LibDem Blogs - Archived!

I'm sure every mainstream political party in Guildford can join with me in greeting the good news that the petition to trigger a referendum on a Democratically Elected Mayor was ruled invalid due to the fact a majority of the signatures were ruled invalid. It is indeed questionable as to how so many invalid names were included on the petition, and perhaps reflects the care to detail given by representatives from the group involved in organising a petition. Guildford already has a democratically elected Borough Council. If Abdullah cannot find even the smallest level of support (5% of the ...

I have finally had a chance to look at the Local Election results both nationally and in the West Midlands. Its a very mixed picture we did well in places I would not have thought we would, less so where I thought we would do very well and whilst Labour didn't collapse the Conservatives didn't do too well.

So doubtless all English electors will refuse to vote Lib Dem or Labour at the next election. This just proves that you can get opinion polls and statistics to say almost anything you want. Note how the question was loaded. According to the article they were asked whether it was right for a Scottish MP to be prime minister now Scotland has its own parliament. A pity they did not then go on to ask whether or not a Scottish MP as leader of a party at a general election would be sufficient cause for them ...

Is is conceiveable that the Rev Ian Paisley was reading Romans 12:18 before he turned up at Stormont today? If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. The reason I ask is because to Northern Irish ears the following statement is earth shattering: DUP leader Ian Paisley said it was not impossible for his party to work with Sinn Fein, but that republicans would have to

Not so long ago I wrote: I wish the Oatens well and hope that Mark continues as MP for Winchester.Today's news make me wish Mr Oaten rather less well and to suggest that Winchester Liberal Democrats find themselves a new candidate. The Guardian reports: Sex scandal MP Mark Oaten is to return to the media spotlight after agreeing to take part in a daytime TV fitness programme. The Liberal Democrat, who quit as his party's home affairs spokesman after allegations he had a six-month affair with a rent boy, is to star in a programme called The Body Politics ...

New England soccer hope Theo Walcott is the great nephew of West Indian cricket great Sir Clyde Walcott. But see the comments below.

My collegue Cllr Brian Jennings of Weetwood ward (which neighbours my own of Headingley) has resigned from the Liberal Democrat Group on the City Council. He will sit as an Independent and has two years left on his term. I'm very sad about this. I like and respect Brian. It was not always so as we initially had a terrible personality clash and I considered him illiberal. However I was broadly wrong and he is cut out to be an effective local Councillor particularly with wards the size of Leeds (average 16000 voters). I'm not going to comment publically ...

So, I seem to have spent an inordinate amount of time in the last few weeks looking at maps and reading guidebooks, yet still I haven’t finalised the route I’m going to be taking on my walk. Partly that’s because I think it’s best not to set a route that’s too definite, just to allow [...]

Reports are hinting that this outbreak is showing signs of human to human transmission of H5N1. Evidence so far: the local poultry (the usual source of human infections) are reported not to be infected with H5N1 and the speed with which the infection spread in the family is much faster than in previous clusters, suggesting something other than bird to human transmission. Report here. This needs

Predictably enough one would have imagined we did brilliantly in the recent local elections from the version of events recorded in 'Lib Dem News' - fast becoming the 'Pravda' of the centre / centre-left ! The national media hinted at a disappointing night for the party. I think neither is quite true. And, it hardly counts as a test of Ming's leadership as lazy political hacks might infer. In short it was the Tories night. No arguments here. But to poll only 2% more than a Howard-led Tories had managed and to make no major breakthrough in any of the ...

As Secretary of Lib Dems ALTER (Action for Land Value Tax and Economic Reform) I have been trying to follow from the sidelines the progress of the Tax Commission. Recent discussions within ALTER suggest that for a variety of reasons the Commission may be shying away from the idea of a land based tax in the final recommendations, or that, at best, they see a possibility of a minimal form of LVT as if to oblige one lobby. So I wanted to make a plea for people, particularly Tax Commission members to which this document will go in a ...

Things must getting fraught in the upper echelons of the Labour Cabinet. Today's Independent tells us that Tony Blair has warned Gordon Brown that he will not endorse him as his successor if he is "deposed" as Prime Minister before he is ready to stand down. Mr Blair is said to have issued the threat last week after Mr Brown recalled the way Margaret Thatcher was forced out by her own party in 1990. "Remember that when Margaret Thatcher left, it was unstable, it was disorderly and it was undignified," the Chancellor told GMTV. According to allies, ...

The Birmingham group AGM was held last Friday evening (2nd group meeting in the week, with another on this coming Friday night.)At the AGM we elected to all the group positions, with my being the only nomination for deputy leader.I was surprised to be asked to put my name forward by Tariq, who held this position. I've only been in the group since being elected in 2004, and, although not the youngest, quite "junior" within the group.The group meeting coming up this week will decide on who will be taking on committee chairs, and cabinet positions, as well as all ...

