LibDem Blogs - Archived!

250 people have now signed up to Flock Together.

There has been a lot of anger about the loss of final salary schemes in the pensions debate. When I joined my latest employer there was no final salary scheme available but instead a pretty generous scheme where they pay into a pensions pot on a defined contributions basis. This is normal for a company [...]

In view of today's announcement by Ruth Kelly, I refer the honourable gentleman to my posting of Friday 10 June.

The Apollo Project has a Top 10 of Lib Dem postings from November. There's some good stuff there and one of mine is in it too.

Here is a useful site. It lets you know which DVDs are about to be given away free with British newspapers. On Saturday the Independent is offering the noble but rather gruelling Pelle the Conqueror .

“Mark” is accusing me of using dodgy stats in my last post. Well, to a certain extent they are, as I wasn’t able - and am still unable - to find the specific document that Oaten and Channel 4 were referring to. But his point about overall levels is a good one, so let’s look [...]

Sometimes wish I was an octopus with an extra set of arms. Not sure whether my personal life gets fitted in around Lib Dem stuff or the other way round. So many emails asking if I can go here, there and everywhere or can I do this, that or the other. Everything in London is being geared up to the May 2006 local council elections, that's apart from other party commitments.Just been told the Pizza & Politics is off tonight. Was quite looking forward to it but it's good that Angela telephoned to let me know, otherwise I would have ...

Although this first appeared on the Recess Monkey site I thought it worth reproducing here if only because of the previous Welsh connections of the Vulcan from Wokingham. The Press Complaints' Commission's quarterly briefing to MPs reports: Complainant Mr John Redwood Complaint John Redwood MP complained to the Press Complaints Commission that an article published in the Daily Mirror on 2nd April 2005 headlined "He's not human… don't vote for him" was inaccurate in breach of Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Code. The complaint was not upheld ...

I don’t know about anyone else but his post by Peter Black got me thinking about the exponential rise in proposed age of eligibility for the state pension this couple of weeks. On the 22 November the Liberal Democrats unveiled their proposal to raise the age to 67 and provide the citizens pension. This was widely expected at the time to be the recommendation of the Taylor report. On Wednesday

Predictive Diallers (DEFRA) Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many calls were made from call centres in her Department in 2004–05 using predictive diallers; how many such calls resulted in contact being made with the recipient without a Government agent available to talk to them; and what assessment she has made of the likely impact of Ofcom's policy on

In a case surely to cause flying pigs to drop out of the sky and land on a pair of the devil's ice skates, Martin Salter MP has resigned from the Government on a matter of principal. A spokeperson for politicians everywhere, ever said: "This has never happened before, I've really no idea why he has done this".

As much as I hate feeding my ego, the quote below made me smile:"Chris Ward a brilliant youngster is programming emotion, and demonstrated his propositions; his bot, 'Amelia' will be launched soon."- Eldras, London AI ClubYes, the colloquium was a complete success, and my proposals went down really well. Picture below:More at http://www.dwrc.org.uk, including my presentation (as a PowerPoint file).

Thank you The Apollo Project for featuring my most recent post - about internal Lib Dem left/right name-calling - on your latest Top 10 Lib Dem blog posts. It appears to have attracted the ire of one of my readers. I don't normally respond to comments through a separate posting, but decided to make an exception this time: Anonymous said... Stephen this is a pathetic letter. The debate between

Perhaps my first proper venture with PHP (it's a very pleasant language): www.cjward.co.uk/secretsanta By no means perfect. Any bugs, please let me know.

Well, it is looking fairly unanimous. HTV Wales in conjunction with the Wales Year Book also named Peter Law as the Welsh politician of the year last night. In other awards the Secretary of State for Wales, Peter Hain, was named MP of the Year; Nick Bourne, Conservative Leader at the Assembly, was chosen as AM of the Year; Leighton Andrews, Labour Assembly Member for Rhondda, won the award for First Term AM; David Davies, Tory Member of Parliament for Monmouth, won the award for First Term MP; Ann Clwyd, MP for Cynon Valley, was named Communicator of the ...

I’m not a grinch, a party-pooper or a spoilsport. But please let someone on Space Cadets have sufficient nous to spot very quickly that it’s a con and expose it for the mean-spirited, unfunny, egregious show it will be. Because despite being mean-spirited, unfunny and egregious, its worst crime is providing another vehicle for Johnny [...]

