LibDem Blogs - Archived!

A week and a half ago I wrote a post entitled Why I’m not willing to be part of this coalition and I still stand by what I said there. There has been a lot of feverish talk about an “anti-New Labour” - and by implication pro-Lib-Con - coalition on the blogosphere and a [...]

Dear David, For years I have mocked and poured scorn on your claims that the world is run by reptillians from Zeta Reticuli. How I laughed when you claimed that these lizard men were the authors of the Elder Protocols of Zion. How I mocked when you claimed that they were responsible for the [...]

Never let it be said that politicians, be they elected or otherwise, are without ego. And I'm no exception... Having worked quite hard to get my motion on diversity, I nobly invited the Regional Executive to decide who should move the motion and summate the debate. Mistake number 1. The view was that the motion should be moved by a middle-aged white MP, the decision taken being to ask Tom Brake,

Newsnight has just followed a naked piece of anti-Liberal Democrat spin – I’m sorry, I’ll read that again, a report of the Leadership race – with a studio piece in which Gavin Esler questioned Nick Clegg, Susan Kramer and Lembit Öpik. Nick and Lembit were perfectly competent, but Susan wiped the floor with Esler so comprehensively that Richard and I have yet to wipe the grins from our faces. Instead of following her brief to 'speak for Chris’ she did exactly what should be done at this stage and spoke for the united party, forcefully asserting support for whoever gets ...

{Martin Horwood MP} There are too many MPs in here who look rather like me. How much talent must we be missing out on from the rest of the population? - Martin Horwood MP

In the time between the tossing of the coin and its landing, breathe the wrong way and you'll change the outcome... So they say. The last votes have come through the postbox (or in some cases, I'd like to believe, hand-delivered by forgetful yet conscientious London members), and all that remains is to await the result. But what result? Unlike the Tory leadership contest, only Simon Hughes is left looking somewhat desperate proclaiming himself to be in the race, while supporters of the remaining two candidates will have a nervous wait for 3pm tomorrow - Ming declaring himself to ...

I got back from another successful skiing trip this afternoon. Marek and David had rented a small apartment near the Three Valleys for the week. Stuart and I joined them for a few days as I had to be back for the party conference and Stuart has been on short term passes since the birth of his daughter a few years ago. Now the sensible approach would have been to have warmed up on a couple of nursery blue slopes to rid myself of all the bad habits I have developed since I last went skiing a couple ...

There have been interesting developments in the betting. In the last week of the campaign Ming Campbell has re-emerged as the bookies' favourite. You can also find odds on who will finish first and second.

Kirk Elder, Senior Citizen from Peebles, on the Tonbridge robbery: Now, it seems, the robbers are bunglers, who have left a stream of clues behind them. Not the least of these clues are the abandoned balaclava helmets, which are thought likely to be festering with criminal DNA. According to some reports, the identities of the criminals may be betrayed by their dandruff. If so, let it be soon. In the meantime, I hope this experience will do something to discourage the wearing of balaclavas in criminal endeavours. For too long, the jaggy woollen helmet of childhood has been appropriated ...

So farewell then Peter Osgood, the King of Stamford Bridge. Charlie Cooke was my real hero in the Chelsea team that won the FA Cup in 1970, but Osgood was a close second. The remarkable thing is that such a talented player won only four England caps.

Well, almost the end of the leadership contest now. Team Huhne were taken to the official launch of the Cheltenham Jazz festival this afternoon by Martin Horwood. (Which, curiously, was in Soho- at Ronnie Scott's). Great performance from Abram Wilson, although too much of the food was fish for my taste. Still monitoring the news, but now, rather sadly, have nothing proactive to do with what I read. Was most amused to find the account in Pravda, which described the Lib Dems as "left-leaning". They can talk!

The prospect of today's official opening obviously went to a few people's head during Tuesday's Plenary meeting. Not only was there some smugness in the questioning but also some interesting information . Mark Isherwood started it off with a general allusion to the Arthurian legends. Was he suggesting that we were building a new Camelot? We needed to be told: Mark Isherwood: To expand the issue, a series of academic books, based on researchin Mold library, on archaeological evidence and on the oral and written traditions ofWales, has highlighted the link between the old kingdom of Gwynedd and ...

The result of the Lib Dem leadership election will finally be declared tomorrow. Cicero has supported Ming Campbell from the off, and I believe that he will come home tomorrow as the new leader of the Liberal Democrats. The party can then start to deal with some of the live issues of the day. One of these is not the report on childhood obesity. Was I alone in thinking that a report written by The National Audit Office, the Healthcare Commission and the Audit Commission was in fact a prime example of a far more serious problem: government obesity. Scientific ...

The art of making politics accessible to a mass audience is to ask difficult questions simply... not to ask cretinous questions badly. This did not occur to the BBC when they commissioned The Daily Politics. The Lib Dem leadership edition joins the list of so-bad-it's-a-scream TV along with Flash Gordon and the Lara Croft movies. I only watched about 10 minutes (Chris Huhne) and it's now been

The allegedly underblogged but foully illiberal Mental Health Bill (check out the comments box for lots of links).

