LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Nick Barlow writes: If Jonathan Calder didn’t exist, we’d probably have to invent him.

The politicalbetting.com site has a page giving the very latest odds. At the time of writing Chris Huhne and the Revd Hughes are tied in second place.

Chris Huhne's website says: Chris has recorded the following videos to give a better idea, in his own words, of why he is standing as a candidate for the leadership of the Liberal Democrats. Covering a whole range of topics, from reasons for standing to environmentalism, his wide ranging experience, ability to win and radicalism, the videos give a new insight into Chris as a strong candidate as leader of the Party. As the most radical candidate in the contest for the leadership of the Lib Dems, Chris and his team like to be to the forefront of new ...

All being well, tomorrow evening I shall celebrate Burns Night with haggis, neeps and tatties at our local Wetherspoons pub. Although when I lived in Scotland as a child we always had a Burns supper at school on 25 January, complete with a recitation of ‘Address to a haggis’, it’s only recently that I have started making a point of celebrating Burns Night. It’s a case of reasserting my sense of Scottishness. It’s now nearly 30 years since my family moved down to England when I was 10 years old. I speak with a Watford accent and nobody meeting ...

I notice an article entitled ‘Can Lib Dems recover after Oaten?’ by Nick Assinder on the BBC News website. It’s a fatuous question and the article doesn’t really give much of an answer. I say ‘fatuous’ because of themselves sex scandals rarely do much damage to parties, the electorate being canny enough to realise that no party has a monopoly on sexual purity or peccadillos. Sometimes a party can be damaged if there is a whole series of scandals that in combination make it look sleazy or dishonest. This happened to the Tories in 1963–64 and 1995–97. But even ...

Poor Lembit Öpik has been having a hard time of it - the last Kennedy loyalist, Mark Oaten's only Commons supporter. To cheer him up, let's hear it for his grandfather Ernst Öpik, the noted astronomer.

The latest campaign email from Our World Our Say: ID Cards Bill - Selling our freedom and rights for Tony Blair's "place in history" and wasting our taxpayers money when it would be better spent on education, health & real policing. Dear Opponent of ID Cards - URGENT ACTION IS NEEDED. The ID Cards Bill has just passed its final stages in the Lords with critical amendments that make it effectively unworkable. Now the Bill is heading back to the House of Commons for what should be its final reading. Urgent action is needed to 'Kill ...

I wonder how much false killer whale vomit would get you?

When Cameron finally gets round to his “capitalism roadshow” it might be an idea to stop off at Shrewsbury. The local MP, Daniel Lankygitz appears to be struggling with economics post-1821: He has so far won the support of fellow Tories Mike Penning and Bob Spink for his motion which states: “This House notes that [...]

After this post (and the comments I subsequently left on it), Dave Lewis, President of Reading University Students' Union, has made a complaint against me for bullying. Not saying anything, but... Oh yeah?!?

There's been a bit of chatter over the fact that the party's leadership election rules mean the candidates don’t get given copies of the party's membership lists - this was a decision made by the party's conference when it voted on the rules a few years ago. Ah democracy ... ! All the leadership candidates are understandably wary about talking about the rules - as it can so easily sound like

Tonight's full scale rehearsal in the chamber of the new building, or Senedd as it is to be called, has been postponed amongst much talk of acrimonious meetings and over-large egos. It is true that all the party leaders and business managers are very frustrated by the delay. The official reason is that the new technology is not working properly yet and having been over there this afternoon to sign onto the new system and to be shown the ropes, it is evident that there may be some substance to this. We were meant to be holding our first ...

We’re finally ready to launch the Reflecting Britain campaign - the reason I’ve been a bit blog shy over the past couple of days (and the explanation for my WordPress rant on Sunday!). What’s the purpose of this campaign? Well, for me (personal opinion), I expect to hear a lot of warm words over the [...]

The rise of Chris Huhne in this leadership campaign comes as no surprise to me. When he entered the chase as an outside bet, quite a few people quipped 'Chris Who?'. But that's actually the point. The only reason he started in fourth place was his relatively low profile. Those who knew something about him realised his potential. That's why he has had no difficulty getting the required number of MPs to back his bid, and why new backers emerge daily (the latest being Clare Rayner). I firmly believe that as he gains more media exposure over the next few ...

