LibDem Blogs - Archived!

I'm just back from an enjoyable day at the Bethnal Green Green Spaces Festival. The idea is that you have a passport to all the open spaces in Bethnal Green, which gets stamped as you visit each of the parks. Your passport is then entered into a prize draw. So I listened to talk by William Fishman about East End Jewish Radicals at the transformed scrabby bit of land beside Rhoda Street, watched the Carrom games in Arnold Circus, watched planting in Ion Square Gardens, got my photo taken in Allen Gardens, visited Spitalfields City ...

The week just gone was too busy to allow much time for blogging, so I'm catching up now. One headline that caught my attention was the refusal by most of New Look's staff in Dorset to move to Stoke-on-Trent. New Look are moving their warehouse to Stoke this month, but most of their workers prefer redundancy in Dorset. At a CPRE meeting on Thursday we were discussing the growth of 'logistics', i.e. warehouses in the West Midlands, particularly Staffordshire. I'm concerned about the implications for growth in lorry traffic on our roads, but there are other concerns too. ...

Browsing the Tesco Clubcard site on a Sunday night (as you do), I was relieved to see that the FAQs covered all the essentials. For example: "One of my relatives has died – Can I change the card to my name so that the points are not lost?" Well, it would be my first thought too... You can imagine the scene: granny's just karked it, and a family row is brewing because dad wants to convert her 73

It was the media what won it, argues Simon Isledon on The Liberal. He blames the party's press officers for the way stories about dissatisfaction with Charles Kennedy's leadership dominated coverage of the Liberal Democrat Conference. I wonder. It is true that the party's press operation has often left a lot to be desired. One of the reasons that members of the Liberator editorial collective appear in the media so regularly during conference week is that there are lots of journalists wandering around conference, desperate for someone to explain what is going on to them. We are happy ...

I was born in a cross-fire hurricane And I howled at my ma in the driving rain, But it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas! But it's all right. I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash, It's a Gas! Gas! Gas! The developing energy crisis makes me think of these lyrics. Although clearly these lyrics were not written to predict from 1968 what would happen in 2005, it is clear that the problems in terms of

Last week the Liberal Democrats held their autumn party conference at Blackpool. I managed to take some time off and drive up to attend on the Wednesday and the Thursday. This was my first time at a national conference and overall it was an enjoyable experience. It was refreshing to be surrounded by people who are actually interested in current affairs and politics for a change. Liberal and liberalism are now often derided words, ...

Wonders never cease - Labour peer Lord Chris Haskins has been expelled from the party for giving money to a Liberal Democrat candidate during the last election. Lord Mike Watson pleaded guilty to the charge of wilful fireraising He was sentenced to 16 months in prison by Sheriff Kathrine Mackie The fireraising took place at the Prestonfield House Hotel last November Yes, they've been expelled from the Labour party but the ironical thing is that a peerage is for life so there's nothing to stop them taking their seats again in the ...

Apparently, Tony Blair has decided he doesn’t want the “urban intellectual” vote. New Labour has so many targets, it is hard to keep up but somewhere there is a target to get 50% of children into universities. Presumably, when they graduate they will live in cities. New Labour doesn’t want their vote. New Labour won’t be campaigning for their vote. If the Liberal Democrats get their vote,

Shakespeare had all the best lines. What is in a name? At the Liberal Democrat conference in Blackpool this year, the media and some party members threw names and labels about as if there was no tomorrow: there was centre-left, centre-right, Gladstonian economic liberal and social liberal. I have never found that left and right are adequate explanations of political positions. They hide

Will Hutton argues in the Observer this morning that the New Labour Government has started to lose its way already: An air of funk is beginning to settle on New Labour. It may have won a historic third term only months ago, but the electoral system disguises the political reality that its Commons majority is built on only 35 per cent of the popular vote. The party is atrophying; membership has

The Politics Show are running an on-line poll to find the most embarrassing conference moment. Peter Lilley singing to the Tory Party Conference is my favourite to win, though Iain Duncan Smith announcing that the 'quiet man is turning up the volume' has to be a close second. I was actually present when David Steel told the 1981 Liberal Conference to 'go back to your constituencies and prepare

Woman arrested over Menezes leakBecause it's all her fault that Sir Ian Blair was exposed as a fraud and a liar. How dare she.

Another weekly update. Must try to blog more often.This was week that I avoided going to the Liberal Democrat conference in Blackpool. Being a civil servant involved with briefing Government Minsters, I tend to take a low profile on national matters. I am a Local Politician for Local People!On Tuesday evening, to the Life cafe for a meeting of the Ladywell Pool campaign. Not sure can give away all its secrets. I leave that to Max Calo. :-)Fairly quiet weekend catching up on casework and stuff. Took Friday off work to this purpose. ...

Here is the story that Jim Devine carries on the fron page of his election leaflet going into the last week of his election campaign. The wording is strangely familiar subtitute Jim Devine for Ian Wright and Livinigston for Hartlepool and you have Labour's new leaflet. Here is hpoing that the electorate are not so easily confused this time around as to who are the challengers in this Labour