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Jake at the Uncertainty Principle makes a good point in his entry for October 6th about what makes and does not make an argument: I've always found Simon Hughes unconvincing, and this would seem to confirm it. Thanks to Jake for the link.

One of the enduring mysteries of our time is the lack of a photographic record of Bonkers Hall - the country seat of my old friend Lord Bonkers.Nevertheless, the Hall bears a striking resemblance to Nevill Holt, even though that house can be found just over the Leicestershire border. Nevill Holt was the home of the Cunard family in Victorian and Edwardian times and later became a boys' preparatory school.A few years ago it closed rather suddenly, as boys' preparatory schools will. It has since been converted into flats.There are a couple of fine views of Nevill Holt on the ...

It wasn't just National Poetry Day I was writing about a year ago. Looking through the archive from October last year I find that I spent a lot of time discussing reports that schools were banning children from playing conkers because it was too dangerous. This year there have been no such stories. Why is this? Explanation 1: Autumn has come late this year, proving the global warming theorists wrong. This is unlikely to be true: a late autumn would have been taken as evidence for global warming just as readily as an early one. Explanation 2: Every ...

Before the waters of oblivion close over its head, let's celebrate yesterday's Simon Hoggart sketch from the Tory Conference: For the first time I can recall Ken Clarke seemed, in his own rough and ready way, to be wooing the Conservative party. It's not exactly fine wines and Belgian chocolates offered on bended knee, more "how does a Scotch egg and a pint sound?" while bellied up to the bar - but at least he showed he cared. In the past he has given the impression that he knows he's the best, the only real choice; if the party ...

New light is cast on the strange transformation of Leighton Andrews AM "from Liberal thinker to cheerleader for Blair's authoritarians". CymruMark observes: Leighton Andrews on the other hand is a complete mystery to me. His splenetic rants in the Assembly debating chamber are the stuff of legend and there was a fine example in the budget debate the other day. Yet the Leighton Andrews I observed in the Liberal Party in the 80's was a very different character. Always associated with the ALC/Liberator self-appointed keepers of the radical flame element he was a fluent persuasive speaker with impeccable anti-authoritarian ...

Most unusual but the post arrived today before 9 am. There was only one letter in a fancy envelope lying on the ground as I was about to go out. I almost put it aside for later but the envelope was like a magnet and curiosity got the better of me.It was an invitation to the Lib Dem ball. Wow! Somebody feels I'm worth a £200 ticket. Every year the price of the ticket goes up and it's just out of the league of many members. It's also rather formal and a bit stuffy - not to everybody's taste.The Annual ...

As I guessed there have been troubles since DataFlame switched my sites to a new server. The main problem seems to be that my cron jobs aren't running. The cron job is used to generate the half hourly versions of LibDemBlogs, so if it hasn't updated for a while it's because I've not manually poked it. I've also modified the code slightly so that it only shows posts that were posted before now.

My contribution to National Poetry Day. Last year it was Geoffrey Hill: this time it is Edwin Muir. The Horses Barely a twelvemonth afterThe seven days war that put the world to sleep,Late in the evening the strange horses came.By then we had made our covenant with silence,But in the first few days it was so stillWe listened to our breathing and were afraid.On the second dayThe radios failed; we turned the knobs; no answer.On the third day a warship passed us, heading north,Dead bodies piled on the deck. On the sixth dayA plane plunged over us into ...

"Sam will be a superb Councillor. I’ll be voting for Sam and I hope you will!” See Mike Oborski's Liberal Party Website This is apparently the first time since the split in 1996 that the Kidderminster Liberals have endorsed a Lib Dem. It's got to be good news.

It is true of course that when you are in Government you need to sell your policies. It is also true that sometimes loyal backbenchers can get a bit carried away in performing this task. Thus it was yesterday, when the Labour AM for Caerphilly, Jeff Cuthbert, decided to try and convince us that students graduating with a debt of between £12,000 to £20,000 was actually a good thing: The report by the Deputy Minister for social justice has already highlighted the fear of debt in deprived communities, so there is a job of work to do to ensure ...

The link is "Eric's History of Perpetual Motion and Free Energy Machines" which gives a list of the various scams that have been tried over the decades as mechanisms to get energy out of thin air. The OM Energy scheme as far as I can tell talks about separating hydrogen from oxygen in water by generating a magnetic field by spinning the water. This is "powered" by the exhaust gases from a petrol

Interestingly, David Davis claims to be "odd on" to win the Tory Poisoned Chalice contest - curiously none of the online bookmakers give him "odds on" today, although he is still favourite (though his lead is shrinking). Perhaps he was referring to the fact the he has the backing of more MPs than any other contender? Our own Paul Goodman is supporting Davis - no surprises there - Wycombe Tories have had one foot in the past for as long as anyone can remember! What fascinates is the way the Tories continue to plunge lemming-like into the abyss. That the ...

OK, so I don't think anyone would be surprised that the Tories don't like Foreigners much. However, they are the friends of industry, so which way do they go on the migrant workers/skills shortage debate? Well, it seems that their xenophobia wins the day when push comes to shove...

by Peter Margaret Thatcher 1975 to 1990 15 yearsJohn Major 1990 to 1997 7 yearsWiliam Hague 1997 to 2001 4 yearsIain Duncan Smith 2001 to 2003 25 monthsMichael Howard 2003 to 2005 23 monthsDavd Davis 2005 15 minutes

Once again, it’s National Poetry Day. Seems only a year since the last one. Back then, I wrote a poem about a finger infection. This year, the illness theme continues. Burns Nights On Sunday, was lazy What seemed to appeal Was making for dinner A microwave meal My stomach was rumbling My taste buds were frisky I bought parsnips and chicken In honey and [...]

It is National Poetry Day so I am entering into the spirit of things by quoting from one of my favourite poets, W.B. Yeats. This is the final verse from his poem "Easter, 1916": Too long a sacrificeCan make a stone of the heart.O when may it suffice?That is Heaven's part, our partTo murmur name upon name,As a mother names her childWhen sleep at last has comeOn limbs that had run wild.What is it but nightfall?No, no, not night but death;Was it needless death after all?For England may keep faithFor all that is done and said.We know their dream; ...

I received four e-mails following my posting request for help - how to calculate bytes . It's so simple I feel a fool not knowing how to do it in the first place - or rather not using my own grey matter to work it out. Not sure if anybody is really interested but I'm saying it anyway. Type words into a Text document (not a Word doc). Save and Close.Go the the doc icon, right click on the mouse and open properties. See the bytes used. It's as simple as that. ...

I've taken a few days off posting as a well earned rest. I'm sure nobody will begrudge me that. After all when I returned to the office after the count by right ankle had swollen up and not moving in any intelligent direction, but I still got up the following morning to start removing the posters. How did we do? We held our share of the vote up from the may election, without the backgraound data

Yes ... it appears the government have funded a perpetual motion engine company run by a bunch of Russians.Cars would use water as the main fuel and need only a small amount of petrol, thus cutting costs for motorists. Trade Minister Ian Pearson said: "The successful creation of OM Energy Ltd as a UK company represents UK Trade & Investment's steadfast commitment to help develop global entrepreneurship based on exceptional intellectual property. I wonder how much of our tax monies have been sent in this particular direction.

by Jabez Clegg Snafu is complaining about the EU. He doesn´t think the European Commission should have put up a web page comparing international mobile roaming costs. Instead he'd like the return of Duty Frees within Europe. I make the score here Europe 2 SNAFU 0. As someone forced to travel quite frequently in Europe in order to scrape a living, the roaming charges are of great concern to me, and any initiative to get useful comparators strikes me as a good thing. As for Duty Frees, we were told that their disappearance was going to be a disaster. ...

In the National Grid's Winter Outlook report 2005/6 (released 5th October 2005) it states that even with the Liquid Natural Gas imports from the Isle of Grain terminal (estimated at 17mcm/d max) the UK will have 20 mcm/d less natural gas than last winter. I have heard (but not been able to confirm) that the first scheduled shipment for commissioning the Isle of Grain LNG terminal has been redirected to the USA. This is about 122 mcm of gas (about 10 days supply via the Isle of Grain). In isolation this is not a problem. However, if ...