Liberal Burblings

Archive for December, 2011

It was the Mike Moyle Memorial Annual Christmas Day Sponsored Swim at Crooklets Beach, Bude. I am among the 500 people charging into the sea in the YouTube vid below. Mad or what?

I also have the tee shirt!

Dear Paul,

This time last year I spoke about how the most important job for Liberal Democrats was dealing with the economic problems we inherited. 12 months on, that task remains the number one priority for our party and the Coalition.

We have had to make some very difficult decisions, but they’ve been the right ones for the long term good of our country.

But that economic rescue mission is not over yet. That’s why, thanks to the Liberal Democrats, the Coalition has been helping people get through these difficult times with measures to make life fairer and easier.

2011 was the year we lifted nearly a million low paid workers out of paying income tax altogether and cut taxes for 23m people – because I believe putting money back into peoples pockets makes all the difference.

It was the year more than a million children got a fairer start in life, with extra support at school through our Pupil Premium and free early years education for toddlers – because I believe that helping the youngest take their first steps in life makes all the difference.

It was the year we guaranteed pensioners a decent increase in their pension – because I believe dignity in retirement makes all the difference.

Throughout, we have taken big long-term decisions that will change the way our economy works for the better – rebalancing it away from the City of London towards stronger, more sustainable growth.

And next year we will do more. The world’s first Green Investment Bank putting millions into green jobs and growth; our youth contract to get every young person out of work earning or learning;  more apprenticeships than this country has ever had before; and we will take further steps to make our tax system fairer too.

What we’re doing as a party, and as a Coalition, it’s not easy, but it’s right. We are putting the interests of the country first, and we have taken the first steps towards building a fairer, greener and more liberal country.

The next year will be one that poses many great challenges for everyone in Britain, but I know we must continue to do what’s right for our country.

And with that, I wish you all a very happy New Year.

Nick Clegg MP
Leader of the Liberal Democrats and Deputy Prime Minister

From Radio Four’s Nick Sutton, who always tweets all the front pages @suttonnick here:

Radio One has an enviable reputation for new music. Rightly so. “In new music we trust” is their motto. Great. Well done BBC!

They play the odd recent oldie. That is, the occasional record which is about five years old. Otherwise, it’s all new stuff.

It is therefore a little weird that they abandon their normal music policy for 1/12th of the year. December, that is.

So, whereas normally you would hardly hear anything more than ten years old, suddenly you hear tracks which are 66 years old or 53 years old.

Suddenly, for December, they repeatedly play a track which is 38 years old.

Don’t believe me?

OK. This morning at 5.30am, as I was up due to a restless dog, DJ Dev played “Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee, which was recorded in 1958. It’s older than me!

Yesterday at 6.50pm, Scott Mills played “Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!” (so good they named it thrice) by Bing Crosby which was written in 1945. It was recorded by Crosby in 1956.

Last weekend, within 24 hours, I heard Radio One play “Merry Christmas Everybody” by Slade (from 1973) three times.

….All a bit of contrast to Radio One’s normal fare of Rizzlekicks, Pulled apart by horses , Bombay Bicycle Club etc - eh?

OK, those old Christmas records are mostly good ones. But why the mass oldie hysteria amongst Radio One producers in December?

To put it in perspective, wouldn’t it be strange if, in August, Radio One played “Sweet Nothin’s” by Brenda Lee or Bing Crosby’s “Pistol Packin’ Mama” or Slade’s “Mama weer all crazee now”? And yet, those songs are just as old as the ancient Christmas records they haul out year after year.

Cross-posted from Liberal Democrat Voice

Time was when Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions was the closest you got to bloodsports in the House of Commons. The DPM would be tethered, red-faced and growling, to the dispatch box, as Labour MPs taunted him and propelled all sorts of bile at him, augmented by the odd tactical nuclear missile rear-launched by the Tory swivel-eyes.

We’ve come a long way in a few months. Now, DPMQs are relatively sedate affairs. The DPM is well in control and there is little mischief from the Labour benches. Well, none that would spoil LibDem MPs’ lunches.

Indeed, at least four MPs found it difficult to summon enthusiasm for DPMQs this time. Unusually, that number tabled questions but couldn’t be bothered to turn up to ask them.

In response to a question from John Pugh (LibDem), Nick Clegg announced that the Joint Committee of both houses on House of Lords reform will report by 27th March 2012.

In answer to Sadiq Khan (Lab), the DPM was, again very clear about reform:

Yes, of course…I support a fully elected second Chamber. The right hon. Gentleman’s party achieved precisely 0% of election to the other Chamber. I modestly suggest that if we achieve 80%, that will be better than 0%.

It is often assumed that Tory backbenchers are opposed to House of Lords reform. However, this session demonstrated that, on this subject, there is a nexus of sensible Tory MPs, particularly in the East of England. Daniel Poulter (Central Suffolk and North Ipswich) and Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) both asked questions which were solidly supportive to reform. In fact, I detected much less Tory anti-reform noise than has previously been the case. Perhaps the whips have dusted off their old files.

About the most unsedate that the session got was when Sadiq Khan goaded Nick Clegg about a series of alleged LibDem failures to influence the government. Nick Clegg fired back, saying the government are “clearing up the mess” left behind by Labour and that Labour have nothing to say on the economy.

LibDem question of the week

Duncan Hames asked an excellent question highlighting that Labour councillors in Manchester have voted to reject the pupil premium to help children from the most challenging backgrounds.

Hold the front page

Labour’s Mike Gapes tried to suggest that it was some sort of evidence of a major rift in the coalition that Nick Clegg and William Hague met the German foreign minister this week in separate meetings.

Career limiting question

Peter Bone (Con – Swivel-eyed) is obsessed with who will takeover as Prime Minister if David Cameron dies. He’s asked the question several times now – almost as often as he reads out dispatches from “Mrs Bone” – and asked again at this DPMQs. Bear in mind that the last British Prime Minister to die in office was Palmerston in 1865. No surprise, then, that Nick Clegg got a big laugh when he retorted:

I must say…that his morbid fascination with the premature death of his own party leader is a subject not for me, but for the Chief Whip.

Other subjects covered were:

-Lobbying
-Armed Forces electoral registration
-The Electoral Register
-Electoral Participation
-The Boundary Commission proposals
-Topical issues

Nick Clegg photo credit: Some rights reserved by Cabinet Office

Idi Amin – boxing

Dwight D Eisenhower – American Football

Boyko Borisov (Bulgarian Prime Minister)- Karate

Mary, Queen of Scots – billiards

Gerald Ford – American football

Menzies Campbell – Athletics

Oswald Mosley – Fencing

Colin Moynihan – Rowing

Ronald Reagan – American Football and swimming

Jeffrey Archer – Athletics

Menzies Campbell – Athletics

The former Liberal Democrat leader has been MP for North East Fife for nearly a quarter of a century, but before he moved into politics he was one of Britain’s greatest sprinters.

He held the British 100m record for seven years, and represented Britain at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo as well as captaining both the British athletics teams in 1965 and 1966 and leading the Scottish Commonwealth Games team in Jamaica in 1966.

Sir Menzies Campbell photo credit: Some rights reserved by Martin Tod