Category Archives: First appeared on LDV

Daily View 2×2: 25 June 2009

How fitting that while Ricky Gervais and Phil Jupitus share a birthday with Michel Tremblay, a Canadian writer I studied as part of my degree, the US should be celebrating National Catfish Day.

Two big stories

Another climbdown for Brown as the Government backs off plans to bolster MPs’ pensions. Just hours after Clegg took Brown to task at PMQs for being wrong about Gurkhas, wrong about expenses and the Iraq enquiry. Now he’s admitted to being wrong about MPs’ pensions too. A planned increase had been accepted by all parties in March but the government now says it will accept a Lib Dem plan to freeze the amount from public funds. The proposal would have seen MPs’ own contributions rise by £60 a month, but the Lib Dems said taxpayers would have paid £750,000 more than last year.

And a curious story from the Guardian: Tory plans for emergency cuts cabinet – one of those headlines you have to look at backwards for a few minutes to work out the sense. Is it a Tory, planning for an emergency, deciding to cut cabinet? Ah, no, as we read the story, it is about an emergency cuts cabinet the Tories are planning. Scant seconds after wresting the reins of power from the disgraced Labour party, it seems the Tories would be careering the sleigh into the Forest of Slash and Burn, at least as far as the Guardian is concerned. So is this a real story? the scant attribution makes one wonder, but it is too detailed to be more Labour spin, so presumably Tories must have been briefing journalists at some point. And there’s the small matter of Dave winning an election first before George ever gets any opportunity to haul cabinet ministers over the coals for their spending plans.

2 must read blog posts

Stop the world, Andrew Reeves wants to get off. Or at least stop the madness that is 4 year olds having their own mobile phone. Fair enough, say I.

And the newly co-opted Cllr Lady Mark is getting to grips with his new representative role by looking into the vexed question of bus stops in Creeting St Peter. For the uninitiated, Lady Mark’s title is a protest at inequity: he’s married to Baroness Ros Scott, the fair president of this good party. Whilst female spouses of male peers get the courtesy title “lady”, male spouses of female peers and civil partners of peers do not have the courtesy extended to them.

Local Solutions 2009 – Carbon Reduction Commitment for councils

The third of our instalments from ALDC’s local government conference Local Solutions takes the Government’s energy policy for local authorities as its topic.

You can still hear the first two instalments: Nick Clegg and Ros Scott, and Paul Scriven on Sheffield.

Today’s instalment is an excellent presentation from Mo Baines, from the Association for Public Service Excellence, talking about how councils will shortly be required to monitor closely just how much energy they are using and reduce it year on year.

Sheffield Local Solutions 2009

You can listen to the sound file right here on the web, or you can download it for use with your MP3 player. Why not listen to the conference next time you’re out delivering leaflets? If you use iTunes you can search the podcast directory for Lib Dem Voice; for other podcast software, you can use this RSS feed of LDV’s audio content.

Our final instalment tomorrow is the final session of the conference with Julia Goldsworthy MP and Cllr Paul Scriven.

Local Solutions 2009 – Paul Scriven on the Sheffield story

This the second in our series of podcasts of recordings made at ALDC’s Local Solutions 2009 conference on Saturday in Sheffield. You can listen to Nick Clegg and Ros Scott in the first instalment.

For the second hour, the leader of Sheffield city council Cllr Paul Scriven gave delegates a detailed explanation of how the Lib Dems won Sheffield – and most importantly of all, what they did with the power once they had it. It’s an inspiring story of decentralisation and empowerment of the local citizenry and is well worth forwarding around any of your colleagues who want to know what a difference Lib Dems can really make.

Amongst the good ideas are:

  • “Driving me crazy” – getting local drivers to contact council on irritating road schemes and then making a difference
  • Consultation – going out to people at workplaces and schools to ask them what matters rather than a city centre marquee
  • Ending city-centric policy making
  • Huge new powers and budgets for area committees – which devolves decision making to local people and gives back bench councillors real decisions they can make
  • Involving the public in recruiting a new chief exec

Sheffield Local Solutions 2009

You can listen to the sound file right here on the web, or you can download it for use with your MP3 player. Why not listen to the conference next time you’re out delivering leaflets? If you use iTunes you can search the podcast directory for Lib Dem Voice; for other podcast software, you can use this RSS feed of LDV’s audio content.

Tomorrow’s instalment is a session by Mo Baines of APSE on the carbon reduction commitment for public authorities.

BREAKING – first #newspeaker results

A few very brief words from the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party as mediated by twitter:

PaulRowen Waiting to vote in the next round of the Speaker’s election, Beckett, Bercow, Haselhurst, Widdecombe and Young all still standing

joswinson Beckett, Beith, Bercow, Haselhurst, Widdecombe and Young all standing for next round #newspeaker

joswinson Bercow 179, Young 112, Beckett 74 – Shepherd, Cormack, Lord and sadly Dhanda all out #newspeaker

SandraGidley Pleased that J B won 1st round but how will it change after re allocation of votes. Not over til fat lady stops voting

SandraGidley Then we will have to wait for new papers to be printed. What’s wrong with a quick sweep with the black. Markers on the old ones.

SandraGidley Bercow won first time round. Shepherd, lord, cormack and dhanda out. 10 mins for others to withdraw.

EDIT: follow the action as it happens on liberal tweets or on the #newspeaker hashtag (awfully busy!)

