LibDem Blogs - Archived!

With my 'lead member for Children and Young People's Services' hat on, I do have to serve on rather a lot of committees. More and more of them involve agencies working together to provide services for children - council, Primary Care Trust, Kingston Hospital, police and voluntary sector - together with users of the services - young people and parents. Today I attended two of them,...

Tomorrow's Spectator has an interview with Ken Clarke by Fraser Nelson. There Clarke floats the idea of a Conservative/Lib Dem coalition after the next election. No doubt the old rhinoceros is making trouble, but it is hard not to sympathise with him when he says of Ming Campbell: "I don't know his views on domestic policy; I'm not at all convinced that he's got that many."

I was at the Local Economy Scrutiny Panel last night and arrived just in time (I'd been at a work conference in London all day) to hear a presentation from the Chief Executive of Winchester's Theatre Royal. It was interesting. She told us about the variety of productions in the theatre, about the work done in youth theatre across the District and the important role that the theatre plays in the

Redcar and Cleveland Council is confident it will be able to continue with its multi-million pound plans for the Coatham Links development if an independent inspector's recommendation is accepted. Inspector Vivian Chapman has produced a 53-page report following a six-day public inquiry into an application by four local residents asking that land they know as Coatham Common be designated a village green. He has set out three legal reasons why the application should fail - and is now recommending that the Council, as the registration authority, should reject the application. The inspector's report and recommendation will be considered by the ...

A cycling and walking map of Birmingham was launched on Tuesday. The map shows: Traffic-free cycling and walking routes Walking routes On-road cycle routesAdvisory cycling routesBicycle parking locationsCopies can be requested by sending your postal address to cycling@birmingham.gov.uk or walking@birmingham.gov.uk or by telephoning the Council on 303 7485.

Holyrood Chronicles remembers the former prime minister. It seems that famous pipe was just for show: Mr Wilson was wont to smoke cigars when out of the public eye. In the 1970s, and this is nowadays hard to believe, one was allowed to smoke in the corridors of the House of Commons. The Prime Minister's Commons office was near the corridor at the back of the Speaker's Chair and, for those of us who had to spend time there waiting for whatever Parliamentary business we were interested in, Mr Wilson could be frequently espied trailing clouds of cigar smoke as ...

Last week, all-round good guy Dave Cameron launched The Tory Campaign To Win Back The Cities (where they have been thorougly trounced each of the last three elections), in an attempt to undo his party's apparent annihilation in Britain's metropolitan areas. It turns out that he needn't be wasting his time - the Conservative Party's baffling disappearance from the cities has a fairly simple

There's been a lot of speculation recently on some blogs about who will be the Deputy leader. Last night's close of nominations saw Vince Cable, David Heath and Matthew Taylor selected so now it's a three-way contest to become Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats. It will be interesting to see who the MP's will vote for on 29th March. Paul Burstow and Richard Younger Ross have also been

A geeky puzzle for you. These images show all eleven characters (one appears twice) who appear in the Star Wars “I find your lack of faith disturbing” conference room scene on the Death Star. Simple question: how many of these actors were in Doctor Who (in the widest sense)? And which of them was in more Doctor [...]

As we all know, it’s not about left and right these days, but nevertheless, here, thanks to BBC scheduling, is one simple question to sort the pinkos from the Francos. At 9pm tonight, are you more likely to watch BBC One (To Kill a Burglar: The Tony Martin Story*) or BBC Two (The Plot Against [...]

The South Wales Evening Post reports that eight Assembly cabinet members, who each earn around £80,000 a year, spent taxpayers' money to send their festive greetings rather than dig into their own pockets. Gower AM Edwina Hart was the only one to pay for the cards out of her own pocket. So when I got my Christmas cards off various Ministers last year I had in fact contributed to their cost through my taxes. Swell!

Kirsty Williams had a high quality rant yesterday: Kirsty Williams: If we could get women into senior positions during their working lives, issues around pensions would, perhaps, not be so critical. Some 75 per cent of Welsh women work in cleaning, catering or clerical services, and women are massively under-represented at senior levels-70 per cent of all NHS staff are women, but only 20 per cent of hospital consultants are female. There are no female police authority chairs, no female university vice-chancellors, and, dare I say it, no female party leaders. How will your campaign address this? ...

