• Loved up Alexander and Letwin

    Updated: 2011-05-30 22:40:58
    VN just found this rather delightful offering on the Cabinet Office's YouTube channel. The coalition-cross-party-love-in recorded by Alexander and Letwin is a reminder of just what the coalition is about. Ok, this video smells distinctly of cheddar, but the Government was so much better, such a breath of fresh air, when it was positive, and ...

  • Peter Hain: Political Football

    Updated: 2011-05-30 22:10:05
    TweetPeter Hain has form in trying to make unpolitical situations exactly that on twitter, having already tried to create a fuss at the lack of Ed Miliband camera time here. Well he's at it again, this time it's about Swansea being promoted to the premier league. Here is the offending tweet. Whilst you may have views on coalition policies and what exactly it is doing to your area, i'm sure football really should be left well out of it. I'm sure not a single Swansea fan thought on being promoted to the Premier League thought, ahh there that'll show Nick ...

  • Coalition to Continue Even with a Tory Majority?

    Updated: 2011-05-30 21:36:00
    Not with me on board it won't. Rachel Sylvester in The Times (£) today has claimed that Cameron is keen for the coalition to continue even if his party wins an overall majority. Now I have to admit that I find this difficult to believe, it wouldn't surprise me if it was made up (After all only a Lib Dem would look to coalesce even when we could do it alone, painfully consensual politics?). 'For the Tory modernisers, the Lib Dems are the ideal weapon to ward off the enemy within. The news that some of the so-called "Tatler Tories" ...

  • Social Liberal Forum (Scotland) Meeting in Glasgow on 25 June

    Updated: 2011-05-30 19:05:08
    Following our successful fringe meeting at the Scottish Spring Conference in Perth, the Social Liberal Forum (Scotland) will hold a further meeting in Glasgow. The venue is Room 9 in Partick Burgh Hall, from 10.30am to 12.30pm on Saturday 25 ... Continue reading →

  • Fifa 1904 - 2011

    Updated: 2011-05-30 18:22:31
    On Saturday, Andrew Grice wrote in The Independent that sources have told him the idea of a "confidence and supply" arrangement between the Conservatives and Lib Dems is now back on the cards. It was mooted in the aftermath of the election result last year before the coalition was formed and would allow the Lib Dems to oppose certain pieces of legislation but allow through others that it supported. However it would mean losing the government positions and what we would effectively end up with would be a Conservative minority government with an arrangement for important legislation such as the ...

  • Liberal Youth: appealing to Lib Dems everywhere

    Updated: 2011-05-30 17:23:32
    Conferences are a foundation stone of being a Liberal Democrat. There have been some really huge and important ones - Brighton, 2002, where we laid out a principled position on Iraq; Llandudno, 1981, where Shirley Williams and David Steel spoke passionately in favour of an alliance; Sheffield, 2011, when we opposed the NHS reforms. Conference is the best way for the membership to exert their influence over the leadership. Past leaders, from Steel to Ashdown, from Kennedy to Clegg, have often feared Conference for the skill and passion with which it has put its arguments. And so the tradition of ...

  • The Cameron-Clegg Government: or the perils of publishing a book early in the Parliament

    Updated: 2011-05-30 15:54:23
    Simon Lee and Matt Beech's new book The Cameron-Clegg Government: Coalition Politics in an Age of Austerity has, at first glance, a lot going for it. A line-up of significant academic names, a well-known and reputable publisher (Palgrave Macmillan) a subject matter that is rarely out of the news and (unlike for books about the 2010 general election) a field relatively clear of rival publications. A second glance suggests one of its problems: although nominally about both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, there are five contributors who are listed as having published books purely about the Conservative Party but ...

  • Opinion: The need for a radical manifesto

    Updated: 2011-05-30 11:52:51
    In 2015, as we approach the general election, it will be exactly 70 years since the 1945 general election. When we draw up our 2015 manifesto, we need to remember the lessons of 1945. That election saw the Labour party, after several years in a coalition government for reasons of the national interest, cast aside the memories of the wartime government to win a landslide majority based on a radical, optimistic manifesto that laid out a glowing vision of the future. Say what you like about the Labour party of old, at least they could not be accused of lack ...

  • There is nothing liberal about President Obama

    Updated: 2011-05-30 10:12:51
    As Europe suffers a hangover from President Obama's visit and excitement from the media returns to normality, the 'Leader of the Free World' remains unquestioned by Europeans. The message of 'change' still resonates in European capitals and has become the ... Continue reading →

  • Amnesty International 50 years old

    Updated: 2011-05-30 10:04:18
    Congratulations to Amnesty International for reaching its 50th anniversary. I first heard of Amnesty in my school days and helped form a local school support group. At that time the head teacher was horrified assuming we'd become some kind of radical revolutionaries and considered expelling us – until the local newspaper printed an article. Phew. If ever a demonstration of how important Amnesty was to us about free speech that was it. We spend much of the next two years while at school writing Urgent Action airmail letters to central American officials asking for political prisoners to be treated well, ...

  • In Praise of The Guardian: Finding strengths in the Lib Dems and Coalition

    Updated: 2011-05-30 09:42:17
    It may be rare these days but the Guardian does occasionally see some good coming from the Lib Dems and in the article today Ed Miliband shouldn't crow. It's time to move closer to Clegg they praise not only the Lib Dem stance on the NHS but also the Lib Dems in Coalition. Interestingly, this ...

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