LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Have you noticed how "an area the size of Wales" has become an all-purpose analogy in the media? It's used to explain any concept otherwise too large or abstract for readers to understand. At last, someone has created a online calculator, enabling you to convert any measurement into a handy analogy. Not just Wales, but also whales or the Prince of Wales (not to mention those other convenient

Had a meeting about this today and there was an interesting discussion about what should be included. In some ways I find it odd that there is a perceived need for a women's manifesto but the need is there because there are a number of journalists asking what we are going to do "for women". Much of the debate generated by the other parties has been centred around childcare provision but there are

Just before Christmas I posted a complaint about the English and Wales Cricket Board's decision to sell the rights to home test matches to BSkyB, with the result that they will no longer be shown on terrestrial television. Now Des Wilson, once the darling of radical Liberals everywhere, has joined the debate: "while there have been assurances that the deal will help the developmental and recreational aspects of the game, there are no plans, let alone guarantees. In the meantime the 18 first-class counties are rubbing their hands in expectation of more money to spend on employing too

There is a good article by Josie Appleton on the Spiked website that links modern concerns for safety in schools with the decline of children's interest in science: Jack Pridham, emeritus professor of biochemistry at Royal Holloway, University of London, says it was the "smells and flashes and bangs" that drew him to chemistry as a boy. "Now all the exciting stuff has gone out of the window." Teachers say that they are increasingly cautious about old explosive favourites - burning hydrogen gas in air to create water, the thermite reaction (producing iron from a mix of iron

In my day job I am communications officer for the British Psychological Society's Division of Clinical Psychology. I was looking through some press cuttings at work today when I came across a column from the Financial Times by one Michael Skapinker. (You can read it via this page, but you have to be a subscriber.) In it, Skapinker announces his Barely Managing Awards for 2004. And the award for the Most Heroic Extrapolation of a Research Result goes to a press release which I wrote. In my defence I can say that this is better than winning the

Rhodri Morgan was on form yesterday with a barrage of puns (well OK, two) but for somebody who stayed behind whilst others whooped it up in France at the launch of the Airbus superjumbo, he was in a remarkably good mood to start off with. First up was binge drinking: The First Minister: That is part of the binge-drinking culture: it used to be fish and chips, now, more often, it will be kebabs and curries after chucking-out time. Chucking-out time can be succeeded by chucking-up time an hour and a half later, unfortunately, and that leads to further

I don't think anyone is particularly surprised at the bickering that goes on about taxes in the run-up to an election. Cutting taxes seems to be the main thrust of Tory policy, but I don't think that this is what people really want. The tax burden in this country for the average working person isn't too bad. People would rather see more money going into public services than paying slightly less direct taxes but living in a world where the poor receive no help.Keeping troops in Iraq is costing the UK nearly 2 billion pounds a year. Some people rather

Ever since TV and film-makers started making drama-documentaries there has been a debate about the genre and its habit of blurring fact with fiction. Now the TV programme Little Britain may take this further. Having adopted the village of Llanddewi Brefi and transplanted it in a misspelt form to southern England, they are now talking to the local football team about sponsoring them. Lots of speculation in the Western Mail about what exactly the team will have emblazoned on their shirts and a good example of what sponsorship can do for sport. Not sure if the Costcutter Ceredigion League

Andrew Stunell MP has now issued his private members bill about planning controls on telecommunications mast. It continues to surprise me that noone has noted that in the third quarterly report of DSTL into the TETRA system there is sign of a non-thermal effect from TETRA signals. This is the key debate that the Home Office commissioned research was supposed to answer. On the Police

Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's nominee as secretary of state, has identified "outposts of tyranny" where the US must help bring freedom. They are Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Burma and Belarus. So far, so good, but curiously she omitted to mention Turkmenistan, ruled by the bizarre dictator President Niyazov. Amnesty International reports, The human rights situation in Turkmenistan

Michael Howard has launched his promise to cut taxes by £4 billion as a key pledge for the election. The tax cut - which it is claimed will be delivered in the first Tory budget after the election - will be funded by achieving savings of £35 billion on "waste". No-one thinks we should waste money, and there is certainly plenty of flesh on the public finances that can be cut off. The difficulty

Not personally something that entertains me, but then I'm not 8. But surely Tory MPs have bigger things to worry about than this!

Two more days of meetings, some more productive than others. Monday night, after work, I had a campaign team meeting in the constituency. Went on on for longer than is sensible (finished just before 11pm), but we had a lot to get through given that the election might only be 100 days away! We have a really great team of key people helping the Lib Dems locally who do an enormous amount of work.

Charles Kennedy has launched the 'long campaign', setting out the clear liberal water that separates us from the two other parties. Policies like abolishing tuition fees, opposing the Government's Big Brother I.D. Cards, axing the regressive council tax, and renovating and renewing Britain's democracy (see post below). Charles Kennedy made a compelling pitch for a vote for change, and a vote

A great post by Nick Barlow on 'Fistful of Dollars' about the differences between the rationale of the German Greens and that of their British namesakes. He also links to the Green Liberal Democrats who make sure that, by putting the environmental impact at the heart of liberal policy-making, that the Green Party have no mainstream rationale. He declines to make the more partisan, although I