LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Tuesday 8th November 2005 - I was delighted to be asked to deputise for our Regional President this week and present Reggie Lane from Rossendale & Darwin with his Regional President's Award for services to the Party. The event took place in Rochdale Town Hall and we were fortunate to be joined by former Regional President and Rochdale MP, Sir Cyril Smith MBE who was the man behind

Today I met Jamie McCoy, writer of Jamie's Big Voice. Although I don't think I wrote about him at the time, I was very aware of the way his blog put the issues of homelessness on the agenda during the general election. It's a stunning example of how one person can speak from the most marginalised corner of society and make a powerful impact. He is still blogging. He has challenged politicians of all colours - most recently David Davis. And he told me about his recent visits to schools. So I've looked back ...

A quick glance through the politics section of the iTunes music store will show a bias towards left-wing or liberal podcasts. I guess conservatives generally don’t feel the need to take up the microphone when there are so many nationally syndicated American broadcasters willing to big-up [...]

Just had a run though the Party internal elections published on the Website It's interesting how the STV voting process is calculated. Took me a while to get my head round it (some years ago now) - I remember sitting with a calculator going over and over the formula. Shame there's no betting - could of made some money this time around. Some of the results are so predictable - know there's definitely going to be a few bruised egos.

I have been critical on these pages of the timerity of Labour's back-benchers. Today, my faith has been somewhat restored. Anyone who cares about what it means to be British, and what that says about our freedoms and values, would not have been comfortable with detaining someone for three months without bringing charges against them. That is not acceptable in a civilised and free country.

The Whiskey Priest has the full list of Labour MPs who voted against giving police the power to hold terrorist suspects without charge for 90 days.

Ministers may still think they can get away with not declaring all their financial interests, but concern for standards is biting ever deeper in local government. Take the saga of the Clun bus shelter. Friday's Shropshire Star reported: A south Shropshire parish councillor has resigned in a “weird” row over the design of a bus shelter which she claimed was unsuitable for her village. Susan Dowell was brought before a watchdog committee amid allegations that she had already made her mind up about the shelter in Church Street, Clun, before it was debated by her councillors. The South Shropshire ...

In tonight’s episode a wife twice calls her husband a ‘brute’. Fine, except that the term surely originates from Brutus’ stabbing of Ceaser, which in the series has not yet occurred… I don’t want to get started on the use of ‘rendez vous’ either.

I’m certainly not the first to say it and I certainly won’t be the last, but it’s time for Tony Blair to go. Time too for Sir Ian Blair to shuffle off as well. There is no question that politicians ought to listen to what the professionals have to say, but that doesn’t mean that [...]

Yesterday Peter at The Apollo Project wrote approvingly of an Independent article by Johann Hari. He said the article questioned the role that continuous assessment now plays in the awarding of educational qualifications in schools. Discussing Independent articles is difficult because it insists on charging you for reading more than the first couple of paragraphs. But Hari has his own website and you can find the full article there free, gratis and for nothing. Like Peter, I find its arguments convincing. But then I have long been sceptical of continuous assessment. The demand that it should replace conventional exams was ...

Oh dear, I seem to be in the News Shopper again. But not under "Shop A Yob" this time.Page 11 has an article on the Hither Green Urban Design Strategy.< /a> And I come across as incredibly positive about it. When what I think I said is that it's good in parts. I should hope so, for the £50,000 from S106 planning gain from the Bellway development which was spent on it.My part of Hither Green definitely needs something to improve it. In addition, perhaps, to me moving out. If it continues to ...

Diane Abbott (Hackney North Spen) I thank you.

The infamous emails from Charles Clarke have already been well dissected in the blogosphere - both his pathetic attempts to try and organise a poll that could claim public "support" for his draconian anti-terror laws, and his climbdown yesterday. I want to pick up on one other point. Clarke criticised the Tories and the Lib Dems for refusing to work with the Labour government towards creating a consensus on this issue. Looking at the vote today, it seemed to me there was a cross-party consensus. The Tories, the Lib Dems, and significant numbers of the Labour party all agreed that ...

by Peter No doubt about it, the defeat of the Blair 90 day internment proposals have put a smile on my face and a spring in my step. First because we didn´t need this illiberal law. Second because it can never be "glad, confident morning again". Blair took off his tie and went on the television to argue for this. He dragged Brown and Straw halfway around the world to vote. And he was - convincingly - beaten. A comment on politicalbetting sums it up pretty well: Blair said this morning: “Sometimes it is better to lose and ...

