LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Here's a quickie: does anyone know why the hell BBC2's Newsnight continue to retain the American pollster, Frank Luntz? He was at it again tonight, apparently "looking at how the British party leaders are doing on other issues". Or as I might less tendentiously phrase it, peddling his meretricious circus-act of orchestrated group-think. It was his usual schtick... Play a few (carefully

Welcome, Rajash rionegrina. A Cretaceous period snake with legs: an intermediate form heading from four leggerdom to no leggerdom. What a month for evolution: we've had Tiktaalik, a 285 million year old fossil fish heading for land on its newly grown four stumpy legs, now we have a legged critter electing to lose its legs because it conferred some competitive advantage (not because it allowed

Last 20 Google referrers:  12 Apr, Wed, 22:49:08    Google:  declan donnelly girlfriend    12 Apr, Wed, 23:03:27 Google:  he said    13 Apr, Thu, 01:09:47 Google:  liberal easter...

Monday's Council committees could have taken ages (there's been none since 27th March due to Council recess so a bit of a backlog) but it was all handled in a very business-like way, so about 15 committees (including City Council) did not take an age. My Finance Committee has nothing of great controversy - main item a useful update of the Council's policy in dealing with housing benefit

"I am very evidently opposed to the multiplication of types of schools for the very simple reason if you get a multiplication of types you get a variation of preferences."Don't let anyone tell you that Labour lost in 1992 just because of the Tories "Tax Bombshell" poster campaign. Another important reason was that millions of people could not face the prospect of listening to that sort of verbiage for another five years. What Kinnock seems to be telling the BBC is another version of John Prescott's argument that "if you set up a school and it becomes a good school, ...

I saw the first part of The Lost World of Friese-Greene last night, and it was every bit as good as I had hoped. They even used George Butterworth's A Shropshire Lad as backing music. If you have broadband you can download the programmes from the BBC website. There are a couple of points to add to what I wrote about the Friese-Greene family earlier this week. First, the Goon Show joke about "deep Friese-Greene" which Tim Worstall remembered comes from "Tales of Old Dartmoor". That episode begins like this: Greenslade: This is the BBC light programme. And ...

Spent another five hours today delivering leaflets for the Liberal Democrats, this time in Lossiemouth. It seems to me that this will be a close fought contest with both the SNP and Conservatives figh

At least I think that is the word I want. The Harborough Mail reports: Restaurant chain Ask and fashion store Jaeger want to move into what used to be the front of the Trades and Labour Club in High StreetWhen I were a lad Market Harborough did not even merit a branch of W. H. Smith's.

Edward Lucas writes for The Economist. He also makes his columns available on his blog. His recent piece on a speech given by Mart Laar, former President of Estonia, contained a few gems. Estonia is one of Europe's few economic success stories and Laar is widely regarded as one of the key architects of that success. Ignoring much international advice, he pressed ahead with measures giving Estonians unprecedented economic freedom, whilst balancing the state budget. His flat tax measures - now widely imitated - cut rates of tax avoidance and increased tax revenue dramatically. Whilst those ...

I had intended to comment on this yesterday, but ran out of time to do so. Jonathan Calder (author of the Liberal England blog) had an excellent piece on the Guardian website yesterday. In it, he called for the Liberal Democrats to be more liberal on education. In particular, he suggested that the party should rethink its opposition to choice in schooling, arguing that choice is a fundamentally liberal concept. I wholehearedly agree. I've long been quite confused about the opposition to choice in schooling. Whilst the notion of ensuring that every school is a good ...

I observe the political fray from the lofty heights of non-partisan detachment these days.  So my comments about campaigns are observations about technical skill, production values etc. And I have to say, round one to the Labour party in this year’s election battle. The Conservatives’ Vote Blue, Go Green is a brand stretch too far.  And [...]

and gives the English language a pasting on the way out: Scott McLellan, putty-faced White House Spokesman has gone as predicted after his dismal performances trying to defend President Bush's leaking of classified information, wars and general unpopularity. Quoth McLellan as his sword entered his vitals: "I have given it my all sir and I have given you my all sir, I will continue to do so as

I’ve been having fun today with the new suite of House of Lords related functions launched by those programming elves behind Public Whip, TheyWorkForYou and WriteToThem. Child that I am, I couldn’t resist looking up to see which Lord has used the most “f” words. It turns out that just one Lord has used this [...]

