A Thought on Baroness Scotland

Am I right in thinking that if a magistrate had been fined £5,000 for breaking the law, he or she would have been thrown off the bench?

LibDems Obsessed by Personal Attacks on Conservatives

So Chris Huhne was delivering a speech on housing today? Well I have read the whole thing and there's not a single word about housing in it. Instead it is just a series of personal attacks on various Tory politicians. Exactly the sort of thing LibDems usually piously tell us will turn off voters.

Note to LibDems: Labour is in power. Why aren't you attacking them? Scared of losing seats to the Tories? Need to squeeze that Labour vote just a bit more? Ah, I see. But these personal attacks are signs of desperation. Even many of your own delegates are repulsed by them. Think on.

Baroness Scotland Should Do the Honourable Thing

How on earth can Baroness Scotland stay in office when, according to reports, she is being fined £5,000 for employing an illegal immigrant. It can't be put down to a simple technical error when it was she who took the original legislation through parliament.

There used to be a time when honour played some part in these things. If that were the case today, she'd be gone by lunchtime. As Martin Bright has just twittered...

How can you have an Attorney General who has been fined for breaking the law?

Bang on. Of course, Gordon Brown could sack her, but that would require a bit of courage, wouldn't it?

The Top 50 Most Influential Liberal Democracts: 25-1

The Telegraph concludes its Top 50 LibDems list today with the Top 25. Mini biogs can be found HERE. The second figure denotes last year's ranking.

1 2 Vince Cable
2 1 Nick Clegg
3 3 Chris Huhne
4 - Chris Fox
5 9 Danny Alexander
6 7 David Laws
7 - Baroness Scott
8 49 John Sharkey
9 13 Tom McNally
10 5 Paddy Ashdown
11 - Lord Oakeshott
12 27 Polly Mackenzie
13 33 Tavish Scott
14 16 Evan Harris
15 11 Shirley Williams
16 - Richard Allan
17 21 Lord Lester
18 25 Duncan Brack
19 6 Charles Kennedy
20 22 Paul Burstow
21 28 Lynne Featherstone
22 23 Lord Shutt
23 8 Simon Hughes
24 12 Norman Baker
25 26 Steve Webb

Click HERE for positions 26-50.

The Liberal Daley (Half) Dozen: Monday

1. Subrosa thinks the LibDems have lost the plot. Surely not.
2. Yesterday Himmelgarten Cafe was named LibDem Blog of the Year. Today it died.
3. Charlotte Gore writes her conference diary.
4. PoliticalBetting.com has news of a 17% Tory lead.
5. Mark Pack on correspondence chaos in the Cabinet Office.
6. Iain Martin says the spending cuts row is silly.

Question for Vince: What About Ability to Pay?

Just because you live in a big house, that doesn't mean you can find an extra couple of grand to pay the taxman. Vince's new mansion tax is clearly a replacement for the 50p rate, yet it bears no relation on the ability to pay. At least with a 50p rate you had some income to pay the extra tax. What about a retired couple who have lived in a house all their lives and never dreamed it would become so valuable? Where are they supposed to come up with the readies from? Well, where? I'm waiting...

LibDems Sceptical About the Cable Mansion Tax

Talking to LibDems this afternoon about Vince Cable's proposed mansion tax, I have yet to find more than a handful who support it. The majority say that while they personally find it acceptable, it's political madness. One delegate described it as an "indulgence".

Susan Kramer must be spitting tacks and it's just as well she isn't here this week as she'd probably deck him. Her Richomnd-on-Thames constituency has a lot of houses which fall into that bracket, as Zac Goldsmith will no doubt he highlighting.

To me this has all the hallmarks of becoming the LibDem poll tax. It's also envy politics of the worst find.

A Reader's Reaction to Vince Cable's Speech

From a reader...

"I've just been watching St Vince Cable's conference speech. I persevered almost to the end, but turned it off in anger. I have been bamboozled, I fell for his saintly economic credentials, I even contemplated voting Lib Dem out of frustration at clear policies from the Conservatives. However, the Straight Talk interview with Andrew Neil the other night punctured a few illusions and the speech today punctured the rest. It was a classic example of envy politics. I loathe people who indulge in that, the reason I would never vote Labour. Well, now I will never vote Lib Dem either, and UKIP, while I agree with their criticisms of the EU, has no domestic policies, and Greens are a bunch of arrogant authoritarians, as exemplified by the Moonbat, and I am just sooooo frustrated! I guess the Conservatives will get my vote as the least of evils..."

I wonder how many others are thinking in this way.

How Do We Find Housing For Ex Service Personnel?