Most Liberals will agree with Simon Jenkins' column in today's Guardian - Labour MPs will be voting for an old Tory education bill. We have to be a little careful here. I am by no means a supporter of the Liberals against choice line. Indeed when Phil Willis proposed the "Quality for all, not choice for the few" policy at conference in 2004, I was the only speaker to suggest that we should drop the hostile references to choice. A good dozen or so of the 200 plus delegates present voted with me on that one! But the current ...

The Apollo Project is running a prediction competition as no doubt are various other sites. I am very bad at predicting election results, but at risk of embarrassment here is my forecast: 1. Total number of votes cast (%): 61 2. First preference votes cast for Ming Campbell (%): 34 3. First preference votes cast for Chris Huhne (%): 42 4. First preference votes cast for Simon Hughes (%): 24 Second round 5. Second round votes cast for Ming Campbell (%): 43 6. Second round votes cast for Chris Huhne (%): 57 7. Second round votes cast for Simon Hughes ...

For some reason I’ve been unable to post my predictions on the Apollo Project. So now that voting has closed here are my predictions. 1. Total number of votes cast 68%: 2. First preference votes cast for Ming Campbell 36%: 3. First preference votes cast for Chris Huhne 31%: 4. First preference votes cast for Simon Hughes 33%: If no candidate scores 50%+ on the first round, the candidate with

If we are to make reasoned decisions about our involvement in Afghanistan we need accurate reporting on that country and the events there. Channel 4 News last night put out a right curates egg of a report that illustrates how much care needs to be taken. A serious subject – the re-emergence of the Taliban in the Helmand province, with schools getting torched and a terrifying incident where the Channel 4 camera team was threatened by a Taliban squad which had just burnt down a school. It is not Channel 4’s fault that the armed goons they met looked like ...

I can't make up my mind. Mind you it looks as if he can't make up his mind and John Prescott was right! He is a Liberal or so he says - come on you Lib Dems come and join me. Wait a minute if he is a Liberal he should join us. Oh not to worry. He is New Labour now but without Blair. Delivering good public services is now important and he is the man to do it better than Tony. So maybe he

Strange though it may seem, Richard and I don’t watch that much TV. That is, not that much (other than news) as it’s transmitted – a large collection of DVDs and videos means there’s quite enough to fit in. However, in the last couple of years that’s swung back slightly, and we’ve watched much more new TV. Suddenly, television drama is just more interesting again. 2006’s highlight so far by a long shot has been Life On Mars, which finished on Monday after keeping us gripped for two months. The final episode appropriately resolved two mysteries running throughout to reward ...

As the poll closed for the Liberal Democrat leadership election, Ming Campbell issued the following message: I want to thank everyone who has voted in the leadership election and the very many people who attended hustings up and down Britain over these past two months. I want to thank my superb team for their tireless efforts [...]

The Tessa Jowell story is about as clear as the dodgy dossier story. But the outcome must surely be a resignation. All these financial stories involve details that make lesss than gripping drama. but the Financial Times has done its best to make it interesting: Mr Blair's spokesman on Tuesday night avoided predicting Ms Jowell would end up being cleared. “Tessa Jowell has made clear how much she emphasises that she wants to be sure everything she has done is in keeping with the ministerial code.” Senior government figures also appeared uncertain whether Ms Jowell would survive the ...

Whitby hospital will be closed shortly, leaving sick people or women in labour with a 20-odd mile journey across the North Yorkshire Moore. Night and weekend GP cover? Nearest docs are 30 miles away, only two covering the whole North Yorkshire Moors. NHS dentistry? Don't be silly. Bus service on a Sunday? Axed to pay for free pensioner travel. Village primary school? In special

Nuclear Fuels Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the market price of each category of nuclear fuel was on 13 February. (John Hemming) A:There is no fixed market price for categories of nuclear fuel. The price is commercially confidential information and is one which is agreed between the vendor and purchaser according to the terms of the contract. (Malcolm Wicks,

Roll up. Roll up. Get your piece of by-election history on e-bay. A signed Win with Willie Rennie corex diamond.

Last night the Lords, again, defeated the Government over the glorification of terrorism in the Terror Bill. The vote, which was 160 to 156, came as a bit of a surprise as the Conservatives were not 'supposed' to vote against the Government on this amendment - 57 disobeyed their Whips.

The sun rises over the Senedd. OK this photo was not taken today when the Queen is due to officially open it as there is no snow in it but you get the idea. I was at a St. David's Day dinner in the Millennium Stadium last night hosted by the First Minister. It was packed with foreign dignitaries. Rhodri Morgan started off the ceremonies with a fairly witty speech, including a tribute to the new building. Rhodri singled out Lord Richard Rogers for particular praise and said that the Senedd could not have had a better architect. He then ...

First up, I'm currently reading: Development as Freedom Main argument - development needs to be about increasing the freedoms of people, not just their happiness or their economic wealth. It's hard going but not because the argument itself is difficult. He must have a bet with Rawls over who can best obfuscate a concept. If he wanted to say something like 'dead people aren't free' he'd write

Add together two unhappy london doctors, Tim Ireland's hilarious use of Flash and a bit of Jam and you get this witty ditty about the joys of london transport. Be warned - it does use rather uncouth language.