LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Harrow Council boldly went where no UK Council has gone before today and gave the people the ability to directly influence the Council budget. I was a steward at an event run by the POWER Inquiry at Harrow Leisure Centre where 250 people debated key areas of Council spending and expressed their preferences. The technology was so advanced that their votes were instantly posted on the screens at the front and clear preferences emerged. Protecting green spaces was seen as more important for spending on crime than CCTV, spending on changing the perception of crime ...

Here's some news stories from this month: ======================================================= No decision has yet been made on whether to replace Britain's ageing Trident nuclear deterrent, the prime minister said. But nuclear weapons remained "an important part of our defence", he said, as he appeared to rule out giving MPs a vote on the

Andrew Martin had a splendidly unPC article in the Guardian's Family section yesterday. He wrote about the way modern society is conspiring to erode traditional boyhood and our views of what boys should be like. It is a sort of elegy for grazed knees, and no doubt plenty of Guardian correspondents will remind him that not all boys want to be William Brown or Tom Sawyer, and that there plenty of girls used to enjoy playing out too. But two of the observations he makes are important and exceptionally well expressed. First he writes about the way the dominance of ...

The Liberal Democrats have launched a new website dedicated to their campaign against ID cards.

Steve Guy complains of a local council by-election that no one has heard about. I can beat that. Back in the 1980s we the party in Market Harborough heard that the Liberal Alliance had gained the Peatling Parva seat on Harborough District Council. Because it was in the Blaby constituency rather than Harborough, we had to admit that we had no idea where it was. Every ward has a house that no one can find, but to lose an entire ward looks like carelessness. I remember a (long-wiped) episode of All Gas and Gaiters in which the bishop ...

I've been migraine ridden this week. Taking beta-blockers which should do the trick. Tried to make a more interesting blog entry than this one, but my head is not up to it. However, I have to blog, because otherwise my brother-in-law in Canada thinks we have been blown up by Al-Quaeda. In lieu of semi-intelligent thought I'm posting a picture of Small, aka Tyrannical Animal.

The Lib Dems have launched a new campaign against Labour's Identity Cards plans - take a look at www.libdems.org.uk/noidcards

I have argued in an earlier blog, that Gordon Brown’s hope of becoming Prime Minister may never materialise. This is due to the fact that the economy hits the rocks. I also stated that I thought interest rates would stay as they are. So far I have been proved right. That doesn’t mean rates won’t move. The USA economy is inflating, the UK economy is facing a downturn and oil and gas price

..seeing the debauched, wotsits-weaned, pie-fed, fag-smoking overweight teenagers hanging around the local town centre as I went for a swim. Encouraging...seeing the teenage members of the same town's swimming team in the pool doing lengths outside their regular club sessions, sharing a pool with those same teenagers as they did seemingly effortless 25 second lengths in graceful freestyle, an

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People may wonder what Medical Confidentiality actually means. Well in practise it means that the Doctor may pass matters revealed in confidence to Social Services and then it can end up being passed by them to the national media. Although this is not with the consent of the management of Social Services it does show simply that you should be very careful what you tell your Doctor as it may end

Seen on TV in the States recently: an advert for a toothbrush with an 'onboard computer'. I kid you not. Apparently it tells you when you need to buy a new one.

There's a by-election in Chiltern Rise. Now this may not mean a lot to many readers, but I'm fairly confident that this is only the second place on the internet that anyone's mentioned it (the first being the Wycombe Lib Dems website). I knew there was a by-election because our Campaign Officer rings the District Council regularly and asks, because this is the only way to find out. I have been canvassing in Chiltern Rise and invariably no-one knows when the answer the door. In the spirit of open government, Wycombe Distric Council runs a website. The front page usually ...

It seems that Ken Livingstone wants to abolish the Greater London Assembly, and just be answerable to the (mainly Labour) Leaders of the London Boroughs.Just when you thought it wasn't possible for him to be even less accountable.A sort of Tsar of all the Boroughs, kept in check by the likes of Kaiser Bull?