LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Through my door comes a leaflet from the Kettering Christadelphians. It says: God and his son Jesus Christ hold the answer to ALL lifes (sic) problems.I am going to found an Apostrophic Church to put a stop to things like this. I am not sure what it will look like yet, but here is a picture of the decrepit former Apostolic Chapel at Pontesbury Hill in Shropshire

A good cricket trivia question is to ask who the England wicketkeeper was last time we won the Ashes. Remember, it was on Mike Gatting's tour of Australia in 1986-7. The answer is Jack Richards of Surrey, the Cornishman who played for Surrey. Not a lot of people know that or even remember Richards' name. He left the game early and today lives in Antwerp while working in Rotterdam. I have just heard him interviewed on BBC Radio Five Live, and he now has a unique Cornish/Dutch accent.

A 15 year-old boy has successfully challenged the use of curfew powers by the Government with the support of the campaigning organisation Liberty. This is a helpful intervention by the courts into the debate about how to deal with 'anti-social' behaviour. It is right to take action against those who, whether young or [...]

Here, ahead of tomorrow's series starting at Lord's, is my preview and prediction for the Ashes series: The Australians have been, without doubt, the best side in the world for the last ten years. With the exception of a couple of series against India, in India, they have carried all before them, with a mixture of extravagant talent and ruthlessness. As such, for many years the Ashes have been well beyond England. Even when our side has been playing well, it has lacked the world-class performers that are needed to defeat such a strong eleven. England's performances over the last ...

This slanging match between the Secretary of State for Wales and the Deputy Presiding Officer is really getting silly. Who works hardest - MPs or AMs? I do not know. I think that the Assembly Plenary and Committee meetings do not meet often enough but I also know that as an AM the job can be seven days, 70 plus hours a week. I am sure that being an MP is equally demanding. Would it not be better if we all just got on with the job instead of trying to score points off each other on ...

One has to feel some sympathy for Plaid Cymru AM, Leanne Wood. She is the subject of a shock horror expose in today's Western Mail but when you read the article in full it becomes apparent that the reporter has completely swallowed the Labour spin and slightly misrepresented the leaked document that has caused all the fuss.This whole affair has played into the hands of the Labour campaign to discredit and undermine Regional AMs. In some ways Leanne's proposal, no matter how misguided, is a response to that. That is not to say that I support the proposals that Leanne ...

Centre Point in Puddle Originally uploaded by salimfadhley. On a blue-blue day I looked into a puddle and everything was transformed.

It is far from reassuring to see security being ramped up at this place. The latest addition is the black snakes of painted steel that have appeared in various locations around the parliamentary estate and we have been told that more precautions will be in place after the recess. All of this but no one seems bothered by something I had noticed recently. On the Tuesday after the bombings I walked

It’s getting to the point when everytime the Government opens its collective mouth I despair. The prime minister is suggesting parents should be forced to give up work to supervise their children if they are suspended from school. At least there is some good news for civil liberties today: A 15-year-old boy has won a landmark High [...]

Further to my previous post the trivia geek in me decided to find out when was the last day there were only three living occupants past or present of Number 10. The date was 10 January 1957 the day before Harold MacMillan succeeded Anthony Eden. However, for the 20 years before that there were usually only 2 or 3 men who had held the post of Prime Minister alive at any time.

Apart from the linked story, there is little editorial from Chevron's Advertising campaign about willyoujoinus. I also had a very complacent response from the governemnt about when global oil supplies will peak. The government point to the IEA's prediction of post 2030. They also make reference to the misleading point that the quoted reserves are 30 years plus of production. That is not a

politicalbetting.com reports that Ladbrokes have begun taking bets on whether Tony Blair fight and win the next General Election and stay at Number 10. The odds offered are 16/1, and even though such a bet necessarily involves leaving your money with the bookies for anything up to five years, it may well be worth a punt. There is a lot of wishful thinking about Blair's detractors' belief that he is bound to quietly make way for Gordon Brown in a year or two. The prospect of being prime minister when the Olympics come to London must be an enticing one ...

Which is worse the National Media or the Liberator - some party members are more scared of being mentioned in the Liberator Magazine - especially the Radical Bulletin. The sarcasm and satire can be embarrassing if you're the one in the news - informative but funny to the rest of us. They really get hold of the juicy bits about who and what is going on in the party. Went to a meeting last week where it was specifically mentioned that the matter should be kept within the four walls because "we don't want the Liberator ...

This quote was originally attributed to an American general in Vietnam. Figuratively, it also sums up the mentality of Charles Clarke and New Labour's cavalier attitude to our fundamental freedoms. Following the London bombings, New Labour is once again suggesting that, to protect us from more terrorist attacks, we must sacrifice our civil liberties. This argument is widely accepted without

He's the muttonchop-whiskered chap who drove along the project to put the Beagle lander on Mars, and charmed us with his west-country drawl. Not at all picture of a modern space sciences academic, but all the better for that. Beagle plummeted onto the surface of Mars, and was never heard from again. Its experimental package didn't cope with the traumatic launch, long journey in a vacuum near