LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Fear of crime is down in Jesus Green, in fact crime is down in Jesus Green overall. I went to the Residents Association meeting tonight and this was the main message: since the recent arrests there has been way fewer disturbances and the elderly and young families have been a lot more evident on the streets. Weavers Ward Safer Neighbourhood Team has been focussing on this estate, following a high crime wave. I've been to 2 meetings where residents, Sgt Dave Brown of the Safer Neighbourhood Team, police data analysts, the Neighbourhood Manager Louise Vallace, the Rapid ...

More news from Brighton: Security at Labour's conference has been attacked as "mad and over the top" after an MP's camera was seized and pictures deleted. Great Grimsby MP Austin Mitchell is furious at what he believes is the unnecessarily tough security at the Brighton conference centre. He was approached by stewards as he took pictures of delegates queuing to pick up their passes.

Astonishing! Around 600 people packed into the Guildhall this evening for the Mayor's Attendance Awards. Medals were awarded to well over 200 children and young people who had achieved a 100% attendance record last year. Attendance medals date back to the late 19th century, but died out over 80 years ago. So we decided to revive the tradition, and were amazed at how it was received by the children and parents. The BBC picked up on the story, and the Evening Standard is covering it tomorrow. This was yet another bright idea of Ming Zhang, ...

The previous summit was in Beijing and most have been held in the Far East. Although Singapore has always taken such issues seriously even in Hong Kong there was a lot of sniggering about toilets until 2003 when SARS came along. When people started dying as a result of an absence of hygiene then public sanitation was taken more seriously. There are lots of opportunities for scatalogical humour,

Yesterday Tony Blair mounted the Conference platform to the sound of Sham 69's "If the kids are united". No doubt this seemed like a good idea at the time but does the party which seeks to position itself on the side of the common man against yobbery and binge drinking fully understand the nature of the beast it has embraced? This 1970s band had a dedicated skinhead following and produced such gems as "Borstal breakout". The lyrics of the song "Evil Way" celebrated the sort of lifestyle that New Labour tells us they want to end: Been in ...

I couldn't believe what I was watching on the news today. The spectacle of the steward 'heavies' manhandling 82 year old Walter Wolfgang out of the Labour conference today was just incredible. Then to add insult to injury Steve Forrest, Erith and Thamesmead constituency party chairman, who was sitting next to Mr Wolfgang, was also thrown out after complaining about his treatment. Who wouldn't react in such a way, seeing an elderly man treated in this way. Whoever gave stewards such authority to mistreat people in this way has lost their marbles. What for? Have Labour sunk to the level ...

The BBC has smuggled this story out of Brighton: The Labour Party has apologised after an 82-year-old member was thrown out of its annual conference for heckling. Walter Wolfgang, from London, was ejected from the hall after shouting "nonsense" as Foreign Secretary Jack Straw defended Iraq policy. Police later used powers under the Terrorism Act to prevent Mr Wolfgang's re-entry.

I'm still reading last week's New Scientist magazine. Here's half a dozen items I found interesting that I haven't seen in any newspaper: ....In their editorial the magazine highlights the evidence about the increasing strength of hurricanes. "The good news is that there is no rising trend in the overall number of hurricanes , nor any sign that the worst storms are getting fiercer. But there is

The Leek Post and Times published the url of this blog today, so welcome to anyone who is looking at my blog for the first time. At the beginning of the election campaign I sent all the local papers my manifesto. None of them published it. None of them interviewed me. The one journalist who rang me said that they could not publish anything because the other candidate had nothing to say and 'it would not be fair'. Now, nearly three weeks after the election, the LP&T decides to publish something about it. What a ...

It was the last CPRE outing of the year today - to Ford Green Hall at Smallthorne. Ford Green Hall is a black and white house that somehow survived being surrounded by mines and it is now a museum. I've been meaning to visit it for the last 8 years; it would probably have been another 8 if Ann hadn't arranged this trip. The museum has an interesting collection of period furniture. The four poster tester beds looked very inviting. It was easy to imagine members of the Ford family being cosy behind the curtains on a ...

