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Sorry about the absence of reports. I couldn't blog from Harrogate (I don't own a laptop and the computers in the conference centre didn't appear to like www.blogger.com). And so, where were we? I went up to Harrogate on Thursday evening, and had a fairly pleasant train journey apart from the idiot who had decided to occupy my reserved seat and set up his computer. Politely noting that he was in

What happened to the week-end, its Sunday night, 100 Top Pop Videos is on the Telly (Christopher Walken is awesome) and I'm clearing the outstanding jobs from conference. I've still got to write up my speech, I might put it up here. Well sat in on Mings speech, mmmm, I wait a bit longer, I think.

This weekend at conference I was inspired by other Liberal Democrats. They like us are small groups of people that share common principles. They like us desire change in their District and County Councils. They like us want a socially just and a fair society for all. They like us see the answers in the policies of Liberalism and they like us desire a Liberal Democrat Party leading our country. I heard a testimony from Watford District Council in all they had achieved after winning in what was a Labour strong hold for 20 years. Years of neglect and “Oh ...

The literary world abounds with tales of lost books; These are manuscripts which have been mislaid and masterpieces which never made it to the press. Just search google for “lost novels” for a very long lost of famous novelists and their missing works. This week, the Resonance FM Podcast site will tell the story of what [...]

Thanks to the wonders of Wikipedia, Liberal England can bring you details of our new leader Sir Menzies Campbell's efforts at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. In the 200m he won his heat in the first round but was eliminated in the second. He was also part of the British 4 x 100m relay team which made it all the way to the final.

The Assembly's Equal Opportunities Committee has taken up the cudgels over Lowri Turner's outrageously homophobic article in which she wrote that gay men do not make good party leaders as their lifestyles are "too divorced from the norm". It seems that they want the Western Mail editor to justify his decision to publish the column. Committe Chair, Gwenda Thomas, is quoted as saying that "the freedom of the press to publish personal views carried a "responsibility" which had been "clearly overstepped". She added: "Homophobia, together with all other forms of prejudice, is unacceptable in any modern, democratic, ...

I have redesigned my blog. Please feel free to have a look and all comments positive and negative would be most welcome. I know nothing about templates but found some information about a three column layout and customised it from there. So I am slowly learning about html and tags and colour codes etc. Anyway suggestions to improve this version would be most welcome

And now it is under threat. Railnews.co.uk says: After government rejection of new tram systems in Leeds, Liverpool and Southampton, it is now reported that Blackpool’s 100-year-old tram system is under threat. Campaigners claim it will have to close if the Department of Transport fails to support an £88m funding application from local councils on Lancashire’s Fylde coast.There is also a report in the Independent on Sunday. Read it while it is still free.

After a heads up from Quaequam I've posted the following comment to Duncan Brack's essay on meeting the challenge. Was it ever a secret that poverty is related to poor health outcomes? Of course it is related. And a large part of that relationship will be causation of poor health by poverty, although there will also be elements of causation the other way, and third factors causing both poor

I have not been in Harrogate this weekend, so I have only seen snatches of the Lib Dem Spring Conference on the television news. Even so, I have formed the clear impression that being party leader will be far more to Sir Menzies Campbell's taste than campaigning to be leader was.

... or you can add your own caption. My general impressions of Menzies speech were that he was very clear and succinct on each point, very statesmanlike and in charge of his material. He could have done to be five to ten minutes shorter but overly long speech-making is a common hazard of politics. The speech didn't say anything new or unexpected. It didn't strike out a radically different direction for the party. Interestingly, it didn't seem aimed at the press - more 'stroking' the audience by hitting all the issues that really get Lib activists going. After he'd done ...

I've spent the weekend leafletting and canvassing. The weather has been our biggest obstacle in this campaign. Yesterday it was snowing a blizzard when I got up, even thought the BBC weather website told me it was sunny. Fortunately it did clear up, though we had to pick our way carefully on the compacted snow in places. Today was fine until mid-afternoon. I've never leafletted in a blizzard before. My apologies to anyone who got a soggy Focus. I've been trying to get all the litter in Bridle Path cleared up. Bridle Path is a short road ...

The last time I blogged was early Saturday morning when I arrived at the conference centre. My next stop was the tail end of debate on the Post Office motion. The motion was passed after various speakers had reassured everyone that the occasional omission didn't mean we should throw the motion out, that the parliamentary team being in favour of the motion was not a sufficient reason to throw the

Today at Conference somebody from the BBC News website asked me a few questions. Some of my answers can now be found online.

