Category Archives: First appeared on LDV

Interview with Paddy Ashdown

http://rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk/e/cm?t=theliberaldemocr-21&o=2&p=8&l=as1&asins=1845134192&md=0M5A6TN3AXP2JHJBWT02&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

Iain Dale, the Tory we all love to hate, has transcribed a long interview he did with Paddy Ashdown on behalf of Total Politics magazine.

A brief extract follows after the break, and the full interview is available over at Total Politics. (Aargh! Columns?! On a website?!)

Paddy is currently also promoting his book, “A fortunate life” – and if you buy it from Amazon using the link on the side, the party gets a little percentage of your spend, at no extra cost to you.

ID: Have you found the role of ex Leader rather trying? You have generally resisted temptation to make any intervention.

PA: There are three kinds of ex leaders. Those who say ‘I’ve been a brilliant general and to prove as much I will wreck things before I go and throw in hand grenades afterwards’. They think what they are doing is improving their standing as leader but they almost always diminish it. I fear that happened to Margaret [Thatcher]. The second type is ‘Thanks very much, I had a great time, I’m off to do my garden, please don’t trouble me again’. The third is ‘I’m off to do my garden, call me when you need me’. That’s what I have tried to be. I have tried to be for Charles, Ming and Nick the same kind of leader as David Steel was for me. He was always available when I needed him. I could always ring him up and say, David, ‘I need a comment from you; I really need to win this battle’. He would always come out and do it and that’s what I do too. Being a model ex leader is also part of being a leader.

ID: How do you think the LibDem membership views Paddy Ashdown ten years on?

PA: Probably more kindly than they once did. People often asked me why did I stand down? The truth is I was getting grumpy with them, they were getting grumpy with me. Perhaps the party has been lucky in that it gets the leaders it needs at the time it needs them. It would not have been a good thing if I had stayed on. I would have almost certainly tried to persuade them that the position they took on the Iraq War was wrong, and I would have found myself at loggerheads with the party and have had to resign. I wrote Blair a private letter a week before the invasion and said ‘I think you’re right’. With the benefit of hindsight that looks like a mistake. The war was not the problem. I personally think the war was probably justified – still. It was over quickly. It was a success. It was what happened afterwards that was the problem. That does not excuse me very much because the truth is that I, of all people, should have known the war wasn’t the problem but our complete failure to prepare for what happened afterwards was. I should have spotted that and made more of it at the time. I believed the Weapons of Mass Destruction stuff and maybe I shouldn’t have. History will bless this with a slightly different view from the one we see at present.

Catchup to 5th April 2009

It’s Sunday night, it’s the early hours of the morning – it’s LDV Catchup!

And this was the week in which even more MPs fell foul of the media in the great expense extravaganza, which was particularly embarrassing for Jacqui Smith. Chris Grayling came in for criticism for representing a constituency 17 miles from London but still claiming both second home allowance and high travel costs. Eric Pickles fun time on Question Time finally became available on Youtube – both with and without a Monty Python Yorkshiremen mashup. Thank goodness Nick Clegg has the answer.

It was also the week of the meeting of the G20 – and the ensuing protests gave LDV a lot of copy:
Shirley, Simon, Chris and David monitored the police. Alix Mortimer spent a day glued to Twitter tracking a hashtag. Eye witness Andrew May laid the blame for much of the unrest squarely at the police’s door. Stephen Tall took Daniel Finkelstein to task for his views – and was not chuffed at the lack of response. Catchup’s favourite Lib Dem MP Tom Brake was caught up in the police action. Colin Lloyd had his own distinct perspective the following day. And sadly, one protester died during the fracas – Alix wrote about that here.

Other guest writers this week included Alison Holmes with the politics of globalisation; John Pugh MP wrote about Asquithians and Provincials; LDV’s favourite fluffy elephant opened his diary to us once again as did LDV’s favourite writer and broadcaster Jonathan Fryer; and Antony Hook told us that Europe is closer than we think. Rob Blackie has a heart and mind of his own on e-campaigning. And Julian Harris likes gin and free trade, but is less keen on fairtrade. Nick Thornsby has advice for anyone planning a constituency dinner (or, hem hem, a wedding): go veggie, or at any rate avoid rubber chicken.

Jock Coats’ piece on land value tax generated heated debate; there were many tributes to Maggie Clay, who died this week; and to the best of our knowledge, it wasn’t an April Fool, and Clegg really was annoyed.

