LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Thursday 2nd March 2006 - Delighted with the news this afternoon that the new Party Leader was Sir Menzies Campbell who I had been campaignging for during the leadership contest but disappointed this evening with the result from the Whiston Town Council by-election result where our candidate - Mike Lappin - lost by only 12 votes. However, 19 postel votes were not allowed by the Returning Officer

I’m off to Harrogate tomorrow for LibDem spring conference. May or may not be able to blog from there. If you’re going too, please say hello. Tags: party+conference, harrogate

Sir Menzies Campbell is the new leader of the Liberal Democrats. Regular readers of this blog will know that he was not my first choice but nevertheless I wholeheartedly congratulate him on being elected. There are many challenges ahead for the Liberal Democrats and for Britain. For now though, the party can look forward with its new leader and celebrate his victory.

The new Extra-Green "Dave" Cameron has professed his concern about all things green. He faces two key tests: a) Will his party sabotage the microgeneration bill next week. b) Will he accept that there can be no major expansion of air flight.

LibDem web geeks may interested in this LibDems Online fringe at party conference at 8pm on Saturday night: Mark Pack and Martin Tod will discuss what we can learn from e-campaigns run during the leadership elections. All three campaigns are already working together to share what they’ve learnt and ensure that we use what we’ve learnt [...]

I’ve been listening to the audio recording of Doctor Who: Galaxy 4 narrated by Peter Purves. It’s been many years since I read the script book so, hearing the actors and sound effects for the first time, the story was almost new to me. There isn’t really 100 minutes of story to fill the four episodes, [...]

Lord Bonkers recently wrote: for years his beloved Elspeth has worn the trews in their household. She tells him “Menzies, we are not leaving Morningside” or “Menzies, you are to be leader,” as the mood takes her.How fair was the old brute? Judge for yourself: the BBC website has a profile of the redoubtable Lady Campbell.

One of the nice things about the leadership election was all the important people who wrote to me. Today I heard from Ming Campbell and Chris Huhne. First, here is Ming after his victory was announced: The Liberal Democrats are a party that embraces new ideas, that cherishes our principles, and that refuses to sacrifice our values for convenience. Tony Blair has squeezed values out of politics. Under New Labour, politics has become managerial and not inspirational. David Cameron has taken the same course, shunning conviction and desperate only to copy the value-free managerialism of Mr Blair's Number 10. ...

Congratulations to Sir Menzies Campbell on a clear victory in the leadership election. The figures were as follows: FIRST ROUNDSir Menzies Campbell - 23,264Chris Huhne - 16,691Simon Hughes - 12,081 SECOND ROUNDSir Menzies Campbell - 29,697Chris Huhne - 21,628 We must all wish Ming well. The odd thing is that, despite his venerability, we have no clear idea of where he stands on many domestic issues. No doubt we shall soon find out.

First: many congratulations to Ming Campbell on a convincing victory: he has a clear mandate to lead. Secondly, well done to both Chris Huhne and Simon Hughes for fighting such energetic campaigns. When I saw Ming interviewed this afternoon, he was asked what would be his first task. To assemble his Liberal Democrat shadow cabinet, he replied. So I thought I would give him a helping hand, and

by Stephen Tall The votes have been counted, and it's now time to declare the winner... of The Apollo Project's Liberal Democrat leadership prediction competition. Twenty-two entries were received, and our collective punditry was a good pointer to the eventual outcome. This is what our entrants predicted would be the result: Turn-out = 68% First round: Ming Campbell (38%), Chris Huhne (34%), Simon Hughes (28%) Second round: Ming Campbell (52%), Chris Huhne (38%), Simon Hughes (9%) And this is the result as recorded on the Liberal Democrat website: Turn-out = 72% First round: Ming Campbell ...

Well, my man won. But then my prediction was way way wrong. My feeble excuse is that among the Lib Dems I speak to about such things, I have felt swamped by Huhnies over the last few weeks and a bit out on a limb in continuing to support Ming. I wrongly sensed a bandwagon rolling. But for the first time have voted for the winning candidate in a leadership election. The party has made the right choice. It is good that the margin was so decisive. As James Graham pointed out a while ago the worst thing for the ...

The Liberal Democrats are a party that embraces new ideas, that cherishes our principles, and that refuses to sacrifice our values for convenience.

