LibDem Blogs - Archived!

There is an article on the BBC website questioning the value of schools giving children homework. Your task is to guess which of these quotations comes from the head of a state primary school and which from the head of a private prep school. Quotation 1 "Children should be allowed to experience the joy of childhood and have time for play and activity, to develop human qualities, and develop talents and interests that will last them a lifetime." Quotation 2 "[Homework is] a basis for parents and pupils to work together and to ...

Analysis from Privacy International shows that the reintroduced identity cards bill ignores all but 9 of the 105 recommendations for reform made by the home affairs select committee after the original proposals were published. Read more here.

Two more pieces of artwork:My first still life I did at my Oils and Acrylics evening class. This is in acrylics on paper.A unicorn in pastels. This is 70x50 cm. The shadowing doesn't come out too well (the unicorn does have 4 legs, not 3) but you can get the idea.I painted the unicorn for a friend (or drew it - pastels are a dry medium and you can rub them out) and she really liked the half-finished picture... then I realised I had a bit of a problem.Pastels are, in essence, chalk. The painting is done on a ...

If you ever wondered why Roma people still flee to Britain, despite the popular prejudice against 'gypsies' and the vitriolic hate campaigns in the tabloids, the answer can be found in a report in Sunday's Observer. Communist Czechoslovakia routinely sterilised Roma to curb the birth rate of 'undesirables', but this was thought to have ceased soon after the 1989 Velvet Revolution that brought

"America can always be counted upon to do the right thing in the end, having first exhausted the available alternatives." - Winston Churchill.

It wasn't that boring - it was predictable but there was the usual rash of light-hearted and silly moments. e.g Michael Howard really shouldn't have asked if an idea was "a goer" because this was the cue for lots of Labour MPs to start waving "bye bye" at him. My eye was caught by a new Labour female MP who was dozing off..... Dozing off during the budget is understandable (almost acceptable)

I miss the comments so I will allow them again - but I am going to introduce some rules. Personal comments directed against anybody (even me) will be removed as soon as I see them but comments on policy etc or points of information are more than welcome. I don't like censorship but I will try and be as relaxed as possible....

This happened yesterday and only one of them was male! But let's not get too excited because the subjects being debated were health and education. I will get excited when I see the same line up and the subjects under discussion are treasury and the DTI.

Despite a slow start the debate on Top-up Fees yesterday turned into an absorbing spectacle. By far the highlight was the speech by Blaenau Gwent Independent AM, Peter Law. All the bitterness and frustrations of the last year or so spilled out and were repaid in kind by Labour AMs seeking to intervene. Peter's treatment of Huw Lewis, who he accused of putting "career before principles" was especially vehement. I have reproduced below the entire exchange so as to illustrate my point: Peter Law: This is a disgrace as far as the Labour Party ...

The political news focus is, yet again, on the Conservative leadership. Yet again the authoritarian instincts of the current Tory leadership are revealed in glorious technicolor- the Party, having only just given one member- one vote to the Membership is now trying to take it away. The feeling is that the Conservative membership is too unrepresentative of the nation as a whole. So the plan is to transfer the power to chose the Conservative leader to the Parliamentary party. What!! THIS is the more representative part of the Conservatives! If so, then they really do have no hope at ...

Interesting letter in today's Western Mail from Labour AM and Deputy Minister, Huw Lewis. Written in his usual virulent style the letter picks up on the discussion within Plaid Cymru about how they are to move forward after the setbacks they suffered on 5th May. Huw alleges that the views of Cynog Dafis sets out the political bankruptcy of Plaid Cymru more clearly than ever. He says "It seems that the 'choice' facing the Nationalists consists of either getting into bed with the Tories (Cynog's preferred option - and no surprise there, given his right wing credentials) or ...

Commentators on Radio Wales this morning were speculating whether Labour's defeat on top-up fees will lead to Rhodri Morgan getting on the phone to Mike German in pursuit of a second coalition government. Both sides have ruled this out.Certainly, such a proposition would be very difficult to sell to the party and to the public after the way that Labour have behaved over the last two years. They have acted with all the arrogance of an administration sitting on top of a huge majority rather than as one which might at some stage require the goodwill of others to govern ...

I find it interesting that perhaps the key health debate has not really hit the media. The question is how to organise the health service. Should we move everything towards "primary care" GPs. Alternatively should we be looking instead at creating more care through institutions. There has been a heavier burden in recent years in Accident and Emergency units. Some of this is caused by the