LibDem Blogs - Archived!

You can observe two inverse trends in newspapers today. First, newspaper circulation is down: 13 million daily papers were sold in February 2003, compared with 12 million last month. And, secondly, as fewer and fewer newspapers are sold, so each and every newspaper will onanistically proclaim how many more copies they are now selling (usually by comparing the sales of the latest DVD freebie

SEARCH FOR MOST FAMOUS INDUSTRIALIST STARTS WITH VOTING (ROUND TWO - THE REGIONAL HALL OF FAME) The first round of voting for The Regional Wall of Fame reached a breathtaking climax last month, as the search to find the first faces to grace the wall was concluded by the general public; who, after a close contest voted authors David Lodge and Arnold Bennett as the most renowned authors from the

People who are wondering why I have not commented on this blog about the Gas Balancing Alert (and probable emergency) should click on the link. In the mean time my fingers did go rather cold on the St Patrick's day parade. I may find a photo somewhere on the web. After that I spoke at a meeting in Digbeth. Today I have been looking at Birmingham issues and doing some preparing for the local

Just seen this on Sky News. It appears that the Serbian authorities may be preparing themselves to suspend the law and guarantee Mira Markovic temporary immunity from arrest or charges if she returns for the funeral of Slobodan Milosevic. It also appears that this may be because Milosevic's party are currently propping up the government and are effectively in a position to hold them to ransom. I hope that this does not go ahead. If you choose not to face justice and go on the run then so be it. But be prepared to pay the price. Stay away or ...

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Yesterday evening marked a return to "normality" to inner Birmingham politics when the PJP (peoples justice party) councillors and supporters came over to the Lib Dems. This now means there will be a straight fight between the Lib Dems and Labour.This is great news for the Lib Dems, but also for local politics in Birmingham as it moves matters back to their normal place, and we can campaign to improve local communities, rather than concentrating on single issue of Kashmir.

Does anyone know how to add an RSS feed to a template in blogger. I was hoping to add the Liberal Democrats National news feed to my page but I cannot see how I do it. http://www.libdems.org.uk/ When I click on the RSS feed link on this page it comes up with a lot of code most of which seems to be sections which relate to the current news items on the page. Do I chop out most of this and if so which bits do I need? Any help most gratefully received.

According to the Sunday Herald things are not all happy and light in the SNP camp in the Lothian region. Surprisingly the same thing happened about 4 years ago when it came time to select their regional list for the Scottish Parliament elections. The end result then was that Margo MacDonald, a sitting MSP, was selected too low on their list, resigned and got elected as an indepent fighting for

Quick off the block as always, I spotted this in the 2005 Labour Manifesto (P110): "We will legislate to place reasonable limits on the time bills spend in the second chamber – no longer than 60 sitting days for most bills."Is it fair to say I'm not the only one reading this as "we will ensure the House of Lords won't interfere in whatever the hell we want to do"?

Liberal Democrat led South Shropshire District Council after the Liberal Democrat has been awarded the Local Government Association (LGA) the accolade of 'Green Liberal Democrat Group of the Year', for its success on environmental issues.

Will Howells mentions an article in today's Gruaniad. Why should two Scottish bloggers mention this article about an English Education bill, ie a devolved issue in Scotland? Because this Scottish MP has made this comment. "I think Ruth Kelly has done a wonderful job with a very, very bad idea, but it’s still a bad idea." So Michael Connarty, my MP, is not sitting on the fench on this devolved issue. He clearing is coming down still on the side of manure. As a former teacher he may well have a thing or two to say about education. ...

In today's Lib Dem news releases Nick Clegg, our new man with the Home Office Briefs asks, in Met Chief must come up with a very good explanation for his behaviour: "Sir Ian will have to come up with a very good explanation for this extraordinary behaviour." Well - picture this: you're going to have a conversation with a man who allegedly changed his mind and legal opinion so many times before the country headed to war and now can't remember what he said when and to whom. Wouldn't you want at least a ...

So Sir Ian Blair thinks it is ok to tape his telephone conversations without informing the other party. The best bit of this little gem was that according to the media the call was about the admissibility of telephone tap evidence in British courts. I am unclear as to whether or not he has broken any laws. The article in the Times implies there may be Data Protection implications and I always thought that you had to notify the other party if you intend to record their call hence the long winded gibberish at the beginning of some ...

