LibDem Blogs - Archived!

They call it The Daily Politics, but I'm not sure why. I've just caught up with today's Lib Dem leadership special (cleverly timed to have bugger-all impact unless you're hand-delivering your postal ballot) - in which "Andrew and Jenny" obsessed over Chris Huhne's wealth, asking the most mind-numbingly banal questions imaginable. Chris handled it well, rebutting strongly and with humour. The

An odd name - it means 'moving forward' - and it is the title of a very successful project for young people in Kingston. It is highly targeted so most people have not heard of it. But it is capturing some attention because it features as an apparent cut in the Budget. Kingston was getting a Safeguarding Grant of £250,000 per year from the Government and that has now come to an end....

Bit of good news. Transport for London propose to improve the junction of the A205 St Mildreds Road and Hither Green Lane. The proposal includes improved pedestrian crossing facilities, advanced cycle stop lines, improved road road markings and antiskid surfacing and removal of existing traffic signals. Awaiting results of local consultation.

A quick plug here for a new and interesting initiative: Liberty Central. It's a non-party coalition of liberal-minded types who want to see constitutional reform to protect liberty. Time will tell if it is successful, but the initial plans look good. A liberal constitution, along with electoral reform, is something that Liberal Democrats have long been in favour of. Perhaps this site, along with other developments such as the Power Inquiry Report are signs that these are ideas whose time has come?

I've been a bit quiet recently: was a bit ill, and then spent much of last week in Brussels for work reasons. Spent much of the weekend delivering leaflets, both for the Liberal Democrats and the Save Ladywell Pool campaign. Went to their public meeting at the Ladywell Leisure Centre. After a passionate debate, they decided not to put up their own candidate for Mayor. Thrice was Max Calo offered the crown, and thrice did he put it by. Which is a bit of relief, as I wasn't too sure about Mr Calo's policies on public ...

The House of Lords has defeated the government over its plans to introduce an offence of 'glorifying' terrorism, by a slender majority of four votes. What makes this victory so surprising is that the Conservative peers voting against the Bill did so against the orders of their own leadership. From the BBC article: Conservative peers had been told by their leadership not to vote against the bill and to keep their powder dry for next week's vote on the ID Cards Bill. But enough Tories ignored this advice so that the Lords voted to remove glorification once again. ...

Alan Ayckbourn, the BBC reports, is recovering from a stroke in hospital in Scarborough. The playwright, of course, is famous for living in the Yorkshire resort and for opening all his plays there. Which reminds me of a funny story... Ayckbourn was walking along the front there one day, when he was accosted by a stranger. Mr Ayckbourn, isn't it? It is. I was looking at the paper the other day and I noticed that you have two plays running in the West End. Yes, that's right. I hope you don't mind me saying so, ...

David Irving is at it again : "Given the ruthless efficiency of the Germans, if there was an extermination programme to kill all the Jews, how come so many survived?” Fact: they didn’t survive. I understand that ‘meineid’ is German for perjury.

It is no wonder that Welsh Assembly Tory Leader, Nick Bourne, has become a convert to full law-making powers for Wales. He has obviously been reading the website of my friend Aled Edwards. Aled has long been an enthusiast for devolution and has done a fantastic job in selling its benefits to a wider audience. He has now published 'Welsh Devolution's 100 main achievements' . These include a greater redistribution of wealth, a children's commissioner, considerable advantages for Welsh students, free travel and swimming for pensioners, the Wales Millennium Centre, Iaith Pawb, the Ryder Cup, a smoke free Wales, ...

The Western Mail reports that the days of the blonde are numbered. According to scientists, within 200 years the image of a natural blonde bombshell could be a thing of the past, as a genetic quirk means fewer and fewer are being born. The last blonde is predicted to be born in 2200 Finland, the country with the highest proportion of blondes. Apparently, the blonde gene is regressive, which explains a great deal. Let us hope that us redheads (or strawberry blondes as some of us prefer to be called) will survive this evolutionary cull.

BBC News: Radio comedian Linda Smith dies: News Quiz regular Jeremy Hardy paid an emotional tribute, calling her “the wittiest and brightest person working on TV or radio panel games”.

I think Thurber wrote an essay on the dangers of alliteration with the letter P. I am doubly guilty, and I like to keep an eye on my fellow offenders at Pickled Politics. Today Sunny has come before us unmuzzled as a Simon Hughes supporter. He argues that Despite some terrible mis-judgements in choices, Hughes has hung on to his candidacy and is still has a strong outside chance of winning. He may not be the guy to sweep the electorate off their feet, and he may not inspire other people with gravitas, as Ming does, but I believe ...

Your Blog Should Be Red Your blog is full of intensity and passion. You are very opinionated - and people love or hate you for it. You have the potential to be both a famous and infamous blogger.What Color Should Your Blog or Journal Be?

H5N1 reported in a cat, and worse yet a German cat. If anything is likely to make a flu virus more efficient, it's being mutated and incubated in a German cat.

I have calculated the overall net prediction from the leadership prediction competition. So far, 12 give it to Ming and 5 to Chris. The average score on second preferences is nearly 53% to Ming, just under 47% for Chris (some answers do not sum to 100%). We don't have enough replies to read much into this. Please keep entering. It is too late to impress the electorate that anyone has the momentum with them, so just tell us what you think.

Too much on our own internals – this campaign has gone on a week too long. So in the growing pause between activity and waiting for the result a few thoughts what others at other times have made of Liberal ideas and approaches. Here are some snippets from the speech made by John F. Kennedy a couple of days after getting the Democratic Party nomination for US President in 1960, accepting the additional endorsement of the New York Liberal Party. Some of those present had campaigned strongly against JFK and so this is also an example of building up political ...

