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As I blogged this morning Simon Hughes last night became the first senior Lib Dem to call for Jeremy Hunt to face an independent inquiry into whether his behaviour broke the ministerial code during NewsCorp’s attempted takeover of BSkyB. I was asked for my response by Nicky Campbell on BBC Radio 5 Live this morning — here’s what I said:

Rupert Murdoch was the cause of my first and only political speech while at university. This was back in 1996, I think, and a motion had been proposed that the common room should subscribe to BSkyB for the football. My pithy contribution was something along the lines: I don’t like Murdoch. I don’t like Sky. I don’t want it here.  [ Read More ]

Next time that esteemed family newspaper [/irony] the Daily Mail screams at the permissive society for its outrages against decent family values it will be worth recalling this article and its beyond-parody headline: Hard to believe she’s just 16! Kendall Jenner looks older than her years as she shows off her model shape in stunning [...]

I mean how DARE they? How very dare they: The Economist, 27 Jan 2011 Elsewhere, the magazine-which-calls-itself-a-newspaper has analysed the prospects of Scotland if it decides to declare UDI from the United Kingdom. It has produced a terrifically balanced assessment accompanied by this typically provocative — and funny — front cover, which (among other satirical name-changes) coins ‘Edinborrow (Twinned with  [ Read More ]

I’ve written very little about the NHS reforms. In many ways thankfully, my personal involvement with health-care in this country has been pretty limited, a mix of excellent and poor with a little inbetween. I hoped to learn more during the recent Health and Social Care Bill debates, but there was remarkably little impartial analysis of the issues. Positions had  [ Read More ]

Polly Toynbee writing about the role of private provision in the NHS under Labour:* There is no doubt that putting some services out to tender has vastly improved certain standards over the years, broken the power of vested interests and brought in competition that has sharpened up results. Just look at how hospital consultants’ waiting lists plummeted when a few  [ Read More ]

#ldconf, the NHS Bill, and Where The Leadership Stands Now (Andy Hinton) I don’t agree with every word of Andy’s analysis, but it’s an admirable attempt to wrestle with the dilemmas which conflicted many party members over the weekend. Do go read, and judge for yourselves. John Kampfner: Williams isn’t a traitor, she’s a grown-up (Independent) John Kampfner is one  [ Read More ]

I penned an article for ConservativeHome last week entitled Advice from a Liberal Democrat about how the Conservatives could win. Here’s what I said: ‘What would I do if I were in your shoes?’ That was the question I suggested to ConservativeHome’s Tim Montgomerie we might each answer on behalf of our respective parties – he on LibDemVoice (which he  [ Read More ]

It was kind of the founder and chairman of polling firm Ipsos-Mori, Sir Robert Worcester, to pop by this blog recently in response to my post last week highlighting that 60% of voters back the Lib Dem policy of asking the wealthiest to pay more in tax in order to take people on the lowest incomes out of tax altogether.  [ Read More ]

Here’s a round-up of stories we haven’t had time to cover on the site this past week… Richard Kemp to represent Liberal Democrats in Liverpool mayor election in May (Liverpool Echo) ‘He said: “I am standing because I believe that only the Liberal Democrats have the long term strategies which will place this city in [...]