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Hughes: “Under my leadership, the laws of statistics will be turned on their head.” (With apologies to Rob.) Tags: liberal+democrats, lib+dem+leadership, bar+charts, simon+hughes

Kudos must go to Peter Oborne, the right-wing political commentator, who gracefully introduced the most recent edition of BBC Radio 4’s Week in Westminster by issuing a Private Eye-style apology to the Liberal Democrats: Over recent weeks, we political reporters have given the impression that it was all up with the Liberal Democrats. We indicated that recent events in Lib Dem high command had

...tells me that his latest post on the leadership election is selling faster than chips on a winter's eveing at Kingsholm. But you can read it for free - without even getting your fingers greasy - just by clicking here. Elsewhere Bob Mclennan is backing Huhne. That is balanced reporting, isn't it?

I have been trying to work out why I believe Joan Hickson was a much better Miss Marple than Geraldine McEwan. In part it is the two performances. McEwan is visibly acting the whole time - all those little smiles and grimaces - whereas Hickson hardly seemed to be acting at all. Outwardly she was all stillness, yet she managed to convey the underlying intelligence and the core of moral steel which brought murderers to justice. And in part it is the people around them. With some of them now over 20 years old, the Hickson Miss ...

It comes from the saintly Craig Murray. He writes: I may surprise you by starting with the observation that, on the scale of violence we have visited on Iraq, this was a negligible incident. People on all sides are dying every day. I have heard enough first hand accounts, from British diplomats and military, from journalists and NGO workers, to know that if it had been U.S. troops facing that mob of stone throwing youths, they would simply have opened fire and blown some of them away. The media would report that another eight “insurgents” had died in a ...

Dresden 61 years ago today. Do not go gentle into that good night,Old age should burn and rave at close of day;Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right,Because their words had forked no lightning theyDo not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how brightTheir frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,Do not go gentle ...

I am trying to write Friday's House Points about Gordon Brown this evening. But it is hard to compete with Brendan O'Neill's article on Spiked. The pre-speech leaks suggested Brown was going to launch a war of ideas to defeat the terrorists. In fact, he proposed remaking British society to protect against their (vastly exaggerated) threat. He said we need new laws to silence terrorists or their sympathisers, new ID cards to foil them, and a new focus on security in every government department to make sure that they never harm a hair on our heads. This is not ...

I really struggle with a complete smoking ban. I struggle a bit more when so many liberals are not just in favour but clearly savour the thought. I accept the health arguments. But if saving lives is the object then will we be banning alcohol or junk food? or indeed just ban smoking full stop? I accept the argument about passive smoking for customers. But surely they can choose a Non Smoking pub while smokers choose a smoking one? I really do accept the argument about passive smoking amongst bar staff. But can't we, if we must, have quotas of ...

I don't know if he is taking the piss out of me, RUSU or both, but this post by Pete is awesome.

Mark Hunter MP has written to every Liberal Democrat councillor and PPC in the country to urge them to vote for Simon Hughes. He said 'Simon has a long track record in campaigning inside and outside parliament and has many ideas of how we can really promote the Party and drive it on to further electoral success'

On an email discussion group today, the topic of the Combined Cadet Force and schooling came up. Thankfully I didn't attend the sort of school where boys were encouraged to learn to use a gun and rise through the ranks. Instead, between the ages of eight and eleven I attended the local Boys Brigade. I am quite sure the Boys Brigade have changed in intervening period, but now I realise I attended a peculiar combination of the Boy Scouts and the para-military wing of the United Reformed Church.* There was a fervour to the whole thing which actually was a ...

Two Liberal Democrat MPs, who talked Chris Huhne into standing for the Party's leadership race, today explained why they are convinced Chris is the man who can lead their Party to victory at the next election.

Or so he claims here. Given the implausible nature of Hughes' stated solution to the Iraq situation on Question Time (namely, the use of 'regional' troops instead of British and American forces), and given Kamm's well stated pro-war stance ( indeed, he is the orginal laptop bombadier) and his pro-Labour political position, I think we can safely assume that his reasons for considering Hughes preferable to the other candidates are rooted in a conviction that Hughes is not sufficiently attractive to the British electorate to advance the Liberal Democrats far enough to endanger Labour or to put into practice a ...

It dawned on me the other day why listening to people talking into their mobiles on the train can be so irritating. I was pondering why having two or more people carrying on a conversation next to you did not wind you up so much (in most cases).  Then it hit me that it is having [...]

