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Talking of Kipling, it is not widely known that the great man was named after Rudyard Lake in Staffordshire. The "lake" is really an artificial reservoir built in 1797 to supply water to the Caldon Canal.

Britain should have a day to celebrate its national identity, says Gordon Brown. He has urged Labour supporters to "embrace the Union flag". The BBC report adds: "What is our equivalent for a national celebration of who we are and what we stand for?" Mr Brown said."And what is our equivalent of the national symbolism of a flag in the United States in every garden?"Isn't there something very unBritish about these sorts of display? Isn't our reticence, our lack of swagger, one of the most appealing things about us Britons? The whole point of out national myth - ...

Some thought from the first mini-hustings at Facing the Future… I am giving ‘impressions’ of the candidates performance as I think a semi-interested outsider might have seen them. More detailed analysis on content another time perhaps. There were clearly four Libdems up there so sucks to the wedge wielders. On the delicate matter of ‘Past Events’ Mark Oaten scored the big risky hit of the day by (in effect) calling on us all to make the Facing The Future review a positive memorial for Charles Kennedy’s hard work as leader. That hit a certain button and ...

I know that at least a couple of my readers share at least some of my musical interests, so I will press ahead with another recommendation. This is 'Picaresque' by The Decemberists who are from Portland, Oregon. They blend an interesting combination of styles, primarily acoustic, laced with strings and accordions, but in a rugged rather than cosy way. Their songs come across more as plays or short stories – clearly fictional rather than personal or introspective. They also deal with slightly fantastic historical themes – tales of sailors, pirates, soldiers and chimney sweeps. But this avoids the tweeness ...

My daughter (15) has a tendency to download songs from the net. Recently she has been singing along with a Romanian song. She plays a couple of Romanian songs. It is an interesting sound. It sounds just on the edge of the Romance Languages (Vulgar Latin - French, Italian, Castillian, Catalonian etc) a sort of slavonic pronunciation of such a melange.) One of the effects of the internet. In

Clearly the Lib Dems in Broadland District are doing a good job, despite a traumatic week for the party. The Guardian reports that we held on to a seat there in a by-election on Thursday night. In a double-header election two years ago , the Lib Dems and the Tories won a seat each, so clearly it's a tight ward. The result on Thursday: Broadland district - Spixworth with St Faiths: Bali Kular

The art of good speech making is to start my grabbing the attention of the listeners and finish by leaving them wanting more. So therefore I'm going to look at how the four candidates started and finished their speeches at today's Meeting the Challenge event in London. Make up your own opinion by listening to them on the BBC. Firstly Sir Menzies Campbell started laying his credentials out by

Today the Liberal Democrats held their Meeting the Challenge Conference in London. The Meeting the Challenge conference follows on from, and continues an internal party discussion which is effectively a policy review and also looks at how the Liberal Democrats will face up to the challenge of the future.

If you are reading the permalink version of this page, you will have noticed something new at the bottom. Using the Blog Search XML files, built with the url of the title link, I can see who else has been blogging the same story as me. With some fancy code I can place this information at the bottom of each post. This one is a bit of a cheat, as I've linked to the Brown speech promotes Britishness

Thanks to Vivienne for pointing out to be that I got a mention is this mornings Daily Telegragh. Apparnetly dispite all my bolgs about the soul searching of the party over the last week what they are most concerned about is my resemblance to Tony Blair. Well I guess that is really going to help them persuade me to buy their paper. Not.

Sir Ming Campbell A sound speech, emphasising his deeply-rooted liberal credentials. The references to Joe Grimond signalled clearly his intentions – that’s a good thing – but Ming could do with emphasising more the future, or else he risks self-defining his stereotype as a 1950s’ patrician Liberal out-of-step with modern Britain. He could also do with loosening up his speaking style - read less

by Jabez Clegg Vivienne over at Forceful and Moderate has noticed that three of the four leadership contenders were wearing the same pale blue tie at today's hustings. What she doesn't comment on is Mark Oaten's tie. It was silk, and dark blue with a fine gold stripe. It looked much like a school, college or Regimental tie (perhaps it belongs to Mark's alma mater). He was also wearing the same tie on Question TIme on Thursday evening. My tie antennae tell me that, whether he made a conscious decision about it or not, this tie ...

