LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Simon Titley has the full details on Liberal Dissenter.

As the voice of Liberal England, Jonathan Calder, noted a couple of days ago , Simon Jenkins appears charmingly content to fit his voice to his readership. On Wednesday, he biffed Blair for giving parents some say in their kids’ education: The education white paper offers a vision of a "parent-led" state secondary-school system. Its key institution is the "self-governing school free to parents",

Today's House Points column from Liberal Democrat News. Sporting chance I lived without a television for most of the 1990s. It is possible, and you really do write more and read more good books. I even kept up with the programmes I was missing by reading Nancy Banks-Smith's reviews in the Guardian. There was only one snag: the TV Licensing Authority. On Monday at culture, media and sport questions John Pugh described it as "harassing a pensioner couple in my constituency - threatening them with court action, fines and enforcements visits in December, January, February, March, June and ...

Jim Fitzpatrick MP, a Minister for Local Government, was worried that we would turn out to be nerds who would overwhelm him with techno-babble. In fact, he was pleased to discover this morning that we were quite normal, and only interested in improving the services that local government provides. I am one of six councillors on the e-Government Task Group of the Local Government Association. We comment on government initiatives from the perspective of local councils, and get a chance to put our views to ministers and senior civil servants. For most of the ...

If you want to comment on a posting then just click on the 'No comments' link at the bottom. It doesn't mean that no comments are allowed, only that no comments have been posted so far. Confusing, I know, but will be clearer when ReadMyDay moves to a new platform soon. And, of course, almost all existing comments had to be removed recently after a massive spam attack.

Wednesday night was the Lib Dem ball - the Party's social event of the year. My prayers were answered - it was the only night of the week it didn't rain. Didn't have a problem with what to wear - never do but my hair and shoes were my big concern. You can hardly turn up at the Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane in London with a bag full of gear and wet hair.Dressed up to the nines looking all glamorous, walking down the road from Hyde Park tube on high heels, a young lady Jemma, caught me up and astounded ...

A relatively quiet Full Council meeting on Wednesday. Labour pushed forward a range of budget cuts, including the cafe in Lewisham Library, plus quite a few more serious cuts to services to some of the most vulnerable groups in our society. The Council's Department of Propaganda and Enlightenment has hailed our Glorious Mayor for single-handedly rescuing Sydenham Library from closure. Feel inspired to create a comic strip. Not that anyone was seriously threatening to close the library, except some misguided officers who in the good old days would have been taken for a short walk in the ...

Having got back from a short break to find over 300 e-mails waiting for me I have been slowly working my way through them for most of the day. There is the usual host of press releases, circulars from lobby and special interest groups, casework and quite a few invitations. One of these invitations caused me to look twice in case I had misread it. It seems that the South Wales East Conservative Assembly Member, William Graham, is hosting a media briefing with Lemmy from Motorhead on Thursday 3 November at 12 noon. At this briefing Lemmy will be putting ...

Benefits Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether the Government continue to provide benefits to meet the interest payments on a loan which had been taken out by a person now on benefits when an endowment policy accompanying a mortgage matures but does not provide sufficient funds to pay off the balance of that mortgage. (John Hemming) A: Yes; the balance of any loan which

Interesting to find that within hours of posting my blog on 'race relations and social inclusion' Alan Beddow: Race Relations - Social Inclusion the subject is discussed on Question Time. Some members of the audience made some excellent points, sadly there was a lack of sensible comment from the panalists.

While doing abysmally in this week's BBC 7 days 7 questions quiz. I mean I haven't seen the latest Harry Potter film yet! One of my wrong answers brought up a very worrying statistic. Under the fudged smoking policy that Patricia Hewitt tried to defend yesterday 1 in 5 publicans have said they will stop serving food to get around the legislation. So instead of having food to mop up the alcohol

Don't let Labour home secretaries kick sand in your face! Treat yourself to a do-it-yourself ASBO. Only £1.99 each.

I've just got around to reading the Hansard Report of Wednesday's PMQs. So further to Wednesday's post I find this quote from Geoff Hoon worrying: The police have made it clear what they require: they would like to have a three-month period in which they can hold suspected terrorists before charge Bear in mind this comes from a government who say that their 'war on terrorism' will not lead to a

Last night I visited the final day of the Yardley District Youth Festival. This was organised by Ginny, Ness, Carol and the other youth workers (Ginny is actually not a youth worker) to whom thanks need to be given. Sadly the room (at the Lea Hall British Legion) was too dark to warrant taking photos, but it was an opportunity for local children to lobby their MP and Councillors. Later on I

Russia's oil production is unusual because it initially peaked during the soviet period. They made a bit of a mess of things generally and there is now a move towards a second peak. The Russians recently (Tuesday) said that they were aiming at about 10.3 mbbl a day which is higher than September 2005's 9.53 mbbl/d. Yesterday the Daily Express led on the cold winter and possibility of a

The controversy surrounding millionaire Michael Brown's donation of £2.4 million to the Liberal Democrats won't go away. The first signs of trouble appeared in May when the donor's name first became public. The story suggesting a breach of election law broke in the Times during the Liberal Democrats' autumn conference (see the original reports on 23rd, 23rd again and 24th September). The party