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Uk politics

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem conference: Vince Cable says Coalition could end before 2015

From our UK edition

Cabinet colleagues' concerns over the housing bubble and immigration was only one facet of Vince Cable's fringe interview this evening. What he told Steve Richards about the Coalition was also highly significant, and the biggest example of his freelancing to date. Where Cabinet colleagues have previously insisted that this Coalition is built to last, Cable said it was 'certainly possible' that it could end before the general election, although he wouldn't be drawn on the circumstances in which that would happen, or which issues could cause him to leave the Cabinet. 'I think President Obama has illustrated very clearly in recent weeks the dangers of parading your red lines,' he said, adding that clear read lines were already laid out in the Coalition agreement.

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem conference: Nick Clegg narrowly wins 45p/50p tax vote

From our UK edition

It was so close that they had to count the votes in the conference hall, and even then, the Liberal Democrats only backed Nick Clegg on retaining the 45p tax above a return to the 50p rate by four little votes - 224 in favour of the 45p, and 220 in favour of the 50p. It's difficult to bill this narrow result as a real victory for the Lib Dem leadership, but at least it means that Clegg has won all four of his confrontations so far with his party - and this tax vote was expected to be a loss. It was interesting how many of the speakers in favour of retaining 45p encouraged the conference to support it on the grounds that supporting the 50p rate would play into the hands of the Labour party. Lorely Burt, Stephen Williams and Simon Hughes spoke in the debate, and all made this point.

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem conference: Clegg’s confident Q&A

From our UK edition

Nick Clegg was in a jolly good mood this afternoon when he strode into the conference hall for his question-and-answer session. His success (which may be halted shortly when conference votes on tax) in three votes over the last two days n nuclear power, tuition fees and the economy meant that he could be confident when taking questions from activists that they were largely for, not against, his vision. He took the opportunity to remind activists that the Lib Dems hardly campaigned on an anti-austerity platform in 2010, saying: 'It's not a thing that's been imposed on us by the Conservatives, we went in with our eyes wide open to the last general election that whoever was in power next would have to deal with this huge black hole that had opened up in our public finances.

Alex Massie

A Cheap Parcel of Rogues

From our UK edition

What price a Scotsman's vote? About £500 apparently. Beneath a headline claiming 'New poll gives Yes campaign hope' The Scotsman reports that support for independence, as measured by ICM, rises to the giddy heights of 47 per cent if voters are told that they will be £500 a year better off in an independent Scotland. If this seems a disappointingly mercenary reason for voting Yes the same poll finds that many supporters of independence have their price. Only 18 per cent favour independence if, hypothetically, it were to leave you £500 a year worse off. The Incorruptible 18 per cent! Almost everyone else, it seems, has a price. Upon such things does the fate of nations hang.

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem conference: Vince Cable undermines Clegg’s ‘reasonable party’ strategy

From our UK edition

Another year, another speech by Vince Cable attacking those nasty Tories. After his rather undignified to-ing and fro-ing over the economy vote that left him looking confused and selfish while Clegg emerged looking rather bold and statesmanlike, the Business Secretary had just half an hour before he returned to the conference hall to speak again. The consensus seems to be that he made a fool of himself by not deciding what it was he should do. And given that even Tim Farron rallied behind the leadership, delivering an impressive speech in favour of Clegg's position when he's often more than happy to brief against his colleague, Cable hardly looked collegiate.

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem conference: Clegg vindicated in confrontation strategy as he wins economy vote

From our UK edition

So after all the fuss, Nick Clegg did manage to win his vote on the economy: both on the amendment proposed by the left-leaning Social Liberal Forum, and on the motion itself. The Lib Dem leader put in a forceful performance when he summed up the motion at the end of the debate. Some of the contributions were rather heated, notably from Gareth Epps and Naomi Smith of the SLF, but on the whole the debate was more about the economy itself rather than the leadership's behaviour, which will also have come as a relief to Clegg and co. And if that debate was a bitter row, as it had been billed, then the Libs really don't have that much to worry about. It was more like a couple bickering over the washing up.

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem conference: Vince Cable graces economy debate with presence and support

From our UK edition

So after all that fuss overnight, suddenly Vince Cable has decided that he can spare time to pop along to his party's crunch debate on the economy, to vote and lend his moral support. Nick Clegg must be thrilled. What is the Business Secretary up to, initially planning to avoid the conference hall for 'speech prep'? Well, those in an uncharitable mood might suspect that this has all been a rather convenient fuss for the Business Secretary, who could firstly show he's not comfortable with all the cheery rhetoric on the economy, and then show how grand and important he is by whisking in at the last minute. But it's also worth remembering that this could have been Cable's conference, where a furious party could have carried him on its shoulders into power.

