LibDem Blogs - Archived!

This blog used to complain regularly about the Standards Board for England, as in this House Points column from February. The Tories took up the cause before the general election, but things seemed to go quiet after that. Now a Labour backbencher, the unlovable but effective Andrew Dismore, has come out for the forces of light. He was interviewed on the Today programme this morning and his comments are reported on the Guardian website: The body that investigates allegations of sleaze and misconduct in local government is an out-of-control "Frankenstein's monster", a Labour MP protested today. Andrew Dismore, a ...

Our CPRE outing this month was a guided tour of Holy Trinity Eccleshall. Eccleshall was the residence of the Bishops of Lichfield right up to the Georgian era, apparently because it was more central to the diocese than Lichfield. The more interesting bits of the church are 13th century Early English. We were shown the marks in the walls where archers sharpened their arrowheads and the primitive sundial on the wall which marked the time to the next mass. Eccleshall is one of Staffordshire's most attractive towns. It won the Britain in Blooom competition last year ...

My old professor was fond of saying that there are two kinds of statements in philosophy: those that are true but not interesting, and those that are interesting but nor true. I am not sure if everything John Gray says is true, but he is never less than interesting. Jonathan Derbyshire has just reproduced a magazine interview he conducted with Gray a couple of years ago. It deals largely with the nature of Islam and the Western liberal response to it. Well worth a look.

There was an interesting programme by Peter Taylor, a veteran Panorama reporter, about Al Qaeda on Monday evening that focussed heavily on the use of the internet by terrorists. His main thesis about the use of the internet by extremists is one that merits a broader discussion but I do have two immediate observations. Firstly, that [...]

I've been catching on the blogs I've missed over the last few days. Almost all of them mention this article about Simon Hughes' plans for the party. Most round on his comment that we should apply for Parliamentary Candidates through the press. Having recently gone through my development day to become an approved candidate for the party nationwide (I was only licenced for the recent General

More celebrity goings on in Linlithgow. This time Liam Gallagher, lead singer with Oasis, plans to marry fiancee, and former All Saint, Nicole Appleton at Hopetoun House just out of town. Hopetoun House is the home of the Marquis of Linlithgow and the couple visited earlier this month. Romours have it that they will be married around Christmas time in a red marquee in the grounds. First Scotty,

The arrests in Heybarnes Road were just outside my constituency (and ward). They have, however, had an impact on the atmosphere in the city. It appears that quite a few of the people arrested have been Somalian or East African. There have been quite a few tensions between Somalians and Kashmiris in recent years. As usual a lot of this arises from economic displacement which drives most of such

I am spending today in my Cardiff Bay office catching up on correspondence and other work. I have not seen any other AMs yet, though no doubt there will be one or two here, and a lot of offices seem deserted and in darkness. The same is true of the journalists and TV studios. I was shocked, following my earlier diatribe about the smoking room, to find that I can now smell the smoke on the third floor, two floors up via the high atrium by the entrance to the building. This is clearly a healh hazard that needs tackling ...

Via Will Howells, the ICIGSITBOTH intiative. PS. It now seems he was shot eight times. Excessive force anyone? PPS. Question: What would you do if 4 men in plain clothes were running towards you, asking you to stop and one of them was holding a gun?

Make sure you assist emergency services by placing an ICIGSITBOTH (In Case I Get Shot In The Back Of The Head) number in your mobile phone book.

Queen is Doctor Who fan - a headline that will surprise no-one…

Have spent a lot of time on this this week (in between preparing for a speech on domestic violence at Netley) and was frustrated to learn that the Primary Care Trust have changed the venue for the public meeting on Friday. A meeting was originally planned for the Town Hall (rumour has it that they had only booked the Court Room which holds a max of 70 people................) but this has (wisely

Intensive and highly enjoyable day today at the University of Minnesota We had contributions from e-democracy people from around the world - good to meet up again with Steven Clift and Phil Noble (will add links later). I spoke on the theme "Who needs elected representatives?'" arguing that greater participation by citizens need not reduce the power of elected members, but offers them a greatly enhanced role. e-Democracy can be a catalyst for real involvement by the community in the decisions that affect them. In true e-democracy style, we had some online participants as well, ...

In the year 1215, a group of people in England (and much of France) staged a revolution. Unusually for the time they insisted that the then ruler ( a fool called Jean Sansterre) did not have the right to do whatever he wanted. This brake on absolute rule is the origin of today's liberal democracy, and the rule book- much abused and usually ignored- that was agreed on an island in the River Thames- Runnymede- became the "Great Charter of Liberties". "The state does not have the right to do what it likes"- this revolutionary principle is the foundation of ...