House of Comments

20: It’s The Economy, Stupid.

This week we’re joined by Alex Massie of The Spectator, and by Alex Smith, editor of LabourList and Islington council candidate.

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We chatted about:

• The last week has been dominated by the economy, with the budget speech last Wednesday and Channel 4’s ‘Ask The Chancellors’ debate the night before our recording. How did the performances of Alistair Darling, George Osborne and Vince Cable stack up in the Channel 4 debate, and will it have any overall effect on the election outcome?
• Tony Blair has recently returned to the UK political scene, giving a speech in support of Gordon Brown. Is his return a good thing for the Labour Party, or does it smack of desperation?
• While Labour have been closing on the Conservatives in polls recently, it still seems fairly unclear what they would actually do with another term in Parliament. Could we see, as Alex Smith suggests, a surprisingly radical manifesto from Labour?
• At the same time, the Tories have not successfully gained control of the ‘media agenda’ from Labour. Are the suffering from a lack of campaign experience compared to Labour?
• Both Alexes were in the USA during the run up to last year’s presidential election, and Alex Smith worked for the Obama Campaign from 2007. We took the opportunity to ask them about that campaign and whether British political parties can take anything from that campaign.

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19: Lobbying Scandals, US Healthcare Reform and #CashGordon

This week Lib Dem MP Lynne Featherstone, and Sara Scarlett of Liberal Vision, joined regulars Mark Thompson and Stuart Sharpe to talk about the events of the week in politics.

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Topics covered include (but are not limited to):

• A joint investigation by the Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches exposed a number of MPs apparently offering to lobby the Government for cash. We discuss the scandal, and whether this is reminiscent of the sleaze which marred the final days of John Major’s government.
• President Obama has passed his landmark healthcare reform bill after a political skirmish that has lasted many months. Is this a symbol of his tenacity and negotiating skill, or is the bill too much of a compromise? Also, there’s been some suggestion that the bill is unconstitutional and may need to be revised.
• The Tories #cashgordon campaign website included an unmoderated Twitter feed, leading to the site being exploited first by Labour activists keen to spread messages opposing the campaign. The Twitter feed also contained a major security flaw which hackers and other ‘online mischief makers’ could use to maliciously redirect visitors to other sites. We discussed whether presenting user-generated content unmoderated shows bravery on the part of the Tory web team, or naïvety.

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18: Unite Against Ashcroft

Labour blogger Emma Burnell and libertarian Old Holborn join regulars Mark Thompson and Stuart Sharpe to talk about the political news of the week.

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In this episode, we chatted about:

• Unite, the UK’s largest public sector union, have donated some £11m to the Labour party, and the Conservatives have said this gives them undue influence over the government – is this equivalent to accusations Labour made over Lord Ashcroft’s donations to the Conservative Party?
• With British Airways workers represented by Unite threatening to strike, could there be a political motivation behind the action? Some bloggers have suggested there may be a conspiracy in the works.
• Nick Hogan, a landlord who was imprisoned after failing to pay fines for allowing allowed people to smoke in his pub, has been released after the fines were paid by bloggers and readers from all around the world. Old Holborn organised this campaign, and told us a little about what happened.
• A number of deaths have been linked to mephadrome, a legal substitute for amphetamines. This has lead to calls for the drug to be banned – but how effective is drug prohibition?
• Lastly, Gordon Brown has stated that even if Labour were to lose the next election, he intends to go on as the party leader. Is this likely to happen, and is it the message the electorate want to hear?

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#LDConf Special

We went to the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference to chat with Mark Pack, Alex Foster and Sara Bedford from the LibDemVoice.org team about how the conference has been going and what’s been happening. We talked about the Digital Economy Bill, the ‘defection’ to the Lib Dems of former Conservative MEP Edward MacMillan-Scott, and the new ‘Liberal Vs Authoritarian’ MP ranking system at ‘rank dot libdemvoice dot org’.

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17: Piracy and the Digital Economy Bill

Lib Dem PPC Bridget Fox, fellow podcaster Jonathan Sheppard, and David Weber, editor of the group blog The Daily Soapbox, joined us to talk about the week’s events in politics.

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We chatted about:

• The Digital Economy Bill is currently being debated in the Lords, but many Lib Dems are unhappy with an amendment put forward by Lib Dem Lords Tim Clement-Jones and Tim Razzall. Bridget Fox explains the bill, and her opposition to the amendment.
• With the polls tightening, talk of the possibility of a hung parliament is growing in volume. Would this be a crisis for the economy, as some have suggested, or could it be a triumph for democracy?
• Postal strikes have been called off after the announcement of a pay deal which will give postal workers a 6.9% pay rise over three years. But can Royal Mail carry on in its current form, or does it need a major shakeup?

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16: The Blogger, Not the Director General

This week’s Podcast features The Heresiarch, writer of Heresy Corner, and Juliette Samuel of Lazy Hyena and Guy News.

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We talked about:

• Mark Thompson (the Director General of the BBC, not the political blogger) caused much consternation with his announcement that radio stations 6Music and Asian Network are to close as part of a cost cutting initiative across the BBC. But should they have been running these channels in the first place? [Infographic of BBC spending]
• With the continuing growth of ‘user generated content’, is the BBC’s remit becoming ever more out of date? For that matter, is the idea of a ‘broadcaster’ becoming obsolete?
• A deal was recently reached between the various networks to host live televised debates between the party leaders. Will this be a good thing, will it make any difference in the long run – and why is it finally happening now, after all the years of dancing around this issue?
• In spite of the ongoing allegations of bullying levelled at Gordon Brown, Labour seem to be resurgent in the polls, with a recent poll placing them only two points behind the Tories.
• Lord Ashcroft, the Conservative Party’s Deputy Chairman and one of their principle funders, has announced that he is a ‘non-dom’ and doesn’t pay UK tax on earnings outside Britain. This has led to a widespread debate about party funding, political donations and the future of party politics.

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