Congratulations to Sir Menzies Campbell on winning the leadership election. In his victory speech he indicated that the party must modernise to be renewed – I sense that this renewal has already begun and hopefully will continue apace. Chris Huhne fought a bold and striking campaign which displayed considerable verve. His rapid advance was a lesson to those – like myself – who tend to think of politics in incremental terms. I think he is formidable, and undoubtedly he is a great asset to the Party. And Simon Hughes, whose politics are certainly not my own: to my great surprise ...

We are desparately trying to headline copy in the office. “We’re all Mingers Now!” “You’ve got to be Ming it to win it!” “It don’t mean a thing if you ain’t got that Ming”

Ming is the main man. And a great result for us blogging mingers.The media seemed entirely uncertain about which way this one was going to go, but the betting exchanges, and bookmakers always seemed to have Ming on top.I think the least predictable aspect of the election wasn't who was going to win the most first preferences, but who was going to get Hughes' 2nd preferences. As it turned out, they split almost neatly 50:50 between Huhne and Campbell, rather than skewed to Huhne as some previous polling had suggested. This even split meant that in the end it was ...

So there you are ... a clear win for Ming, smiles all round, Simon and Chris genuinely generous in defeat. 72% turnout. The breakdown of the voting is here.

His (Menzies Campbell) first challenge as party leader will be to rally activists at the party's spring conference in Harrogate at the weakened. Update looks like they responded to my pointing this out to them. At least it is here for posterity.

When it’s all said and done, Ming Campbell was my second choice and I’m happy with the result. I can’t deny the result was a bit of a surprise. I’ve been convinced he’d win for the past fortnight, but I thought it would be within 5%. Similarly, I thought Simon Hughes was going to [...]

Of course I am dissappointed - 'cos I had set my heart and soul on Chris winning. But it wasn't to be - this time. But I am so proud of him - the way he won the campaign itself, the ideas he put forward that will now become part of the Lib Dem landscape and to have been close to the emergence of a real Lib Dem star. Lib Dems have done really well out of this contest - and it was a proper contest -

We have a new leader of the British Liberal Democrats. As I had hoped, it is Sir Menzies Campbell QC MP. Congratulations to him and his team, and congratulations to us- we have a leader who looks for more like a Prime Minister than the shallow Mr. Cameron or the volcanic Mr. Brown (if it is to be him as the next Labour leader). As for the Conservatives, faced with Ming, a bloke who has fought his whole political career based on principle and substance, they are shrilly screaming “too old”. Oh really? It couldn’t be, could it, that they ...

Hurrah! Whilst, of course, this isn't my first choice, it is nice that at least it's my second. Also nice to see that in the end, the party made a pretty clear choice, and Ming has a strong claim to represent us. Isn't it so much better to have STV?! Also, I know this may draw criticism, but I'm actually quite relieved that the party didn't listen to the blogosphere on this one. Well done all,

Menzies Campbell wins the Lib Dem leadership election. Congratulations to Menzies, and may you be truly merciless towards the forces of illiberalism. While I was backing Chris Huhne, I said at the start of the contest that the important thing was that the next leader of the Liberal Democrats be someone who thinks that Liberalism is more important than local campaigning. I have no doubt that

And of course for those who just want to read the NS for the article on fellow Lib Dem bloggers the Darbyshires the link is here.

Our votes have been counted and verified. Lib Dem House this is Davina please do not swear. Well Ming did better than a lot of better expected on the first ballot. The Simon’s second preferences were als0 heavily in his favour 6433 to 4937. Leaving 700 of Simon’s supporters not giving a second preference. Menzies Campbell 23,264 45% Simon Hughes 12,081 23% Chris Huhne 16,691 32% Menzies

Ming wins. First round: Campbell 44.7% Hughes 23.2% Huhne 32.1% Second round: Campbell 57.9% Huhne 42.1% Turnout was a whopping 72%. Tags: menzies+campbell, liberal+democrats, lib+dem+leadership, chris+huhne, simon+hughes

Ming Campbell has been elected as the new leader of the Liberal Democrats, taking over from Charles Kennedy. The full results of the all-member postal ballot were:

Now that Ming has won, it's time to off load those left over t-shirts.Sale starts now.

