LibDem Blogs - Archived!

The BBC showed the third and final part of The Lost World of Friese-Greene tonight. It covered his journey through Scotland and I was pleased to hear Hamish MacCunn's "Land of the Mountain and the Flood" on the soundtrack.

Iain Dale is aiming to put together this little volume in record time. He tells me he is keen to have more Liberal Democrats contributing. So don't be bashful: volunteer your services.

ic Wales reports that The Tories' finance spokesman has resigned from the Conservative frontbench. Glyn Davies, AM for Mid and West Wales, is understood to be seeking more freedom to criticise the party line.

Over at PoliticalBetting.com, Mike Smithson makes a fair point about the Tories’ ‘Black Wednesday’ on 16th September, 1992 - when the British Government withdrew sterling from the ERM, and the date from which most commentators mark the Party’s collapse in popularity. As he notes, though the Tories took a hit, they were by no means holed below the waterline. In the following six months, the Tories

Agnès Poirier writing in today's Guardian: Let us be clear: there may be intellectuals in Britain, but there are no British intellectualsand To say, for instance, Paris hasn't bred any worthy intellectuals since Camus ... is at best terribly short-sighted, at worst profoundly ill-informed.So it is fine to make absurd generalisations about the British, but "profoundly ill-informed" to do it about the French? A little consistency please, Madame. Still, many Guardian readers will love it.

I have been know to complain about the adolescent attitudes of the teaching unions: A skilled and confident teaching profession must be central to our education policy. But too often the teachers' voice, as heard through their unions, is the reverse. It is endlessly negative, opposing every government imitative - good, bad or lunatic. At its worst it is full of teenage nihilism. It's not fair. I hate you. You're not my dad.Those attitudes now seem to be spreading to the National Association of Head Teachers, judging by reports of its recent conference. That impression, it is true, may be ...

I hate to keep going on about Polly Toynbee, but today's column deserves a little attention: Go right back to 1997 with the target to cut every infant class size to 30 children: billions were wasted on needlessly cutting class sizes in high-achieving Tory areas to hit a fixed number, not an outcome.She is making an important point about the limitations of targets. Governments choose the factors which are easiest to measure - like class sizes - whether or not they are the most important. And that can have a distorting effect on the policies implemented. You might add - ...

I was sitting down for a rest from campaigning in the Churchyard of St Matthews last week. The sun was shining, a man was softly playing guitar for his girlfriend and then ... the ear-splitting concrete machine came to lay concrete on paths. I can't complain, I asked them to do it - the paths had been in a dangerous condition. And now the trees have been pruned too, and I believe they may even...

Good news from the bookies - let's hope they are reading the form right!

Is here

9 years ago today Labour swept to power, taking 419 seats - their best result ever. Let's take a look at some of their achievements: Human Rights Act 1998: A fairly good piece of legislation which was purported to guarantee certain basic rights. Labelled Bringing Rights Home by Lord Irvine. Shame the Government has gone on to disregard it.Robin Cook: The architect of Labour's "ethical foreign

Labour may be vigorously denying that they have started campaigning in Blaenau Gwent before Peter Law's funeral but they are not slow in allowing a list of prospective candidates to get into the public domain. The list includes many of the great and good from Welsh politics including a former AM, two former MPs and the Leader of the WLGA and Neath Port Talbot Council. On Friday an informal "meet the members" session will take place, and on Saturday branches will convene to nominate their preferred candidates. Shortlisting will be done on Sunday and on Monday all ...

If there is anyone out there still thinking of voting Labour on Thursday why not visit http://www.backingblair.co.uk/ (thanks to Hassan for sending the link)

Good to see the spirit of Mafia Labour is alive and well in Burnley, and not learning any of the lessons that lead to the BNP making such inroads there a few years ago. You would have thought that it was in the interest of good relations for the Trades Council to allow any [...]

Lynne Featherstone apparently asked the Home Office a question last month about the date rape drug Progesterex. One small problem - it doesn’t exist. Now, far be it for me to criticise a Lib Dem MP, but come on, do you really take every single email you get at face value? Until 5 minutes [...]

A good few issues on the go today from damage to a constituent's wall, parking enforcement, paving matters and tree preservation. Pleased to hear from the Council's Access Officer about progress on the new cycle routes. I have been involved in this in that both I and the West End Community Council had expressed concern about part of the new West End route for less experienced cyclists, which has

I am starting to crumble a little, my body has communicated with my subconscious and decided that its the end of the campaign, which has been running for nearly two years. The problem is that there is another couple of days left and a stack of work to do. the final day will be a long day from a 5A

So, in my ward, the incumbent Tories are claiming to be the defenders of local people (which is frankly laughable) and are vigourously attacking the LibDems. They also seem to be living in some sort of ridiculous fantasy world where they can win the whole borough or gain some influence (the local breed of Tory is rather nasty and I doubt any of the other parties will want to cooperate with them

from No2ID.net, saying that Newsnight had put on the big beard and was prophesying: Liberal Democrats - Gain 200 seats Conservatives - lose 75 seats Labour - lose 300-400 seats Nothing for 'others', running at 15% in some national polls. Update: John Curtice (University of Strathclyde) on Radio 5 Live says that journalists are getting 'excitable' and to expect 150-200 Labour losses, they having

Last night, after canvassing obviously, Annemarie came over to Wolverhampton (she was going to buy art supplies this morning). We met and went for a curry at Spice Avenue, I haven't been there for years but would certainly recommend it - excellent service, very good food and a decent price too. I suspect I will not want a curry for quite a while when I get back from Pakistan as I assume I will have tasted better there than I can get in the West Midlands!

Back from a long weekend of surfing and camping in East Lothian to what should prove to be a very interesting week in UK politics. Clarke and Prezza look increasingly like falling under the axe as the drip feed of revalations about each by the tabloids intensifies. My hunch is that the Prezza scandal will finish him [...]

What can I tell you? Delivery, canvassing, stuffing ... But one funny thing happened to my colleague David Schmitz who is standing as a candidate in Harringay ward (the Ladder area of Haringey). He was out delivering leaflets and came across a group of cross residents on the pavement waiting for the local Labour councillor to turn up to do his surgery. But no show! So David did an impromptu

I'm rather busy this week! So I won't be blogging for a few days. Over on the Kingston Borough Liberal Democrats website you can read about our election campaign, book a lift to the polling station, or send an email to the ward Focus teams.

is a beacon of rationality in a Hurty Foot Nation gone mad. Check out her A Point of View: Believe it or not: the battle over certainty. An historian with a clear understanding of science, she looks at two crucial debates: climate change and the truth of evolution. In both cases there is overwhelming evidence in favour, and in both cases there are doubters who exploit the fact that science does

Well most eyes are turned to the elections 2 days away Peter Jones in The Scotsman has turned his attention to the election a year away tomorrow. With Labour imploding at Westminster he notes that this is having a knock on effect north of the border. In Deunfermline first and foremost and in Moray last week he notes that the Liberal Democrats were the main beneficaries on both occasions. He says

I will admit that I have never heard of the Sustainable Consumption Roundtable. Apparently it is a joint initiative between the Sustainable Development Commission and the National Consumer Council and has been funded by Defra and the DTI. Anyway they have produced a report entitled "I Will If You Will" which recommends that the government needs to take the lead if significant progress is to be made. It also concludes that people are generally happy with measures which bring positive environmental benefits as long as those measures are applied fairly. They also specifically recommend two things which I ...