LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Was surprised to be asked this question tonight by a highly respected member of the community (they are all highly respected at the R&D!) who had best remain nameless. Turns out he was talkingabout posters but dayglo orange has a lot to be recommended.

This lecture often has a politician as speaker and this time last year I was asked to suggest someone who was apolitical but would be an interesting speaker. I made a couple of suggestions of people who could be asked but added that I thought that the Vicar of Romsey (Neil Crawford Jones) would be a good choice, especially as he was nearing retirement. The idea seemed to go down well with the

The candidate is the last person ever to have a grip on reality in an election when it comes to predicting the vote but I am picking up some really strange things. Most people are really nice and last week I was picking up a lot of "Got to get rid of Tony Blair" so I would also have expected the Tory vote to have been hardening up - but in some areas I have been picking up a surprising number of

A break from campaigning to attend the memorial service of Jeff Holloway - whenever I saw Jeff he was cheerful and always seemed delighted to see me. Judging by the attendance in the abbey today this was a gift that he had. Many people remember him as the local chemist but I knew him more via my husband and Rotary and he organised the Mayor's picnic the year I was Town Mayor. It was a lovely

Overheard in a bar recently: A: We've got a problem. B: What? A: We need to find some way of attacking the Government about Bourgass guy. Any ideas? B: Simple, we just claim that lax immigration meant he was in the country in the first place, clearly meaning they were responsible for his wholly independent decision to kill us all. A: I love you. B: Steady. Prats.

Frustrating evening as I was all set to print my stock of leaflets for some hard footwork. Printed one side of 500 leaflets and my toner ran out! Catching up with the news saw Kilroy doing his Vanitas, sorry Veritas manifesto launch. Apparently, we are now 'Fascist Liberals' - another oxymoron methinks. Well at least the Xenophobic vote will be split another way! Anyone who hadn't been living in Britain arriving for our election campaign would be forgiven for thinking that we were under some kind of invasion with hordes of greedy, scrounging people about to swamp the land. Of ...

The day after polling day will be more interesting than usual.Yes, Friday 6th May has been declared No Pants Day.In case you are worried about what you might have to reveal at the count when the clock strikes midnight, note that this is the American definition of 'pants' rather than the British.

The new edition of Private Eye (15th April) is particularly good on the fraudulent behaviour of the Labour Party in Birmingham, with a number of reports, both serious and comic.Among the latter is this brief report in St Albion Parish News:Mr Prescott writes:This is a note to informalise you about the new arrangingments for the forthcoming parish elections. Unlike in previous elections, you will no longer have to walk through the cold and pouring rain to the primary school and/or stop watching your favourite TV soap 'Desperate Vicars' Wives'!This time, you don't even have to fill in the voting paper. ...

One interesting aspect of the situation at MG Rover is that it is arguable that anyone made redundant would have a case for Negligence against the DTI ministers that caused the downfall of the company through their briefings. One would presume that this case would be against the DTI as a ministry. If we look at the basic financial loss. Each worker has probably lost £20,000 or so in

One of the pillars of life in Marlow, Bill Purdie, asks if I can go and see him. Bill has lived in Marlow nearly 40 years, but was born on Tyneside and still has his native Geordie lilt. Well on in years (he is 87) he has the energy of a man many years younger. He genuinely cares about issues and is fierce against those who trespass upon his beloved Marlow. As Bill says "I was a Labour man through and through". In fact as we talk, he says that he has been a member of the Labour Party for ...

Dodging the showers I had a couple of hours to nip over to Maidenhead. An extremely well organized Liberal Democrat campaign in much evidence- posters for Kathy Newbound are all over the place. I saw only one for her Conservative opponent, Teresa May. As I work through in one of the commitee rooms, the coming and going was remarkable. Early canvassing is much stronger than last time. News comes that the Conservatives telephone contacts are probably breeching the tps code- and anyway they seem to be making their calls from a call centre in India! Leaflets from the Royal Mail, ...

The Dorset Echo reports: Tory hopeful Ed Matts was embroiled in a new fuss over election photos today after using a picture of Olympic gold medallists in his campaign leaflets.

The reign of our present Queen falls neatly into two. Until 1979 or so, the royal family was idolised by many and ignored by the rest. With the exception of state occasions like the Coronation, it did not impinge greatly upon people’s everyday lives if they did not want it to. All that changed after 1979. Whether it is all Mrs Thatcher’s fault I don’t know, but there is no doubt that this change took place around about the time she came to power, and it may well be that the economic policies she pursued played a part in it. ...

A court hearing was set in front of Mr Justice Collins in Court 2 of the Royal Courts of Justice for 2pm tomorrow. Then it wasn't. Much that the Government's solicitors were sent a letter before action last week and have had copies of all documentation they are not yet ready. One option for them is to accept that we are right and that: a) The General Election is unlawful ... and b) The

Michael Howard, reports the BBC, has pledged to put phonics at the heart of teaching in schools: Mr Howard said repeated studies had shown that the system of phonics, where children are taught words through the sounds that form them, was the best method for teaching languageIt would be interesting to know how he squares this promise with the speech that he made on 24 March 2005 setting out his vision of "The Britain I believe in": Just as parents know best what is right for their children, so professionals have the clearest vision of what is right for ...

