LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Or am I seeing things? There's this eerie silence going on about Blair's latest set of travails. The Tories gave us Hamilton and a few quid to ask questions. But super duper new Labour trumps that nobly with huge official bungs to get a place permanently able to ask any question you like from the red benches of their Lordships' house. The party that set up the new laws on donations and party finances has a treasurer and chair who have never heard of millions of pounds worth of loans made to the party. The government can only ...

Can he count on your support? Please? He'll sell you a peerage?

A long apologies e-mailed. Put a couple of new stories on Dundee LibDem website and took some time off (Emmerdale, Coro, etc! And a couple of recorded editions of Malcolm in the Middle, truly the best US comedy show). Other local stuff today ... Waste Management has promised to uplift a lot of rubbish lying at the old Homebase site in Riverside Drive and spoke with owner of land in Step Row who

No, it's not the Labour Party selling them. It's the Elect the Lords campaign. Their press releases reads: The Elect the Lords campaign has launched a range of "Virtual Peerages" for sale on its website, following the continuing "cash for peerages" row. As an introductory offer, the Virtual Peerages are being offered at a 25% discount for one week only, meaning that a Virtual Baronetcy can be bought for as little as £7.50. Purchasers of these Virtual Peerages will receive a "certificate of inauthenticity" and be listed on the campaign's website. Purchasers of a Virtual Marquessetcy and Duchy will ...

From BBC News: "Two men remain critically ill and four others are in a serious condition after suffering a violent reaction while taking part in a clinical drugs trial."This story has also headlined Channel 4 News and the BBC 6 O'clock News. "He looks like the Elephant Man" I've got a slight problem with this story having such prominence in the media today: THEY WERE VOLUNTEERS

I don't often stray from the straight and narrow, but here is a short diversion into culture. Film It is only a few weeks since the party seemed about to tear itself apart. Some had plumped for one candidate, some another. Jonathan Calder and myself believed that A Canterbury Tale was the greatest film of the Powell and Pressburger partnership. Chris Black and Steve Travis went for A Matter of Life and Death. The other week I called into an HMV shop and found that they were selling a box-set of nine Powell and Pressburger films. It is ...

A beautiful Spring day, at last! Took the day off work to go to look at the parking problemsin the Stainton Road area on the boundary with Mountsfield Park. This sprang from a comment from the bowls club at the Mountsfield Park Users' Group about the problems they and visiting teams now had with parking in the Stainton Road area. Not just them. Ever since the Rushey Green CPZs in the area was expanded, those streets on its boundary have suffered from intense parking pressure (often from commuters from outside the area who want to ...

On Tuesday 14 March, went to the public meeting at Hither Green Baptist Church on the Hither Green Urban Development Strategy. The consultants had been working on this over the last year, with walkabouts and meetings with local residents. This was their final report, and they were presenting it to the public and asking them to support the next steps. The meeting was almost embarrassingly full. Embarrassing, because I'd done quite a bit to publicise it locally, including writing to the new residents on the Meridian South development. And it looked as though there was ...

Now that I have helped to highlight to curious correlation between Labour donors and people receiving honours by purchasing a virtual peerage, I need to decide what title to take upon my virtual elevation. Suggestions so far include: Baron Greenback Baron Knights Baron Landscape (geddit?) Baron Howells (of course) Baron Howells of Course Baron Howells of Gallifrey (not suggested by me) Baron Will [...]

A new Lib Dem peer! The “Elect the Lords” campaign is highlighting some dodgy statistics concerning new Labour and the House of Lords: “17 out of the 22 individuals who have donated more than £100,000 to the Labour Party in the past few years have received an honour; all but one of the individuals who have [...]

Well it looks like the MSPs may soon be beeming with delight as bus trips up the Royal Mile to debates at the Hub will come to an end soon. However, instead of walking into the debating chamber they will have to put their towels out early on the 90 available chairs in Committee Room 2. If all MSPs were to turn up to a debate the last 39 of them will not be able to be seated in the room and have

On Monday 13 March, left work early to attend a governors' sub-committee meeting at Hither Green Primary School. Can't tell you the details, but can give a plug for the school's Multicultural Evening. This event is being organised and run by the school. It starts at 6pm to 8pm on Thursday 23rd March. There will be a (very small) entrance fee, food and drink will be on sale, and it should be a lovely evening. Then dashed to catch the 181 bus to Lewisham Town Hall. And then I spotted it, while I was waiting! ...

One of the joys of First Minister’s question time is the sheer variety of topics covered as members try to pin him down on something, anything of substance. Yesterday was no exception. Mid and West Wales Conservative, Lisa Francis, was particularly exercised by the subject of rubbish. She had heard that at least half of the Councils in Wales were intending to switch to fortnightly refuse collections and was concerned at the opportunities this would offer to various scavengers: Lisa Francis: I was concerned by the findings of a BBC Wales survey, which showed that half of ...

Following the instruction of Danny Wallace, a kindly young man gave me a box of Ferrero Rocher today. Thank you.

On Monday 6 March, I attended a meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to consider a report on the decision making process in relation to the establishment of a new secondary school. This was basically a report by the Chief Executive, which some might regard as rather mild in its criticisms and recommendations, plus additional recommendations from the sub-committee. The Chair made clear to us that the role of councillors present was confined to asking questions about the recommendations from the sub-committee. We were not allowed to deviate from this narrow remit, for example by referring ...

