LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Today I spent a few hours doing some analysis for the Election Courts which happen over the next 4 weeks. Gradually the true evidence is being provided by people such as the police, the CPS and the returning officer. I cannot reveal anything about that here as it will have to wait until the court. There is, however, a lot of evidence of various sorts. One aspect I can talk about is the

Surprise, surprise. Britain has another food scare.359 products have been removed from supermarket shelves today after it was discovered that they had been contaminated with an illegal food dye called 'Sudan 1'. The Food Standards Agency's official list reveals that most of the affected products are 'ready meals'.'Sudan 1' is a red dye used for colouring solvents, oils and waxes, and is banned for use in foodstuffs throughout the EU.Supermarket spin doctors will have been hard at work this evening stressing that everything is under control and that there's no need to worry. Technically speaking, they're right. The risk from ...

Shattered at the end of a very long day at the end of a rather busy week (and I have more work tomorrow...) However one real bright spot today was receiving an update email from the YWCA Respect Young Mums Campaign aiming to get a better deal for pregnant teenagers and teenaged mums. It was very heartening to find that the YWCA is managing to raise this as an issue with politicians, councils and the media. Reading some of the stories of young mums on the campaign website is very humbling. Teenagers shouldn't be written off ...

Conservative MP Jonathan Sayeed has survived an attempt to deselect him in a row over allegations he had profited from private tours of Parliament ... On Thursday night he won a vote of confidence by 173 to 126 votes at a constituency party meeting in Mid-Bedfordshire. Constituency president Sir Stanley Odell resigned in protest. reports the BBC. Meanwhile the authoritative voice of Biggleswade Today makes it clear that the of disquiet in the local party goes well beyond Sir Stanley. Does anyone have Martin Bell's phone number?

Here is today's House Points column from Liberal Democrat News. Voices over Labour is fighting the general election with verbless slogans like “Forward not backwards” and “Your children with the best start." Soon people will not be able to speak at all – quite possibly in my lifetime. How different from the nineteenth century! Then thousands of working men would stand in the rain for two or three hours to listen to Mr Gladstone. Lately I have been taking solace from listening to him myself. It is possible. The other day I went to the bookshop at the ...

It seems that plans to 'open up the postal service to competition' have been brought forward 15 months. Great. Does anyone actually think that this is a good idea? Even the most rampantly capitalist country on Earth (the US) wouldn't privatise its Post Office - this is one of those rare occasions where they actually have the right idea.People moan about the Royal Mail, but just how will it get better if there is competition? The only way that you can post a letter that will arrive anywhere in the UK the next day is because the routes that make ...

Another day, another protest against airport expansion.This time, it's local protesters in Essex who are making the headlines. They have won a High Court ruling giving them a say in expansion plans for Stansted Airport.There is no doubt that airport expansion is disruptive, in terms of the land it takes, the temporary annoyance caused during construction work and the long-term effects of increased flights and the associated road traffic.The fact that we have these endless protests merely illustrates that British transport policy is a mess. For example, had we developed a new high-speed rail network at the same time as ...

The academics have struck again, this time with a public opinion survey of British citizens' use of the Internet and political representation. The results can be found here but their main conclusions are: The numbers accessing and contacting parliament and MPs online are small and are mainly drawn from traditionally engaged and active citizens.There are high public expectations for more online

The ban on hunting with hounds comes into force today. If I had been in Parliament, I would have supported the ban as I think the argument for it to be banned has been proven. That said, it would not have been my highest priority and I am dismayed at the amount of political time, energy and money that has been expended on bringing forward this legislation. I also support the right of those who wish to see hunting continue to protest against the legislation. Living in a democracy is all about arguing your case and trying to persuade a ...

The Guardian reports that the Prime Minister has eschewed spin and the normal tools of political debate during elections in favour of a new softer, more cuddly Tony. Out go the battlebuses, mass party rallies and playing political chess with Jeremy Paxman. In Labour's view such things are relics of how politics used to be played out. Instead Tony will be spending more time with the likes of

I don't know, I come home after a long hard slog exploring smoke-free Ireland only to find that the world as we know it is changing for good. It seems that Nestlé is to replace the traditional cardboard tube that holds smarties with a new-look hexagonal tube complete with a re-sealable flip-top lid on which the familiar lettering on the lid is to be replaced by constantly updated, quirky messages,