Is it possible that the Darbyshire's read F-) So there you are - you'll have to catch up with them yourselves tomorrow.

Paul Burstow made a couple of good points here First his skill as a parliamentary debater and his ability to communicate the party’s message in the media are assets that he would bring to the leadership of our party. Second It should be no surprise that the people who know Ming best, who have worked closest with him over the years are backing him. He inspires loyalty and respect from colleagues. I have no doubt he will give our party a renewed sense of purpose and build the team in Parliament and the country to capitalise ...

(Seriously though: congrats!)

Emphasising his support for Chris Huhne's leadership bid in advance of the Edinburgh hustings, Lord Maclennan of Rogart has called on Liberal Democrat members in Scotland "to recognise the opportunity Chris represents".

First things first - congrats to David & Mrs Cameron. Here’s hoping for a healthy baby and healthy mother. One thing I’ve had a lot of time to do while tucked up in bed is to read every corner of BBC News Online on my laptop. One interesting tit-bit is that William Hague will stand in [...]

Just my opinion after reading the comments so far so I have only change my list if I agree with the comment that was made Hughes Pros The most passionate and inspiring speaker who communicates a positive Lib Dem vision Bigger constituency majority. Experience in parliament. Deeper understanding over a broad range of subjects. Energy and enthusiasm. Best placed to make lead the Lib Dems in

I have just come out of a TV interview. I am often interviewed, mostly by business television channels- CNBC, CNN, Bloomberg and so on. The subject was the question of which states will join the Euro zone in 2007-2008. In principle, Estonia and Lithuania ought to be able to adopt the Euro easily, but there are now big questions. The final, almost throwaway question was: "So what is the difference between the Baltic on the on hand and countries like Austria or Belgium on the other?" My reply was flippant, but I couldn't help it: "Austria does not follow Austrian ...

A new blog interlinking tool has landed - BlogCode. See the box in my sidebar for more. (Via.)

So I watched some of the debate on ID Cards yesterday. Ultimately it left me with a feeling of great disillusion and disappointment in our political system. This was the first time I watched a debate and its apalling how pointless it is. As Ming said (and I paraphrase), its not about reasoned debate its more about who has the biggest cock number of supine MPs to back you. The debate proceeded in a

A bit late in the day, but the Yellow Peril post on Lib dems "ramping" before the Dunfermline by-election is good for a laugh.

It's not often that I praise the DUP however I was impressed my one-time economics teacher, now MP for East Antrim, Sammy Wilson contribution to the ID card debate last night. However, he was attachking one of the few strands of the entire bill that the government have held firm on the whoe way through that is that the cost is worth it. Stewart Hussie of the SNP followed not long afterwards

Nuclear Fuels Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the total capital sum is of each of the private finance initiative schemes over £10 million (a) in operation and (b) where the outline business case has been approved for which her Department is responsible; and what the (i) total optimism bias percentage, (ii) net value at commencement and (iii) amount of optimism bias for the public

As a backbencher and as a former colleague in the shadow cabinet I have no doubt that Ming is the person best equipped to take on Brown and Cameron and give the party a distinctive and authentic liberal cutting edge. Ming’s mastery of foreign affairs and his leadership on Iraq mark him out as a statesman [...]

Posted by Chris The Coatham Links project is the most important development in Redcar for decades. It will stimulate the town’s resurgence. It is a straightforward plan to regenerate a rundown section of seafront, get state of the art swimming and leisure facilities and attract tourism and jobs. It will replace a stretch of coast-line spoilt by derelict land, once part of a golf course, by a dilapidated leisure centre and by boy racers. It is a blot of the seaside landscape. Vera Baird MP and the protesters are incorrect. We do not qualify for a Private Finance Initiative for ...

I suppose it was too much to hope that the government would give a straight answer to a straight question. Tom will post the response from the government about optimism bias. We will, of course, continue working to get the true picture about the fiddle factors that have been used for PFI. The link is to the guardian's section about PFI. They are reasonably accurate, but do tend to mix up annual

Would it be safe to assume that all the MPs who voted in favour of ID Cards last night, and thus seem to believe that they’ll prove to be something other than a massive waste of money, invasion of privacy and dramatic increase in the power of the state over the individual, will be the [...]

If you’ve voted once, you can vote again. Colin Ross has a new poll on the party leadership up, so go and have your say.

This is my last word on the naming of the new Assembly building. I think that we really need to move on now and discuss real issues. Such as perhaps that the chamber computers are still incapable of accessing the internet and that there is a two minute time lag between the division bell being rung in the Senedd and it ringing in AMs offices. I have now had a copy of the e-mail that the Presiding Officer sent to all members of the House Committee on 22 June 2004. These include the then Labour Business Minister, Karen ...