In numbers…
Hopping for Golden Dozen #111
Golden Dozen #110
A look back at the polls: March 2009
March 2009 – not the statporn roundup

Just the one CommentIsLinked@LDV:
Chris Huhne – Scalpel-sharp intelligence is needed to slash knife crime

You said…
No to a minimum price for alcohol
And in response to our members only survey, 80% backed Clegg on tax; you gave your views on booze, recession and Afghanistan; and you said yes to assisted suicide and banning incitement to gay hatred.

Political leadership

A colleague has pointed me at a rather charming anecdote in a tome that was available at Bournemouth conference last autumn. The Politics of Leadership was a book available at a stand promoting Be A Councillor when it ran in London. It’s published by the Leadership Centre for Local Government, ISBN 978-1-84049-639-0

One of the chapters is called “Thinkers, fixers and communicators” and the author, Joe Simpson, explains it thus:

I think of politicians as thinkers, fixers or communicators. To be a good politician you need to be good at – at least – one of these attributes. To be great, you need at least two. In fiction, you might find someone who excels at all three.

But the real fun comes at the end of the chapter:

As an aside, the Leadership Centre runs development programmes for rising local government political talent for each of the three main parties. I recently asked each member of the three Next Generation cohorts which one of the three thinker, fixer or communicator categories they would ascribe themselves. The Labour response covered all three, but out of the Conservatives, only one person thought of themselves as a thinker – instead we had a room full of fixers and communicators. And with the Liberal Democrats, only one person (a party staffer) saw themselves as a fixer: most thought they were thinkers. Recounting this outcome to a prominent Liberal Democrat council leader, he replied that that’s precisely why he found it so easy to succeed in his party, always being the one person in his circle who operated as the fixer.

The predominance of thinkers would certainly explain why we get so many comments whenever we discuss just what it means to be a liberal in these troubled times.

So, dear reader, where do you fit in? Thinker, fixer or communicator?

Stop executions of gay Iraqis

Iraqi-LGBT reports that the administration in Iraq is about to begin executing gay Iraqis.

Urgent action is needed to halt the execution of 128 prisoners on death row in Iraq. Many of those awaiting execution were convicted for the ‘crime’ of homosexuality, according to IRAQI-LGBT, a UK based organisation of Iraqis supporting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in Iraq.

According to Ali Hili of IRAQI-LGBT, the Iraqi authorities plan to start executing them in batches of 20 from this week.

IRAQI-LGBT urgently requests that the UK Government, Human Rights Groups and the United Nations Human Rights Commission intervene with due speed to prevent this tragic miscarriage of justice from going ahead.

Earlier in the month, officials working in the UK Borders Agency advised a gay Iraqi that they would be returning him to Iraq.

Sarah Teather, the Liberal Democrats’ housing spokeswoman, who is the Iraqi’s MP, is perplexed by a recommendation from the UKBA that the Iraqi conduct his relationships in private.

The document says: “Even if your client’s homosexuality were to be established it is viewed that it would be possible for your client to conduct such relationships in private on his return to Iraq. This would allow your client to express his sexuality, albeit in a more limited way than he could do elsewhere.”

Teather, the MP for Brent East, said: “Immigration ministers need to show some humanity. If this deportation goes ahead there is a terrible risk that this man will be killed. How can we possibly claim to be a country that values human rights if we are willing to endanger a life in this way?”

ALDC’s “Local Solutions” conference – book now!

An email arrived yesterday reminding me that today, 31st March, is the last opportunity to register for early bird rates for ALDC’s Local Solutions conference in June.

Last year, LDV made recordings of the plenary sessions – still available here, here and here – if you want a flavour of the day. We intend to be there in June – and our aim will be to ask councillors across the UK to write more for LDV on how Lib Dems are making a difference on the ground.

On being a councillor

Last night, I joined Steve Hitchins and Laura Willoughby at Birmingham Council House for a training event all about encouraging local parties and council groups to recruit a new generation of councillors.

http://embed.12seconds.tv/i/embed?v=121012
Steve Hitchins recruits 184 new people to be a councillor on 12seconds.tv

The session was called “Be a councillor” – and I hope each and every one of you reading these words has heard of it, not least because for the last month and the next one, they have been advertising on Lib Dem Voice in a beautiful Flash advert on our sidebar. The programme continues around the country, and you can find a full list of venues on ALDC’s website.