Over the last few weeks I’ve noticed a significant weakness in the Liberal Democrat armoury – a propensity to be mawkishly sentimental, and ‘principled’ to a fault. In a comment to this blog, Andy Darley argues he almost didn’t back Ming Campbell because ‘seeing all the people most closely involved in knifing Kennedy standing smiling behind him, waiting for their turn’ put him off. Come on Andy! Ambition is a reality of politics, and a good thing. We can’t always be nice and fluffy. We might actually want to be successful. Elsewhere, Femme-de-Resistance argues that given the stance of LD’s ...

Am I the only person who finds Prince Charles extremely worrying? I feel conflicted about the monarchy. During the New Labour years I formed the view that it is actually extremely reassuring to have a long-standing Head of State outside the political process who knows the system considerably better than Mr Anthony Blair, attorney-at-law, and his cohorts. I think there is a very sound argument that The Queen and her mother were the people responsible for ensuring the British monarchy outlasted the 20th century. And the way they have done that, I believe, is by always observing the ...

Yesterday attended the meeting at Hither Green Baptist Church when the Mountsfield Park Users' Group transformed itself into the Friends of Mountsfield Park.  Not entirely sure the reason for the change of name, unless it's to make it easier to get lottery funding. Had a useful update from Martin Hodge (Lewisham Council) on the latest news on the masterplan to regenerate the park. It seems that getting more lottery funding depends on the local community being actively involved in supporting the park.  So it was a shame that actual park users were almost outnumbered by Council officers and the single ...

I don’t really follow Canadian politics, but yesterday’s election result was interesting because it showed the even vanquished parties can recover and form governments. Twelve years ago the Canadian Tories won just 2 seats; yesterday they won 124 seats, making them the largest single party and minority government. This sudden recovery seemingly has much to do with accusations that the incumbent Canadian Liberal Party acted corruptly. To draw a parallel, the scale of Labour’s victory here in the UK in 1997 certainly had something to do with the sleaze allegations that had dogged the Major administration – they just did ...

Thanks to Nicholas who is keeping tabs on the preferences of bloggers in the Lib Dem leadership race. Of the 42 declared on here 17 first preferences are going to Chris Huhne, 13 for Simon Hughes, and 12 for Sir Menzies Campbell. So giving Huhne the slight edge in the blogsphere. However we must not forget that this only represents 0.06% of the total electorate so people shouldn't get too carried away, especially as the 42 of us are amongst the most opinionated Lib Dems there are, and may not be reflective of the membership as a whole. After ...

Apparently it is now news if the Chancellor back his Prime Minster. What is the Labour party coming to?

The sounds a bit dodgy, but here’s Chris Huhne explaining some of his policies. More videos are here and Nicholas Whyte’s list of which bloggers are supporting which candidates might be of interest to those of you watching the leadership election.

Good news for the Stoa as Ken Livingstone announces that the Tour De France will be starting in London next year. And, of course, it’s a chance for Stephen Pollard to flaunt his ignorance of cycling as a sport yet again. Still, if so many people see it as ‘mind-numbingly tedious’, it should be pretty [...]

This should be a podcast of Chris Huhne's experience in business, journalism, Westminster and Europe. It's very funky and one of a set of 5. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem too happy to run 'on the blog'. It's running in a separate window. Anyone know how to get it to get it to run in the blog itself. Next question - how do you make a podcast?

I have to admit that I'd reached a decision some days ago but had held back from declaring my support because I've always had my doubts about endorsements - it's the puritan Returning Officer in me, I guess - but having seen the flood of endorsements now hitting the ether, there seems little point in being more 'purist than thou'. I've given some thought to my decision and here. distilled into a

Chris Huhne on why he’s standing for the LibDem leadership (requires Flash): There are more videos on Chris’s campaign site. Tags: chris+huhne, liberal+democrats, lib+dem+leadership

Following the successful BME motion at the London Region's Autumn conference prepared by Mark Valerdares of Liberal Bureaucracy the Region has submitted a motion for debate at the Federal Spring Conference which has been accepted. The website Reflecting Britain has been set up which explains some of the thinking behind the motion. It call on the Leadership contenders to address the gender and ethnic balance with 5 poignant questions being asked how they propose to address the balance to reflect the cultural diversity of modern day Britain. Whether or not they ...

