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There is an article in the Guardian today by Natasha Walter that chimes with what I was saying about the Channel 4 programme X-Rated: The TV They Tried to Ban the other day: When everything has been said and everything has been shown, being explicit is simply too easy; being sexy is the difficult thing.The ubiquity of sex (though not in Market Harborough) has other effects too. In schools, for instance, the insistence upon children knowing more and more at younger and younger ages makes sex education seem less like a liberation than another imposition of the National Curriculum. It ...

I was thinking about this post, because when you Google my name, I appeared somewhere on the second page. Noting how Google was giving me some higher ratings, I felt a post with my actual name in it might push me above this person, but today when I went to check where I appeared I found myself top anyway.

Today's BMI hearing looked in more detail about the Nickelby Bag. This was a bag of postal votes where the local election ballots were in their envelopes, but hundreds of white European Ballots were merely chucked in with an elastic band. The European Ballots were clearly disqualified (although I think they may have been counted as well) because they were not in the postal vote envelopes. The postal votes should have been in a sealed ballot box. As with Bordesley and Springfield, however, votes were carried around in all sorts of containers. In Springfield there were ...

Yesterday's Plenary had a distinctly anti-social air to it as members asserted themselves against the monolithic government. First off was Tory AM, David Melding demanding more commitment to public art: David Melding: First Minister, would you not go further and confirm that Wales has a wonderful tradition of community involvement in art? Look at the work of the late great sculptor, Jonah Jones, for instance, being representative of many of the artists that the nation has produced over the years. When we are talking about substantial regeneration, and the moneys involved, we ought to have, as part of ...

Rather bizarre and noisy today as the chamber was rather fuller than it has been in recent weeks (anyone would think there might be an important vote or two later today). Howard was at his most bullish and aggressive and the Tories were lapping it up but Tony Blair was excelling in his Cheshire Cat impression. Just what he has to be quite so horribly smug about is completely beyond me.

Just thought I had better explain why politicians had an air of the "traffic police" about them during International Development Questions and PMQs today. The white arm bands were to highlight the "Make Poverty History" campaign.

A busy day after work yesterday as I travelled all around the constituency. First stop Clevedon to collect several thousand Clarion newspapers for delivery elsewhere. Next to Portishead to see our branch chairman and supply additional leaflets. Then down to Wrington to address the AGM of the Wrington & Winford Branch of the Lib Dems.Left Wrington for Long Ashton to drop off some Clarions and discuss recruitment issues with our membership secretary. Arrived back home in Kenn just before 10pm.Even in the dark, North Somerset really is a wonderful area ...

As promised (and requested, amazingly), here's the speech I gave to LibDem conference on Sunday about the Government's plans for control orders. Already Charles Clarke has accepted some of these criticisms and announced concessions. This speech is especially recommended for regular readers Alan, Simon and Nick.“No freeman shall be arrested or imprisoned or disseised or outlawed or exiled or in any way harmed. Nor will we proceed against him, or send others to do so, except according to the lawful sentence of his peers and according to the Common Law.” Nearly eight hundred years ago, King John signed those ...

........ I've always wanted to say that, and got my chance yesterday evening when we launched the Local e-Democracy National Project in the Wellcome Wing of the Science Museum. Julian Bowrey, Local e-Government manager from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, kicked off the speeches by explaining how he wants e-democracy to fit into the wider agenda of reviving local democracy. The ODPM is heavily promoting neighbourhoods - something we pioneered in Kingston 11 years ago. Julian and I then played a computer game rather publicly against some young people - and we lost of course. ...

The Green Party in Swansea have announced that they will not share a platform with any BNP candidate who stands in the City in the General Election. I fully understand their reasons and their revulsion. However, if we do not confront the misinformed and prejudiced arguments put forward by this party head-on then they will win by default. In a democratic process we cannot rely on people to

The IRA have offered to make amends to the family of murder victim, Robert McCartney, by executing his killers. They just don't get it do they?

Ieuan Wyn Jones yesterday challenged the First Minister to say who was running the Welsh Health Service:"We have now heard that it is Peter Hain who is in charge of the health service in Wales. Who's in charge, is it Hain or is it Morgan?"His cry has been taken up by the Western Mail this morning, or was it Ieuan echoing that papers own stories:Mr Morgan hit back, saying none of Mr Jones's claims was true."The number of times I have told you, don't believe everything you read in the Western Mail," he said."I often wonder who runs Plaid Cymru ...

The Soham murders in 2002 were depressing, not just because of the tragic deaths of two children, but also because of the appalling vigilante bloodlust unleashed by the tabloids. It turns out that lynch mobs are not the only evidence these murders provided of how thin a veneer our civilisation is.On Monday's Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4, Kevin Wells, father of one of the murdered girls, was interviewed following the publication of his book Goodbye, Dearest Holly. (You can listen to the broadcast online here).Three things struck me about this interview. The first, a notable trend in media interviews ...

Just as we are struggling to join up all our services to young people, Minnesota is forcing them apart. Spotted this courtesy of Scott Neal who visited us in Kingston recently.