LibDem Blogs - Archived!

As I was going to Hemel to see my Mum for Boxing Day, I had to visit Maylands Avenue to see what it looked liked.I've taken photos with my rubbish P910i and uploaded them to flickr which I'm just trying (instead of my own photo gallery script I wrote 5 years ago).I was suprised to see about 50 people taking photos, but then I was one of them. Driving past Woodhall Farm, a large number of the flats

The Tories want to be back in power. After years of Opposition and policy mistakes, they have woken up to the harsh reality: the electorate no longer much like the Tory party. Enter stage left (ish) the young, vibrant, boy Cameron. Now he has assembled his army of liberal or compassionate or whatever the latest buzz word is when he makes his latest speech, group of “dynamic” Tories, they will

Apparently, the Tories have taken to calling Oliver Letwin Gandalf. If one wishes to accept this “Lord of the Rings” analogy, then who is the Golum? The one who will torment and anger the boy Cameron and almost wreck his chances? Could it be David Davies? More likely, it will be te chummy Kenneth Clark. The man who once had the "precious" (power) and lost it. He will stand over Cameron and

New Labour are always telling us about rights and responsibilities. What they never made clear is what those rights and responsiblities are. From their actions it is obvious that they believe the British public have no rights at all and the only responsibility is to return New Labour to government.

Well I'm back. After a few short days back in Northern Ireland visiting my family I safely arrived back in Scotland last night. It is amazing just how much you can fit into such a short time. Christmas week for the Glenn family involves two birthdays my dad on the 22nd and my elder nephew on Christmas Eve. When you add in the midnight service on Christmas eve, Christmas Morning service, watching

Not the most exciting headline, or news story to be truthful. However the BBC have been telling me about it since 2am yesterday. Almost every hour via email. My inbox has 51 messages (and still counting) from the BBC News Alert system, which clearly has a bug. As a blackberry user this is bloody annoying as my phone keeps beeping to tell me exactly the same thing. At least I've set it up to turn off during the night. F-off: Whilst writing this post 2 more messages have arrived.

Once again, there is a kerfuffle beginning to break out over the teaching of history post-14, particularly focusing on the teaching of German history. A new "unit" has now been introduced that covers the whole of 20th century Germany, including the struggle to rebuild Germany and the effects of partition. All well and good, I say, although most of the complaints about the Hitlerisation of history are wide of the mark. The A-Level curriculum is wide and varied, but schools pick "safe" topics, especially the Nazis, especially Russia, especially 19th Century Britain, because the teachers know it, its been taught ...

There is a pleasing selection of old photographs of snow scenes on The First Post.

Driven down from the hills in search of food by the cold weather, this week's Britblog Roundup can be found on Adloyada blog.

this will do: Businessman wins spam email case.So now you know: take spammers to the small claims court for £270 plus £30 costs. But they still deserve impaling.

by Peter It's a book, of course: the work of Lib Dem guru, David Boyle. It features on the ConservativeHome reading list for moral Conservatives. David Boyle is someone you either love or like, and I am someone who likes him. I probably would not have got around to reading this book if not for the coincidence that, a few days after seeing it on that Tory reading list, reaching for a completely different book in a bookshop. I found it a few inches from my eyeball. I saw this as some kind of karma and added it to my ...

Just got back from my parents’ and due to go off to Wales for my annual Youngish Bilderbergs’ retreat tomorrow, assuming I don’t get snowed in. It’s interesting to see how many Lib Dem bloggers have chosen to write about Doctor Who over the past few days; there’s something about that series that is very Lib [...]

The other night the BBC aired one of their Before They Were Famous shows. It was a disappointment as I had seen most of the clips before. But one glorious fact stood out: Sid Owen played Al Pacino's son in Revolution . This was a dreadfully misconceived picture about the American War of Independence, released in 1985. A critical and financial disaster, it did much to ensure that the hoped for 80s boom in the British film industry never happened. I had the feeling that there was a decent film in there somewhere, given ruthless editing, but this review ...

The Christmas issue of The Economist proves that the magazine has a heart after all. It carries an article on one of the neglected classics of British children's literature: the Uncle books by the Reverend J. P. Martin. Who is Uncle? The article explains: The hero is a millionaire who exercises one-elephant rule over a gigantic, moated castle called Homeward. His domain is so enormous that large parts of the castle—which is linked together by a fantastic array of lifts, railways and secret passages—are unknown even to its owner. Much of the books is taken up with accounts of ...

Every so often the party is kind enough to send every one of us (even those members not fortunate enough to possess a subscription) a copy of the esteemed publication Liberal Democrat News. It’s not generally a great read to be honest; though Jonathan Calder’s sketches are fun and it was, until his passing, enlivened by Conrad Russell. Anyway… imagine my surprise at spying my old chum Robin on the back page! ‘The Robmonster’ came around to eat pies last night and is driving us to our old sixth form haunt, The Crown Inn, tonight, so I thought I would ...

Being at home for Christmas, things are slightly different. I’m eating more, and none of it comes from a microwave. I don’t wear a suit. I don’t walk around quickly making huffing noises. I drink more cider and less Corona. I say annoying things about how the air feels and smells different (it does). Was going to go running, but sadly left my trainers in London so can’t. A reminder of the world of headaches is the first edition of Free Radical that I’ve had to put together. It’s not great, the layout is a bit sloppy and there’s a ...

I think there is a start in a trend of newspapers actually checking out what the government actually achieves. If we start with Make Poverty History the Independent has done some work entitled "have we made poverty history" this shows that some progress has been made, but nothing like as much as was intended. Then there is the Banning of Hunting which has resulted in more hunting with

Have I missed something or are there very few Christmas messages from politicians this year? It may be that this has always been the case but a quick trawl of the main party sites finds only one, a standard text from Conservative Party Chair, Francis Maude, wishing all Christians and Jews a merry Christmas and a happy Hanukah. Mr. Maude uses his message to promote the new respect agenda being promoted by David Cameron:"however different our customs and beliefs we share at the same time a duty of mutual respect and responsibility - Christmas and Hanukah remind us again to ...