LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Nick Cohen, in a column I have already discussed here and here, complained about Amnesty International's use of the term "gulag" to describe Guananamo Bay and the USA's other facilities for detaining suspected terrorists around the world. He wrote: ever since [Irene] Khan took over, I've had an uneasy feeling that it is losing universal principles and treating the abuse of rights by the United States as worse than similar or more grotesque abuses by others. That feeling transformed into a certainty last week when Amnesty described Guantanamo Bay as the 'gulag of our times'. By all means, Amnesty ...

Hi everyone, Today is the last night of our stop in Prague, having come here from Berlin via Dresden. Dresden itself was a very strange city, everything seemed to be compartmentalised - the historical, reconstructed area, shopping area, residential areas and a nightlife area (where our hostel was situated, which meant there was noise outside right through the night! As for the city itself, there wasn't a huge amount to see - a quick wander around the reconstructed buildings was about all there was to it, although if you were taking a longer trip there it is not too far ...

Paul Goggins (silly name, silly man) has announced that under his new incitement to religious hatred bill will protect Satanists. I wonder how an outburst like this would fare under his new law? Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. Our caller, of course, is Jesus from Nazareth (John 8 :34), ...

The issue today under discussion, for two largely futile hours that will never come again, was Youth and how to make, or as it turned out, rather not make suitable provision for the less inner-directed elements among the population cohorts age 10 - 18, in the White Rose area of Hindle. There is in the town of Buick a dispersal order in effect which expires on the tenth day of September, so the bobbies wish to do something progressive about juvenile nuisance, as it is perceived to be. As our LD county councillor pointed out, there will have ...

BBC NEWS | Health | Pylons 'may be a leukaemia risk' My neighbour Linda's son David died of leukaemia, after they'd moved to a new house close to a pylon. She has been campaigning for twenty years, convinced of the risk. I can understand the researcher's caution; that the disease is so rare; that it could be a statistical anomaly; that they don't know the causation. I'm also quite sure that if

Sitting in Edinburgh between meetings wth Scottish Government officials and visits to local schools, I feel a bit isolated from what is going on in Wales. I am told that there is speculation that Rhodri Morgan may have to resign because of the variable fees issue and the fact that he has lost his majority. Given that this gossip has come from some rather intemperate remarks by Peter Law I am

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Yesterday was the first day that I abstained on a vote in person. What I am asking is "where is the abstain button". In the City Council there are six ways someone can cast a vote, for, against, pressing the asbstain button, sitting in the council chamber too frightened to press any button, somewhere else in the building and actually unavailable.I see it is actually possible to vote both ways on an issue if you run, but that does not seem the best mechanism. The problem is, however, that when you are present, but abstain it is ...

goes to the management of The Bus & Rail Centre, Whitby Station, Whitby, North Yorkshire, YO21 1YN.Overseen and overheard this week: two elderly ladies queuing for and booking travel tickets, a process that took an inexplicably long time. Both ladies had been queuing for some time, and one assked for a chair for her sister, who had suffered a stroke, walks with a stick and was finding standing in a queue uncomfortable.Sorry, we can't, the staff answered. They'd asked for chairs to be provided so that elderly or infirm members of the public could sit, but the blockheads in ...

A six-day gap between blog postings can be explained by a short visit to northern Greece.Normally, whenever I am away anywhere, it is not long before I try to track down an internet connection to check my e-mails, visit favourite websites and add another blog posting. Not so this time.Compared with most other developed European countries, Greece has an unusually high level of mobile phone ownership but an unusually low level of internet penetration. The reason why becomes obvious once you spend any length of time in Greece.The Greeks are among the most sociable people on the planet. Mobile phones ...