LibDem Blogs - Archived!

For once retail has hit the headlines and everyone appears to be exercised by the ban on cheap clothing from China. Couldn't help feeling that there was an element of locking the stable door after the horse had bolted (do we still have a thriving mass market textile industry in UK? - I think not!) and went upstairs to check labels on recent clothing purchases. Initial intention was to check

By Peter I wouldn´t claim an encyclopaedic knowledge of Labour peers, but I have a professional interest in farm policy, and have heard Lord Haskins speak a few times. He is consistently impressive, in an "I´m not really a politician" sort of way. Danny Alexander did well to get him to help finance his campaign. In human terms, one could feel sorry for this act getting Haskins into trouble with comradely peers. But on strictly partisan grounds, one can only hope they throw the book at him!

John Hemming, Lib Dem MP for Birmingham (Yardley) is planning a regional hall of fame. "Birmingham was supposed to have a Hall of Fame on the current site of the ICC many years ago. This did not happpen. As part of promoting Birmingham within the region I beleive we need a hall or wall of fame. This will recognise the many successes of people in the region. Clearly this is something that

Question 1 Could you please tell me how many tax credit manual payments were made during the month of May 2005. Answer Around 43,000 direct manual payments were made in May 2005. Question 2 Could you also tell me what proportion of payments were made manually each month since April 2004 and what the cost of the manual payment process is. Answer The proportion of direct payments (%),

New from Google, Google Talk. Pretty basic at the moment, but Google's aim is for users to be able to chat to those using other Instant Messaging Programs - such as AOL, MSN, Yahoo, etc - and to offer total Voice over IP support. The best thing about it at the moment though, is it's ultra quick loading time. See Also: Full review of Google Talk

With my interest in George Orwell it was inevitable that my attention would be drawn to this item about the Olympic games. The idea that the Government is to legislate to prevent advertisers using the words "summer", "London", "gold", "silver" or "bronze" in conjunction with "games" or "2012" is truly bizarre. It illustrates perfectly how the original 'Olympian ideal' has long ago disappeared. More worryingly it demonstrates once more that this government's instincts are authoritarian rather than liberal. The Bill contains an automatic presumption of guilt, the onus is on businesses to prove they did not infringe official sponsors' rights, ...

When John Bolton was steam-rollered into the position of US Ambassador to the UN by Bush there was much dismay around the world. Here was a man who was well known for holding the UN in contempt and considered it a bit of interference in the goal of US global domination. Well, three weeks [...]

Former BBC Political Editor, Andrew Marr, is in the news himself today calling on politicians to learn how to speak human. This is actually more difficult than it sounds. In many instances the ability to speak human would only be possible if the politician concerned became one. I am exagerating of course. Nevertheless, the revolution that would follow if we were to adopt Andrew Marr's advice could break the mould of British politics for ever. And where would it leave the honest interpreters who have made a comfortable living telling the British public what it is we ...

If the rate of exam passes rises there are mutterings of 'dumbing down' the exams. If they drop, then the rhetoric is all about falling standards. Paradoxically, both have been true simultaneously for GCSEs recently. If you take the percentage of passes in GCSE subjects at A* to C, then these have been steadily rising. But the percentage of pupils who gain five A* to C grades - the league table benchmark - has actually been static or falling for the last couple of years. So which is it to be: dumbing down or ...