Liberal democrats

Saturday

David Blackburn

Planning to ruin Lansley’s party

How can Nick Clegg recover from defeat in the AV referendum? Andrew Grice considers the question in his column and reveals that Clegg is not too bothered about AV: his sight is trained on a bigger prize. ‘A U-turn in the controversial NHS reforms to hand 80 per cent of the budget to GPs and scrap primary care trusts (PCTs). Mr Clegg is convinced that there must be big symbolic changes to the NHS and Social Care Bill.  That would not be good news for Andrew Lansley…He knows that Mr Cameron will demand some changes and is prepared to see a few technical amendments to the Bill during its passage through

Friday

David Blackburn

An election jam in Leicester spells trouble for Clegg

Nick Clegg is campaigning in Leicester today, ahead of the local election. The Labour party has just confirmed that Sir Peter Soulsby has stood down as MP for Leicester South today to seek election as the town’s Mayor. A happy coincidence? Probably not. Labour are already running a coherent campaign in Leicester. Michael Crick points out that the by-election will fall on 5 May, together with the local council elections, the Mayoral election and the referendum on the alternative vote.  A party spokesman has opened new parliamentary candidate Jonathan Ashworth’s (who used to work for Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband) campaign by saying: ‘Both Peter and Jon will offer the

Wednesday

Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 30 March 2011

VERDICT: What happened there, then? The Prime Minister often has a confident swagger about him when it comes to PMQs — but today it went into overdrive. He simply couldn’t conceal his glee at taking on Eds Miliband and Balls; the first over his appearance at the anti-cuts demonstration, the second for just being Ed Balls. It was a little bit Flashman from the PM, perhaps. Yet, on this occasion, it also helped him sail through the contest more or less untroubled. Aside from the theatrics, the serious talk was reserved for whether the coalition should help arm the rebels in Libya. The PM’s official position was that we shouldn’t

Peter Hoskin

The yellow bird of liberty stretches its wings

Remember when Nick Clegg said that the coalition was shuffling into a new phase? One where his party would would make their presence, and their differences with the Tories, more acutely felt? Turns out the Lib Dem leader wasn’t kidding. Judging by this report of a press briefing he has given in Mexico, the brave new phase is very much in effect. For starters, Clegg luxuriates in the anti-nuclear hysteria that has arrived in the wake of Fukushima — emphasising not just that our planned nuclear power stations will be more costly and difficult to build now, but also his party’s policy that no public money should be used to

Monday

James Forsyth

Another phase in Gove’s revolution

Michael Gove has just finished announcing to the Commons his proposed replacement for Educational Maintenance Allowance. The new scheme is more targeted than the old one that went to 45 percent of those who stayed in education post-16. Interestingly, it will be administered by the schools and colleges themselves. Gove’s argument is that it is these institutions that are best equipped to know which student needs how much money to support them staying in education. This drew predictable opposition from the Labour benches which wanted a top down, national scheme. On top of this discretionary fund, every student who is receiving income support will receive £1,200 a year. This new

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Clegg’s new direction?

Perhaps the most interesting political story of the weekend was Nick Clegg’s political mentor, Paddy Ashdown rejecting the idea that the Lib Dems should be equidistant between the two main parties in an interview with The Times: ‘I don’t want to go back to using the word ‘equidistant’ because the world has changed.” He predicts that Labour will look increasingly like “a bunch of superannuated students shouting from the sidelines.’ There are two schools of thought in the Lib Dems about their approach to the next election. One has it that the party must appear equally prepared to do a deal with either of the main parties in the event

Peter Hoskin

Clegg weaves more divides between himself and Miliband

“He’s elevated personal abuse into a sort of strategy.” So says Nick Clegg of Ed Miliband in one of the most noteworthy snippets from his laid-back interview with the FT today. Another sign, were it needed, that Labour’s animosity towards the Lib Dem leader is mutual — if they won’t work with him, then he almost certainly won’t work with them. And a sign, perhaps, that the coalition is keen to undermine Miliband’s claim to post-partisanship (or whatever). Labour constantly criticise Cameron for being more Flashman than statesman. Now the same charge is being levelled at their leader too. Elsewhere in the interview — as George Eaton details over at

Sunday

Peter Hoskin

Signs of nerves from the Lib Dems

Judging by today’s reports, it’s fear and self-loathing in Lib Dem Land. And it’s not just that one of their Scottish candidates has quit the party in protest at its, ahem, “draconian policies” and “dictatorial style”. No, according to this insightful article by Melissa Kite and Patrick Hennessy in the Sunday Telegraph, there are more manoeuvrings going on than that. Here are some passages from it, by way of a summary: 1) Chris Huhne, waiting in the wings. “Mr Huhne, who ran Mr Clegg close in the last Lib Dem leadership election, has told colleagues privately that he would be interested in leading his party in the future.” 2) A

Thursday

David Blackburn

Cleggballs

Amid allegations of Clegg being a Tory stooge, this Brown-esque mic-boob is likely to run. It’ll also be reprised at the next election, whoever leads the Liberal Democrats. Hat-tip: Channel Four.

