LibDem Blogs - Archived!

A fellow writer, Anne Rainbow, has just taken part in a Write-a-thon in aid of Children in Need. She, and dozens of other writers, were attempting to write one short story every hour for 27 hours! The crime writer, Alex Keegan, was sending out prompts every hour to all thw writers to keep their creative juices flowing. It must have been totally exhausting. I find it difficult to write for more than 4 or 5 hours - after that my brain turns to candyfloss. The best stories will all be published by Leaf Books. You ...

After finally getting over all the elections of this year it is a relief to get back to watching football on a Saturday afternoon again. This afternoon I took the short hop to Dunfermline for what was a real needle match, there is a lot of animosity between the fans and the chairmen of the wo clubs. However, we came away smiling as Livingston won away 1-0 and deservedly so. There was a good

Forget the statistics. If you want to gauge whether British education is a success take a look at how many times the British Government has “reformed” the system. If our schools were doing brilliantly, it would be impossible for Government to keep trying to reshape them. Currently, there is yet another reform in the pipeline. Clearly, there is something wrong with our system The New Labour

The handout says: In addition there are specific political challenges that must be faced up to: Trust: public participation in party politics is at an all-time low, even if interest in political issues remains high. The public largely feels that it is not listened to and that ‘politicians are all the same.’ New Political Climate: both the [...]

The spin on the Liberal Democrats tax commission is that they are going to come up with a tax-neutral" strategy which will alarm MPs and party activists on the Liberal Democrats left who gave the leadership a bloody nose on spending issues at this year's Blackpool conference. However, when one reads the details there is nothing there that I could not sign up to and I believe that goes for the vast majority of the rest of the party as well. In particular the commitment to progressive taxation will remain: That does not mean the party will ditch its ...

The Western Mail reports that daffodils blooming well out of season is an early warning sign climate change is playing havoc with our seasons. In a scene that normally heralds the first signs of spring, they feature a photograph of bright golden daffs photographed yesterday near Saundersfoot despite the fact severe frosts have hit many parts of Wales over the past three nights. It is only a matter of time before The Times will be featuring letters heralding the first cuckoo of spring in the depths of winter.

A cross-party move to scrap the deal whereby Cabinet Ministers can get 1/4 of their salary tax free every time they resign has been launched with the tabling of a motion in the House of Commons by John Hemming MP. "The Government", he said, "is planning to cut redundancy payments made to people over 41 next year. In the mean time they have a scheme whereby a cabinet minister gets £18,000 tax

Councillor Surgery Monday 21st November 2005 The King William Public House Thomas Street, London Road, Bath 6.30pm

Back in the summer, I wrote about the development of the political class. That is, a group of people for whom politics is nothing other than a career; who see a clearly defined ladder for them to climb, the only aim being to get up it as soon as possible. Their entire life, certainly from leaving university, and most probably before it, is spent towards gaining influence in vital circles and assisting their climb up the greasy pole. I mention this because David Cameron is one of them, and he's being pretty damn disingenuous when he claims that he didn't ...