Congratulations, and well done! The lead candidate with something like 45%? Blimey. Shows what I know ;-) Sadly, I'm not able to get to Harrogate this weekend, but I imagine it'll be terrific (I notice Ming's speech isn't due to come up on BBC Parliament. Bah. Let's hope for News 24). Do get in touch with all the gossip...!

On the Federal Website within minutes. We had to switch to Radio 5. Why is my server’s time stamp set on Europe time?

… Checkup discusses headaches,” trills the Radio 4 announcer. Prophetic? Will R4 even carry the announcement?

Ming wins. Won’t wheel out any ‘fresh start’ clichés. Looking forward to seeing his new Shadow Cabinet though: what will Clegg be rewarded with? Foreign Affairs? Photograph: Bruno Vincent/ Getty Images

Sir Menzies Campbell has won the Liberal Democrat Leadership contest. I am delighted that Sir Menzies is the new leader of the Liberal Democrats. Sir Menzies has the experience and gravitas to be a great leader and I have no doubt under his leadership the Liberal Democrats will make huge strides forward.

Little groups of Lib Dems are gathered in huddles around their radios and TVs.  We’ve just tuned into the dying gasps of the Afternoon Play on Radio 4, and any minute now we’ll hear who’s going to lead us for the next.  Who will it be?

I guess this was not a huge surprise given that Campbell was probably the best known to the general public and therefore would be the best known to those members who are not that active and who did not attend the hustings etc. Lets hope that the whole parliamentary party will now unite behind our new leader and that when Sir Menzies Campbell announces his new Shadow Cabinet we see a genuine

If one trusts the betting markets, it seems that Ming has won. I don't know if this has been quite the contest that some might have hoped for - but I am pleased that the contest has been between two modernisers. Chris Huhne fought a very good campaign. I read a comment from James Graham somewhere saying that the second half had been less impressive than the first - I think that is correct. That means - among other things - that the second half of Ming's campaign was more impressive than the first. It was a good thing that ...

Apologies for the lack of blogging lately - I have been spending most of my "political time" this week trying to digest the report of the Power Inquiry - blog post later today. Here are some links to keep you going: Spyblog read all the evil illiberal legislation that Labour bring in and pick out the worst bits so you don't have to. That was a whole blog post's worth of damage to my day, but

I have checked the list of supporters for each of the three candidates and as far as I can see 56 MPs including the candidates declared their support for one of the three candidates. That leaves 7 who have not declared Charles Kennedy (who said as the former leader he would keep out of the contest)Lembit Opik (who appears to be a Hughes supporter but will not say so)Willie RennieMark OatenAlan BeithDavid HeathAndrew Stunnell Anyone have any ideas on who these seven supported - particularly the last five?

With just about an hour to go before the Liberal Democrat Leadership Election result is announced we know thatturnout is 72%. This is up 10% since the last election in 1999. As I posted yesterday I’m not sure that a high turnout will help Chris Huhne as a lot of the non-political anoraks in of the party will have turned out to vote. I said this may have suited Simon and may mean that against

Three thoughts about this story, Beam problem disrupts parliament: I didn’t realise the new hi-tech Scottish Parliament had teleportation! You spend all that money, only for the thing to start falling down after a year?! Perhaps this is linked to the opening of the Welsh Senedd? Maybe there is some scientific principle stopping two devolved assemblies existing [...]

Here goes for my weekly Peter Wilby plug. Excellent overview of Labour education policy in this week's education special issue. Do read! Of cours the thing I like most about the article is the way it agrees with the view I expressed the other day on this site - except Wilby has done more research and quoted more facts than I did.

Talking of films and alien invasions, I was intrigued to see this cover article in today’s New Scientist. It reminds me of the film-within-a-film of Bowfinger in which Eddie Murphy’s Kit Ramsey’s character is terrorised by aliens after the fall of the sinister sounding “chubby rain”. Intriguingly, some of the scientists expressing scepticism in this [...]

Everyone loves to make historical parallels. But before we say “It’s just like Blair / Portillo,” “He’s not as good as Paddy / Charles,” or find ourselves missing Conrad Russell even more than usual when there’s no-one to point out the very similar event “In 1659…”, take a deep breath and remember that history doesn’t always repeat itself. This is our Leadership, today, and if 2006 isn’t (sadly) 1906 there’s no rule that it’s another ‘false dawn’ Liberal revival either. Whoever wins, give them a chance in their own right instead of making instant comparisons. I’ve already been proved wrong ...

