LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Okay, here goes. As BondBloke intimates, this mob tactic is a pretty standard game of the English Nationalists. I suspected that saying the “wrong” thing about the English would get me on a list somewhere and, lo and behold, that is precisely what has happened. Whatever, I’m going to try to answer as much [...]

The latest structure which is being tried for the Weavers Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) is to have its priorities set and reviewed by a new body which is a sub-group of the Local Area Partnership Steering Group. (Previous structures outlined here). What does that mean in Plain English? It means that if you are interested in what the neighbourhood police are doing, you can go to a...

Apollo launches its very own Tabloid.

As expected, Oleksander Lukashenka stole the election in Belarus. As expected, his friend Vladimir Putin congratulated him. Meanwhile Independent observers condemned the whole fraudulent process and protests continue in Miensk. Lukashenka is a parody bad guy- the question now is how far he can be pushed. The EU condemns him, as does the US. Isolating him, however drives him into the hands of Putin- who does not give a cuss for Belarusian freedom- indeed, if he thinks of it at all, he probably opposes it. So- will the West challenge Putin? I am holding my breath, but I have a ...

The answers to my Star Wars/Doctor Who puzzler then. Nick correctly identified Leslie Schofield (Caleb in The Face of Evil and Leroy in The War Games), Don Henderson (Gavrok in Delta and the Bannermen), Dave Prowse (the Minotaur in The Time Monster) in the Vader costume, and Peter Cushing, who played Dr. Who in the two [...]

Just heard from Geoffrey Thurley of the Ladywell Society that there was a fire at the rear of the Playtower on Sunday late afternoon. The roof of the small swimming pool has been damaged, and scaffold has been erected possibly to prevent a collapse of the side wall of the main building. According to Mr Thurley's e-mail, no Council Officers on site to assist the Fire Investigation Branch. "It'll save the Council a lot of trouble if the place does burn down" was the comment from one person there. Geoffrey Thurley asked what ...

The 181 bus service is appalling, which is why I was pleased when TfL finally introduced on Saturday the extension of the 225 bus service from Lewisham town centre to Hither Green station (Springbank Road entrance). I was keen to try the bus routes out on Saturday and Sunday to see what difference it made. On Saurday morning found myself waiting with a crowd of people for a bus into town to do my surgery in Lewisham library. Waited quite a long time before a crowded 181 bus showed up. So not much change there, and ...

Reader's voice: why don't you have stories from Shropshire any more? The Shropshire Star reports: A Shropshire man today said he was lucky to be alive after his sports car skidded off an icy road and came within six inches of plummeting off a 1,400-foot cliff on the Long Mynd.Charlie Daker was forced to spend a terrifying 20 minutes teetering on the edge of the sheer drop after his Nissan 350Z

What should we be expecting from Gordon Brown's tenth budget? Much of what the Chancellor intends to do has been trailed in his pre-budget report in December 2005. Most people aren't expecting many surprises. Brown can't risk destabilising the economy or seeing massive disinvestment in public services. If he puts up taxes David Cameron will be on his back faster than you can say tax and

Planning committees don't often get spontaneous applause for their decisions. But that's what happened when we turned down yet another application from the Big Yellow Property Company last Thursday to build their Big Yellow storage units on the corner of Baring Road and St Mildred's Road. Planning officers' advice was that this latest application was totally out of character for the area, and the flats the company was also proposing for the site were not of sufficient quality. After the ward councillors had made their speeches, it didn't take us long to dispose of the application, so ...

So farewell then to Humphrey. It is a pity he did not live long enough to see the Blairs leave Downing Street. But it is starting to look as though they may not survive him for long. And I was always one of the school that believed that Blair would stay in power as long as possible and do down Gordon Brown once more if he possibly could. The best memorial to him is by Oliver King on the Guardian

Posted by Chris. I spent this morning standing in the cold streets of South Bank dealing with the huge media interest in the latest proposals for tackling the housing market collapse in South Bank that incorporates residents' views and concerns. Tyne Tees TV, turned up late and missed the briefing. Their coverage, as usual, focussed only on the negative. They clearly did not bother to inform their viewers about the plan to provide new housing, a health village, a new shopping centre, new schools and a new police station, they simply found an elderly resident and gave the impression she ...

The Coalition running Redcar and Cleveland Council is celebrating Beacon Council status in recognition of its waste and recycling management services. The Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and Local Government Minister Phil Woolas congratulated the Council for delivering quality public services at the seventh annual Beacon Scheme awards ceremony in London. The Council, one of only four across the North East to receive recognition of their work from 239 applications nationwide, will get a share of a £3million kitty to actively promote good practice, working with the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) on learning events and open days. The Council's ...