Tony Blair thinks that his decision to go to war will be judged by God. The fact that George W. Bush also trusted to his faith makes me cringe. This messianic appeal to faith I personally find repellent. It smacks of the hypocrite - "but I say unto you that they have their reward". However, perhaps it also explains why the West is getting into such a mess. The certitudes of faith should be leavened with doubt, otherwise we might have leaders of the West who believe that their personal relationship with the divinity renders them automatically successful. Then, ...

Damien Green is in the Observer this morning, telling us how much the Tories have changed. His speciality is immigration. He doesn't exactly apologise for baseless scaremongering and pandering to racism, but is prepared to admit that Maybe the tone has been too harsh. So now the Tories welcome immigrants, nothing against immigrants, fine people immigrants. Got it? But of course he has to be mad about something. So now he is mad about statistics. He expresses this, well, madness with a stunningly fatuous comparison: Here are a few things the government does not know. It cannot say ...

So it was Ming wot won it in the Lib Dem leadership election. At the start of the contest this is the result that I expected, though not ruling out a strong challenge from Simon Hughes. Then everything went wobbly in the middle mainly because of betting activity creating a position of favourite for Chris Huhne. [...]

So where are all these Lib Dem Defectors to the Conservatives? I know they are trying to poach us - in my first 261 months as a councillor nobody asked me to switch sides, but I've now I've been given two opportunities in the 262nd. All political parties have a few discontented souls in the council chambers of the land (and sometimes they have reasons for being discontented). I suspect that

The off-topic comments have continued in spite of asking people to take their personal arguments elsewhere. The final straw was a comment that purported to come from a council officer, when it clearly was not from him. I have turned comments off for the time being, but with great reluctance. The last thing I want to do it to stifle debate. I have never deleted a comment just because...

Well, I felt a bit deflated after hearing the leadership election result - actually, rather more deflated than I expected, because rationally I know that all three candidates could do a good job. Maybe it's an inbuilt reaction I experience whenever a candidate I support loses... Having said all that, Ming seems to have made a decent start. I heard him three times on the radio on Friday, and thought he was in good form. Driving around after hearing him for a third time, I had a curious thought. My father, who was a sports fanatic (couldn't get married at ...

For once I find myself defending Tony Blair. I was on the M11 last night so missed the Parkinson interview, but it seems he said that he prayed about the decisions he had to make and that God would be his judge. He did not claim that God was on his side in the war against Iraq, nor suggest that God had sanctioned his decision - had he said either I would be the first to criticise....

Lovely weekend here in Harrogate. Snow on Friday, bright sunshine today. Harrogate is my favorite conference venue. It is a lovely town with a warm northern welcome. I came to my first conference her in 1987 - the last Liberal Assembly -when I camped in atent and lived on fringe meeting food. I did my first conference speech here - opposing a woolly arts motion and being savaged by Bob MacLennan as a result. (Well - okay - perhaps 'savaged' is a bit strong) I also well remember coming up to stay with Phil Willis many years ...

We live in an amazing world, of mobile phones, MP3 playes, massive TVs and affordable, powerful personal computers. The world's super-power is so well-designed that even a monkey can run it - and indeed is running it. So tell me, why oh why does it still take four days for cheques to clear?

The Observer reports that when Ming Campbell stands up in front of Party Conference as leader for the first time in about an hour and a half from now, he will signal his determination to overhaul the party's economic and social policy and streamline its campaign machinery with the kind of US-style techniques imported by Labour and the Tories. No surprises there then. Rather predictably they also report that we are seeking to part-privatise the Post Office. I suggest that they go back and re-read the motion but then as they have already decided what our agenda is then no ...

I shouldn't have felt guilty abandonning Tower Hamlets at the start of an election campaign. The snow-covered conference has been a chance to get away, reorganise my thoughts, meet colleagues, get campaign tips and take part in debates. The hottest topic at conference was Freedom of Speech, a tenet guarded highly by Liberal Democrats. With the Ken Livingstone suspension, Abu Hamsar...

When I was researching MPs involved with the Crossrail Bill, I came across this moving article in John Pugh MP's diary (February) which praises those who choose not to go down the 2.4 children route. It's refreshing for me to hear such a view in favour of individualism coming from an elected representative and reminds me why I went into politics - not just for women in general, but for the...

Saturday 4th March 2006 - Spent the day at the Party Spring Conference in Harrogate and spoke in the debate on Education reform, citing Knowsley as an example of good practice in delivering Lib Dem policy, even though it is a Labour controlled council!! Good to catch up with old friends and familiar faces and all the post leadership contest gossip!!