LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Friends of Arnold Circus, Friends of Allen Gardens, Green Friends of Weavers Fields and many other Friends' groups met today with Peter Murray of the Council and the Environment Trust to start up a compact, or agreement, between the Friends' groups and the Council. Some Friends groups are a conduit for complaints to the Council, others take on maintenance work on the park, while others work to raise funds to develop their local green space. We found out there were a lot of issues in common, especially communication with the Council and the Local Area Partnerships. ...

Friday night meetings are only for the very dedicated, but they don't come more dedicated than the folk who want to petition the Select Committee at the House of Commons about Crossrail. We were talked through the process by a veteran, who'd petitioned about the Channel Tunnel and about Kings Cross extension to this. Of the 358 petitions to Parliament about the Crossrail Bill, over 10% come from our area, which suggests we have a strong case. If you're one of these, if you contact me I can put you in contact with the coalition of groups ...

For those who like some certainty in their politics I offer this book by Katharine DeBrecht. According to the blurb "Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed" is a full-colour illustrated book and a fun way for parents to teach young children the valuable lessons of conservatism. Written in simple text, readers can follow along with Tommy and Lou as they open a lemonade stand to earn money for a swing set. But when liberals start demanding that Tommy and Lou pay half their money in taxes, take down their picture of Jesus, and serve broccoli with every ...

The latest pamphlet in the Liberator series Passports to Liberty was on sale at the Lib Dem Blackpool Conference, if only on the last day. It contains the essays "Spin" by Adrian Sanders MP and "Cohesive Communities" by David Boyle and (hem, hem) Jonathan Calder. "Cohesive Communities" was first written for the party's Federal Policy Committee and approved for publication as a policy development paper. But Cowley Street never showed any great enthusiasm for publishing it and it was eventually overtaken by preparations for the general election and the subsequent policy review. But surely if FPC approves something ...

One of the reasons why the British Armed forces have not been as disastrous as the US Forces in Iraq is their experience in Northern Ireland. That is not to say that in any way they should stay in Iraq, but it is worth looking at conflict in Northern Ireland and gang warfare in Birmingham and using those experiences try to understand what is happening in Iraq. I have uploaded some of the

From Popbitch: Tom Chaplin from Keane, on the train going to his parents’ house last weekend, drinking Ribena, doing the Daily Telegraph Book of Sudoku. Rock’n roll. And where does that elusive 9 go? Somewhere only we knooooow… Tags: keane © Will on No geek is an [...]

The possible or maybe probable coming of a major Bird Flu Pandemic hit the headlines again. Happily this coincides with the online Pandemic Flu Awareness Week (3-9 October 2005).There are things we - individuals and public authorities - can do to prepare for such a challenge. I have mentioned before the FluWiki, an exemplary initiative on the Net which works to make information available worldwide, and organises the online week. If you have concerns about what might happen in your area, do look it up.In fact if you are in any influence with Local Authority Emergency Planning Staff, make sure ...

Everyone thinks Gordon Brown will be the next Prime Minister of Britain. No one knows when this will happen. According to the press the Brown camp would like Tony Blair to step down in 2007. After Blair’s angry taunting speech to the Labour party conference – stop me going further with reforms if you’re hard enough – the media is speculating that Blair will stay until 2008. Politics is a

There's an interesting story in the BBC site today about a British Kinsey-era sex survey that was hushed-up at the time as it was considered rather shocking. In fact it was rather more forward-thinking that Kinsey was at the time since it included women as well. It's the sort of story that I wish I had [...]

My relatives in the 'Former Soviet Union' will be gratingly familiar with the style of justice New Labour is importing to Britain. The "Peoples' Courts of the USSR", the lower level courts, did not necessarily work to laws as such but to 'principles of Socialist Justice'. Condemnation by opinion and administrative convenience was a real possibility, without proper hearings and representation. Apparently Blair wants Instant Asbos, granted to the police without evidence or witnesses having to be heard or the defendant informed. Bans and restrictions would remain in place until a full court hearing. And much more. Blair in his ...

