LibDem Blogs - Archived!

... Anybody any idea what's going on? It's 9.57 pm, and looks like a dead-heat, except that everyone* thinks Berlusconi has pulled a rabbit out of the hat. I'm scarcely wowed by Prodi, but how anyone can countenance voting Forza Italia is as beyond my comprehension as understanding those who supported Dubya. (* except the punters on the Betfair markets. I laid Romano at 1.6, and backed Silvio

Well a nightmare really. I had travelled forward in time until 2009. There was David Cameron waving on the steps of Downing Street. He had foppish hair and was all dressed in a greyish pinstrip suit and was... holding Bille Piper. In my nightmare it all started to go wrong in 2007. Russell T Davies had won every Bafta going for Series 2 of Dr Who and was bored. He had succesfully renewed the biggest clapped out franchise in the business. Dr Who had once been enormously popular product loved by all. However it had had its hayday and never ...

If there are any voters reading this (and you never know, do you?), they might be wondering why they should vote Liberal Democrat. So, for their benefit, and for any of my readers who might be curious, here are our 'Six to Fix' for the next four years... Keep council tax down - our minority administration has taken Southwark from the seventh highest Band D charge in London to the eighth lowest

You will be pleased to know that the unrest in the little Shropshire town of Cleobury Mortimer, which I reported last year, has come to an end. The Ludlow Journal (it's like the Shropshire Star with the hard news left out) says: After the furore caused by the development at Catherton Road, the council knew Cleobury Mortimer did not just want more housing. Council Leader Heather Kidd told the Journal: "We believe a mix of housing, toilets and a car park is right for the town." If only all protestors could be satisfied so easily solved. Less happy was ...

The excellent Liberal Review is changing. It has merged with the equally excellent Apollo Project (no link because no further posts will be made there) to provide a bigger platform for online Liberal Democrats. One new feature profiles bloggers - and it is me. Pigeon Post will NOT be closing down. But I hope to contribute to Liberal Review too.

No, this has gone beyond a joke- a perfectly nice Conservative twin-setted lady called Joan Howarth has revealed that she is not too keen on the ethnics... It is hard to believe that the Almighty has such a fabulously extreme sense of irony. So you see Mr. Cameron, when you rounded on UKIP as "fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists mostly", we could not help thinking that it was actually the Tory party you were talking about. If Mrs Howarth is in the "wrong party", then you may have a bit of a problem: there just aren't enough Notting Hillbillies for ...

On Thursday had a useful visit with the constituent who unfortunately fell in Step Row - along with an officer from Planning seconded the LibDem motion on the bridge tolls. Delivery of the latest FOCUS newsletter started in earnest & was almost fully delivered by Sunday (still a wee bit to do, but it was a great team effort getting it delivered so fast). Seriously sore legs after walking up

Conventional wisdom has it that British and American politics - perhaps linked to economic cycles - tend to mirror each other. Transfers of ideas and strategies, sharing of problems and visions, have ensured that the two political cultures move in similar directions. Backed up by an international order which places Britain and the US on the same side on most of the major issues, this often seems like an iron law. For the last 25 years, the relationship has been obvious. Reagan and Thatcher reigned over conservative movements animated by similar goals, Clinton blazed a trail which ...

How did I miss this? The Actor Toby Stephens - whom you may knowing from such TV series as Cambridge Spies and Waking the Dead, or as the villain in the awful Bond film Die Another Day - is the son of Maggie Smith and the late Robert Stephens. Stephens, regardless of his other roles, was [...]

The Apollo Project has joined forces with Rob Knight's Liberal Review. Henceforth this site will be kept as an archive. For the new Apollo Project follow the link. Liberal Review offers the best of Liberal opinion, commentary and ideas. We will continue with the best of Apollo, plus the Editor's review and Guest Blogs by various well-known Liberal and liberal contributors. Rob will continue to round up the day's News, and there will be regularly updated Blogger Profiles. We will link to the best of Liberal thought, and also welcome contributions. Liberal Review - what ...

They haven't updated their websites with this story yet, but both BBC News 24 and Sky News are reporting that Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will edge victory in the country's elections. Should this be the result, it will come as a surprise to the majority of pundits, who predicted that Romano Prodi's centre-left coalition would emerge victorious (though I see that it won't have caught Mike Smithson out). I can't help but think that Tony Blair will be watching these events with interest. If Berlusconi snatches victory from the jaws of defeat, it may well embolden Blair in ...

Our text is taken from chapter 3 of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: From a neighbouring shrubbery emerged a nurse, leading by the hand a small boy, who howled as he went. An anxious-looking little girl trotted at her heels. "What's the matter?" asked the Director. The nurse shrugged her shoulders. "Nothing much," she answered. "It's just that this little boy seems rather reluctant to join in the ordinary erotic play. I'd noticed it once or twice before. And now again to-day. He started yelling just now …" "Honestly," put in the anxious-looking little girl, "I ...

