LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Splutter! Make of this what you will

Out in Bassett on Saturday - the part we were in was a bit bluer than I would have liked but there was generally a good welcome and I came across my first constituent ever who raised the thorny old issue of "site value rating" on the doorstep!! Also picked up an interesting local issue but the thing that really intrigued me was a conversation I had with a "true blue lady". She did not like the fact that Labour (and Lib Dems) wanted to spend too high a proportion of tax payers money and seemed to think that people ...

Double Standards has the latest news on the Paul Dimoldenberg case, which I discussed in my a recent House Points column: A local politician who faces disqualification after blowing the whistle on Westminster council broke new ground after winning the right to mount a public interest defence.

Trust Biggleswade Today to have the latest news: "Humiliated" MP Jonathan Sayeed is fighting for his political life after being suspended from Parliament. Mid Beds Conservative Association is holding an emergency meeting on Thursday to discuss the MP's future.

SUTTER, California (AP) -- The only grade school in this rural town is requiring students to wear radio frequency identification badges that can track their every move. Some parents are outraged, fearing it will rob their children of privacy.More details on the CNN site here. The impressive thing about the full report is the level of oppostion from parents. In Britain, you fear, they would be all in favour.

Visit Vote 2005 for all the predictions, argument and gossip about the forthcoming general election. Thanks to Paswonky's Blog for the tip.

Having led their troops up to the top of the hill to oppose our analysis of the Neighbourhood Renewal Funds Labour today recognised that we were right. The attempted an oblique assault on our proposals to give each ward a basic £50,000. When I pointed out that included would hit Oscott even harder they pulled back. Labour MPs are still trying to make something of the fact that we have put

I was dissapointed to hear about the latest news on parking in Town thanks to the shopping centre. I presume that this will not be the last we hear about the matter, and I hope that some more consultation might be carried out to allay the fears of local residents and those that rely on using the spaces that will disappear.

Lots more activity over the last weekend as we are all tremendously busy delivering the latest edition of our newspaper, the North Somerset Clarion. Already I am getting lots of positive feedback from this edition - and plenty of signatures in support of my fair police funding campaign. Did you know that if North Somerset was funded to the average level we could have twice as many police on local

FaxYourMP has been superseded by WriteToThem.com (currently in beta test). Enter your postcode and it will bring up all your elected representatives from district council level up to the European Parliament (although not parish councillors). You can then contact choose a representative and contact them for free. (Via Nick Barlow.)

Everyone seems to think that the general election will be on Thursday 5th May, but when would the election date be announced?An interesting post on Anthony Wells's excellent UK Polling Report blog argues that the timing of the royal wedding, scheduled for Friday 8th April, places the government in a dilemma.If the General Election is to be held on May 5th, Parliament must be dissolved and the writ for the General Election issued on Monday 11th April. Normally the Government will leave a day or two spare between announcing the election and the dissolution to tie up loose ends and ...

The sound of brakes being applied in the Home Office over the last few days must have been quite palpable as Charles Clarke rowed back from his illiberal and frankly, dangerous proposals to introduce house arrest for suspected terrorists. Such measures are of course the tools of totaliarianism and have no place in a democratic British society.The Home Secretary is now saying that he has "never actually used the phrase house arrest". Strictly speaking he is correct. However what he did say about these control orders is a matter of record and amounts to the same thing:"There would be a ...

On Saturday I went to the Tate Modern... Or rather, I went to the Tate Modern briefly and then walked to the Tate Britain and spent a somewhat longer time there.The Tate Modern has a very non-intuitive entrance leading into the cavernous turbine hall. It's spectacular - a huge cathedral-like industrial space... with a speaker mounted somewhere in the roof constantly looping a voice which was how I imagine a guy faking a female orgasm whilst hiccuping would sound (no idea what it was supposed to be). The ground floor has a large bookshop/shop, cafe and cloakroom behind glass doors. ...