LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Today's Guardian has an interview by Ed Vulliamy with Paddy Ashdown. The former Lib Dem leader is about to end his term as High Representative to Bosnia Herzegovina: "Bosnia is under my skin, and still is. It's the place you cannot leave behind. I was obsessed by the nightmare of it all; there was this sense of guilt, and an anger that has become something much deeper over these last years. I love this country, I love these people, though I can't say I love their politicians. People are always nicer than politicians, but here, you can mark that difference ...

The winner is Phil Poulton, headteacher of Ludlow School, who told the Shropshire Star : "We’ve shortened the lunch hour to 50 minutes."

Not a post about the Lincoln Football Team, but about the BBC Interactive Media Player. I blogged about this back in December last year, and am now the 14th result on Google for Interactive Media Player. Today I got my trial invite :) Not sure if it was from the email I sent months ago, or the comment I left on the BBC stand at Federal Conference, however I've now got it up and running on my

I do not propose to dwell on the resignation of David Blunkett- this resignation like most in politics is just another game of tactics. I did not like the minister, as a man I feel a certain degree of sympathy for him as a human being- albeit tinged with great relief that he is no longer in office. In fact Blunkett in office represented all that is illiberal and restrictive about this Labour government. His outrageous assaults on the rule of law and individual freedoms as Home Secretary were a national disgrace-and a far greater scandal that the occasions of ...

I sometimes wonder if there is a lack of talent willing to serve as ministers in the Blair cabinet. Why else would you re-employ a disgraced minister so quickly. We saw it with Mandelson and now Blunkett. Of course Mandy got rehabilitated no less than three times - so we may not yet have seen the last of Blunkett. But you have to wonder why? Blair and Blunkett talk of 'mistakes' but do you really think someone who makes 'mistakes' such as 'free rail passes for your lover at the taxpayers expense' and 'not following the Ministerial Code' are fit ...

Names featured quite a lot in Plenary yesterday. In fact apart from the case of the missing Minister and a bit of partisan politicking over the Plaid Cymru motion on Local Health Boards names and their application appeared in most of the day's highlights. Lisa Francis started it off with the very first question to the First Minister. She wanted to know what the in-house replacement for the Wales Tourist Board will be called after it is merged: Lisa Francis: In the First Minister’s absence, are you able to tell us the name of the new department entrusted ...

Government majority of 1 on glorification - the backbenchers are revolting.

So David Blunkett has resigned as Work and Pensions Secretary. I do not want to comment on the substance of what he has or has not done. This has been trawled over endlessly elsewhere. But I am interested in the pattern of behaviour that this reveals within British politics as the pursuit and felling [...]

Some highlights from the latest Dewey Decimal subject mappings. Longest number: Shoguns in art - 704.9493522309520902 Local number: The Falkirk Wheel! - 386.48, 627.1353 (als0 Locks (Hydraulic engineering)–Scotland) Best innuendo: Horn implements - 621.9009012, 930.1 Most libraryish: Cataloging of electronic information resources - 025.344 Most exclusive: Catholic women’s colleges - 378.19828282082 Most footwork: Gay and lesbian dance parties - 793.308664 Most dull: [...]

Slurping a lunchtime coffee with a friend from sixth form, and staring out at the London drizzle, I was struck by the absence of a single really cold day this autumn. As the Indy does a valiant job of reminding us, our environment is changing in an increasingly obvious way. Despite the Indian summer, we are promised a freezing winter, it’s all very confusing. There is rightly a lot of anger around at Labour’s continued failure to really pull their finger out over ecological concerns, and Blair’s apparent inability to pull any influence with the Whitehouse on the issue of ...

As far as I can tell if the standard rules apply David Blunkett got a payment of £15,000 for resigning on December 15th and will get £18,000 for resigning today. There has been less than 11 months between the two dates. The normal ministerial extra salary is 74K. For 11 months he would get, therefore, 67K. However, if you gross up the 33K tax free that comes to over 50K and he has done 6

Clearly cabinet ministers who leave through the revolving door to the cabinet picking up a tax free payment of £18,000 each time are not likely to have a problem with poverty. Having failed to be called at oral questions to ask the Prime Minister how often he thinks it is fair for a Minister to receive such a tax free severance payment I then went to meet up with the Trade Justice Lobby - see

The Education White Paper debate meanders on … and the more I look at it the more I ask whether the Whitehall people actually know how Education works in England. More thoughts later but first some questions arising from a Local Uproar concerning a MK Independent School. Basically Bury Lawn School in MK operated for years with a particular ethos – a non-selective independent with an emphasis on

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel There is much speculation as to who he could have been referring to.

Cheerio then, David. (Excuse me while I dance a little jig.) I do have a sense of déjà vu, but it’s probably for the best. Now Blair can put someone in place who actually agrees with him on forcing the disabled into work, and Blunkett can keep his shares and make thousands of pounds. As he won’t [...]

Road Bypasses/Usage Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate he has made of the total kilometres travelled by private motor vehicle users on roads in England and Wales in (a) 1984, (b) 1994 and (c) 2004.(John Hemming) A: The total kilometres travelled by private motor vehicle users (comprising cars, vans, motorcycles/mopeds and taxis) on roads in England and Wales is estimated

So David Blunkett has finally resigned. So it looks that Lynne Featherstone’s question which I alluded to yesterday has been answered in the negative. Are William Hill or Ladbrokes taking bets on when David Blunkett will be rehabilitated in a third Mandelsonesque way?

Comments have been disabled because of the massive spam attack recently. This will be sorted out when the ReadMyDay project moves to a new platform very soon. In the meantime, if you'd like to make a comment please email me and I'll include them in a posting.

I placed EDM 860 on the order paper to raise the issue that MPs cannot get email from outside the Parliamentary Estate if they are attached to the Parliamentary Network. That is because the Parliamentary Communications Department blocks port 110. Quite a few more technically able MPs who handle their own email, rather than having it forwarded to a member of staff, use more advanced systems than

I’m sure the memorial service for the 7/7 victims at St Paul’s yesterday was very moving and tasteful, but I couldn’t help giggling when the newsreader on the Today programme announced that the bomb sites would be represented by fork handles. Tags: four+candles, fork+handles

The publication of the local Council funding settlement yesterday was bang on schedule and that is the problem. The Local Government Minister has told authorities how much they will be getting from the Assembly budget in 2006-07 and yet that budget has not yet been approved. Indeed, when it came to Plenary the opposition forced through an amendment that effectively rejected it. As a result party leaders have started negotiations to find an acceptable financial settlement, the latest session of which occurs tonight.Now, I understand the necessity of giving Councils as great a notice as possible of how much they ...

The Liberal Democrats have floated the idea of 'youth juries' to help cut recidivism for low-level criminal offences among the young. Originating in Washington DC, it sounds like a unusual idea, but there is some evidence that they work. So far so good. The problem comes in the ease with which fairly detailed and unusual measures will be pilloried by the media. Worryingly, even before the tabloids get hold of the policy (I imagine more on that tomorrow), the BBC has shown its bias. In the title of the press release based article announcing the policy (which is therefore duly ...

Matthew Turner has updated his Humanitarian Intervention Index (I don’t remember him doing a first version). While satirical in intent and fascinating to examine, Matt should be careful here. Think of King Cnut and his commanding back the waves stunt. Think of Michael Young and his criticism of what he identified as “meritocracy”. [...]