LibDem Blogs - Archived!

I was down in Bristol today for the launch of Campaign Creator. This is a brand new tool which lets community groups develop campaigning websites for free. The bold thing about this initiative is that Bristol Council is actually encouraging groups to oppose it. This led to a lot of discussion about how community activists could interact with councils without losing their...

One of my random interests that will probably end up on this blog often is US politics. Anyone with a similar interest is probably aware of Air America Radio. For those who aren't, there follows a brief introduction. If you are, skip the following few paragraphs. Air America was founded in April 2004, before the November election. It was intended as an effort to bring some balance to the talk

One of my random interests that will probably end up on this blog often is US politics. Anyone with a similar interest is probably aware of Air America Radio. For those who aren't, there follows a brief introduction. If you are, skip the following. Air America was founded around a year before the 2004 election. It was intended as an effort to bring some balance to the talk radio arena, which

Creationism is to be discussed as part of the GCSE biology syllabus: The [OCR] exam board says students need to understand the background to theories. Its new “Gateway to Science” curriculum asks pupils to examine how organisms become fossilised. Teachers are asked to “explain that the fossil record has been interpreted differently over time (e.g. creationist interpretation)”. Sounds [...]

Well, that’s it. The last significant post I wanted to put up was to comment on what I see as the major economic problem that we will face domestically – namely the enduring underclass. I believe that all politics must relate to this narrative. At a Liberal meet-up recently I rashly stated that I didn’t give a toss about the middle classes – which isn’t really true, and I was rightly chided for being glib. Equally, however, there is something in the fact that middle-class politics are inclined to self-obsession and lifestyle feel-good. My ...

In The poor and the dispossessed Simon Mollan on Inner West writes about an horrific scenario in which an underclass in Britain is trapped in a downward spiral of "violence, poverty, food insecurity, substance abuse, anger..." and so on and wonders whether there are any possible solutions. I have to say I wrote an essay not too dissimilar to that at school. My teacher gave me nineteen out of twenty but wrote in his comments that it was "worse than Hitler". It took me many years to work out what he meant. And I only became aware ...

I had a few drinks with my old economics teacher last night, who was at Oxford at the same time as Tony Blair and Chris Huhne. When he was there he was Secretary of the university Labour Club. Of course, amusingly, he does not remember Tony Blair. But he does remember Chris Huhne, which was equally amusing to recall over a beer. We had an interesting chat. My friend also made the transition to the SDP in the early 1980s, but bitterly resented the merger with the Liberals later on and subsequently left. The brief flowering ...

So farewell then Jack Profumo. The obituaries will concentrate on the scandal of 1963 and his later redemption through charity work. But in many ways Profumo's finest hour came before all that. As Wikipedia explains: In 1939 he joined the British Army (Northamptonshire Yeomanry), rising to the rank of brigadier. In March 1940, while still serving, he was elected to the House of Commons as a Conservative at a by-election in Kettering, Northamptonshire. Shortly afterwards he voted against the Chamberlain government in the debate following the British defeat at Narvik in Norway. He was the youngest MP at that time, ...

A woman in the city of Bath has been punished with an Anti Social Behaviour Order for repeatedly playing the Tony Christie/Peter Kay cheesy hit song *Is this the way to Amarillo*. Clearly neighbours have been crying into their pillows. Read more of the story from the Daily Mail news website. There is a wonderful feedback comment from someone in Canada who says Mrs Webb of Bath should have been fined more for playing this song. During raids by Bath & North East Somerset council and local police, stereos were seized from the house and these are ...

Two weeks ago I visited the South West of England and had series of interesting conversations. Over Sunday lunch myself and an old friend discussed the implications of unskilled immigration and the effect on (what is sometimes known as) the underclass. I think this conversation still has much mileage yet before it reaches a conclusion, and I would not want to misrepresent my friend’s opinion for his reportage of some reading he has done on the subject, but the basic concern that he articulated was that cheap imported labour contributed to the trapping effects of welfare dependency among ...

This week's House Points column from Liberal Democrat News. The observation about commandeering a De Havilland was orginally made of the first Lady Bonkers. And the story about John Prescott and the Edens can be found somewhere on my (very occasional) anthology blog Serendib. Fun and Games I don’t care if Tessa Jowell resigns or not. What I want, as I have said here many times, is for her whole department – Culture, Media and Sport – to go. You wonder why? Monday’s question time gave a clue. The first question came from our own Paul Rowen and ...

One of the reasons for the name of this blog is my interest in paradox and the way political issues are often not quite as they seem. I like to think that those of us who are on the liberal left of politics will have an enlightened outlook, letting reason be our guide. But all too often, the left (including some Liberals) does little more than mirror the prejudices of the right. Nowhere is this more true than on the question of Northern Ireland. For centuries it was implicit in British political culture that Roman Catholics in general, and Irish ...

My Parliament security pass runs out at the end of the month so I took a gaggle of people from work over to the Peers dining room for lunch. Food great, service magnificent, environment lovely, though surrounded by Pugin splendour I do tend to feel like a six year old sitting at the grown-ups table. A [...]

According to Liberal Democrat Transport Spokeman Alistair Carmichael the Transport Minster Stephen Ladyman has been telling porkie pies over the number of police manning our roads. Last night on newsnight Ladyman said: "The number of roads police has increased substantially in recent years." However, new figures show that road traffic police numbers in England and Wales have actually declined

So the Great British Design Quest vote closes on Sunday 12th March. Three finalists featured on the BBC pages – Concorde, the Spitfire and the London Underground Map. Personally I backed one of the rejected shortlist contestants – the WorldWideWeb. It is a design that empowers flexibility and creation of new uses. Rather like what a Liberal Democratic society should be like, a process and an empowerment rather than an end. But what to vote for out of the final three? Concorde was superbly designed to do something we probably didn’t need to do, really. Amongst the disadvantages was ...

