Tag Archives: www.libdemvoice.org

Previous blogs of the year

Earlier this afternoon, Jonathan Calder unearthed video footage from the first blog awards in 2006, which reminds me that I should plug the still-available recordings of our awards ceremonies in 2008.

Tucked away in our “Podcasts” category are audio recordings of the full round of speeches for 2008 Blog of the Year in which Alix Mortimer was crowned.

And still free-to-hear from this site is the taping of the apparently-one-and-only CGB Blogger Awards from March 2008.

There’s still three days remaining to nominate people for this year’s round of Blog of the Year Awards so feel free to nominate away.

Brian Haw’s milestone

Just a quick note to congratulate Iraq war protester Brian Haw. According to capital news website Londonist, yesterday saw his 3,000th day of continuous protest against the invasion.

3,000 days ago today, Brian Haw left his Redditch, Worcestershire home and took off for London, where he parked himself across the road from the Houses of Parliament and began a one-man anti-war protest. It was June 2001, and Haw was protesting against British and American sanctions on Iraq; September 11th, the deployment of troops in Afghanistan, the Iraq invasion of 2003 and the global marches against it, the July 2005 bombings, all were mere glints in the eye of suicidal madmen or hubristic politicians. It’s difficult to overestimate how prophetic Haw’s protest was.

I for one salute his tenacity.

Unpleasant Tory campaign vignettes

This week in the Guardian’s diary column Esther Addley is standing in for Hugh Muir, and she’s chosen a book of the week, True Blue: Strange Tales from a Tory Nation, by Chris Horrie and David Matthews.

Very unpleasant trends are emerging in two vignettes that paint Tory activists as racist and anti-Semitic. Who knew?

The first scene takes us to Richmond:

during the election campaign of 2005, when the book’s undercover authors were canvassing for the local Tory candidate against the Lib Dems’ Susan Kramer. Given a telephone cold-calling script, they were puzzled to find instructions to tell voters that Kramer was an “outsider” and, perplexingly, Hungarian (Kramer was born and raised in London). Why? “She’s a Jewess,” said a party activist, “but we aren’t allowed to say that. We get told off if we say that. So all we can say is that she got off the train from Hungary.”

And then in the London mayoral campaign, we have a charming anecdote:

[Ray] Lewis insisted he had a good idea of what the new job would involve, “which is more than you can say about Boris!”, before doing an impression of his new boss: “Crikey, Ray! What are we going to do? Gosh! Crumbs! Have you got any ideas? Golly!” Cue raucous hilarity, topped only when Lewis joked about a conversation about the local Conservative candidate, Shaun Bailey, who was also present and, like Lewis, is black. “I’ve just been speaking to a lady and she asked: ‘Which one is Shaun and which one is Ray – it’s hard to tell you apart.’”

The book is available on Amazon – and if you use this link you’re helping raise funds for the Liberal Democrats: True Blue: Strange Tales from a Tory Nation. Perhaps a kind reader out there would care to buy a copy and review it for us in greater detail?

Damian’s DNA

As the Guardian reports:

Damian Green, the Conservative frontbench immigration spokesman whose arrest during a Home Office leaks inquiry sparked a parliamentary storm, has won a four-month battle to have his DNA, fingerprint and police records destroyed.

The Metropolitan police told Green’s lawyers he is to be treated as “an exceptional case”. His DNA sample and fingerprints, taken when he was arrested, will be deleted within “a number of weeks”.

Meanwhile, for everyone else in Britain, different rules apply, despite a clear ruling from the European Court of Human Rights.

To Green’s credit, he does not want to be a special case: “I want every innocent person who has been arrested and whose records are being wrongly held to be treated the same as me.”

Interview with Durham campaigners

Last week I was up in Durham on a singing week in the Norman cathedral there. While I was there, I took the opportunity to meet with a group of local Lib Dem campaigners for the latest in our LDV interviews.

In Durham, they’re smarting from local government re-organisation; still proud of what Lib Dems achieved whilst running Durham city council; champing at the bit to build more social housing; and adamant the Lib Dems should not resile from their commitment to abolish tuition fees.

Hear all that and more by clicking play below (or here if you are reading this syndicated somewhere else). You can also 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.

The week in Facebook groups

Not  a week goes by without a dozen invites to various groups on Facebook.  (Well, maybe the week my ISP turned my email off without warning…) Here’s a selection that have crossed my path in recent days:

We agree with Vince Cable and Compass. Lets have a high pay commission.

Ever since the collapse of Northern Rock, Vince Cable has led the way in support of demanding an end to excessive pay and bonuses for greedy bankers who are more interested in short term profit than the long term interests of the economy.

Recently the Left Leaning think tank Compass has proposed a “High Pay Commission” to stop this kind of nonsense. We welcome Vince Cable’s support of this proposal and urge political leaders from all political parties to do the same.

According to Vince Cable; “There is no justification for massive pay and bonus awards in financial institutions, the most important of which are guaranteed or owned or have been rescued by the taxpayer”.

