LibDem Blogs - Archived!

I suppose as this is my landmark 100th post in my blog I should come up with erudite passage of literary greatness. I'm sorry my muse fails me having just got back from the gym and watched the latest episode of West Wing. However, highlight of the week may be the maiden speech of my new MP who spoke on Tuesday on the Electoral Administration Bill at 5:46pm. I cannot fault him on his tributes to

Fairest to me of all delights That makes this earth a heaven, Is the joy of finding it half-past six, When I thought it was half-past seven.(Anonymous.)Success in politics, as in comedy, is all about timing. Some have it, some don’t. Today, as he wound the clock back one hour, I wonder if David Davis secretly wished he could keep on turning? Perhaps to a month ago, before he mumbled his way through that conference speech, and self-imploded his second and final Tory leadership challenge. And I wonder if Gordon Brown were secretly wishing the clocks could have moved forward? ...

Just checking Tim Worstall's Britblog Roundup # 37 - some interesting blogs. He comments on the article corner shop on Super Woman's Super Blog. Noticed her blog has another gizmo - Weather Pixie. Thought I'd give it a try to see what happens. It's supposed to change regularly.To get the HTML code - Click on My pixie - Set your preference and copy to your blog.

I am writing to you as I need advice. I consider myself a law abiding citizen but feel that in the near future I may break the law. I am an atheist. Furthermore, I don’t much like religion. I wouldn’t say I hate religion but have always tended to agree with Lenin that it is the opium of the people. I am also a supporter of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. What concerns me is

The latest BritBlog round up has been posted. It reflects the Great Lib Dem Education Debate that Liberal England has been helping to foster.

There have been a lot of mean things said about Nick Cohen in the blogosphere in recent years, mainly due to his spectacular flip-flopping over the Iraq war, and to a lesser extent his despair over Kate Winslet having parking tickets foisted on her simply for parking illegally in Islington. So it’s enjoyable to [...]

They want to build a massive wind farm on Romney Marsh. Romney Marsh! My family used to spend the summer holidays there when I was growing up. I loved it there. Simon Jenkins In Romney Marsh

Last Friday evening I spoke in a debate at the Durham Union Society, opposing the motion that 'This House Would Introduce Compulsory ID Cards'. Also speaking in the debate were Jan Berry of the Police Federation, Roberta Blackman-Woods, the Labour MP for Durham City (for the motion), and Gerard Batten, a UKIP MEP, stood alongside me opposing the motion. The motion was successfully, if somewhat easily, defeated. In the course of the debate several features of the Government's ID cards legislation were brought out. There is a lot of hullabaloo in the blogosphere about the biometric information requirements of the ...

When I was a small boy in the 1960s there was no doubt that the great festival at this time of year was Bonfire Night. We always had a family bonfire and fireworks in the back garden and, though it lacked the long exciting build up that Christmas enjoyed at school, the evening was a recognised topic for stories and pictures in the classroom. My only contact with Halloween was at Cubs, where we would bring pumpkin lanterns one evening. Forty years on, everything has changed. Halloween is now a huge event in the supermarkets and in the media. It ...

According to political pundits, Bush has suffered his worst week as President. Judging by his last five years this has to be something of an achievement for the incompetent incumbent. Bush had to withdraw his crony Miers from being appointed to the Supreme Court even though she had no experience at being a judge. Apparently senators found her answers to written questions were "incomplete to insulting". If Bush wanted to promote his trusted allies and to reward those who helped him rather than promote on ability and experience then why didn’t he go the whole hog and ...

This is our first list of regional authors both contemporary and past that could comprise the entries for the Wall of Fame. Thanks are due to Carl Chinn the Historical Consultant for the regional Wall of Fame. William Shakespeare J. R. R. Tolkien D. H. Lawrence Philip Larkin (Warwickshire poet) Wilfred Owen (poet killed 1916) Walter Brierley (Means Test Man Derbyshire) Walter Allen (All in a

How things change. Only a few weeks ago Tony Blair appeared to be secure in his job and there was talk of him hanging on until 2008 or 2009. People were even speculating that Gordon Brown might not succeed him after all. It is possibly that speculation that has lead to the present crisis. After all, the earlier Tony quits then the more likely it is that the Chancellor of the Exchequer will move into Number 10 and the longer he will have to establish himself before facing the electorate. According to The Sunday Times today rumours are circulating that ...

Meanwhile over the Pond the US administration lurches into a deeper crisis over its peculiar relationship with ‘Iraq and the truth’… and this has some implications for the home life of our own dear Westminster Government. As commentator Frank Reich said in the NY Times: It won't be easy to get honest answers because this administration, likeNixon's, practices obsessive secrecy even as it erects an alternative realitybuilt on spin and outright lies. Blair depends on the maintenance of this alternative reality for his own credibility. The investigation in the USA into the events leading up to the war will ...