The saga continues although it is no clearer from this report what he is actually intending to do. There was one section which amused me The demonstrators are angry at the $1.9bn sale of his family firm Shin Corp, accusing him of tax dodges and betraying the nation by selling an important national asset to Singaporean investors. Particularly interesting given that whilst we were in Thailand in

Fancy a bit of ermine to go with your jeans and T-shirt? Tempted by a title? Then why not buy a peerage? The Elect the Lords campaign is offering virtual peerages. It doesn’t come with any land or a vote in the second chamber, but: Your money will be spent on campaigning for a democratic second chamber. [...]

According to today's Daily Post First Minister Rhodrio Morgan, enjoys going to public libraries to buy remaindered books for 10p or 20p: "They are books which might not be of much interest to the general population but I find very interesting and very cheap." I am not sure where he finds the time to read them, but if anybody wants a copy of Labour's 2003 Assembly Manifesto they now know where to go.

Cracking question from David Heath at PMQs today. Good to see us not letting Labour sweep the Royal Commission on long-term care under the substantial and bumpy ‘it never happened rug’. Heath’s my pick for Deputy Leader. A great performer in the Commons, seemingly well liked by his colleagues and with an unusually good handle on massively important and largely ignored issues, like the tortured death of legal aid in Britain. He might tend to look perpetually grumpy, but I think he’s just frowning at injustice. Here's a rare snap of him smiling.

Lots of things to get the ibuprofen out over at the moment… we’re going to be getting properly stroppy outside the Belarussian Embassy this Sunday, it looks like I’m going to be a candidate in Westminster for the local elections and the latest Free Radical should be going out next week. We’ve got a piece by the campaigns co-ordinator at Liberty and an article about the ID Cards Bill from Lord Phillips; I think it’s a pretty good read. The true diamond of the edition is a rather funny piece by Sam Hemming about vegetarianism and liberalism. Sam, you truly ...

Today’s ICM Poll will make painful reading for the Tories as it suggests that David Cameron’s Tory party revival has stalled and been thrown into reverse just a few short months since he took the reigns of power. The results: Labour 37 Conservatives 34 Lib Dems 21 Cameron can only watch as the Tories slip behind labour when as a [...]

Keep coming across Lib Dem bloggers and others who contact me after reading my blog who do not have a Lib Dem bloggers button on their own blogs nor are they linked to the Aggregated list . Usually when I ask why they claim it's because they are not aware of it. Most of them seem to be up north or somewhere out in the sticks. Some are nervous that others may think their blog is not good enough. The few I've contacted have all quickly come on board. It's not about who ...

"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival." W. Edwards Deming This is a week all about education. As the British Parliament debates further changes to the education system, it is clear that the place of education is rising up the political agenda. I have no particular quarrel with treating students differently based on academic ability. I am sceptical about schools selecting on that basis- frankly the grammar school system I have seen in operation in Buckinghamshire is not an advert for good schools. I am more familiar with streaming or "setting" within comprehensive schools, and to my mind this ...

I was pleased to persuade The (Deputy) Speaker to have an Emergency Debate on the gas crisis - see link. I will put my text on the Gas issues blog. In the mean time I have now written a letter referring the Drugs overpayment to the National Audit Office. There are clear financial problems in the NHS and if the NHS is overpaying for drugs then that should stop.

Surprisingly few MPs turned up at this. That meant I got a short unplanned speech in. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for St. Ives (Andrew George) for arranging this debate. I also thank you, Mr. Amess, for calling me to speak, and I know that I have to end at half-past 10. I had not intended to speak, but when I saw how few Members were intending to participate, I thought that I could perhaps

Iain Dale and James Graham have been posting on the subject of regionalism - and James was kind enough to provide another link to Constructaregion. During the Christmas holiday, I noticed that John Milton also had quite a lot to say on the topic in his 1660 piece - The Readie & Easie Way to Establish [...]

Labour have overtaken the Tories in the polls and even better we have maintained our share at 21% proving that the dip in January was just temporary. I am not sure when the poll was done because then go on to say that the Lib Dems would drop to 19% under Sir Menzies Campbell! - I guess we will have to wait until next month to see the validity of that one. On a more positive note Sir Menzies got a +19 satisfaction rating

Apologies for the slackness of blogging - this is caused by a general thesis panic. This post was intended to be a link list to draw your attention to Matt Fensome's blog with its rather disturbing picture of Mr Cameron. Since I can't spell Amartya then mentioning the obvious typos would be rude and unnecessary... but someone's bound too so I'd recommend Matt changes them. I've also become aware

... I must be in a Kentucky recreation of a German bierkeller. Obvious, really. And, I have to admit, it's a pretty good one. The beer, very German tasting, is served in litres and half-litres, they serve a mean weisswurst and there are men singing German drinking songs armed only with a drumkit and an accordion. So far, so good. It never fails to surprise how heavily influenced the Midwest is

Iain Dale’s bizarre equivalence of English Apples and Californian Oranges gives me an excuse to yet again plug constructaregion. In relative terms, California is more akin to Scotland than England - a sizeable minority rather than an overwhelming majority. Indeed, looking at the US rather makes the point about why an English Parliament is a [...]

Is it me or does the banner the Guardian are using to advertise Comment Is Free resemble one of those cheesy montages of all the Doctor Whos. A thought strikes: maybe all the Guardian columnists are actually the same Time Lord regenerating again and again? In that case, which one is the Valeyard? My [...]