Unknown word: biodiversity. Suggested replacement: bloodthirsty. Well, Tennyson did say that nature was 'red in tooth and claw'. In Memoriam. Which should come with a 'very long poem' warning.

As I write both Ming and Huhne are 1/1 on Betfair. It seems to be a two-horse race, if not a Bermondsey sort of situation...

With three to choose from and, you might think, each in some way to my taste, which do I like best? Well, slightly to my surprise I prefer the original Jaffa Cake. While the new ‘Lemon & Lime’ version is unexpectedly good, my high hopes for the other new flavour – ‘Blackcurrant’ – have been dashed. ‘Vile’ would be a slight exaggeration, but it’s really not a taste I want to repeat (must invite some guests round to offer them biscuits / cakes / whatever that court ruling called them, before they go soggy). So ‘Orange’ they should ...

Bike that is! What else did you think I meant? She has done a deal to buy a Harley Davidson Fatboy from a friend of ours. It is currently having a pink and blue paintjob applied to the tank and fenders but the upshot is that her Harley Davidson Sportster needs to go. It is listed on ebay (see link) and is a beautiful bike. 2004 which means it is rubber mounted unlike older sportsters. Details as follows: Blue/Black XL883C Sportster, 5,800 miles. Taxed until September. Stage 1, Windshield, Solid Saddle Bags, Custom Grips, Double seat with sissy bar and ...

Oh, look what there is out there. I wonder if Gordon Brown is going to get one. Probably not deemed prudent. It makes all the sore feet really worth it, I’ll be placing my order later. Thanks to Alex Foster for pointing this out.

The link is to an anagram map of the London Underground which is interesting if not as useful as a normal map of the underground.

I am blessed to have a national perspective on my work as a Councillor, through my professional life. As the Accountant for both Operation Black Vote and the Power Inquiry, I am able to debate issues of participation, gender balance and political culture, if only during the lunch hour! If you saw the Independent yesterday, the launch of the Power Inquiry's report into the state of...

Bethnal Green Technology College (the TEC) went into Special Measures late last year. Although it had been flagged up as 'causing concern' internally at the Council, they could not take any action until OFSTED gave an official ruling. The main failing identified was poor leadership and the existing Head resigned immediately. Kevan Collins, the new Head of Children's Services told Weavers...

An excellent article by Philip Stephens in today's Financial Times: read it quick, before it disappears behind their firewall. Here's a teaser to encourage you... Time to put trust in local democracy ... For the past several decades ministers of all colours have promised to devolve power closer to the people. The same politicians have pledged to abolish the so-called postcode lottery. Hospitals, schools, police forces, social services departments, refuse collection – all must be set free. As long, that is, as councils offer identical services. Pluralism is fine ...

Galloway on the Danish cartoons; via Harry's Place, Liberal England and Iain Dale. Worth repeating. "This incident is worse than the 11 September attacks in the US and the 7/7 incidents in London. Therefore, today it is the right of Muslims to express their anger and to defend their right and faith."Having chided the Beeb in my last post, I must thank them for keeping up their excellent BBC Monitoring service (based near Reading), without which this diamond comment to an Algerian journo may not have been so well distributed.

With the Liberal Democrat Leadership contest over except for the counting both the Times and the Guardian comment on the three Leadership contenders websites. I have, obviously, been a big visitors to all three sites and whilst all different like all of them in different ways.

From The Daily Telegraph... "The new Conservative leader is a proper Tory, who believes that the function of the state is to serve the individual, rather than the other way round. He believes in freedom under the law, strong defence, equality of opportunity, security for the old, reward for hard work, freedom of choice and care for those who cannot look after themselves. In all this, we fully support him." ... of 2nd January, 2004 . The only surprise about yesterday's announcement by David Cameron of his ...

'David Cameron will ask Conservative members today to back a radical redefinition of his party's goals... Mr Cameron has been praised in the party for his energetic approach to the leadership but he has alarmed some colleagues by targeting traditional Conservative policies' such as promoting conservatism. 'Recent weeks have seen private concern... about the direction Mr Cameron is taking the party. The document was unveiled late last night... It commits the party to policies aimed at putting to bed its' conservative past. David Cameron explained that the recent Power commission had identified 'the main political parties [being] ...

I found this whilst following one of my Google backlinks [Mark Collett pink tie WTF?!]. It's a blog charting Nick Griffin's recent trial, apparently by the man himself. I wouldn't be surprised if it *was* written by Nick Griffin - the blog reads like a US courtroom drama script in which 'persecuted-hero-of-the-moment' single-handedly steals the day, etc. If he loses the retrial, I recommend he does an Archer and writes books: We go downstairs to the foyer. Outside we can see to the left the wildy waving flags of our loyal crowd of supporters. And a bank of TV ...

No, I don’t think it’s news either, so why did the BBC? Last night’s BBC ‘News’ had a particularly egregious example of Nick ‘Mate of Dave Cameron’ Robinson’s agenda, with the lead ‘news’ a naked advert for, er, a forthcoming piece of Tory news. Apparently Dave’s to reveal his new ‘values’ (as any fule kno, “To get elected, stupid”). But it’s unusual for the BBC to give such prominence to a story they don’t have yet, enabling zero useful questions and a hagiographic tone. As is traditional, Richard and I shouted at the screen, and a new blog comments on ...