LibDem Blogs - Archived!

A few days ago I posted my election blogging principles. Sadly, some offensive comments have been posted anonymously since then, so I have decided to stop all comments during the election period. On the one hand I am embarrassed that anyone should use my online space to abuse others. I can take a certain amount of flak myself - though it can be quite distressing - but under no...

DAVE DISSES DEVELOPMENT OPPONENTS U-Turn Dave Cameron recently SLAMMED opponents of new housing developments on greenfield sites. He called them BANANAS for standing in the way of the developers. Last year, the Tory Toff was happy to support those who wanted to curb the greedy developers. Now, the flip-flop king wants the bulldozers to SMASH down the fences, RIP up the forests and SMOTHER the country in concrete. So much for Green Dave!

A throwaway line from an editorial in this morning's Guardian: Some of this may come in a successor volume to the influential Orange Book, due out later this year.Your read it here first. (Unless you read the Guardian, obviously.)

Stephen spells out "new localism" said the BBC website, reporting last weekend's Scottish Lib Dem Spring Conference. And the report began: Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Nicol Stephen has outlined plans to devolve control of health and education away from Scottish Executive ministers.Addressing delegates at his party's spring conference in Aviemore, Mr Stephen said "new localism" would help the

I have found a short article by Alan McKee discussing the appeal of the BBC adaptations of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple books. These are the ones starring Joan Hickson, which I have discussed here before. He suggests three reasons why this series was so appealing. I have no quarrel with the second and third of them, which are the quality of Joan Hickson's performance and the way the programmes

A couple of characteristic headlines from my favourite newspaper: Rain holds off during half-marathonAbattoir set to move in £10m planMind you, if you have been to Craven Arms you will know that moving the abattoir threatens to tear the heart out of the place.

An emergency meeting of Consultants has been called together for Thursday Evening to respond to demands from the Treasury for reductions in Costs in the proposed new Hospital on the QE Site. An email was sent by management to 400 Consultants and Professors, on Monday morning, calling them together for a crunch meeting on Thursday Night to look at cost cutting. The bean counters from the Treasury

Between 1992 and 2005/6 the Council Tax has been driven up by the government by a total of 71.8996%. It has been government policy (both Labour and Conservative) to have an increase in the amount of revenue raised locally. This policy, like many others, has simply been maintained. I raised this in the chamber today, but it was denied.

News is beginning to filter out of the defection of Lib Dem councillor for Kirkliston, John Longstaff to the Labour party. His is an example of the deffections all parties can expect as a result of the problems faced by council candidates standing in an area that had been solidly controlled by their party. In the persuit of proportionality, STV will rightly decimate disproportionate [...]

It wasn’t just because yesterday was mother’s day, I keep on coming across articles on where to be once a child is born. Article after article, the same thing happens: nobody acknowledges the fact that it takes two to have a baby, or have I missed some new technological advancement? Amy Raphael on the FT joined the club and forgot that important piece of information. Although she does not advocate

Well, 4th May is fast approaching, and my nomination should be going forward tomorrow (just need to sign the DNO form).So, as with many other blogs I will be signing off for a few weeks while my life is overtaken with the re-election campaign.Good luck to everyone else who is standing, or working for a campaign. See you on the other side.

Writer-director Eli Roth’s second film, Hostel, is an improvement on his enjoyable but relatively unremarkable debut Cabin Fever. Hostel seems closer in content and style to British horror films of the 1970s than the usual American slasher fare - and, occasionally, a voyeurism that it also shares with 70s horror - but with a slickness [...]

A weekend away in Aviemore. The conference of the Scottish Liberal Democrats was extremely cheerful. Rather splendidly, during the speech of Nicol Stephen, the party leader in Scotland, the TV transmission is interrupted for a few seconds: exactly as he mentioned George W. Bush, the picture disappeared- to be replaced by a second or two of a cowboy film, before returning to Nicol's speech. Clearly a technician with a sense of humour... Overall, the atmosphere is very positive, and I am able to catch up with a large number of friends- including University colleagues who I have not seen for ...

The Wales Labour Party really are depending on Gordon Brown succeeding as Prime Minister in good time for next May's elections. Why else would they tie their political fortunes in so completely with the UK Labour Party by effectively dismantling their separate Welsh operation? The risk behind this strategy of course is if Tony Blair hangs on. Labour will then find themselves pitching for votes to the Welsh electorate on the coat-tails of a discredited and mistrusted Prime Minister whose main appeal remains to middle England. You don't always get what you wish for Rhodri.

This article in the Western Mail is very charitable in respect of the in-fighting and manoeuvring going on within the Welsh Tory Party. It is really quite astonishing that candidates in an internal party selection are not allowed to attend party functions or to canvass support. Nevertheless, a senior official in the Montgomeryshire Conservative Association felt it necessary to write to all his members and ask that they support a particular candidate. Rumours are rife in the Assembly of plots and shenanigans to depose Tory Assembly Member, Glyn Davies, in favour of his fellow Mid and ...

