Ludlow Mascall Centre. Details are on your polling card. In previous elections, voting took place in the library. But when Shropshire Council moved staff from Stone House into the library, no thought was given to what would happen on [...]
Mon 4th
17:25First increase in social housing for over 30 years: just one of the Lib Dem achievements in the last...
[IMG: Lib Dem achievements in government - 10. Affordable homes] For more, see the full infographic: What have the Liberal Democrats achieved in government? [IMG: Share on Facebook] [IMG: Share on Twitter] Show support for Lib Dems on social media The Liberal Democrats have achieved so much in the last five years. Now help the party achieve even more in the next five years: Sign up to this Thunderclap to share a message on the eve of poll about voting Liberal Democrat Sign up to this Facebook event to show that you're voting Liberal Democrat
Can you predict how someone will vote from their first name? YouGov has been busy analysing the political preferences of people with 130 different first names. And it seems that if you are called Tim then you are most likely to vote Lib Dem, if you are called Nick you don't like Labour, and if you are Nigel you are least likely to vote Labour but prefer UKIP. So far so good. But what about Samantha ? It seems she is very unlikely to vote Conservative and has switched to the Lib Dems. [IMG: names] Now maybe we could use ...
The Liberal Democrats respond to Labour's pink bus for women:
Yes, I know he is not the MP for Bootle yet but I did laugh at the phrase 'battling' in terms of what the Echo/Southport Visiter thinks Peter Dowd has to do to win Bootle. Of course Bootle is the ultimate safe seat so the people of Bootle will get Peter as their MP as indeed they would whomever the Labour party put up for election. Battling my foot, the only battle Peter had to fight was the one to gain the Labour nomination! [IMG: But why is the new MP for Bootle so concerned about Southport all ...
[IMG: WhatsApp] The Lancashire Telegraph reports: An election row has broken out in Pendle over claims of racism and religious intimidation in messages sent to residents. Conservative Council leader Joe Cooney has written to Ed Miliband asking the Labour party to investigate Cllr Mohammed Hanif after he sent text messages to voters in Brierfield and Reedley urging them to vote for Asian candidates. It comes as Labour's Parliamentary candidate for the borough, Azhar Ali, has said he had no involvement with a WhatsApp message sent urging people to vote for him because he was 'blessed by the Prophet Mohammed's living ...
Russell Brand is not a cult. And there's no typo in that previous sentence. However, some of the reaction to his recommendation that people (mostly) vote Labour on Thursday appears to be a assuming that he is, or at least a cult leader. 'Young people' supposedly follow Brand's every utterance and do exactly as he commands them, so by this logic none of them will be registered to vote and his endorsement means nothing. Or they're registered to vote, and that proves his endorsement means nothing. (Some people are claiming that Brand told people not to register to vote which ...
The Liberal Democrats have produced a series of 20 videos giving snippets of our manifesto in BSL. We are the first major party to do so. The full list is here. We'll also put them up on here in batches over the next wee while. If you want to see all our posts, just click on the bsl tag at the bottom of this post. In this post, you will find Europe, and International and Defence. Europe International and Defence
1) People assuming that the Lib Dems are now a distaff branch of the Conservative party, rather than a separate party, in exactly the same way they assumed five years ago we were Labour's reserve squad. 2) Nigel Farage 3) Being personally blamed for policies which I oppose, which my party opposes as a party, [...]
The local Lib Dem team have worked hard over the years to help improve public transport across South Gloucestershire. We will continue to campaign hard to protect and increase local bus and train services and to take steps to reduce congestion and improve our roads. We will: 1. Make it easier for people to walk and cycle safely. 2. Improve roads and tackle potholes. 3. Reduce congestion through our towns and villages. 4. Open new Park and Share and Park and Ride sites. 5. Work with bus companies to improve services and reliability, reduce fares, and introduce smart cards. 6. ...
[IMG: Autumn in the woods] As I covered in Liberal Democrat Newswire #64, the final red line unveiled by the Liberal Democrats for any hung Parliament is on the environment and fleshes out the brief manifesto front page wording. Here's more on what it entails: Liberal Democrats will not join a Government unless it commits to lead the fight on climate change and puts in place a law to protect green space and wildlife, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said. It means a future Government must play a lead role in the Paris 2015 climate negotiations to try and keep ...
One for the little lady, as the Pub Landlord might say:
Mon 4th
13:22
The real problem with #EdStone is that Miliband cannot be sure he will be able to deliver
We are all sneering – myself included – at Ed Milliband's decision to inscribe a monolith with 6 election pledges. Even the Labour-supporting Guardian has likened it to Neil Kinnock's Sheffield Rally. Preposterous as this seems, I suspect that the intended message – that they are really serious about these pledges – may nonetheless seep through, while politicians and reporters clutch their aching sides, to the wider public. And here lies the bigger problem. I strongly advise Ed not to make pledges that he cannot be certain he would be able to keep. What are these pledges: 1. A strong ...
In the immediately previous post I've argued that all parties should avoid indulging in "red line" speculation however hard the media press. Far more fruitful would be for us all concentrate on the policies on which we are are campaigning and say that, in the event of our not winning an outright majority of MPs, which the minor parties obviously won't, we will in post-election negotiations, argue as strongly as possible for the items on our "wish-lists." Obviously we shall be unable to achieve them all: that's the nature of the compromises made necessary in mature multi-party politics. Unfortunately this ...
When Labour bailed out the financial system, it misapplied Keynesian economics. Keynes writes that stimulus should be used to stimulate a depressed economy that isn't at full employment: what Labour did was use the stimulus money to stabilise a system that was falling apart under the weight of its own contradictions. The instant they did that, it committed the UK to paying back the money it had borrowed: it transferred the debt that would have been wiped out by private sector bankruptcy to the state. While this reduced the loss of value in the economy (public sector debt has prevented ...
[IMG: Liberal Democrat Newswire logo] Liberal Democrat Newswire #64 came out on Sunday, including a look at the Liberal Democrat red lines for a hung Parliament. You can also read it below, but if you'd like the convenience of getting it direct by email in future, just sign up here. It's free! Welcome to the 64th edition of Liberal Democrat Newswire, thefinal weekly special of the 2015 general election campaign. Statistic of the week: 2,700 – the number of new members the Liberal Democrats are set to have recruited in March and April. Thank you as ever to the generous ...
Lib Dems Believe Wordle 46 Freedom - Education
I'm voting Liberal Democrat because we're the only party that really cares about people. Whether we're talking about mental health, whether we're talking about the environment and our future, whether we're talking about civil liberties, we are the people who will care about enabling you to be the person you can be. That's why I'm voting Liberal Democrat. Why are you? Julian Huppert (Twitter @julianhuppert) has been a brilliant MP for Cambridge so far - Parliament's leading voice on science and civil liberties, amongst many other things - and is seeking re-election to do the job again! This was his ...
We'll be covering election night live here on Liberal Democrat Voice on Thursday night through to Friday morning. From the moment the polls close, we'll be running a live blog which will include up-to-the-second news from the counts, plus commentary from the Liberal Democrat Voice team around the country, from leading analysts/journalists and from LDV readers. We'll also be posting hourly summaries of what's happened and highlighting particularly notable news. So for the Liberal Democrat politics nut, this will be the place for you to follow all the latest news and insight through the night.
If elected as your MP this Thursday my local priorities – above and beyond the Lib Dem national manifesto are: Helping solve the local schools crisis through opening new schools, building in the right places. I have already ensured an extra 3,100 primary and secondary schools places locally. But we need at least another 1,500 school places. Saving local libraries. Lambeth Council is planning to close 5 libraries and downsize two others. We have shown through building new libraries such as John Harvard Library that if you build better libraries more people use them more. I've persuaded developers to give ...
