LibDem Blogs - Archived!

I notice that that old bastion of reaction, Richard, is off with his pompous unthinking claptrap about saving the Queen and all that. It's touching to think that this country still has a place for such quaint fools who pay unthinking deference to an unelected head of state who is given enormous privilege and wealth purely by the good fortune of a birth. But if he thinks my quibble is about 61p a

I can exclusively reveal that Nicholas II, Tsar of all the Russias, was not murdered at Ekaterinburg in 1918. His moustache and beard, as you would expect, now have a lot of grey in them, and he wears a lawyer's wig in an attempt at disguise. But it was definitely him sitting at the Clerk's Table in the Commons yesterday. He is not the first famous person I have seen resurface in unlikely circumstances. Hitler ran a second-hand bookshop in Bedford during the 1980s while General Franco worked on Leicester railway station for many years.

George Galloway (Respect) - love him or hate him - he's a powerful orator who's certainly making waves and a lot of money from the series of one-man shows. Sadly people are listening to what he says. Scotman news report

Ken has recently indulged in some republican nonsense. The fact is, that for all the trendiness of attacking our glorious sovereign, fashionable lefties like Ken don't properly appreciate that while constitutional monarchy is imperfect, it is, like capitalism and democracy, far better than any of the alternatives available. An elected head of state, as Ken seems to advocate, would be a divisive

I think my previous posts here have probably made it quite clear that the cadre of professional politicians leaves me cold. Today I want to investigate the the Tory "Notting Hill Set" - supposedly the next generation coming to sweep the Conservative Party back to power. In many ways, they are the embodiment of the political class which I spoke of in the linked post. And this is why I really don't

The Western Mail highlights a controversy that arose yesterday in Plenary, whether or not an Assembly Member needs to wear a tie in the chamber. This arose following a point of order as to whether it was alright for Culture Minister Alun Pugh to sit in the chamber with an open-neck shirt.Lord Elis-Thomas decided that in warmer weather it was acceptable for AMs not to wear ties. However, he said his personal preference was for jackets and ties and he stressed he personally would not sit in the Chamber without a tie.Whether or not Alun Pugh had failed to wear ...

It is becoming common nowadays for newspapers to send a journalist undercover into some royal palace or government building with a large parcel labelled 'bomb' just to see how far they get. Fortunately, no one seems to have done it at the Assembly just yet. Security is, in fact, very tight here. All visitors have to go through a metal detector and their bags are scanned for anything suspicious. In addition we have our own Police Station plus trained staff who are primed to help sort out any incidents. In theory therefore we should not have to worry too ...

Melting iced lolly floods Manhattan. (Via.) Lib Dem hopeful Stephen wants Labour to end talk of ‘neds’. (Via.) Dubya “mouth-kissing”. (Via.) Vera Baird wins Westminster Dog of the Year. And The Bear (off of Bo’Selecta) deals with The Frog.

I been following the House of Commons debates on Racial and Religious Hatred Bill with great interest. It's been a heated topic of discussion at several meetings I've attended this week.A joint Tory-Liberal Democrat bid to block moves to outlaw incitement to religious hatred failed in the Commons Tuesday night. Guardian ReportThe party's stand is that the racial and religious hatred bill will curtail freedom of expression and worsen community relations.Personally I believe that there's a clear difference between race, political beliefs and the religion to which a person belongs. We have a civic responsibility to try and drive out ...

At the start of the day there are prayers in the House of Commons. This is more important to MPs because if you pray you can book a seat on the benches for the day. Any time after 8am when the chamber opens an MP can, themselves and not on behalf of another MP, collect a little green card, write their name on it and slot it into a little slot on the green benches. Then at prayer time (when the

One thing missed from the last week was that we now have a replacement for the 99 bus which will be a more frequent 13 service. This will cover the parts of the route that have no service. That was resolved at a meeting on Friday last, but things got a bit busy with journalists camped out all over Birmingham after that.

At an LDYS Scotland meeting this week, I visited the Scottish Parliament for the first time. I’d walked past during its final stages of construction but not been back since. It’s certainly architecturally interesting (although architecture isn’t my forte). The best bit was visiting the debating chamber which is huge. There are high tech panels on [...]

There have been a couple of very interesting posts at Europhobia and The Sharpener recently, concerning anti-Americanism. The major problem with Third Avenue's argument is that I would very strongly object to his definition of anti-Americanism, where mere geography is the key determinant of hostility. This masks his broader point, which is to argue that "anti-Americanism" is really "anti-Bushism".

Bob Geldof has today confirmed some of my major suspicions about Live 8. Firstly, that he needs the big stars to turn out more than he needs people to engage with the issues of poverty. He's hoping to bask in the reflected glow of REM, Coldplay, the reunited Pink Floyd et al, rather than encouraging interest in the problems of world poverty on an intellectual basis. Perhaps more worryingly,