I am on Radio 5 Live after the leaders' debate tonight

I have been invited to be on Tony Livesey's Radio 5 Live show following the final pre-election leaders' debate tonight. I think the start time is a bit dependent on what time the football finishes but it should be from not long after the debate ends until 1:00am.

Will Straw and Iain Dale will also be on the show. It will hopefully be a good one!

Tune in if you can.

I am on Radio 5 tonight and Ken Livingstone's LBC show tomorrow morning

I am going to be doing the newspaper review on Radio 5 Live this evening at midnight tonight on Stephen Nolan's show.

Then tomorrow morning between 11 and 12 I will be a guest on Ken Livingstone's LBC show along with former Tory cabinet minister David Mellor.

Very much looking forward to both!

Interview with Ed Fordham, Lib Dem PPC for Hampstead and Kilburn

I did an interview with Ed Fordham earlier this week for Lib Dem TV. I have met him a few times now and always find him to be an irrepressible character with bags of energy and constantly fizzing with ideas. I blogged previously about how I watched him completely skewer a former Tory councillor on a live Radio 5 show we were on at conference last year.

I asked him about his earlier days in the party, his campaign, online engagement and how his experiences as a Chess player have helped with his political career.

You can watch the 8 minute video on Lib Dem TV here.

I was this week's guest on John Pienaar's podcast

I was this week's guest on John Pienaar's Radio 5 Live political review podcast this week. We covered PMQs and focused on the legacy of Gordon Brown's time as Chancellor with respect to the defence budget, the Lib Dems questions on Trident and what may have caused Gordon's Damascene conversion to being a staunch advocate of the (non-proportional) Alternative Vote system for Westminster and how it might relate to the MPs' expenses scandal.

You can download the podcast from here. You can also subscribe to it on iTunes via this link here.

I am on John Pienaar's podcast this week

I was invited to be the guest on John Pienaar's weekly political review podcast this week. We discussed the pre-Budget report and the continuing saga of MPs' expenses.

You can download the podcast from here. You can also subscribe to it on iTunes via this link here.

Queen's Speech - where's the beef?

As I expected, the Queen's Speech was a bit of a damp squib. There are various measures in there that are worthy in so far as they go but many of them will not see the light of day on the statute books as there is just not enough time.

The most astonishing measure for me is the "Fiscal Responsibility Bill" which will put into law the promise to halve the defecit within a set timeframe. I have just been listening to John Healey, government minister on Radio 5 Live try to defend this measure and he did not do a good job. The question was repeatedly asked, why do the government need to bring in a law to make sure they do what they have already promised to do? Mr Healey did not have a good answer. It strikes me that the government are using legislation as a way to try to send out "messages" to the markets that they will be responsible. If they have to use the Queen's Speech to do this then it speaks very ill of their reputation. They are basically saying that they understand they might not be trusted and they have regularly moved the goalposts in the past so they are going to put a legislative lock on themselves. It is not clear what the penalty would be if they were to fail to halve the defecit and hence at the moment it is not worth the paper it is written on.

Another measure that made me raise my eyebrows is the one that "gives" parents the right to demand certain standards from their schools. The thing is, as Mr Healey talked through what the mechanism for that would be it became more and more clear that the mechanisms already exist for parents to appeal to various authorities to get the required standards including the Head, the Governors, the LEA etc. As far as I can tell this measure does nothing. It just seems to be a way of looking like they are doing something.

The big omission from all of this of course are substantial plans to deal with the reform of parliament in the wake of the expenses scandal. Callers and commenters to the Radio 5 Live show I was listening to were incredulous that in the Queen's Speech directly following the parliamentary session which has had the worst crisis in confidence for MPs in living memory there was nothing to address this in the Queen's Speech and I expect that feeling will be widespread. This shows just how out of touch this government has become that they didn't even consider it necessary to tackle any aspect of the rotten system in its final legislative programme before the election.

James Forsyth highights problem with our electoral system

John Pienaar's guest on his 5 Live political podcast this week was James Forsyth, the new political editor of The Spectator (it is still accessible here for a few days). The discussion was about BBC Question Time, Nick Griffin and the BNP and James made a number of what I thought were good points about the programme and how it played out.

