LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Why all the fuss? The press today revealed that he is HIV positive but I had thought that this was the case since I was first elected although I will admit that this was based on a conversation with a specialist in this area who was commenting on facial characteristics that some antretrovirals can cause. It seemed no big deal either way as he was fully capable of doing his job. Sadly though -

We had been invited to a joint 50/60 birthday party and as we had a prior engagement had been enouraged to join th eparty afterwards. Slight snag was that party goers had been invited to dress in garb from the 50s and 60s but it isn't really appropriate to attend a play dressed as an ageing hippy! It was great fun seeing the efforts people had gone to and quite an eye opener seeing some of the

No - nothing to do with the Lib Dems but the name of the production by Thornden Operatic and Musical Society. The society aims to provide a link between Thornden School and the community but the majority of the performers were Thornden pupils. Follies is a Sondheim production and people with some experience find Sondheim challenging. At the beginning of the show I wondered how everyone would cope

Sat pm in the Toy Library in Bassett. It was quite an interesting one and thankfully there were no CSA cases or requests for rehousing (always the most difficult to deal with). Two cases were particularly unusual - one involving the way the American Embassy process visas and communicate with the public which should provide an interesting challenge and another involving the way bankers drafts can

Spent Saturday morning in the area with some activists - on the whole a very positive response. There are always some who decide that they don't like a particular policy of ours and decise not to vote for us - happily only one on Saturday and he was outnumbered by the people who said they hgad voted Tory in the past but were seriously thinking about changing because they couldn't see what the

Trenchant stuff over on Liberal Dissenter: When a Law Lord and a Labour MP can demonstrate a better grasp of liberalism and express it in forthright terms, while our parliamentary spokesman ends up batting for the opposition, what hope is there?

There is a profile of the great man in today's Observer. Thanks to Nick Barlow for the tip - I didn't buy a Sunday paper.

Damian Hockney, elected as a UKIP London Assembly member, has defected to Veritas. Although the new party has yet to be officially launched, Kilroy has appointed him deputy leader. As if the Right wasn't already split enough between UKIP and the Tories, there is now another party in the ring. This will be seriously damaging to UKIP; its effect on the Tories probably won't be seen until the

Simon Titley points us towards these words: "Now the Blair government proposes the law system of fascism and communism. The citizen can be arrested and held without charge or trial, not even on the careful consideration of an experienced judge, but the whim of a political activist called a government minister. To be protected from terror the government says, we must become a tyranny. But a tyranny is based on the citizen's terror. This is not victory; this is defeat before a shot is fired." But, no, these are ...

Wyre Forest Liberal councillor Mike Oborski recently described the so-called Standards Board for England as "plonkers". This, I now realise, is an understatement. The more I hear about this public body, the more I have come to the conclusion that it is akin to a large festering vat of rancid goat semen. I'm all for stamping out genuine corruption, but this body appears to have nothing better

The Thursday Night Jazz Session at The Village will be reborn, hopefully this week. Anyone who is interested in Jazz Standards will be welcome to sit in. I need to spend a bit of time hunting up some horns. The forms are the standard forms (preferred alternate chords in the Best Chord Changes for the Worlds Best Standards series). I will provide a rhythm section based around a Technics

Discussed plans for a potential campaign to bring our boys and girls back from Iraq. Between 700 and 800 injured members of the British Armed forces have not been visited by those in government nationally unlike the US Government. Now elections have happened there is no reason why British Troops should remain in Iraq. The tensions created merely by their presence make it clear that part of

I chaired Birmingham's Holocaust Memorial event in the Foyer of Symphony Hall today. This was an event both in memory of all atrocities and in memory of the Holocaust itself. It was very well attended with over 200 people there (the first event 5 years ago had about 20 people there). We had a Normandy Veteran and a survivor of Auschwitz speak as well as a film of what happened. It is worth

It's official: Mark Oaten is now to the right of Frederick Forsyth.

Mental Health charity Rethink (formerly the National Schizophrenia Fellowship) has called for an urgent review into the re-classification of cannabis and into the specific effects of the drug on mental health. It is something that needs to be known - by all accounts cannabis can make existing minor mental health problems much worse. Hopefully an objective intervention will make people rationally consider the risks of cannabis (or any other drug), rather than the usual dismissal of Government warnings with "well, they would say that, wouldn't they". Hopefully these calls can inform a mature debate about drug policy ...