LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Just back from watching Jethro Tull perform in Oxford having been dragged along by my wife who is a great fan of them. I had never listened to much of their stuff and found them to be an interesting mix of classical, folk and rock. My wife was a little disappointed with the singing but the real star of the show for me was the classical violinist Lucia Micarelli who was on stage with Jethro Tull

This means I have just 12 months to get done what I can still legitimately ascribe to the irresponsibilities of youth. I googled "things to do before you're 30", and it hasn't been helpful: I've only done two from the list I found, and most of them sound too stag-weekend-kerrazy to be any real fun. It's a worry that my current personal c.v. is just too dull for me ever to be able to mount a

In today's (Dublin) Sunday Independent, Eoghan Harris comments on his move away from socialism (he was a member of Ireland's Workers' Party) following the disintegration of the soviet bloc in 1989: I identified three ideological lines on the left to which I could no longer subscribe: the patronising notion of alienation (which assumes that working people do not know what they want); taking up fixed anti-American positions on foreign affairs (which always finish by favouring the local Provos whether they be Hamas or the Iraqi insurgents) and the notion that crime can be completely blamed on a bad environment. ...

Nice to see a Yorkshireman skittling the opposition. Matthew Hoggard now only bowls good medium fast seamers, he also speaks truth unto power. The morning after England's Ashes win the team went to 10 Downing Street for the inevitable bandwagon-jumping Prime Ministerial reception. As the team was ushered back into Downing Street by the PM, Tony was shocked to see a phalanx of

Went to see V for Vendetta last night, which was good fun. I almost didn’t go, after reading a slagging of it by Peter Bradshaw in theguardian. Then I remembered that Bradshaw also gave Revenge of the Sith a preposterous one star and decided to ignore him - and I’m glad I did. Some of V’s [...]

Sunday 19th March 2006 - New Lib Dem Leader Sir Menzies Campbell MP was at our Regional Spring Conference in Rawtenstall yesterday and gave a rousing speech to delegates as we prepare for the coming local elections in May. Ming took time out to launch our "Police not Plastic" campaign and Sarah and I joined him for a photo opportunity to promote the issue in the coming campaign.

The "cash for Honours" story continues this weekend. Oddly, some of the revelations are that people didn't know anything. For us ordinary mortals, the revelation is that it was a revelation to them that the Labour party was given substantial loans. What exactly is going on? Well, in true Labour scandal, it is hard to know. The classic news management skills of obscuring the issue and putting

On Monday the Guardian had a 'Whitehall source' story - Alistair Darling's latest idea for the M6 - widening the M6 but tolling the extra lane, so he can get it built for free. On Wednesday, after the CPRE executive meeting, I visited GAME's organiser John Gale and helped set up GAME's new computer. This has come free from MOST an organisation that proves there is such a thing as a free lunch! They give computers to community organisations together with computer training. They use free Linux software, which I'd heard of but never used before; it is much better ...

The next time that Labour politicians accuse the Liberal Democrats of being a high-tax party and highlight the prudence of the Chancellor of the Excehequer, then throw these figures from an Ernst and Young study back in their faces: An analysis by the accountants Ernst & Young, based on the Treasury’s own figures, shows the chancellor will match the record high for the tax burden this year and rise above it next year. That means it will be higher than in the 1970s under Denis Healey, when the top rate of income tax was 83%, and the early ...

The three or four days we spend in the Assembly each week are always very intense, involving back-to-back meetings and catching up on the correspondence. As a result we often miss some of the more trivial stories and gossip doing the rounds. It is just as well therefore that we have the Matt Withers column in the Wales on Sunday to fill in the gaps, and this week he has excelled himself. Mr. Withers reports: there have been 16 thefts reported on the premises of the National Assembly in the past two years amounting to £14,974 worth of cash ...

I see that Chris Ward is stressing that he is not the Chris Ward who is a Gay Porn Director . I do understand . Top search in Google for my name gives Sexy leather bikinis designed and modelled by Chris Black. - and it isn't anything to do with me...

Today Presidential Elections take place in Belarus, I can say with some degree of certainty that they will not be fair or free. Belarus is the last dictatorship in Europe. Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko is the President of the Republic of Belarus, Head of State, the guarantor of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, the rights and liberties of man and citizen and I expect today's elections will do nothing to change this.