It was around 1974 when I met ny first Liberal MP. I was too young to vote, but thought I myself as a Conservative. Even so , I went along to a local school hall in Rayleigh (the school where my mother attended in the late 1920s, and the one my son would one day go to). There was an embarassingly small turn-out, but the chap made quite a good little speech, and he shook my hand and I took his

I read on No Geek is an Island that Chris Huhne has garnered the support of agony aunt Claire Rayner and total ledge-lord former MP, Clement Freud. Him off Radio Four. This is impressive, but what I really want to know is: who is Nicholas Parsons backing? Next week: I'll be describing the role of the 'yogh' in the name Menzies... in just a minute!

Strange things happen in the blogosphere, and in turns out I've been reading an old friend's new blog for a little while without realising who he was. Anyway, I think he deserves a wider readership not least for this observation of the reasons NOT to vote for Simon Hughes: Sadly, most Lib Dem activists have spent much of their careers to be not being very sensible viz ... their magazine 'Free Radical'. I suspect that the temptation to be Free and Radical may win out over tedious responsibilities and compromises that have to made in order to achieve power or ...

www.chris2win.org.uk Above is the first of five blogvidcasts carried by Chris2Win.org.uk. Find them all, here.

Labour are finding that calling a short sharp by-election is having to formulate policy on the hoof when a main issue in the constituency is slipping away from you. In fact they appear be getting as snarled up over the Forth Bridge as the traffic approaching it does twice daily. Even more worryingly for Labour and the voters of Dunfermline and West Fife is the decision-makers operating on the hoof are the neighbouring MP and Chancellor and nearby MP and Westminster Transport Secretary. These two do not even appear to have consulted the Scottish Executive who actually have jurisdiction ...

LibDems Claire Rayner and Clement Freud are now backing Chris Huhne too. Tags: chris+huhne, liberal+democrats, lib+dem+leadership

With nominations due to close on Wednesday at 4pm a number of new hustings have been announced. There will be a Radio 4 "Any Questions?" special at 9pm on Wednesday night with all the nominated leadership contenders. There will also be a Radio 5 Live debate and phone in with Simon Mayo at 1pm on Thursday afternoon.

James at Quaequam Blog has argued that Ming Campbell’s campaign slogan of “a bridge to the future” is … code for “stopgap” or “caretaker”. It is tantamount to saying that under Ming, the whole party will be engaging in a performance of “Waiting for Cleggot,” the danger being that - like the Beckett play - the eponymous character never actually arrives in the end (ask Portillo or David Davis about the weight of expectation). I don’t understand why this tactic is being adopted. I’m sure I can’t be the only person who finds it a massive turn off.I have ...

George Galloway and Mark Oaten appear to have decided to challenge the "any publicity is good publicity" theory. I have frequently qualified the statement as almost any publicity is good publicity. With Mark Oaten it is entirely clear that the particular NOTW article is not good publicity. The situation for George Galloway will not be entirely clear until the dust has settled when he leaves

Last night the House of Lords defeated the Government plans for ID Cards twice to keep any ID Cards voluntary. It is very odd that since Blair becoming Prime Minister in 1997 the House of Lords has acted in the best defence of the British public far more than the House of Commons!

Lib Dem chaos, Scandal-hit Lib Dems in Freefall or: that the party is facing headlines claiming it is facing its worst crisis for a generation and is collapsing. And that must indeed be the party bosses' greatest fear The party is apparently: reel[ing] from the resignation of its home affairs spokesman following allegations he had an affair with a rent boy Let's look at this sensibly... The

... according to The Telegraph: Chris Huhne, originally a rank outsider, yesterday overtook Simon Hughes, the party president, to become second favourite behind Sir Menzies Campbell, the acting leader.

The last 20 visits to this blog from Google used the following search terms (just so you know what the world is interested in... 23 Jan, Mon, 03:25:23: vinyl shirt little briton 23 Jan, Mon, 09:29:17: destruction doncaster dome...

Otherwise we wouldn’t get quotes like this: For all I know this may be a widespread fetish. Maybe there are lots of people who are turned on by wearing, say, the 1994-5 Rotherham United away strip. Those who are really unlucky are the lovers moved by Manchester United strips. Imagine how much it must cost to own [...]