Before fellow Lib Dems accuse my headline having a typo, or being offensive to the new leader let me explain for non-mining folk. A bing is a heap of spoil left over after mining, it is also the uppermost stratum of coal. The ammount of pressure on this can cause the coal residue to ignite and release pollutants into the environment. One of the bings at Polkemmet Colliery, Whitburn is such a burning bing. Having lived in Whitburn I can tell you that on some night you can smell the pollutants So over 20 years after the Polkemmet Colliery closed ...

Predictive Diallers Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 30 January 2006, Official Report, column 187W, on predictive diallers, whether any public body for which her Department is responsible uses predictive dialling. (John Hemming) A:The information requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost. (Liam Byrne, Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department

Has it really been a month? More selected numbers, this time from the latest two sets of Dewey Decimal subject mappings. The eyes have it: Peacocks in art - 704.943286258 Vicar of Dibleyest number: Clergy on television - 791.456827 100,00 BC: Prehistoric peoples on television - 791.45658 “But she hates James Blunt already”: Musical perception in infants - 155.422215 Don’t [...]

Looking for publications of the US government online? Then try the relaunched Catalog of U.S. Government Publications. Searching on “United Kingdom”, I found a “Protocol amending tax convention with the Netherlands“. This is a message from the President of the United States transmitting protocol amending the convention between the United States of America and the Kingdom of [...]

Was pleased to complete theguardian’s “hard” sudoku puzzle today in 9 minutes, so I think I’m returning to form. I managed yesterday’s hard kakuro in 17 minutes, which is an improvement. I still prefer to kakuro to sudoku as it requires much more thought and actual maths. Sadly, I only found out about the 1st World [...]

So says the Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer. Hmm well I don't feel too strongly one way or another about whether or not we get an english parliament. However, if we are not to get an english parliament then we clearly need to address the current situation where issues which only affect England are voted upon by politicians from Scotland. Simon Hughes comments were spot on as far as I am concerned

When are we going to combat the menace of insanely dull politicians on Question Time saying "I never thought I'd find myself agreeing with... [insert name of politician 0.5 degrees away from them in the political spectrum]" - and then chuckling brainlessly at having built a pointless little consensus with someone equally boring, which they imagine the audience will somehow be impressed by?

The District Council: Bass Tory 265 27.17%Ahmad Labour 206 21.13%Leaper Lib-Dem 196 20.10%Burgess BNP 162 16.62%Hanchard Ind 83 8.51%Austin Mercian 34 3.45%Critchlow UKIP 29 2.97% The Parish Council: McNichol Tory 278Leaper Lib-Dem 228Jones Labour ...

With the Passing of John Profumo, news outlets around the country will revel in the opportunity to dig out archive footage, and remind the British public of just how corrupt and morally wanting, politicians can be. The reality is that we live in a far more permissive society than that of Profumo’s disgrace.  Admittedly, politicians [...]

Jane Leaper and the Liberal Democrats moved into second place in the Werrington Parish by-election and narrowly missed out on taking second place by just ten votes (in a packed field of seven candidates). In the previous election the Liberal Democrats did not stand so can be pleased with these results.

Wow! So now using a litter bin could land you with a fine...BBC NEWS | England | Leicestershire | Man faces £50 fine for using bin: A man who threw away junk mail in a litter bin on his way to work is facing a £50 fine from his local council.Andy Tierney, 24, from Hinckley in Leicestershire, is reported to have dumped the unwanted mail in a bin located in the street. Council officers tracked him down using the addresses on the envelopes. Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council said Mr Tierney had actually dumped a bag of rubbish, ...

I'm normally the last person to object to President Bush being challenged, but I am a bit confused about the ground on which US lawmakers have chosen to fight in the last month. When there are so many reasons to criticise Bush's governance of the United States, is foreign operation of American ports the best you can get him for? The implication that Arab companies are fundamentally untrustworthy is insulting and ridiculous. It would be nice if the Democrats could score some points of Bush by some means other than running to his right.

Wednesday's Plenary meeting saw an innovation at Minister's Question time. In the past the Party Leaders had the option of asking multiple supplementaries on a question of their choosing to the First Minister. Somehow this privilege had been extended to the subject Ministers' question time as well. As a result, backbenchers and party spokespersons did not get much of a look-in. Following a number of discussions the Presiding Officer decided to change this. As of this week it will be party spokepersons who will have the opportunity to ask multiple supplementaries of their ministerial counterparts. Surprisingly, this led ...

This giant inflatable sheep was photographed at a youth forum event in Swansea Guildhall. We do not believe in perpetuating stereotypes. Oh no!

"Winner of sperm and egg race" on baby's t-shirt warrants police visit. Some googling to confirm the story reveals the Brighton police to have at least some history of bothering people for being 'offensive': Eighty-year-old John Catt served with the RAF in the Second World War. Last September, he was stopped by police in Brighton for wearing an "offensive" T-shirt, which suggested that Bush and

... do I put myself through the weekly torment that is This Week? I remember when its quirky, jaunty take on the last 7 days at Westminster struck a deft balance between the serious and the light. Now it's just wall-to-wall vapid, humourless inanities. I actually quite like and respect Andrew Neil as a political interviewer (at least when he's not trying too hard to be funny). But Diane Abbot