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem conference: Clegg isn’t fighting his activists, he’s just fighting a faction of activists

From our UK edition

Nick Clegg's strategy of getting his party to approve his position on a number of contentious issues reaches its most awkward stage today, with the votes on the economy and taxes that are causing the greatest grief with activists. It's complicated by Vince Cable's plan to be a no-show at the economy debate in an attempt to hold onto his Jeremiah credentials. The votes are being billed as a clash between the leadership and its activists, but it's a little more complicated than that. Last night I attended a fringe held by Liberal Reform, a group in the party that campaigns for a market-based approach to policy-making.

Sebastian Payne

Lib Dem conference: Monday fringe guide

From our UK edition

Every morning throughout party conference season, we’ll be providing our pick of the fringe events on Coffee House.  The Liberal Democrats’ conference in Glasgow has entered its third day and like yesterday, there are interesting sessions with key Lib Dem figures, MPs, MSPs and pollsters as well as plenty of interviews throughout the day: Title Key speaker(s) Time Location Auto Enrolment: its talked the talk, but can it walk the walk? Steve Webb 07:45-09:00 Crowne Plaza, Castle 3 Killing the zombies and raising the innovators Danny Alexander 07:30-08:45 Crowne Plaza, Jura Banking on growth: Are local banks the answer?

Sunday

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem leadership enjoys victory on two key motions… but Cable’s planned no-show causes economy debate jitters

From our UK edition

One of the Lib Dem leadership's key aims for this conference in Glasgow is to move the party into a pragmatic mindset that involves accepting and moving on from certain contentious policies such as tuition fees, the Coalition's economic policy, and nuclear power. So far that strategy seems to be working, with a number of votes already going in Nick Clegg's favour. This morning, activists backed a motion on green growth and green jobs that included 'permitting limited shale gas extraction', and supported an option within that motion that accepted 'that in future, nuclear power stations could play a limited role in electricity supply', rather than 'rejecting the construction of a new generation of nuclear plant'.

Sebastian Payne

The Tories are facing a serious Ukip problem

From our UK edition

Is Ukip damaging the Tories in crucial marginal constituencies? As I wrote earlier this week, the next election is looking to be close, but there has been much speculation as to what extent Ukip will split the Tory vote. Could this unwittingly lead to a Labour victory? Lord Ashcroft has polled 40 of the most marginal Conservative seats (32 Labour targets and 8 Lib Dem) for the third time since the last election to try and answer that question. From today's snapshot, the answer is that Ukip pose a great electoral threat to the Tories.

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem conference: Danny Alexander hints at key role for Trident in coalition negotiations

From our UK edition

Danny Alexander is respected by his colleagues across the coalition (except Vince Cable - James reveals today that the pair are barely speaking) for a number of things, from his bean counting ability to his aptitude for giving a lengthy interview or fringe speech without moving a story on an inch. He tried to do the latter today on the Trident alternatives review at a Demos event, but was foiled by his panel partner, Baroness Falkner of Margravine, chair of the party's backbench international affairs committee. She compared the party's policy to flood insurance that 'only applies in a drought', saying: 'How does a posture of sending out boats unarmed actually deliver credibility?

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem conference: Ed Davey’s full-throttle attack on Owen Paterson (and some terrible jokes)

From our UK edition

Ed Davey has a good story to tell his party about fighting the Tories to get a Lib Dem vision for energy policy into government. His speech today was supposed to underline that, and to a certain extent it achieved this, using the word 'fight' 15 times, and 'battle' four times. It was just rather undermined by the Energy Secretary's decision to whack a load of jokes into his speech without much heed to whether they were funny, or whether he could deliver them in a manner that highlighted to graduates that they were funny. The worst joke was about shale gas. 'I've been cautious on shale,' said Davey. 'Avoiding hyperbole. Weighing up the evidence. Insisting on firm regulation. I've been fracking responsible.

