LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Well, I've done all I can in terms of campaigning and it's over to you ... It's going to be an interesting election for Tower Hamlets, but here in Weavers Ward we've worked hard and I hope that's enough to deserve your vote. This blog has been my record and kept me accountable. It's been hard work, but very enjoyable, especially when I've achieved things. I think I can do an even...

This piece is not about Prescott (let him bonk, say I). It is not about Clarke (although he should walk the plank). It is not even about Hewitt. It is about a really old scandal that everyone has forgotten about - several weeks old already. The New Statesman claims that loans for peerages is about to hit the headlines again - big time Although the loans-for-peerages débâcle did not play very strongly on the local election campaign trail in comparison to the releases of foreign prisoners, it could become more directly damaging as the police investigation gathers pace. The ...

Busy, busy just not had time to write anything this week. Just a few hours to go and the polls open. Can't even describe today. Up with the larks - the whole day - haven't sat down for more than 2 hours. Even eating on my feet - not good for the digestion I know but no choice - every waking moment counts. Ralph Scott's mother arrived today to support her son's candidacy as all mothers do. Such a nice lady - naturally she wanted to help. Being a stranger to the area, Ralph suggested that I ...

POLICE INQUIRY INTO POLL CLAIM BY KATHY CANHAM 10:30 - 03 May 2006 A Police investigation is underway following an alleged incident involving rival parties out on the election campaign trail. After four weeks of electioneering, a row over rubbish collection allegedly came to a head in a quiet residential road in Brentwood on Friday night. It is alleged that a 22-year-old university student was

Sarah Teather was on the front page of today's Guardian. The paper has discovered that: Most of the sponsors who agreed to fund the prime minister's flagship academy programme have not paid the £2m they pledged ... Four academies that opened last September have received no cash at all, and 10 others have received some money but nowhere near the promised sum. Only four have received the full amount. In all, 23 of the 27 academies opened so far are still waiting to receive what was pledged.And Sarah was quoted as saying: "The government has led everybody to believe ...

In a world of spin, here's genuine unspun success. For the first time since its creation in 1996, the in-year Council Tax collection figure of Dundee City Council has risen above 90%. OK, so here's the Council's press release :- "Continued improvement in council tax collection" "Dundee City Council Convener of Finance, Councillor Fraser Macpherson has welcomed new figures that show a continued

Back in October last year I noted how Ahn Sang-kyu had covered himself with bees to mark the arrival of an underground railway in Daegu, south of Seoul. He has been at it again. This time it was to protest against Japan's sovereignty claims over the Tokto islands. And once again Pearl Swine has the photos.

Voting is open in the Haringey Council elections (and other council elections) from 7am until 10pm on Thursday. You don't need your poll card to vote. If you are a postal voter and haven't yet returned your ballot papers, they can still be returned to any polling station in Haringey by 10pm on Thursday too. If you want to check who the Lib Dem candidates in your ward are they are listed on my

There’s an interesting piece from Rob Knight on Liberal Review on the subject of compulsory voting. Rob argues that there’s no incentive to vote in safe seats under the present system and he’s quite right, of course. But turnouts are not impressive in winnable seats either - particularly in local elections. One seat we recently [...]

Incompetent IT reporter disses Linux only to be told his web-site actually runs on Linux. Forces an embarrasing outage, and then switches to Windows. What an idiot. read more | digg story

A sunny Aberdeenshire- a sight guaranteed to gladden almost any heart. A pleasure to be amongst "ma ain folk"- and my cousin is now well and truly married. The weather was so good, that we were able to hold the ceremony outside- and it almost felt like Benachie was a guest at the wedding. Arriving at Dyce, the previous day, I found Donald Trump's rather knackered looking 727 business jet parked across the runway- a big deal, apparently, but given his track record of considerable failure, as well as his talent for vulgarity, I am somewhat cautious as to the ...

this, well it damn well should. From the site of Wharron Prentice found after rummaging around in Carnival of the Liberals.

The European Union has suspended membership talks with Serbia. Talks have been halted over Serbia's failure to deliver the Bosnian Serb military leader Ratklo Mladic to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Mladic is the UN tribunal's second most wanted war crimes suspect from the Yugoslav wars after Radovan Karadzic.

Some Americans have gone nuclear, or at least rude with ITMFA. I = impeach T = the M F A = already Fill in the blanks, or click the link.

THANKS “After trying for six months to get something done I must thank you for coming and having a look at that dangerous fence. It was done the next day and barriers put up. The kids now put the barriers across the footpath so people think they can’t go down the lane but at least the danger of someone having an accident has been eliminated. The only foreseeable danger is if the kids remove the barriers and a car comes down the street thinking he can get through (which they do) someone will go over the drop onto the footpath. ...

