LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Matthew Turner points out the great man's place in history.

They were out in force in Valley Park this morning but it was not clear what exactly they were up to. The stickers on vehicles gave it away but they left the pro hunting rhetoric behind when they hit the streets. I have to say that Valley Park is an intersting area for them to target - particularly when the Lib Dem vote seems really strong.

Yes, he is a constituent, but by now you will have realise that this is not an uncommon name. Interesting chat and an interesting issue to pursue.

In the past the party ahs sometimes been accused (not always fairly) of not looking after their candidates emotional wellbeing. 2005 is a different beast. As a female candidate I have received my lilac coloured Gender Balance Task Force Teddy Bear (now sitting on the lap of the teddy wearing colours of the Joint Specialist Language college) and Friday's post contained a jiffy bag labelled "only to

An interesting day out talking to "real" people - sometimes get a little shaken by the fact that (going by previous election results) there are several thousand Conservative votes out there and am occasionally a little shaken when I come across what we refer to as a "hard Tory" It goes something like this "Hello, I'm SG blah... is there anything you would like to ask... "You're wasting your

The doctorvee blog has picked up my posting from earlier today about the apparent threat to use an Asbo to curb free speech. Someone has posted this comment there: As I said, these things are open to abuse - but until you’ve had your house broken into 8 times within a year (and I have!) by the same smackheads - it’s easy to take a flippant approach.Can I respectfully point out that breaking and entering has always been a crime and ask how banning free speech in a Wiltshire village will deter smackheads?

A few people have been contacting me with different comments about the campaign. Mostly the comments have been really positive. I think what is impressing people is that our team is clearly enjoying the campaign and its true- we are! One lady felt that my post on Michael Howard was "ageist". At first I wondered if she might be right, but it was not his age that I was thinking of, it was the health rumours and of course the fact that Tories themselves were saying until quite recently that he was something of a caretaker. Having re-read my post, ...

Online election poll on Yahoo's Election 2005 site.Lib Dems currently trailing at 10%. You know your duty.

Spent several hours out and about in Wycombe with our Paliamentary Candidate James Oates this morning. Our local party president commented that we enjoyed the most positive response that we could remember in 30 years of campaigns in this town. There's a real feeling of a big shift in support from all the people we talked to. In particular, we met many people who had voted Labour in 2001 who didn't feel that they could do so this time. We also saw a few Labour activists gamely handing out leaflets for Julia Wassell. They seemed very 'heads-down' and I got ...

A very pleasant morning talking to people in High Wycombe town centre. By the action of Murphy's Law, of course one of the people we stopped was, it turned out, the sitting member's wife together with small baby son. She was charming, and as friendly as everyone else we spoke to today- it was quite amusing and I look forward to meeting up as the campaign goes ahead. Elections are about issues and we can disagree on issues intelligently without things becoming a personal slanging match. Later we came across the Labour campaign team. The Labour supporters were friendly, although ...

I drive a little MG sports car. It is the third in a line which started just after I first passed my test when I had the use of a little MG Midget. I have always had a love of fresh-air motoring and a keen sense of British motoring heritage. So, as you can imagine, the placing of MG Rover into administration I view with great sadness. However, I also view it with great anger. The "Phoenix Four" appear to have plundered the company for their own greed- I recall last year a member of the BMW board publicly criticizing ...

Today's Guardian reveals that Antisocial Behaviour Orders, or the threat of them, are now being used to threaten free speech: A man who published jokes about the Pope's death on a spoof village website was yesterday threatened with an antisocial behaviour order.Read the full story here.

I have come to the conclusion that Robert Mugabe is on contract to the TV programme Candid Camera.He has been signed up to produce a long-running sketch for the revitalised show, whereby he appears at important events such as state funerals, weddings and official visits and then insists on shaking the hand of some dignitary, who in normal circumstances would not be seen within 100 miles of the obnoxious dictator.For days afterwards the news media will be full of stories about how embarrassed the victim of this particular stunt is, how he or she was put in an impossible situation, ...

I have now been a candidate 6 times. Each time all the national pressure groups send out mailshots with their manifestos. This, of course, is the busiest time in the year so I have no time to read any of them and they go straight into the recycling. I mentioned this to someone who worked for a pressure group once and they explained how much work (and trees) went into this each year. A complete

An excellent article in the Yorkshire Post (5th April) by Michael Meadowcroft, on the matter of postal voting and electoral fraud.Michael points out that election courts are exceptionally rare in Britain but that we face the prospect of dozens of them after this general election, as systematic fraud is uncovered in marginal seats.He also concludes that the Electoral Commission is a waste of space.In the light of all the evidence the Electoral Commission has finally accepted that all-postal ballots are unsafe and recommended that their use be discontinued. And the Labour government’s response to this advice from the independent commission ...

This story is quite interesting. The quotation therein: " But car industry insiders said it would be almost impossible to find anyone else willing to take on the undisclosed debts of MG Rover which ultimately made the Chinese walk away from the deal." shows a total misunderstanding of insolvency law. What happened in the last 2 weeks really demonstrates the odd way in which government works. MG

Can you spot the difference, boys and girls?"I believe in a country where hard work and merit, not privilege or background, determine success."A country where Britain's families get the modern healthcare, education, childcare services they need, and on a fair and equal basis."...How we carry forward the investment in our immigration service to protect our borders to ensure we have indeed strict controls that work."A country where people who play by the rules get on and those who don't, don't"Tony Blair, the leader of the Labour Party, sets out his campaign principles, April 5th 2005."I believe passionately in fair play. ...

A beautful, crisp morning and looking forward to the town walkabout today. The campaign is still so low key, after the death of Pope John Paul. Spoke to a friend of mine in Warsaw who comments on how much the feeling is in Poland of "The end of an era". Today the campaign will probably be overshadowed by the Royal Wedding and of course the Grand National. I must say I think the tabloids have been very hard on Camilla. She seems to be something of a breath of fresh air- hearty and humorous, and graceful in the face of ...

Earlier today, I came across this. It seems that Michael Howard has finally been confronted as to why he is trying to make the party appear gay-friendly, despite the fact that he actually wrote Section 28 when he was a junior minister. It appears that the "world has changed" since then. This is the excuse he gave for sidelining the gay community and attempting to sever any chance of equality in Britain. The only way that “the world has changed” for Mr Howard is that he is now the leader of a failed party who are so ...