LibDem Blogs - Archived!

I'm a political debate junkie - more keen if there's a Lib Dem guest - more interested when one of the guests is somebody I know more than just to say hello - chuffed when it's a friend. Question Time - a program on Thursday I try not to miss. There's usually a Lib Dem on the panel. Susan Kramer MP for Richmond Park was one of this week's guest speakers. She such a powerful speaker who comes across as somebody who speaks from the heart. It's not unusual for some of the men try to dominate ...

Meeting yesterday to discuss recent meeting with Minister (Stephen Timms - I was not involved as there was only one member from each party and Chris Huhne represented the Lib Dems). When we met Malcolm Wicks earlier this year he was sympathetic to the APW workers but led us all to believe that the Government could not provide compensation for the lost pension schems because it "would set a

Chaffinches and bullfinches were quick in discovering the feeders in our garden, but goldfinches and bullfinches took longer. Both visited us to steal cherries, and the bullfinches used to return in the winter to take the berries from the honeysuckle, but they were not regular visitors. We lured the goldfinches by getting a niger seed feeder. Now they visit regularly and take other food too. The bullfinches have only started using our feeders this year. They are the most colourful finches: a brilliant coral and black. There was a pair; now there are two ...

They've been discriminated against. There is nothing more pleasing than seeing an "evangelical" get a taste of his/her own medicine. It almost compares with the very rare opportunities I get to chat to such people - although the Jehovah's tend to avoid my door these days (can't think why). So... picking apart their argument: "A decision by the Co-operative Bank to demand that Christian Voice close its account has led to accusations that the bank is ‘hypocritical’ in its application of human rights by discriminating against Christians" No, they did not discriminate against Christians, they decided that your beliefs ...

William Donaldson, the creator of Henry Root Letters, died last week. For those too young to remember, the Guardian obituary by Christopher Hawtree describes them well: The Henry Root Letters (1980) was a collection of correspondence between the supposedly retired wet-fish merchant, Root, whose clever if unhinged jottings to the great and the good, often enclosing small sums of money, elicited some wonderfully revealing responses. They were, of course, penned by Donaldson. From the obituary it is clear that there was a great deal more to Donaldson than Henry Root. He was joint producer of Beyond the Fringe, making much ...

Tim Worstall has posted this week's Britblog round up here.

A post at a message board I look at regularly reported a piece of news the other day which I haven't seen anywhere else. I mention it here, because the poster believed that the significance of the news was vast - that in years to come, it could be seen as a watershed in the Southern US evangelical crusade against homosexuals. At its convention this week, the Southern Baptist Convention ended its boycott of the Disney corporation. Interestingly, the page linked to above marks out a number of dissenting voices from the boycott in the first place - especially this ...

I suppose it has to be global warming. The paddling pool took days to blow up and as far as I know has not actually been used for paddling purposes. Recently, however, there has been a lot of rain which has started filling up the pool. Various 2-5 year olds were spraying each other with water around it which led me to look in the water which seemed to have mosquito grubs swimming in it (or some

I really have got to stop reading tabloid newspapers. My first reaction on reading this in the Observer this morning was to wonder why Charlotte Church's views on Zimbabwe should attract the interest of such a serious newspaper. Putting that trivia to one side this issue is actually a very serious one. Speaking to members of an asylum seeker support group in Swansea on Friday I got the impression that the Home Office has stopped giving many asylum applications serious consideration despite the very desperate and genuine circumstances of the applicants. The rejection rate is apparently rocketing, whilst their willingness ...

According to today's Wales on Sunday, former BBC chief, Greg Dyke, believes that the recent Dr. Who series spent too much time in Cardiff. Apparently, he thinks that BBC Wales were trying to save money and that the obsession with the Welsh capital belied the Doctor's status as a time traveller: "Given that the Doctor is a time traveller able to go anywhere at any time, he did end up on Earth a disappointing number of times during the 13 episodes and, even worse, he kept turning up in Cardiff. "Of course any connection ...

Response to question: I have been supporting the Make Poverty History campaign. If we really mean to make poverty history, however, we need to understand the nature of political structures and how this country through its influence can either make things better or worse. Much of international politics is based upon interests rather than principles. The "Ethical Foreign Policy" that this

In response to my post on anti-Americanism, Monjo left the following comment: The Beatles? I think they made it in Hamburg, then in Liverpool, and then finally in the US. Maybe British bands who make it in the US before Germany do so because the US is a much bigger market and it is English-speaking. If they arent good enough to crack the US it hardly is a surprise they flop in Germany... So I think your music example is pointless :P I want to comment on this because it raises a very interesting point. Firstly, I'd ...