There is a strange asymmetry in the average Liberal Democrat's attitude to the two other parties. We positively glory in upsetting Conservatives. If someone got up during a debate at a Lib Dem Conference and said we should not support civil liberties in case the Daily Mail and the Tory Party attacked us, he would be howled down. And rightly so. But our attitude to Labour is very different. Here is Paul Holmes, chair of the Lib Dem parliamentary party, writing in today's Liberal Democrat News: Those who talk of "breaking up the NHS" need to explain in detail what ...

By Peter You think you've heard it all and then you read this in the morning Guardian and spill your coffee all over the toast: "I don't think that the traditional law can give law-abiding people adequate protection. We are trying to fight 21st-century crime - antisocial behaviour, drug-dealing, binge drinking, organised crime - with 19th-century methods as if we still lived in the time of Dickens," Mr Blair said in his Labour conference speech. Where was he educated? Fettes and Oxford wasn´t it? Well you one can understand feeling strongly about binge-drinking and anti-social behaviour ...

There’s a lot been written recently about flat tax proposals. Too often flat tax options have been deliberately muddled with tax cutting. It would be possible to introduce a flat tax at a sufficiently high rate that the total income tax take remains as it is now, but many of those proposing flat taxes sneak [...]

Walter Wolfgang, the 82 year old man who was unceremoniously bundled out of the labour Party's Conference for utilising his right to free speech gave an impromptu press conference yesterday. The Guardian takes up the story: The scene was more Kate Moss than Kier Hardie. Then, to cries of "welcome back Walter" from a small crowd of supporters, he began to speak, his voice retaining a trace of his German origins. "What happened to me yesterday isn't really important," he said - but the lunatic scene all around him disproved the claim. Trapped inside a surging prison of cameramen ...

Actually not Sunny Blackpool. It is relatively dreary here. The seaside resorts are used for party political conferences as they can swallow up a relatively large number of people in what would otherwise be relatively cheap empty hotels. The conferences are just after the summer season. There tends also to be quite a bit mediafest. It appears that my amendment on the Royal Mail was a bit too hot for the Conference Committee. I still believe, however, that the proposed approach is not the best way forward.

...an MP who's election team ignore local by-laws which govern the election? Ignore a direct call from the returning officer's team to take action? (Especially as other parties did) Who has avoided the tough questions, in person, for his new constituents? Who has used mob tactics at various opportunities instead of relying on democracy? I feel these are questions for my new MP to answer.

Today’s Wikipedia featured article is on the Single Transferable Vote. © Will on No geek is an island, 2005. ¦ Permalink ¦ No comment Add to del.icio.us Search [...]

A BBC news 24 report today on the Blogging phenomenon says there are now over 14,000,000 American's now blogging. Wow! Apparently the idea took hold during the American elections to promote candidates messages and captured the imagination of the public. Howard Dean came from nowhere but had a fascinating weblog for his campaign: Dean for America (now not active) which millions read making him an instant household name. Hence the birth of political blogging. Seems so much info is now going out in cyberspace that there are now many people ...

This story about the reduction in fuel subsidies in Indonesia (they take a third of the government budget) shows how short term governments can be about such issues. There are two big issues with Nuclear Energy. One is the issue of handling waste. The other is a global shortage of Uranium 235 You can forget fusion and the so-called hydrogen economy. The Nuclear Energy Agency produce a "red book". The Red Book is something they charge for, but the link gives a summary. In this instance it refers to locations where uranium is already ...

The BBC news reports on some strange bits of trivia. Hadn't a clue it's the start of the British apple season today. Never gave it a thought before. I love apples but they often get left in the fridge because they're arkward to eat especially with lipstick on and I can't be bothered fiddling around with a knife. Last Saturday my friend found and bought me an apple slicer - a kitchen gadget I never even knew existed. Now it's just a matter of placing the thing on top over the stem position and press. ...