Tag: Julian Huppert

Tim Farron – a duty to rebuild

“And if it’s not the Liberal Democrats, then there will be nobody else to hold this Government to account across the country.”

17:10 Tuesday 15th March 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: LibDem Leader Tim Farron MP is in Cambridge ahead of the local elections in May. He’s visited the major new community being built at Trumpington on Cambridge’s Southern Fringe, where 40% of the 4,000 homes being built are affordable. The LibDems are in decline in the area. They lost control of the City Council two years ago, and at the General Election lost the seat of Cambridge to Labour.
(TAPE)
TIM FARRON: Well it’s great to come up and to back Tim Bick and Julian Huppert and the team in Cambridge as we head towards the local elections on May 5th. They’re a real opportunity for the Liberal Democrats to rebuild as the main opposition to Labour across the city. I’m particularly looking forward to going to the Southern Fringe development of course, where 50% 0f the homes built are affordables, a project which is delivered thanks to Liberal Democrats when we ran the Council.
CHRIS MANN: But you don’t any more, do you? You mentioned two people of course who were defeated. They were thrown out, Tim Bick and Julian Huppert. No longer do you run the City Council. No longer do you have an MP there. So your visit is a bit late.
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Cambridge for Europe campaign underway

Supporters include Labour MP Daniel Zeichner, his predecessor Julian Huppert, and the Conservative peer Lord Balfe

17:21 Thursday 28th January 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: A new cross-party organisation to campaign for the UK to stay in the EU will launch at this time just tomorrow. Cambridge for Europe argues the case for continued membership of the EU, in preparation for the referendum which is expected to be later this year, perhaps as early as June. Supporters include Labour MP Daniel Zeichner, his predecessor Julian Huppert, who is a LibDem, and the Conservative peer Lord Balfe, as well as the Chair of Cambridge LibDems, Mark Argent, who joins me now. Mark, hello to you.
MARK ARGENT: Nice to meet you.
CHRIS MANN: Tell us, why is it important to have this organisation campaigning?
MARK ARGENT: I think the UK’s future is very much to be at the heart of Europe, leading change there, rather than running away. That matters for our prosperity and our cultural survival, and also how we compete on the world stage, with countries like China and Brazil growing much bigger.
CHRIS MANN: And will you be making specific arguments for Cambridgeshire to stay in the EU, arguments that are relevant to this part of the world?
MARK ARGENT: I think the whole Cambridge region, so the city and the whole area around it, draws a huge amount from being in the European Union. And that’s partly about just general trade with the rest of the Single Market. It’s about investment in the universities, and research and business coming out of that.

So you’re going to go on a platform and say all those tens of thousands that are coming, moving around, those economic migrants, they can come here no problem?

CHRIS MANN: OK. Well I’m sure you’ll have many debates over the next months. We don’t yet know when the referendum will be, but your first one is right now ..
MARK ARGENT: Thank you.
CHRIS MANN: .. because we’re going to bring in somebody from UKIP, because UKIP will be leading the anti-Europe campaign in this part of the world. And a senior official with them is Nick Clarke, a former of course Conservative Leader of the County Council. Nick Clarke, hello.
NICK CLARKE: Good evening Chris.
CHRIS MANN: Will there be a Cambridge against Europe coalition announced too?
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Julian Huppert in support of research funding

08:20 Thursday 12th November 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: The future of scientific research and invention in Cambridgeshire could suffer as a result of the Government funding freeze. This is the warning from former Cambridge Liberal Democrat MP Julian Huppert, who says companies like microchip designer ARM may have never got off the ground if it wasn’t for research investment in their early days. Government funding for science and research programmes has been frozen at £4.6 billion since 2010. Julian Huppert joins me now,. Morning Julian.
JULIAN HUPPERT: Morning Dotty. How are you?
DOTTY MCLEOD: Yes fine thank you. £4.6 billion does seem like quite a lot of money doesn’t it?
JULIAN HUPPERT: It is in some ways a lot of money. But it’s not as much as is needed if we’re going to make the advances in all areas of science and research, if we’re going to get the benefits we can get in medicine from being able to create new treatments, in physics, in computing. We have lots and lots of evidence that actually the country makes a profit from this investment. We get really good financial returns, as well as the social returns, and the advancement of knowledge for its own sake.
DOTTY MCLEOD: You know what though, we do get some pieces of research, and we talk about them on this programme. You know the other week we had this research into the vocal chords and the testicles of howler monkeys. There’s research out today from the University of Cambridge about the strength of the jaws of a cockroach. And I hear about this and I think well it’s a bit of fun, but what’s the actual point? Is it really worth the money?
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LibDem Leadership announcement expected today

