LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Honourable Fiend has the answer: About 12 years back, Fiend spent some time working at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge. During that particular Tory-era NHS experience one particular ward had a recurring problem with MRSA infections. So they emptied the affected ward, and the one on each side. All three were denuded of everything. The beds were disposed of. The laundry, incinerated. Every last piece of furniture removed and destroyed. Affected and potentially-affected patients internally quarantined for pre-emptive treatment with antibiotics. The three bare-shell rooms remaining were steam-washed, hosed down with disinfectants from corner to corner and re-floored and repainted ...

Donald James Kennedy was born at 00:14 this morning

Hornsey and Wood Green local party, last night officially adopt Lynne Featherstone as their Parlimentary Candidate. Lynne and Ed Davey The turn out was amazing. The room was packed with members and supporters. Lord Bill Rodgers ( ex-LibDem Leader in the Lords), Lord Tim Garden (military expert) and Ed Davey, MP came to lend their support. It was completely coincidental that Andrew Gilligan's

Thanks to Will Howells for showing me where to make your own

A slightly earlier reflection on the day, as I am off to be formally adopted as the candidate for the Wycombe constituency in the Liberal Democrat interest. The Conservatives have had a truly dreadful day- their tax plans have been chewed up and spat out, as we expected. Now the Liberal Democrats have an opportunity to put forward our positive agenda. I must admit times have really changed. Once upon a time people used to say "Well, the Liberal Democrats are nice people, but what do you really stand for?" The answer is the we stand for Freedom- No authoritarian ...

I thought nothing could surprise me. Oddly enough something did today. I was told by someone in the elections office that there had been "Envelope 4s" mislaid during the local elections and not counted. There was a plan to "get rid" of them, but one or more staff were unhappy about this and kept them. Envelope 4s are the postal ballots taken to the polling station and collected by the

The propaganda war in this election campaign is confronting voters with a mountain range of bollocks. But when it comes to the issue of crime, the voters are facing a veritable testicular Himalayas. Top of the handwritten shopping list on the front cover of the new Tory manifesto is "More Police". I would have been more impressed if Michael Howard had instead written "Better Police". Most

The current Tory poster campaign really does lend itself to satire. It's a pity they're not written in green crayon. There have been lots of photos of vandalised posters posted on the internet, but I certainly would not advocate this approach! So I undebted to Will Howells for bringing to my attention this excellent "Make Your Own Tory Poster" tool. If you make one, be sure to post a link to it in the comments! Enjoy...

The BBC News website reports: Oily fish 'hope' for Alzheimer's. I bet they don't.

The RCJ (Royal Courts of Justice) can be really picky. They decided that if I have a solicitor then I have to let the solicitor sign the claim form. I had signed the claim form. So we will have to formally appoint the solicitor later. Still at least we now have the form in. We may end up with a retrospective change for some aspects, but if the declaration of incompatibility is made then we

I've now moved house, and we started canvassing last night! My new flat is very nice by the way, and I'm enjoying being a property owner. If the Lib Dems had been in, I wouldn't have had the threat of stamp duty either. We're proposing increasing it to £150,000. Labour have started the job, but we need to finish it. Anyway, canvassing. It was so positive. I went round a rather nice part of Loughborough with our County Council Candidate, and the polling showed over 50% supporting him, and over a third supporting me. ...

Has the Labour MP for Cardiff Central accepted the inevitable? This quote is from a letter he wrote to the Western Mail and which was published today: "Clearly what the general election should produce is more Liberal MPs and less Labour"

Tax is a word that gets most people excited and usually makes them angry. Today we are unveiling the Liberal Democrat taxation policies. Our opponents try to paint the Liberal Democrats as incorrigible tax raisers. However, when you examine our proposals you will see clearly that for most people their tax bills will fall. The reason for this is to do with fairness. Under Tony Blair, the tax burden of the poorest 20% in our society is higher than the burden on the richest 20%- How can this be right? There are two key proposals that we are making. ...

Of course the Conservatives are using every known trick to get their message on immigration across to the electorate. Their hypocrisy on this subject however was exposed by The Times this morning with a before and after photo of the Tory candidate for Dorset South with former Home Office Minister, Ann Widdicombe. In the first picture, the Tory candidate, Ed Matts, stands in front of a crowd and is holding a photograph of the family of a deported asylum seeker. Ann Widdecombe displays a placard saying: “Let them stay”. The second image is from Mr Matts’s election literature. The crowd ...

The Reverend Aled Edwards, who chairs the Welsh Refugee Council, really hit the nail on the head yesterday with regards to Tory immigration policies. He was quoted by the Western Mail as saying "the Conservative leader should accept responsibility for criticisms made last year in a report by the Commons' Home Affairs Select Committee. The report said the computer system was introduced 18 months late and by April 1997, there were 54,000 asylum applications awaiting an initial decision." He went on: "Experience dictates that throwing populist headlines at complicated humanitarian problems rarely makes sense and, when they don't work, frequently ...

No I haven't defected. It's just a good site.

One aspect of being a candidate is the large number of people who contact you from different pressure groups. It is gratifying the large number of letters that are addressed to James Oates MP! Of course, the dissolution of Parliament means that there are no MPs until after the election. One of the most interesting communications was an invitation to identify where you stand on the Political Compass. This attempts to identify people's political opinions, not only on a left-right scale, but also on an authoritarian-libertarian scale. You can take the test on the website http://www.politicalcompass.org/ I found that ...

Just been looking at my blog, and noticed I haven't posted in a while. A couple of things I want to right down. For the last 4 years I've been trying to track down a supplier of Blackcurrant Tea. Not the cough medicine stuff that Twinning sell, which is some herbs and blackcurrant infusion, I want tea with blackcurrant. I knew that Harrogates sold them, but had never found a shop selling them.

Congratulations to Sarah and Charles on the arrival of Donald James. Take a well earned break with your new family, Charles, and then come back 'cos we need you!

This is a clothing label from a small American company that sells their product in France. Here's the translation of the French part of the label. Wash with warm water. Use mild soap. Dry flat. Do not use bleach. Do not dry in the dryer. Do not iron. We are sorry that Our President is an idiot. We did not vote for him.Source = About.com Is there a possibility that after May 5th an English

Welcome to wee Donald and all the best to the boss and his wife.... Having a baby and being responsible for it is something I found far more daunting than anything I had ever done in my life and I hope Charles manages to spend more than a little time with Sarah. Time for a plug for our Maternity Income Guarantee I think....

The news this morning is that Sarah Kennedy had a baby boy overnight and all is well. A good way to start the day. The Independent carries an NOP poll showing the Conservatives falling, while The Times carries an image from a Tory leaflet: a doctored photo of Anne Widdicombe and the Conservative candidate in South Dorset- doctored to change the slogans they are carrying from "let them stay" (this about a distinguished family set to be be deported from the UK) to "controlled immigration". You've got to love the highly elastic nature of some Tory consciences. The encouraging thing ...

The blogosphere in the persons of TalkPolitics and Labour Councillor Bob Piper seems quite agitated about my record as a student politician Bob says: "J.A.M. Hemming (the Max Clifford of self-publicity) was, according to Talk Politics, beaten in an election by a dog! (Please refrain from tasteless comments about his Labour opponent in Yardley)." There is a claim that this stimulated my