LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Oh, I've sinned - all these weeks avoiding spoilers, and right now we're watching a fantastic three-minute preview montage. If you have Freeview, go to BBC1 right now and press the red button - it's fab (and on constant rotation for the time being...)! Particularly what - avoiding humungous spoilers - Sarah and Rose say. We high-fived. I'm really very excited indeed. Now I have to pretend to forget it all until the episodes come round.

I was going to write something about the "Euston Manifesto", but since Simon has beaten me to the punch, I've decided to write about something similar, but different: the "Backing Blair" campaign. For those who haven't heard of it, "Backing Blair" is a satirical campaign against Blair. I'm sure they're heartily sick of people misunderstanding their name, but I can't let it pass without comment. The first time I saw the name was actually when out delivering Focus leaflets in Liverpool during the 2005 General Election - someone had printed out a "Backing Blair" poster and stuck it ...

The Rutland & Stamford Mercury reports a rare outbreak of common sense from Lincolnshire: Plans to build a third primary school in Bourne have been scrapped because there are no children to fill it.

The Euston Manifesto, a decidedly bland declaration by self-confessed “left-liberals” [explained by Norm Geras and Nick Cohen here], has now been published on behalf of some of the usual suspects. But among the blandishments you will search in vain for references to “civil liberty”, and you might be surprised when you realise that despite explicitly stating that they ... decline to make excuses for, to indulgently "understand", reactionary regimes and movements for which democracy is a hated enemy — regimes that oppress their own peoples and movements that aspire to do so. ... there is no mention of the ...

Forget the Loya Jirga and eradicating the poppy crop, this is the way to bring peace to Afganistan: Allah Dad Noori, the founder of the Afghanistan Cricket Federation, was playing one day in Kabul when a young man walked by carrying an AK47, watched for a while before being invited to join in. Afterwards, he asked if he could play next time. When he returned he was without the rifle. “Where’s your AK47?” asked Noori. “Oh, I don’t need that,” the youth replied. “I’m playing cricket!”

Sorry for being scatological, but doesn't the announcement that ConHome is to host The Inaugural Conservative Movement Awards conjure a party metaphorically (and for all we know, physically) constipated? Note to Cowley Street: under no circumstances should the Liberal Democrats begin to refer to themselves as the "Liberal Movement", for obvious reasons.

I’m making a start to rebuilding this site, but also using the opportunity to have a bit of a spring clean. Not all the old posts are going to make the move - I’m just taking the best and most interesting - but those that do will appear with a date close to their original [...]

Consultants working towards a planning application for the multi million pounds Coatham Links development in Redcar are starting a series of studies to support the application, the outcomes of which will also address concerns raised by residents during consultation. Persimmon Homes has commissioned a variety of different surveys to be carried out in the coming weeks. They include detailed geophysical studies and ecological surveys which address any plant or wildlife on the site and archaeological trenching which checks for any relics. Persimmon's Regional Projects Director, Peter Jordan, said: "We are very excited about the appointment of our specialist team ...

Flt Lt Dr Malcolm Kendall-Smith has been found guilty of disobeying orders after refusing to go to Iraq last June. This raises several questions, though unfortunately none of them are about his guilt – I don’t see how someone in the armed forces refusing to serve there last year could possibly be found innocent, with British troops now operating in Iraq under a clear UN mandate and by invitation of the Iraqi government. They weren’t legal when they invaded, of course, but that wasn’t the issue in this prosecution. But why is he the one we’ve heard about? Were soldiers ...

I’ve been sent another of those questionnaires today, The Political Objectives Test, which scores over ‘Political Compass’ by, well, having fewer questions. It purports to balance your attraction to particular values: Liberty, Equality and Stability. Yes, it’s a political philosophy test, so how could I not be suckered into it? That said, I’m not certain how the results stack up. I’ve been labelled Social-Liberal, which sounds fine, though I raise an eyebrow at being put “in the hazy area that exists between the Liberal and the Socialist” – particularly as my ‘Liberty’ score was far higher than the ‘Equality’ ...

At the risk of sounding sceptical about our honest, forthright Government, I’m waiting to see the details of exactly what the redrafted Bill will say before I cheer that the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill is no longer a danger. It’s reported that the junior minister in charge of this most stealthily authoritarian piece of legislation is climbing down. Well, sounds good, but as the recent Tory-fooling ‘compromise’ over ID cards proved, it’s what the Bill does that matters, not the warm gushy noises. As it stands, this is more dangerous than any other bill in my lifetime ...

Those who criticise the Assembly's Party list system are by and large right. It is a nasty hybrid that fails to advance accountability one iota. Even more damning it fails to do what it was designed for, namely to produce a proportional outcome to an Assembly election. That is because its New Labour architects could not help themselves. They stacked it in their own favour. The problem with those who criticise the Assembly's Party list system is that by-and-large they or their party were responsible for introducing it in the first place. It is Dr. Frankenstein and his monster. They ...

Iain Dale put down some thoughts on his blog as to what the 10 key texts of Conservatism were. I was interested to see that several Conservatives tried to claim Liberal thinkers, such as JS Mill, as Conservative. My own choice for Liberalism would be (in no particular order): JS Mill: On LibertyFA Hayek: The Constitution of LibertyKarl Popper: The Open Society and its EnemiesJohn Locke: Second Treatise on Civil GovernmentVoltaire: Essay on the Manner and Spirit of Nations and on the Principal Occurrences in HistoryRousseau: The Social Contractvon Humboldt: On the limits of State ActionIsaiah Berlin: Two concepts of ...

