LibDem Blogs - Archived!

In September of last year my old friend Lord Bonkers wrote: Do you know Oakham Pier? I would liken it to the West Pier at Brighton, though it has to be admitted that the relentless tides of Rutland Water have left it in a worse state of repair than its cousin on the South Coast. Yet I can remember the days when the music hall at its far end was simply the place to be seen. The management prided itself on importing the best acts from every corner of the British Empire. Who could forget Jan Christian Smuts and ...

LOCALISM: to what extent can policing, health and regeneration be devolved to neighbourhoods and families? Full paper. This is a bit of a silly section. Admirer as I am of David Boyle, it is clear that he wrote this chapter and appears to be having a conversation with himself. Happily however, this is one area [...]

There's been quite a lot of coverage on other blogs and some in the mainstream media already about the news that Sainsbury's and Woolworths have both withdrawn the Jerry Springer opera DVD from sale after lobbying from a small Christian movement. (See The Independent for example). Sainsbury's say they decided to do this after receiving just 10 (yes ten!) complaints. Well - I know that toleration

Visit the Scout Park in Alexandra Ward with my colleague councillor Wayne Hoban and Ken (scout master) and John (architect adviser). What a fantastic site - like being in the wilds but in the middle of the constituency. Seriously in need of renovation to the buildings (scout hall, sleeping accommodation and various other buildings). Some have been condemned by Health and Safety - but no successful

The Council Chamber in Rayleigh , where my District Council meets, seldoms sees any real nastiness. A few months ago I made a somewhat barbed (but not nasty) speech concerning a broken pledge by the Conservative Group and some time afterwards one of the best of the Tories made the comment that he had now seen some vitriol in the Council Chamber. My response was that you have to be able to

FAIRNESS: what should we do to reduce inequalities in health, education and prosperity? Full paper. This is in many ways one of the weakest sections of the paper, taking a very narrow view of fairness with none of the deliberation of different definitions that was found in the Tax Commission and I have already made [...]

Good evening everyone, and welcome to the third edition of the SportBlog roundup. As ever, it hopes to bring you the best in sports blogging from around the world; no matter what shape the balls, what colour the shirt or what tune the chant. Please keep emailing me suggestions; the aim is to show people what they've been missing - the address is sportblog at googlemail dot comFirst up this week is Chris Young who blogs at JABS, with this piece about sports owners and what they could do in the era of mass communications to make their teams stronger. ...

It's been a while since we looked at the Shropshire Star, so here is a characteristic story: A plea went out today for officials to reopen the only public toilet serving 70,000 square miles of countryside in Mid Wales, in a bid to boost tourism.

Gun-ho Surprise, surprise, a Texan police officer asks to be armed in the UK.

David Davis: So ladies and gentlemen, when I ask you to welcome the new leader of the Tory party, I am also asking you to welcome the next Conservative prime minister - David Cameron. Sorry, what was that? “Go back to your constituencies and prepare for government,” did you say?

David Cameron has beaten David Davies in the Conservative Leadership contest by 68% to 32% to become the Leader of the Conservative Party.

by Peter That's the line Simon Hugnes is pushing in the wake of Cameron´s not unexpected victory. And it's clearly a valid point, although I am not convinced that the electorate is quite as opposed to nuclear power as the Liberal Democrats. There isn´t yet much sign of a Tory big idea, and other parties have already announced that they will respond by arranging a mass distribution of the Monty Python "Upper Class Twit of the Year" sketch (sorry - apparently that is not true). There was a story that Lib Dems were using the leadership contest ...

Last night I trained Ludlow Liberal Democrats Selection Committee. The Selection Committee is now ready to start the process that will end with the selection of the Liberal Democrat Candidate, and hopefully MP, for Ludlow constituency for the next General Election.

Sayeth some bloke called John Siegenthaler: The marketplace of ideas ultimately will take care of the problem but in the meantime, what happens to people like me? You’ll just have to deal with obscurity like the rest of us, mate. Get over it. Or press “edit”.

If Gordon Brown were to permit the assumptions behind his predictions to be made public perhaps they wouldn't go this far wrong. When I get some time I need to try to work out what is happening separately to private and public sector GDP. The impression is that the private sector is in a recession, but the public sector not. Similarly superficially it appears that Labour have gone for reducing

From CentreForum As some of you may know the Centre For Reform has changed it name to CentreForum. It has a new website at www.centreforum.org and also a forum for discussion at http://www.free-think.org.uk/

by Peter A rather good post by Lewis Baston (biographer of Reginald Maudling) on politicalbetting sets out the parallels between 2005 and 1963: I think there are some parallels between Davis 2005 and Maudling 1963, and that they’re more apposite than comparing Davis and Butler (Ken Clarke was the Butler figure this time, in my opinion, but far from an exact match - in his persona and policies there is something of Reggie about Clarke). The task for Reggie at conference in 1963 was to remind the Conservatives why they had nearly univerally favoured ...

Gas Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the estimated gas production from the UK's own resources is for each quarter from Q1 2006 to Q4 2008.(John Hemming) A:The Department does not make projections of gas production on a quarterly basis. It does publish projections of annual production from the UK continental shelf, in the form of ranges, at

Have managed to persuade Woolworths and Sainsbury to ban the Jerry Springer Opera DVD. Obviously the content of the DVD was far too outrageous, but the poisonous intolerance of Christian Voice's policies is perfectly fine. I urge everybody to follow Tim's example.

The votes cast in favour of Carol Thatcher on "I am a celebrity get me out of here" exceeded the total individual votes received by her mother in a 40 year political career.

...do something about the rainy-day money that has been sitting in the buidling socieity for years before someone takes it to use for a good cause.

by Peter Colin Ross is among those arguing for a common age threshold for all activities at 16 (the age one can marry). As I have said before, marriage at sixteen does not appear a great thing to defend. (In any case, isn´t parental permission required?). Nor do I look forward to seeing sixteen year-olds behind the wheels of HGVs.