I am at the Royal British Legion fringe at the LibDem conference listening to a discussion about the treatment of our armed forces.

A LibDem councillor has just related a tale of someone from 3 Para who has recently left the armed services after serving in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan over the last 15 years. He joined up at seventeen and is now 42 32. And he is homeless. There has been no help for him to find accommodation. So he isn't exactly demob happy. Who can blame him, after giving the best years of his life to his country.

Nick Harvey suggests forming a specialist housing association. Anyone have any experience in this area? How widespread is this problem, and what are your ideas for doing something about it?

Czechs Delay Lisbon Ratification Even Further

Now THIS is interesting. It seems that whatever the result of the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, the Czechs may be about to put yet another spanner in the works.

The Czech PM said before the weekend that a legal challenge through the Czech constitutional court could delay ratification by 3-6 months. Sarkozy is supposed to have reacted with fury and threatened the Czechs with unspecified ‘consequences’. How very typical of the way the EU likes to bully small countries into submission.

Maybe we will get our own referendum after all.

Daily Politics: Who Will Cover For Anita Anand?

Many congratulations to Anita Anand, who has been visited by the stork and is expecting. That means Peter Allen will have to find a new sparring partner on Drive (step forward Asma Mia) but more to the point the seat next to Andrew Neil on the Daily Politics will become vacant. That set me wondering who would be a good short term cover for Anita's maternity leave.

Jo Coburn has stepped into the breach before but she will probably be otherwise engaged on election coverage. Other potential candidates could be Petrie Hoskin, who hosts a nightly phone in on LBC. She's got the right kind of sense of humour which Andrew likes to feed off. Or perhaps Victoria Derbyshire, Jane Hill or even Fi Glover?

Its a fairly crucial period to cover as it will be in the runup to the election so it probably needs to be someone who is an experienced interviewer. My vote would go to 5 Live's Shelagh Fogarty - and not just because she happens to be a friend! She has the interviewing experience, a waspish sense of humour, a good political brain and perhaps just as importantly has worked well with Andrew Neil before on 5 Live.

Any other suggestions?

UPDATE: Apologies to Jo Coburn for spelling her name incorrectly. I know how she feels.

Calling All LibDems: TP Fringe Today!

If you are attending the Liberal Democrat Conference today in Bournemouth, can I cordially extend an invitation to the Total Politics fringe meeting which is being held jointly with Henley Business School

Trust in Politics: How We Lost It & How to Get It Back

Tuesday 22 September, 1-2pm
Hermitage Hotel, Exeter Road, Bournemouth
Refreshments provided

Speakers:

Lynne Featherstone MP,
Prof Anthony Seldon,
Prof Chris Bones

Chaired by Iain Dale

All welcome

And please do visit the TotalPolitics Exhibition Stand in the Solent Hall, where you will get the chance to win an ASUS Eee PC! And please be nice to Emily. She gets lonely at conferences, you know

The 50 Most Influential LibDems 50-26

No, don't laugh. Really. Each year the Daily Telegraph asks me to put together three panels of experts to compile the Top 50 LibDems, Top 100 most influential people and the left, and then the right. Today the Telegraph publishes the first part of the LibDem list, running from 50 down to 26.

The rankings were arrived at by a panel of 5 Liberal Democrat personalities, which was chaired by myself. i.e I am sharing the blame! Here's the list. The second figure denotes last year's ranking. Click HERE to get the full details including mini biographies and a short explanatory article HERE.

26 19 Norman Lamb
27 29 Jonathan Oates
28 4 Chris Rennard
29 15 Lord Carlile
30 44 Sarah Teather
31 39 Alison Suttie
32 - Hilary Stephenson
33 - Richard Kemp
34 20 Baroness Neuberger
35 14 Ed Davey
36 34 Ming Campbell
37 38 John Shipley
38 - Kirsty Williams
39 48 Richard Grayson
40 - Paul Scriven
41 Jo Swinson
42 36 Mark Pack
43 41 Dorothy Thornhill
44 - Neil Sherlock
45 45 David Howarth
46 - Daniel Radcliffe
47 - Mark Littlewood
48 - Willie Rennie
49 - Fiona Hall
50 18 Lembit Opik

Labour's Maddest Idea Yet: Find All Motorists Guilty!

Have you ever heard a crazier idea than THIS?Apparently Labour Ministers are intending to pass laws to ensure that all motorists are found to be the guilty parties when involved with accidents involving pedestrians or cyclists. Unbebloodylievable.

I always thought justice involved proof of guilt, not arbitary judgement.

