LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Earnshaw Palmer posted the following on the Lib-Dem online discussion list. I felt this is worth a wider audience as there are some valid point here. Alan.===== The recent events have placed the Liberal Democrats in the limelight and we should welcome the publicity that we have received. There are three things that we should achieve. a) The debate for a new leader must not be put on hold. The reason is that it will give us new impetus and more media coverage (publicity! publicity! publicity!) and this will slow down the advances that ...

Via Nick Cohen’s article in the Observer today (the revelatory caption isn’t in the online edition), I learn that Zac Goldsmith’s wife is called Schadenfreude. Posh people and their wacky names, eh? UPDATE: How come Zac doesn’t seem to have a Wikipedia entry? Or am I missing something?

By which I don't mean upset. A paramedic is a sort of doctor. Parabolic is a sort of soap. Paranoid means you sort of think they're out to get you. It follows that being Noid is being REALLY scared they're out to get you. Here's the first example of noia from the policymakers of America: Space tourists must be screened to ensure they are not terrorists, according to proposed US

The boy Cameron has decided to define his leadership by being against orange chocolate. Surely this is his first strategic mistake? After all people like chocolate. Perhaps he did some research and found that only Labour voters like orange chocolate. Did he attack orange chocolate because it is a threat to the Tory party or Tory policies? Well no, he attacked it because he was trying to

Nemawashi was one of the more interesting concepts I came across doing my postgraduate work on Japanese Business Systems. The literal meaning is ‘binding the roots’ and it started off as the word for planting a tree - everything that needs to be done before during and after planting to make sure the tree takes life. I think this has relevance to out political situation today. According to the Japanese, in business and organisational terms Nemawshi means the process by which everyone affected by a decision works through what the implications are and accepts the necessary consequences for their own ...

Feeling virtuous today because Robin and I have been out canvassing in the ffffrrrreeezzzing cold and rain. I haven't been so cold in a long time. Today was very 'January'. I think the rain helped because we got a good response - a sympathy vote perhaps. We set off frightened that every house was going to ask us about Kennedy and that we wouldn't know what to say except that we didn't yet know what would happen. If the party we had attended the night before was anything to go by then we were expecting to be grilled. But it ...

This is impossible for up to 3 weeks, and if this Guardian article is to be believed then the back office are none too helpful either, but at least we know he is captive under 24 hour surveillance. It gave a distinct feel of unreality to Reality TV, but to be honest I was more shocked when I found out he was going round the country giving "An Audience with George Galloway" to paying audiences. ...

Sixteen dolphins from a marine park that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina -- including several that were swept out to the Gulf of Mexico and later rescued -- have been moved to a resort in the Bahamas. The dolphins, which have been housed at temporary locations around the country, were transported to Mobile, Alabama, and loaded onto an airplane for the final stage of their trip, officials said. The mammals lived at Marine Life Oceanarium in Gulfport, doing jumps and other tricks in programs for tourists, before it was severely damaged by Katrina on August 29. ...

God this is a cheap shot.

Without breaking any confidences and based in part on newspapers reports as well as other communications it seems clear that there are four potential candidates in the running. Ming Campbell is the favourite. Simon Hughes and Mark Oaten are possible runners. I am not inclinded to stand if both Simon and Mark stand and probably won't stand if there is a contest otherwise, but that depends upon

Lynne writes candidly about her experience of Charles Kennedy's leadership: When I arrived in Parliament as a new MP in May I have to say that I was shocked by the scale of the leadership problems. I was aware that Charles was brilliant at times - but then seemed to disappear and not truly have the hunger that is needed to drive a party forward.Some Lib Dem bloggers have been critical of the parliamentary party's recent actions. Yet, faced with a leader who was not functioning properly but refused to put down a motion of confidence or stand down, what ...

Tim Worstall's latest selection has been posted. He writes: Liberal England ascribes Maggie’s electoral victories to her cancelling o school milk. Thinking abck he might actually be right. Whatever his keyboard has been drinking, it is not milk.

One message that the parliamentary party must hear loud and clear is: "no coronation!" This party is nothing without it's loyal footsoldiers. Some 70,000 ordinary members pay their subscriptions each year and an estimate 7,000 activists walk their feet off because they feel they have a stake in this party. Right now, we are all on the sidelines watching the drama unfold. We were not asked if Charles Kennedy should be forced out, although as the story unfolded must of us were able to understand why. However, if we were also be forced to be mere spectators as our new ...

by Peter It is always difficult to break bad news - worst of all when the recipient does not wish to accept the message. Richard Allen (who is better placed to know than most of us) has this message on his blog the other side of the sympathy coin is a backlash against "wicked Lib Dem MPs" for "kicking him when he was down". The party will inevitably suffer damage from this public impression. There is another side to the story but this may well not emerge. (my emphasis)Comparisons with the Conservative overthrow of Thatcher have been drawn ...