So it's come to this... I'm at home, not very well, trying to get the housework done, trying to keep an eye out for Doctor Who trailers on BBC1 (ooh, look, a new one yesterday)... And now I've been pulled into the horror that is daytime soap as a result. There's no hope for me. I'm watching Doctors, a soap I've never even seen before, but still getting snuffly at today's gay wedding (though I probably won't take many notes for our own far-distant day). Hurrah! Civil partnership on the Beeb! At least I turned the sound off during Neighbours. ...

The government appears to be climbing down over some of the provisions of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. Well at least they have started to realise that they have a problem with this one. However, as David Heath points out giving the power of veto to a select committee which will itself be packed with government back benchers is not sufficient. There needs to be something with some real teeth to prevent any abuse of this legislation. Even better just drop the whole bill

While doing research for something else I stumbled across this fascinating piece on a Finnish political blogging argument which also introduced me to a new word - ‘olm’.  I understand that 10% of Finnish MPs blog - 20 of the 200 total.  If that were replicated in the UK we would have over 60 blogging [...]

BBC News: A man has been arrested in the loans for lordships investigation: The man was arrested in the London borough Redbridge for an offence under the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925, [Scotland Yeard] said in statement. He is currently in custody in a London police station, it added. The police have said the man [...]

Basic maintenance is not glamorous enough to attract the extra funding it needs to raise standards in our Parks. I'm just out of a meeting with Alex Cosgrave, Director of Environment & Culture to follow up on the Open Spaces Strategy. My main concern was that this strategy did not address basic maintenance issues of well-painted park railings, cracked paving stones and vandalised park benches. ...

Arrest in cash for honours probe Police have arrested a 60-year-old man in connection with their investigation into cash for honours allegations, Scotland Yard said....The police have said the man is not an MP or a peer but would not say if he was a member of political party. This will be interesting...

From the BBC: Police have arrested a 60-year-old man in connection with their investigation into cash for honours allegations, Scotland Yard said. The man was arrested in London borough Redbridg for an offence under the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925, it said in statement. He is currently in custody in a London police station, it added. The police have said the man is not an MP or a peer but would not say if he was a member of political party. So, who is it? Is the blogosphere going to break this news? UPDATE The ...

Thanks to the Web wizardry of Matt McArthur, www.alexcolehamilton.org.uk is now up and running.

MP for Eastwood Jim Murphy has reportedly agreed to revisit the hugely controversial (if boringly titled) Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill in the face of what he referred to as “hysterical opposition”. The Bill was ostensibly designed to reduce red tape on business and the voluntary sector by fast tracking changes to regulations at the [...]

Hilmar Kopper, the President of Deutsche Bank has shrewdly identified a key problem with Europe as follows: "To agree on keeping a status quo that can't be kept has nothing to do with consensus. It's decadence". The scale of our problems in Europe is now enormous. Demographically, Europeans are not even replacing themselves. The steady decline in the economic significance of Europe is becoming a collapse, as India and China emerge as modern economies. As economic power flows elsewhere, the political and cultural influence of Europe ebbs too. Still the leaders of Europe do not admit, even to themselves, ...

Now launched at www.richardhuzzey.org.uk.

with a powerful statement from the Royal Society that creationism has no place in schools. (Or, as The Register put it Science lines creationism up for a chinning). The message was backed up with a lecture to the Royal Sociey by snailologist and top pop science author Professor Steve Jones: the lecture is available as a webcast here. It's worth a watch. Lib Dems have honourable form in this

This is possibly the most offensive thing Ken Livingstone has said in years, yet who wants to bet that the Standards Board afficionados don’t make a complaint about it? “In the same way that Trafalgar Square has had an interesting history, not always a peaceful one, there’s a very clear parallel. “We’ve had some interesting riots in [...]

Almost 3 weeks into the smoking ban in public places and the reports look good for the uptake of this on West Lothian. So far smoking wardens have visieted about 350 premises, mainly licensed premises and cafes, and the vast majority have been adherring to the new law. Only one proprietor has been issued with a warning from the wardens both verbal and in writing for breaching the ban. They are

Via Tim Worstall comes this story: The Government's anti-terrorism laws were said to be in tatters last night after a High Court judge ruled that a key element was an "affront to justice". Control orders were introduced after an attempt to hold suspects without trial at Belmarsh jail collapsed following a challenge under the Human Rights Act. The orders, pushed through Parliament at the last minute a year ago, allow the Home Secretary to place individuals under house arrest, but yesterday, Mr Justice Sullivan said the orders contravened the same act and offered no more than a "thin veneer of ...

One of the great things about the internet is the way you can stumble upon new things just by surfing from one link to another. I recently started off looking at another blog by a fellow Liberal Democ

Following on from my earlier post, the Government are re-considering the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill with a view to inserting more safeguards according to the Guardian. An idea for them might be to look at an amendment put forward at the Committee stage, which proposed adding a list of statutes which couldn't be altered by an Order under the Bill. These amendments were rejected by the

"A high court judge branded the government's system of control orders against terrorism suspects "an affront to justice" yesterday and ruled that they breached human rights laws. The ruling by Mr Justice Sullivan came after a challenge to the first control order issued against a British Muslim man, alleged by the security services and the home secretary to have been planning to travel to Iraq to fight UK and US forces." Will the New Labour Government now brand this judge as 'soft on terrorism'? We wait with bated breath.

They have just opened their first dealership in China on the edge of Beijing. It will be interesting to see how sales go given the price of the bikes. Still I am sure that it is a market that HD will be desperate to crack given its size and long term prospects. Also another country to try and get a Harley Davidson T-shirt from