LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Just before the election the Guardian ran an internet poll to find the Backbencher political blog of the year. Thousands of votes were cast, the deadline was reached and passed and then everything went quiet. Now, Backbencher is back and has announced the results officially. This blog was voted best in the politician's category. Top for political commentary was the Guido Fawkes blog, whilst David Blunkett Is An Arse won the single issues campaign category. I may put a press release out but somehow I cannot get excited about it anymore!

Judging by the turnout for the public meeting, there's a growing consensus for what Lib Dems have been saying for years. Committe Room 14 at the House of Commons is actually a very large room that would comfortably seat 200 people. As it was there were more like 300 and latecomers were reduced to sitting on the floor and standing in the aisles. PR never used to be very sexy and supporters of Labour and the Conservatives would either feign boredom or come up with the old 'strong government' arguments to dismiss calls for a fairer system. Well we've had ...

Still trying to catch up on all the emails left pending for weeks.In the meantime another flood - meetings, meetings and more meetings. Well life goes on. Susan Kramer sent a kind email. I felt a bit guilty not being able to help with her campaign but at least she won. She another people person and as she commented 'it's good to have 3 Lib Dem women MP's in London'. Last night was Lynne's campaign team get-to-gether. Of course at the pub below the HQ.Nice to have a change to dress up a little. I'm not really comfortable in pubs. ...

Back in August 2004, I made this post "Major '24' spoilers revealed". Today, I am currently 9th on Google for the search 24 spoilers. It must be a real disappointment for all those who have visited the page (661 this month, 2035 this year), as it only contains a link to a site which is on about episodes 1 and 2. As somebody who gets sent a copy each week from America, and are currently waiting for

The site poiticalbetting.com reports that the market has already opened on the next general election: The opening spreads from Spreadfair are LAB 325-335: CON 226-232: LD 54-60 . The best prices on the conventional markets are LAB 4/7: CON 7/4: LD 80/1.

It's time for some more gentle fun at the expense of the recruitment advertisments in the Guardian's Society supplement. Nottingham City Council is seeking a "Head of Anti-social Behaviour" (£40,440 - £42,945).

Could have shot the person on Thursday night/Friday morning who cheerfully suggested that I would be OK whatever happened because "they'd probably want me in the House of Lords" - not what I wanted to be hearing at all. Since the result was announced I have had one moment of weakness. Feeling shattered after four weeks of an election campaign (plus all that led up to it) I contemplated making an early decision to stand down, spending my days topping up the tan (what tan?) with a bit of light election monitoring in sunny climates and enjoying myself for four ...

The main business today was to elect a Speaker of the House of Commons. We were not expecting any surprises but it was good to see the House of Commons Chamber full to bursting. With more Lib Dems and more Tories there is now likely to be a bit of a scrabble for seats on key occasions. In the past "the Nats" as we refer to them have always sat in the third row but now that there are more of us then it would make sense for us to sit in a block but no one wants to seem ...

The debate on opencast and mineral extraction sites was nothing if not entertaining. Passions were aroused on both sides and as the debate got increasingly heated so the metaphors became more and more mangled. Carwyn Jones started it off by mixing up quarrying with stone masonry: In terms of buffer zones—[Interruption.] There is no point in whingeing; listen and learn. Let me explain the situation with regard to buffer zones. It is perfectly possible for buffer zones of whatever distance to be imposed; that is the current situation as long as they can be justified. It is perfectly possible ...

First day back yesterday in Plenary after the General Election and only one of our new dual mandate AMs showed up. Peter Law arrived near the end to take part in the debate on exclusion zones around opencast sites but there was no sign of Tory Monmouth MP, David Davies, even though the motion was relevant to his constituency. We were told that he was attending an induction session on "how to be an effective Tory MP". Ideas on a postcard please!

I ought to be surprised, but sadly I'm not, by the news that a child has been refused a place at a Primary School that he lives next door to. I am about to get embroiled in my third schools admission appeal in six years, each one because the younger sibling failed to get a place at the school already attended by the older child. When it comes to school admission policy the word 'choice' needs to be replaced with the word 'lottery'. If you are lucky, you might get a place at your first choice school. It's another case ...

Tonight! If you can get to London by 6pm - check out this link for details of how to get in. This blogger intends to be there, assuming that holding a Lib Dem membership card and criticising the PM on line doesn't cause me to fail the security checks for being a dangerous subversive! Speakers include Lord Rennard and Billy Bragg - should be interesting.

I spent the last two days of the election campaign working with the Romsey Lib Dems. They are only about half an hour down the road from me, so I figured that my time was better spent in a Lib Dem seat rather than Salisbury. It was close, but very, very late on Thursday night Romsey was declared for Mrs Gidley by a majority of only 125. I am still smiling from the victory. You can read her blog at http://romseyredhead.blogspot.com.