Nick Clegg claimed a couple of days ago that the general election is not a two-horse race. As the BBC reports, he said: "This isn't the old politics of a two-horse race between Labour and the Conservative Party." For anyone familiar with Liberal Democrat election literature in their target seats, this claim from their leader […]
For Iain Dale, Vince Cable is a bit of a tit (click here for why). For The Sun, the Liberal Democrats' Treasury spokesman is "Unstable Cable": The Sun highlights his numerous U-turns: He slammed the Government in January last year for printing more money in a bid to kick-start the economy. He declared: "This is […]
Closing statements are strategically vital. They are the sum of the debater's argument, his case to the voters – his pitch in a nutshell. Vince Cable's closing statement yesterday evening in the Shadow Chancellor's debate was a emphatic assault on the Conservatives. He said that the party wants "another chance to get their noses in the trough and […]
The 'Labservative' website lists the Tory-Labour pledges: "We promise to be dishonest about the spending cuts required to fix the deficit. We promise to spend billions of pounds on like-for-like replacement of nuclear weapons despite Russia and the U.S. reducing their own stockpiles. We promise to saddle students with debt for their university education. We […]
Martin Turner (pictured) is unlikely to be finding himself sitting on the green benches of the Commons any time soon. He is the Liberal Democrat candidate in Stratford-on-Avon, where the excellent Nadhim Zahawi was recently selected as Conservative candidate in the place of retiring MP, John Maples. The notional figures suggest Turner is starting nearly […]
Nick Clegg appeared on BBC1's Politics Show earlier today and faced an audience of voters asking questions about a variety of issues. When it came to immigration, however, he found himself in something of a pickle. You can now watch the encounter here. Read on… Brian Craddock (audience member): Chris Huhne has explained that the […]
Iain Martin over at the Wall Street Journal has posted what he says are the demands that Nick Clegg would make in terms of Cabinet posts for Lib Dems in the event of a coalition with the Conservatives. The Lib Dem leader would apparently want to be Home Secretary himself, and bring across Paddy Ashdown […]
It has been previously suggested that we are about to enjoy Britain's first "YouTube election" with both ease of access to the internet and the ease with which videos can be posted to sites like YouTube meaning that candidates will be subject to an unprecedented level of online scrutiny. Last week, for example, we posted […]
Shane Frith is director of the classical-liberal think-tank Progressive Vision and a founding Executive member of Progressive Conservatives. Here he takes issue with claims from Lib Dem Voice that Liberal Democrat MPs are the most liberal and least authoritarian in the House of Commons. Liberalism is a philosophy claimed by members of all three major […]
The Lib Dem leader has given an interview to today's Independent in which he sets out the four demands which he would make in return for some level of support or co-operation if no party wins an overall majority at the general election. The paper reports his demands as: A shake-up of the tax system […]
In his Saturday column Peter Oborne lists three reasons why Nick Clegg is likely to manoeuvre his party into a deal with Labour if there is a hung parliament: "Clegg has discovered (rather to his personal dismay) that most of his party regard any kind of agreement with the Conservatives with disgust. This feeling is […]
I have been alerted to a new website which has recently launched called NastyLib Dems.org, which aims, in its own words, to "reveal to voters and the media the extent to which the Lib Dems engage in dirty tricks and negative campaigning". The site's editor, Stuart Coster, tells ConservativeHome: "When campaigning last year with the […]
Monday afternoon update: Interviewed on Radio 4's World at One Vince Cable, Deputy Liberal Democrat leader, poured cold water on the Guardian's story. He said that in the last month The Guardian had said that the LibDems were likely to back the Tories and then to back Labour. Now, he continued, reporters at The Guardian […]
Pressed earlier by Andrew Lansley (watch here), the Health Secretary Andy Burnham again refused to rule out a £20,000 'death tax' to pay for the care of the elderly. Given that Labour has increased tax more than 100 times since 1997 it is not unreasonable for voters to conclude that Brown would very likely introduce […]
With Gordon Brown having suddenly decided he would like to change the electoral system, the Liberal Democrats are also having a go at pushing their version of electoral reform. They have tabled amendments to the Constitution and Governance Bill which would have elections to the House of Commons run under the Single Transferable Vote System […]