LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Effect measure's latest here. The gist: the virus is spreading and adapting to new environments, and doing so without a plan. We are the only species capable of forming and implementing a plan but we appear not to be doing so. The mudline: maybe we're not as smart as a virus.

or maybe just unreadable because they'd have needed long words.

Ok there was some debate when I posted these yesterday and Rob Fenwick has made adjustments to Simon's site to make up for this debate. However, it would appear that Chris Huhne maybe hasn't had a supporter update in the last 24 hours while the other two contenders have. The current levels of public support are: Simon Hughes 926 +266 Sir Menzies Campbell 772 +103 Chris Huhne 425 +1 (possibly

The Times this morning wrote the article about Simon's Hughes cmapaign launch yesterday in Manchester. However, while the online copy has the headline Lib Dems Must Aim for '1906' Landslide all very positive. However, in the 1st Scottish print edition which I had delivered this morning the headline is Brazen Hughes Evokes the Spirits of Churchill. Firstly calling Hughes brazen when he was

'Politics as a career': that was the rather general theme I attempted to speak to today at the Oxford University Students' Union alternative careers fair. I was acutely conscious of the irony of a Liberal Democrat - in this week of all weeks - talking about such a concept. (It can't be long before my "I-smoked-a-crafty-cigarette-behind-the-bike-sheds"-shame is exposed in the News of the World.)

Former Conservative MP Sir Cyril Townsend has announced today that he is leaving the party he represent in Westminster for 23 years to join the Liberal Democrats. Sir Cyril stated that he did not beleive in David Cameron saying: "David Cameron was the author of Michael Howard’s illiberal manifesto just last May. If he believed what he wrote then, how can he believe what he says now? And since he

by Peter The announcement that a former Conservative MP is joining the Liberal Democrats. This is what he said: David Cameron was the author of Michael Howard’s illiberal manifesto just last May. If he believed what he wrote then, how can he believe what he says now? And since he voted for the US invasion of Iraq, and has been continually Eurosceptic, what right has he to our respect for his international intentions? I am supporting Ming Campbell’s campaign to lead the Liberal Democrats - who I joined last year - because I admire his consistency and integrity, ...

by Peter What a week. Rocked by scandal. Finished as a serious political force. It is hard not to feel sorry for George Galloway. (Link via title)

I was delighted to read this article which trailers the governments health white paper which is due to be published on Monday. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4656866.stm I wasn't entirely convinced by the Lib Dem response as quoted in this piece - lets hope that we were just underquoted. We should wholeheartedly support these proposals and go further. We should call on the Labour government

Two bids for funding were made to the Safer Communities Initiative and both have been awarded. These are both related to the Riverside Youth and Community Centre, behind the Porter Butt on the London Road. The awards are for the funding of a net for the basketball court to stop the ball going over into Weymouth Street, which means that young people using this facility will no longer have to leave the centre to get their ball back and residents no longer have to worry about damage to their cars, or intruders into their gardens. The other award is to ...

There was a productive site meeting with residents at the Sydney Gardens crossing. Among many issues and problems highlighted were, traffic travelling much faster through parts of the system, pedestrians mixing with traffic stood still on crossings and general confusion of when to stop or go. Those in charge of transport and have been asked to revisit the scheme, with a view to making improvements. The view of the Conservative Executive Member for Transportation and Highways was that it is the fault of the drivers that this scheme does not work well, not the fault of the road layout itself. ...

After a local resident advised Cllr David Dixon, he has asked that Aquaterra replace the broken net on the tennis court in Sydney Gardens. Cllr David Dixon said, “It is very important that if these facilities are provided that they are kept in good working order. I do hope that Aquaterra replace these nets very soon so that our residents can make best use of this facility”.

