Lib Dem conference: Steve Coogan and Carol Vorderman lead rally for proportional representation

Published

2 years ago

September 24, 2023

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Steve Coogan and Carol Vorderman have publicly lent their support to the Liberal Democrats as the party conference kicks off with a call for electoral reform and tactical voting.

Statistics from the party said the Conservatives now have 56% of seats in the Commons, despite only receiving 44% of total vote share at the last election.

Lib Dem parliamentary representation in the Commons amounts to a mere 1.6%, even though they secured 11.6% of the vote.

The party has long called for the current “first past the post” system to be scrapped and be replaced with “proportional representation” – where the percentage of the votes a party gets across the country determines the number of MPs they send to parliament.

And now they have celebrity backing, with actor and comedian Mr Coogan using a video message played at a conference rally in Bournemouth to say the current electoral process “robs millions of people of their vote” and “millions of people’s voices go unheard”.

Ms Vorderman – best known for her time on Countdown – agreed with the need for change in her own video message to the gathering, saying: “We desperately need to end a system where only marginal seats matter, end a system which delivers parliaments that fail to accurately reflect votes cast and end a system where only the winner’s votes count.

“It doesn’t deliver parliaments that properly reflect the will of the nation.”

But to be able to make that change, both stars called for the public to be tactical in how they used their votes when the next national ballot comes.

Ms Vorderman said it was “absolutely vital that we come together to defeat the Tories”, adding tactical voting on a seat by seat basis was “the first step” towards change.

And while admitting he normally votes Labour and was not a member of the Lib Dems “despite the beard and the fleece”, Mr Coogan added: “Where I live in Lewes, the candidate best placed to kick the Tories out is the Lib Dem candidate, so I’ll vote for them.”

Speaking to Sky News in the run up to conference, Lib Dem MP Labour Moran said proportional representation would be “on the agenda” as the party “hasn’t lost its roots”.

But critics of the system say it could allow more fringe parties with extreme views to get seats in the Commons.

At the rally, Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey – who will appear on Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips today – closed proceedings with the party’s giant clock, which it used to hammer home its message that “time’s up” Tories after its successful local election results in May.

He told the gathered MPs, councillors and activists: “While the Conservatives have counted the last four years in fines for partying during COVID, in scandal upon scandal, in the prime ministers that have left in disgrace and the lettuces that outlast them, we actually have something to be proud of.

“We can count our four years with by-election victory after by-election victory, with making history with the size of the majorities we’ve overturned and with our stunning local election success. “

He added: “This government is living on borrowed time. We know it. They know it. And when they finally decide to call time on so many years of shambles and sleaze, the Liberal Democrats will be ready.”

Keep up to date with all of the news from the Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth on Sky News via both TV and online.

Politics

Crypto lobby group says SEC should back off regulating most DAOs

Published

3 hours ago

May 29, 2025

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Crypto lobby group says SEC should back off regulating most DAOs

Crypto lobby group the DeFi Education Fund and the Uniswap Foundation have said the Securities and Exchange Commission should be hands-off on regulating decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

The May 27 letter to SEC Crypto Task Force lead Hester Peirce argued that the agency should not treat DAOs under the purview of the securities-defining Howey test if they’re “sufficiently decentralized,” as they are not identifiable and are not a coordinated group.

Instead, the pair said DAOs should be treated as individuals or a group of persons unless proved otherwise.

“If a DAO has a dispersed collection of tokenholders who have the opportunity to actively participate in and govern the DAO and the network, it is sufficiently decentralized such that neither the network token for that DAO, nor transactions in which that network token are the object, should be considered a security.” the letter read.

The letter was issued in response to Peirce’s Feb. 21 statement, which invited comments on crypto.

Favorable regulatory environment

The SEC has flipped on its crypto enforcement actions under the Trump administration, which successfully installed the former crypto lobbyist Paul Atkins to lead the agency.

Atkins has stated that blockchain technology could usher in new forms of market activity.

The following week, Atkins said that the regulator would not stifle innovation and lambasted the Biden administration’s approach to crypto.

In a May 20 SEC oversight hearing, Atkins confirmed that the Crypto Task Force’s first report will be released in the next few months, the group is also holding a series of crypto-related roundtable discussions with industry players.

Magazine: Move to Portugal to become a crypto digital nomad — Everybody else is

Politics

Nigel Farage’s ‘fantasy’ policies will lead to Liz Truss-style economic meltdown, Sir Keir Starmer to warn

Published

4 hours ago

May 29, 2025

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Nigel Farage's 'fantasy' policies will lead to Liz Truss-style economic meltdown, Sir Keir Starmer to warn

Nigel Farage’s “fantasy” policies will lead to a Liz Truss-style economic meltdown, the prime minister will warn today.

Sir Keir Starmer is set to argue that Reform UK’s pledges would cause mortgages, bills and rent payments across the country to surge.