We had a rock band staying with us over the weekend. Our son's band, The Vapour Trails, is based in Bristol, but they had a gig at the Barfly, Camden. So Sunday saw us all listening to the new lineup and enjoying Duncan's songs. Ian and I were not fazed by being 30 years older than anyone else in the place. Well, not much... ...

Don't watch this if you are into Scientology.

Blue Man Group I went to see the Blue Man Group in London yesterday with some friends. This is a stunning show and I would recommend to anyone if they get the chance. Using complex home made instruments, they create a rhythmic backdrop for their unique blend of performance art, mime and comedy. Each piece of performance exploring relevant themes of humanity in the 21st Century with the audience participating on a range of levels. Well worth going to see, expect something really different.

For the past few days, my blog has been inundated by comments to my two recent posts on the English Question coming from English Nationalists, presumably because of a reference on the Cross of St George forum and Campaign for an English Parliament blog. It’s all got a little bit out of hand, and I must [...]

David Cameron is saying that cutting the number of MPs is the salvation of the secret loans and patronage for donations we currently face. This from a party that spent loads of money senting CD Roms to every household in some constituencies that realisitically they never had any chance of winning in May 2005, and in some of these direct mailing almost every conrrespondence they made as they did

Before this Commonwealth Games the most golds that Scotland managed to win in the pool was 2 and the last time that was acheived was in 1974 when David Wilkie won both the Golds in question (200m breaststroke and 200m individual medley) When Gregor Tait won one of the titles Wilkie won 32 years previously the, 200m individual medley, to add to his 200m backstroke title, he was just one of three

The demonstration at the Belarussian Embassy yesterday went well. More LDYS people than I’d imagined turned up, as did loads of Belarussians (as you’d imagine), Poles and Ukrainians. Sarah Ludford accepted our invitation and gave an excellent speech to the assembled, she’s one of those really useful people who seems to genuinely know their stuff and care about it; she was very happy mingling with the protestors. Some light relief was provided by the appearance of spooks on the roof. A little friendly waving in their direction eventually drawing a response. Mid-way through a Belarussian announced ...

This is a copy of the article which appeared in Liberator http://www.liberator.org.uk/default.asp describing the transformation of Greenham Common from a military airbase back into a common Swords into Ploughshares In 1992 the Ministry of Defence declared Greenham Common Airbase surplus to military requirements. Tony Ferguson describes how the local Liberal Democrats have involved the

So what has happened to the Welsh Culture Minister? Has he gone off to sulk after losing a vote in the Assembly on how the top six Welsh Arts organisations should be funded? Has he decided that the best response to this vote is glorious inactivity? Today's news that the Assembly Government has failed to advertise for a new Chair of the Arts Council of Wales - even though Geraint Talfan Davies leaves the post at the end of next week - is very disturbing. I believe that the Government actually wanted to abolish the Arts Council as ...

This morning's Western Mail has an anonymous piece detailing how Lloyd George's foreign policy has shaped the major events in world politics for nearly a century. The piece starts off: DAVID LLOYD GEORGE, the Welsh Prime Minister who won the general election nearly 100 years ago, is still shaping major events in world politics from beyond the grave, it is claimed. The 1906 General Election was of course, won by the Liberal, Henry Campbell-Bannerman. David Lloyd George did not become Prime Minister until 1916 and did not win an election to that post until 1918. That ...

Humphrey the Downing Street cat has died at his retirement home. Famous for upsetting Cherie Blair, who threw him out of his home and place of work, he also proved to be the most efficient pest controller ever to have called No. 10 his home. The Times sums his career up perfectly: During his Downing Street years, Humphrey also played a crucial role in ridding Whitehall of unwanted guests. In a 120-page file released by the Cabinet Office last July, one official wrote: “He has caught numerous mice and the odd rat. By a perhaps unfair comparison, Rentokil have ...

So you can buy a seat in the UK government’s second chamber, provided you are prepared to secretly loan the party in power a secret bung (in the order of a few mil), which they can then spend with impunity and without any need to account for it – but this is nothing new. Patronage for [...]

It's a cliche for LibDems, but pavement politics still matter! One of the challenges of being a District Councillor is that many of the things that people care about are handled by other tiers of local government. This weekend I had a very interesting chat with a gentleman from Oliver's Battery who had concerns about pavements (see above!), the Badger Farm Road junction and the Children's Play