You may have already heard that the flood compensation works at Mill Lane were turn down by the Council’s Development Control Committee. This means that the Park and Ride at Lambridge can not go ahead. The Park and Ride at Lambridge would be a waste of valuable resources as it is simply too close to the City Centre, too small and would probably be full by 10am. It was noted that the traffic on the London Road would not decrease, but that any spare capacity would have been taken up by suppressed demand. Cllr David Dixon said, “No one denies ...

Most of the new street lights along the London Road are now in place. Cllr Colin Darracott said, “I know that residents will like the new street lighting, as it should improve the quality of lighting along the London Road and I feel that the design of the lights are in keeping with the area. It is important that we work hard to improve the London Road, after all it is the gateway to a World Heritage City.”

There are proposals to introduce parking restrictions on Pera Road, Thomas Street, Snow Hill and Arundel Road.The restrictions on Snow Hill were extensively consulted on and drawn up in cooperation with Somer Housing last year. This includes the introduction of a Crossing Point on Snow Hill and hopefully the restrictions will help to slow down traffic flows and make life safer for residents crossing the estate. We are very keen to receive comments from nearby residents on the rest of the proposals and I am able to send copies of these to any interested residents by email or by post. ...

Stuart Waiton has an essay on the Spiked website: "Antisocial behaviour: The construction of a crime." It is well worth reading: By defining antisocial behaviour as a major social problem, the political elite has, over the past decade, helped to generate a spiralling preoccupation with the petty behaviour of young people. At no time in history has the issue of crime as a social problem in and of itself been so central to all of the political parties in the UK - and yet, there has been a significant statistical fall in crime itself.

Today we ran the fourth Back to Basics session in Wales, this time it was in Wrexham. We have about 15 participants, mainly from Wrexham but also from the surrounding areas. The day went very well, before starting the Back to Basics sessions I was not aware that we controlled, or shared control, of the four largest councils in Wales, Wrexham being one of them.

Just back from the game where the Championship leaders easily held the Premiership strugglers. I can certainly see why Birmingham are struggling so much in the Premiership this season. As far as I could tell the Birmingham side was pretty much a first choice team with the exception of the two centre backs where Alex Bruce and Olivier Tebily started due to injuries and suspension. Meanwhile the

Given that this blog comments on politics with a particular focus on liberalism, it seemed wrong not to say who I will be voting for as leader of the Liberal Democrats. The answer is Chris Huhne. This decision was reached after a lot of thought and an examination of the other candidates. Chris Huhne has a clear vision of where he wishes to take the party. He has laid out a strategy for

Menzies' press officers should have remembered Ken Clarke's wisdom when the Big Beast was in the same situation, and despatched the hacks before their man tried to extract himself from a racing car...

The headlines have not been kind and the talk is of implosion, free-fall and suicide. For many the last week, in fact the last month, has been a disaster for the third party in British politics. It all began before Christmas with briefings against Charles Kennedy that escalated into Kennedy’s forced resignation and confession that he was an alcoholic. Then Mark Oaten stood down, a parliamentary

Welcome to Sir Cyril Townsend who served as Conservative MP for Bexleyheath from 1974 to 1997 and who, earlier today, announced that has joined the Liberal Democrats. Sir Cyril attended the first of the Hustings meetings in Plymouth at the weekend, and met Sir Ming Campbell, pledging his personal support. David Cameron was the author of Michael [...]

David Walter's summary of Ming's week of campaigning reads like the hectic campaigning that took place during the GE, only we should have 3 potential leaders dashing around the country for 5 weeks, rather than just the one. Hopefully we'll be getting a visit to Birmingham by at least one of the candidates.Ming's list of supporters has also grown to 752, which includes 4 more MPs, including the West Midlands MP Paul Keetch.

What people will look for. Evidently I’m not the only one getting scores of hits out of dubious search criteria.

Simon Hughes has had another (re)launch of his campaign yesterday. Technically it was his first launch since the close of nominations, but his campaign is not having the best of starts. His campaign has also relaunched their website at a new address, hardly a steady start to a campaign.