I have a mature hawthorn hedge around one of the pieces of land I rent. Thick branches and very hard thorns are its defining characteristics. On Friday I discovered some of our hens were getting through a gap in the hedge we be blocked it up with some wire netting and bamboo canes. Alas, as I was pressing most of my body weight on the cane to get it into the ground, it shattered and I went head
All this canvassing and delivering has worn out my shoes. Sadly they are beyond repair. It will mean a trip to the shops to get replacements. At least they were worn out in a good cause (I appreciate that statement will not be shared by the Labour trolls who follow me!) The weekend left us a bit ahead of schedule. Other than one polling district, all our letters and leaflets to polling station
Mon 4th
10:25Protecting our Post Offices: just one of the Lib Dem achievements in the last five years
[IMG: Lib Dem achievements in government - 9. Post Offices] For more, see the full infographic: What have the Liberal Democrats achieved in government? [IMG: Share on Facebook] [IMG: Share on Twitter] Show support for Lib Dems on social media The Liberal Democrats have achieved so much in the last five years. Now help the party achieve even more in the next five years: Sign up to this Thunderclap to share a message on the eve of poll about voting Liberal Democrat Sign up to this Facebook event to show that you're voting Liberal Democrat
Remember those minutes leading up to 10pm on 6 May 2010? The excitement for Liberal Democrats was palpable. As I took my seat in my then local pub to watch the results, I was so filled with naive optimism. Not too many days before, and only a mile away, I'd witnessed a massive Lib Dem rally and a #IAgreeWithNick flashmob in Trafalgar Square. How could we not make massive gains? Of course, on the night, despite every poll except the exit poll... we lost seats. Sure we managed to get into Government for the first time (as Lib Dems) but ...
Only a few days left for me as a councillor – I'm not quite sure if my term ends when my replacement is announced on Friday, or if I'm technically still in office over the weekend – but I've been chatting with Jason from the Colchester Chronicle about my decision to step down, which he's now published as a post. And if you missed it, my original post explaining why it's time to move on is here.
Over the last week Nick Clegg has been drip-feeding his negotiating red lines. And here they are: [IMG: key_NHS-red-line (1)] [IMG: key_education-red-line] [IMG: key_Public-sector-workers-red-line (1)] [IMG: key_tax-red-line (1)] [IMG: key_economic red line] But that's only five, I hear you say. I'm afraid I can't find the graphic for the sixth red line on protecting the environment, and indeed very little has been said about it. I would like to know whether each of the proposed five green laws are themselves red lines. They are: Zero Carbon Britain Act Resource Efficiency and Zero Waste Britain Act Green Transport Act Green Buildings ...
This is supposed to be the most exciting election for decades, with the outcome still unclear only four days before polling day. But I can't say I'm feeling it. With the exception of yesterday's quite extraordinarily bizarre #Edstone stunt, it has all felt pretty humdrum, slightly surreal, and deeply infuriating. All at the same time. It is humdrum because the spinners have tried to ensure politicians say as little as possible of substance and have largely managed to erect an impenetrable cordon between the politicians in their charge and anything resembling either a real person or a real question. So ...
Labour candidate to issue retraction letter after resorting to desperate lies and smears (tags: ) "Goodness is about what you do. Not what you pray to" - 50 best Terry Pratchett quotes (tags: ) Eric "champion of localism" Pickles reveals Tories blocked Lib Dem push for new council tax powers (tags: ) 14 Classic Children's Books "Improved" With Swearing (tags: ) Why polyamorous marriages are the next step to equality (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
South Gloucestershire has some brilliant and caring health professionals. But services are still not always as good as they should be. We will work closely with residents and the local NHS to help drive up standards and improve support for carers. We will: Lobby for greater support and recognition for carers in South Gloucestershire.Foster stronger partnership with your local NHS to help enable better local services.Increase emphasis on helping people to lead healthier lives and doing more to help tackle chronic health problems caused by smoking, alcohol and drugs.Support more work to help to tackle the stigma surrounding mental health.Work ...
