LibDem Blogs - Archived!

The fact that many children were sent from British institutions to live in Australia and other far-flung parts of the Empire is often referred to as a shameful "secret". As I argued in a paper I on the history of child abuse that I gave at the Tavistock last year, it was nothing of the sort. It was public policy and widely discussed. As a follower of Karl Popper I know that I should look for

Don't despair if you missed Michael Cockerell's excellent film on Saturday. The BBC has a page devoted to it here.

It has to be said that the Western Mail's big story this morning on the cost of Higher Education in Wales shed more heat than light on the subject. The problem was that they based their research on answers to Assembly Questions, which are notorious for taking a political position rather then delivering facts.Thus the full cost of not having top-up fees in Wales was put at £122.2m in year four without making it clear that this applies to both English and Welsh domiciled students rather than just the latter, as the Assembly resolution sought the week before last. The ...

The Virtual Stoa, as part of his "Tim Collins Watch" series, linked to this piece in the Guardian, about MPs who lost their seats, and in particular, the former Shadow Education Secretary who had the dubious honour of becoming the one and only "decapitated" Tory. I had hoped to talk to Tim Collins, former shadow education spokesman and the most prominent of the Tories who lost on May 5, but he too has gone to ground. "His defeat was totally unexpected," says a press spokesman at Conservative campaign HQ. "He has had many requests for interviews, but has declined them ...

Cricket is a complex game. For this reason, many viewers think the game "boring", or too slow-paced to grab one's attention. They are, of course, utterly wrong. The joy of cricket is that the momentum of a game is constantly shifting, subtly, often imperceptibly, and that it is the ability of one team to be able to command the undulations that gives them the greatest chance to win. There are moments of individual brilliance and excitement - the crashing satisfaction of the ball whizzing towards the boundary; the sight of the stumps cartwheeling out of the ground; the sheer athleticism ...

Hi everyone, Chris and I are coming towards the end of our stay in Stockholm, which has been an absolutely wonderful stop - in fact, I think it is probably the best place that I have visited on all of my European excursions - very pretty town that is great to walk around, but also much to see while you are there. The Swedes, too, are very friendly people - at first they can seem a little reserved, but they are always very helpful and speak excellent English (which makes me feel very embarrassed, as I hate going to countries ...

Glad to see that the North East is keeping more of its graduates in the region than anywhere except London and the North West. In addition, Durham and Newcastle have been very successful in 'spinning off' small businesses from their scienctific discoveries, creating jobs in the area and raising more money for education. Keep up the good work!

The Times reports today that Alistair Darling appointed Rod Eddington, chief executive of British Airways, as the government's chief transport advisor, in March. Who knew? Plane Man thinks that we need improved capacity in all modes of transport. What a surprise! He thinks that travel broadens the mind and makes us all more peaceful. Nice to know there are still a few idealists around.

Further to yesterday's post, of course it is VE/VJ 60th this year, not 50th; God, where does a decade go? Will this be the last of these exercises in what the Ancient Greeks thought it unlucky to do, i.e. the title of this piece? I admit to being a little adolescently surprised years back when Dad's Army first came out on TV, and thought then: Isn't this a touch old hat now, WWII? Then much later

This is Lightning being chased/followed by Waif. My cat photographer has finally emailed me the picture.

The Association for the Study of Peak Oil are continually trying to predict when the production of crude oil will peak throughout the world. This is known as a Hubbert Peak named after the Geologist who predicted the peak of production of Crude Oil in the US which he predicted for 1971 from 1956. He was quite a way out on the prediction of global peak predicting it for 1996. The biggest problem