The great International dance of consequences. Today, ketvirtadienis 2005 metai gruodžio 1 dienos, is Pasaulinė AIDS diena. A reminder that here and in countries that write the date in ways that make most Britons eyes water, people around the world face the local consequences of common global problems and what we do locally can have a huge impact on other people. Take for example the fight against AIDS in Africa. This may be compromised because the USA ties its (quite large) contribution to anti-AIDS work to a commitment to oppose abortion, to ban condoms and to ban anti-drugs strategies such ...

Rumours that Lord Turner's Pensions Commission report has prompted Paul McCartney to re-write his hit song "When I'm 64" are apparently untrue.

A written parliamentary question by Silent Calls Campaigning MP John Hemming has revealed the shock fact that the government is making at least 300,000 nuisance calls a year. "After trying to pretend they didn't use predictive dialling, they finally admitted on Tuesday that the taxman made 7.5 million calls in 2004/5 using a predictive dialler. The DMA (Direct Marketing Association) code called for a limit of 5% of these to be silent, nuisance calls. It is clear that the taxman made at least 300,000 (4%) nuisance calls in 2004/5. The government claim that 'Full information is not ...

Guido Fawkes in association with a Recess Monkey and Tim Worstall are getting their own back at those lazy newspaper journalists who merely take their copy straight off unsuspecting bloggers. They have launched the Press Plagiarist of the Year Award. Rather than repeat anything that they say, although of course it would be credited here, I’ll just encourage you to go and take a look and vote.

by PeterWith the anniversary of the 1906 general election around the corner, I've been wondering how many of David Cameron's ancestors lost their seats to the Liberal landslide.Only one identified so far - Sir William Mount who was kicked out by the voters of Newbury.But some entertaining reading from the Times and Yorkshire Post.

Two years ago I volunteered for a study on the long-term effects of smoking at the Royal Brompton Hospital's research unit in South Kensington London. Surprisingly at that time the result came back that it had no long term effect on my body - seemed I fitted into that special 1% of the smoking population. Last week they called me again and asked if I would take part in another test - more intense study. Thought all good stuff and at least I get to know what's going on inside of me. Monday, I had a Lung function ...

By Peter No - not our hundredth post this time. 5 December sees the anniversary of Campbell-Bannerman´s accession to office. This is what he had to say about the government that had gone before his: Tactics! Tactics! Ladies and gentlemen, the country is tired of their tactics. It would have been better for them if they had had less of tactics and more of reality. But they have lived for some years on nothing but tactics, and now they have died of tactics. Read more of his December 21 speech at the Albert Hall here.

by Jabez Clegg Here is the November list of posts you should have read. Lots of high quality pieces around in November - I was tempted to stretch the list - but these will keep you gong for a while! Rather more Lib Dem and less Liberal diaspora this month too. Only one of the ten doesn´t declare themself to be a Lib Dem - and I have my suspicions about the new boy. Here they are! Simon Titley on class-ridden comments on the Blunkett resignation (a post followed by silence for the rest of the month) Cicero's Songs (who ...

by Peter Simon Mollan has posted an interesting piece on foreign policy. His starting point is Ming Campbell's Observer article on Iraq, and Simon's argument can be fairly summed up by the title of the post: trying to make political capital while failing to advocate action is no way to make foreign policy. I had read Ming´s article myself, and in a more benign frame of mind than Simon. Okay, it is another trot through the reasons we should never have gone to war in the first place and this argument fascinates about 2% of the population and bores the ...

As a follow up to last week’s post about a dodgy-looking Don Foster press release, here’s Mark Oaten’s response to the latest BCS figures: Alcohol fuelled violence out of control - Oaten Responding to the publication today of figures on violent crime from the British Crime Survey, Mark Oaten MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, said: “These figures [...]

Rugby is a sport that will die if the current attitude of the IRB towards violence continues. Half-witted morons like Stuart Barnes may argue the whole appeal of rugby lies in violence, but he continually fails in his commentary to draw a sharp enough line between the regulated violence of a contact sport and its descent into thuggery. No matter wht your opinion of the rough and tumble of a trugby game is, the fact is that pictures such as those of Lewis Moody and the Samoan captain slugging it out on Saturday, or Brian O'Driscoll being dumped on the ...