The Lib Dems have fought hard to get bankers and tax avoiders to pay their due
One of the questions that persistently comes up during this election campaign is that of raising the National Minimum Wage. Various people suggest different levels to raise it to – Labour are promoting £8 an hour, which is actually less than the £8.25 we would expect if the rate of increases under the Coalition continues. The Greens have doubled down on £10 an hour. I personally think it's bad politics to have a competition on who can raise the minimum wage the most, if only for the reason that politicians don't set the minimum wage. It's set, according to a ...
[IMG: election] I spotted these two handwritten notes side by side when I was out delivering last week. In case you can't see this too clearly on your device, they say: "I will vote for the party who doesn't waste paper. Give me a leaflet and you're off the list .." "I am undecided. Keep the leaflets coming ..." Ah – a dilemma indeed. Some weeks ago Caron asked you for your funniest canvassing story, and it produced a ripe crop of stories in the comments, though I don't think any of them surpassed the unforgettable one submitted by Mark ...
Mon 4th
08:55How voters decide who to vote for: Affluence, Austerity and Electoral Change in Britain
The core thesis of Affluence, Austerity and Electoral Change in Britain is that Britain's recent general elections have been decided by "valence factors" - that is ones where voters choose between parties based on evaluation of their competence rather than making choices based on competing ideology. With the more recent rise of Ukip and, to a lesser extent, the Greens, it is far from clear that valence factors continue to dominate British politics but even so there are plenty of pointers to understanding current and future politics from this study of the past, with its detailed statistical analysis of polling ...
I shall be away in Liverpool for the next three days with my day job. I don't know how much blogging I shall be able to do, but will be around on Twitter. Because of this, my mother's frailty and my own slightly dodgy health recently, I have not been as active in this election campaign as I would have liked. So let me take this chance to wish all Liberal Democrat candidates and activists the very best of luck on Thursday. As to what happens afterwards... let us remember the most important rules of Malcolm Saville's Lone Pine Club: ...
The other day, when it was revealed that Ukip's candidate for Harborough had spent part of the campaign on holiday in Florida, Labour's candidate Sundip Meghani was outraged: "Standing for election to the House of Commons is not a joke or something you do in your spare time. "... It is a disgrace."I suggested when the story broke that Meghani was being ungrateful. Let me explain why. Meghani first came to this blog's notice as one of two Leicester Labour councillors to back the death penalty. He said in August 2011: It's a complicated issue but I'm in favour of ...
At the end of last week, the Spectator came out with which party they are endorsing for this very shortly to be upon us election. It was, as I fully expected, the Green Party. All kidding aside, there was one sentence in the endorsement article that stuck in my teeth: "Like so many former bag-carriers who end up elected to parliament, Miliband has no experience outside the world of academia and politics." For a start, all of the above could very easily apply to David Cameron (sorry - a few years in a PR agency is hardly "real world" worthy), ...
The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above. As someone who believes that society can't right the wrongs of serous crime by the state committing another crime I find this Echo article interesting and thought provoking.
David Laws, the Liberal Democrat education spokesman, has said that schools should use extra funding for poor pupils to tackle mental health problems. He told the NAHT conference that there was a "huge gap" between help for young people's mental and physical health. He added that schools should feel free to use the pupil premium, which gives extra money for deprived pupils, on measures to support children from unstable homes, not just on additional teaching or one-to-one tuition. The Times covered this story [IMG: key_david_laws] I like this kind of innovative thinking from David Laws. I suppose you could call ...
With today being the May Day school holiday, my usual Monday ward surgeries do not take place, but I can still be contacted on any local issues or concerns through my e-surgery - just e-mail esurgery@frasermacpherson.org.uk. I can also be contacted at home at any time on 459378 and also during office hours at my Dundee City Council office on 434985. My Thursday surgery at Blackness Primary School takes place at 6,15pm as usual (despite it being polling day!)
Giving an endorsement based not on solutions, but on correctly identifying the problem, seems an odd thing for a newspaper to do – yet that is exactly what The Observer did yesterday. I would argue the problem lies in our ... Continue reading →
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