LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Received via councilor info:-   “Hi tiger, how are you? Just thought I would let you know that a certain local band called MINUS BENN are treating everyone to an evening of classic rock and pop music at Malton Bacon Factory Club on Sunday 28 May. Admission is free and everyone is welcome. It is very rare that the local lads (or any band for that matter) get to play in Norton so this is a good chance to see the boys do what they do best! It is a shame that the music scene in the area isn’t as ...

After Friday mornings count Leeds City Council has a composition of Labour 40 n/c Lib Dem 26 n/c Cons 24 n/c Morley Ind 4 -1 Green 3 n/c Ind 1 n/c BNP 1 + 1 The Lib Dem/Conservative/Green coalition which tookover from Labour in 2004 after 24 years will continue. As we have held all our seats (and the lib dems were defending a high water mark) then we have won. However it would be churlish and foolish not to recognise that the Labour party have had a good day in Leeds. They sucessfully defended the 3 split wards ...

Uberfishcook Rick Stein appeared on TV this morning and delivered the following verdict: that after all his travels round the world cooking and gorging, in his opinion the best food in the world is fish and chips, eaten in The Magpie Cafe, Whitby, North Yorkshire. Having plastered my arteries there many times with their finest kind haddock and chips, I can only agree. For those not fortunate

This is almost certainly old news, but I’ve only just come across a film called Under Two Jags (not a nice mental picture, is it?), starring Stan Laurel, about a man torn between two women.

Its nice to have a day not electioneering, it is even better to jump on a train and visit my niece Emily. I haven't seen Emily for a few months and she has grown so much (small people to that I believe!), and whilst I don't see it so much with kids I see more often (Edwin and Rupert spring to mind) it is very noticeable when you don't see someone for a while.

A more considered response from me to the compulsory voting proposals by the IPPR can be found here.

Those of you who follow these things will have noticed that I did not delete some comments on the previous post even though they were unflattering to me. But having seen some offensive comments posted about other people I have once again had to close them down.

After Blogger ate my template, I've finally rebuilt it.There are some tweaks, but I've learnt that you should regularly back up EVERYTHING.I'll probably knock up some code soon to automatically backup the template each day. It shouldn't be hard to make, as I've already used the Atom API before.

Firstly, thanks to the local resident who has sent me a photo set of street signs etc from the Sinderins area which show clearly the extent of squint signs at and near the junction (see example, right). This is an issue I have raised in the past, but have taken up again with appropriate departments..Today I visited Dudhope Park which was the venue for the Parklife Launch Event - a picnic of

Coca-Cola Football League One Table: Southend 82 Colchester 79 Brentford 76 Huddersfield 73 Barnsley 72 Swansea 71 Nottm Forest 69If my father was still alive (he'd be 104!) he would be very proud.... he was so devoted he wouldn't get married on a Saturday because he didn't want to miss a reserve game.

I’ve been away helping with the local elections in Lewisham, currently in an internet cafe in Rushey Green. Full update in a day or two, but I can’t resist logging in to say we won! The Lewisham Council LibDem group is now 17, up from 4 in 2002 and 7 last week (three of whom were [...]

After a long trip to Elland Road last night (returning at 3am) there is still all to play for in this tie and effectively it starts at 0-0 on Monday night after the 1-1 draw last night. In my opinion (although slightly biased) Leeds were unlucky not to win this match. The referee was diabolical (both ways) and Leeds should have had at least one penalty. Preston clearly think they have the contest won especially judging by the behaviour of their manager at the final whistle and hopefully this will play into our hands. I felt Leeds gave it a ...

Apart from the obvious being the but of many jokes, what is Prescott for now? It seems the upper echelons of the Labour Party have been wondering this too. The current line is that he is 'good at charing committees'. They are presenting him as a master negotiator between the conflicting interests of government departments. This is almost universally met with derision and great puzzlement. I think

So, the campaign is over and the voters have spoken. Well, at least, quite a few of them have spoken... and what were the results? In East Dulwich, our gallant crew swept all before them, especially our Labour opponents. The Conservatives made no impression and the squeeze message seems to have resonated amongst the electorate. Result - a 600+ vote majority for Richard Thomas, Jonathan Mitchell

Rhodri Morgan tells the Western Mail this morning that he is glad that local government elections weren't held in Wales on Thursday. He must also be relieved that it was not the Assembly elections being held on that day either, although Wales has a very different political landscape to England. The question now is, with Tony Blair conducting a massive reshuffle so as to freshen up his government, will Rhodri Morgan follow suit so as to present a reinvigorated team to the electorate in 2007?

