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Yes, it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for: David Cameron’s bewildered, stumbling, confused, squirming, befuddled, painful TV interview with broadcaster Martin Popplewell is now available to view on YouTube – over 17,000 people have watched it to date. LDV highlighted the footage late Tuesday. To give them their due, ConservativeHome didn’t shy away from [...]

With just 59 days til the end of the third millennium’s first decade, we can celebrate the 72nd anniversary of the birth of BBC1, and that it’s 49 years to the day since Penguin Books was found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley’s Lover case. 2 Big Stories Johnson faces backlash over decision to [...]

Earlier this week, I blogged about the ‘expectations game’, the way in which post-election analysis can be spun, and speculated that the Lib Dems were being set up for a fall. In fact, though, the reporting of the party’s performance has been generally fair. For instance, here’s Tony Travers in today’s Guardian: The national equivalent vote share put the Conservatives  [ Read More ]

Who exactly is funding LabourList? That’s the question which is beginning to be asked in the wake of ‘Smeargate’, in which Gordon Brown’s chief spin-doctor, Damian McBride, conspired with the website’s founding editor Derek Draper to defame various Tory figures. It’s a question of keen interest to us here at Lib Dem Voice. We’re an independent website run by a  [ Read More ]

Earlier today LDV reported on The Times’s splash that Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg would be proposing that MPs should be forced to sell their second homes and return most of the profits to the taxpayer. In fact, his plans for reform of MPs’ expenses is far more far-reaching than that, and are published in full over at nickclegg.com, and  [ Read More ]

ConservativeHome co-editor Tim Montgomerie has authored a piece today in which he outlines a debate he claims is being had by senior Tories concerning ‘the extent of outreach that should be made to the Liberal Democrats in the event of the Conservatives becoming the governing party at the next General Election.’ Here’s the meat of it: I understand that a  [ Read More ]

LDV’s Mark Pack will be speaking alongside ConservativeHome‘s Jonathan Isaby and LabourList‘s Derek Draper on 24th March at an event organised by the Hansard Society entitled, The Online Campaign – solution or smokescreen? Details below and at the Society’s website. Tuesday 24 March, 10am, House of Commons, Westminster. The use of online strategies is becoming increasingly important, encouraging grass-roots activism  [ Read More ]

Yes, you did indeed read the headline right. To be more specific, I write in praise of Andrew Lilico’s grown-up article today on ConservativeHome’s CentreRight platform, Ridiculous assault or legimitate spin over “green shoots”? which invites readers to Imagine a Conservative government minister involved in the following exchange: Interviewer: “When will we see the green shoots of recovery?” Minister: “…I  [ Read More ]

LabourList – self-consciously branded by its founder, Derek Draper, as Labour’s answer to ConservativeHome – officially went live today, earning generous press coverage (in terms of column inches, if not warmth of reception). So, what do we make of it so far? It’s interesting that, as was true of both ConHome (with Tim Montgomerie) and LDV (with Rob Fenwick) when  [ Read More ]

The right-wing blogosphere is fairly wetting itself today, picking up on the ‘exclusive revelations’ of the Daily Mail’s Peter Oborne that Labour is allegedly cosying up to the Lib Dems in anticipation of a pact which would see Ming Campbell elected as Commons Speaker and Vince Cable installed as Chancellor: Although the PM recognises that it would be inconceivable to  [ Read More ]