LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Ok so Peter from the Apollo Project tagged me just as I was heading over to Dunfermline however I saw it coming when Jonathan Calder was tagged last night. So here is what I came out with while out and about tonight: 7 THINGS TO DO BEFORE I DIE 1 Make a winners speech after an election 2 Publish my novel 3 Put on a play at the Edinburgh Fringe 4 Ride into Petra on horseback a la Indiana Jones 5

I know at least one reader of this blog is going to be very disappointed as Reading thrashed Norwich 4-0. A weird game as Reading had handed out plastic cards with "Be Proud Be Loud" on one side and "Bring It on" on the other before the game. These were waved before the game and then seemed to descend into a barrage of paper darts some of which only narrowly missed the players on the

Earlier today Ming Campbell launched a personal statement entitled “Policy Themes, Leadership Priorities” in which he identifies the most pressing challenges facing Britain today and how he, as leader, would tackle those issues. Read full article at http://www.campbellcampaign.org/policy-themes-leadership-priorities/

After another 45 votes Chris Huhne has moved further ahead of Ming CHRIS HUHNE  156  (44.8%)   MENZIES CAMPBELL 115 (33.0%)   SIMON HUGHES 77 (22.1%)

Evan and Rowan were very concerned: "The Government still wants the legislation to cover religiously-offensive insults, even though comedians fear this could lead to censorship – even self-imposed censorship – of any jokes ridiculing religion. Rowan Atkinson, who has led the campaign against the planned law, said ‘I am deeply concerned for all performers and entertainers, because the climate in

I can't imagine Mark relished the prospect of stepping foot inside the House of Commons today. So kudos to him for turning up, and ensuring the Lib Dems, Tories and 27 Labour rebels defeated by one vote the Government's absurd, ham-fisted plans to outlaw criticism, insult, abuse and ridicule of religion, belief or religious practice. He's not had much to smile about lately; but he can be justly

The BBC reports: The government has suffered two shock defeats over attempts to overturn Lords changes to the controversial Racial and Religious Hatred Bill. In a blow to Tony Blair's authority MPs voted by 288 votes to 278 to back a key Lords amendment to the bill. Analysis of the division list showed the prime minister voted in the first division but not in the second, which was lost by one vote. Home Secretary Charles Clarke told MPs that the bill would now become law. Later. The ePolitix site explains exactly what the votes were about: ...

Chris Huhne's website now features audio recordings of a number of interviews with him. One is by Ollie King from the Guardian and the rest are by Claire Rayner. I am sure those go nothing like this... Rayner: Do you touch, lovey. Do you touch? Will you do that for me? Huhne: Can we talk about my policies on environmental taxation please?

To everyone expressing the intention to visit Iceland before they die. I would like to humbly ask you to visit this link first and take into account the information that it offers before making the decision to travel there: http://activism.greenpeace.org/iceland/whaling.html If the Icelandic government can be persuaded that whales are worth more to the country alive than dead then there is some hope that this barbaric practice might cease. I am asking you, respectfully, to please be part of the solution rather than the problem. You may feel able to sign up to this pledge - ...

One of the exciting things about this parliament is that a Government defeat is much more likely. Tonight we were voting on the Lords amendments to the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill and a combination of opposition MPs and Labour rebels meant that one of the Government's dafter ideas was held well and truly in check. The second vote was won by a majority of one so it's a good thing that the

After a relatively short estimates meeting tonight Bridgnorth Town Council has agreed to set a precept of 2.5%. Only Christian Lea voted against the proposed budget - he did not speak at the meeting nor did he propose any amendments, so we will have to guess why he did not support the budget. This budget [...]

I knew someone would make me do this ... 7 things to do before I die: 1. Learn to play guitar properly 2. Record an album 3. Work on a US Presidential campaign 4. Visit Iceland 5. Organise a big party for all my friends 6. Do a rock gig as lead singer of a band with a set made up of the best of 70s & 80s rock classics 7. See my children grow up and lead fulfilling lives 7 things I cannot do: ...

I have always had some sympathy with Land taxers. I know -it is like confessing that you are a Chartist or some other High Victorian worthy cause. However, as we examine the facts about land ownership in the UK, I can not help feeling that Land Use has become a massive problem. As you fly over the UK, it is fairly easy to see that urban development is a very small percentage of land use. While I for one am not in favour of unrestricted development, I am also not in favour of building homes in places where it is ...

A chance to walk the talk: We know how to tackle climate change – cut emissions of greenhouse gases caused by burning oil, coal and gas. What’s the obstacle? Political will to take the necessary decisions. It’s up to us to put the pressure on the decision makers, to demonstrate our concern for the issue, and to demand urgent action. On Wednesday 1st March hundreds of supporters from environment, faith and development NGOs, working together as Stop Climate Chaos, will be asking MPs to ensure that government delivers immediate and sustained reductions of greenhouse gases in the ...

7 things to do before I die: 1. Take holidays by the sea…2. …during which finish reading various books*3. Live overseas, preferably in Sydney4. Finish my thesis5. See more of my friends6. Play more cricket7. Make amends 7 things I cannot do: 1. Read music2. Speak a foreign language3. Econometrics4. Like Jane Austen’s novels5. Drive a car6. Understand the whole goth thing7. Listen to the Archers 7 things that attract me to York: 1. The pubs, restaurants, cafes and bars2. It is in the North3. Its distance to London, West Yorkshire and the North-East of ...

At long last, the leadership election is starting bring out real issues, with both Ming Campbell and Chris Huhne starting to develop their policy stalls. Simon Hughes meanwhile is still stuck in willy waving mode. From what I’ve read, Ming’s policy document is quite impressive. I need to go through it in more detail, [...]

Nick Robinson has written a long but thoughtful and interesting piece on his blog on the relationship between the media and politicians: "Divorce is not an option," he concludes. "Neither is easy contentment. We are doomed to live together." Here's a slightly more serious taster: A marriage? Politicians depend on us in the media to communicate. We on them for stories to communicate - we are doomed to live together! A forced marriage, if you like. Of course we journalists have – and should have - interests that directly conflict with politicians but we also have a ...

After Popbitch and the Wales on Sunday, it's now the turn of the local paper Lincolnshire Echo to do a feature on my t-shirts.

By the gracious command of Stephen Tall

John Hemming MP together with Lorely Burt MP, John Barrett MP, John Leech MP and Richard Ross MP attended the vigil in memory of the deaths of 100 British Servicemen and Women at 5pm on Tuesday 31st March 2006. The Liberal Democrat MPs shared in the reading out of the names of the servicepeople who had died. John Hemming MP said, "The government have a key responsibility for the lives of

We’ve just added two things to the site: Ming’s personal statement entitled “Policy Themes, Leadership Priorities” in which he identifies the most pressing challenges facing Britain today and how he, as leader, would tackle those issues. Find out more » A button linking to the Dunfermline campaign. As Ming puts it in his latest podcast: Dunfermline’s very [...]

Everyone is doing it so I did it too. the good news is that I am an economic and social liberal Democrat. The bad news is that their definition of "economic liberal" is not the same as mine. But I wouldn't like to quibble. You are a Social Liberal (76% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (31% permissive) You are best described as a: Democrat ...

So, we are here at last. I am presently in the rehearsal in the new Assembly chamber and everything seems to be in full working order. If all goes to plan then we will be holding our first official meeting here next Tuesday. The only problem is that the new building is like a rabbit warren and it is entirely possible that some members may get lost on the way here.

The eagle-eyed amongst you might already have spotted this, but for the rest of you, I’m now working on the Bloggers4Chris section of the Chris Huhne leadership campaign. So, feel free to get in touch if you want to be added to the list, or if you’ve got something you want featured on the site.

That nice Councillor Stephen "Biggest Majority In Oxford" Tall (whose day job is getting rich people to give money to my college, so I don't have to pay so much to be there) has tagged me. This seems to be something where we list some facts and then tag other people. Sort of like a pyrmaid e-mail, but without sending a cheque for £73,000 to Nigeria. 7 things to do before I die: 1. Learn how to cook a full Sunday roast *competently*.2. Work out how to get that cable working, which is meant to synchronise my phone ...

By Peter Stephen Tall is responsible for this. Apparently if I don't carry on, then I will have seven years bad luck and all my cattle will die of thirst. 7 THINGS TO DO BEFORE I DIE 1 See my children grow up2 Fight an election3 Publish a novel4 Spend a winter in Salamanca, Grenada or Madrid5 Learn Czech or Russian6 Watch every day of a Test Match7 Walk the Pyrenees from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean 7 THINGS I CANNOT DO 1 Make tea2 Drink tea3 Listen to phone-in programmes4 Watch a game of soccer5 Enjoy christmas ...

