Dear Nick

It is really encouraging for voters to see a party leader use technology in this way. My question is,what would a liberal democrat government do to increase animal welfare, for example introducing more effective legislation protecting the rights of animals awaiting slaughter or anyother farm animal? Is it a Lib Dem priority?

Hello Nick,

I’m confused as to exactly what the Lib Dem drugs policy actually is, on the labour European Election leaflets they criticised the Lib Dems for being liberal and nice, saying that charges for possession should be shortened/replaced/abolished (An opinion I also hold). Is this the stance of the Liberal Democrats, or is this merely Labour taking something out of context to appease their target voters?

Secondly, more specifically what precisely is your opinion on the current classification on Cannabis and the reclassification from Class C to Class B on January 26th?

Thanks Nick,
-Jordan.

Nick,
a) You make some good points but rush your delivery and come across as an over emotional activist without a hope of ever achieving power.
Its a good meal you serve up but its hard to swallow when its forced down my throat.
Do you have any plans to work on your delivery?

b) Like plants, people thrive and grow in a healthy environment. What harmful pollutents would you remove from the British culture and what nutrients do you think it is missing to enable our nations people to thrive ?

Maybe Bob Flowerdew could answer that one!

Good luck, I dont think you have all the answers yet but at least you are making some good noises..keep it up!

Recognise that the end of economic growth in the developed countries of the world may save the planet from global warming; celebrate it by introducing a minimum and a maximum fair wage and replace the complexities of most benefit and tax credit systems by a universal citizen’s income, (repaid in full by each individual wage earner and financed by income tax on all wage earnings) which gives fair support to the out-of-work and those who can’t work – like children, students, voluntary workers, the elderly, the infirm, and those who support family members at home. The calculations on my website suggest that this could be viable and that while 7 million of today’s richest would take home much less pay, 7 million workers would see no change, 14 million of the poorest earners, as well as the 33 million unemployed and economically inactive (including pensioners and children) would be slightly better off. It would reduce our carbon footprint, abolish child poverty and substantially reduce inequality in our society with consequential improvements in many social parameters. It would upset the greedy, but if you convince people it would work then democratically there should be more than enough votes to support it.

Dear Nick Clegg,

Let’s get the political debate refocused on the United Kingdom’s role in Europe and stop the navel gazing on expenses and other internal issues. We are in a recession after all. The most important issue right now is creating a positive environment for business and creation of jobs. This comes from a UK that is an active and prominent member of the European Union. The UK is one of the largest economies in the European Union. Many international companies base their operations here as it is a large English speaking country. We need to build on this or we are lost.

Unfortunately, this is under threat at the moment. In the last European election vote, the two parties that garnered the most votes have a eurosceptic agenda, namely the Conservatives and the UK Independence Party. Plus, ultra right eurosceptic parties like the BNP gained a couple of seats and lots of media exposure. In the end, the voters are sending to Brussels about 41 MEPs that have a eurosceptic policy view which is a majority of the 72 total. I am embarrassed to call myself a British citizen and a European.

A UK out of the EU would be a disaster. We would not enjoy the same advantages with foreign direct investment that powers our economy. The opportunities abroad for British business would be greatly reduced. And, it would be more expensive to govern as the EU provides the regulatory framework with the costs shared across member nations. Other programmes like crime prevention would be far less effective without collaboration within the EU. The EU is a positive contribution to our society and costs much less and provides many more benefits than people realise today.

The Liberal Democrats have the most proactive policy story to tell on what role the UK should have in the EU. The Lib Dems are the only one of the major non-Labour parties that is pro-EU. That’s why I joined your party and supported it with my vote in the last election. Now is the time to differentiate yourself from the others. Let’s get the debate focused back on things that really matter. In the end, I really don’t care if we paid for a duck pond or reimbursed some expenses for MPs to do their job. The key issue right now is improving the economic and creating jobs. The UK must be a strong member of the EU to achieve this.

I am a unhappy conservative voter for 40 odd years. Your stance on Europe prevents me from voting LIBDEM. By all means trade with EU but where is the help we get from them?I fought for 6years to keep Britain free and now you wish to hand it over.You wish to allow them to make our Judiciary rules. We abide by Fishing rules which French and Spanish laugh at and sell the soup etc back to us.
Where are the French, German, Italian fighting men whilst our men are being slaughtered????
They scorn the rules regarding Milk production.
They also snub OUR Queen. At the recent Anniversary in France. Only the intervention of Barak Obama prevented more problems.
So, Come on young man, omit you are wrong and people like me will give you their support.

Nick,

Good to see you putting this technology to use reaching out to the electorate. Two questions:

1) Your Take Back Power campaign sets out to make our democracy fairer and more transparent - given that the government’s response has so far been to announce a few half-measures here and there, and that the 100 days in which you wanted action to be taken are slipping away, what plans do you have up your sleeve to force electoral reform higher up No. 10’s agenda?

2) According to some indicators economic growth overall may return to positive territory later this year - yet if this is the case it would be through growth in the same sectors as caused the current instability, with ordinary people losing their jobs through contraction of demand. How do you propose to ensure that any economic recovery is felt by the hard-working many, not just the financially-favoured few, that the new economy that rises from this recession’s ashes is greener and more equitable?

Hi Nick,

I’m really concerned about sex education about homosexuality.

I was recently informed by someone claiming to be in sex education, that the standard practice is to ‘take any obviously gay children to one side’ to discuss safe sex issues.

To me this seems a) very dangerous given many people do not realise thier sexuality until they are much older and so will be left without vital information on how to protect themselves and b) to give the impression to young people that being gay is not something to be discussed openly.

I would like to know:

a) are you aware of the government guidelines on sex education with regards to homosexuality (and if there are ANY guidelines on teaching kids about safe female/female sex)?

and

b) how the Liberal Democrats propose tackle sex education and if I could expect a more logical approach to educating our children about homosexuality from a Liberl Democrat government?

It is apparent and obvious that the Liberal Democrats have the best policies for an improved Britain which ensures the well-being of the vast majority of the population, rather than just the super rich few.

It is equally apparent that the media in general continue to support the three parties which most represent the super rich few (the Conservatives, Labour, and of course the odious UKIP). Of course the media are also in the hands of the super rich few, and the only body that isn’t, the BBC, seems unable to work against a bias in favour of this group.

How does a party that is actually the party people should vote for, to create a better society, overcome the disadvantage of being opposed by the media which favours those who are entiely seperate from society?

Is there any chance at all that the people in the media will realise that their bias which is destroying society, may eventually reach the people they care about, rather than just those of us who live in poverty and they care nothing for?

This is a great idea, and we should see more of this sort of thing.

2 reforms to the voting system could make our politics much more responsive, and give us much more power:

1) Why not introduce a system of Delegated Voting, whereby MPs’ votes in the Commons depend directly on how many people voted for them (votes cast for other parties in that constituency could be distributed to the elected MPs of that party)? In this way, every vote would count directly in the Commons, for every MP and for every party. Votes would matter in safe seats and in marginal seats; Labour votes would count in Tory constituencies, and so would Tory ones, because it would stop being just about who got the seat, and start being about the votes. Why don’t you propose such a system, so that in future we can affect politics with our votes even where our MP retains their seat?

2) More ambitiously, could we have continuous voting, where we could change our vote online when we wanted (maybe with a restriction on doing it too often), so that Parliament would gradually change as opinion in the country changed, and MPs and governments would always be at the mercy of the people? Truly unpopular and massively important decisions might not then go through, as they can now.