UK Liberal Party

New blog coming soon...

Updated: 2012-02-12 14:56:05

So I've been quite laxidasical in updating this blog, but there's a reason for this. I'm currently putting my HTML / CSS / PHP skills to good use and building a new site. I hope to have this new site up and running by March. In the mean time: 1. Lib Dems work for you all year round 2. Labour continue to jump on the band wagon of every campaign we Lib Dems (especially Daisy) have ever started 3. Tory's can't win here – frankly if you vote Tory in Redlands or Katesgrove you only let tired old Reading Labour ...

Clegg resurrects party funding talks, appoints Laws as Lib Dem negotiator

Updated: 2012-02-12 14:35:32

Earlier this week The Guardian reported that Nick Clegg 'is to revive all-party talks on party funding admitting that extra state funding is off the table, but insisting a wider deal is still possible': Clegg as deputy prime minister is responsible for constitutional affairs, and was not taking the initiative as Lib Dem leader. The aim would be to set out heads of agreement on a range of issues by Easter. This high-level agreement would cover individual and company donor limits, the treatment of union affiliates, spending caps at elections and the distribution of existing state funding between parties, currently ...

Thinking the thinkable

Updated: 2012-02-12 10:18:00

I have not commented on Carwyn Jones idea for another Welsh think tank or policy institute to generate ideas to improve public services, largely because I am always suspicious of easy targets. It is not that I do not support such a body, we can always do with fresh thinking, it is just that Welsh Labour has hardly been a hotbed of original thought since the Assembly got underway and, if the First Minister's comments are any guide, that has not changed. My first reaction was very much in line with the AM quoted by Matt Withers in this morning's ...

Nick Clegg's NHS problem

Updated: 2012-02-12 09:50:18

There's a striking finding in today's Sunday Times/YouGov poll which carries a worrying message for Nick Clegg. Asked which of the three main party leaders they most trusted on the NHS, 71% of Labour voters picked Ed Miliband, 61% of Conservative voters picked David Cameron but only 36% of Lib Dems picked Nick Clegg. That was a statistical dead heat with "none of them" who came in at 35% amongst Liberal Democrat voters. Amongst those who said at the time in May 2010 they were Liberal Democrat voters, the figures are even lower – just 15% pick Nick Clegg and ...

Reports to Liberal Democrat Spring Conference 2012

Updated: 2012-02-12 08:50:47

Having previously criticised the increasing brevity of Federal Executive reports to conference and got a positive response from Tim Farron to my conference question on the matter, it's good to see the FE report is longer and more substantive than many recent ones. Reports to Liberal Democrat Spring Conference 2012

Liberal Left and What It Means

Updated: 2012-02-12 00:01:00

A few days ago it was announced that a new centre-left pressure group would be launched within the Liberal Democrats called 'Liberal Left.' Liberal Left seeks to promote Liberalism as an outlook of the centre-left. The group is opposed to the current Coalition Government between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, which it sees as being "Eurosceptic, neo-liberal, and socially conservative." The group aims to oppose the Coalition on economic and fiscal policy and to provide a "positive alternative". Furthermore Liberal Left aims to create a broad alliance on the left between the Liberal Democrats, Labour and the Greens. Ultimately ...

The Lib Dem Ideology - And how to influence them

Updated: 2012-02-11 20:45:32

When approaching an MP or a political party, it always helps to understand what makes that party or party member tick. How can we frame our argument in a way that seems natural to the person we're speaking to? Many activists write off entire parties as 'evil' or 'opponents' when actually, the party wants the ...