EDIT: SEE ALSO: Steve Webb almost liveblogging.

Local Solutions 2009 – Nick Clegg and Ros Scott

For four mornings this week, LDV will be bringing you audio recordings of the proceedings at ALDC’s Local Solutions conference for Lib Dem councillors. One of the features of this event is to cram in as much as possible – including training sessions clashing with plenary sessions, which means many attendees themselves may not have heard the plenary. First up this morning is Saturday’s early morning session with party leader Nick Clegg MP and party president Baroness Ros Scott.

Sheffield Local Solutions 2009

You can listen to the sound file right here on the web, or you can download it for use with your MP3 player. Why not listen to the conference next time you’re out delivering leaflets? If you use iTunes you can search the podcast directory for Lib Dem Voice; for other podcast software, you can use this RSS feed of LDV’s audio content.

Tune in at 11am tomorrow for Cllr Paul Scriven’s account of how the Liberal Democrats are transforming Sheffield.

NB, the photo is of the multistorey carpark ALDC recommended drivers to use, a very few minutes walk from the town hall and the conference hotel. Very interesting treatment of the outside. It’s the same car park Will Howells calls “the best car park ever“. It’s not, however, a car park that my satnav could easily find.

Local Solutions 2009 – first responses

Yesterday, I was at ALDC’s local government conference in the very heart of Sheffield, in a very contemporary new hotel right next door to the Town Hall. It was a smashing day with many useful lessons to learn, and just the event to spur Lib Dem campaigners onto greater heights when we return home.

The day included an interesting variety of main speakers, and simultaneous fringe meetings, so as a service both those who were there and couldn’t be in two places at once, and to those who couldn’t make it all, I will be podcasting sound recordings of all the plenary sessions here on the Voice every morning next week at 11am.

To kick start, here’s a very brief vox pop with delegates at the conference from around the country.

Tomorrow morning – the introductory plenary session with Nick Clegg MP and Baroness Ros Scott.

LDV at Local Solutions 2009

LDV will be represented tomorrow at ALDC’s Local Solutions 2009 conference in Sheffield. It’ll be a first outing for the exciting new Lib Dem Voice banner.

ldvbanner

We’ll be there to help raise the profile of the site, and to ask Lib Dem councillors to write their stories up for us. We’re always on the look out to beef up our local government coverage with stories the Lib Dems at the coalface who are actually running things. Could you write a piece about an exciting Lib Dem achievement in your area? If not write… why not phone the podcast hotline on 020 7617 7221 and tell us about it?

We’ll also be working with Laura Willoughby, representing the Be A Councillor campaign, who will be videoing councillors for an exciting new website aimed at local government aspirants.

And like last year, we hope to tape some of the plenary sessions from conference and bring them to you as podcasts next week.

PS I’m also going to LGA Conf at the end of June. Anyone else going?

BBC Question Time – LDV open thread, 18 June 2009 #bbcqt

Thursday rolls around, so once again it’s time to join David Dimbleby and a glittering panel of political stars for Question Time. Batting for the Liberal Democrats this week is Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Chair of Campaigns and Communications Edward Davey. The panel will include Labour peer Lord Falconer (since every last member of the cabinet is apparently too frit), Conservative shadow secretary for business and regulatory reform Kenneth Clarke, political commentator Polly Toynbee, and journalist and campaigner Esther Rantzen will be there to explain why a lifetime of interesting shaped fruit qualifies her for entry to Parliament.

If you’re tuning in, you can join the simultanous online Twitter debate here at #bbcqt, or the LDV debate in the thread below. Meanwhile Lib Dem blogger Mark Thompson will be liveblogging events via CoverItLive at his own blog.

Daily View 2×2: 18 June 2009

Welcome to Daily View. Happy birthday to Delia Smith CBE. Today is also Autistic Pride Day.

2 Big Stories

And it’s good news for Burnley Liberal Democrats as sub-editors across the spectrum studiously avoid the headline “The Fall of the House of Ussher”

Miss Ussher said that she was leaving the Government “with the greatest regret” but would remain as MP for Burnley until the coming election, when she will stand down from Parliament “for family reasons”.

Burnley PPC Gordon Birtwhistle, who has steered the party through taking outright control of the borough council last year, and gaining five of the six county council seats in the constituency just two weeks ago, has called on Kitty Ussher to resign her seat immediately. As if Norwich isn’t enough.

And secondly Iran, where unrest continues following the disputed election result. The word is fleeting out through tweets and social media, with some striking photos gracing the newspaper front pages. If you’re wondering why people are turning their twitter profile photos green, this story is the reason.

Reformists fear the regime is trying to weaken protests by silencing their leading voices and Mr Atrianfar’s arrest signals that people with powerful connections are not immune. The intelligence ministry said 26 alleged “masterminds” of the post-election unrest had been detained yesterday alone.

2 must read blog posts

Jam-maker Jonathan Wallace is joining the exodus and leaving Cowley Street with the aim of becoming self-sufficient in Gateshead. Seriously folks, what’s with all the leaving at the moment? Pack, Wallace, Crozier… Comrades, we’re so close – one last push and we’ll be in power, so why leave now?

And my second link goes to Costigan Quist, who’s masterly take-down of the Digital Britain report focussed on exactly the bits of it that annoyed me when I heard about them on the radio, and thus saved me from having to write anything of the sort.