LibDem Blogs - Archived!

The other day I plugged the newly published pamphlet in Liberator's Passports to Liberty series. The magazine's website carries details of the whole series as well as information on how to order the pamphlets. Also advertised is the latest Liberator songbook, complete with foreword by Lord Bonkers.

Apologies if you have visited this site recently and found that it was down. Apparently the Readmyday project has been subjected to a massive spam attack. Monty Python has much to answer for.

I love my county, but I've recently heard two true stories concerning residents of my ward who haven't exactly received good customer service.... The first concerns a couple who went to a certain budget supermarket and parked their car in the supermarket car park. Unfortunately when they came back to their car they had a flat tyre and had to call the AA out to help, which took a while. As a

Can't say I'm a big theatre goer, but have now been to the Rep twice in 5 weeks.Yesterday we went along to see Romeo & Juliet. Again, I'm not a big Shakespeare fan, but R&J would be one of my favourites, and this staging was very good. It was slightly modern (at points in the first half, the actors not involved on stage sat in directors chairs alongside the stage), and the production was exceptionally simple (with a background in stage lighting for bands I spend half the time looking at the setup).

Just how important is the Tory leadership contest? Whoever wins is most unlikely to become prime minister. And if recent form is anything to go by, the winner is likely to be overthrown in just two years' time. BBC1's 6pm news last night got it right. The speeches of Ken Clarke and David Cameron were considered somewhat newsworthy, but not as much as the death of Ronnie Barker, which took top

Can be viewed here.

(Or: how the Tories are too stupid to see how stuffed they are by FPTP) by Jabez Clegg Over at Make My Vote Count, Paul Davies has written this excellent article on how the Conservatives face a long term and systematic bias against them under FPTP. It makes sobering reading, as this bias is not going away anwyhere fast. They are stuffed good and proper (as are we). Yet, most Tories believe that the system now weighted against them will even up or, eventually, work in their favour again, bless 'em! Is it too much to ...

At the District Committee last week we were presented with the case that to have a community space of 3,300 square feet available from 8am to 6pm could cost 71,000 per year for 30 years. Given that we need access during the evening this is a complete non-starter. The point to remember with this is that it ignores the land values. You could argue the case that the community were being priced

I happened to be complaining about TV characters whose names are contrived specifically to allow a pun for the show title. Thanks to various people for helping me compile this (in no way definitive) list of shows found guilty: Robin’s Nest The Brittas Empire The Magnificent Evans Tom, Dick and Harriet Filthy, Rich and Catflap I Dream of Jeannie Shine On Harvey [...]

The spat in yesterday's Plenary over the Government's draft budget receives a lot of coverage this morning. On 'Good Morning Wales' Finance Minister, Sue Essex, told listeners that the opposition had thrown a spanner in the works by amending the Government's motion and forcing negotiations on their spending plans. However, this outcome was not unexpected on the government side, nor is it the cataclysm that they are claiming. That is because the Assembly has until 10th December to approve the final budget and, because they were expecting some delay, the Government had tabled the draft earlier than usual. Claims that ...

Firstly, thanks to all who supported me in the election. I have just been elected with around 70% share of the vote. I can't remember the exact number, but I'll post it all up later. On cloud nine, so making this a short one. :)

by Peter Liberal Democrat: one having an unreasonable belief in the power of the abstract noun. In the wake of Freedom, Fairness and Trust (a good document with a poor title) Meeting the Challenge seeks to organise our thoughts under six of them: Freedom; Fairness; Localism; Internationalism; Sustainablity; and Prosperity. More is not better, but there are some improvements here. No one would have disagreed with any of FF&T. At least some people will disagree with Localism and Internationalism. And Prosperity is at least connected to the grounds on which most people make poltical decisions. But let's try to get ...

The Western Mail this morning, like many other papers, has lots on the Tory leadership contest. However, there is also an item on another interesting contest within the Conservative party - the battle to succeed David "the gypsy king" Davies as AM for Monmouthshire.Rather strangely, since David decided to run for Parliament, one AM in particular has increased her references to Monmouthshire in the chamber and seems to be spending a disproportionate amount of her time there. However, according to the Western Mail Laura Anne Jones faces stiff competition for the Tory nomination, and not just from the other candidates.The ...

The European Movement has a brilliant animated site to teach kids about the European Union. I am not sure the swear-word is really appropriate or necessary. Call me old fashioned - I'm probably just set in my ways but I hate swearing - it's so vulgar. The site is however fun and well worth a look at What has Europe ever done for us? It's based on the 'What have the Romans ever done for us' scene from the classic Monty Python's Life of Brian film. The forum link is educational if ...

Still job hunting, but another pearler has turned up :-) I'm beginning to be hopeful again. This week-end its regional conference and I'm still trying to sort out the training schedule, I'll be glad when I've nailed it as its beginning to get edgy :( An American friend, who goes by the sobriquet “ºOº TDC Dame E(ticket)lizabeth”, kindly sent me a wicked web-site about the FSM, check out (http://www.venganza.org/) for a wonderful argument against Antidisestablishmentarianism.(I wonder, is that the longest word used in a blog today/this week/this year/ever??)

I'm still at work, which is annoying. Light relief, however, has been provided by these jokers whose primary reason for existing seems to be that they hate the Liberal Democrats. They are also not a little nutty: The preamble to their constitution states: [The Liberal Party] looks forward to a world in which all peoples live together in peace under an effective and democratically constituted World Authority Government by UN? Oh dear. Was this inspired by Star Trek? They also support the Stop the War Coalition who are anti-democratic apologists for totalitarianism. How foolish.