LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Interesting that David Miliband blogs approvingly about Business Improvement Districts in the US. But he doesn't mention that the first BID in the UK was in Kingston - known as Kingston First. I'm sure he would have been happier if BIDs had been pioneered by a Labour council! Where the local businesses have voted to create a BID they then pay a 1% surcharge on their...

Colin Ross points us towards Vote 2006. This is a discussion forum covering May's local elections - a great source of rumour and unfounded speculation.

Morning trip to Camden to meet LibDem leader Keith Moffit and John Lefley and Chris Naylor for photo ops to shine a light on the proposed development at Camden Tube. We must fight to preserve the old buildings, the Electric and the market. Yes - we need a super-dooper tube and redevelopment - but not to demolish the good along with the bad. Cleaning up Camden doesn't have to mean losing the

Today I chaired the last Board meeting ever of the Local e-Democracy National Project. Last night we had been presented with a trophy by Jim Fitzpatrick MP, the Local Government Minister. Not quite the official photo ... with Jim Fitzpatrick and Isobel Harding, the National Project lead The occasion was a dinner in the stupendous Painted Hall at the...

Just like that bird in Fife, I too have flu.Bloke flu that is.If my words (or typing) are slurred or I start coughing please step away.Thank you.

It's like I say: everyone should read the Shropshire Star. It's not just for the latest on Craven Arms abattoir. It's because you get important news about Lib Dem MPs. Montgomery MP Lembit Opik will be donning his crash helmet and hopping astride a powerful bike on Sunday when he joins 200 other bikers taking to the roads of Mid Wales for a charity event. The MP turned "Hell's Bunny", who is taking part in the annual Easter Egg Run from Newtown to Bronglais Hospital in Aberystwyth, will be joined on his pillion by fellow Lib Dem MP Mark ...

Roll up! Roll up! British identity for sale! Get ‘em while they’re hot! I am selling/leasing my British identity to the highest bidder. Unfortunately, the buyer will only own it for a limited period of time (probably will expire sometime after 2008) as the UK government will be nationalising it at that point and placing all [...]

Doctor Who’s return to our screens approaches rapidly, so I’m taking a quick look at the last year’s stories (showing over the next week at 7pm on BBC3). We don’t really know the current Doctor (David Tennant) yet; he talks a lot – so I like him – his mood changes rapidly, and he dresses in his own strange mix of ‘smart but scruffy’. But the Doctor’s had nine other bodies before him, and last year's (Christopher Eccleston) encountered ‘ghosts’ from the past and aliens from the future, and saw the day the Earth died in a ball of flame. ...

Two early morning leaflet delivery sessions this week. The other day it was great - cold but really bright. Got my patch done really quickly this morning - a great leaflet highlighting one of our main campaigns in Liverpool - and all the progress we've made. I much prefer this to the sort of negative "Lets have a go at an individual" type of stuff that the labour party is doing in at least one of the wards in Garston. I get phone calls now from residents complaining about labour leaflets! It's not that they ...

Yesterday's censure motion against the Culture Minister, Alun Pugh, had its moments but most of the venom was played out in press releases both before and afterwards. It was this that particularly upset Labour AM, Leighton Andrews: I return to one of the issues that has disappointed me. We have not had any words of welcome for the interim chair of the arts council, who is taking on a significant challenge. That is a great credit to him. He is someone of substance in the cultural community in Wales. There have also been some rather snide attacks on ...

Political rivalries heat up in Wrexham with a statement of opinion that would make Lee Trundle blush: OPIN-2006- 0033- Wrexham FC at the Racecourse Ground Raised By: John Marek Wrexham FC at the Racecourse Ground The National Assembly agrees with the Statement of opinion tabled on 15 March (OPIN-2006-0026) in that it supports the future of Wrexham football club at the Racecourse ground. But the Assembly regrets the opinion is put down with the intention of promoting the Labour Candidate for Wrexham, the Labour MP and the Labour party instead of building a consensus to ...

Tim Ireland, he of Bloggerheads and Backing Blair fame (infamy?) is never one to be outdone and today brings us Sheikh Invaders!

I have been contacted by Frances Biggs, Southwark's Acting Returning Officer, with regard to my posting of 2 April. At the time of writing that piece, I was led to understand that nominations would be accepted on delivery, incorrectly, as it turned out. Frances did, very kindly, review the documents to ensure that they would be in order once filed, but was, in accordance with Election

As promised to Guido through the great god of pledgebank, here is a picture of Mazher Mahmood. I'm not clever enough to do anything with it, so I'll just nick Tim Ireland's rather brilliant 'Mr Benn' version from Bloggerheads. Update: As of 4pm: victory. Was almost looking forward to dusting off my law textbooks. Tonight I shall drink to Englande's sweete liberties. But then I was going to do that anyway.

I shall try to keep this table of job cuts in the NHS as uptodate as possible. If you know of anything that is missing or wrong please email me. Hospital TrustFirst ReportedJob lossesLinkNIGEL CRISP, NHS Chief ExecutiveMar-071BBCRoyal Cornwall HospitalMar-08300BBC Peterborough and Stamford HospitalsMar-13185BBCUniversity Hospital of North StaffordshireMar-161000BBCRoyal Shrewsbury Hspital and

As today is both the second anniversary of this blog and the first day of the new tax year, I’ve decided to make more an effort to improve my lifestyle, with the aim of making myself healthier and wealthier. First off, no more Twixes. I’ve got into a bad habit of buying a Twix at Haymarket [...]