Colin Ross has put up a new poll on his interweb thingy. This time he is looking to collect 1st and 2nd preference intentions so that the vote transfers can be analysed to predict the result. (Unless someone gets over 50%, which I think no one is predicting ATM).

Well Michael Connarty appears to not be listening to himself, or reading his own attributed quotes in the Sunday Herald, when he said that Tony Bliar was illiberal and this was why the people of Dunfermline and West Fife had voted against Labour. He followed Gordon Brown into the aye lobbies on all five divsions on the ID Card Bill last night. Somehow this should not surprise me as Michael was

The Government won the votes on Identity Cards last night, although they did accept one of the Lords amendments. However anyone looking at who voted which way may be surprised to the see Liberal Democrat MP Paul Keetch supporting the Government on the first vote - I can reveal this was a cock-up rather than anything else.

Whole books have been written on the ideal qualities of a leader: the ability to inspire - coolness under fire - broad strategy combined with tactical nous - high principles tempered by low cunning - luck, as well as judgement. Fewer have been written...

( Edited ) Iain Dale greets us this morning with the news that a second “who he?” former party candidate has apparently defected and this time joined Labour. So at least we can be assured he isn't a careerist.

I must thank my friend, Jeremy Sanders, for this...

The Labour government took two further steps to failure yesterday. The first is the deployment of troops to Afghanistan- that graveyard of Imperial hopes, whether British in the 19th century and early 20th century, Soviet in the late 20th century or NATO in the 21st century. British troops will be leading a large deployment in one of the most ungovernable areas of southern Afghanistan, an area where the Taliban were not fully removed. The explosion in opium production, under the eagle eyes of heavily armed warlords, is just another reason why troops should be moved in- or so we are ...

It must be getting close to local elections time. The disingenuous and downright dishonest are creeping out of the woodwork to try to make themselves seem better than prospective opponents. Last night, labour's Councillor Maureen Christian took her shot. Oxford is going through a sensitive time with the county trying to implement residents parking in many areas and Maureen was trying to make a big fuss of who might and might not support charging for the idea. In a written amendment to a motion on the subject in council, she accused, by name, a local Lib Dem ...

After a slow start when all the visitors seemed to be pro Huhne the bloggers for Hughes made a sterling effort to fight back. I also had a phone call last night from a Hughes supporter who stressed two key areas. 1. The vision thing and 2. Who is best placed to lead a charge to take seats off labour at the next general election. I may revise the list of pros and cons later but in the end I

I avidly read the Darbyshires in the same way that Guardian columnists watch Big Brother so I'm waiting with baited breath for today's entry. We've already had a preliminary for the main event here: After this fantastic day I was met at Wimbledon tube by my husband bearing a present gift wrapped in pink, Playboy wrapping paper. He did try to give me this, my Valentine's present for next Tuesday,

We hope... Anyone who resents the idea of paying at least £93 for authoritarian old rope can visit the No2ID campaign site here: ID cards are a ideologically authoritarian idea with a poorly justified purpose that are equally easy to oppose pragmatically - it would be a miracle if they were implemented within budget and without bureaucratic chaos. They require no further comment, just

I thought I would write about something quite close to me tonight because it has angered me. Rather than the ethereal world of politics which can sometimes feel quite abstract. I have a friend currently buying a house, with several acres of field adjacent, in a village in the Green Belt just outside Oxford. The vendors are the Church Commissioners. Apparently hurt after being stung over several years or decades by having sold off properties on which the buyers have then got planning consent and made a fortune they are trying their best to tie down buyers. ...

{Elizabeth Wheeler} "It is crucial for the credibility of the Liberal Democrats that urgent action is taken to address the under representation of women in the Parliamentary Party in order to fully represent the population they seek to serve." - Liz Wheeler

As a former LDYS organiser, I think it is fair to say that I know pretty much every single “leading activist” within the Lib Dems between the ages of 26 and 35. One has to ask therefore, who is Graeme Smith? He was apparently the Lib Dem PPC for Loughborough last year, hardly the most [...]

My farewell letter to Spark: Dear Madam (saucy I know), Firstly, "hustlings" - as featured in last week's paper twice - should not be used in the context it was, I think you were looking for the phrase "hustings". It feels good to point out typos like that and know that it's not my fault anymore, as until recently I occupied your position as Editor of Spark, but after various machinations by