About the only thing I remember John Major saying was about how he wanted to build a 'classless society' (apart from his off the record comments about 'bastards' in his team). I remember thinking this was funny rhetoric for a Tory. To me, Toryism is inextricably bound up with maintaining the class divides in this country. I also niaively believed that Labour were instinctively against perpetuating the class divide in our country. So how bizarre is the place we are at today when we witness a Labour, a Labour, government which still hands out peerages as rewards for rich sycophants ...

In the UK it seems like the three main parties are trying to outbid each other in seeming to position themselves onto the centre ground of British politics. Of course, the centre of gravity as to what constitutes the centre ground has actually been decisively shifted rightwards by Blair's authoritarian Labour party since 1997. In the early days of Ming Campbell leadership we've had the part-privatisation of the Royal Mail passed by the Lib Dem Spring Conference and David Laws proposing cutting state benefits to lone parents. Now Ming repeatedly claimed to be a 'creature of the centre-left' during the ...

So the Prime Minister said that he had been seriously mislead about the justifications for the Iraq invasion, that some absolutely terrible things had been done such as the assault on Fallujah which further undermined the legitimacy of the whole operation and that the security services were keeping him in touch with even more serious developments – there is worse to come. No you didn’t miss a

ASDA, now part of the largest supermarket chain on the planet, the notorious union-busting WalMart group sought to de-recognise and bully workers into 'giving up' their trade union membership. This is in breach of UK legislation and the broader fundamental right of anyone to freely join a trade union in a democratic society should they so wish. Therefore I ask Liberal readers and others to encourage their MPs to sign Early Day Motion 1706. It reads : EDM 1706 TRADE UNION RECOGNITION28.02.2006 Kemp, Fraser That this House notes that Asda Wal-Mart has been fined £850,000 in the ...

When I'm on the road, I do like to catch a really good museum, especially one that challenges and informs. It was therefore a great pleasure to find that Cincinnati hosts the National Underground Railroad Museum, dedicated to recording the history of those who aided runaway slaves to find freedom in the North, and of slavery itself. It would be very easy to just airbrush this shameful episode in

So... Europe's last dictator announces that no European Union observers will be permitted to come to the Belarusian elections. Meanwhile the opposition are accused of plotting a coup. The same old Soviet lies: the criminals around the joke leader Lukashenka pretend that those brave enough to oppose their incompetent mismanagement of the country are plotting. Well, the prisons may well be full on Monday- but I know who the gaolers will be. Pathetic! When these criminals finally are removed from office I hope that they will answer for every lie they have told.

And there I was, thinking I was alone in being excluded from decision making. But it's not just an issue in Lewisham, according to this article from the Guardian about a Rowntree Trust report on: Frontline councillors and decision making It seems that backbench councillors all over the country are pretty disgruntled with their lack of involvement. However, some Councils have tried to be imaginative in their efforts to involve councillors, according to the report. Strangely, the London Borough of Lewisham does not get mention. BTW if you follow the link at the bottom of the Guardian, you can see a free ...

With over a 1,000 visitors a day and a plethora of groups wanting to come and see it, the Senedd building is more popular than ever. It has now got to the point whereby staff cannot fit in any tours much before July and even then there are few spots available. On the other hand talk is that staff working in the building are suffering. Apparently, walking on slate floors all day is not good for the joints. This is a serious issue. Maybe we should consider carpets after all.

Well last night Michael Connarty, the MP for Linlithgow and East Falkirk and therefore my MP as well as my opponent from last May, maintained that the education reform that Ruth Kelly was proposing was a bad idea. He voted against the bill and the government programme to implement it. His first intervention in the debate was to ask David Willetts the Conservative, Shadow Education Secretary when

It's been a hectic week or so at work, but on Tuesday managed to pop into the City centre for the launch of the Birmingham Cycle/Walking map. The weather was awful: as soon as I got out of the house and onto my bike the heavens opened. Unfortunately this put a dampener on the launch as a "commuters breakfast".The map is a great piece of work, its taken a long time to achieve, but well worth it. Its also nice to know that you've had some impact on the map through its drafting, and "road" testing bits of it. You ...

Blogging has been slow, by which I mean non-existent, for the past week because campaigning in Watford is hotting up and has taken all my time. This is the twenty-first consecutive year that I have spent the spring fighting election campaigns in May (well I didn’t do much in the year I sat my finals, but apart from that…) first in Leicester and subsequently in Watford. What this means is that for me April is a missing month. The end of March and the start of May are mysteries too. Personal matters and outside interests are put on hold ...

