LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Electoral reform is moving up the political agenda again. Headlines today in the politics section of The Independant Labour clamps down on politicians who speak out for electoral reform Labour politicians in favour of voting reform have been warned by partymanagers to stop "carrying on" about the introduction of proportionalrepresentation............ http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=645342 They've started an online petition which I've just signed http://www.independent.co.uk/cfd/democracy.jsp

He's been standing at the roundabout for the last two weeks... will somebody pick him up? Could this be another work of the world-famous basstensil anarch-artists of Argentina, the people who created the Disney War stensil I reported on a few months ago? The style is certainly similar - finely detailed dual-tone stensil artwork.

So, the government's religious hatred bill has been brought back from the dead. This is a cynical ploy by New Labour to win back the Muslim vote. And it is also a nod to various noisy religious bigots, such as those responsible for last December's Sikh theatre protest and January's manufactured anger about the BBC's screening of Jerry Springer - The Opera. Liberals, whatever their religious

Today's House Points column from Liberal Democrat News. Although it covers the teaching of reading I managed to avoid mentioning Ladybird Books, but it can only be a matter of time before Lassie appears. Not so phonic The Tories have decided what it is they object to most about Tony Blair’s government. There’s not enough micromanagement. The trouble with New Labour, they believe, is that it does not centralise things enough. You don’t believe me? Look at the way they’ve taken up this year’s educational panacea: synthetic phonics. Here is Tim Collins (whatever happened to him?) during the ...

Last summer, I did some travelling around Europe, and wrote a series of e-mails to friends and family that seemed to be well-received. I quite liked them, and in the interests of having them recorded in something other than my sent-message folder, I'm going to re-post them here - one a day, to bide the time whilst my blogging may be a little light.

BBC NEWS | Politics | In full: Alistair Darling's speech That was an important speech committing the government to going forward with road pricing. But, Rod Eddington has a brief to look at increasing capacity in all forms of transport including roads, so Darling does not accept that road pricing is an alternative to building new roads. However, road pricing is incompatible with privately financed toll roads. It would have been helpful if Darling could have confirmed he agrees with the Transport Committee on that point, but my guess is that we will get no decision on the ...

On a visit to Ikea yesterday to get a look and feel for furniture for our new place (once we find one), we discovered that there is a new range called Kullen. I've got to say that the quality looked like the more cheaper end of the Ikea market, and that I'll probably not get one.

If you build on a flood plain you will get flooded. That is why they are called "Flood Plains". So the government still want people to build houses in locations that will get flooded. Certain aspects of the natural environment cannot be resisted and we should not try. "The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister wish to see a reduction in the amount of inappropriate new development in flood risk

Proof that posing on a gay website in your underpants is not a bar to promotion emerges today. The Guardian Diary reports that Rhonnda MP, Chris Bryant, has been made a PPS to Lord Falconer in the Department of Constitutional Affairs. Presumably, the memory of Chris' faux pas was erased by his intense loyalty to the Tony Blair. He has voted against the government only nine times out of a possible 1,007 divisions, the second most loyal of all Labour MPs. Chris was also the MP of course, who asserted on Newsnight that no one at No. ...