I attended the "Meeting The Challenge" conference which started with speeches from all four contenders for the Lib Dem Leadership. They all did a good job in their own way. Mark Oaten particularly by working from memory performed the most visually effective speech. I preferred Ming Campbell's Speech. Ming Campbells LSE Speech "I want to begin today by paying tribute to Charles Kennedy. In

Ming Campbell’s campaign website is at www.campbellcampaign.org. Interestingly (well, to me) it’s a Wordpress site. Tags: menzies+campbell, liberal+democrats, wordpress

Another day, another government proposal that sounds vaguely plausible until you start thinking about it... I do wonder whether they do any research. Or whether they just devise them in the bathtub and release them to the media the next morning to see if they float. The idea is that by having a national day (you know - bunting, street parties, binge drinking...) will cause people to realise the

The first hustings of the campaign (you can see the entirety of the speeches on grainy video). I have one question - where did Menzies, Simon and Chris get those identikit shiny (blue) ties from? Why blue? And, more importantly, why did Mark Oaten miss out? Was it a group decision or was there one of those uncomfortable 'we're all wearing the same outfit' moments?

Once your interview goes out other media outlets (BRMB) then use directory enquiries to hunt you down to then provide a comment that they can use (which means that they monitor WM for their news output).Unfortunately was out doing what any good LibDem should be doing on a Saturday and at a local action day.

On the recommendation of James of Quaequem blog, Robin and I tired the face recognition software on photos of ourselves. I am delighted to find that my closest matches are Sophie Coppola (77%), Jennifer Lopez (71%) - yes! - and Mariah Carey (71%)- huzzah! -as well as those gorgeous glamour girls of old Rita Hayworth and Grace Kelly. How cool is that!! So on that basis will those who have been critical of Mark Oaten's own facial likenesses (James and Martin Tod) at least admit that one of his supporters can be likened to a world-famous movie or pop star ...

by Steve Travis See if you can match the car to the contender, then write us an interesting explanation as to why they drive what they do. The best one will get its own article! 1 1968 Jaguar S-Type2 Saab3 Toyota Prius4 London Taxi A Simon HughesB Chris HuhneC Ming CampbellD Mark Oaten

by Robin. I have been monitoring my RSS feed closely over the past a week and a bit watching the news of the contest come in from both a number of news sites and Lib Dem Blogs. But this lunchtime the following headline caught my eye: Bus fetishist who took a trip too far down lover's lane I had to read - it would quite simply be rude not to! It turns out that a 19 year old Paul Hughes had a habit of taking bus on 100 mile round trips before returning them the next morning - ...

The Federalist Papers are probably the most famous newspaper articles ever printed. Written by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison (with some contributions by John Jay), they made the case for the adoption of the US Constitution. They are rightly venerated - indeed, I believe the best essays are still relevant in explaining today's politics. One thing that is overlooked, however, is the corpus of Anti-Federalist writing. While there were many difficulties for the Anti-Federalists to overcome - not least that there was no real central mechanism through which national opposition to the constitution could be organised - the several states ...

"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a time of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality." -- Dante, The Inferno January seems to be the time of year when journalists catch up with strategic changes in the world. Much has been written in the first two weeks of the year on certain ideas that are themes of the blog. The Wall Street Journal this week has a front page lead on the growing challenge of Russia. The breakdown of the rule of law and the corruption of the Putin regime are things that exercised Cicero for some ...

The Welsh Education Minister has promised to make a statement in Plenary next week on the issue of registered sex offenders working in schools. What is surprising is that Jane Davidson does not appear to know whether Ruth Kelly has sanctioned anybody on the sex offenders' register to work in a Welsh school or not. This may not be a devolved matter but at the very least it should be a matter of courtesy to tell the Welsh Assembly Government if such a person has been authorised to work in Wales. The job of tracking sex offenders ...

