Archive for trident
Liberal Democrat members support proposed changes to planning rules, just
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 550 party members responded, and we’re currently publishing the full results. Our latest survey of party members finds a small majority backing the government’s controversial plans for the [...]
Nick Harvey talks up closer nuclear cooperation with the French
In a speech yesterday Minister for the Armed Forces Nick Harvey both showed how ministers can stake out clearly different ground from the Conservatives and also gave a hint of major debates over nuclear weapons yet to come. In his speech to the Franco-British Council Defence Co-operation Conference Nick Harvey said, As you will know, [...]
The Saturday debate: Does Britain need nuclear weapons?
Here’s your starter for ten in our Saturday slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate… One of the achievements of the Liberal Democrats in Coalition Government so far has been to ensure that no Trident replacement is orders during this Parliament. At the next election the party will be able to [...]
Trident: no renewal this Parliament
The BBC reports that the predicted policy has won the day: The government says £750m ($1.2bn) will be saved over four years on the Trident nuclear deterrent missile system by cutting the number of warheads on each boat from 48 to 40 and reducing the number of missile tubes from 12 to eight. The UK’s [...]
Conference: the full-time score
Having blogged ten questions for Liberal Democrat conference, along with a conference half-time update, how do things look now the dust has settled from Liverpool for those ten points? Party strategy Love your coalition partner all the time in public: that was the clear line taken by Nick Clegg, reinforced by other senior party figures [...]
Conference: the half-time score
At the start of conference, I blogged the ten issues that I thought would shape conference. Half-way through, how are things looking on the ten? Strategy: the party’s official line of loving our coalition partners in public has been firmly stuck to by the party’s senior figures, and argued for by Nick Clegg during Q+A [...]
Ten questions for conference
It’s a fair bet that much of the media coverage of Liberal Democrat conference will be of the form ‘THEY’RE DOOMED!’, with the more subtle coverage for the more discerning journalists being ‘Are they doomed?’. That has, after all, been the standard media fare since long before the Coalition, since before Nick Clegg became an [...]
Poll: Less than 1 in 10 party members support like-for-like Trident replacement
An opinion poll of over 500 Liberal Democrat party members carried out by YouGov for Greenpeace has found that 7% said they supported a like-for-like replacement of Trident. The key question asked was: As you may know, there is currently debate about whether or not the UK should replace its Trident nuclear weapons system. Current [...]
BBC: Government set to delay Trident decision for five years
The BBC is reporting that the Government is set to put off a decision on replacing Trident until after the next general election. This move would both assist government finances over this Parliament and would sidestep the division on the Trident in the coalition which pits Liberal Democrats and some Conservatives against Defence Secretary Liam [...]
Clegg backs graduate tax in Telegraph interview
Credit where credit is due, today’s Telegraph interview with Nick Clegg covers a range of substantive policy issues and gives the Deputy Prime Minister the space to give nuanced answers where the question requires them. The biggest story is Clegg’s clear steer on a graduate tax as the way to square financial demands with the [...]