The news, yesterday that global warming is happening even faster than we thought is probably a much bigger news story than one would judge by the amount it was discussed. I believe that, as a party, we need to be taking a much bigger profile on environmental issues. Too often, it is too low down on our manifestos and leaflets. One of the reasons that I am supporting Chris Huhne is that I believe he has this issue sufficiently high on his agenda. I fear that too many politicians don't see the environment as a vote winner. But to ignore ...

Recently in the Guardian Jonathan Steele indulged in the kind of hopeful but misguided thinking that will encourage popular opinion to believe that people like Khalid Mish’al and Hamas can be trusted. Hamas is a dangerous terrorist organisation whose elevation to power in Palestine is a terrible error made by the Palestinian people, on whose head the consequences must lie. In today’s Guardian, Khalid Mish’al lays out Hamas’ position. His words are in italic. It is widely recognised that the Palestinians are among the most politicised and educated peoples in the world. When they went to the polls last ...

Lib Dem leadership candidate Chris Huhne today addressed the Industry and Parliament Trust, on the relationship between Westminster, Whitehall and the European Union, and called for urgent reform.

Simon Hughes' campaign is 'delighted' to announce that his campaign is the first to hit the 1000 mark of people publicly declaring their support for my leadership bid. I had a look at the list and even from my quick glance I appears that he doesn't.

Chris Huhne today welcomed three new MPs as registered supporters of his campaign. The parliamentarians, having watched the first stages of the contest, have decided that he is the best choice as the party's next leader.

After seeing David Cameron make it from a very low profile to the Conservative leadership, we all know how quickly a dark horse contender can turn a contest on its head. The momentum for the Liberal Democrat leadership is surely with Stewart Lewis, whom MORI have shown is only 1% behind Chris Huhne in public support, and a mere 2% behind Mark Oaten. Stew2DoIt!

The Religious Hatred Bill which even Polly Toynbee thinks is a bad thing. Even if you were less strong on free speech/expression than we are here on Forceful and Moderate, then you still have something to worry about. As with all Labour's legislation, they're trying to reassure us that we have nothing to be afraid of because these laws will be applied sensibly and carefully and not to, say,

It’s one year to the day since BBC Tech journalist Ivan Noble died of a malignant brain tumour. Alas I’ve neglected my pledge to get 50 people to donate £20 to Cancer Research UK.  The pledge expires tomorrow. Please stick this on your blog, please sign up yourself, please let’s see if we can do [...]

Apparently 'tagging' is a thing grown-ups do on the interweb. Anyway, Jonathan Calder over at Liberal England has very sweetly pushed the 7/7 challenge in my direction... 7 things to do before I die: 1. travel to every continent 2. read everything I want to 3. find a reliable plumber 4. work out the meaning of life 5. appear on Desert Island Discs 6. live and work in London 7. become immortal 7

If you haven’t done so already, please consider signing the Ivan Noble donation pledge right now. Tags: ivan+noble, cancer, pledge

I am delighted to announce that my campaign is the first to hit the 1000 mark of people publicly declaring their support.

Supporters of Chris Huhne's campaign have now got a new way to help Chris' campaign by collecting names and details of other local members also backing Chris. Supporters details can be collected on a form which can be downloaded from http://tinyurl.com/agamy and returned by post or fax.

If Wembley is only "70%" likely to be ready for the FA cup final, how long can they keep the cardiff millenium stadium provisionally booked for? Although if the FA cancel, I can't see there being some other competing event that would be a sell out on that Saturday in May!

So the 100th UK death in Iraq has occurred. I realise this is small beer by comparison with the American statistics to say nothing of the number of Iraqi dead but nonetheless very real for those families affected personally by this. That is before one considers the thousands of UK casualties - all for an illegal war predicated on the premise of "Weapons of Mass destruction" which didn't exist.

PayAsYouEarn should be so simple. Anyone who pays income tax through their payroll should have a NI number, and what you pay should be spotted by the Inland Revenue.This appears to be OK in the majority of simple cases. But it all seems to fall apart when you complicate matters by having a second job. Logic suggests that the IR knows that my NI number in 2004/05 has paid a certain amount of tax, some through a normal tax code, and some at the basic rate, and for the following tax year they should amend my tax code for 05/06 ...

Given the argy-bargy on support statistics over the last couple of days, I hesitate (but only slightly) to note that Chris Huhne now has 666 supporters names on his website. At least that what it is when I convert his list back to spreadsheet-readable form. On the up! With the option of including party membership numbers in registering support on each candidates site, I trust the great majority of all names for all candidates are potential Party Voters. I have noticed one name on one supporters list which is the same name as a prominent nonLibDem blogger. No doubt this ...

