LibDem Blogs - Archived!

The most notable fact about the local elections, as far as the Liberal Democrats are concerned, is that nothing much happened. Our most disappointing loss was Islington, but that seems to be down mostly to a misguided campaign strategy which saw us neglecting supposedly safe seats in an attempt to win even more from Labour. One of our most encouraging victories was at Richmond upon Thames, but having lived there 20 years ago and seen the quality of the people in the local party and its superb organisation I am baffled that we ever lost it in the first place. ...

The liberal think-tank, Centre Forum, today publishes a thoughtful report I hope all Liberal Democrats will take the time to read. It argues for an end to a party touchstone: our popular (but wholly wrong) opposition to student tuition and top-up fees. My day job is as an educational fund-raiser, has been for eight years now. I spend my professional life surrounded by students, many of whom come

This is the question I often ask myself. I know that I give an impression of suave confidence, but at who amongst us are not troubled by moments of doubt. Which of us truly knows even ourselves? Please ponder this eternal question as you read a stimulating blog article I found on Okkernoot.net. It is not often [...]

I'm a naughty boy but I did rather enjoy tonights drop in session on the Woodhouse Moor car park proposal. There was a slight carnival air as to be honest everybody, and I mean everybody, was against the idea and was determined to give the establishment a bloody nose. I was struck by how at home I felt as the full cross section of the community was out in force; women of a certain age, eco warror students, residents of the sheltered housing opposite the site and the great and the good of local community groups. My sample of ...

This is Brian's Annual Report, presented to the Olivers Battery Annual Parish Meeting on 8th May: Over the past 12 months, I have had the honour to serve on the City Council’s Cabinet. My portfolio has been “Healthy and Inclusive Communities”. Not reflected in the name is a lead role on Community Safety or, as the Government puts it “Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships”. I prefer to

I enjoyed the article by Robert Harris in this morning's Guardian. It offers a revisionist account of recent Labour history and a useful corrective to those who imagine that a Gordon Brown government will be more acceptable to Liberals than this one. First the revisionist history. Writing of the agreement reached at that famous Granita dinner, Brown says: Brown was granted unprecedented powers within any future Labour government and an assurance that he would be next in line of succession, in return for his grudging withdrawal from the leadership contest. This has always been presented by the chancellor's supporters ...

The Liberal Review has played a big role in scrutinising the activities of Frank Luntz. The most recent stagein this debate comes with Frank Luntz writing to Liberal Review asking for an apology. The debate gets increasingly interesting. I suggest you get over there and look at the latest comments.

This got missed a few days ago, but it appears that the answer to the question is "the Lib Dems", at least according to ICM's poll for The Guardian: And negative headlines about NHS deficits and job cuts have left Labour trailing the other parties on their traditional strength of health. Just 28% said Labour could be trusted to run the NHS, against 29% for the Tories and 30% for the Lib Dems. What's remarkable about these numbers is that none of the parties emerge with an astoundingly high score. The Lib Dems are most trusted, but that still ...

according to BBC. War, Yosser? Sorry, I mean Deputy Prime Minister. Spineless backbenchers and a vacilating heir apparent squabbling over when to take control of the Labour Party sandpit is not war. Handbags in failing government, not many bruised. War is what happens when a superpower and its lackey illegally invades another soverign country on falsified evidence. Don't remember you

It was bound to happen. BBC News report today - Peace activist Brian Haw has been instructed to end his five-year vigil outside Parliament as the government has won an appeal against an earlier legal ruling. Last July, Mr Haw, 56, from Worcestershire, won a High Court action against a new law (The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 states anyone wanting to demonstrate in a 1km zone around Parliament Square must have permission from the police when the demonstration starts) threatening his round-the-clock protest. But three Court of Appeal judges have now overturned that decision. ...

I have been resisting this post all day but have finally succumbed to temptation. The New Labour Parliamentary candidate for Blaenau Gwent is Owen Smith. Mr Smith is a former producer of the BBC Wales political programme Dragon's Eye. He has also worked as a special adviser for Torfaen MP Paul Murphy when he was Welsh Secretary and Northern Ireland Secretary. He currently works as head of government affairs for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, the world's biggest drugs company, which produces Viagra. I am now going to stop before I am forced to make a whole succession of cheap jokes ...

