LibDem Blogs - Archived!

The Times today said that Hewitt will be addressing the BMA about this and other issues of concern. I decided some time ago that, as a patient, I will opt out of the electronic patient record system. The system will be much too 'leaky'. I want my medical records to remain confidential. Clinicians will have passwords, but presumably there will have to be technicians who have a master password. Having logged on the clinician will get a couple of hours on the patient record 'spine' before being logged off - but will ...

This took place at a meeting of the Federal Executive. There was a proposal to "rationalise" the position of the Gender Balance Task Force and incorporate the post in to our Candidates Office. Although I am no longer Chair of the group I could not help but feel that this was a retrograde step now that we have begun to find out what works and what doesn't. We won the argument and the status quo

Visited a local nursing home this morning - main problem was the incongruous situation whereby local councils appear to be happy to keep people in hospital (for the cost of an extra £700 a week) rather than pay an extra tenner a week to the nursing home. Am taking this up but we also discussed problems around staffing and the impact of any bed closures at local hospitals on the nursing home

Early morning news today - Richard Whiteley (Countdown) died. Had to get my brain into gear quickly - my friend Robert is an addict and my thought - 'what's he going to say'. As a shift worker he usually phones me early in the morning when he gets home to make sure I'm up (wonderful personal alarm clock). I've only watched the program a couple of times - the words and number games are interesting (one needs a quick brain and a dictionary handy). Least I learnt the word Conundrum which the show has as ...

In my role as columnist of last resort for Clinical Psychology Forum, I have now written three pieces in the guise of the elderly academic Professor Strange. I have just added the third of them to Lord Bonkers' website, and they now have a page each. The columns are: The secret that never was (October 2003) Victorians, modesty and tablelegs (February 2004) Trainspotting, autism and what it means to be normal (July 2005)

From the Leicester Mercury:New-Born Baby Found Under Bush

On Friday morning I woke up bright and early to catch the 9 o'clock bus to Pilton for the Glastonbury Festival. Waking up was made easier by the fact that there was a storm going on here in Bath, complete with thunder, lightening and lots of rain. Bearing in mind that my house isn't very [...]

The Independent on Sunday carried a piece yesterday about the Government selling ID card data to help fund the costs of the project. This has some grounding in fact from what we already know. The legislation allows the Government to offer a service to companies for checking people against the database. This service would [...]

It’s not often that I shout at a newspaper but this article in yesterday’s Observer irritated me. Apparently there are calls for mobile phone signals to be jammed in schools in order to prevent “happy slapping” (or “assault” to you and me). Two reasons why this is a dumb idea immediately spring to mind: Kids can still [...]

Chris Lightfoot on the cost of biometrics in passports, exposing yet another false justification for ID cards.

How Zone 1 of the London Underground really looks. (Via, and.)

too complex, technically unsafe, overly prescriptive and lack a foundation of public trust and confidence So says the London School of Economics in their Identity Project Report published today. Much has been made of the LSE's disagreement with the government over the cost of the scheme - but the report's unease goes far further than cost issues. It also raises concerns over the plain legality of the proposals - both under our own laws, as well as European Human Rights legislation. The government is determined to steamroller this bill through Parliament, despite the fact that there is ...

Go to Cheadle! Me and Heather went yesterday, it's a lovely place and worth the effort.

From the ghast spattered bowers of Gaar to the cast-iron gates of Hoon; a single voice resounds; His lordly voice booms with a gnarled yet mesmeric resonance; an extraordinary baritone addressing you with wistful oratory. He is Frank Key, sole begetter of the Hooting Yard. Hooting Yard is a show on London’s Resonance FM. It’s [...]

“Thank you for calling Bulldog Broadband. Your call is being held in a queue and will be answered as soon as one of our representatives is available. I’m sorry to keep you waiting, your call will be answered shortly. Once again, sorry about the delay.”

I recently changed my mobile phone provider as many of us do from time to time. I needed to take my number with me and so had to go through the number portability process. Well, customer-friendly it ain't. You have to call your current provider to get the PAC code. You then have [...]

This blog is top of hits for "Awful Gavin Henson".

When the Government starts to offer concessions then it is clear that it is in trouble on an issue, however to backtrack before the Bill has even reached the floor of the House of Commons is quite exceptional. Thus the Home Secretary's response to the London School of Economics' claim that the ID card scheme could cost £18bn - triple government estimates of £6bn - is quite extraordinary. Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights group Liberty, predicted ID cards would prove to be Tony Blair's poll tax. "Businesses and the unions hate them. Minority communities fear them. Nine out of ...

Following last week’s Observer crossword problem, it was this Saturday’s Guardian that was afflicted. First I noticed that some of the word lengths in the clues didn’t match the spaces in the grid; then that the grid wasn’t symmetrical; and finally that some clue numbers didn’t appear in the grid at all. The problem: the right-hand [...]

I watched the beginning of The Girl in the Cafe on Saturday night but quickly lost interest. Bill Nighy and Kelly Macdonald may as well have been playing their characters from State of Play, except Paul Abbott’s excellent script had been replaced by Richard Curtis’s lumbering dialogue, neither funny nor dramatic. It became pretty clear [...]

Friday 24th June 2005 - I attended a performance by Knowsley Orchestra and Prescot Parish Church Choir at Prescot Parish Church this evening, one of a series of events in the 1st Annual Prescot Festival of Music the Arts, and as usual the performance was excellent, truly uplifting music and wonderful to see so many young people proudly showing us their music skills. Congratulations to the event

While the invasion of Iraq was disgraceful, the insurgents resisting US occupation deserve zero sympathy. The Us were mistaken in taking the action they did, but sympathy with the Hussein regime or Iran-style fundamentalism must surely be even worse. It is for that reason I am appalled that Donald Rumsfeld has been negotiating with the terrorists there. If ever we needed confirmation that principle was as distant from US foreign policy as you could imagine, then this it. I am sickened.