Being subjected to rolling news throughout the day can be wearying, although it does throw up occasional gems which the casual news consumer might miss. For example News 24’s upcoming story: “Why robots are replacing child jockeys in Abu Dhabi” Continuing in the international vein, following his speech at the Afghan Conference, there is much speculation that President Karzai is Irish. A rumour is buzzing around the office that he was educated at the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, which would explain a lot.

I note from Hansard that I got an honorary mention in the House of Commons Committee stage debate on the Government of Wales Bill. Obviously, it is not for me to advise my own MP in how she raises things in the House but does Sian James really want to get into a debate with Lembit Őpik on asteroids? I think not: Lembit Öpik (Montgomeryshire, LDem): The hon. Lady gives us further evidence of the contradictions in the Government's position. A further example would be councillors. We can all agree that the most effective campaigners and councillors that ...

The Telegraph pocket cartoon by Matt is one of the few pocket cartoons that makes me laugh out loud more often than not. Saturday's is a particularly good one. The punch line could have been tinkered for a more LibDem audience, as many of us find LVT far more boring than PR and STV, you can normally find someone in a bar at conference to bore for hours on the subject of alternative taxation.

At least that is how the Guardian sees it where it reports that Huhne is calling for the withdrawal of all British troops by the end of the year. Interestingly he also calls for parliament to be the final arbiter of a decision on a replacement for Trident (I would be shocked by any suggestion that parliament should not make this decision) and goes on to suggest that the nuclear deterrent should

During our last 'blog strategy' discussion, LibertyCat and I decided we probably needed a comments/content policy. Results of the discussion so far as I remember were the following. LibertyCat - if you disagree with my recollection or want to add anything, I'll combine your remarks and mine into a single post and sidebar it. PLOG POLICY/STRATEGY The plog will be political discussion of national

I may have been wrong yesterday when I assumed that Chris Huhne's camp would be more astute and not come urging me to back Chris. However, this morning I was proved wrong. Admittedly the email came from a personal friend within the party rather than from the man himself, who I have not met in person, and also down near the end did at least say if I won't give your first preference to at least

British Telecom has signed up former Dr. Who and Little Britain narrator, Tom Baker, to record 11,593 phrases, covering every single sound in the English language in each of their different contexts. The idea is that if somebody texts your landline, the reassuring voice of Tom will deliver the message to you. Unfortunately, BT do not seem to have thought about Welsh language texts and in particular, Welsh place names. So if you text a friend to arrange to meet up in Rhayader, LlanfairPG ( Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwll-llantysiliogogogoch in non-text language!) or Ystalyfera they may well not turn up.

It seems everyone was doing this test. I did actually already know what my views were, but it’s always interesting to be able to compare notes. So, via various people… You are a Social Liberal (78% permissive)and an… Economic Moderate (41% permissive)You are best described as a: Democrat Link: The Politics Test [...]

I've been tagged by Liberal England. Much as I'm blogging pseudonymously about politics and keeping personal stuff off the plog (political blog) it didn't seem polite to ignore. 7 THINGS TO DO BEFORE I DIE Finish my thesisWatch the sunrise over the Alhambra Palace in Granada and go for long walks in Venice, Florence, Prague, Reykjavik, Beijing and GualinStart a businessHold an art

Grim times are ahead, if an official government report on global warming is to be believed. So what, you might ask, is our government going to do about it? You will be delighted to know that Environment Minister has declared that now is the time for “action, not warm words“. The only slight problem is [...]

I've made quite a big thing about Chris's European Parliamentary experience both in writing to him when encouraging him to stand and to other people. It seems to me that, now that Blair's pretty lacklustre presidency is over and with the sceptic Brown on the horizon and with Cameron likely to pull the Tories even further away from Europe there is no longer any desire to champion Europe in the higher echelons of the other parties and that pro-Europe voters have nowhere to hang their hats. Chris is just what Britain needs in a champion for the European cause. ...

Welcome to the third Ming Campbell campaign podcast. In this interview, former BBC and ITN political correspondent David Walter speaks to Ming Campbell MP in a taxi on the way from the Plymouth hustings. There is quite a bit of background noise as a result. Download and listen to the third Ming Campbell campaign podcast [...]

Tristan from A Liberal Alone writes… I have decided I support the Reflecting Britain campaign. There is a clear imbalance in the party which needs to be addressed just as the gender imbalance is being redressed. There is no reason why we should not have a party which is representative of the entire population. The campaign [...]