Archive for david laws
Nick Clegg turns media weakness into media strength
Ask a Liberal Democrat what they think about the British media and chances are you will hear a complaint about how media habits developed during years of a two-party political system that generated one-party governments die hard. That makes today’s speech by Nick Clegg on tax policy a smart move, turning those habits from a [...]
Andrew Marr bids for record-breaking number of different topics in one interview
I wonder if somewhere deep in the BBC there is a target for how many different topics must be asked about in political interviews each month and someone woke up this morning to realise that January’s quota is about to be missed. Or perhaps there was a typo in Andrew Marr’s contract and his BBC [...]
Get your skates on and submit a motion to Liberal Democrat conference about wealth taxes
Nick Clegg’s recent ‘open society’ speech confirmed that increases taxes on wealth in some form is very much on the political agenda. However, the default party policy option – a mansion tax – was highly controversial in the party when it was introduced (which is rather a polite term for the rolling lesson in how [...]
From David Laws to Andrew George: The Lib Dem rebellion league table
Liberal Democrat peers used to be in a remarkably privileged position in the party. Not only because they have held office without the pesky need for elections but also because for many years the third party in the House of Lords has been the key swing vote when the government has been wanting to get [...]
Was there a Clegg coup? Review of The Clegg Coup – Britain’s First Coalition Government Since Lloyd George by Jasper Gerard
Many book titles reveal little about what their book contains, either providing but a banal name for its contents or a clever, clever name which obscures rather than reveals. However, The Clegg Coup – Britain’s First Coalition Government Since Lloyd George by Jasper Gerard has a title which is revealing in two aspects. First, the [...]
Nick Clegg: The Biography published today – is it worth reading? (UPDATED)
The pre-publication newspaper serialisation of Chris Bower’s biography of Nick Clegg used extracts which covered the Deputy Prime Minister’s early life. When you read the full book the reason for this is amply clear. It has much interesting to say about Nick Clegg’s multi-national family and their close brushes with the tragedies of the early [...]
News in brief: The disappearing alarm clock, Vince Cable’s favourite moment and more
The police have returned the paperwork related to David Laws’s expenses – which suggests that they have not found anything in it worthy of legal action. Asked by me at the weekend what his favourite moment had been since last year’s election, Vince Cable said it was getting drive an Aston Martin DB9 at 150mph. [...]
Dealing with the political weather: three lessons to learn
Chatting recently to a Liberal Democrat colleague, I fear we sounded like a second-rate version of the Monty Python four Yorkshireman sketch. That there were not four of us, none of us are from Yorkshire and I’m no John Cleese probably didn’t help the imitation as we exchanged tales of past poll ratings (10%? I remember [...]
