LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Whilst Howard Flight resorts to his lawyers to try and block Michael Howard's attempt to ditch him, news comes through that Conservative Central Office is now also on a collision course with the local party in Slough as it seeks to ditch the town's second Tory PPC in less than three months. The BBC reports tonight that: Mr Howard has suspended Slough's constituency Conservative association for refusing to deselect its candidate. Adrian Hilton had suggested the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, under John Major's government, was an act of treason. Slough Conservative Association ...

I have added a link to the KickAAS blog, which campaigns for the abolition of agricultural subsidies. KickAAS emphasises the concerns of the developing world, but I have been convinced that this policy is in Britain's interests too ever since I read Graham Harvey's The Killing of the Countryside .

Jeffrey Archer says he is to appeal against his conviction for perjury and we must, of course, believe him. The BBC reports that the basis of his appeal is that allegations made against him before his trial were not disclosed to the defence. Chief among them was the claim that he had ordered a prosecution witness, his ex-employee Angela Peppiatt, to be killed and the television presenter Jill Dando was murdered by mistake. She lived close to Ms Peppiatt and drove a similar car. No doubt this claim is nonsense, but misunderstandings can occur with hitmen. The last case in ...

I dread to think what pop tune the Liberal Democrats will choose as their campaign anthem in the forthcoming general election. If the previous election is anything to go by, it will probably be another crock of shit.As John Harris reminds us in a witty article in today's Guardian G2, in 2001 the Liberal Democrats inflicted Boyzone's New Beginning on the British voters. Peter Black, in his posting earlier today, is too charitable about this choice. Personally, I would have had the party official responsible publicly horse-whipped from one end of Westminster to the other.There are, to the best of ...

Why not play LibDem Space Invaders?

What connects Big Brother contestant (and feminist) Germaine Greer; Travis front man Fran Healy; Darwinist Richard Dwawkins and his wife, former Doctor Who companion Lalla Ward?They're all voting Lib Dem This Time.

Brian Eno, one of the most influential men in pop, today launches a campaign to encourage some of Britain's key cultural figures to vote Liberal Democrat. The former Roxy Music member and producer is determined to help break the "rut" of two-party politics, he told the Evening Standard. The campaign is centred on Eno's new website which is asking potential Liberal Democrat voters to publicly commit to the party this election - and encourage more and more voters to do so in time for 5 May. The core group of supporters for Eno's plan include Sir Peter Hall, Travis singer ...

Although the Evening Mail and Radio WM are interested in this story, the editor of www.icbirmingham.co.uk declined to publish the article about Weddings in The Council House. The City Council has decided to allow people to have civil ceremonies in The Council House. They have been allowed at Highbury for some time. However, the Charities Commission are bouncing up and down about what happens at

While in Scotland I visited Banff. The town has many fine buildings, some of which bear plaques recording their restoration by the Banff Preservation Society. One of our party made the happy discovery that it is possible to sing "This is the Banff Preservation Society" to the tune of the song "This is the Self-Preservation Society" from The Italian Job. Perhaps you had to be there.

John Harris' piece in today's Guardian is a wonderfully wry look at how political parties utilise popular music to set the tone of their campaign. I have been racking my brain to remember the music used by the SDP in the 1980s to herald the arrival of their cavalcades during by-elections. I suspect that it was "Fanfare for the common man" but no doubt I will be corrected. Either way it created an atmosphere of excitement at open air events that has rarely been matched in my experience. Those were the days when the mould of British politics was going ...

A traditional pre-election Easter weekend was spent delivering leaflets, designing leaflets and planning campaigns. Don't tell anyone, but I had Good Friday and Easter Sunday off from politics (though I did finish some election leaflet designs on Sunday). Otherwise, it was wall-to-wall delivering (and a book sale in Clevedon) throughout. The weather was glorious and perfect for convincing the

Jonathan King has been released from prison after serving 3 years of a 7 year sentence. Following his release, Mr King confirmed that he will be standing as a Tory Candidate for Arundel and South Downs, following Howard Flight's sacking last week. "As a total pervert, Jonathan will fit right in with the Conservatives", said Tory leader Michael Howard, "as long as he doesn't mention public sector

I heard about the second strike near Sumatra whilst at a fundraising event in Birmingham organised by Islamic Relief entitled "An Evening of Inspiration". The event was interesting as a musical crossover between traditional south Asian pentatonic scales and the normal western duodecaphonic scales. The end result for one number by 786 was a form of mixture between traditional nasheed and the

Varying responses but the one I found was "Two - one to hold the giraffe and another to fill a bathtub with brightly coloured machine tools".What prompted this?Well... I was finishing the last Liberty Belle picture for the inside of the guide (I'm doing the front cover today) and sent the previous two to my co-editors with the note "I've nearly finished the last one but it's missing a Scales of Justice and a fish". It occurred to me this sounded rather odd, infact, rather like a "How many surrealists..." joke.I went to my parent's for the weekend where I, ...