[Worth a re-post, as it's just class. :-)] Thursday December 22, 2005The Guardian Dear Dave, Thanks for your email inviting me to leave the Liberal Democrats and join the "modern compassionate Conservative party". You have made a lot of people think again about the Tories, so you deserve a considered response. As you know, the Liberal Democrats are proud of being the most green of all the major parties. I was therefore delighted that you said that "my Conservative party believes passionately in green politics". However, politicians should be judged by their deeds, not their words. And on ...

As everyone else is doing this, here's my result: You are a Social Liberal (71% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (38% permissive) You are best described as a: Democrat ...

To anyone who has got here through doing a search on google for "mark oaten coprophilia" or degradation or "unspeakable act", I'm sorry.Unfortunately I've got no further details for you here!

No blog this week because I'm visiting my mum.

I've never had a lot of time for The Sun. The tasteless 'Gotcha' headline during the Falklands Conflict burns long in the memory. The there was the inaccurate reporting of the Hillsborough tragedy. Why anyone would turn to the tawdry rag for political commentary is beyond me. But apparently they have a 'Political Correspondent' who goes by the name of Michael Lea. He has the singular honour of bringing us a most insightful piece that will really help the nation focus on the issues that face us today. Under the headline 'Gay MP hangs around loos' our attention is drawn ...

So, once again Sir Ian Blair, Metropolitan police commissioner, is targeting the Hampstead dinner party set and its use of cocaine. Apparently he's going to have "smartly dressed" officers posing as dealers in the sort of bars and clubs where posh people get their coke. He wants to stop it replacing wine at smart middle class dinner parties. Now, fair's fair, his officers have long made life

by chrisk My enthusiasm was only sparked when I heard Chris Huhne was going to stand. The first few days of the leaderhip contest were predictable. Many Lib Dems, myself included, met the announcements from the obvious candidates with a kind of bored scepticism. Chris is a unity candidate. He shows that you can be economically sound without being right-wing: he can help address our biggest perceived weakness without causing storms of protest from our activists. The support he's receiving from relatively left-wing members of the policy commissions he's chaired bears this out. He's also not yet put a foot ...

Following Forceful and Moderate and Iain Sharpe, I have taken the OkCupid Politics test. As Peter Snow would say, it's all "just a bit of fun", but I do like the way it distinguishes between different political outlooks. So, here are my results: You are a Social Liberal (78% permissive) and an... Economic Conservative (76% permissive) You are best described as a: Libertarian You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right ...

I have just taken the politics test at www.ok.cupid.com to which I spotted a reference on another Lib Dem blog. I have often considered such tests a bit of fun but essentially a waste of time that prove nothing. This one is different. The result for me is: "You are a Social Liberal(73% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal(33% permissive) You are best described as a: Democrat You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness." Funnily enough this is exactly what I have always said about myself (apart from the bit about Democat ...

Andrew Grice writes about the leadership campaign in the Independent: Sir Menzies’ appeal as the safety-first candidate is even greater now… He is more than a safe pair of hands, and showed his passion in a BBC Radio 4 debate with his rivals this week.

Found on Stephen Pollard: You are a Social Liberal (95% permissive) and an... Economic Conservative (60% permissive) You are best described as a: Strong Democrat Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test ...

Ming enjoys campaigning. This has been his first full week on the trail, and he has been relishing it. A sprinter by training, he has taken to the middle distance contest for the leadership with enthusiasm, setting a fast pace but leaving plenty in reserve for the final spurt. On Monday, he was in Cornwall [...]

That was the reply given by Bill Clinton on the campaign trail in 1992 when asked by prying journalists if he had ever had an extra-marital affair. It's just about the best answer a politician could give when confronted with allegations that might just have a grain of truth in them. If only Clinton had stuck to this line through his term of office he might have saved himself a lot of trouble. To cheer up my fellow Lib Dems I can report one Liberal sex scandal that has been disproved. It has often been suggested that the nineteenth-century prime ...