This stuff is fairly incredible. Mr Mills is unclear as to whether or not a substantial sum he has received is a gift or earnings!! Indeed so unclear was he that he had to consult his accountant and the Inland Revenue before deciding that $600,000 was actually earnings on which he should pay tax. Interestingly he felt initially that it was a gift. Either this was a gift in which case I wonder what he might have done to get such a "gift". or alternatively of course it was not a gift in which ...

On March 19th, light a candle for the people of Belarus: because living in a dictatorship is totally lame. Pledge your support for LDYS’ Belarus campaign here and spread the word to other democracy fans.

I see that Ken Livingstone is accusing the Board of Deputies of British Jews of a McCarthyite witchhunt against him over the Oliver Finegold incident. Nonsense! It is a rule of dinner-party discussion that the first one to mention the Nazis loses. The same should apply to McCarthyism. In a free country, the Board of Deputies has got every right to try to persuade the Mayor to change his views on Israel. Democracy is about persuasion and argument after all. And the Standards Board, through which the complaint was pursued, was created by the Labour government that ...

One advatange of having google news alerts is that certain events or mentions of people come to your attention that you amnaged to miss. For example today I was surprised to find that my new neighbour, well his office is just around the corner, Michael Connarty's name appeared in the Graunaid. Mind you it was only in his capacity as Chair of the Tribune group and not for any comment he himself

A lot to report today - but at the moment I'm recovering from a live interview on Sky News. They sent a car to pick me up but we arrived with only a couple of minutes spare. Just a quick dab of powder and I found myself sitting at the large studio desk in front of that massive back screen. They wanted the views of grassroots Lib Dems - and apparently had found me through this blog!...

I thought it worth reproducing Rhodri Morgan's speech from yesterday's opening ceremony in full, simply because it was quite witty, even the Queen laughed. Rhodri at his best in fact: The First Minister (Rhodri Morgan): Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, honourable guests, Presiding Officer and fellow Members, a good St David’s Day to you all. However, is it actually St David’s Day? At a church service last Sunday, I was staggered to find out that this year St David’s Day has been moved from 1 March back one day to 28 February. This is because ...

Folkestone and Dover Water Services have announced that water meters will be compulsory in a response to the water shortages. I welcome this and hope it will soon be extended to the whole country. Water metering would cut water usage and wastage as people would like to reduce their bills, and those who so use more would end up paying more which is only fair.

Smooching in Tescos last night, I was surprised to find a film in the DVD section called Tip Toes (Rotten Tomatoes link), starring Matthew McConaughey, Kate Beckinsale, Gary Oldman and Patricia Arquette. The plot appears to revolve around the fact that McConaughey and Oldman are twins, but that Oldman is a dwarf and McConaughey has “issues” [...]

This new campaign, launched by the International Committee of Liberal Democrat Youth and Students (LDYS), has been brought to my attention recently. As a former International Officer (1989-1990) of one of their constituent predecessors, the Young Liberal Democrats of England, I am delighted to see the organisation roused from years of apparent slumber to campaign on something fundamentally unsexy

With thanks to Simon Mollan http://innerwestcentral.blogspot.com/ for the woodstain analogy ! All Things to All People ? - Flip Flopping Cameron ! Another week passes and with it comes more spin and marketing trying to sell a re-packaged Conservative party. With this weeks offering the Tories have adopted yet another pointless slogan: Built to Last. Now if the 'product' was a power tool appliance or quality woodstain then it would makes sense, but a political party ? During his short tenure as leader in terms of consistency we've had David Cameron as a 'liberal' conservative, the temporary 'green' ...

You have to feel sorry for Scotsman political correspondent Gerri Pevi. He wrote today that he finds the Liberal Democrat's three candidate leadership election AV voting system complicated. Maybe he would do well to look at the Electoral Reform Society explanations of the various systems or he may just find himself out of a job before Scotland as a whole goes to the polls again. Failing that he

Spy Blog warns us of yet another database bill. This time the aim is apparently to 'protect vulnerable groups' and is again based upon this government's technocratic view that technology (especially databases) are the solution to all our ills. Many objections are raised, including the usual ill defined terms (what do they mean by harm?), the belief that those inside the 'tent' (prison officers

With the new Lib Dem leader due to be announced in just a few hours time, this is just a short note to thank everyone who has supported this campaign and made it a success. We have been delighted by positive response we have received, not least of all by the leadership contenders themselves. [...]