08:17 Thursday 16th July 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: Big political movement later on this afternoon. The new Leader of the Liberal Democrats is going to be chosen, Nick Clegg’s successor. Voting closed yesterday. There’s been a face-off between the party’s former President Tim Farron and ex-Minister Norman Lamb. I’m joined by our Political Correspondent Paul Rowley. Now Paul I know you’re a football fan. Can I have a score prediction please.
PAUL ROWLEY: Tim Farron three to two majority I would have thought. Three to two victory. I think he should win by about 60% of the vote. 40% to Norman Lamb. Tim Farron popular with the grass roots, what’s left of them after their annihilation at the General Election. His rival Norman Lamb much respected. He was a Minister in the last Government. maybe that’s a problem for him, because that’s possibly one of the reasons they were punished at the ballot box for going into coalition with the Conservatives. At the time Tim Farron was free to vote against his party on things like university tuition fees, which was such a damaging issue for them, and what became known as the bedroom tax. But whereas this is a party Dotty with fifty seven MPs when they entered Government, including when Julian Huppert was the MP for Cambridge. They’re now down to a rump of just eight of them, their lowest total since the Liberal Democrats were formed. Indeed you’ve got to go back to the General Election of 1970, the year Tim Farron was born incidentally, the year the Beatles split up, and I think the year that Cambridge United entered the Football League when it was worse than this. The old Liberal Party had just half a dozen seats under the late Jeremy Thorpe.
DOTTY MCLEOD: So you’ve been following the campaign. What’s it been like?
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Richard Nicholl from Varsity on the Cambridge election campaign

8:21 Friday 15th May 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: Cambridge’s new MP Daniel Zeichner has called them ‘amazing’, the army of student Labour voters who campaigned tirelessly for him to be elected in the city. There are around 15,000 students in Cambridge who are eligible to vote, and with just 599 votes between Daniel and the LibDems’s Julian Huppert, it would be fair to say that it was the students wot won it for Labour. .. Let’s talk to Richard Nicholl who is the political editor of Varsity, Cambridge University’s student newspaper. Richard, they certainly seemed to think they made all the difference during Daniel Zeichner’s campaign. Do you agree?
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Julian Huppert on leaving the Commons

17:49 Wednesday 13th May 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: Speaking in his first broadcast interview since he lost his seat as Cambridge MP, Julian Huppert has told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire that the Liberal Democrats ‘failed to clarify their true values’ during the national election campaign. He went on to say that despite errors, forming a coalition was the right thing to do. But he wished they’d made public their frequent clashes and battles with the Conservatives. Dotty McLeod our Breakfast presenter caught up with him earlier.
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Ashley Walsh and Rod Cantrill on tuition fees and the Living Wage for Cambridge

17:19 Friday 27th February 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

(MUSIC – Same Old Song – Four Tops)

CHRIS MANN: Well will it be the same old song from the two politicians joining me now? A couple of subjects to talk about. Let’s first welcome them. Councillor Ashley Walsh from Labour, who’s the lead on the Living Wage on the County Council. The member for Petersfield. Ashley, hello.
ASHLEY WALSH: Hello Chris.
CHRIS MANN: And also councillor Rod Cantrill, LibDem for Newnham on Cambridge City Council, and a member of the Council’s Strategy and Resources Committee. Hello.
ROD CANTRILL: Hi Chris.
CHRIS MANN: A couple of things. We’ll come on to the university tuition fees in a moment or two, but there was a claim today by the LibDems saying the Co-op of all companies, the Co-op food stores, are paying people below the Living Wage. Expand on this please Rod.
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Cambridge bloggers on Election 2015

17:13 Monday 5th January 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: So in case you hadn’t noticed, there is a General Election coming up this year. The campaign, well it’s been a slow-burner until now, but it’s beginning to produce more than a few sparks. Let’s find out what we think is going to be in prospect locally from two leading Cambridgeshire bloggers on politics, Richard Taylor .. hello Richard.
RICHARD TAYLOR: Good afternoon Chris.
CHRIS MANN: .. and Antony Carpen, known to many as Puffles. Hello Antony.
ANTONY CARPEN: Good afternoon Chris.
CHRIS MANN: So gentlemen, how much do you think there will be Cambridgeshire issues in this election campaign? Richard first.
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