James Graham on Chris’s manifesto November 1, 2007
Posted by Nick in Blogs, Opinion, Policy.add a comment
Over at Quaequam Blog!, James Graham has been looking through the various sections of Chris’s manifesto and giving his opinion. He says:
Huhne is clearly taking risks, and he should be congratulated for that. He has brought substance to a debate which until now has been distinctly wanting for it. On a number of issues however, he simply doesn’t seem to appreciate the communication issue. On the environment, on crime and on taxation it isn’t that he is wrong on detail, but that he hasn’t worked enough on communicating the message. This is at least a much bigger concern of Nick Clegg’s.
But on consistency, he wins hands down. You can’t fault him for not being prepared to answer difficult questions. This is an issue my scoring system doesn’t measure, yet it is important. Developing a clear Liberal Democrat identity is crucial. It gives us a brand – not something that 100% of the population will agree with, but something which a substantial minority certainly will. Longer term, such consistency will help us bridge the gap between the 10% of the public who identify as a big-el-Lib big-dee-Dem and the 50% of the public who identify as a small-el-liberal.
It’s Chris vs Nick October 31, 2007
Posted by Nick in Campaign, News, Policy.1 comment so far
Apologies for the lack of posts over the last couple of days, but I’ve had a bit of a bad back which has limited the time I can spend hunched over a keyboard, typing and searching for information.
Still, it’s now official – there will be two candidates in the leadership election, Chris and Nick Clegg. With the campaign now properly on Chris has launched his manifesto for the campaign, The Liberal Revolution. You can download a copy here.
Why did Chris keep quiet over the Harrogate Trident vote? October 28, 2007
Posted by richardhuzzey in Campaign, Policy.2 comments
Nick Clegg supporter Linda Jack has asked a very good question: why did Chris Huhne not speak at last Spring conference, when the Trident fudge was proposed by the leadership?
I thought this deserved an answer, so I phoned Chris this afternoon. He said that he had not changed his mind from the last leadership contest, but Ming had made it clear that this was a key issue for his leadership and that there was shadow cabinet collective responsibility on the matter. Moreover, the position effectively postponed a decision to 2010 at the time of the non-proliferation treaty review. As the close runner-up to Ming, Chris didn’t feel it was in the interests of the party for him to provoke a crisis by publicly breaking from the leader with local elections coming so soon.
It seems to me that this leadership contest offers a chance for him to show that he would offer conference honest choices on tough issues, rather than dodge difficult debates for the sake of fake consensus. This contest will not on its own change our party policy on Trident, but it will decide how we deal with issues like it in the future – and give a mandate to allow Chris to re-open the Trident question to a real debate at conference.
Also, for the record, Chris is not a doctrinaire unilateralist; he thinks Trident is a poor purchase for Britain on cost and benefit and that it will squeeze the resources available to conventional forces. A smaller independent deterrent could be in the frame.
Chris says ambitious renewable targets needed to fight climate change October 24, 2007
Posted by Nick in News, Policy.add a comment
It seems the leadership contest isn’t quite taking up all of Chris’s time at the moment as he still had time to make a statement in his role as the Party’s Shadow Secretary for the Environment. He said:
“The Government must not go back on the ambitious targets recently set by European leaders. It is only by aiming high that we can make real progress in tackling climate change.
“There are major projects such as the Severn barrage scheme that, together with micro-generation, can and must deliver increases in renewable energy.
“Only serious targets will concentrate minds enough to ensure rapid progress.”
Chris calls for more powers for Scottish Parliament October 24, 2007
Posted by Nick in Policy.1 comment so far
The Scotsman reports on Chris launching his campaign in Scotland, where he proposed that the Scottish Parliament should have more powers, specifically over the seas, so as to allow for a marine bill to protect Scotland’s coastline.
There’s also mention on the article of a video interview with Chris, but nothing appears to be displaying on my screen. Anyone seeing anything?
Chris says party must pass ‘Hampshire Test’ October 23, 2007
Posted by Nick in Media, Policy.add a comment
Speaking to the Daily Echo, Chris has said that the challenge he and other Lib Dems have faced against the Tories in Hampshire is good preparation for the future battles we’ll have to fight. He points to Hampshire – where his Eastleigh constituency lies – as one place in the south where our share of the vote has grown and the Tory advance has been fought off.
He also used the interview to talk about policy saying that his experience of creating his own business showed that the Liberal Democrats need to be the party that encourages success by reducing red tape and cutting taxes:
He said: “I have always been in the private sector and I started a business and built it up. I understand all the difficulties self-employed business people have, because I have been there and done that.”
A Liberal Democrat party under his leadership, he said, would stress the importance of “cutting red tape and keeping the tax burden on people striving for success as low as possible”.
Chris would make fair votes a condition of any coalition October 22, 2007
Posted by Nick in Policy.1 comment so far
The Guardian reports that Chris will announce this week that if he was to lead the party into coalition talks, reforms to the voting system and fixed-term parliaments would be a condition for any talks.
Mr Huhne will argue that without a commitment to PR and fixed term parliaments, the Liberal Democrats are vulnerable to a prime minister then deciding the date of the next election, and choosing a time that maximises the chance of pushing the Lib Dems from power on a first past the post system.