My parents have just received a letter requesting a donation to fund replacement cricket nets in the village. It begins: 'What a year for cricket 2005 was - England won the ashes and what's more AnyVillage CC were champions of the AnyCounty independent cricket league' I have to admit I laughed. It's something like beginning a letter: 'What a year for peace 200x was - the Arab-Israeli conflict

Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Menzies Campbell has announced the non-Cabinet spokespersons concluding his first Shadow Team. The Deputy Leader and Chief Whip are still to be elected by the MPs. The full list of responsibilities follows below, the first named in each team is also in the Shadow Cabinet:

Is it possible that last night we saw the birth of a new and unholy alliance between the forces of neo-conservatism in Great Britain? Had the Tories not fallen in behind the Labour party, the day would have surely been lost for Blair’s education reforms. The neo-con Blairites and the just plain lily livered old guard, [...]

This saga continues to unfold. Thaksin Shinawatra now seems to be denying suggestions that he was about to step aside. Meanwhile Thailand's election commission chairman has cast doubt on whether the election which was due to take place on the 2nd April can go ahead as the planned boycott by opposition parties may mean not enough MPs would be returned in the election. The article also goes on to confirm the divide between rural and urban areas. As readers of this blog will have deduced I am not a Monarchist by nature but I really hope that ...

Caitlin McClatchey shocked Ozzie swim fans by lifting the first gold in the Aquatic Centre, Melbourne in the Commonwealth Games. Ealrier in the day she broke the Scottish record for the 200m freestyle ebing the first Scottish Women to swim the distance under two minutes and was the fastest qualifier for the final. She was up against Libby Lenton who Australians were looking to win seven golds for

Will Cameron be happy just to ensure that his favourite politician remains Prime Minister, or is he going to go for a full coalition? Does he seem himself as the next Education Minister? I enjoyed this snippet from Simon Hoggart's sketch Ruth Kelly, the education secretary, ... picked out every leftwing element in the bill and flung to those behind her, "this is a progressive bill, a reforming bill", a peroration that would have been even more resonant if a Lib Dem had not shouted out "and a Tory bill!"

Having done a few interviews recently speculating on likely coalitions after the 2007 Assembly elections I was pleased to see a throw-away comment by Lembit Öpik this morning that might well assist in dealing with this enquiries. Commenting on the second reading vote on the Education Bill, in which Tony Blair got his legislation passed only with the help of the Tories, Lembit said he was "disappointed but not surprised by the result. People ask the Liberal Democrats theoretical questions about coalitions but now we have a practical example of a coalition between Labour and the Conservatives. The ...

The big ‘Ides of March’ story was whether Mr Blair could count on his sworn enemies to vote for more education power to be exercised direct from Whitehall – they voted against him, of course, so he had to rely on the Tories – while I wrapped myself up, made some chicken soup and looked for something appropriate to the day to watch muzzily from under a duvet. Carry On Cleo was tempting but obvious, so I looked up some TV anniversaries. I was delighted to find that the splendid Doctor Who story The Caves of Androzani had first been ...

I started off yesterday growling at the Today programme (not shouting, but only through a sore throat meaning I can barely speak). For a change, rather than being irritated by an interviewer or a politician – or even Dim-Witted Platitude For The Day – it was a news story that really wound me up, and one about the BBC at that. In their continuing mission to tell us all how to think, the government has come up with new ‘aims’ for the BBC that go way beyond ‘to inform, educate and entertain’. Now the BBC must promote ‘citizenship’, an ideological ...

Due to an interesting but impractical mix of being unwell and being out and about more than usual, I’ve not been at the computer much. So before catching up – delightful comments to respond to, ideas for posts rattling round my head – and while today’s painkillers are still useful enough to concentrate with, hello. Curiously entertaining moment last week: meeting up with Mum, Dad, Grandad and a priest for a meal out and, following my introduction to said priest, some of Mum’s greatest hits of stories about me as a boy, including ‘Alex learns to read,’ ‘Alex in hospital’ ...

Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki (how come he's a Minister and we have a Secretary in this country?!) has appealed to the British and American people - saying he wants to help them have a freer and more prosperous future. In a speech in Tehran Mr Mottaki said the British and American people "deserved better" than Mr Blair and Mr Bush. Since there's a vast amount of information in

The education bill debates present a very good opportunity to show how landowners are the ones to gain from public infrastructure investment for doing nothing and that taxing land values would be a good way of recouping public infrastructure investment more fairly through a market driven tax system... Picture the scene. You've just moved into your quiet surburban semi ready for your retirement.