Liberal democrats

Lib Dem conference: Vince Cable undermines Clegg’s ‘reasonable party’ strategy

Another year, another speech by Vince Cable attacking those nasty Tories. After his rather undignified to-ing and fro-ing over the economy vote that left him looking confused and selfish while Clegg emerged looking rather bold and statesmanlike, the Business Secretary had just half an hour before he returned to the conference hall to speak again. The consensus seems to be that he made a fool of himself by not deciding what it was he should do. And given that even Tim Farron rallied behind the leadership, delivering an impressive speech in favour of Clegg’s position when he’s often more than happy to brief against his colleague, Cable hardly looked collegiate.

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem conference: Clegg isn’t fighting his activists, he’s just fighting a faction of activists

Nick Clegg’s strategy of getting his party to approve his position on a number of contentious issues reaches its most awkward stage today, with the votes on the economy and taxes that are causing the greatest grief with activists. It’s complicated by Vince Cable’s plan to be a no-show at the economy debate in an attempt to hold onto his Jeremiah credentials. The votes are being billed as a clash between the leadership and its activists, but it’s a little more complicated than that. Last night I attended a fringe held by Liberal Reform, a group in the party that campaigns for a market-based approach to policy-making. It’s reasonably young,

Lib Dem leadership enjoys victory on two key motions… but Cable’s planned no-show causes economy debate jitters

One of the Lib Dem leadership’s key aims for this conference in Glasgow is to move the party into a pragmatic mindset that involves accepting and moving on from certain contentious policies such as tuition fees, the Coalition’s economic policy, and nuclear power. So far that strategy seems to be working, with a number of votes already going in Nick Clegg’s favour. This morning, activists backed a motion on green growth and green jobs that included ‘permitting limited shale gas extraction’, and supported an option within that motion that accepted ‘that in future, nuclear power stations could play a limited role in electricity supply’, rather than ‘rejecting the construction of

James Forsyth

Ashdown: We’re ‘a left wing party’ but we’ll do a deal with whoever the voters tell us to

A rather irritable Paddy Ashdown has just told Andrew Neil that the Lib Democrats are ‘a left-wing party’ but that their next coalition would be determined by the voters. Ashdown, whose chairing the Lib Dem election campaign, claimed that it simply wasn’t accurate to say that Lib Dems had a preference for who they’d like as their coalition partner. This is, to put it mildly, a dubious statement and Ashdown did feel the need to concede that senior Lib Dems did have ‘private likes and dislikes’. But he claimed that this wouldn’t influence their decision about who to go into government with. Ashdown’s aggressive approach to this question is designed

Tim Farron tells Coffee House: I might vote against leadership on 50p tax

One of the many confrontations between the Liberal Democrat leadership and party activists this week in Glasgow is over tax. When conference debates its tax policy paper, ‘Fairer Taxes’, on Monday, it will vote on a motion that includes a reintroduction of the 50p rate of tax, should an independent review conclude that the cost of introducing it won’t exceed the amount it raises. It is this vote that the leadership expects to lose. But I’ve been speaking to Tim Farron, the party’s president, who tells me that he is considering supporting the motion on 50p against the leadership’s wishes. He says: ‘I am sympathetic to the arguments in favour

James Forsyth

Nick Clegg tells the Lib Dems, we’re the party of jobs

The Lib Dem conference rally was never going to be the same without Sarah Teather and her comedy routine. With Teather persona non grata following her decision to step down, it was duly a much tamer affair. The only risqué jokes were about Lembit Opik being bitten in the nether regions by a sausage dog. But seeing as Lembit has infuriated party loyalists by again calling for Clegg to go, they got a laugh from the leadership. The message of the conference rally was that the Liberal Democrats are the party of jobs. Nick Clegg claimed that the Tories weren’t the party of jobs, but the party of fire at