You know, it is hard to work up a sense of real outrage at the cash for peerages scandal. Mind you it really is a scandal- it is not just the harmless trumpery of absurd pseudo-mediaeval titles: these fat cats were buying membership of our national Parliament. Yet I can't say I am surprised- for as long as patronage remains a gift of the Prime Minister, and especially this Prime Minister, then corruption will be an inevitable side effect. But is it really that bad? We do regard the desire to be "The Right Honourable The Lord Scrod of Bottley" ...

Alex Salmond has been selected in the fairly safe Lib Dem seat of Gordon, which he proclaims is the first step on the road to Bute House in his quest to become the first President of an independent Scottish Republic. He wants to ‘shake it up and sort it out’ according to the papers. I [...]

There is no mistaking what the men are thinking about when they sing "Oh, oh, oh". Then the girl's voice rises to the highest notes in a pure When Harry met Sally moment. Orff's Carmina Burana is a celebration of spring and the joys of youth - food, drink and love, but mainly the latter. It is sung in a curious mixture of cod Latin and old German, but that isn't a problem as all the...

Well with the weekend blizzards and snowdrifts clearing it was not as bad getting to the bus stop as it was getting to the shop for the papers yesterday morning. However, I came into work today wearing my hiking boots, as there are reports of more snow this afternoon and I need to get back to my flat. One upshot appears to be one more Jim Devine election poster has finally come down. This one was stationed opposite the exit from St. John's hospital and was present on Friday only about 2 feet off the ground. I can only surmise ...

Thanks to Edis Bevan of http://politsmk.blogspot.com/ I now know the story behind the famous photograph that come to represent American oppression at Abu Ghraib prison. The photograph was of Ali Shalal Qaissi, he was a leader in his neighborhood and was arrested by the American military after he complained to the media after American soldiers dumped garbage on a small local soccer field!

It may be a sign of advancing years, but I have just read an article in the Telegraph with which I agree. Under the title New suburbia is an environmental cul-de-sac Jim White writes that watching instant suburbia flourish where once were just oily puddles, it soon becomes clear that there is nothing here except houses and cars - lots and lots of cars. There are no schools, no shops, no doctors' surgeries, no parks, no leisure centres, no public transport connections, just streets called things like Brook Drive and Meadow Avenue. But that is not ...

Richard Huzzey calls for Ian Blair to go, and points out the irony of a Government minister having his conversation recorded: The only consolation, if this is the end of his reign, is that the cabinet may think twice again before claiming that privacy is irrelevant and only those with anything to hide have anything to [...]

It’s great to see such incisive and detailed discussion of the education bill. Take today’s theguardian: Michael Connarty, MP for Linlithgow and East Fife, said: “I think Ruth Kelly has done a wonderful job with a very, very bad idea, but it’s still a bad idea.” Yup, that’s pretty much the level of debate in this article [...]

Just to put things into perspective. Even at their height in 1999, when Dafydd Wigley was party leader and representing a North Wales seat, Plaid still only managed to win one top-up regional seat in the North. In 2003 they effectively came fourth and sixth in the region. They would need to leapfrog the Tories to do better and get that second seat. Of course nothing is impossible, especially if the Conservatives win some constituency seats. However, all the indications are that short of Plaid doing well enough to win an overall majority in the Assembly, a result that ...

This blog's gone a bit quiet recently ... I don't think I'm going to be posting very much in the next 6 weeks at all, because there's a certain event on the first Thursday in May that I'm rather busy with at the moment... ! In due course you'll be able to find out more from our local website. So good luck to everyone else taking part in similar activities... !

No, not *that* Blair. Well, yes, that one too, but today I'm writing about the other one. Sir Ian Blair has been one of the worst police commissioners in British history-- mostly for his disregard of the principles discussed below, discussing elected police chiefs. It seems that Sir Ian has largely played such a role, feeling that he has to engage in whipping MPs on anti-terrorist votes and playing to the gallery (or, rather, to the Sun; perhaps wanting to get a column like his predecessor's in the NotW). It would be rather ironic if an unelected architect of illiberalism ...

I thought that it was worth highlighting in full a comment to this post on the decision of the Tories to jettison their duly selected candidate for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, John Jenkins. Mr. Jenkins had once described gays as having a "medical mental condition" on his website, but despite this his party allowed him to proceed all the way to selection before realising their mistake and acting to try and avoid a public relations disaster. In the early hours of this morning Mr. Jenkins broke his self-imposed silence on this issue on this blog. What ...