LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Be in no doubt that the new human traffickers, staffing brothels in the UK with women from east Europe (and indeed elsewhere), are a dangerous lot. I had a KGB colonel watching over me during Lithuania’s break with the USSR (when I ran computer message links with the Baltics resistance) but never really felt in personal danger here in the UK. However, when I organised contacts between witnesses to human trafficking through Lithuania and Danish TV journalists investigating the story it was very clear that everyone involved could be subject to a routine lethal contract, let us say.Some of ...

Latest odd google reference: “make him wee”.

Just a reminder that on Tuesday I will publish the third SportBlog roundup. Any submissions to sportblog at googlemail dot com please.

Dedlock, Bucket, Guppy, Vholes, Smallweed, Badger, Boythorn, Krook, Swills, Flite, Volumnia, Tulkinghorn, Turveydrop, Chadband, Pardiggle, Jellyby, Rouncewell, Nemo, Squod, Snagsby, Skimpole, Jarndyce, Bagnet, Pouch, Peepy. And that's just from Bleak House, which the BBC are currently doing a superb job of televising. Isn't English a great language? In my Penguin Classics edition, the

Here is the text of the poem that Calum Best son read by Belfast woman Julie McClelland, the one that brouggh him and me to tears earlier today. Farewell our friend, but not goodbye. Your time has come, your soul must fly. To dance with angels, find the sun, But how we'll miss our special one. He walks among us just a while, Weaved your magic, made us smile. Your life was so full of light and

(If you understand that reference, you’re too old!) Jemima’s little brother is interviewed in the Guardian today. He’s a funny one. I would imagine that to a number of greenies, Zac’s move into established politics and the Conservatives will be a shock and a blow, but I wasn’t the slightest bit surprised. And indeed, in [...]

by Peter Lib Dems have been talking about these topics for a while. In the wake of recent posts and articles by Jonathan Calder, it is probably time to post something here. Jonathan said "I am not Charles Kennedy's greatest fan, but there seems to me no point in calling for his head. There is no obvious successor about whom I feel a much warmer, and it is not as though there is an agreed radical liberal programme that would sweep the country if only a Lib Dem would promise to implement it. Kennedy's muddling through reflects the party's ...

Since I last wrote I've been griped by the coverage on the television. I tried to identify the scarfs that were thrown unto the hearse. As well as Northern Ireland and Manchester United I'm sure I also spotted Linfield and Celtic showing that yet again George has united the people of Northern Ireland. The service was very moving. The second poem that Callum read out got to me as well so I'm not

The Western Mail's Dafydd Wigley fan club strikes again this morning with the news that the great man is on Plaid's approved candidate list and raring to get back into the Assembly. They report that he is being lined up to succeed Owen John Thomas as the number two on the South Wales Central list. This will obviously be a blow to Simon Thomas, who it was previously reported was seeking to re-enter mainstream politics after he threw away the Ceredigion Parliamentary seat by precisely this route.According to the paper's correspondents Dafydd Wigley will be able to inject a bit ...

I have the TV playing in the background showing live pictures from the Cregagh Estate as the funeral procession of George Best prepares to pass through thousands of mourners to Stormont. Already in scenes reminiscent of Diana flowers are being thrown from the masses unto the hearse in what is the biggest funeral in Northern Irish history. The location of the funeral service is somewhere I used to