Yesterday I sent the following letter to Tony Blair: Over the past year I have, as a new Member of Parliament, asked a number of questions of your government. Sometimes this is via a written parliamentary question. On other occasions it is in a letter or an email. Sometimes the questions are asked directly of Civil Servants. On many occasions I have received a good response within a

It's been a while. So: There's a much talked about flu filum in America Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America. According to Revere at respected public health blog Effect Measure it's a "crapfest". He gives it a right mauling here. One of my previous finds about H5N1 (Avian Flu, what we need to know) has gone off air: they provided a valuable reporting and round up service in the hysterical early days. Now that others are doing the work as well they have shut up shop, but deserve our thanks for a valuable ...

Concert night Originally uploaded by rfenwick. Here we go again! And i’ve only just got my voice back (lost it over the weekend)! UPDATE:Well it went very well. Very well. A guy in the audience was quietly conducting along in his seat towards the end, which is always [...]

Dominic Lawson, somewhat to my surprise, has turned out to be a seriously good signing for The Independent. Today his must-read column scrutinises Lord Joffe’s bill to legalise a form of euthanasia (‘physician-assisted suicide’), which returns to the House of Lords this Friday for its second reading. Lawson argues, with restrained passion, that the bill should be put out of its misery. The

An email I sent today to animal rights activists, following reports they have circulated this letter to shareholders in GlaxoSmithKline: Dear Sir/Madam, I read with interest your letter to shareholders of GSK, published in The Financial Times today, and I would like to ask, what do you hope to achieve from your actions? If it is the sale of GSK shares, leading to their devaluation, it will not

If I were Charles Clarke, I’d ask for my £30 cabinet members’ contribution to the Queen’s birthday present back.  She hasn’t even reached her official birthday yet. Maybe David Milliband will give him £30 so it all works out OK in the end.

Last week was apparently Compost Awareness Week, although I didn't find out until today! But I thought that this would be an opportunity to let local residents know that, as a special offer, they can purchase a 330 litre compost bin for only £6.00 (with free delivery). A leaflet has been distributed to households in Birmingham, but further details are available at

Frank Luntz is now demanding an apology from the Liberal Review for suggesting that he may be biased, soully on the basis that he managed to fix guess the local elections result correctly. This is a curious response, as he doesn’t appear to refute his bias. It is also almost inconceivable that the result would [...]

The First Minister is on record as saying that Wales Labour will do better in next year's Assembly elections if Gordon Brown were to assume the premiership. However, Tony Blair has now indicated that he is not for moving. He is confident that voters in socialist Welsh heartlands welcome his modern New Labour approach with progressive policies and don't want to turn the clock back. No doubt Welsh Labour activists are gearing up for a difficult election.

Today's Western Mail has a list of the top five ice cream van ditties. They are: 1. O Sole Mio. 2. Greensleeves. 3. Boys and Girls Come Out to Play. 4. Yankee Doodle. 5. Teddy Bear's Picnic It seems that ice cream vans are a dying breed. The paper also provides a list of the Ice Cream Alliance's top five ice creams: 1. "99" 2. Screwball 3. Cornetto 4. Chocolate nut tubs 5. Feasts Consensus amongst the Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Support Staff is that the chocolate centre in Feasts has shrunk markedly in recent ...

In Mark Oaten's Sunday Times write-up he complained that: “I was turning 40 and I really felt that I was losing my youth. The problem was undoubtedly compounded by my dramatic loss of hair in my late thirties... This really knocked me for six. Any television appearance would result in a barrage of e-mails, not about issues I’d raised, but about my lack of hair. Whether supportive or not, they all

Its just gone 3pm here in Karachi and a short while ago we finished our first dialogue. There are seven of us from the UK, two Liberal Democrats (Ellen Kelly and myself), two Conservatives (both of which I have met before), two Labour and one SLDP.

Newbury Liberal Democrat Paul Walter has produced a brilliant summary and analysis of the local elections results. Part 2 below looks at the Liberal Democrats. The Liberal Democrats Beat Labour in the national vote with a 27% share. This is a 22% (or 5 percentage point) improvement on their share of the vote at the general election in 2005. This is only the second time that the Liberal Democrats have been ahead of Labour on that measure. A remarkable achievement for a party written off just a month ago. The Liberal Democrats gained Richmond council from the Tories – winning ...

I have to date kept out of the row over the proposal to create a car park on "Monument Moor" part of the historic Woodhouse Moor. This was a civil war battle field and the oldest public park in Leeds. Anyone under about 35 will actually look bemused at the mention of Woodhouse Moor and call it "Hyde Park". "Monument Moor" is a smallish piece of greenspace and gravel on the other side of woodhouse lane with a neglected statue of a guy called "marsden" (he is the monument). Like so much of this inner city patch by the University ...