Lib Dem conference 2013: The key rows to watch

Nick Clegg is, on balance, starting his party’s conference in a reasonably strong position. There has been an amusing bitch fight today between party grandees, with Paddy Ashdown saying that ‘Matthew [Oakeshott]’s self-appointed position as a sort of vicar on earth for Vince does neither of them any good’, but largely Clegg can expect to at least arrive in Glasgow without any suggestions that this is a crucial conference for him. There will, however, be some bumps in the road over the next couple of days. The Lib Dem leader isn’t facing a leadership challenge, but he still has challenges to his authority as leader to weather: and they come

Isabel Hardman

Oakeshott attack on Nick Clegg highlights how safe the Lib Dem leader is

The Lib Dems have had a lot to get used to since coming into government: not least the growth of their conference from something that members could stroll in and out of with their knitting needles, and that only the most junior hacks were sent to. But only three years into holding conferences as a party of government, they’re starting to notice a pattern. Firstly, there will be a bit of rabble-rousing from the party’s president Tim Farron, who will drop some flirtatious hints about Labour, his heart beating on the left and how the Tories are a bit naughty. Then Vince Cable will say something a bit melancholy. Then

The View from 22: the end of political parties, RBS and Lib Dem conference preview

Have political parties had their day? On this week’s View from 22 podcast, Ross Clark and Fraser Nelson debate whether party conferences are now pointless, filled with lobbyists not members, and whether parties no longer have a purpose. Are we entering a post-party politics? What, if anything, can be done to fix the relationship between Britain’s interest in politics and our parties? The Telegraph’s Iain Martin also discusses the breakup of RBS with the publication of his new book Making It Happen this week. What did RBS fail in such a spectacular fashion? How strong was the Scottish connection to the financial crash? Was Fred the Shred entirely responsible? What

Nick Clegg: Labour ‘perilously close’ to voters not knowing what they stand for

Nick Clegg gave his monthly press conference today. It might kindly be described as ‘wide-ranging’, which is often code in journalese for ‘not offering very much’. But the Deputy Prime Minister did offer a few nuggets which are worth exploring. The first is that he was very keen to put his name on the list of figures at the top of the Coalition trumpeting the improved economic circumstances. ‘I am not going to use that phrase,’ he said, when asked whether he could see ‘green shoots’ in the economy. ‘I’m happy to use any other euphemism: the clouds are lifting… the sinews of the British economy are starting to strengthen.’

Rod Liddle

Sarah Teather: Another MP driven out of the Commons’ boy’s club

The Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather has decided to stand down at the next election. I realise that this will not be a popular view on here, but I think that’s a great shame. She has been an unflinchingly principled, honest and always thoughtful MP; in essence it is the nature of the coalition which has convinced her that modern politics is a foul and dispiriting business. There’s a case to be made that she’s in the wrong party, mind, but that’s the only real criticism I could level at her. She’s been attacked for her decision in the Daily Mail by that screeching agglomeration of recycled opinions and epic

Sarah Teather’s exit is just another growing pain for the Lib Dems

Sarah Teather’s decision to stand down at the 2015 election won’t surprise many people who know what a battle the Lib Dem MP would have had to hold onto her Brent Central seat. Her majority is only 1,345. But her public reason for standing down is interesting, too, even if some may suspect that the battle for Brent held more sway. Teather is an example of the Liberal Democrat party getting used to government, and, in the politest way possible, growing up. Her anger at some of the party’s policies has led to her feeling ‘desolate’, she told the Observer: ‘If you have fallen out with your party, if you

The PM is preparing for another coalition. His colleagues have other plans

Conservatives have been returning to their Westminster offices this week to find the wind behind them. Something suddenly seems to be going right: there’s good news on the economy, jobs and immigration and Labour seems to be in gentle meltdown. The idea of an outright majority in a 2015 election suddenly seems a lot more plausible. Which is why ministers and advisers are so dismayed at reports last week that David Cameron was planning for a second coalition after 2015. Just when a Tory election victory seemed possible, the Prime Minister has been mulling over a change in party rules so that MPs could vote on a new coalition agreement.