I've extended my links list from a combination of: Iain Dales' top 25 blogs Plogs I remember from last time I was plogging People who've left comments in my comments' box AND People they've all linked to My method of categorising (left/right/foreign current affairs/libertarians) is rather problematic since some ploggers fall into more than one category and I didn't find anyone I felt was authoritarian above and beyond any other political affiliation. Although the top 3 categories are likely to be relatively valid, the 4th involved a lot of guess-work over which category particular ...

The Liberals have a proud history but we must not forget that we are experiencing a return to past levels of support in the present and we should look to an even brighter future. Yes at the moment revelations have knocked our poll ratings a little but that is only temporary while we regroup and elect a new leader. At the grass roots level our activists and supporters are still out there doing

Just got three emails from the leadership campaign organisers, one for each candidate setting out their reasons they should be leader. Thunderbird decided that Chris Huhne and Ming Campbell's were both spam but let Simon Hughes's through... Is my computer trying to tell me something?

The director Ken Russell has launched an intriquing new project, making his movies available over the internet via his own website. Although the sort of films that Mr. Russell may be making these days are not ones I would choose to watch, he does have a point that the future of films will be on the net. Already, moves are afoot to release DVDs at the same time as the movies hit cinema screens. It is a small step to distribute those films via the internet direct to on-line home entertainment systems. This is, of course, happening in the music ...

by Steve Travis I would urge anyone attending a leadership hustings to ask a variant on the following question: "It is well known that any group that operates in a competitive environment (business, sports team, military force, political party even) has to constantly re-examine itself in order to remain competitive, or else it will "go out of business". For a political party one part of this process is to examine how its current policies align with its core values, and from the evidence we've heard tonight that process is well underway. The second, and often neglected point, ...

At 8.15 this morning my local newsagent delivered the final edition of the South Wales Evening Post. Thirty five minutes later I am still waiting for my morning papers to be delivered. Truly, the world has changed since I used to deliver newspapers.

There are just three weeks left until the West Midlands Liberal Democrats Spring Conference and Hustings. Bookings are up on previous years with limited space left for the Conference it is advised people should book early to avoid disappointment.

Simon Hughes opens public toilets in 1994, a plaque is unveiled... in 2006 The Scum reports it as 'Gay MP hangs around loos'. This is factually incorrect since he's not gay (he's bisexual). It's also misleading since there's no evidence given in the article he's ever been in there since they opened and 'gay MP' refers to a person NOT a plaque (which is the thing 'hanging around'). There's also a somewhat random change of topic/location mid-article: He performed the official ribbon-cutting ceremony at the lavs in Elephant and Castle, South London. ...

I’ve just pulled together a special page for the leadership election on Flock Together. All part of the Flock Together mission statement (which I need to think about properly and write down at some point) Making it dramatically easier for liberal-minded people to get involved in the Liberal Democrats or words to that effect.

Ward: Walcot App.Ref: 06/00053/LBARegistered: 19 January 2006 Expiry Date: 16 March 2006Location: Grosvenor House Grosvenor Place Lambridge Bath BA1 6AUGrade I Listed BuildingGrid Reference: 375966 - 166124Proposal: Internal works including stabilisation works to vaultCase Officer: Michael Thorndyke Type: Listed Building Consent (Alts/exts)Applicant: Grosvenor House (Bath) LtdAddress: Brambles Crocombe Timsbury BA2 0JSAgent: DR Mills And Associates Telephone: 443336/FAX443337Address: 24 St James St West Bath BA1 2TW Ward: Walcot App.Ref: 06/00193/CLEURegistered: 9 January 2006 Expiry Date: 6 March 2006Location: Second Floor 14 Grosvenor Place Lambridge Bath BA1 6AXGrid Reference: 376047 - 166184Proposal: ...