Two articles cast further doubt over the story the mainstream media have been reporting. Bill Durodié, on the Spiked website, points out that there was no ricin and sign of a conspiracy either: Notably, all of the supposed co-conspirators in this case have been cleared of the charges, so there was no evidence of an organised al-Qaeda 'cell' either. The jurors should be commended for reaching this verdict in the context of the constant bombardment about sinister individuals and organisations to which we have all been subjected since 9/11.And in the Guardian Duncan Campbell writes about some of ...

Us, the liberal democrat activists have now got back to Salisbury, and are canvasing everywhere. It seems now however, that the more news of the election, the more disinterested and bored the residents get. We are finding it easy to find people that are interested in our policies, but we also recognise the rise in the number of people that are disinterested. I went to Tisbury yesturday, and it seems we are going to get the voters support in force. We found very, very few strong conservative supporters, but we on the other hand found Tisbury golden for our support. ...

As predicted there was much talk in the chamber around the politics of the General Election. We all wanted a piece of the Tories. What was noticeable was the absence from the Assembly of the three Conservative AMs who are fighting Parliamentary Constituencies on 5th May. Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan), Jonathan Morgan (Cardiff North) and David Davies (Monmouth) were nowhere to be seen. By far the best anti-Tory joke came from the Labour AM for Alyn and Deeside, Carl Sargeant: Finally, perhaps we could have a debate on the transport industry, particularly in Wales. You will ...

I had to crawl behind the sofa while watching the TV earlier today, but it wasn't because of Dr Who.Charles Kennedy made an appalling gaff at this morning's press conference to launch the Liberal Democrat manifesto. The manifesto itself is fine - but it helps if you can remember what it says.Kennedy was wrong-footed while being questioned by the BBC's Andrew Marr on the subject of local income tax. The Scotsman reports,When Mr Kennedy was challenged to name the exact figure at which people would pay more, he appeared confused and had to confer with colleagues before replying: "A double ...

The first Assembly session after the Easter recess had a distinct culinary feel to it as opposition members sought to capitalise on the Jamie Oliver factor. The First Minister demonstrated that he had clearly been boning up on the subject: The First Minister: Nutritional standards in Welsh school meals were praised by Jamie Oliver. I was extremely pleased to hear him say that the standard of school meals in some local authority areas in Wales—he may not have meant all parts of Wales—was good. He picked out for particular praise the two west Wales authorities of Carmarthenshire ...

I suppose the title is not surprising. Birmingham NHS Concern are a lobby group that deals with matters relating to the NHS in Birmingham. They have written two public letters to the chair of the City Council's Health Scrutiny Committee and to the Strategic Health Authority (SHA). The contents are important to anyone concerned about health matters. LETTER 1 - BIRMINGHAM NHS CONCERN - Health

If the rest of Loughborough was like Outwoods, I'd probably win this election! So far our campaigning is showing us way ahead in the County Council election, and marginally ahead for the general in that area. Amazing. It's demonstrating to the other local Lib Dems what can be achieved by working. I hope that Nanpantan (the other half of the County Council ward) is the same. I spoke to one man who disagreed with me on immigration, but would still vote for us. He said he was impressed that I wouldn't be swayed just to ...

Out on the campaign trail in Bassett last night. One conversation went something like this. "I am not going to get involved in this. I have an IQ of 160 and can tell you that it is all a sham because all that you political parties do is produce a shopping list and all a voter can do is try to balance one against the other" He clearly did not want to get into an argument so I left by assuring

It was interesting to see how Cowley street has been transformed for the election. The boardroom has been changed to a sort of command centre set up with a real air of constant activity. Am pleased to report that staff are being looked after - there are bowls of fruit everywhere and evening catering is being laid on - no excuse for slacking at all!

There was some excitement at the party rally in London that I attended last night. People from all over London and the South East were reporting positive progress. Several of our target seats seem to be swinging towards the Liberal Democrats. I think that there are two reasons. The first is that we have a coherent programme, backed up by costed research. Our polices are based on our key principles. Our manifesto has now been published- you can read a copy here: http://www.libdems.org.uk/party/policy/manifesto.html The second reason is to do with our vision for this country. The Liberal Democrats are ...

The application for urgent consideration has been faxed to the High Court. The following is the text of the explanation of why urgent consideration is required: The date for the General Election has been set as 5th May. Postal vote fraud is likely to start about 2 weeks before that date unless measures are put in place to prevent it. The postal votes start being posted about 2 weeks before the

According to the BBC, music single-buying is now "largely left to teenage girls", whilst downloaders are "male and more mature". Now surely our British Broadcasting Corporation are not suggesting that there is a direct correlation between maturity and gender. Surely they are not insinuating that those who choose to buy music in its hard form are more immature than those that are capable of going online and downloading it? I'll stop now before I get into a discussion on semantics. I'll just point you in the direction of the book that this post is named after, although ...