LibDem Blogs - Archived!

So it took 28 hours for the British police to decide that there were no grounds to hold the Guantanamo Four in custody yet the US Government kept them locked up for three years. According to the news US Governmen officials are still claiming that the four are a threat. If they have any hard evidence to back up their claims why didn't they charge them with an offence and prosecute them? Similarly, our security forces either have hard evidence that the people locked up in Belmarsh are guilty of terrorist activity. It is quite frightening ...

Tried to put a link to Hansard and I must apologise to all of those Tories who did not oppose this but there were a very strange mix of people who did vote against - and not all were the usual suspects. Was also surprised to see that David Heath (one of ours) had joined the merry band.

I have posted a new entry to my anthology blog Serendib: the opening lines of the novel The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton. I tend to discuss newpaper articles on this blog and reserve Serendib for passages from books. I have not posted there much recently, so the moral must be that I have not read enough good books lately. Anyway, Hamilton is one of those writers whom I have meant to investigate for years. You can read more about his career here.

There is a feature in today's Guardian about Tony Blair's inner circle. One of the people profiled in depth is Julian Le Grand. I met Le Grand a few years ago when he gave a talk to the John Stuart Mill Institute at the National Liberal Club. It was based on work that was later published as his book Motivation, Agency and Public Policy: Of Knights, Knaves, Pawns and Queens. I found his ideas interesting, but the Guardian reports that: Some, including the unions, claimed that it put him outside the social democrat family since it did ...

Yesterday Charles Clarke announced plans to introduce house arrest to Britain. What did the Independent put on its front page? Auschwitz. Remembering the Holocaust ought to give us a sharper nose for tyranny, but it seems to be having the opposite effect. Nick Cohen, in a thoughtful article published in 2000, quotes the historian Peter Novick as saying: The principal lesson of the Holocaust, it is frequently said, [is that] it sensitises us to oppression and atrocity. In principle it might, and I don't doubt that sometimes it does. But making it the benchmark of oppression and ...

Can anyone explain why the 'off' switch never seems to work on televisions belonging to devoutly religious people? Earlier this month, thousands of Christian fundamentalists felt compelled to watch BBC2's screening of Jerry Springer - The Opera then complain about it, rather than watch something more to their taste or simply switch off. It turns out this is not an isolated problem. The BBC

I recorded last September how Tory AM, Glyn Davies, had suddenly become converted to the nutritious value of McDonald's food. Entirely by coincidence his conversion coincided with him declaring in the register of interests that he had enjoyed hospitality from the company including: 'overnight accommodation in Marriott Hotel Cardiff for myself and wife. Hospitality and match tickets for Manchester Utd v Arsenal Community Shield Final football match for self and 3 guests provided by McDonald's Restaurants Ltd.' and 'overnight accommodation in the Hilton Hotel Cardiff on 7 August 2004 for myself and wife. Hospitality and match tickets for ...

It would be remiss of me of course, if I did not record the solution put forward yesterday by my colleague, Eleanor Burnham, to the problem of smells from sewage treatment works: Eleanor Burnham: To take a different tack, given that aromatherapy oils have a beneficial aroma and that their antibacterial and antifungal qualities have recently been confirmed by an authoritative University of Manchester study, will you advocate the use of aromatherapy or essential oils around sewage treatment works? I am sure that she is rushing to patent this idea even now.

The voters have long suspected it of course but it is a badly-kept secret that the closer we get to an election the less committed politicians become to the principles that they have espoused with such fervour over the preceding years. This is particularly so when seats are at stake. Thus it was that, ringed by jittery Welsh Labour MPs, the Secretary of State for Wales, Peter Hain, yesterday abandoned devolution and ordered the Assembly Government to adopt English measures to drive down Welsh waiting lists. What fun we are going to have with that one at First Minister's ...

So, oil firms are paying towards an effort to deny climate change are they? There's a surprise. In fact the only surprising thing about the whole business is that Tony Blair seems to have softened his stance on it. As pointed out near the end of the article he has claimed in speeches that evidence of climate change is still disputed. Disputed by the US perhaps, but the fact that carbon emissions add to the greenhouse effect is completely proven - the only dispute is how much difference they make.I would argue that any difference is enough to actually want ...

A colleague from another Council, Jon Harris explains a bit more about planning. I have nothing but respect for the councillors and council officers who have to be entirely focussed on what fits in with planning regulations from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, and further developed in our districts through consulting on a 'Local Plan'. They do have to make unpopular decisions sometimes, but I know they all take their responsibilities to listen and consider the issues fairly and impartially very seriously indeed.

Fresh violence has marred preparations for the Iraqi elections. Violence is likely to increase as we draw closer and closer to polling day and intimidation and boycotts are likely to threaten any chance of a free and fair poll. Sunni participation is likely to be very low, the Shias (and Kurds) are believed to be set to gain outsize representation on the body that draws up the Iraqi

I was writing a piece for Enfield Lib Dems on the U.S./UK 'special relationship', and I thought I might share it with you. One of the most annoying slanders on those who criticise Bush's policies, and Blair's subservience to them, is that I must be 'anti-American'. However, I am proud to say that I am half-American, my mother being born and bred in the state of New York. I am also a proud Red

Tim Collins thinks young people's lack of knowledge about British history is an "outright scandal". He may be right, but his prescrption - to make history compulsory up to 16 (it can currently be dropped at 14) is a nonsense. I dropped history at 14 and don't consider myself uninformed. Certainly I know less about twentieth century history than those who took the subject to GCSE level, but the

There has been considerable debate about how to fund improvements to council housing. Three options are generally made available by government: Stock Transfer - where all the housing stock moves to an RSL (Registered Social Landlord - aka Housing Association) ALMO - Arms Length Management Organisation - where the goverment gives the council about £4,600 per property if they set up a