In today's Guardian, A.L. Kennedy puts the case for a smoking ban in very stark terms: I've always had a great affection for smokers - they're so faithful. Tobacco companies have lied to them for decades, spiked products to make them more addictive, manipulated research, danced around compensation suits until plaintiffs have died of smoking-related illnesses, even insulted tobacco users in confidential mailings - and still they keep on buying. Smokers apparently don't care how environmentally damaging Big Tobacco's production methods are, or how many dodgy political connections they have - smokers are very loving and forgiving people. So ...

Emails are abundant this time of the year with elections coming up in May. One I received gives serious food for thought to save money. It says Just a reminder that stamps are going up by 2p on 3rd April. Don't forget - if you need stamps for your local party or for the local elections, buy them asap! With all the election campaign mail to be posted - thinking about it - with an increase of 2p on a first class stamp, 5000 letter x 2p = £100. That's a lot of ...

The rows about loans and donations for peerages may have a Wolverhampton connection, or two! My Conservative opponent Sandip Verma at the General Election was amongst the Conservative nominees for a Peerage as was Robert Edmiston. The Times have broken a story about Edmiston, which follows below - it is essentially about his donations via the Midlands Industrial Council. The Midlands Industrial Council donated £20,000 to Wolverhampton Conservatives according the the Electoral Commission £15,000 to Wolverhampton South West in November 2004 and £5,000 to Wolverhampton North East in March 2005 (no donations are yet published for after May 2005). None ...

The Yorkshire Ridings Society ( at a meeting of the North Riding Group on Friday) have made new additions to the Yorkshire Day and Yorkshire Festival programmes for 2006. Saturday 29th July 2006 2.30pm - North Riding Duck Race - Saltburn Beck3.15pm - Flat Cap Fling - Saltburn Valley Gardens - New addition Tuesday 1st August 2006 (Yorkshire Day) Readings of the Yorkshire Declaration of Integrity 10.30am - Eston - Square11.31am - Redcar - Town Clock12 noon - Marske - The Wynd1.15pm - Loftus - Town Centre2.15pm - Lingdale - Tavern - New Addition3pm - Saltburn - Pier Entrance4pm - ...

In the conclusion of Just Capital, Adair Turner argues against "stakeholderism". "... as a guide to practical policy it is best a cul-de-sac, at worst dangerous. It sounds attractive to ask corporations to think through the wider social 'balance of gains and losses' but in practise it is an almost totally inoperable principle. Corporations can just about imperfectly identify the complex set of

Thai opposition parties have rejected the prime minister's offer to include them in a new government if he is re-elected in the elections on 2nd April. The unrest continues and I fear for were this all going to lead. We are in the process of researching flights and prices for a trip to Thailand early next year but I am beginning to wonder whether or not we should delay. I am sure we won't because we know what a lovely country it is and how lovely the people are. However, the Foreign Office advice now includes the following section : ...

BBC: Blair admits resignation mistake: UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has acknowledged it may have been a “mistake” to announce he would not be serving a fourth term in office. “People kept asking me the question so I decided to answer it. Maybe that was a mistake,” he told Australian radio after attending the Commonwealth Games. Later [...]

Well, off for another blogging-less week's research in London today. However, I will explain the change in imprint at the top of my blog, which must look a bit odd. I'm standing as the Lib Dem candidate for Holywell ward, which covers the Eastern portion of the city centre of Oxford. Therefore, I've covered myself with an electoral imprint... That will probably mean I'm not going to have a chance to blog here very much throughout the coming campaign, but I'll try to manage something occasionally.

At the Lib Dem spring conference this weekend in the highland town of Aviemore, we passed a motion that will in time come to represent the Rubicon of any future coalition with Labour. By accepting policy that unequivocally rejects a new generation of Nuclear power stations in Scotland, we have drawn a clear line in the [...]

This article in the Sunday Times (see link) caught my eye. It talks about government ministers but the implication is that MP's are quite easily able to overstate their true housing expenses by about £10,000 per year. I hope that this practice is not widespread but if it were to be then the taxpayer is down to the tune of approximately £6.5m a year

I recently wrote a letter to the Surrey Advertiser in response to their comments that top up fees had not deterred students from applying to the University of Surrey. In reality, what they failed to mention is that applications to UniS were already one of the lowest in the country due to high living costs, in particular with rent prices. I continue to promote an education based on academic merit rather than an education based on financial capability. Taking the facts into account, it appears that my Conservative opponents in Guildford have firstly not done their research before ...

Today marks the second anniversary of the political geeks' website par excellence, Political Betting. You can read my 'Monday Guest Slot' article by clicking here (or just scrolling down)... Dealing with the new politics It’s 80 days since Charles Kennedy quit as Liberal Democrat leader, plunging the party into its January mensis horribilis. Opinion poll ratings dipped as low as 13%, the Daily

You’ve caught me in a bit of a comics mood at the moment. Just finished reading volume two of the collected Seven Soldiers of Victory by Grant Morrison and a bunch of artists. This series launched during the General Election so I didn’t even try to keep up to speed with it. From what [...]