LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Well, I couldn't be arsed watching the Beeb's 90-minute 'Test the Nation' style engagement with all matters European. But I did do the crude online test, with the result that I'm stereotyped as Mr they like all things European from going on holiday to sun dried tomatoes and good red wine. Well, I don't go a bundle on sun-dried tomatoes, and I'm pretty much teetotal. But, after that, I guess I

The other day I wrote that: Liberal Democrats love to describe themselves as "radical", but for many there seems to be an unstated assumption that to be radical means to be like the pre-Blair Labour Party.I have since found that there is an article by Iain Sharpe in the current issue of Liberator (the one that was on sale at Blackpool) which explores this idea more fully. He writes: For many of those in the Lib Dems who consider themselves radicals, the core belief or "golden thread" is not about decentralisation, individual freedom, environmentalism or whatever; it's about not ...

Leading Liberal thinker (and my recent co-author) David Boyle has just revamped his website. Well worth a visit.

Lots of people have already commented on the heavy handed approach to Walter Wolfgang at the Labour Conference. The two aspects of the incident that I find most worrying are: 1 That only one other delegate had the strength of character to intervene; 2 The use of the Terrorism Act to detain Mr Wolfgang when he tried to return to the hall. I seem to remember lots of promises that these new police powers would only be used when absolutely necessary and that we liberals had no reason to get all hot and bothered ...

You will not find a lot about Taishi Village in the 'international' INTERNET. Only a little in the international press. But the story has been all over the Chinese-Language Internet. Taishi Village has a population of about 2000 and is in Guangdong province . The villagers are using a new law to try to force the recall of their existing Village Committee. This is real, raw, proper politics and the courage of the villagers and their dedication to peaceful protest in the face of sometimes violent official action is awesome. Read this summary of events so far and the reasons ...

Courtesy of the European Movement via Sarah Ludford MEP, not enough political adverts have the guts to call their own side "bastards", so I welcome this warmly. See kids, learning about the European Union is fun! http://www.whathaseuropedone.org

TOMORROW - SEASONS RESTAURANT, 6-8PM. Come along and ask me a question. Or ask me one here. :) Questions may be restricted to only students of the University of Surrey, I'm not sure of the rules on that one.

This is a picture of me with the coordinator and chair of Homestart - Cole Valley. They held their first AGM on Monday morning. HomeStart are a charity with provides mainly voluntary support to families with children under 5. They have about 20 volunteers working in Yardley and Sheldon (and now Shard End). Their funding comes from the PCT, Social Care and NRF plus donations. Of course we now

by Peter The Lib Dem policy review is based upon the Meeting the Challenge document - a document that is rarely sublime and rarely ridiculous, but does seem to veer worryingly between the two. It has little to say about the economy, although this is of fundamental importance. It does not engage seriously with the problems facing the next government (government spending pushed up from 37 to 45% of GDP, and GDP stagnating as Brwon´s debt bubble bursts). Simplifying, people interact in three ways to meet each others needs: free mutual exchange (through markets); altruism and social exchange; ...

Kakuro is the most recent puzzle to be described by the cliché "the latest craze in Japan is now sweeping the UK." It has similarities with sudoku as far as numbers have to be slotted into rows and columns based on which numbers occupy other squares, but there is one significant difference: kakuro does involve [...]

I was in Tiger Heaven on Sunday morning as a result of the Wests Tigers triumph in the NRL Grand Final. I was in a state of Rhino Delight on friday as Leeds Rhinos made the Super League Grand Final to be played in a couple of weeks. Every Northern hemisphere spring there is the Rugby League World Club Challenge where the winners of the NRL face the winners of the Super League. Some readers of this blog may know, or will have noticed from my links, that I support both the Balmain (Wests) Tigers and the Leeds Rhinos. But ...

Winterbourne is a village not far from here. It's both a traffic hotspot and an electoral problem. There's some local pressure for a by-pass and it was this issue that helped the Tories capture all the seats at the last local election (whereas the previous administration had a good splattering of LibDems). The LibDems remain the largest group on the council, however, and traffic and planning is

by Steve TravisEdward Leigh's Cornerstone Group now have their own blog, and interesting reading it makes too. After bursting onto the scene at the end of July (to noises off saying "Here come the Tory Taleban!") with a pamphlet entitled The Strange Desertion of Tory England (NB - no mention of Scotland or Wales there), Leigh & Co. present their second offering, a full-blown mini-manifesto called Being Conservative: A Cornerstone of Policies to Revive Conservative Britain (Phew! They've noticed the celts this time!).I apolgise for the flippant tone of my first paragraph, as it would be very easy ...

Interesting article in the Guardian this morning about the new found aversion of Government and the Police to photographers. The deletion of all the photographs on MP, Austin Mitchell's camera by a police officer at Labour Party Conference is already documented elsewhere. Many of us had just taken it as an example of New Labour's control freakery. However, the article puts forward evidence that leads me to believe that this tendency is becoming more widespread and suggests a rather disturbing attempt by some police officers to exceed their powers so as to restrict long-held liberties: "Basically the police ...

I have just heard the new Kate Bush single, "King of the Mountain", on Virgin Radio. As a long-time fan of her music I had already downloaded it over the weekend. I am now looking forward to the release of her new album, "Aerial", in November, the first in 12 years. At the conclusion of the track I was astonished to hear the DJ claim that Kate Bush was the "original Bjork". He then went on to state that she is related to US President George W Bush and that as a result she may one day inherit the ...