It’s not the first time that Compass have spread their net to include Lib Dems; but I have to say I’m a little angered at them taking my council email address and writing to me every day.

We’re supporting Jonathan Fryer to become an MEP in 2014

Nothing beats a good bit of organisation.

Jonathan Fryer responds: “Thank you so much everyone for your support duing this year’s campaign. We put in a tremendous amount of effort and it is sad that this time, it didn’t quite pay off. But being an MEP is the only job I really want and with your help, I will get there in 2014!”

Take back power!

This group’s 2,000 strong membership is demanding:

Help us reform parliament in Britain and Change Politics for Good: I want the right to sack my MP I want to know MPs can’t be bought off by party donors I want the right to find out what government is doing I want the power of government to be cut down I want my vote to count Visit TakeBackPower.org and read the full plan for reform: 100 Days to Save Democracy. Sign the petition, spread the word and join the campaign online

The 100 days may be over, but the demands are still unmet.

Liberal Democrats for the Single Transferable Vote

The Single Transferable Vote electoral system has long been the electoral system of choice for Liberal Democrats across the UK, but it is unfortunate that the Party leadership seems too ready to compromise on this policy and sign up to the inferior Alternative Vote Plus system.

‘Liberal Democrats for the Single Transferable Vote’ is a group for Liberal Democrats who believe our Party and its members, supporters and activists shouldn’t compromise at this early stage for the Alternative Vote Plus system.

This group wishes to influence the Party leadership by arguing that Liberal Democrats should campaign to influence the voters of the benefits of the Single Transferable Vote system.

As the Acronystas say, STV MMC FTW.

I’ve been emailed by a Real Woman

A Real Woman has been in touch to tell me about new Lib Dem policy proposals for Real Women.

As readers of the Voice should know by now – Jo Swinson MP penned a piece on Perez and photoshopping last week – the Lib Dems have a policy paper on women’s rights. The full paper is available at http://www.RealWomen.org.uk, and here’s the summary from the front page:

Women face pressure from all directions these days. Hit hard by the recession, trying to juggle family commitments with work and home life, it’s easy to feel like you’re running just to stand still. The media screams out an endless list of things still to do: get a bikini body in 20 days, plan the perfect children’s party, how to look 10 years younger. Despite great strides forward in equality, women still get paid less than men, and generally still end up taking more responsibility for childcare and looking after elderly relatives. This can be hugely rewarding, but combining this with a job can seem almost impossible.

There’s a lot the Government could do to give a helping hand. Making employers check for pay discrimination would help women get the money they deserve. Providing 20 hours per week free childcare would allow parents to make real choices about returning to work. Enabling everyone to ask for flexible working would help to change the rigid work culture, and make it easier to juggle different commitments. And it would be nice to inject some realism into the media’s portrayal of women, instead of the suggestion that nothing less than perfection will do.

Today’s email was asking us to spread the word:

We want to make sure as many women as possible (Liberal Democrat or not) to benefit from the policies in Real Women and the advice contained on the site.

Help us spread the word about Real Women:

  • Send an email about Real Women to 5 people you know, regardless of whether they are Liberal Democrat supporters or not
  • Post this site to your social networking page(s)
  • Blog about it / Tweet about it
  • Print out a copy and send it to anyone that does not have online access

Jo Swinson’s Indy Q&A

The Lib Dem MP for Dunbartonshire East has submitted herself to a gruelling grilling at the hands of the readers of the Independent.

Among the questions – such taxing ones “that thing you just did, isn’t it a huge waste of time?” – “no”; “don’t you think you were too young to be an MP?” – “no”; and “who’s your bestest friend in all the Lib Dems?” – I will leave you to visit the story yourself to see the thrilling answer.

Amongst the questions there are some better thought out ones and some interesting answers, so it’s well worth five mins of your time.

You can find the interview here.

What does 300 mean to you?

Is it the epic historical film from last year?

Do you see a triangular number and a pair of twin primes (149 and 151)?

Or do you recall how Jo Shaw, the Lib Dem PPC for Holburn and St Pancras revealed in the Telegraph last week that that’s how many children are added to the UK’s DNA database each and every day.

Almost 1.1 million youngsters aged between ten and 17 have had their profiles recorded by the police since 2000, with a large proportion aged under 15, the Daily Telegraph can disclose.
And around one in six are likely to have never been convicted of any crime.

Ministers are currently reviewing the database but proposals would still see the profiles of innocent people kept for up to 12 years.

Youngsters who commit one minor crime will be kept on until they reach 18 while those guilty of sex or violent crimes will be kept indefinitely.

Jo Shaw, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary campaigner for Holborn & St Pancras who obtained the figures, said: “Labour’s approach to tackling crime is unfair, heavy-handed and ineffective.

“Storing the DNA of thousands of innocent young people as young as ten is unlikely to solve our crime problems, but is a costly way of stigmatising young people. If you’re innocent, you shouldn’t have your data on who you are kept for years.”