My dear old Ma always had concerns about my siblings and I travelling to the far East for exactly the reason that part of North East fife (5 miles from my home village) is on lockdown today. It seems that the only thing that that poor dead swan had going for it was that it happened to wash up [...]

With a new series of Doctor Who beginning on Easter Saturday, and BBC3 tonight beginning a repeat of last year’s stories, it’s a perfect time to start watching. So what do you need to know? The Doctor is a traveller in time and space. He goes anywhere he likes – alien worlds, past, present, future… He respects life rather than authority and obeys no rules but his own sense of fun and a moral sense to fight oppression. He uses his intelligence rather than violence, and he takes friends with him to explore the wonders of the Universe. That’s it. ...

used the appearance of birds as omens before battles, but we're a rational party so the first bird dead of H5 flu being found in Ming's constituency means nothing at all. Just a coincidence. Other parties were not so blessed, of course: Ronald Reagan's reliance on an astrologer to advise on policy was well known, Margaret Thatcher took electric baths (although not filled with baboon's blood, as

Undeterred by threats from the NOTW, Guido has turned this into a free speech crusade complete with a PledgeBank pledge. Since freedom has always been our cause - wouldn’t it be nice to see one or two Lib Dems supporting this? What will the Murdoch press due - sue 100 bloggers (or more). For a press [...]

I have noticed a new website www.vote-2006.co.uk that allows people to feed in their views about the local elections in May. There was one for the last General Election, which proved to be very interesting, from a quick glance this one looks like it could be good too. You may be able to pick up some intelligence of what is going on in your area or patches of your area that you do not normally campaign in. I would suggest you be carefully about posting anything you don't want anyone else knowing or is not already in the public domain. ...

The latest set of Assembly Parliamentary Statistics reports that in the last year 3.4 million words have been recorded as being spoken in Assembly Plenary and Committees. No wonder it is so warm in the Senedd.

Having been variously away, busy and unwell, I've got rather behind in my blogging (barring last minute incitements to watch the telly), but I've kept up with odd snippets on which others have blogged faster and better: Most disturbing Most surprising Sadly only the most recent story of British freedom and justice Most uplifting news Most eye-watering example of Lib Dem self-immolation And not forgetting... Best recipe Best expensive CGI effects The blog that didn't bark: unaccountably, I've yet to see an enthusiastic welcome for the new Lib Dem Deputy Leader on Reflecting Britain ;-) ...

A couple of days ago it looked as if the problems were over and peace was starting to break out. The Prime Minister had agreed to stand down and the opposition parties had agreed to stop the protests. The Prime Minister has temporarily handed over to the Deputy Prime Minister but he in turn will not be able to become Prime Minister as he is not a member of parliament. Thaksin Shinawatra also

…but the only person in the land they think is entitled to it is one of their scummy provocateurs. Not that they’re in any way hypocritical. They’ve taken out an injunction – a ‘Mary Bell’ Order, no less, unprecedented outside of murder cases – against George Galloway, who spotted that their ‘Fake Sheikh’ attempted to entrap him, to prevent him from publishing photos of the man. I know, I know, the News of the Screws vs George Galloway; given the question, surely most people would answer “Can’t I just pretend I didn’t see either of them in the burning building?” ...

Said not by a member of UKIP, but by a Tory MP!! Goes to show that behind Cameron's "digital" mask, we still have the same intolerant and out-of-touch Conservatives.

At least according to this article on BBC news online Offshore wind energy is unlikely to reach its full potential unless there is additional support from the government. Well what a surprise. The study says the fledgling industry is at a "critical stage" and economic and environmental opportunities could be lost without further assistance. According to the article the study warns that "only

Just to let you know that I’m going to be changing hosting companies in the next couple of weeks, and I’ll be using that as an excuse for a bit of spring cleaning round here, so there may be times when the blog and/or the site appear to have gone, but I will return. Yes, [...]

Reuters: Man held as terrorism suspect over punk song: The taxi driver had become worried on the way to the airport because Mann had been singing along to The Clash’s 1979 anthem “London Calling,” which features the lyrics “Now war is declared — and battle come down” while other lines warn of a “meltdown expected.” In other [...]

This being this blog’s second anniversary, it’s time for some gratuitous navel-gazing with a points update system. Here be the blogstats - last year’s figures in brackets. 2 (2): number of servers this site has been hosted on 2 (2): number of blogging applications used 588 (226): number of posts 774 (444): number of comments 1.32 (1.96): average number of [...]

What a fortnight: two of the missing links, the gaps in the fossil record so beloved of creationists have been firmly filled. Last week brought fossil joy enough, a hominid skull discovered in Ethiopia that neatly bridges non-human to human. Tonight it emerges that creationists should take another 'wanted' poster down: the missing link between fish and land dwelling reptile has been filled with the discovery in Canada of the full fossil skeleton of a fish with rudimentary legs replacing its pectoral fins. Welcome Tiktaalik roseae, which dragged itself out of the sea and around ...

Yet again, TV Go Home got it right. One of the programmes in there - I believe it was called Vague Recollection Moviehouse, and it would seem wrong, given the context, to go and look it up - is a TV company remaking a film (in this case, Cliffhanger) based on a script written by [...]