James Forsyth

Ashdown: We’re ‘a left wing party’ but we’ll do a deal with whoever the voters tell us to

From our UK edition

A rather irritable Paddy Ashdown has just told Andrew Neil that the Lib Democrats are ‘a left-wing party’ but that their next coalition would be determined by the voters. Ashdown, whose chairing the Lib Dem election campaign, claimed that it simply wasn’t accurate to say that Lib Dems had a preference for who they’d like as their coalition partner. This is, to put it mildly, a dubious statement and Ashdown did feel the need to concede that senior Lib Dems did have ‘private likes and dislikes’. But he claimed that this wouldn’t influence their decision about who to go into government with.

Isabel Hardman

Nick Clegg: Labour fail on finance, Tories fail on fairness

From our UK edition

Who would the Lib Dems prefer to go into coalition with? We know what the party's activists think, thanks to an Independent on Sunday poll that found them in favour of shacking up with Labour, and thanks to the Observer, we know what former party leader Lord Ashdown thinks (although he seems a little aerated about the write-up of his interview). But this morning on the Marr Show, Nick Clegg was asked who he would choose between in a photo finish in the 2015 general election. The Lib Dem leader said: 'It is my genuine belief that if you go back to the bad old days, not of coalition and balanced politics, but either the left or the right dominating government on their own, you will get a recovery that is neither fair nor sustainable.

Saturday

The Spectator

Nick Clegg’s speech to the Liberal Democrat conference rally

From our UK edition

Welcome to Glasgow. This year’s conference sees us gather in a city that has always been important to the Liberal Democrats, a city once  represented by Roy Jenkins, that gave us Ming Campbell and where nearby in 2005 Jo Swinson won a famous victory to take her seat from Labour and become an MP at just 25. Before anything I want to pay tribute to our team of Scottish MPs who lead the way in Parliament in arguing for a United Kingdom that is strong, secure and together. All under the direction of our fantastic Chief Whip and rally compere. Over the course of the next year, our party will continue making the case for Scotland in the UK. And we have the right team to get the job done.

Isabel Hardman

Tim Farron tells Coffee House: I might vote against leadership on 50p tax

From our UK edition

One of the many confrontations between the Liberal Democrat leadership and party activists this week in Glasgow is over tax. When conference debates its tax policy paper, 'Fairer Taxes', on Monday, it will vote on a motion that includes a reintroduction of the 50p rate of tax, should an independent review conclude that the cost of introducing it won't exceed the amount it raises. It is this vote that the leadership expects to lose. But I've been speaking to Tim Farron, the party's president, who tells me that he is considering supporting the motion on 50p against the leadership's wishes. He says: 'I am sympathetic to the arguments in favour of the 50p rate. I will listen to the debate but at this stage I am minded to vote for it.

James Forsyth

Nick Clegg tells the Lib Dems, we’re the party of jobs

From our UK edition

The Lib Dem conference rally was never going to be the same without Sarah Teather and her comedy routine. With Teather persona non grata following her decision to step down, it was duly a much tamer affair. The only risqué jokes were about Lembit Opik being bitten in the nether regions by a sausage dog. But seeing as Lembit has infuriated party loyalists by again calling for Clegg to go, they got a laugh from the leadership. The message of the conference rally was that the Liberal Democrats are the party of jobs. Nick Clegg claimed that the Tories weren’t the party of jobs, but the party of fire at will; a reference to the Beecroft proposals. But Clegg seemed much happier when he moved on to attacking the Labour party.

Friday

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem conference 2013: The key rows to watch

From our UK edition

Nick Clegg is, on balance, starting his party's conference in a reasonably strong position. There has been an amusing bitch fight today between party grandees, with Paddy Ashdown saying that 'Matthew [Oakeshott]'s self-appointed position as a sort of vicar on earth for Vince does neither of them any good', but largely Clegg can expect to at least arrive in Glasgow without any suggestions that this is a crucial conference for him. There will, however, be some bumps in the road over the next couple of days. The Lib Dem leader isn't facing a leadership challenge, but he still has challenges to his authority as leader to weather: and they come from his own party. Activists are a bit grumpy at the moment for a number of reasons.

Sebastian Payne

Not even Conservative MPs want to attend their own party conference

From our UK edition

Party conference season kicks off this weekend, but who is actually going? A ComRes poll out today suggests 38 per cent of Conservative backbenchers will be unlikely to attend their party’s annual gathering in Manchester. 14 per cent of Labour MPs have also stated they won’t be attending but thankfully for the Lib Dems, everyone polled said they would be probably or definitely be going: Why is this a particular problem for the Tories? In this week’s Spectator cover feature, Ross Clark examines the plight of all parties and their conferences.