The behaviour of cyclists can be incredibly dangerous sometimes, and to say a cyclist can never be at fault in an accident involving a car is incredible and goes against every single law of natural justice. What about an accident involving a cyclist and a pedestrian? The warped logic of this government will no doubt find some reason to find an absent motorist guilty of that too.

This demonising of the motorist has to stop.

Good on Nick Clegg

Good on Nick Clegg for having the balls to admit that he has used private healthcare for his son. Not an easy thing for him to do, when he is floating the idea of cutting universal child benefits.

Asked why he had opted out of the NHS, he said: “Because we were very keen to see a particular consultant for a particular problem very quickly.”

That sounds suspiciously like the answer Margaret Thatcher gave when asked during the 1987 election why she used private healthcare.

Because I can see the consultant I want, when I want.

She got huge flak for that. I wonder if the same media firestorm will engulf Mr Clegg. In some ways, I hope not, because it's about time we got over this absurd idea that private healthcare is somehow a bad thing.

Baroness Scotland Faces Questions on Three Fronts

When the Prime Minister expressed his full confidence in Baroness Scotland, you could tell she was on the political equivalent of death row. Today she has taken a further step towards political oblivion. First there is the revelation that her ex Housekeeper's flat has been raided by the Border Agency. Secondly, she has been unable to provide copies of the papers she should have copied under the very legislation which she, herself, took through Parliament. She cannot even plead ignorance as a defence. But thirdly, there is the revelation in the Sunday Times that she has claimed £170,000 of London living allowances which she is clearly not entitled to under the rules. You can only claim it if you live outside London, yet she has listed her London home as her main home since 2001.

Toast.

UPDATE: And a second Labour Peer, Childrens' Minister Baroness Morgan (you know, the one who Humphrys roasted on Today over the paedo register) has been claiming £140,000 because she lists a holiday cottage as her main residence. Toast with butter.

Why Don't the LibDems Have More Ethnic Minority Candidates?

A reader has sent this....

Andrew Pierce just asked Lynne Featherstone why no there are no black Lib Dem MP's and the answer came back:

"We don't have any safe seats where you can just place people, you have to earn your spurs in the Lib Dems."

What would Jimmy Macintyre make of that?

Indeed. I think Lynne Featherstone is being slightly disingenuous. There are indeed LibDem held seats which could select BME candidates. The trouble is that the LibDems have made little effort to encourage a more diverse range of candidates in LibDem held or marginal seats. She is also insinuating that the other parties have just placed candidates in seats as tokens. As she well knows, in the Conservative Party it doesn't work like that. Adam Afriyie, Shailesh Vara, Priti Patel and dozens of others are testament to that. They all won their selections on merit, not through any preferential treatment.

The LibDems have never elected an ethnic minority MP at a general election. Their only MP was the short lived Parmjit Gill who won the Leicester South by election in 2004 but lost it at the ensuing general election.

UPDATE: LibDem Blogger Jonathan Fryer rather makes my point for me in THIS post which is titled WHY IS THE LIBDEM CONFERENCE SO HIDEOUSLY WHITE?

Ed Davey & Tea With the Taleban

Sometimes I wonder what on earth possessed Nick Clegg to give the foreign affairs portfolio to Ed Davey. His speech to the LibDem conference this morning will have left LibDems wondering the same thing. I've read the whole thing, and it was toe-curling. But one passage stuck out...

It’s time for tea with the Taleban - and tea with the multitude of local tribal Afghan insurgent leaders.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think we can end the military mission overnight. We will still have to ask our amazingly brave armed forces to stand up to hostile insurgents. Perhaps for some time to come.

But tea is actually the most potent drug in Afghanistan if you want peace. It’s how peace deals have been struck in Afghanistan down the ages.

Tea with the Taleban? What a ridiculous phrase, and one which is an insult to those who serve with our armed forces in Afghanistan. Whatever one's view of whether one should open some sort of communication with the Taleban, this is a phrase which should come back to haunt Ed Davey. It was cringemaking in its inappropriateness. And I suspect that when I discuss it with my LibDem friends in Bournemouth later on tonight.

Who Would You Like to See as a Conservative MP?

Tim Montgomerie has taken something of a risk today by identifying twenty people on the Conservative Party candidates list who he thinks would make good MPs. He's kind enough to include me on the list. In compiling this list he has probably created 800 enemies! I guess we all have friends who we would like to promote and hope might be successful in getting a seat before the next election. I'm not going to name mine, but instead I will invite you to nominate someone you think would be an asset to the Conservative Party on the green benches.

Quote of the Day: Nick Clegg Colemanballs Edition

"There's something to be said for a bit of stage management.
Only a bit, though. You have to keep it spontaneous."

Nick Clegg at the LibDem Conference (where I shall be heading this evening..)