LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Ruth Kelly's clampdown on coursework cheats is welcome at one level. Plagiarism is all too easy - high grade coursework can be downloaded from the Web, parents can return to their studies, and teachers can 'help' a bit too much. But I'm worried that it will simply be an excuse to remove a valuable educational tool, and return to the stultifying and non-creative formal exam system. In subject areas with a heavy skills element, such as art or my own subject - ICT - coursework is essential. Sustained project work is the only way of demonstrating ...

If you've read "Louise's easy guide to objecting to planning applications" (directly below), you'll understand how important the Unitary Development Plan is in allowing or forbidding what can be built. Every 10 years, this plan is updated - that's happening right now in Tower Hamlets. Because of Government legislation changes, it's now called the Local Development Framework. It incorporates the London Plan, with its target of 40,000 new homes in Tower Hamlets. It aims to give a framework for where the new homes will be built and how much of that will be social housing. ...

I had a fascinating conversation with a group of students in the Assembly today. They were there on a fact finding tour and as is the custom were given the opportunity to engage with local AMs in the visitor's gallery of the main chamber.There were two colleges represented, Gorseinon and one in Cardiff so there were a fair number of AMs there to take part in the discussion. Some of the Cardiff students in particular were intent on revisiting the referendum result from 1997. They were querying how we believed we had a mandate to do anything on the basis ...

Rhodri Morgan makes the very good point that the presence of the National Assembly and the transformation of the Cardiff Bay area into an exclusive housing scheme and tourist destination has done nothing to help the adjacent Tiger Bay, the most deprived community in Wales.What Cardiff Bay illustrates above anything else is that you cannot regenerate a community by erecting a prosperous infrastructure around it. Government needs to engage with local people and help them to take advantage of the opportunities that this sort of investment offers. Cardiff Bay also underlines the point that the lack of affordable housing ...

Last night the BBC's Money Programme offered an investigation of the career of Lord Drayson - millionaire, major Labour donor and, by a remarkable coincidence, government minister. Tonight the BBC website reports: Defence Minister Lord Drayson is being investigated by Commons officials over claims he broke an embargo on a watchdog's report on defence projects. The Tories say a Ministry of Defence briefing to journalists on Tuesday was a "naked attempt" to pre-empt the National Audit Office report. Commons Speaker Michael Martin said he would be "very angry" if reporters were given information before Parliament.

Welcome to the second edition of the extravaganza that is the SportBlog roundup - your one stop shop for everything that's been going on in the world of sports in the past fortnight. Whether you are hacked off by the haka, cut up about Shahid Afridi or cheering for the Colts, anything related to sports is welcome here. As ever, send me links to what you think I've been missing at sportblog at googlemail dot com. To begin with this week, Tom G at Balls, Sticks and Stuff asks us the rhetorical question, Aren't we all Charlie Brown?: And, whenever ...

The Militant Moderate hosts a selection of the best in British blogging on the subject of sport. It promises to be the second in a fortnightly series. This one includes two of my posts.

Nick Barlow and Johann Hari have been mouthing off about Little Britain. Fair enough, personally I gave up on the thing after the first series, although I did catch a few episodes of series two. I think it has fallen into the same trap that Ali G fell into, in that its initial edge has [...]

The Independent has seen fit to publish this bit of free advertising and I am happy to be in on the conspiracy, if only to indulge in a round of Spot the Twat: “The catholic tastes of Labour voters, ranging from traditional favourites like the News of the World to relatively new categories like Nivea for [...]

According to today's UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report nearly 6 million children die each year from hunger and malnutrition and one in three people in sub-Saharan Africa is malnourished. The report found that malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa is now actually worse than it was in the 1990s, with the number of malnourished people totalling over 200 million.

With prices rocketing to £1.70p the market knows there is a problem. On Monday 231 GWh were released from medium term storage and 496 GWh from Long Term Storage. This is actually a faster rate of release from Long Term Storage than is the maximum as defined by the National Grid. This equates to roughly 66 million cubic metres in the day. This shows a particularly worrying trend as it

I went to a meeting with Andy Hayman of the Met last week. I have also discussed matters with a number of other people involved in the Criminal Justice system. It does appear that the key issue that drove the claim that 90 days detention without charge is needed is the idea of preventing an ambush defence where suspects don't comment at all during the pre-trial period and then generate a defence

You’ve got to laugh: The plot to destroy the Monarchy began with the disenfranchisement of the Peerage and the emasculation of the House of Lords. In 1997, when Labour ended twenty years of Conservative Party rule in Britain, the Peers served as a partial check on the powers of the Lower House of Parliament. Between 1997 [...]

The usual suspects have taken over tehgrauniad letters column. Andy Mayer has an interesting argument: It is regrettable that Charles Kennedy has not yet seen the light on the 50p tax rate (Kennedy plans policy shift on taxation to woo floating voters, November 19). Aside from the usual arguments about taxing aspiration there is the point that [...]

Last night was the local party AGM at the end of a hectic year, what with the general election and the by election. I was returned unopposed as treasurer for another year, no real surprise there then. Also I've been reappointed as a Rep fpr both the Federal and Scottish Conference. So I'll see you all at Harogate, Aviemore, Brighton and TBA in 2006. There was some changing of the guard as our

In the Guardian last Saturday, Martin Kettle wrote an op-ed titled The future belongs to those who seize the radical centre , reflecting on a book by Ted Halstead and Michael Lind, The Radical Center – the Future of American Politics (2001). Kettle’s essay is worth reading for what he gets right – and what he gets wrong. Firstly, he is correct in identifying what centrism is: Don't confuse centrism with the mushy electoral middle ground. These are not the same thing. All parties have to seek the middle ground, because of the electoral system. … ...