As you may have noticed, Liberal Review has changed a little bit. The site has now merged with the Apollo Project blog and will now provide a whole range of new and interesting content and commentary, as well as the (almost!) daily News Digests. Several new sections have been added - these are accessible via the menu on the left.

Two lone parents who live in Yardley are writing a book of advice for lone parents about how to cope both with working and being a lone parent. There are interested in being contacted by any lone parents with their experience of working. The email address they are using is loneparents_sanity@hotmail.co.uk

more time than he expected to break his duck if the exit polls predicting a Prodi win are to be believed. Tags: italian election, etruscan rogering.

It is interesting how the issue about when a caution is appropriate has just hit the public agenda. There are massive numbers of cautions and clearly sometimes a caution is appropriate. The Home Office, however, has done no research as to what the recidivism rates are. This has to be the key issue.

In many ways the defection of former Labour Assembly Member, Alison Halford, to the Conservatives has not really surprised me. Clearly, she prefers a centralised, authoritarian party to one such as the Liberal Democrats, which believes in empowering people. The reasons she gives for jumping from one sinking ship to another are instructive. Alison has spent her career speaking out against cronyism. It stands to reason therefore that the appointment of Peter Mandelson as a European Commissioner might have been the final straw for her, though what else did she expect? She may also have been uncomfortable at ...

I wrote about The Bullwhips back in November. This is a small park tucked away behind Coutts Avenue, Sanger Avenue, Durbin Road and The Causeway. Back then we met with James Ellis, the local police sergeant, and some local residents who were concerned about some anti-social behaviour, and I described in the earlier blog how he was dealing with it. His strategy had proved...

Spotted this going around so thought I'd drop my thoughts in: February 16 Happened 1937 - Wallace H. Carothers receives a patent for nylon. 1959 - Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after President Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1. 1978 - The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago, Illinois). Long live cix. Alive 1950 - Peter Hain, British politician (shudder) 1954 - Iain Banks, Scottish author (coincidentally picked up my copy of Consider Phelbas yesterday to re-read) Dead 1980 - Erich Hückel, German physicist (b. 1895) (I didn't use his methods in ...

I tend to keep an eye on Samizdata, being interested in what our libertarian brethren have to say and because there's often some interesting articles posted. However, Samizdata has one drawback, it seems to have collected many of those swivel-eyed right wing loonies as regular commenters. This tends to lead the debate down the cul-de-sac of anti-islamic ranting (and others but the hate figure of

The Selly Oak Ward Committee (made up of the three local councillors) will hold its next meeting this week: Time: 7pm on Wednesday 12 April 2006. Venue: Selly Oak Centre, 648 Bristol Road, Selly Oak. Items on the agenda include update reports on the work of the Environmental Warden and the burglary reduction work of the Bournbrook Community Safety Partnership. The full agenda can be found

Okay Will and Jonathan, I’ll bite (on the basis that, unlike most memes, this one doesn’t involve me having an opinion about stuff): Three events: 1415 - The army of Henry V of England defeats the French at the Battle of Agincourt. 1944 - Heinrich Himmler orders a crackdown on the Edelweiss Pirates, a loosely organized youth culture [...]

OK, OK I'll do the wikimeme: August 31st Three Events 1980 - The Solidarity trade union is formed in Poland. 1920 - Polish-Bolshevik War: A decisive Polish victory in the Battle of Komarów. 1997 - Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a car crash in Paris. Two Births 12 - Gaius Caligula, Roman Emperor (d. 41) 1945 - Itzhak Perlman, Israeli violinist One Death 651 - Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, Irish bishop and missionary

{Man Utd Ticket} On Sunday David and I went to the Man Utd - Arsenal game.I had to sit in the Man Utd stand, as chances of getting away tickets for the Arsenal seats would be near impossible.I thought I would be able to sit back and not make a sound, but a few near chances in the early stages and I was having to bite my tongue hard.But it didn't last long, some great saves from Jens Lehmann and Kolo Toure in the first half ensured a nil-nil draw at the midway point, but the second half Man ...

The Abolition of Parliament Bill is currently winding its way through the House of Commons. Write to your MP (I already have) and help Save Parliament. More on the Bill: The Times BBC NewsWikipediaClifford Chance briefing note (pdf)

The Blairites hate the Brownites and Milburn might stand (although I doubt it). The Brownites hate the Blairites. The two of them just managed to be polite to each other for their local election launch before civil war broke out again. At least (from their point of view) Brown is out of the country. It is starting to look like a plan to ensure that one or other of them is out of the country at

Beautiful evening service tonight. J.S Bach and the best of the english hymnal. However I was completely thrown by a line that found its way into the dramatic readings from Holy Week. The choir was taking it in turns to act out scenes from the passion narritive. When we got to Jesus's arrest in the garden the temple guards shouted out "Resistence is futile!" Now I'm all for inclusive worship but should we really be quoting the Borg Queen? I'm tempted by next fridays passion in Manchester which is to be televised on bbc 3. However ...