LibDem Blogs - Archived!

The Lib Dems seem to be the preferred choice in this poll. Have a go yourself............ http://www.whoshouldyouvotefor.com/

The election is causing a flurry of interesting websites. In a lighter mood. http://www.gbjab.com/

I am deeply shocked and traumatised by what I discovered today. Went into a card shop to buy a card for Charles and Sarah to find my eye caught by some attractive Winnie the Pooh soft toy structures. Being a Pooh fan I stopped to admire. What I saw next filled me with horror and made my blood run cold A very cute construction of Pooh and Piglet lying on a log gazing at each other - atop a cardboard plinth - bearing the words "Are you thinking what I'm thinking" This is the dirtiest Tory trick imaginable - ...

Off to Andover to help Martin Tod, our candidate there, with his NHS survey. He has really energised that constituency and there were a lot of people out helping and trying to frighten Sir George Young. We slipped to third place last time but the way things are going we will recover our position nicely and be set for greater things next time. Martin is a very good candidate and I suspect we will see him on the green benches one day (and I am not just saying that because I know he reads this blog from time to time). ...

telling me that they had opened their curtains this morning to find that someone had prominently dispayed two large and four small "Caroline Noakes" (sic) posters - as well as a LIb Dem posterboard in their front garden.Some people clearly have nothing better to do with their time.

I now know his identity because he was in Hampshire today researching a piece on Lib Dem/Tory marginals and interviewed relevant candidates in Romsey and Eastleigh. Claimed that the Tories thought they were ahead "by a nose".Well, they would say that wouldn't they?

Big stuffing operation today and was gobsmacked by the turnout - we finished in half the time expected and managed to move on to a little job that was waiting in reserve. Agent is worried that he won't have enough work to keep the volunteers working so is busy thinking of extra little goodies to squeeze into the campaign plan. What was nice was the new faces who came along and I tried to have a quick chat and thank you to everyone but there were probably a few people I missed.

I lost the ability to paint last week, probably due to reading far too many art books and trying several techniques that didn't seem to work for me... :( I was persisting with the oilbars and they weren't really responding as a medium. However, in 30 minutes whilst watching Dr Who I drew ye classical artists still life in charcoal and oilbar (multi-tasking, don't ya just love it. But then, flatulent aliens impersonating MPs and taking over Britain isn't exactly a very demanding storyline). Here it is. No idea what type of flowers those are - I saw them in ...

From the Who is Doctor Who? site. Tasteless, but absolutely priceless nevertheless.

The Conservative campaign looks pretty deflated. Michael Howard apologises for a letter on MRSA which was so inaccurate it was absurd. As I am driving across the constituency I hear on the radio an interview with a specialist on MRSA at the University of Bath. He points out that MRSA is actually quite a complicated problem- it is not a question of the cleanliness of hospitals, it is a question of treatment regimes, and the fact the MRSA is pandemic across most of the world. The only countries that have lower levels of MRSA infection are those that took action ...

The BBC has published this handy guide to "2005's most over-used campaign clichés".If you're the sort of political activist who discusses what "comes up" on "the doorstep" with "real people" from "hard-working families", then you're in need of a good slap.Regarding the oft-used reference to "matron" as a panacea for MRSA, the BBC observes,Not since Hattie Jacques' heyday have we heard so much about Matron - and it is precisely that "Carry On, Nurse" image of the formidable matriarch bearing down on an unsuspecting hospital ward that the politicians want you to think of when they use this word.My own ...

Meanwhile, someone has made up their own protest!

I see that Michael Howard has decided to join the growing chorus of complaint against the postal voting system, which is wide open to fraud.Yet the suspiciously large numbers of postal vote applications in several Tory target seats demonstrate that Tory activists are just as adept with a wheelbarrow as their Labour counterparts.Indeed, all the main parties are ignoring the Electoral Commission's recommendation that they do not handle postal voting applications at a centralised local address of their own before sending them on. Under the current lax laws, centralised processing of applications is not illegal, and the Electoral Commission has ...

One of the issues raised with me today related to a 16 year old boy whose family for various reasons cannot cope with him. He falls into what I describe as the Twilight Zone of Social Care. Children under 16 are "children" and the system sort of copes with them. People of 18 or older are "adults" and the systems sort of handles this situation. People who are 16 and 17 end up in a twilight

Another day of meeting voters in Wycombe town centre. Most bizarre election I have ever been involved in! On the streets voters are very warm towards us. There's the usual 'don't vote' brigade and the 'dyed in the wool Tories' and I also had one 'don't thrust that thing at me' (referring I hope to the leaflet I was offering). But there were plenty of 'I'm thinking of voting for you this time' and a crop of people wanting to talk to our candidate, James Oates. There's definitely a swing towards us - how big remains to be counted - ...

A repeat of last Saturday's walkabout around the market. The Mayor & Councillors come for a civic inspection of the market. The ex-leader of the Conservatives is contemptuous- "Oh the Liberal Democrats are a party are they?". His arrogance is clearly the reason why even the Conservative group on the Council felt that they could dispense with his services as leader.Otherwise a solid repeat of last week- talking to a group of six or seven taxi drivers all were enthusiastic Liberal Democrats. The Asian communities in Wycombe appear to be swinging in a bloc away from Labour. However I have ...

Today's Guardian contained some interesting stuff about the faltering Tory campaign. In particular they have highlighted how the Conservatives are misleading voters on the number of MRSA infections in NHS Trusts: The NHS Confederation, representing health trusts across Britain, abandoned an attempt to stay out of politics during the election when its leaders became outraged by a letter to voters from the Conservative leader. Mr Howard attacked the Labour record on infection control and, to underline the point, gave figures showing "the number of people who contracted MRSA in your local NHS trust". Each letter included ...

TUPE (The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations) is always a key issue in terms of any corporate rescue. When a business is sold from one person to another then TUPE generally applies. This has the effect of transferring some liabilities from one organisation to another. I have not been able as yet to clarify the position as to exactly which liabilities transfer

The radio reports that overnight the "Make Poverty History" vigil at Westminster attracted over 15,000 people. Even in the very early hours thousands stood to show their support for the campaign. A few weeks ago I myself went to the rally in Trafalgar Square to hear Nelson Mandela speak. His speech calling upon this generation to take the necessary steps to eliminate poverty was a ringing call to people across the planet, and something that I hope I can say to my children or even grandchildren "I was there". Last night I took a cab over to visit some friends. ...