LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Here is today's House Points column from Liberal Democrat News. The first sentence was dropped in the printed version for reasons of space. Losing our liberties This is how we lose our liberties in Britain. At half past three on Monday the Commons settled down to debate the timetable motion on the Prevention of Terrorism Bill – the measure that will bring in house arrest. The motion allowed six hours of debate for the bill and the more than 160 amendments that had been put down. A rushed programme? No, insisted the junior home office minister Hazel Blears, ...

I have found a new source of Shropshire stories: the South Shropshire Journal . It promises to outdo the dear old Shropshire Star in offering la Shropshire profonde. I have a personal interest in the first story from this new source in that I sometimes go walking in the Shropshire hills. If all is as it is reported here - a rider you have to add even with Shropshire newspapers - then this is a good example of how an exaggerated concern for safety can end us making us less safe. The best is the enemy of ...

I've lived in Hook for over 30 years, and the rebuilding of the Library and Community Centre is one of the most exciting projects we have had in the area in all that time. It will be a landmark building which will house a new library and learning centre, a cafe and loos (meeting a long-time need), a creche, a small meeting hall, advice suite for CAB and other providers, and a recording studio. This is how Hook Library and Community Centre looked in January. And this is what the site looked like today. ...

The Labour Assembly Government are doing a good job yet again in demonstrating how writing manifestos on the back of an envelope does not lead to good governance. The Western Mail this morning reports that Labour are letting down the most vulnerable people in society by failing to deliver its key election pledge to provide free home care to disabled people.Documents released to the paper show that the policy has not been introduced because of a failure to agree on a definition of the word "disabled". The Assembly Government plans to organise an extensive consultation exercise on it later this ...

John Hemming is providing interesting and informative up-dates on his blog of the special election courts investigating alleged widescale abuse of the postal voting system in Birmingham at the last local elections. The details in this Telegraph report however, are frankly shocking. No doubt further information will come out as the court cases continue.The whole situation has huge and serious ramifications for the forthcoming General Election, as well as for the future of the postal voting regime as it is currently structured. It is also a condemnation of a Labour Government that rushed into implementing postal voting experiments, whilst ...

Makes a change from the Birmingham reports I suppose. For all of Jerry Hayes' attempts to smear the Lib Dems yesterday I can find no coverage.This report in the Birmingham Post looks at some of the potential ramifications from Bordesley.It remains a question with me as to who told the police that what happened on the Wyrlie Industrial Estate was lawful.

The poster is finished, submitted (1/2 an hour before it needed to go to the graphics department) and I'm just worrying incase it'll come out on A0 alright. Oh, and the fact I still have to do all the numerous preparatory tasks I didn't do yesterday...In the meantime, here is a very nice recipe for vegetarian chilli loosely remembered from the Times on Sunday Style supplement. Ingredients are for a single portion.Take 2-3 sticks of celery, 2/3 of a pepper, a small red onion, 1/3 of a fresh chilli, some parsley and a garlic clove. Chop finely and gently stir ...

Liberator 301 - out now! The conference edition of Liberator magazine will be available from Liberator's stall at the Liberal Democrat party conference in Harrogate this weekend.Highlights include:An analysis of last year's Euro elections by Professor Michael Steed, which suggests that the Lib Dems need to put more effort into urban areas.A first-hand report by Peta Bies of the Dutch radical liberal party D66, of the political fallout from the last year's murder of controversial film-maker Theo van Gogh.An attack by Andrew Toye on Lib Dem right-wingers' elevation of 'choice' above all other considerations in the public services, and the ...

Off the Record is currently shot in the Cinnamon Club which is quite a nice venue and there is usually time for a coffee while we are waiting to record. Was shocked to learn that the bill on a previous occasion was apparently approx £150 fo 10 cups of coffee (I find this hard to believe and wondered whether this included a charge for room hire as well). So, get this - we eventually had some tea

Yet another pre-record. This time the subject was health and I was on with David Amess and Martin Salter. Neither of them are shy and retiring violets but I have shared platforms with each of them before and lived to tell the tale but I can honestly say that this programme ranked as one of the most surreal I have ever done and I am not sure whether David paused for breath throughout the whole

Thursday night and I settle down to watch This Week on BBC1. It's the best political programme on television, I often tell people. Andrew Neil and the Michael Portillo/Denise Abbot double act. Unbeatable. Not tonight. They had a feature on house arrest, taking the angle that the general public don't see what all the fuss is about. A legitimate approach. But who did they choose to put the view of the man in the street. Paul Ross. Paul Ross??? It is hard to think of anyone who is less in touch with ordinary people. Ross speaks in ...