What caught my ear most though was when he highlighted what he perceives as a major reason why the BNP has increased in popularity. It is a short section from about 9 minutes in for about 20 seconds:

A colleague of mine went out canvassing with them (the BNP) recently and he said it is amazing to talk to people on the doorsteps who are voting for the BNP and they are voting because they haven't seen a politician because they live in a seat that is so safe for the Labour Party that no-one's been there for 20 years. That's what we've got to, you know, politicians have to realise that they can't take votes for granted.

I suspect the point that James was trying to make here is of a one with lots of right-wing commentators and bloggers who are constantly trying to make the point that the BNP is growing due to Labour's failures. Of course what he has inadvertently highlighted is one of the huge problems with our current First Past the Post electoral system. In areas that are very safe Labour, or Conservative or any other party, there is no real incentive for politicians of either the incumbent party or realistically main opposition parties to focus their efforts there. This is not being defeatist, it is being realistic. Parties are bound to target their resources where they think they can make the most difference and under our current system that is in the marginal seats and wards. This produces situations where people are effectively disenfranchised.

The political voids that this then creates can be filled by parties like the BNP who can step in and as they are the only voice that is being heard make council gains before the Labour and other parties who have sluggish or non-existent local party infrastructure even know what has hit them.

So James highlights a very real problem but makes no attempt to define how to resolve it, just a plaintive cry that "politicians cannot take these votes for granted". The reality is that the current situation will perpetuate. The weakness is systemic and even if the bigger parties plug the voids in a few areas, the BNP can just move into other areas. The solution is to remove the safe seats and wards by reforming the electoral system to make every vote count.

James didn't say this though and from what I can tell The Spectator's editorial line does not favour electoral reform either. I would therefore be interested to hear what alternative practical steps he thinks can be taken to avoid from what I can tell is an inevitable consequence of our existing system.

I am on John Pienaar's podcast this week #LDConf

John Pienaar, 5 Live's chief political correspondent did his podcast this week from and about the Lib Dem Conference and he very kindly invited me to be one of his guests. I was on with Steve Webb MP, the Lib Dem spokesman on Work and Pensions.

You can download the podcast as an mp3 file directly here. You can also subscribe to it on iTunes via this link here.

Let me know what you think...

PS: Mr Pienaar has just joined Twitter and you can follow him here: @JPonpolitics.

I am on 5 Live today as part of their Clegg speech coverage #LDConf

John Pienaar has very kindly invited me along with some other people to be a part of BBC Radio 5 Live's coverage of Nick Clegg's speech later today at the Bournemouth conference. We should be on from around 2:45pm until the speech and then again straight afterwards when John will get our reactions to what we have heard.

After some of the problems of the last few days, the disquiet over the "mansion tax" and the actions of the leadership seemingly trying to impose top-down policies it will be very interesting to see how Nick acquits himself. He needs a strong speech and to address these problems in my view.

Then afterwards John has also invited me to be his guest on his political review podcast round-up this week which will be recorded today and should be available to download soon after. I will provide a link when this is up.

I am on BBC Radio 5 Live today from 10:00am from #LDConf

A quick reminder that I am on Victoria Derbyshire's show on BBC Radio 5 Live today to be part of a panel at the Lib Dem Conference. I think the format is that they will keep coming back to us asking us questions every now and then during the programme. I am scheduled to be there from 10:00am until about 11:30am.

Please do tune in if you get the chance or you can listen to it on the iPlayer after it has been broadcast.

UPDATE 1: It turned out that apart from the MPs/PPCs the other invitees were closer to the front but just joined in the debate with the rest of the audience. I managed to get in around 10:30 just before the news. It was an interesting experience that I might blog about in more detail later. I was very impressed with Victoria Derbyshire's ability to handle about 18 things at once!

UPDATE 2: It is now up on the iPlayer here. I am on from 29 minutes in for about 2 minutes.

I am on BBC Radio 5 Live on Monday from 10:00am from #LDConf

I have been invited onto Victoria Derbyshire's show on BBC Radio 5 Live next Monday (21st Sep) to be part of a panel at the Lib Dem Conference. I think the format is that they will keep coming back to us asking us questions every now and then during the programme. I am scheduled to be there from 10:00am until about 11:30am.

I have already been put through my paces a bit by one of the show's researchers the other day over the phone and am really looking forward to it. I don't know what questions are going to be asked, I guess it depends what issues are high on the political agenda on the day.

Please do tune in if you get the chance or you can listen to it on the iPlayer after it has been broadcast.