The result of the terrorism debate on period of detention has led to defeat for Tony Blair. The Vote for 90 days was defeated by 322 votes to 291. The second vote on the 28 day ammendment the vote was 323 to 290. There was a heated aftenoon which kicked off with the Prime Minister stating in PMQs that he was backing the police over the 90 days and that he expected every member of the house to

Terror Bill: The noes have it by a very clear majority. A great kick in the teeth for the Government and a victory for the British tradition of freedom and liberty. I don't want to get hyperbolic, but I suspect I already have. Rather a pathetic failure for the notoriously bullying Labour Whips. Rock the Casbah!

Wolverhampton South West's Labour MP Rob Marris has presented a petition to Parliament against Council Tax increases from the Isitfair campaign. The Liberal Democrats believe Council Tax is unfair and should be replaced with a fairer form of taxation based on people's income. Mr. Marris has voted in Parliament in favour of Council Tax rather than a fair form of taxation as his actions may suggest!

This morning I took the Year 11 Assembly at Highfields School (in Penn) on the subject of Votes at 16. I visited Highfields prior to the General Election and was pleased to be invited back to speak on this subject.

The FT has a piece with the snappy headline Fact-finding Middle East trip could help develop Brown's world view. This takes some believing. I find it hard to imagine that anything has happened in the last fifteen years that could have affected Brown's world view (one meal in Islington apart, you understand). There is an air of assumed infallibility to Brown that the Pope probably envies. So I don´t think the trip to the Middle East was ever going to have much impact upon Britain's apprentice PM. But anyway the risk of Brown changing his mind about someting has disappeared. ...

Amid all the media comment about David Blunkett's departure from office last week has been an unpleasant recurring theme. Apparently the man had ideas above his station. Aren't there enough legitimate political reasons for opposing Blunkett, principally his instinctive authoritarianism? Instead, there has been a litany of snobbish remarks to the effect that a man who is not only working class in

The weekly Business statement is an opportunity for a member of each party to stand up and reel off a list of issues that they want to see come before us over the next three weeks. Since the Government lost its majority they have been quite good in acceding to these demands but occasionally the opposition will force a vote anyway just to remind Labour who is really in charge. When the Business statement is voted down then the Business Minister is obliged to come back with a new one, often taking account of the objections that led to the ...

The ironies underlying today’s debate on the Terrorism Bill just seem to be multiplying: The current situation in France; A Prime Minster avowing defence of civil liberties while warmly embracing the President of China; Ministers with poppies on their lapels po-facedly claiming that the country has never faced a greater threat. Add to that this pantomime of Gordon Brown [...]

This report from the Inquirer is a sign of the times: Undertakers in Ireland are noticing that more people are requesting to be buried with their mobile phone. The country has had a tradition of people being buried with some of their most treasured possessions probably as a continuation of some ancient pagan practice. According to AFP, some ask that their mobiles be buried with them in case

Whatever you might think about nuclear power, it is clearly deeply worrying that a science minister appears to think that it is renewable energy: In a debate on energy security in the House of Lords, Lord Sainsbury of Turville, the Science and Innovation Minister, was asked whether he would reclassify nuclear as renewable energy. He said: [...]

What’s more important: investigating the allegation that the CIA runs secret jails around the world, or finding out who blew the gaff? The CIA have decided. Their response is: “We’re not saying it’s true, but when we find out who told you…”

World Cup Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport which day in 2006 has been earmarked for the return of the football World Cup trophy to England in the event of victory in Germany.(John Hemming) A: In the event of the England football team being victorious at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, suitable arrangements to celebrate this success and to welcome both the team and

The amendments on this issue have been "selected by the speaker". He has selected a committee amendment to replace three months with 90 days then 60 then 28. There is a tactical aspect to this. If the 90 days amendment passed then the others would fall. Strictly the 90 days is an improvement on three months. However, there is a need to vote tactically on this. The underlying issue, however,