LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Are you a "drawbridge up" person or "drawbridge down"? Stephan Shakespeare (a director of polling company YouGov) poses this question in today's Observer, in the most intriguing article I have yet read in this rather dull election campaign. He uses the Rover crisis to illustrate how there are few real policy differences between the two main parties and thus relatively little choice. What is this

Sunday is ususally the day when I concentrate on supporting our teams delivering leaflets, but we have two obstacles to that today. First, most of the leaflets are out, so we don't need to take to the streets in big numbers. And second, its rained almost all day. It some ways it is just as well, as I had to finish the next election leaflet and really needed a rest Also had a meeting of the

Following last weeks election broadcast which used music to underscore Michael Howard's record, I came across this delightful flash animation - what a pity we probably wouldn't be allowed to use it!

Here is Friday's Election Points from Liberal Democrat News. Sorry for the delay in posting - I have been in Shropshire. I even saw the offices of the Shropshire Star! Whistling in the wind The Conservatives are fighting this election on what insiders call “dog whistle” issues. In other words, their campaign concentrates on subjects that tickle the Tories’ core voters but leave the rest of us cold. This approach is the brainchild of Lynton Crosby, the Australian strategist hired by Michael Howard. (He’s one economic migrant the Tories do approve of.) So when you read a ...

Started the day talking to people in "Colditz"- the small estate of houses next to Great Marlow School. Maurice Oram, our veteran councilor for the area, leads us on a fiendishly complicated route that he has perfected from his days as a Postman. The early spring day is glorious- the trees festooned with bright blossom and the delicate pale greens of leaf shoots growing larger almost as you watch. Unsurprisingly many people are in their gardens. One man, tending to his lawn, greets Maurice and I am introduced. He is supportive, but very worried about the economy. He describes problems ...

The outs have it but I expect the truth of the matter is that during a cup semi-final is not the best time of the day!

Decided I should try to fit in this important Sikh celebration this year. I had asked a few people what to expect and everyone had assured me that the event was "always" late starting. Duly arrived at the civic centre expecting to find lots of people "milling" around on the steps only to find everything looking suspiciously formal. Parked the car and donned an orange headscarf as quickly as I could and, trying not to look like a smurf, was ushered to the steps to join the party. I was not the last to arrive but they seemed very relaxed ...

To the Abbey first thing to sign the child protection petition. Nice chat with some of the ladies ob the committee but it was fairly short as I had to dash to Southampton.

Apart from this morning's campaigning in Yardley, I also spoke at public meetings in Tyseley and Saltley as well as doing an interview on the politics show. This morning I played telephone tag with Respect. They are also judicially reviewing the general election using the same (originally my) solicitor Fatema Patwa. Their JR is asking for too much from the judges. They are also a long way behind my case. However, I am hoping to get an early court hearing some time tomorrow (ie hear about it some time tomorrow). The Politics Show looked at the issue ...

The new Doctor Who continues to impress as does their amusing use of the internet to promote the show. http://www.whoisdoctorwho.co.uk/ has it's own amusing take on the Ed Matts photo controversy.

The Tories seem to be making a bit of habit of getting into trouble in the campaign so far.First dear Michael got his crime figures wrong:http://www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/oxfordshire/archive/2005/03/22/TOPNEWS0ZM.htmlThen the Winchester Tory candidate got into trouble over a website:http://www.thisiswinchester.co.uk/hampshire/echowinchester/news/ECHOWINCHESTER_NEWS_NEWS5.htmlAnd the Tory campaign in Guildford is accused of racism:http://www.surreyad.co.uk/news/index.html?article15090And Ed Matts (an amusing chap - I remember him telling me how he wa definitely winning Oxford West & Abingdon and that my County seat was a gonner at the last election) is in hot water in Dorset:http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=628733&host=3&dir=62And then it's back to dear Michael again - and this time it's MRSA figures that he is ...

A particularly hard-hitting clip on Tim Ireland's excellent Backing Blair site: http://www.backingblair.co.uk/the_line/ It does contain some disturbing images so please don't view it if you are easily offended. On a more humerous note: http://www.gbjab.com/ is very amusing.

I had intended to post regularly on the election campaign so far, but have been too busy. So this a brief round-up.In the past week or so I have visited several seat we hope to win on May 5th, and overall the mood is very positive.The highlight for me was visiting Folkestone & Hythe last week where we are running a very strong campaign to unseat Tory Leader Michael Howard. I drove into the seat from the west - through Romney Marsh - traditionally the weaker end of the seat for us. But even here I was ...

It is possible that the story of the next week will be that of the failure of the Conservatives to make any in-roads into the Labour lead, their declining support and hopefully, the steady advances in the polls being made by the Liberal Democrats. Certainly, that is the story of the weekend polls. In the Sunday Times, the Yougov poll gives Labour a 1% lead. Their vote is down 1%, the Tories are unchanged and the Liberal Democrats are up two to 23%, their highest ever poll rating during a General Election campaign. The experts predict that this would give ...

Defying the forecasters, the weather is currently bright and fairly cloudless, rather than the drizzle predicted for the day of the London Marathon. I guess that these are less comfortable conditions for the runners. Last year several friends of mine ran coming in with very respectable times. When I am out jogging or in the gym I tend to get more astonished about how fast some people can run Marathons- mile after mile each taking just over four minutes. It is hard to imagine that it was once considered impossible for humans to break the four minute mile barrier at ...