On Tuesday, Mr Farage vowed to reverse cuts to winter fuel payments and scrap the two-child benefit cap, with an ambition to slash income tax.

But new analysis from the Institute of Fiscal Studies suggest that his party’s aim of hiking the personal allowance to £20,000 a year could cost between £50bn to £80bn a year.

Visiting manufacturing workers in the North West, Sir Keir will describe Reform’s economic agenda as a “mad experiment”.

He is expected to say: “In opposition we said Liz Truss would crash the economy and leave you to pick up the bill. We were right – and we were elected to fix that mess.

“Now in government, we are once again fighting the same fantasy.”

Labour is criticising Mr Farage for betting “that you can spend tens of billions on tax cuts without a proper way of paying for it”.

The prime minister will add: “Just like Truss, he is using your family finances, your mortgage, your bills as a gambling chip. The result will be the same. Liz Truss bet the house and lost.”

Sir Keir is referring to the former prime minister’s mini-budget in 2022, which had proposed abolishing the top 45% rate of income tax.

But this policy, among others, spooked financial markets and led to economic turmoil in the UK – with a dramatic spike in the cost of government borrowing feeding through into interest rates.

Mr Farage has argued that his measures can be paid for by scrapping net zero commitments and ending the use of hotel accommodation for asylum seekers.

Recent polls have put Labour second behind Reform UK, while the local election results earlier this month saw Mr Farage’s party win a parliamentary by-election, control of 10 councils and two mayoralties, while Labour lost almost 200 seats.

Sir Keir has been under pressure from his backbenchers to regain the initiative, leading to the party’s U-turn on winter fuel payments last week.

Plans to scrap the two-child benefit cap have also not been ruled out by ministers, in what would be a second reversal of current Labour policy.

Dominic Cummings, the former top aide to Boris Johnson, exclusively told Sky News he believes Mr Farage could “definitely” become the next prime minister, with the right strategy.

Politics

Elon Musk leaves DOGE as job was ‘uphill battle’

Published

4 hours ago

May 29, 2025

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Elon Musk leaves DOGE as job was ‘uphill battle’

Elon Musk confirmed that he’s quitting as the White House’s government cost-cutting czar after admitting it was an “uphill battle” trying to slash federal jobs and programs.

Musk’s status as a Special Government Employee leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) meant that by law, he could only serve for a maximum of 130 days, which was set to finish on May 30.

Musk confirmed his exit in a May 29 X post, thanking President Donald Trump “for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending.” Reuters reported that a White House official said his “off-boarding will begin tonight.”

Musk told The Washington Post for a May 27 report that the “federal bureaucracy situation is much worse” than he expected, and it was “an uphill battle trying to improve things in DC, to say the least.”

In separate comments to CBS, Musk criticized the multi-trillion-dollar tax break package that House Republicans approved on May 22, claiming it would increase the budget deficit and undermine the work that DOGE is doing.

DOGE, which is named after the cryptocurrency, claims to have saved taxpayers $175 billion since Trump’s Jan. 20 return to the White House, a figure heavily disputed by multiple news outlets, which report the figures are overstated, have multiple errors and are inaccurate.

The project’s claimed savings are only 8.5% of Musk’s initial ambition to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, which he later revised down to $150 billion.

According to the Reuters report, DOGE has cut almost 12%, or 260,000, of the 2.3 million federal workforce through layoffs, buyouts and early retirement offers.

Despite the criticisms, Musk said on X that DOGE’s mission will “only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”

It comes as a federal judge allowed a lawsuit to proceed that accuses Musk and DOGE of illegally exerting power over government operations.

The lawsuit, filed by 14 states, alleged that Musk and DOGE violated the Constitution by illegally accessing government data systems, terminating federal employees and canceling contracts at federal agencies.

Musk admits he spent too much time in politics

In a May 28 interview with Ars Technica, Musk, the CEO of EV maker Tesla, admitted that he spent “a bit too much time” in politics, which some critics claim has impacted Tesla’s performance.

“I think I probably did spend a bit too much time on politics,” Musk said. However, he added that the time he spent on DOGE wasn’t as significant as many believed, and he blamed media coverage for overrepresenting his involvement.

“It’s not like I left the companies. It was just relative time allocation that probably was a little too high on the government side, and I’ve reduced that significantly in recent weeks.”

When Musk announced in Tesla’s first quarter report that his time spent on DOGE would drop significantly in May, Tesla (TSLA) shares rose over 5% in after-hours trading, despite the company reporting an 80% drop in net income.

As of March 31, Tesla still held 11,509 Bitcoin (BTC), currently valued at about $1.24 billion.

Tesla shares are still down 5.9% year to date, in part due to Musk diverting his attention away from the company and Tesla’s sales falling considerably in the first quarter.

However, the fall is in line with other Big Tech firms, including Apple (AAPL), Nvidia (NVDA), Amazon (AMZN) and Google (GOOG), which are also in the red in 2025.

Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight