LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Tracked down the orchestral Channel Four theme for any broadcast history enthusiasts who fancy it, here it is... http://tv.cream.org/specialassignments/themes/Fourscore.mp3

All these photos were taken a couple of weeks ago in New Hampshire. Through the week the foliage colours changed from green to a breathtaking mixture of red, yellow and orange interspersed between the conifers. It is the maples and birches that provide the striking colours, but there seems to be something magical in the climate that holds the leaves on the trees for longer than over here. Pumpkins everywhere................ Leef peepers chase the colours across New England, aided by several websites that track the changes with daily reports. ...

Liam Fox is taking his beating in the Conservative Leadership election badly, he has just been booked in the SPL game away to Livingston. Liam Fox is booked at Livi Liam Fox defeated in Conservative Leadership Elections

Chris Patten muses on the British national identity in his excellent tome, Not Quite the Diplomat: "My own preferred idea of identity rests heavily on George Orwell's observation that above all we are a gentle people. I fear that this land of revolver-free policeman, polite bus conductors, and those old maids on their bicycles, made famous by John Major, as they peddled through the early mornign

If I were to open a restaurant it would be identical in all respects to Chimes of Pimlico. Having had the place recommended by a visitor to this blog (a Mr Stephen Jones) I finally dropped in for lunch today. Given that it is mere seconds from my flat, I am shamed not to have done so sooner. I had the haddock and cod thing. Cooked with cider, mushrooms and tomatoes and topped with croutons it was probably the best meal I have ever eaten in London. So many of the fancy meals you eat these days have brassy vulgar ...

I am at the BBC in Leicester to feed my League of Gentlemen DVD habit. The Legz Akimbo theatre company, or something very like it, visited my school in 1973 or 1974. Even then I sensed they were crap. So thank you to the Gentlemen for wreaking revenge for me.

When the newspapers are on your side you can get away with almost anything. Take David "Dave" Cameron's visit to Life FM yesterday. As the BBC reports it: Urged to "put a shout out" to listeners, the Old Etonian hesitated for a moment before replying: "This is a great project, this is a great community, keep backing it, keep it real".With its echo of Ali G (he was meant to be a parody, David) this was surely more risible than William Hague's baseball cap at the Notting Hill Carnival. Yet I have seen no one making fun of Cameron in ...

The following tale may be apocryphal, but it's worth retelling. A women visited her confused elderly mother and accidentally left some shopping in mother's kitchen. Said old lady gets peckish, goes foraging in kitchen and finds some onions, so makes herself a cheese and onion tart. Except the onions are daffodil bulbs, and poisonous. The old woman collapses and is rushed to hospital.

I find it disgraceful that the Leader of the House Geoff Hoon should talk out Claire Short's private member's bill to make the government accountable to parliament before sending troops to war. It must be a sign of how concerned the government were that they could not whip their own back bencers to the no lobby. The fact that Hoon serves as leader of the House with his main duty being the handling of the business of the House makes this episode all the more galling. It makes it all appear to be a deliberate attempt by the government ...

An Independent news report this morning caught my eye.Many Conservatives will not get ballot papers ...But the party's 'labyrin-thine' (shame a reporter can't spell labyrinth correctly) rules mean some members will not be able to vote. For example, couples on reduced joint subscriptions will get one ballot paper between them.Members who pay less than £15 a year in subscription and have joined since 1998 will also not be allowed to vote.If this report is correct it means most of the younger members will be ineligible to vote as many of them would have joined after 1998. That's 7 years, surely ...

Friday 21st October 2005 - I attended another excellent evening of entertainment with the Liverpool Philharmonic Gospel Choir led by Tyndale Thomas at Prescot Parish Church on Friday. The evening was very uplifting and inspirational and as usual a credit to the quality of events provided by the Council while the local young children and choirs who supported the Gospel Choir were

Just disconnected the comments option on this blog. Seem to be getting some mischievous, knocking-heads remarks which I don't want to answer or feel it's appropriate to leave in the public domain. I also don't feel comfortable with all the continuous flattery or blog comparisons from anonymous people. I'm not that egocentric. Maybe I set it up wrong but decided to give it a rest for some time. The emails are easier for me and less public. Have also taken off the Lib Dem Watch because there's been no posting since August. I never found out who was ...

We should be absolutely fair to David Cameron. When asked the right question ('Have you taken cocaine while an MP') he answered an unequivocal 'no'. That's fair enough, and there is no reason now to question whether he is competent to be Prime Minister on that basis. Cameron's appearance on the community radio project Life FM was edified by his exhortation to 'keep it real'. Despite sounding risible in print, having listened to the moment being replayed on the Radio 4's PM, I have to say that 'Dave' Cameron more or less carries it off; well, at least to the ...