The event is targetted squarely at existing councillors and those people running local parties – something not immediately clear from the title of the training session. There is some value in attending if you yourself want to be a councillor, but the people who will gain most from this are those charged with recruiting the next group of people who will represent the Liberal Democrats on local authorities up and down the country.

It was an enjoyable and thought-provoking evening. Topics covered included the changing role of local government; the qualities needed in tomorrow’s elected members; and what local parties need to do to attract and hold onto quality people. The evening culminated in asking each of us there to write out a list of people we knew in our wards and constituencies who would make good councillors. Between us, we identified 184 people – many of whom do not yet know they are Liberal Democrats!

Perhaps the most useful thing I took away from the session is the need for local parties to be clear about just what they are asking of both existing councillors and new ones. Are your approval processes adequate? Do you have a job description saying what you expect from your councillors? And do you have a councillor contract? And on all of these things, ALDC can help.

Be a Councillor continues its UK tour (Laura Willoughby promised there would be gig tshirts soon) – the next date is April 20th in Eastbourne – but the full list of venues is here (pdf).

Catchup to 29/03/09

Welcome to your sneaky guide to the best of LDV from the last fortnight.

In Op-eds, we had a round-up of polls after previous Labour governments from York Membery. Jock Coats told us of the opportunity of a lifetime to build anew, build better. Cllr Jenni Clutten asked whether we can trust our young people and Gareth Aubrey asked whether we can win them.

Our MP for Taunton Jeremy Browne penned a piece to explain why he was one of only two Lib Dem MPs to vote against allowing the Youth Parliament to meet in the House of Commons and Diana Wallis, our MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, put forward suggestions to help improve the gender balance at the European Commission. Michael Moore MP, who represents Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk gave his considered view about development in a downturn.

Julian Harris wrote about trading away poverty whilst Daniel Furr thinks the answer lies in world government. As the expenses row raged on, Hywel Morgan found a curious comparison amongst seven North London MPs. Joe Taylor thinks he has the answer to expense problems. Merlene Emerson checked out the quality of the air we breathe. James Graham was not impressed at the cost of Labour’s free lunch database.

As is often the case, a deliberative post on who are the Lib Dems drew a large number of comments this week when Geoffrey Payne asked “What is an economic liberal?” Alix Mortimer asked “what next?” for David Heath’s defeated fuel poverty bill, and we all learned that vegetarians are terrorists.

In our poll category, we asked whether Sir Fred should keep his pension, and you said yes. We asked if you supported minimum alcohol prices. And we asked if, in the event of a hung parliament where one party won more seats but another party won more votes… which should we back? We also had the return of our members’ survey. If you’re a paid up party member, you can join our panel here.

A busy week for CommentIsLinked@LDV saw Nick Clegg writing about the banking system not once, but twice. Michael Moore told readers of the New Statesman about broken promises. Vince Cable’s got a book out. Both Norman Baker and Nick Clegg wrote pieces about the Iraq war enquiry we need. And David Steel remembered to the Daily Mail that 28 March 1979 was the night that Labour self-destructed.

We learned a night in a police cell costs £853; we were saddened by the death of Ron Silver, who played Bruno in the West Wing; we were intrigued by news of a new voting system called Majority Judgement; we learned Gordon Brown is so unpopular in the Labour party that he’s not mentioned in their latest recruitment leaflet. It only takes three hours to learn how to fight the war against terror. Tony McNulty is terrible at timing. Nick Clegg responded to the economic crisis with a refinement of our tax policy.

And there’s a special place in this catchup for Eric Pickles. He fluffed it on Question Time, a fact that the right-wing blogs somehow failed to mention.

And a final paragraph to note that our colleague Mark Pack is moving on after ten years at Lib Dem HQ. All the very best in your new position, Mark, and we hope you’ll still find time to write for LDV.

The fortnight in numbers
Haggis Neeps and Liberalism #3
Golden Dozen #109
Y Barcud Oren #6

And in our private members’ forum
Mandatory retirement age still legal
Tax cuts now off the agenda?
Direct mail with multiple candidates
Kirklees WarmZone scheme

EDM126 and the dead cat bounce

Today in a spare moment, I have been dealing with post that arrived some time ago and has mounted up. Papers that arrive in clear plastic envelopes and are clearly non-urgent are carefully filed until I have enough spare time to deal with them properly. Amongst those are Total Politics, What’s Brewing? and Lib Dem News (although that at least arrives in an environmentally and post office-friendly C5 brown paper envelope). When I came to deal with the pile, I also found a mailing from last year from the Cats Protection League including raffle tickets that had to be returned by mid-December. Whoops.