With the result of the leadership election just hours away, it's time to look at the winners and losers from the campaign.WinnersChris HuhneTransforming himself from Who-ne? to the Huhnami, the Eastleigh MP won the...

Well, not in terms of votes as yet ! But in terms of an enhanced policy and personal profile Huhne has been the clear winner. He has, much to the consternation of Simon Hughes no doubt, claimed the 'green mantle' despite Simon's much longer and consistent promotion of environmental concerns. Simon has been, well, Simon ! I voted for him and his liberalism, explicit concern for the less well-off , his energy and campaigning style, plus the ability to 'connect' with the wider public got him my vote. Essentially though I think little new was learned about him (bar THAT ...

The counting has started of the ballot for leader of the Liberal Democrats. A genuinely one member, one vote election, the result is expected at 3pm, and will be announced from the Local Government Association building on Smith Square.

What greets me as I scan the latest New Statesman over my morning porridge? Kathryn Corrick has dedicated a piece to documenting The Darbyshires and bringing them to a yet larger audience. As Robin and Leah are off on holiday, presumably they will miss reading the article though. Ms Corrick concludes "of course, it might yet prove to be a parody, but if so it is pure genius". Well, quite.

The best & most unexpected compliment I received was handed to me by a care worker at St Hildas who said that I made people feel listened to and they really appreciated this. It's what I try and do - a combination of giving the person my whole attention, really hearing where they are coming from with compassion, open questioning, reflecting back what they say to ensure I have understood...

Even by Welsh standards, having three St. David's Days seems a bit excessive. Does that mean that we are campaigning for three consecutive bank holidays whenever Ash Wednesday falls on 1 March?

It has been understandably a bit busy here for the last few days so I am still catching up on my internet browsing. It is a shame therefore that I did not spot this piece in the Guardian earlier about the use of the internet by the Liberal Democrat leadership candidates. With the result due later today it is all a bit academic, but nevertheless it does point the way towards the future in campaigning terms. Whether podcasts and on-line videos will ever replace leaflets and canvassing is another matter, but they may well prove to be a useful supplement. ...

So at 1500h Thursday 2 March the box gets opened and we find??? In one way this is a bit like the imaginary ‘Schroedinger’s Cat’ experiment that illustrates the paradoxes in Quantum Theory. Highly oversimplified summary: Put a cat in a box with a phial of poison gas and a clock-activated device to smash the phial. Leave in box for period so that there is a 50 percent chance that the phial is smashed. Under the weird worldview of Quantum Theory while the cat is in the box it is neither alive nor dead – opening the ...

"I've never seen anything like it!" exclaimed Andrew Sage, upon leaving the meeting of Full Council. Have you ever seen a Council vote on changes to its constitution, on the way it is run, without a debate? Just a terse one-sentence formal proposal and seconding and then an abrupt procedural motion which moves to the vote without debate. I'll give this to Tory Cllr Rouse, he foresaw this...

So Headingley "town centre" is get a "public drinking ban" technically known as a Designated Public Place Order (DPPO) courtesy of the Local Lib Dem councillors. This was my "baby" and its taken 10 months to get through. So here I am using Blairite Anti Social Behaviour legislation and a "ban" to boot. Whats going on? Welcome to local government! Headingley suffers appalling ASB or drunken yobs to be blunt and it has got much, much worse as big vertical drinking warehouses have sprung up aimed at the student market. However the problems last year round and are often ...

The Tories have adopted yet another meaningless slogan : Built to Last. Despite sounding as if they imagine the Conservative Party to be a power-tool or a type of woodstain that does exactly what it says on the tin, it is in fact that title of a management book , which no doubt George Osborne discovered on his way to the economics and finance section of his local Borders. The central innovation of the book seems to be that organisations need ‘clock-builders’ who understand the ‘timeless ...

It is often unwise to blog in a moment of self-indulgence, even more so when you're tired, weary and a mite low. So it is at least a mercy that my quirky sense of catholic guilt is engaged... In fairness to Tom Brake, he doesn't even know that he's been invited to take up the mover's speech, so I really shouldn't criticise him for a predicted lack of understanding. Whoever briefs him on this