I posted the preamble of the Liberal Democrats constitution on politicalbetting.com. As I read through it, it struck me as rather a woolly document, especially when compared with the old Liberal Party constitution (and my own recollection of it). It occurred to me that it could do with a rewrite, so here is my thoughts on what we should say about our key principles: The Liberal Democrats exist to build an open society in which every citizen shall possess liberty, property and security, and none shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity. Its first principle is freedom. It seeks ...

out with the team in Lee Green Originally uploaded by mainesformayor. It is sometimes difficult to get out on to the doorstep. But we enjoy canvassing when we do - people seem pleased we’ve made the effort.

Looks like my fellow Scottish Blogger Alex Cole Hamilton is causing a stir in the Blogsphere. Today alone there are 12 comments posted here out of 14 in total. However, maybe the Northern Scot is a little miffed that the Scotsman are trying to steal a little of their thunder. Mind you if Alex is good enough to face Gordon Brown at hustings and the ballot box I'm know he's capable of handling the

Only some of the money that councils have to spend comes from Council Tax. The rest is doled out by Central Government. Central Government (the Offfice of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM)) have a set of formulas which they use to determine how much cash each council gets. Part of these forumla is an assumption about how much money will be raised in council tax by the council: The more money a

This is a short post to state that I have copyrighted the idea of portraying the Conservative party as a leopard who can’t change his spots. This is in anticipation of a future Dave the Chameleon ad in which Dave attempts to get the Tory leopard to do exactly that. Use it Tone, [...]

If we imagine a society gradually sleepwalking its way into becoming a police/surveillance state (just for the sake of argument you understand), we might conceive of that state giving itself the power to imprison people without trial or to lower the burden of proof in the law courts to allow it to incarcerate enemies of the people. We might also imagine that supranational legal authorities (similar to the ECJ or the ECHR, for examples of similar) as well as tedious "Appeals Procedures" from within the domestic legal system might, on occasion, force the nascent police state to release those ...

By-elections are funny creatures and Moray is certainly no different. We have lurched in the space of a few hours, from the Tory’s ‘Lettergate’ (which is now being investigated by the local constabulary) to allegations by Nationalist local news paper “Northern Scot” accusing the Lib Dems of behaving like ‘snake oil salesmen’ (a problem that [...]

I'm perplexed by the weeping Tories whinging on about the Cameron Chameleon advert last night being "negative". Conservative bloggers and columnists alike seem to be almost shaking with anger. It showed Dave as a cartoon chameleon, and highlighted his bafflingly inconsistent rhetoric, which is a reasonable point. Do they not remember that when it was them trying to cling on power, that they portrayed Blair as close as they could to Lucifer, Lord of all that is evil in the Universe? Labour ads back then were, of course, all balloons and sunrises. At least the chameleon ad was faintly ...

Postal voting papers are being sent out today from Kingston Council. If you have applied for one and it doesn't arrive in the next couple of days contact Electoral Services. It's too late now to apply for a postal vote, if you haven't done so already. It's surprising how many people only vote for one person in the local elections. In fact, you have three votes. ...

The Guardian reports today on young women being attracted to the Conservative party: Ms Bagshawe joined New Labour in 1996 believing that Tony Blair would be "socially liberal but an economic Tory [ie economically liberal]. "Since Cameron came on board it's a whole different order and extremely exciting. You feel we have got a chance to get back into government. But also, he articulates my philosophy exactly; you have to be in it for social justice," she said. On the face of it, this looks like a threat; but in reality is a huge opportunity. Anyone looking for social ...

Life is full of strange moments: today I was followed in a traffic jam by a Fairey Swordfish.For those whose childhoods did not involve Airfix kits and glue fumes, I should explain that the Swordfish was a prime candidate for wartime aviation's...

Yesterday the Speaker Michael Martin returned to work after 2 months following an angioplasty. His first role in the chair was in charge of Health Questions. He joked 'It's very appropriate that I should come back to call the Secretary of State for Health. Patricia Hewitt responded that as the operation was carried out in Scotland it was outside her remit. However, today is startling news that a

As clever as Labour's Dave the Chameleon campaign is, I cannot work out who they are speaking to or why. It seems to me that the message will have most resonance with politicians, so maybe the objective is to undermine Cameron within his own party. Most ordinary people will just shrug their shoulders and say that this is how they have always viewed politicians anyway and nobody ever thought that the Tory leader was any different. More damagingly, the more I look at the advert the more the central character looks like Tony Blair. This could well turn out to ...

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You may remember that, a few months ago, the Lib Dems were in the doldrums and Mr Cameron was in the ascendant. At that time, Dave thought it would be an awfully good wheeze to generate some easy publicity by urging Liberal Democrat voters, councillors and MPs to “come and join the new Conservative Party”. After all, he said, we basically pretty much agree sorta thing: Issues that once divided