LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Well the great uproar about the possible use of Iran's civillian nuclear facilities for weapons development goes up a notch. For now not raising the military mumblings or the questions of national sovereigncy, just asking: Iran is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world, and has a scattered population requiring expensive investmenst in any long-distance power transmission grid. What is it doing putting immense chunks of national resources into building civil nuclear reactors? Just from the opportunity cost comparisons of differing cilvil energy programmes it looks a screwy decision. The economic case just does not add ...

Can you believe it is only 3 weeks since the last Liberal Drinks? Sheesh! Time goes by quickly! Anyway, same time and time of the month - Wednesday 15 March, 7.30pm - and same place - The Silver Cross. I’m not personally planning to hold one in April, so this is the last [...]

Not having been involved in Julia Goldsworthy’s campaign, it would be foolhardy of me to pretend to know everything that happened in this campaign. Iain Dale however, despite having a campaign in North Norfolk at the time of his own to fight, knows better than me, claiming that Julia “won her seat in part [...]

Stephen Tall makes a better case for Tessa Jowell than anyone in the Labour Party I have heard. (Estelle Morris the other day made a case for thinking it would be a pity that she had to leave, but that is not the same thing.) Not everyone can have a wonderful partner like, well, my wife, for example. I don't like to come over censorious. And I don't care if this couple have more money than Paul Marshall, more houses than Chris Huhne and a bigger car than Ming - I really don't. But I think she will still have ...

Did I really hear this on Radio 4 News today? "Leeks are causing a problem in the new Welsh Assembly building in Cardiff" Comments are turned off a present because of abuse. If you would like to add your views please use the Contact Me link on the right. I will post any comments that are on topic. But please give your name and/or a valid web...

... another opens. The Tories have a new leader; so do we (yay!). Next one up is Labour. (Unless the Tories get bored with Dave first.) But who should they choose? Poll now open over at my Other Gaff .

After yesterday's Ming's Dynasty, here is another website I urge all my readers not to visit.

To be honest, I'm bored now. No-one's yet told me what Tessa Jowell has done wrong. (Beyond a greater degree of credulity about her personal finances than is prudent for her own good. And which is her own business.) I don't care that she and her husband are richer than Croesus. And I don't care much for Dave Spart columnists parading their class consciousness in articles which will earn them more in an hour than a cleaner takes home in a month. Tessa is one of the few (and getting fewer) Labour ministers ...

So the Lib Dem Shadow Cabinet has been unveiled. I’ve copied my ‘Dream Team’ listing below to compare it with the real thing (names in brackets). I see I got almost everything wrong. The one exception was my tip for Jo Swinson to become our Shadow Scottish Secretary. Generally, though, it’s a pretty good mix. I’m delighted Michael Moore and Nick Clegg have been given prominent roles: both have

Sorry for the slow blogging this week. I have the mother of all colds. I couldn't have accepted a portfolio if Ming had offered me one. Anyway, the BBC has the full list of the new Lib Dem front-bench team. Note in particular Alistair Carmichael's promotion to transport spokesman and the unexpected re-emergence of Nick Harvey as our expert on defence.

Following on from my post yesterday, I should mention that the Tories’ Scottish Leader Annabel Goldie (who, contrary to popular believe is neither a mid-90s trip hop recording artist or the Blue Peter dog), has announced the goal of forming the main opposition in 2007 and has ruled out the Tories forming a coalition with [...]

Generally, Ming’s reshuffle this week is a solid piece of work. I have very few complaints, although I’m a little disappointed that Lembit wasn’t given transport. Given that this post has gone from a bloke called Brake to a bloke called Carmichael, clearly Lembit needs to get a more automobile-related name. Jenny Willott’s absense [...]

Well-behaved adults are to be rewarded with "good behaviour credits" to spend on gym membership, organic low-fat food, non-alcoholic drinks, nicotine patches, education and training, voluntary work, community involvement (including jam-making and running tombolas) and other government-approved "constructive" and "improving" activities (including membership of local chess clubs). The plans were

The poor Prime Minister is being kept out of the loop by his press office and his civil servants. Cherie must not be allowing him to watch the news on TV, however as a civil rights lawyer I doubt that and she would be aware of this particular case I'm sure. So maybe Leo has his hands on the remote. The reason I have come to this conclusion is that when asked by Alex Salmond at PMQs this afternoon

I've renewed my membership of the Liberal Democrats today, for some reason straight after I read the Power to the People report.

