Will Nick agree with Nick?
Following Tory MP Nick Boles’s comments, what are the chances of a ‘Coalition Party’ standing at the next General Election?
Liberal Democrats
Johnson: Clegg’s talk on bankers’ bonuses all “hot air”
Despite hard talk over bankers’ bonuses Nick Clegg is being accused of “hot air” over the issue by shadow Chancellor Alan Johnson, reports Chris Tarquini.
Evan Harris: “If you want to get rid of fees vote more Lib Dems into power”
Former Liberal Democrat MP Dr Evan Harris has made the extraordinary claim that to get rid of fees “the answer is to vote more liberal democrats into power”.
Two-thirds of Lib Dem general election voters against fees u-turn
Sixty eight per cent of those who voted Liberal Democrat in May say it is wrong for the party to break its election pledge to “vote against any increase in fees in the next parliament and to pressure the government to introduce a fairer alternative” – with just 21 per cent thinking the party is right to abandon its promise, a YouGov poll undertaken last week (2nd-3rd December) has reveled.
Lib Dems fail to learn lessons from Scotland on tuition fees
As MPs in Westminster prepare for the most controversial vote of this parliament on the coalition’s plan’s for tuition fees, in Scotland the contrast between the Liberal Democrats now and the Lib Dems in 1999 when forming the Scottish governmenttest
Clegg’s housing headache
A lib dem rebellion on housing benefit proposals is brewing – with both Bob Russell MP and Simon Hughes leading the charge.
Danny Alexander squirms when pressed on tuition fees vote
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander became the latest senior Liberal Democrat cabinet minister to fail to declare his hand on Question Time last night – repeatedly refusing to say whether he would vote for or against the trebling of tuition fees his government is proposing and which he is in favour of.
Alexander signals Lib Dem u-turn on Barnett Formula
In an appearance before the Welsh Assembly’s finance committee yesterday, the Liberal Democrat’s cutter in chief, Danny Alexander, performed what can only be described as the next in a long line of Lib Dem U-turns, this time on how the devolved administrations are funded by Westminster.
Coalition suffers slump in Lib Dem support while dislike of Clegg grows
The latest Reuters/IPSOS Mori Political Monitor makes grim reading for the Liberal Democrat leadership. Though the headline voting intention figures – Conservatives 36% (-3); Labour 39% (+3); Liberal Democrats 14% (unchanged) – actually represent an improvement from their faltering performance in the Sun/YouGov daily tracker series, satisfaction and perception levels among the public leave Mr Clegg and his colleagues with plenty to think about.
Welsh Lib Dem council set to privatise adult social services
Later today, Welsh budget minister Jane Hutt will present the Assembly government’s draft budget in what amounts to the toughest fiscal environment since the birth of devolution. She will do so as it emerged that Liberal Democrat run Swansea Council is considering outsourcing its entire adult social services department by 2012 to save costs.