Whilst I was going through all these envelopes – and for the most part recycling them unread, sorry! – I found a headline on the Cats Prot mailing that caught my eye: MPs call for action.

The story was about an EDM tabled in the last Parliament calling for action from local authorities – so as a councillor, I was hooked from the start. The rather gruesome EDM pointed out that local authorities are responsible for removing from the road the bodies of animals killed in traffic accidents. Then the EDM called on local authorities to invest in microchip scanners so that they could check to see whether those animals were cared-for pets with registered owners.

It does make sense. If your cat is killed on the road, unless it happens right outside your house, you may never know. So all you know is that your cat has wandered off and not returned. If your local council were to find your cat, the chances are you’d never hear about it. So urging authorities to invest a very small amount in microchip scanners could do a fair bit for the peace of mind of the owners of missing pets.

The initial EDM referred to in the magazine closed when Parliament changed session last November, but the campaign has been resurrected in the new Parliamentary session as EDM 126, tabled by our own Mike Hancock MP. The new EDM has not yet attracted as many signatures as its predecessor, so do urge your own MP to sign it if you agree, and if you’re fortunate enough to also be a councillor, why not find out what your authority does about this issue?

Bristol council candidate killed in car crash

News reaches the voice that a talented local campaigner died last week when his car hit a tree.

A man who died in a car crash in Bristol has been named locally as community figure and Liberal Democrat candidate for Horfield – Tony Lewis.

Mr Lewis, aged 48, of Rodbourne Road, Manor Farm, was involved in an accident in Pen Park Road, Southmead, just after 6.10pm on Tuesday.

As reported by the Bristol Post, his Renault Clio hit a tree and a parked car.

Mr Lewis, who was also chairman of Manor Farm Action Group, has been described by his colleagues as a “champion for his community”.

Councillor Barbara Janke, leader of Liberal Democrat Group said: “Tony will be a sad loss to Liberal Democrats in Bristol.

“We all held him in high regard for his dedication and commitment to his local area and to Bristol. “We all will miss him as a valued colleague and a fighter for local democracy. We send his family and loved ones our sympathy at this sad time.”

Catchup to 15/03/09

Welcome to Catchup, bringing you the tastiest nuggets of LDV from the last fortnight, apart from Conference, which we caught up here.

We started the period with a debate about fairtrade. Good? John Pugh MP thought so; Julian Harris wasn’t so sure.

We learned where thousands of Lib Dems will be trekking to conference over the coming years.

We learned the Government had caved on individual voter registration – and Mark Pack explained why that was a good thing.

Our peers came out top. Ros Scott unleashed hell. Bob Russell MP campaigned to save pubs.

Guest contributors included Hywel Morgan, pointing out a rather ridiculous mistake by the BNP, Charlotte Gore thought Modern Liberty was rubbish, Geoffrey Payne kicked the bankers. York Membury gave us a historical perspective of life after Labour and Joe Taylor urged Lib Dem councils to ditch their in-house propaganda sheets. Whilst on the subject of local government, we also had two pieces on the subject of alternate weekly collection from Iain Coleman, who made it work in Cambridge, and a piece from the FT saying Lib Dem AWC plans cost them 24 seats in Waverley in 2007.

Laurence Boyce generated more heat than light when he decided to quit the party – over 70 of you had opinions about whether he should climb down off the parapet or jump; a good number of you had something to say about this week’s Question Time and a number of you had suggestions about how to improve the nation’s sales personnel after Mark Pack listed the worst sales calls he’s had recently.

Perhaps the most striking piece of writing this week was Karin Robinson’s beer fuelled rant in which she told us – “Yes you can!” and a number of us popped up in the comments to doubt whether actually we could.

It’s been a twitter-heavy fortnight: we urged you to tweet at conference and we reported back when you responded by the thousand. Even twitter-sceptics like our dinosaur editor-at-large Stephen Tall were secretly impressed.

CommentIsLinked@LDV
We linked to Jonathan Calder in the Guardian
Vince Cable warning about China
James Graham keeping his pecker up

Numerology
@LibDig Pig #13
94% of conference reps fooled by Kate Winslet
Golden Dozens: 108, 107, 106.
Haggis Neeps and liberalism #2

In our private members’ forum
Aberdeenshire expulsions
Postponed election technicality
Private landlord campaigns
Ron Paul foreign policy analysis