LibDem Blogs - Archived!

I have just posted part of Matthew Sweet's conclusion to his Inventing the Victorians to my anthology blog Serendib. Sweet argues that we have invested a great deal in defining ourselves as not being like the Victorians, and that we therefore have a vested interest in maintaining a false picture of them. The more "cruel, hypocritical, repressive, intolerant, prudish and cheerless" they appear, the more modern and creditable we seem by contrast. (It also shows just how well Sweet can write.) The other evening I wrote that the past - in particular the 1940s and 1950s - took place in ...

Well, not quite. But if you'd like to write an article for the post-election edition of Liberator, now's your chance. There's a lot for Liberal Democrats to comment on. Was the party's performance good enough? What went right or wrong? What must the party do next? Can Lib Dem bloggers write more than six lines of prose? The one type of article we don't need is the parochial, blow-by-blow "what

I had to skip double economics and double history to go to the County Council election count on Friday 6th May. However, it was an extremly enjoyable experience.I suppose that once you see about ten votes, it gets a little boring. That said, watching the piles rise is pretty exciting. Its even more exciting when you win! We managed to win Wilton & Wylye, one seat in Salisbury East, and both of the seats in Salisbury South. That means we have doubled our showing on the council. Had our results been replicated across the ...

One of the issues that is clear from the General Election is that we need to change the electoral system as well as the procedures for casting votes. To highlight this issue I today sent a letter to Tony Blair. The letter said: I note that only 1 in 5 of British Citizens voted for your party in the General Election. Many of these voters were voting tactically. This clearly shows that you do

Went there for lunch and was horrified that the Tories were occupying three tables! They are so loud but there was quite a funny moment when Nick Winterton was introducing one of their new MPs and reassured him that "anything you say will be within these four walls unless you come across Giles Brandreth in which case you will be in a book" Or Romseyredhead decides to blog perhaps?

After the parliamentary party meeting we all trooped off to the Commonwealth Club for what was billed as a celebratory reception. We were all somewhat surprised that there was a cash bar! Now, I know that we have just fought an election and the coffers are low but the least we could have done was ensured that each of our new colleagues had at least one free drink. Many of them have given up their

Back at Westminster for last night's Parliamentary Party/photocall. Great to see an enlarged parliamentary party and even better to see a good proportion of women in the new intake. Charles was on exceptionally good form and the only sadness was that we were not joined by a handful of good colleagues.

Dear Prime Minister Congratulations on winning an historic third term as a Labour Prime Minister. However, I am sure that you are aware that you have achieved this with the lowest share of the vote ever to deliver a majority. There is growing disquiet with the state of our democracy. The majority of us live in so called ‘safe seats’ where our vote in the General Election is unlikely to deliver change. Furthermore, I live in true blue Buckinghamshire – where ...

It is reputed that St. David was one of Wales' most famous imports from Ireland. In return we have sent them Peter Hain and David Hanson.