Archive for nick clegg
Free schools: what should the party’s policy be in 2015?
News that the National Autistic Society is planning to set up a free school highlights an impending policy dilemma. Currently, the party’s policy is officially one of opposition to free schools. However if, by the time of the 2015 general election, free schools started by popular and worthy organisations such as the National Autistic Society [...]
In government, on your side: the Liberal Democrat local elections broadcast
Via YouTube, here’s Nick Clegg putting the case for the Liberal Democrats:
Now *this* is a political video that gets the message right
Colleagues in the office may have been wondering why I got up, punched the air, did a jig around my chair and screamed, “Yay! That man gets what Easter is all about!” 22 seconds into this film. At least they would have been, if I had. Being English (even if not a Morris dancer), I [...]
A reminder of why there’s more to the Daily Mail than meets the eye
The Daily Mail isn’t popular with Liberal Democrat members. It is, however, popular amongst Liberal Democrat voters. If you’re one of the former puzzled about the latter, today’s edition provides a good example of one of the reasons why this is so: the Daily Mail has a leader on an issue of civil liberties, praising [...]
The wheels are coming off the online monitoring bandwagon
Item one: A letter tomorrow in The Guardian from 15 Liberal Democrat MPs setting out their opposition to illiberal monitoring plans. Item two: More Conservative MPs joining with David Davis in speaking out against widespread online monitoring, such as Jacob Rees-Mogg. Item three: The Times reporting, Cameron forced to retreat on snooping powers [£]. Item four: a subtle, but [...]
Differentiation is good, division is bad: a warning for the Lib Dems from the polls
The latest, post-Budget, opinion poll from Populus (for The Times) contains a battery of questions about how the public view the overall image of the three main parties. Do they have clear ideas, are they for ordinary people, do they have a good team of leaders and so on. Leafing through the details two dangers leap out for [...]
“Budget 2012: new tycoon tax in victory for Nick Clegg”
“Budget 2012: new tycoon tax in victory for Nick Clegg” – so reports the Daily Telegraph: In a significant victory for the Liberal Democrats, the Chancellor effectively introduced a 25 per cent minimum rate of tax in the Budget. Under the changes, he will limit how much people offset their tax bills by investing in [...]
Tax cuts for the millions, not for millionaires
A few weeks ago I was joshing with Lib Dem Party President Tim Farron and other party members on Twitter that the party should be talking about how it is for tax cuts for the millions, not for millionaires – highlighting the difference in Liberal Democrat enthusiasm for cutting taxes for those on the basic [...]
The Budget: I was wrong
Cunning negotiating strategy or basic mistake? Whatever the view you have of the tax motion at Liberal Democrat conference and Stephen Williams’s speech moving it, my interpretation of it was wrong. Far from signalling the determination of the party’s leadership to see the 50p tax rate remain, it was in fact a sideshow and the [...]