The new season (7) of the West Wing began on Sunday in America, and having just watched the latest episode it's great. Was rather woried about the spolier begining, but in the end it doesn't give too much away. Looking forward to the next 21 episodes and to discover who will be the next President of the United States.

Just to show how insular we are with our International outlooks, Canada installed a new Governor-General yesterday. I didn't notice either, despite having an interest in Canadian matters, or so I thought. Thoughts - great, Canada, some envy from me, and a plus point for Canada's Federal Liberal government... Anyway, the new 'GG' is Michaëlle Jean. She is a former refugee from Haiti. Official Governor-General site here. This from the Globe and Mail: The rewriting of the job definition began with Adrienne Clarkson, whoseenergy and activism earned admiration among Canadians. She became a patron ofthe armed forces at a ...

by Peter I went to see this play for political anoraks while other Lib Dems were still enjoying the Blackpool nightlife. As theatre, I found it pretty disappointing. An unconvincing love affair and local poltical rivalries animate the plot - but not much. As an on-stage essay in the relationships between New and Old Labour, the white working class and asians, and central and local government it was worth sitting through. (I left my anorak in the cloakroom, of course). The play seems to have been meticulously researched. The Independent fingers Oldham, Burnley and Bradford as the source for the ...

Interested in the economic aspects of the canned fish industry? See 338.47664942. Tags: dewey+decimal+system © Will on No geek is an island, 2005. ¦ Permalink ¦ 3 comments Add to del.icio.us [...]

We are in for an interesting few weeks in the Assembly. The opposition parties flexed their muscles again yesterday in rejecting the Government's Business Statement and forcing a debate on the E.coli crisis. Today it is likely that they will force the Labour Administration into holding some form of public inquiry on this issue.Also yesterday the Government published its draft budget for the next three years. It was quickly noted by the media and politicians that there were a number of interesting omissions from that document. First up was the failure to include any money to meet the Higher Education ...

So the Conservatives will have to rely on their grassroots members to choose their new leader after all. Well, that should cause a few more candidates to come out of the woodwork. Iain Duncan Smith anybody?

In his speech to the Labour Party Conference yesterday the Home Secretary rather incredibly claimed that ID cards will help control the Big Brother state: "It will not create the Big Brother state - it will help to control it," he told the Brighton gathering. "It will not remove civil liberties but will give an individual greater control over his identity." In Orwellian terms that is known as 'doublethink'.

A short obit on the BBC site announces that Actor Don Adams, best known as bumbling spy Maxwell Smart in 1960s TV spy spoof Get Smart, has died at the age of 82. Farcical and repetitive though it was, I did rather enjoy Get Smart. Good theme tune too. Ten years ago, the series was briefly resurrected [...]

Labour activists were at their worst again yesterday on a Charles Kennedy walkabout, The Scotsman likened it to anti-social behaviour. Whereas Labour still mob attack places (although not yet to take down their illegal posters) the Liberal Democrats tend to go in small groups so that hte candidate can meet the public, difficult to do this with a baying mob doing their utmost to prevent the

Having failed to get any attention on the subject when I've posted, I'm going to quote Stephen Tall. His comments reflect my own concerns with the hegemony of right/left political discourse and, perhaps, address the concerns of a Labour supporting friend who expressed to me that she thought the Liberal Democrats were not philosophically coherent. Stephen Tall:I don't think of my opposition to the war in Iraq as left-wing: I think of it as liberal. I don't think of my dislike of ID cards as left-wing: I think of it as liberal. I don't think of my support of the ...

Just seen the very good 1968 documentary, The Rocky Road to Dublin , directed by the journalist Peter Lennon. After the filming, Peter Lennon - who was there - took questions, and it was all very interesting - if it were not for the large number of English people there who seemed to be there because of some spiritual connection with Ireland. Perhaps I'm just being cynical; but I swear there was a sharp intake of breath when, in my one contribution to the Q&A, I referred to The Troubles as the 'most sustained period of Republican Terrorism in ...