LibDem Blogs - Archived!

There is a new article by Furedi on the Spiked website. In it he argues that academic freedom is a deeply unfashionable concept and that the threat to it comes from within the university as much as without. He points to ethics committees, learning outcomes and the fear of giving offence through one's language. This last point interests me as it chimes with my concerns about the Standards Board for England, originally posted here. Anyway, here is Furedi: That academics are expected to work within such a code, which explicitly demands that the pursuit of knowledge and expression ...

Remember The Orange Book ? I thought not, but I have posted my Liberator review of it from last autumn to Lord Bonkers' website anyway.

There is absolutely nothing funny about the photograph accompanying this story from the Shropshire Star.

The Liberal Democrats are calling on the Information Commissioner to clarify what parties can and cannot do while telephone canvassing people who have signed up for the Telephone Preference Service. It seems that both Labour and the Tories have been ringing people who had registered with the service (which is meant to stop you getting cold called by telephone), and are clinging to legal technicalities to justify it. Lib Dem canvassers have always been told to respect the wishes of TPS registered people. I await a ruling from the Information Commissioner with interest.

Most councillors are appointed by their local authorities to serve on other bodies, such as Community Associations, local charities or school governing bodies. I was (re)appointed to serve on Durham University Council in 2003. The Council is the body that officially runs the University, although on a day to day basis decisions are made by the Vice-Chancellor and his capable team. Yesterday Professor Ray Hudson gave a presentation about the Wolfson Research Institute (part of the University on the Queen's Campus at Stockton). It really is incredible. It's main thrust is on inter-disciplinary research ...

Just to let you all know, the reason I haven't had a chance to update this blog over the past few days is that I have been moving house. I am now safely installed in Bowburn, four miles outside central Durham City. My new address is 16 Tunstall Avenue, Bowburn, Durham, DH6 5EE. I will have a new phone number once BT can connect me (three weeks!).

The Tories have are talking today about the NHS. It's an important issue to many people. But when we look at what they are saying, it just doesn't stack up. Firstly, bring back Matrons to tackle MRSA. Well, slight problem here, as many hospitals have already re-introduced Matrons. North Somerset's hospital in Weston has had a Matron for a couple f years (though they still have a pretty poor record on MRSA and other hospital-acquired infections). Second, let private patients claim half the cost from the NHS. This might encourage a few extra people to go private to ...

I got about 2/3 of these correct first time. There were one or two about which I had no clue but otherwise I was pretty spot-on. I've known about this effect for sometime. In fact, I enjoy studying it and have been right in a couple of cases where the people in question look, to me at least, like long-lost brother and sister. It really does show that beauty is, indeed, in the eye of the beholder. Noticing a resemblance is very holistic and intuitive because 'resemblance' is something intangible. Out of people who I've liked who've liked me back ...

see Page 8-9 of the report For all of Labour's woffle about anti-social behaviour they continue to fund training for graffiti artists to be better graffiti artists. Extracts from the report:============================================================================Hugh Thornberry NCH Director said:"I am really impressed. What a great piece of work." Karen Stone NCH Assistant Director said:"A fantastic representation of ideas of children and young people and their creative skills." The Spray it ‘n’ Say it Report and DVD is available January 2005. Spray it ‘n’ Say it Phase 2 is currently being planned by BCF in Partnership with The Haven, LIFT Project at Welsh ...

Well - hopefully not as we have a wonderful bunch of retained firefighters and I visited them this evening. Watched a drill and then had a long chat with them and was surprised that they wanted to ask some party political questions as this was not the original intention of the visit. Very often visits to organisations can turn into a bit of a whinge session but this was certainly not the case

They invited me back because apparently they had enjoyed my talk last year. Problem is that I used a lot of my humorous stuff last year and didn't want to insult them by rehashing old anecdotes so spent some time talking about elections from an electioneering point of view and explaining why we knock on doors and phone em up. After that there was an hour of questions and I reckon they could have

According to the Telegraph my opponent has sent out 4000 Valentine cards. Have to give her credit for a wacky idea and also give her some thanks for providing us with more help and deliverers as some people didn't seem to be very amused by the stunt.

Dash to the Museum of Army Flying for the launch of Testway Housing's charity Transform. Testway Housing succeeded in gaining charitable status some time ago but, to their credit, decided that they wanted to take the charitable aspects of their work seriously. After a while it became clear that it would be useful to "brand" the charitable works so Transform was born. A very pleasant event

Went into meet some of the local staff yesterday and had a long chat about some of the problems with the job. The staff have the unenviable role of providing a report to the courts whenever there is a dispute involving contact or residence of a child. I have to say that I would not want to do their job for all the tea in China. I know they try to be professional, objective and fair but if you are