We spent two nights in Ludlow, Britain's only Città Slow. We stayed at Bromley Court. We had two really excellent restaurant meals and did some food shopping before we left. We bought some sausages that tasted of real pork and a brace of partridges. I've never seem partridges for sale before. I'm cooking Perdrix aux Choux (partridge with cabbage) this evening. The butchers' shops in Ludlow had game, pheasant and rabbits, hung up outside their shops with feathers and fur. A few years ago someone told me that the reason you don't see this ...

The Mail on Sunday has a new opinion poll today (seemingly not available online). This poll claims to show Lib Dem support slipping to 16%, the lowest level for some time. However, Mike Smithson at PoliticalBetting.com has done some digging into the polling company responsible. BPIX are, apparently, not members of the British Polling Council, do not have a website and have not responded to requests for information about its activities. Whilst a poll drop would be understandable given the recent bad news, this poll cannot be taken as conclusive proof of anything. Opinion polls are fickle ...

So that's what it's like! Political assassinations since Caesar have been ghastly affairs. I am only glad that Charles' exit speech was him at his best - that the last memory of him as leader will be such a good one. Before I turn to what is to come - I have been reflecting on how it all came to be such a messy and brutal affair - in a party that is so nice. When I arrived in Parliament as a new

Ken Owen makes an argument that seems to be growing in popularity: that Ming Campbell is the only real choice for the leadership of the Liberal Democrats. This may be so - indeed, if the choice were between Campbell, Oaten and Hughes, I would personally favour Campbell. Mark Oaten's comments about needing to talk to the other candidates before making his decision implies that he has not yet decided to stand. Simon Hughes is also keeping quiet, though his role as party president does require him to remain, at least officially, neutral. But does this mean that ...

by Peter Not everyone reads the City pages, but those who do have seen a number of attacks on Cameron. Jeff Randall in the Telegraph gave him quite a kicking the other day (I reproduced some of the juicier attacks here). Peter Preston has returned to this in his Media column today. A few pages earlier, Frank Kane joins in the fun. I never thought I'd see the day when the head of Tesco was able to put up a better defence of capitalism than the leader of the Conservative party, but that's exactly where we are now. Sir ...

The next task of the Liberal Democrats has to be to restore trust especially in light of the latest opinion poll: a) in the party members b) in the general public c) in the press (if we ever had any anyway) For the party members many feel that 33 (the highest published figure) of their number, who happen to have been elected to the House of Commons, have taken away their democratic right to

I am very sorry to hear that Tony Banks is seriously ill following a stroke and unlikely to recover. I remember him from the early days at the University of York. We were only 500 students then and Tony was a very visible player in student politics. I wasn't involved in those days - this was the period leading up to widespread student protests and only the far left carried any...

Predictably, the Sunday papers are full of details about Charles Kennedy's resignation, the events that led up to it, the pressures and more stuff on his drink problem. There also seems to be a head of steam building up to crown Menzies Campbell without an election. As a member and somebody who has a stake in this I believe that such a coronation would be the worst of all worlds. The MPs have got their way but they have to understand that they do not run the party. The Liberal Democrats belongs to its members. It ...

According to Alex Salmond: “Julius Caesar was better treated by Brutus than Charles Kennedy by his colleagues.” Alex Salmond is an expert in this sort of thing, so should know. John Swinney anyone?

This is the process whereby the party is reviewing its policies. I wrote an article for this which is posted on the website here For those who have asked what "taking soundings" means it means a) Seeing who else may stand - because there may be someone else I could back b) Starting to collect nominations - it will take a certain amount of time to collect the constituency nominations for which I

While most of us have been understandably preoccupied with Lib Dem problems, this is a time for thinking of the families of Rachel Squire and Tony Banks When I saw the news report ,and particularly the photo , of Rachel Squire, it reminded me of Sylvia Lemon, who was my fellow Lib Dem ward councillor for 16 years. In her final year before she planned to retire, Sylvia was unanimously elected

It’s very frustrating to be busy at a time when major events you have a personal state in are going on elsewhere. I only heard about Charles’ resignation yesterday by text message and even then it wasn’t clear at first that he’d even resigned. I haven’t had a chance to read all the various blog [...]

Richard's comments in response to me all seem to be of the "you don't get it" variety. That may be true; I am not a member of the Lib Dems, I do not plan to be in the immediate future, and as such cannot know the true machinations. However, if I "don't get it", then it is up to the Lib Dems to prove otherwise. The Lib Dems are continually chastised in many quarters (ie from both sides) for being woolly, inspecific, and often on two sides of the same issue at the same time. (I don't have the link, ...

So it's finally over. Charles Kennedy has, inevitably but not without deep regret, resigned the leadership. Few can be happy at this turn of events, with relief being the only positive emotion that anyone in the party is feeling right now. Let there be no mistake: Charles Kennedy was an excellent leader, with his alcoholism being his only failing; perhaps it is even more tragic for that. Should the Liberal Democrats go on to increase their representation in parliament at the next election and, perhaps, find a path into a coalition government, it will be to Charles ...