Pharmacist Fees Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 13 February 2006, Official Report, columns 1759–64W, on pharmacist fees, what the difference is between the generic reimbursement prices and the prices at which (a) Simvastatin, (b) Lisinopril and (c) Amlodipine could be purchased by pharmacists and dispensing doctors; how much would be recovered by a discount

The historic flag of Belarus is white with a red stripe. The flag that is flown by the Lukashenka regime is the old soviet era "national" flag, minus the hammer and sickle. In a nutshell, that is the visual symbol of the current struggle for Belarus. Oleksander Lukashenka, leading a tyranny which uses its KGB goons to kidnap and kill versus Alyaksandr Milinkevich who is the united candidate of the Belarusian opposition. On March 19th, Lukashenka will steal another election. The legitimate choice of the Belarusian population will be denied to them. It is time to speak up now- the ...

Weekends away always throw me out, which is why the blog has not been updated much in the last few days. So I will just commend two excellent posts by James Graham on quaequam blog about policy-making and the pros and cons of continued coalition with Labour in Scotland. But a word of warning to James - considered and analytical posts like these risk entirely destroying your reputation as "crass, boorish and more a bruiser than blogger”. I have wondered what would happen if in the next Holyrood election the Liberal Democrats became the second largest party - we ...

Tony Greaves is one of the party's treasures. He has also sold me a lot of books at very reasonable prices and ferreted out some that were very hard to find. So I hesitate to criticise. But was the criticism of Ming in Monday's Guardian really necessary? The new party leader was not even allowed 24 hours grace after his inaugural leader's speech before being attacked by a senior party figure? What Tony took exception to was Ming's use of the word 'modernise'. I agree that in its Blairite usage this is a problematic word. It is designed to imply ...

Normally it is political leaks. Last week on St. David's Day, it was just leeks. Today we learn that the Senedd building is leaking. Yes, water is coming in at a number of points. Luckily, we have not taken full possession off the builders. They will have to fix this before we do. Still, at least a beam has not come loose in the chamber yet.

Today's frontbench announcements from Sir Menzies Campbell have a larger number of personal links to my life. Sarah Teather (whose constituents I used to work for at the Social Security Agency) has been made Shadow Education Secretary. She replaces Ed Davey (whose constituency I used to live, study and work in) who moves to Trade and Industry. Jo Swinson (who as a fellow Scot I keep running

Ming has been unveiling more of his new frontbench team today. Sarah Teather goes to education; Ed Davey to trade and industry; Susan Kramer to international development; and Jo Swinson to Scottish afffairs. I don’t find Teather’s appointment inspiring, although it makes sense to move Davey (and the DTI suits his economics background) and Sarah has been [...]

What with the move last week and not having broadband, or for that matter a PC at home, I've been absent from my blog for the last week. So I'll try to make amends. While I was away it appears that my friend and Scottish colleague Alex Cole-Hamilton has started his own blog. Today he looks at the impending smoking ban, or more to the point one leading hotel chain trying to delay it at the last

When some bright spark in the Labour Government redesigned the structure of local Government in 2000 and thought that an Overview and Scrutiny Committee would be sufficient to balance and monitor a powerful Cabinet structure, that bright spark reckoned without Tower Hamlets. Unless you experience it on a regular basis, you just would not believe how much our Cabinet suppresses rather than...

The link is to the NHS Operating Framework 2006/7. Section 2 is the key. This talks about achieving financial health. It basically means that Primary Care Trusts will have monies topsliced from their budgets to fund deficits elsewhere in the NHS. In the West Midlands this is a figure of ... wait for it ... £373 Million. It ends up as about 5% of PCT budgets. This is to cover the deficits in

First of all the poor guy can't tell whether $600,000 which comes his way is a gift or income. Now he is confused as to whether or not he owned shares in a pub chain. It strikes me that for someone who has been described as an "international lawyer" he might have a problem organising the proverbial piss up in a brewery. Despite Jowells split from her husband I still feel that this will follow the path of other similar scandals in the past particularly as more and more allegations drip out.

Make sure you take a moment to hear Frank Key’s exciting yarn, The Book of Gnats, no doubt the most exciting story you will ever hear concerning a book that you will never be able to read. While you are at it, please take a moment to subscribe to the Hooting Yard Podcast, which will [...]

This short essay at the “Right to Create” explains the fallacy of IT Patents. We are often told by pro-patent advocates that a harmonious patent system is required for a thriving information economy. For those of us involved in IT, this just does not add up. Lawyers cost money, and patents (both the ones you [...]

From BBC News: "They [Iran] are currently putting people into Iraq to do things that are harmful to the future of Iraq," Mr Rumsfeld told a news conference. "We know it, and it is something that they... will look back on as having been an error in judgement," he added. Asked whether the alleged insertion of Iranian forces into Iraq was backed by the central government in Tehran, Mr Rumsfeld said: