LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Ruth Kelly has announced how much funding they are going to put into extended schools, especially to develop clubs (ie child care) before and after the school day. 'Extended schools' is not a term I like very much. It is based on the school's view of what the community wants rather than one that empowers local people to determine what their needs are. Instead, my vision is of school buildings that become vibrant hubs in their communities throughout the day and throughout the year, offering a range of services to local people of all ages, and ensuring ...

The news of the day is that Ruth Kelly has announced plans for schools to open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. They are being sold as a way of increasing the freedom of women to choose whether or not they want to work full time. But I wonder if this really describes what is going on. One of the great changes in British society in the past 30 years, though it is rarely commented upon, is that it now takes two full-time incomes to maintain a comfortable middle-class lifestyle. This explains, amongst other things, why divorce is now financially ...

It doesn't often happen, but... The former Liberal leader, reports the BBC, has described Bob Geldof's call for one million people to gather in Edinburgh as "slightly crackers" and his call for a Sail 8 flotilla of boats to cross the English Channel as "odd". However, Lord Steel sounds rather too old fogeyish in a letter in this morning's edition of The Times: He is something of an icon to the younger generation and as such should take greater care over not just what he says, but how he says it. Deliberately peppering his utterances with swear words and appearing ...

I'm following the candidate selection for Cheadle with great interest - reliably informed 30 approved candidates applied (predictably all the movers and shakers and no-hopers applied) - this has now been whittled down to 11 for interview. It'll be couple of days before we know the outcome - it's so exciting................ Another issue in members minds - Party H Q has just announced: Charles Kennedy has been returned unopposed as the leader of the Liberal Democrats. Under the Lib Dem constitution the leader has to be re-elected within 12 months of 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.

One of today's oral questions was 15 minutes allotted for two MPs to alternate on answering questions on the Church of England and the Electoral Commission. I thought I might manage to raise some concern about the government's lack of interest in people being disenfranchised by the postal voting system. Sadly, however, the time was up very quickly and it will have to wait for another day.

Hi everyone, And sorry that the puns are getting worse and worse. Chris and I are currently in Vienna, which is a place I like more and more every time I visit it. Thankfully we made a very good choice in choosing to get a hostel-to-hostel bus service to get here - travelling from Prague to Cesky Krumlov, although quite scenic, was slow, and highly irritating. Although we were supposed to only have one change, the first train stopped at a station where we had to take a substitute bus service for a while - thankfully our connection was held, ...

I have just received an e-mail from one Infallibility G. Pinion headed "Young Rumanian Girls!" The name reminds me of the song from Lil' Abner: When it seemed like our brave boys would keep on fighting for months,Who took pity on them and ca-pit-u-lated at once?Why it was Jubilation T. Cornpone;Unshaven and shorn - pone.Jubilation T. Cornpone, he weren't nobody's dunce!

There is some interesting discussion of this over at UK Polling Report. Altogether this means that the notional House of Commons on the new boundaries will look like this: Conservative - 212 (plus 14)Labour - 345 (minus 11)Liberal Democrat - 64 (plus 2)Others - 29 (minus 1)Labour Majority - 40 The two forecast gains for the Lib Dems are both in Yorkshire: Sheffield Central and the bizarrely drawn and named York Outer seat.

The Guardian reports that Cherie Blair is to defy "sexist" criticism and continue with her public appearances. The paper says she has defended her appearances, telling her Washington audience last week that the attacks on her were sexist. Denis Thatcher, she said, had never received such criticism.Well, it may be that Denis Thatcher escaped criticism because he was a man. But I think it is more likely to be because he never, in an extraordinary blend of greed and crass judgement, accepted £30,000 to appear in a question and answer session about life in Downing Street, as Cherie Blair did ...

There is an ironic aspect of the current panic about youths wearing hoodies and caps that I have not seen noted anywhere else. I am just old enough to be able to say that in my day you got into trouble if you didn't wear a cap. Jonathan Calder (Hemel Hempstead School 1971-3)

There is a characteristically stimulating new essay by Furedi on the Spiked website: Whatever the rights and wrongs of the populist rejection of the EU treaty, the manner in which the 'No' campaign is disparaged by professional politicians betrays a powerful anti-democratic temper. It appears that professional politicians attempt to account for their isolation from the electorate by pointing their finger at the incompetence of the public. On both sides of the Atlantic, the political class has drawn the conclusion that the problem with the people is that they do not know what's in their best interest. This sentiment ...

Last Friday we attended a meal organised by Ian's students (with military precision) for Ian and his colleagues. This was the last year of the single honours history at Staffordshire University. Joint honours is confidently expected to be dropped within a year or two and by then the only academic, non-vocational subject being offered by Staffordshire will be English. Most of the students at the meal were mature students who'd benefitted from being able to do a degree in their home town. Several of them are teachers now. I predict the effect of cutting back ...

A couple of computer 'hacking' stories have caught my eye over the last week. The first is that of Gary McKinnon, accused of breaking into US military systems, and now threatened with extradition to face a potentially long sentence in an American jail. The second is the nomination of four sites in the New Statesman [...]

It has been a little while since I added to this blog. This is mostly because the primary area of activity in British politics has been coping with the impact of the No votes in France and The Netherlands on the Constituional Treaty, and I think I had covered that in some detail. Things have continued to move in Europe, as the reverberations of the two votes continue. The blatant way in which President Chirac has used the British Rebate (we are supposed, for some reason, to call it an "abatement") to distract attention from his own failings, was not ...

Saw this film last Sunday (5th June), thought I should probably write a review: Starring Christian Bale as the Dark Knight, Batman Begins tells the story of Batman's origins, from his childhood fear of bats to his training with Ra's Al Ghul and so unlike the previous four films, the focus is on Bruce Wayne/Batman, not the villians, although they are well realised, being firmly grounded in reality

This morning's Times undermines those who would argue that a National Identity Card will help guard against fraud. On the contrary, an expert concludes that the ID card will assist in identity theft: Dr James Backhouse, a director of the London School of Economics Information Systems Integrity Group, said that identity cards would instead become the new master key for identity fraudsters, who would be able to acquire the cards using stolen documents. An identity theft takes place every four minutes and costs the country an estimated £1.3 billion a year. It is one ...