LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Wednesday 6th July 2005 - After watching another hilarious PMQ's with John Prescott deputising for the Prime Minister I headed to Cheadle this afternoon, my 3rd visit in 5 days, and was delighted to see so many people at the campaign HQ working hard. Every time I see a new Tory leaflet here in Cheadle, there's an extra reason to make sure we hold Patsy's seat in the by-election in 8 days

Over the past three weeks Simon Jenkins has been presenting a series of talks on BBC Radio 4 under the title "Mad as Hell". You can find audio files and transcripts of them here. He argues that government in Britain is too pervasive and, in particular, too centralised. More than that, he argues, that much of the blame for this lies with Mrs Thatcher. Far from rolling back the frontiers of the State, she pushed them forward. As he said in the first of his three talks: To rid Britain of socialism Thatcher claimed to need more power. It was ...

A sight I've not seen since I was a child - two Robins. Don't know much about the varieties of British birds (pure ignorance on my part) - apologies to any ornithologists. Actually thought I'd made a mistake but no, there are definitely two robins nesting somewhere in one of the tall trees in the back. They hop around the ground I recently dug up, looking for snails (there's a colony of them crawling about). In another tree there are Blue Finches - at least that's what I was told they are - but their lovely blue ...

I'm very pleased that London has won the Olympics. Not that I want Britain to bear the cost, or that I am particularly excited that more taxpayers' money will be thrown at the capital when it could be more usefully directed at, say, some of the deprived areas in the North East. But the fact that Chirac deliberately missed the start of the G8 summit, hoping to be able to turn up late and gloat, and that it has now backfired, fills me with a large amount of glee. Chirac has always placed the anti-English/Anglo-Saxon grandstanding ahead of actually using ...

I went to the New Statesman New Media Awards 2005 last night, held in a subterranean nightclub with trains rumbling overhead. As you can see from the logo I got no further than the shortlist - but neither did anyone else in the Elected Representative category. The judges decided not to award a winner. The New Statesman commented: But it was not because [the judges] felt their sites were lacking in effort, rather that they were lacking support, both from the parties they represent and the government. They also mentioned that there ...

This year I am on the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, with special responsibility for Learning and Leisure. That means that I have to select a number of topics for examination. I also get a raise in terms of allowance which was more than I thought - I was netting £554 a month as an ordinary Councillor after tax, but I was surprised to see it double to just over £1,000 in June. Overview and Scrutiny meets once a month and met yesterday. To give you an idea of what we do, the meeting ran ...

What's the betting that, in the next 24 hours, at least one American media outlet will report that the 2012 Olympic Stadium is to be built in Stratford-upon-Avon?

The organisation of the Olympic Bid has been good (see earlier photo) and there is clearly an attempt to have a bid that is for the whole country. With the strong transport links between Birmingham and London we are in a good position to work well as part of a national Olympics operation.

The House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs report The Economics of Climate Change published today gives an interesting critique of the forecasting techniques used for estimating future global warming and its effects. The report is critical of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It is also critical of the emphasis on wind power in the White Paper and calls for our present nuclear power capacity to be retained.

The joy of the weekly First Minister's question time is that we never know what mood he will be in, will he be bouncy and witty or tetchy and crabby? This week he had obviously decided that he was not going to take any nonsense, especially from Liberal Democrats. Accordingly, he picked at every one of our questions and even got personal when he felt it was necessary. Thus, he accused Kirsty Williams of asking questions in a funny way: Kirsty Williams: The business community that I talk to is becoming increasingly baffled by the way in which ...

At the New Statesman New Media Awards last night I met an Iranian blogger, Hossein Derakhshan who runs hoder.com. Iranian bloggers have been very prominent in the blogging world not least because of attempts at censorship by the Iranian government. The change of Presidency there may throw them back into the front line. Hossein has an [...]

I want representatives in the European Parliament to save Europe from software patents by following the Buzek-Rocard-Duff amendments. The Software Patents Directive, as approved by the European Council of Ministers, would legalise US-style Software Patents in the European Union. If that happens, software developers will no longer own what they write and can be sued for [...]

Two chairs in Room 403 Star Chamber Court nerve centre of attempt at world domination. Note hidden persian cat. I have spoken to the people who deal with permission for photography and am clarifying what can be photographed without a permit and what cannot on the parliamentary estate. Somewhat miraculously I now have parliamentary note paper both in London and Birmingham and have an integrated

Let me tell you about the man who ruined me; He goes by the name “Bulldog”, a nick-name which was not awarded for his tenacity and patriotism, but for appearance; he is a stunted, wrinkled homunculus of a man. Not so long ago, I made the mistake of signing one of his contracts; A mistake [...]

A very honest and convincing piece from John Major in today's Guardian: http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,9115,1522118,00.html What is the world coming to?!

Due to the house move, we presently have no Broadband (or phone line). Due to o2 being crap, I can't get GPRS. 3 phone calls, 1 email and it's still not working. I know what the problem is, and know what they need to do to fix it, however they keep telling me it's a problem with the phone, which it isn't. They have 48 hours to sort it out, else I will deem it a breach of the contract, and finally

When I sat down to my breakfast this morning and opened my Western Mail to this headline my first reaction was that filming had started in Cardiff on the new series of Dr. Who.

Having come in early to have breakfast, (It is possibly to buy a breakfast in the House of Commons from 7.30am which is slightly earlier than many of the cafes outside.) I find myself in the strange position of being the first Lib Dem in the queue for prayer cards. This is probably because it is unlikely that the Prime Minister is actually answering questions at Prime Ministers Question time.

Whilst not wishing in anyway to endorse behaviour that might be classed as anti-social, those of us who are regularly lectured by the Assembly Education Minister and others about 'evidence-based policy making' know precisely what Louise Casey means: 'her strongest criticism was reserved for Downing Street, which she suggested was "obsessed" with conducting extensive research before formulating policies. She apparently joked that she would "deck" Downing Street policy advisers if they kept spouting jargon at her. ' Her views on Ministers are enlightening to say the least: Speaking in Stratford-upon-Avon, Ms Casey told ...