Wednesday

James Plunkett

Osborne the Reformer is an unfinished work

One interesting aspect of today’s Budget is the government’s change of tack on personal allowances. Back in June 2010, when the Chancellor committed to raise allowances from £6,475 to £7,475, he chose to cancel out the gains for higher rate taxpayers by lowering the level at which the 40p tax rate kicks in. The idea was to focus the gains of the policy on basic rate taxpayers, making things a little more efficient. The 40p threshold will therefore be lowered from April this year from £43,875 to £42,475 with the result that 700,000 people will become higher rate taxpayers. Needless to say, that’s proved unpopular, and so this time around

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Lib Dems bringing home the bacon

There are a few big Lib Dem policy wins in this Budget, most notably the rise in the personal allowance and the introduction of land auctions. But there are also a few bits of rather unseemly pork barrel politics. Nick Clegg’s Sheffield gets an enterprise zone, which is probably fair enough. But we are also told that ‘following a thorough review, the government is approving the revised Sheffield retail quarter regeneration scheme.’ The south west, which has a disproportionately large number of Lib Dem seats, gets help to keep water bills down. Remote areas of Britain, which is expected to include the constituency represented by the Lib Dem chief whip

Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 23 March 2011

1232: And that’s it. And here’s my quick verdict: a solid performance from Cameron is what was, on the whole, a sedate session. The Main Event starts now, follow our live blog here. 1228: More fire from Cameron on the NHS. “Do you want to save … lives,” he quivers,” or do you want to stick with the status quo.” The PM’s rhetorical confidence in this area is striking, particularly given that it is one of his most criticised policy areas. 1226: Matthew Hancock questions why the Labour government used PFI contracts to build hospitals, when there were better value alternatives. The Tories have spent the past few days emphasising

Peter Hoskin

Budget morning

George Osborne couldn’t really have expected a much better set of newspaper covers than the one before him this morning. Despite the dreary background picture – war, confusion, higher inflation, lower growth, the ruinous state of the public finances, etc – a handful of papers are leading on the goodies in his Budget, and specifically the £600 rise in the personal allowance that James mentioned last night. Judging by the movements of the grapevine, this will come into effect in April 2012, and will benefit more people than will the £1,000 rise already announced for this April. While that one was targeted at the least well-off by a reduction in

Wednesday

Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 16 March 2011

VERDICT: A more evenly-matched PMQs that we have been used to, with both leaders parrying and thrusting to some effect. Miliband’s chosen topic — the NHS — was a surprise, particularly given today’s unemployment figures and the persistent flurry of bad news from abroad. Yet it did open up a clear divide between him and Cameron. On one side, the Labour leader claiming that the the coalition is taking undue risks with a beloved health system. On the other, the PM painting Miliband as Brown Mark II, a roadblock to reform and change. Neither side really won, or lost, the argument today, but you can expect them to return to

Tuesday

Peter Hoskin

Another hurdle for Lansley’s health reforms

And so it came to pass. After sniping at Andrew Lansley’s health reforms from the day they were announced — at one point describing them as a “slash and burn approach” — the British Medical Association has today voted to call on the Health Secretary to withdraw his Bill entirely. The speech that the BMA Council Chairman, Hamish Meldrum delivered this morning captures the tenor of their opposition: “…what we have is an often contradictory set of proposals, driven by ideology rather than evidence, enshrined in ill-thought-through legislation and implemented in a rush during a major economic downturn.” So what to make of it all? Normally, another “union opposes coalition”

Monday

David Blackburn

Miliband: I won’t share a stage with Clegg

Ed Miliband has been on Sky, talking about the alternative vote and Nick Clegg. The normally consensual Miliband was in strident mood. He said: ‘I want to win the AV referendum because I think it is important to reform our politics and I think it will make for a more accountable democracy and one where more votes count. The problem is Nick Clegg is the last thing we need to win this referendum.’ Earlier this morning, Miliband also urged Clegg to ‘lie low for a bit’, after the latter’s office allegedly derailed a joint event on AV between Miliband and Charlie Kennedy. Miliband may be dabbling in the Leader of

Peter Hoskin

Another call for an in/out referendum

In or out? — that is the question that a new cross-party campaign would have put to the British people. And so they’re launching their “People’s Pledge” today. The idea is that voters would promise to support only those parliamentary candidates who back a referendum on our membership of the EU. The signatures will then be enumerated, presented on a website, and — it is hoped — shock Westminster into delivering the referendum itself. At the very least, it might persuade some candidates to face up to, and meet, the tide of public opinion on Europe. It seems we’ve been here, or somewhere like it, before now. Daniel Hannan, for

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Are the Liberal Democrats a Serious Political Party?

Obvious John Rentoul bait as this may be, the answer is still a definite No. Actually that’s not quite fair. Nick Clegg and at least some of his parliamentary colleagues are serious; much of the party membership and, above all, the people who often vote Lib Dem are not. That’s one thing to take from the revealing exchange James reports: The most political part of the Lib Dem electorate is, I suspect, the lefties scunnered by Tony Blair who thought they were buying into a more radical, truly left-wing, party when they hitched their colours to the Lib Dem mast. For all his occasional sanctimony, these people severely misjudged Nick

Sunday

James Forsyth

Clegg’s cure for the tuition fee trauma

The Liberal Democrats are still traumatised by what happened over tuition fees. Nearly every fringe meeting contained a long discussion of the issue and how the party could have handled it better. Clegg’s plan to heal the wound is to show that the new system will go hand in hand with a broadening of access to the best universities. The deputy prime minister seems to be straining for a fight on this issue. In his speech, he laid into those at Oxbridge ‘who shrug their shoulders and say: That’s just the way things are’ about how dominated these institutions are by the children of the well-off. He demanded, ‘fair access

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Clegg defines his liberalism

I do feel for Nick Clegg. He’s taken an oppositionalist party into government, and they hate it. He is politically and psychologically prepared for what goes with power; grassroots LibDems less so. And this brings problems. Yesterday, he was complaining that his party is “too male and too pale”; but his main problem is that there are too few of any. At the peak of Cleggmania, the Lib Dem had 30 per cent of the the vote. Now it’s 10 per cent in the polls. If things continue at this rate, he won’t need a ‘ring of steel’ for his next conference: a phone box will suffice. So, what can