LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Managed to catch the end of the Surestart centre launch at Hardmoor School. Surestart has had a bit of a mixed press but there have been some good projects in Southampton and it was heartening that all of the health professionals seemed very positive about the joint working that is such a feature of the school. It seemed odd to recall that when I was first elected Hardmoor was under threat of

Had asked to address the meeting of the Schools Organisation Committee who were voting on the future of Ampfield School today. I was mindful of the fact that Alan Dowden is in Australia and felt there ought to be a political representative there. In fact Martin Hatley (COnservative councillor) also spoke and we were both at pains not to make party political points. It was an extremely

Was supposed to be in the BBC studios at 7 in Southampton this morning so flew into a complete panic when I was awoken by my pager (even on vibrate they make a horrid noise when left on wooden furniture). Naturally assumed that I had overslept but it was an alert from Solent that there had been new stories overnight so were moving me to another day. That's politics for you.

After a bit of a rummage I have found the website of the Iraq Elections Commission It is ironic that the website of the Iraqi government is part of the US Embassy domain. It was almost inevitable that in any election which has any validity that the party backed by the Mujtahids would win. The difference now in Iraq is that the concept of Vilayet i Faqih is not seen as necessarily being the core

Just to explain the situation with Mike Whitby's Vodaphone Shares. Councillors (and MPs) need to declare "pecuniary interests" where they may be influenced by a conflict of interest between their own personal finances and those of the common good. As far as shares go a "pecuniary interest" or "prejudicial interest" is defined as having shares with a nominal or face value of 25K or over 1% of

Here is today's House Points column from Liberal Democrat News. It owes something to an earlier posting on this blog. Simon Titley has also taken up the cause, but I did not feel Lib Dem News was ready for a phrase like "a large festering vat of rancid goat semen". Fighting talk ‘Labour came to power pledged to wage war on sleaze. In part because the last days of John Major’s government made Sodom and Gomorrah looks like genteel Cotswold villages. But more because there was little to differentiate them from the Tories on policy and they ...

Never expect to see any of these chaps/ladies at the cinema...

In order to help inform myself when considering how the Council's rules could best be changed to improve council debates and help get better public involvement at meetings I've been contacting councillors on authorities that do things differently. Councillor Louise Alexander (Tower Hamlets) has helpfully written a blog post on public involvment at Tower Hamlets Borough. I've also had a useful reply from a Labour councillor in Westminster. Some people are often surprised that members of different parties do work together, but that is one of the real strengths of the scrutiny systems - members from different ...

Is here. There are three folders - one of general bits of artwork I've photographed, one of the Liberty Belle cartoons and another one in which I'm going to put any bits of life drawing practice (so that anyone who doesn't want to look at it doesn't have to). Nope, I'm not the next Michelangelo... :( But it's fun, relaxing, creative and it keeps me out of trouble.

Reportable infectious diseases and food poisonings 1999-2004199920002001200220032004Campylobacter*121912741209957857832Cholera121000Cryptosporidium*9383299444Diphtheria000000Dysentery63998134S.Sonnei24251520other Shigella29231532Encelphalitis (I)000000Encelphalitis (PI)000000Food Poisoning667478204198192145Salmonella182183173243VTEC (0157)16488Hansen's Disease000010Hepatitis A484541824246Hepatitis

I may not like the government, but I'm not blind to the good things that they do. Using the chair of the G8 to further third world debt relief is a good thing, for example. However, it is disappointing to see it being blocked by the US. Their opposition to it seems to be largely that they don't gain. This is almost as selfish as Bush saying that he won't do anything about Kyoto if it means 'even one American job is lost'. It's a massive failure to see the big picture, but that's current US politics for you.

So we have announced a 2.8% Council Tax increase (lowest in the Metropolitan Region) and also an additional £30 Million plus for Social Care. We also have set our sights on sorting out the problems in Housing. I think there is now a general recognition that we mean what we say when we talk about sorting out the problems in Birmingham.

The Freedom of Information Act is becoming a valuable tool in the armoury of journalists and politicians to find out what is going on. As a matter of interest I have now had the reply to a written question detailing the information requests received by the Assembly Parliamentary Service in the first month of the Act's operation. These include requests for: The number of complaints made against Ministers. Correspondence between the Presiding Officer and third parties. Names of individuals who have dined with the Presiding Officer at taxpayer's expense. Information relating to Scarweather Sands. Number of warnings ...

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that Tory AM, David Davies, has an Enid Blyton fixation. This would certainly explain his decsription this morning of a Labour General Election campaign pack as a "Noddy File". The Western Mail describes this pack as "An astonishing idiot's guide to general election campaigning, which treats Labour candidates like children." It goes on to describe this important campaigning tool as containing letters, press releases and telephone scripts for the party's election hopefuls, telling them just to fill in the blank spaces left for their own names and constituencies. Somehow David ...

More art tutorial stuff here. I'm going to start putting my various practices (mostly crummy) and compositions online. My main project currently is the illustrations for 'The Little Yellow Book: A young person's guide to Liberal Democracy' for which I'm drawing a character called Liberty Belle who is a sorta manga-looking little girl in a voluminous yellow cowl necked jumper, large orange sneakers and sticking up ginger plaits (inspired by a character called 'Winnie Lucy Atwell' who used to appear on calendars in my mum's childhood. Never seen 'Winnie Lucy Atwell' and I can't find a link ...

A long, hard day of campaigning in Portishead yesterday - and worth it - as we gained a seat on North Somerset Council from the Conservatives. I am hugely pleased with the result. Mike Johnston, our candidate for district, will make an outstanding councillor and will add real strength to our deliberations. It was a clean and fair contest, fought largely on the issues and our increased share of

I have been asked my views on Veritas. The temptation is to simply mock - and there is plenty about Mr Kilroy-Silk that deserves to be mocked. But there are two particularly concerning aspects about Veritas. Generally, I welcome new political parties. Choice in elections is important, and with the Conservative and Labour parties so similar now, that choice was in danger of becoming sterile.