COMPLAINT “Just a quick question, my two children often play near their grandparents house in a field on Peasey Hills, I believe it is a football/play area alongside Highfield Road but is always full of dog muck, is this really acceptable for our children to play in such conditions?”   Mrs S  

Gary Glitter has blamed the media for his child sex abuse conviction in Vietnam. Right, because it was the media that put their hands down the little girls' pants.

Queen's Flight Q:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the total cost was of the Queen's Flight in each of the last four financial years; how much of these costs were (a) fixed and (b) variable; and how many miles were flown by the Queen's Flight in each year. (John Hemming) A:The total cost of the 32 (The Royal) Squadron in each of the last four financial years and the breakdown of

Voters across Lewisham who are looking for a positive change are turning to the Liberal Democrats in Thursday's local elections.

Among other organs, the Daily Telegraph reports that EU talks with Serbian Government on closer working relations and potential future membership have broken down, as progress is conditional on handing over Ratbag Mladic (who was still receiving a military pension until a couple of months ago). Give him up Serbia, and only then will be begin to think about subsidising your floundering sugar beet crops.

Bonkathonic John Prescott's brownfield building plans are endangering important insects, according to the Daily Telegraph reporting a pro-invertebrate charity Buglife's concerns. Prescott is very knowledgable about invertebrates, of course, famously comparing a crab to Peter Mandelson (the crab sued for libel) and being deputy leader of the Labour Party, whose backbench MPs (with honourable vertebrate exceptions) are as spineless a bunch as ever rolled over and showed white bellies in the surrender of civil liberties. I'm a fan of true invertebrates rather than political ones, and hurrah to Buglife for championing the spineless and the voiceless. The ...

Where in the UK would you, the costomer, have to pay should you water supply pipe burst at a point after it enters your property. The answer is only one place Scotland. In 1997 all the water authourities in Great Britain agreed guaranteeing free repairs of services into customers home, except for Scottish Water. In fact Scottish Water have been sending out letters to costomers encouraging then to

Respect to Stewart Lee for not only managing to sit through the whole of Who Dares Wins, but inflicting it on pseudy intellectual Barbican-types who were probably expecting standard hi-larious “so-bad-it’s-good” fare. In the generality, Lee is absolutely spot on: the bloated, morally vacuous Jerry Bruckheimer product is infinitely more contemptible than the naffest of Godzilla [...]

Well, it's nearly over for another spring. The key battleground is in the next-door ward to mine, Grange. The Tories are dragging in people from all over the place to try to knock our Chris Lumley off the council. Chris is a classic “residents first, politics second” sort of councillor, and even the Tories admit that he is very popular on the doorstep. But can the Conservatives win by sheer

There is no plan B for Wayne Rooney's injury at least according to the BBC and Tord Grip. I find this absolutely gob smacking in the extreme. Even if Wayne Rooney were to be fully fit there surely must have been some form of Plan B given what happened in the European Championships two years ago once Wayne was lost to injury.

Today's Guardian reports that most of the sponsors who agreed to fund the prime minister's flagship academy programme have not paid the £2m they pledged. Obviously the flow of peerages was not as free as we had hitherto been led to believe.

I am due to go on GMTV for a 6.40am slot on the elections. The car is meant to pick me up at 6.00 and if there is any change to schedule they will let me know. Best laid plans of mice and men etc mean that the driver knocks on my door at 5.45am and has been waiting an hour. Instead of calling me on my mobile - they have paged me to let me know car was outside. But I wasn't wearing my pager - as was waiting for call. Arrive at GMTV at 6.11am to discover not ...

In a bid to save his own bacon, Charles Clarke has come up with what he regards as the perfect solution: announce the creation of new laws. You can see why he thinks this will get him off the hook; it has been the standard recourse of action for both him and his predecessors [...]

A small article tucked away in a Western Mail news bulletin today reports that the Welsh Tories' Finance Spokesperson has resigned from his party's frontbench. Glyn Davies, who is the AM for Mid and West Wales, is understood to be seeking more freedom to criticise the party line. However, his Assembly leader, Nick Bourne, has denied that there is a rift between him and Mr. Davies. Anybody who knows Glyn Davies will understand that this is not the case. There are huge unresolved issues between the two men and Glyn is not afraid to let people know that this is ...

I’ve been relatively kind to Labour about their Dave the Chameleon ads. Partly because I detect that the wheels are starting to come off the Cameron bandwagon and he doesn’t appear to have a Plan B (or even a Phase II), I think the image is, on balance, damaging to little Dave. It [...]