LibDem Blogs - Archived!

The Tory general election strategy is quite simple, really. 1. Reduce the overall turnout by making people feel pissed off about politics and politicians. 2. Increase the turnout of your own core supporters by playing the fear card. That's basically it (although Nick Cohen explains it in more detail in his Observer column). This election will be determined more than anything else by turnout.

Whittington the cat is back.......

Tim Worstall has posted his latest round up of the best of British blogging here.

Vidal is always good value, and this interview is no exception: I'd say the downward skid certainly began with Reagan. I came across a comment recently, someone asking why we had gone into both Grenada and Panama, two absolutely nothing little countries who were no danger to us, minding their own business, and we go in and conquer them. Somebody said, well, we did it because we could. That's the attitude of our current rulers.Thanks to Charlotte Street for the tip.

By popular demand, if only in the cat world, Susan Kramer's cat Whittington is writing a diary of the forthcoming general election campaign. You can find it here. Susan Kramer will be the Liberal Democrat candidate in the Richmond Park constituency, which is currently held by another Lib Dem woman, Jenny Tonge. I helped Whittington write what has a claim to be the first British political blog when Susan stood in the first London Mayoral campaign.

An article in the Observer draws my attention to an interesting website being run by Channel Four. It purports to cut through the party political propaganda so as to give us the real facts. It can be found here. I am sure that it will prove a popular destination for voters and party hacks alike in the next five weeks. One of the articles on this site provides more information for my post from 1 April on Tory advertising and their propensity to score own goals. In adverts in local papers the Conservatives are claiming that the number of violent ...

We have been entertaining my mother for a few days so I have been a bit out of it as far as the forthcoming General Election goes. Anyway, it now looks like the Prime Minister will be going to the Palace on Tuesday, which will at least put paid to the current phoney war. During the course of conversation an old cold remedy was mentioned, which I feel compelled to share. Apparently, you take an onion, peel it, put it into a microwave on full power for three minutes and then add a knob of butter before consuming it. ...

Last night, BBC FOUR made an admirable attempt to resurrect live TV drama. Sadly, The Quatermass Experiment wasn't very successful. I can't post a full review as I got bored very quickly and turned it off.

To me the most interesting aspect of the late Pope's Reign was the direct support of the Vatican for political change in Poland. I can understand and sympathise with, however, his lack of support for Communism and also pure self-interested materialistic capitalism. I haven't issued a statement myself. For the City Council that is done by the Lord Mayor and for the party that is done by Charles

Amid today's media deification of the late Pope, there's a very good critique of the Catholic church from an Irish Catholic perspective by Malachi O'Doherty in today's Observer. The article is succinctly titled The Pope they loved but could not obey. O'Doherty argues that the Pope's long reign has deferred debate about fundamental doctrinal issues and that some sort of schism between the Western

Last night was The End of the World. On first viewing, I thought it was excellent but it didn't really engage me. I've watched it again today and enjoyed it much more. Billie Piper continues to shine as Rose. The use of Britney's Toxic as incidental music worked surprisingly well - disappointing they didn't opt for Because [...]

So Tony Blair is going to delay announcing the election until Tuesday, so he can attend a service in memory of the Pope. I, for one, will be so relieved when we actually get this election underway for real.

The Pope was a complex person. He was an internationalist, and a staunch defender of human rights and economic justice. He is credited with being one of the key figures in the ending of the Cold War. He opposed the war in Iraq and the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. And yet he was ultra-conservative on issues like contraception, the prevention of HIV, abortion, the position of women, and married priests . He did not handle the child abuse issues in the church particularly well. It just shows that it is not always easy to pigeon-hole ...

Question What are there 33 of in the body? Answer (apparently) vertebrae. Should I be worried by the fact that very few of the doctors present at this quiz seemed to know the answer to this particular question?

I have followed some of the coverage of Pope John Paul II with interest. I can remember the excitement of his early years (not my own - but I know that others were) when he toured the world and his charisma was very apparent. We were watching the news coverage last night and my daughter (23) had a different perspective as she could only remember him as a very old and frail man so she was very

Like Simon Titley I found the coverage of the last days of the Pope's life ghoulish. It is almost as if being a major public figure deprives you of the dignity and the privacy you should be entitled to during a terminal illness. For that reason I have tried to avoid watching the news in too much detail recently. As somebody who was brought up as a Catholic but who moved away from the church for political and theological reasons, I have mixed feelings about the reign of Pope John Paul II. Now that he is dead we will move ...

Don't you feel sorry for Charles Clarke? According to a BBC report today, The home secretary has said he fears the government will be forced to drop controversial crime plans as it gears up for the election.However, rest assured that it is not the government's fault. Charles Clarke told the Observer he would blame the opposition if plans for ID cards and to outlaw incitement to religious hatred

The passing of Pope John Paul II has certainly provoked a mixture of emotions. To those that knew what he had done for the world, it has created an immense sadness that we have lost such a revolutionary figure. As a Roman Catholic myself, this is a very sad and strange event. As the BBC have been constantly emphasising, today's youth do not remember any other Pope. This includes myself. The Pope was the first ever leader of the Catholic Church to apologise for the mistakes made by the organisation, and this earned the respect of ...

Well, I'm trying to capture a sense of mood anyway... I went leafletting yesterday in Bristol West with Alex from BULD. It took me about an hour to walk to the HQ, I did a few hours leafletting and then went home via the supermarket to do my grocery shop. Since I was leafletting way out beyond the Downs, I had to walk back home via the top of Whiteladies Road which was a financial disaster since it meant passing Hockney's art shop. I wandered in on passing and saw some oil bars (which I've read about but never seen). ...

Wake up at 4.30am in the morning head spinning with all the things I should have said in the interview and all the things I could have put better. Isn't it always thus?