LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Having gone through the Tax Commission paper, with moderate success, it’s time for me to start blogging about Meeting the Challenge, the main Lib Dem policy review. Quick Plug #1: the Meeting the Challenge review has its own website, which thus far has been woefully underused. I would encourage people to go there and add [...]

Today's Guardian reports a study that suggests that working-class children from many ethnic minorities are more successful than their white peers at gaining professional and managerial jobs. It says: People from Indian working class families are the most successful, said Lucinda Platt, from the University of Essex, who tracked the employment of 140,000 people in England and Wales over 30 years from the 1960s. Using data from the Office for National Statistics, she found that 56% of people from Indian working class families took up professional or managerial roles in adulthood, while only 43% of those from white, non-immigrant ...

An hour ago someone in Evansville, Indiana, reached this blog by searching for "Liberal view on sex" on MSN. Apparently Liberal England comes up first if you do that. I am not sure I am the best person to ask, but I would say that, broadly speaking, we are in favour of it.

While I was away for the weekend Tim Worstall posted his latest selection of the best in British blogging. He promises "something of a bumper crop".

Hat's off to Michael Connarty this weekend. The Sunday Mail tells of the bill he about to introduce to ensure that restaurant bosses do not pay the minimum wage from the tips that are earned my their employees. A tip as defined by the Mirrian Webster Online Diction is: Tip 10 Function:noun a gift or a sum of money tendered for a service performed or anticipated is an reward Note that this is

We do need to encourage English and British teams to see the merit of parading in Birmingham. Birmingham is far more accessible to the much of the country than London and we would do a better job than Trafalgar Square. "When we win the world cup - bring the trophy to Brum", says John Hemming MP. "I have been talking to the FA about parading the trophy in Birmingham when England win the world

Louise's do-it-yourself guide, in easy(ish) stages. 1) You have to find out about it at the right time. This is the hardest bit. Once the developer has submitted a planning application to the planning officers at the Council, the officers write to residents, giving them 3 weeks to object to the plans. However, the area which is mailed is very close, so if you are waiting for a letter as a prompt, you may miss it. You can check whether applications have been submitted by checking in East End Life, on the website or calling ...

I've just spent a pleasant weekend away in Bristol seeing friends and - as ever - the return to the solitary nature of everyday life is, if not unpleasant, then unpleasantly familiar. To cheer myself, I've decided to post up Billy Connelly's Desiderata which I've always liked in the same intuitive way I've always loathed St Paul's 'Love is...' passage from Corinthians. Billy Connelly's Desiderata: Tread gently on anyone who looks at you sideways. Have lots of long lie-ins. Wear sturdy socks, learn to grow out of medium underwear and, if you must lie about your age, ...

The South Wales Evening Post has followed up Saturday's story about the possibility of Swansea University moving to Llanelli with speculation that the students' village in Killay will be sold off for £25 million. They say that cash is urgently needed to fund the college's academic expansion plans and yet tehir previous story concentrated on the £32m cost of maintaining and replacing clapped-out 1960s buildings on the main campus. Somebody needs to make up their mind.The strange thing about all of this press speculation is that it appears to have been fanned by the previously publicity-adverse management team without any ...

A scheme to provide new and improved lighting for the London Road has been drawn up and will be going out for consultation shortly. The section of the London Road from Kensington Place to Lambridge is due to have street lights replaced. The new scheme has been designed to the new European Code for lighting and the opportunity taken to use a "white light" source. This will enable colours to be rendered at night which the current lighting does not do and will also make facial recognition much easier. Cllr David Dixon welcomed the scheme stating, "The proposed scheme will ...

Several things have persuaded me to spend some time figuring out how encryption systems work again. These are: the suggestion that 90 days detention was necessary in order to ‘crack’ encrypted computer files; consideration of citizen authentication systems such as the chip and pin one used in Belgium; extending my wireless network at home [...]

UPDATE - A public meeting has been arranged by Claremont Residents' Association on Wednesday 7th November 2005 at 7pm at Claremont Methodist Church. Visit www.crass.org.uk for more information. Local Councillors Dave Dixon and Colin Darracott are campaigning with residents against a planning application to build 12 houses on the former allotment land at Southbourne Gardens.Although the application was rejected first time it is now up for appeal and Cllrs Dixon andDarracott are continuing to oppose it.Cllr David Dixon said, “This is an important piece of open space and I have been workingwith Bath and North East Somerset Allotments Association ...

Watching England tour Pakistan this morning, I was struck by the fact that TV coverage of the cricket is frequently interspersed with "colour" montages of life in Pakistan - crowded streets with three-wheel taxis, local markets, that sort of thing. And to a certain extent, it seemed pretty patronising, distilling Pakistani culture into fairly stereotypical images. It's not just in Pakistan that this happens, either. Just about every foreign tour has to have little snippets of their supposed life and culture filmed, to be broadcast between overs. So what I want to know is this - when other countries tour ...

by Steve Travis Last Friday was Armistice Day, 11th of November. To my surprise this event, whilst not as popular as ANZAC day, is still marked in Australia. Cloth poppies, somewhat more substantial than our paper versions, are sold, and there were a smattering on show in the crowds on Queen Street, Brisbane's main shopping area. This year was the first year that no Australian veteran of World War I was present at the service in Canberra, following the death of Lt William Allan, aged 106, some 3 weeks ago. For the first time in ages I ...

In retrospect the last week may prove to be seen as a turning point. It is not just the defeat of the outrageous government proposal to extend detention without charge to three months. In fact 28 days is still a significant erosion of our freedom by this government. It is not just the fact that this is the first defeat that Mr. Blair has faced in the House of Commons (as opposed to the routine

Benjamin Michael Window was born to Hannah, my Sister in Law, on Friday. We all trooped in on Saturday to see him and his knackered parents :-) Here's me and BMW. The whole tribe including extremely proud dad and mum.

Not seen any new caricature's from Gaffa's Blog recently. Reviewing some of his old messages came across this one of Charles Kennedy. The Conference has long gone but the CK is still going as strong as ever. On the other hand... We are all waiting for the result of the Tory leadership race expected 6th Dec. D vs D not much choice.