Tories and Lib Dems pass on will donation to contain row

So both the Lib Dems and the Tories have yielded to the inevitable, and passed on the Joan LB Edwards donation to the Treasury. Their responses were swifter than even critical friends might have expected. The Lib Dems were first out of the starting blocks in the race to the moral high ground by announcing they’d be writing a cheque to the Treasury. But before Nick Clegg even had time to start recording a new autotune version of ‘I’m Sorry’ about how ‘we took a donation that we couldn’t possibly keep (but frankly could have done with given the state of the party coffers)’, the Tories decided they had to

Isabel Hardman

The Coalition parties can’t hold on to Joan Edwards’ donation

An argument over a will is just the sort of thing this slow-moving summer needs. Today’s row isn’t between two factions of a family, but the two parties in the Coalition and the Daily Mail, which reports that a donation from a Mrs Joan LB Edwards was split between the two parties when her will suggests she wanted it donated to the government, rather than political parties. The paper’s report quotes a section of her will, which it says it has seen: ‘I bequeath all my estate both real and personal to… whichever government is in office at the date of my death for the government in their absolute discretion

When is corruption not corrupt? When the establishment says it isn’t

Mr Justice Tugendhat delivered a ferocious verdict last week. Undercover reporters from the Sunday Times claimed they had found Peter Cruddas, co-Treasurer of the Conservative Party, offering influence in return for wodges of cash. With damning language, the judge found against the paper, leaving it with costs and damages of around £700,000. I don’t want to discuss the merits of the case. Cruddas, who had to resign when the story came out, may have been unjustly maligned. Conversely, the Sunday Times is going to the Court of Appeal, so it may be that the paper is the true victim. I want to look at the judge’s reasoning instead, because it

Rod Liddle on the cant of the Great Porn Act

Several articles in this week’s issue of the Spectator are worth the cover price alone. We’ll be flagging them up on Coffee House over the weekend. To start with, here is Rod Liddle on the row over pornography: ‘The Co-operative stores, with all the high-handed self-righteousness of the political movement to which it is paying obsequy, has demanded that henceforth publications such as Nuts and Zoo and Front must be displayed in plastic bags which disguise their front page. The front page of these mags usually consists of a young woman in a state of partial undress — but no nipples on display and certainly nothing from the really naughty

This cant about protecting children from porn is really about protecting the coalition

I have tried very hard to become an afficianado of pornography, seeing as it is by far the most popular pastime in the world. Also, it annoys a lot of people that I don’t like, so I feel I should put my money where my mouth is, so to speak. But the trouble is, the scenarios never quite rattle my cage. I find myself despising the men involved, and disliking the women, before even the cap has been removed from the lubricant. This is an impediment to full enjoyment, feeling averse to the grunting, smug male half-wits and the unnaturally supplicant — and usually tattooed — ladies. I sometimes wonder

Working peerages – a win for UKIP?

UKIP is up in arms about the new working peers (or at least it’s pretending to be). The Greens get a peer and the Lib Dems get many peers; but UKIP gets none, despite its healthy polling. There are very good reasons for this. The Greens and the Lib Dems are powers in certain parts of the land, while UKIP only has what Nigel Farage recently described as ‘clusters’ of councillors here and there. In other words, the Lib Dems and Greens wield some legislative power; UKIP doesn’t. The upper house ought to reflect that. But, these facts suit UKIP. The party’s shtick is that it is an insurgency of outsiders

Tory activists are feeling more confident. What about the Lib Dems?

A Conservative Home poll, which found that a majority of activists believe that the coalition is good for Britain, is the latest little boost for David Cameron, so says Paul Goodman. The Tories are having a good the summer; confidence is building. Yet there is, as numerous commentators and MPs are keen to stress, some way to go before the party can think of a majority. This means that the Lib Dems, who are likely to hold the balance of power in any future hung parliament, deserve some attention. There is not much meaty polling about the attitudes of Lib Dem activists; but, what there is, is quite telling:   Clegg and Co (or