Do you ever get the feeling that some rows are not going away no matter how bored you get of them. That is certainly my view on the Peter Law peerage offer controversy. Following the emphatic denial by the Secretary of State for Wales that he had offered Peter Law ermine in exchange for his non-participation in the 2005 General Election, Trish Law has now repeated the allegation and this time named Mr. Hain as the person who, she says, made the offer. As Peter Hain says himself of course, there is no way of proving this allegation ...

Margaret Beckett may be Britain's first lady of diplomacy but the same cannot be said for the Times journalist who wrote these words: A half-hour later the eau de nil Jag glided up. Mrs Beckett slid out the door, temporarily blinding us with the turquoise. “Congratulations on your new job!” a hack shouted. The bouffant looked our way. “Thank you,” she said, nodding towards us. She must be ecstatic. But, truly, our first thoughts now should be with Condi Rice, the US Secretary of State. First she was dragged round Blackburn by Jack Straw. ...

Lord Bonkers writes exclusively for Liberal England: In recent days, in the course of my exploration of the electric Internet, I have come across a number of more or less veiled references to a supposed dalliance between Mr John Prescott and my old friend Sir Nicholas Winterton. Let me say with all the authority at my disposal that there is not a scintilla of truth in this scurrilous rumour. I have urged Sir Nicholas to place the matter in the hands of his solicitor without delay.

Thank you to the people in Weavers Ward for re-electing not only me, but also my colleagues Abdul Matin and Tim O'Flaherty. It's a real vindication for the tremendous amount of hard work that we've all three put in, in our different ways. This is tempered by the loss that my Lib Dem colleagues suffered in Bow, Mile End and Globe Town and Bethnal Green South. While I'm so glad that...

No not our Charlie. This is more a case of like father, like son. Congressman Patrick Kennedy is the latest of the Kennedy clan to fall foul of the supposed curse of the American political dynasty. His father Senator Edward Kennedy was possibly denied his shot at the Presidency following the Chappaquiddick Island incident. Now his son was involved an a startling similar incident near the Capitol.

I have finally managed to find a list of the Cabinet post re-shuffle:

I still haven't had a chance to look at the all results but it seems quite a mixed bag of results, Labour didn't do as bad as I expected, the Conservatives did well but I thought they would do better and the Liberal Democrats didn't do well or badly - though it does appear where the work was put in we held, increased out majority or won new seats (that is not to say any losses were where we didn't work - there could be many reasons).

I have been sent a list of the results for the city that I have not checked and which does not include the result for Kingstanding. It makes it possible, however, to calculate the percentages across the city for all parties. I also have found 2002 and 1998 figures. Party199820022006Labour44.139.931.0Conservatives31.930.426.4Lib Dem18.321.622.1BNP11.0Green4.4 There were some Green and BNP

I don't know whether it was tiredness or an IT glitch, but I have managed to lose a comment post from a lady in Naylorsfield. I can remember some of it, so my comments are here now, but there was also some requests re graffiti and I would like to take action on this. Unfortuately I now need the specific locations. If the lady is reading this, perhaps she'd be kind enough to e mail me at liverpool city council - paula.keaveney@liverpool.gov.uk - and I'll see what can be done. What I can remember is comments re ...

My slightly different take on Thursday's elections, now that I have had a bit of time to separate my own defeat and local party's odd targeting strategy from cold hard results, is that the second biggest winners were....nobody. Of the councils up for election, 66 have returned councils with no overall control - where no party group is large enough to take control of the council; six more than previously. So probably up to about a third of us live in an area that has minority or coalition government. This sort of result is usually one of the ...

Iain leaves an arch comment on the car posting, even if it’s nothing like as arch as one I left him a few months ago. Actually, the Lib Dems have done rather well in the elections yesterday in the East Mids. Only six of the forty-four councils were up for election, anyway, and we made gains on [...]