It is 45 years since the Lady Chatterley trial and the BBC is planning a dramatisation to go out in March. In today's Guardian Simon Hoggart reflects on the role played by his father, who was a witness in the trial: The BBC is reprising the Lady Chatterley trial, 45 years after the event, with a drama written by Andrew Davies. It will be shown in March on BBC4, and probably repeated on BBC2. Lady Chatterley looks pretty tame stuff now, so Davies has added a fictional affair between two of the jurors, reflecting and expanding on the one ...

Before proceeding I should mention an omission in part 4. Cable suggests that Liberal Democrats should pursue the idea of privatising the Post Office distribution network. And the idea has been so pursued. Is there anything more to be said? Chapter 6: Harnessing the market to achieve environmental goals, by Susan Kramer. Kramer discusses a variety of market-oriented alternatives to regulation

Watching the Lib Dem leadership speeches on Sky News, I was most disconcerted to see Mark Oaten literally (again, that word!) transmogrify into Tony Blair!

Rumours have reached me that Oaten may withdraw over this weekend. It appears that he's having issues about collecting 200 signatures, as well as getting 7 MPs who genuinely support him, rather support his right to stand.Various activists around the country, who wouldn't dream of describing themselves as of the right, or even centre, have had calls from Oatcakes office to canvas them to obtain nomination signatures.I'd suggest the fact that Oatbiscuit has a downloadable nominations form is a small sign of desperation.

I'd just started writing this and got interrupted to do a recorded soundbite for Radio WM...Anyway, yesterday evening got home from work and saw that the road was blocked off by the Royal Logistics Bomb Squad van! (And a HAZMAT ambulance and a number of police officers milling about.The fuss was related to an arms cache found in someones backgarden while they were digging it up. Initial reports were that it was a WW2 bomb, but if it had been then we would've been being put up in the local school before you could get a good novel to read ...

I was intrigued to spot that the current top rated pledge on pledgebank is one which successfully raised £100 for a Lib Dem prospective council candidate and included a pledge from an MP.

Both Radio 4 and Sky News have announced plans to hold televised hustings for the Lib Dem Leadership. But I still think that it is of sufficient importance to justify a slot on BBC1. With the real - even likely - possibility of a hung parliament after the next General Election, the next Lib Dem [...]

We finally seem to be getting into policy differences… Mr Huhne called for a switch in the burden of taxation with higher environmental taxes. He said: “That will, of course, hurt. It is actually going to be painful for some people, for example through their fuel bills, on people who are heavy users of petrol and [...]

According to the BBC: The chancellor unveiled his National Community Service scheme a year ago to encourage one million young people into volunteering.…Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said the volunteering scheme was a "pale imitation of [Tory leader] David Cameron's National School Leaver Programme announced in August. Cameron's Osborne clearly doesn’t understand how ‘imitation’ must follow creation. The National Community Service was created a year ago – before David Cameron’s National School Leaver Programme was announced. The shadow-Chancellor is a history graduate. Not understanding chronology, however, may be the least of his failings. Osborne's CV is a little sparse. ...

Is Alice Miles a blogger? I certainly can’t see why she is being paid to write this drivel. How can you take seriously a man who believes that posing in his Speedos is a political event? Well, The Times has taken Tony Blair far too seriously for years, but if it is having a change of [...]

Upon doing my early morning newspaper trawl - I noticed that Forceful and Moderate was mentioned in the Telegraph. Which was a bit exciting... if you like that sort of thing. I'm hoping to put up my last in the run of leadership election posts this evening titled "Simon Hughes in Speedos" - now there's an image. There is an additional leadership post in the pipeline from my co-blogger about the

by Peter One of the themes of this election is the combination of different strand of liberalism 1. Which of the leadership candidates is most likely to say this? The fundamental issue is how to reconcile a dynamic economy and the liberating effects of individual economic freedom with the objective of an inclusive society, recognizing that totally free markets will not achieve that end. This is not a new issue and we are not the first generation to consider it. It intrigued John Stuart Mill and John Maynard Keynes. Its philosophical and political ...