LibDem Blogs - Archived!

The Sayeed saga, which we followed here, appears to have come to an end with the news that Jonathan Sayeed is to stand down as MP for Mid Bedfordshire on health grounds. Stop sniggering at the back. So there is time for one last extract from the website of The English Manner, the company that Sayeed was involved with. Here are the details of its course The Final Touch: Today we will learn how to walk, how to sit and stand, and how to get in and out of a car. Lectures throughout give vital information on ...

There's a headline you don't see every day. In the unlikely event that you want them, the juicy details are here. I think this would be a good place to add the word "allegedly". Meanwhile, the Shropshire Star reports that: A Shropshire father today hit out at allegations that his teenage son filmed New Zealand cricket star Daryl Tuffey having sex with a woman.We'll see what the South Shropshire Journal has to say at the end of the week.

If you do visit the Vote 2005 site, you will find the following contribution on page 7 of the Hereford discussion: Thank you to the people in Hereford who are part of the effort against the terrorists. If we LOSE against the terrorists, do you suppose a rural area such as Herefordshire would be immune? Look at Chernobyl. Just by an accident, an area larger than the UK was poisened (sic.) Don't you suppose it would be hugely more serious if they did it on purpose? Terrorist designs on Ross-on-Wye and Abbey Dore? It sounds rather extreme. But is ...

Simon Titley on Liberal Dissenter has posted a useful guide to websites devoted to the forthcoming general election. One of the ones he lists is Vote 2005, which I mentioned here a while ago. It takes the form of a bulletin board, with a separate discussion devoted to each constituency. Some of these discussion are already on their fifth or sixth page; goodness knows how many there will be by the end of the campaign. These discussions are divided into regions. Whenever a new posting is made, the discussion containing it goes to the top of that region's list. The ...

I have been giving much thought lately to the subject of euroscepticism in Britain. I've come to the conclusion that a major cause is a factor ignored by the political pundits. It is that many British people, especially younger people, regard Europe as somewhere rather naff.Mention Europe to the chattering classes and they think of the Tuscan hills. Mention Europe to many young people and they think of the Cheeky Girls. This view of Europe was captured expertly in the Fast Show's pastiche of a Mediterranean TV station, Chanel 9 ("Buono estente!").These prejudices will be reinforced as another edition of ...

We reviewed the issue relating to Library Assistants today. Unison are currently running a postal ballot on whether or not the Library Assistants wish to accept a proposal of a tax-free payment for a change in terms and conditions. Our view is that we will respect the decision of the Library Assistants. If they decide to reject the proposal then we will not force them to accept it.

As a special service to readers of this blog, here is your handy cut-out-and-keep guide to election websites.The forthcoming general election is already generating a torrent of web content. In practice, and unless you like reading self-serving propaganda, there are few sites of any real value.If you bookmark only one election website, it should be Election 2005, a portal recently set up by Richard Kimber at my Alma Mater, the University of Keele. Here in one place are links to all the sites you're likely to need during the campaign. Some of you may already be familiar with Kimber's well-established ...

So the Tories have decided to raise the issue of abortion.Peter Black posted on this topic yesterday, and correctly identified this as part and parcel of the Tory appeal to its own core vote. While the Tories' overall strategy is producing results, this particular tactic is unlikely to work.Abortion seems a curious topic to emphasise, even if one were aiming only at the hardline Tory core vote, since (unlike in the USA) the issue is largely settled in Britain. And, as the BBC reports, Howard has chosen to unveil his policy in Cosmopolitan, not one suspects the magazine of choice ...

this sort of thing really bothers me. After their cunning email campaign to try to make sure that they enforced their narrow views on all of us by stopping the BBC showing 'Jerry Springer: The Opera' failed, loony right-wing facist-style Christian groups haven't given up. Not content with making death threats against BBC staff, they [...]

The latest issue of Liberator arrived this morning full of interesting little anecdotes. Liberator is an independent liberal magazine, which 'acts as a forum for debate among radical liberals in all parties and none.' One of the articles has given me ammunition for a quick pop quiz. Which pillar of the Welsh establishment and member of the National Assembly for Wales, wrote in Liberator in 1976 that parliament was "at best the eunuch of capitalism"? Clearly, his more radical days are behind him. In the meantime if you want a laugh, read the magazine's "Lord Bonkers' Diary" on-line here. I ...

After nearly a month of searching, I have found a 105! Now to pick up the 106, 107 and 108 that have taunted me around Edinburgh for long. In other news, Dominic Tristram has a brief review of the new Who. It is somewhat more positive than the even briefer review I received by text message from my brother, whose expletive I shan't repeat here.

Another action weekend and another round of leaflet deliveries. This weekend the team went to Backwell, Clevedon and Easton-in-Gordano. Not sure how many we managed to deliver this time, as after hours and hours of work, you begin to lose track of quantities, but certainly well into the thousands. The various petitions (Portishead rail campaign, axe the council tax and NHS funding) in the latest

I had forgotten this story from our weekend Conference but was reminded of it by the Western Mail's coverage this morning. At the rally on Friday night, Jenny Randerson AM, told the assembled members that Mike German's main value to the group was as a technician. At the fortnightly telephone conference meeting with the Westminster Parliamentarians, it is always Mike who ends up fixing the conferencing equipment. This is largely a self-nominated role and of course, it is not Mike's only value to us. In any case the Assembly's telephone conferencing equipment is knackered and we now hold these meetings ...

On Friday night I had an hour or two to kill. Having heard all the fuss that the first episode of the new Dr Who had been leaked onto the Internet I had to give in and have a look for myself. The verdict? Well, I thought it was pretty good actually. I won't say [...]

I've become sort of an expert on the parties email service having help set up and manage in the background over 50 lists. It has been a steep learning curve. So many things happen when list owners tweak the settings without quite knowing what they are doing. I'm always onhand to help when things go wrong. Last Thursday 10th March, the Lib Dem e-campaigns newsletter on the parties e-list server