Yesterday’s Telegraph carried a piece about the rise of the Green Party, largely at the expense of the Liberal Democrats. It opens: Nick Clegg has “betrayed” his voters and traditional sandal-wearing Lib Dems are switching to the Green party across the country, the party’s leader has said. Natalie […]
My goodness the atmosphere around the Libdems is febrile at the moment. No sooner had it become clear that Friday’s Libdems4change petition was going to fizzle out than we learn of Lord Oakeshott’s freelance polling manoeuvre. It’s almost as if the timing of the leak of the poll […]
You might have thought we were currently in the eye of the storm. We’ve been through the pain of seeing more than 300 Libdem local councillors lose their seats. And today the results of the European Parliamentary elections will no doubt bring fresh horrors. So perhaps the intervening […]
[Originally posted at Social Liberal Forum blog, 29/07/13] It’s being billed as a set piece set-to. The rapidly approaching Autumn Conference in Glasgow is of great significance. Discussions that shape the content of the next General Election manifesto will be at the core of the agenda. It would […]
The agenda for this year’s Liberal Democrat Spring Conference carries the strapline Stronger economy, Fairer society. Given the parlous state of UK plc, and the deeply inequitable impacts of the Coalition austerity policy, the strapline touches on two of the biggest issues of the day. So the unwary […]
This year’s Liberal Democrat autumn conference in Brighton is heading towards its final day. There was a lot of interesting substance to some of the discussions I attended. The conference also raised plenty of questions about the way the party goes about its business. I may return to […]
This year’s Social Liberal Forum Conference – on the theme of Social justice for today’s youth and future generations – is being held on 21st July at King’s College, London. Nick Clegg will be delivering the inaugural William Beveridge Memorial Lecture, while Ed Davey will be talking about […]
That is how it was described on Twitter today by a prominent LibDem blogger. And that followed a post yesterday evening by another prominent blogger who offered a particularly derisive response to the news that Liberal Left will be holding an evening session at Spring Conference. The basic […]
[This is the text accompanying my presentation to the Social Liberal Forum Conference: “Liberalism, Equality and the State”, City University, 18/06/11. Not all of it was delivered on the day, because of the way the session panned out and because there’s too much of it. My thanks to […]
The first Social Liberal Forum annual conference – on the theme Liberalism, Equality and the State – is being held on 18th June at City University. I’ll be saying my piece on the the compatibility of the Big Society and community politics – accountability and marketisation. Here is […]
Most recent comments