There is a profile of Julia Goldsworthy in Public Finance. All good stuff,, but it would have been better if she had a line she wished to push. Julia focuses on beating Labour up over tax credits the tax credits fiasco has made her angry. ‘The tax credits system is an utter, utter shambles and I don’t understand how anyone in the Treasury can defend it if they have regular surgeries,’ she says. ‘The tax credit system should be there to support people, but the computer system has no flexibility and the principle doesn’t recognise ...

Over the weekend, several things I'd like to comment on: Firstly, I am disgusted with the briefings againt Ming Campbell. Its odd how a party which champions localism complain about the national leader of the party when local elections don't go as well as hoped... Simon Hughes should know better, but I suppose he's still sore he lost another leadership election, and there's still the paranoid

It's a case of playing catch-up having not posted anything for a while. Firstly, the leadership of Ming Campbell. It is preposterous that people from within the party, aided by the recent interview comments made by Simon Hughes, are undermining Ming in the early days of his leadership. Whilst he's arguably not made as big a 'splash' initially as David Cameron did with the Tories we need to hold our nerve. As Patience Wheatcroft says in 'The Daily Telegraph' the test for Cameron comes with policy formulation. Whilst we stay true to our core beliefs the Tories ...

While The Avengers regularly hits the top ten of BBC4 ratings (such as they are), their reliable chart-topper has been the intelligent and amusing Stephen Fry not-so-much-a-panel-game-more-a-way-of-life QI, so it’s no surprise that – with QI off the air and their Avengers run having finished last week – the channel is gagging for a replacement. From the saturation advertising, Julian Fellowes’ Never Mind the Full Stops was clearly meant to be it. It’s not. With Ming doing superbly on Question Time also last Thursday night, we recorded the new show to watch later. It was our sacrifice so you needn’t. ...

David Morton's posting yesterday Headline News touched a raw nerve "The death of two British Soldiers in Iraq today was not headline news". Keep thinking the day will come when my nephew Matthew will be called upon to serve there. We've not heard from him for some time and that usually means he has been sent somewhere in the world. An ominous thought flashed though my head after reading David's posting - it prompted me to ask my sister if he had been in touch with her. Yes, the good news is that he been promoted ...

Bad news for the Conservatives in today's Telegraph: In London - where the Tories won a hatful of boroughs at the elections on May 4 and are again the largest party - the poll measures their support at almost 47 per cent, compared to Labour's 22 per cent, an astonishing reversal of fortunes for Tony Blair in the capital. Labour is faring almost as badly elsewhere in the South, with support from just a quarter of voters. In the North, however - an area comprising the North East, the North West and Yorkshire and Humberside - the picture is almost ...

See link. Good news indeed. Must admit we did think about it a bit when we visited in January - not that it would stop us from visiting this lovely country.

A quiet week gone. Went to see Coriolanus at the Globe, which was very enjoyable (about posh bloke who people liked at first and wanted in power, but then went off when he turned out to be an arrogant bully – write your own joke). On Saturday, I took myself off to Dan’s weekly Dr Who party, where opinion was sharply divided on the cybermen. His housemate Leander made tacos with butternut squash, which was surprisingly good. Interested to see Cameron on the receiving end of libertarian and free-marketeer ire for his latest half witted au-pair statist outburst. Now, ...

Jackie Ashley gives us some advice in today's Guardian: [T]he Lib Dems, led by Sir Ming, are the obvious people to raise the flag of common sense - no more Middle Eastern wars, no more cowboy raids on Muslim countries, no further provocation for terrorism. It would fit perfectly with their honourable stance on civil liberties - another hot issue where someone needs to stand against the government's assault on human rights. This would do the Lib Dems and Sir Ming a power of good and give them an early lead on an issue that is only going to grow ...

…is the understated press and Lib Dem response to disappointing local election results, complete with another absurdly destructive bout of Leadership whingeing. Hey ho. The election results were only disappointing because we expected to make easy gains and instead found ourselves holding our own in dogfights. To those MPs whispering that Ming isn’t a widely known and popular Leader, there’s only one response (other than ‘shut the **** up’): none of our Leaders have become widely known and popular overnight, not Paddy, not Charles, and if you wanted one for the local elections you shouldn’t have ditched him. Sigh. ...

The Ravensbourne clean-up in Ladywell Fields proved to be very interesting.  Volunteers included local residents and myself, plus sizeable contingents from the Lewisham Police Cadets, and the local Islamic centre.  The very model of a diverse community working in harmony for the public good. Managed to fill a couple of black bags full of miscellaneous plastic (including those ubiquitous Royal Mail rubber bands) and what seemed to be enough spare parts to make a rusty Triumph Norton mb. New Shopper turned up to take a couple of photos.  I'm in one of them. I bet/hope they publish the other.

A blog by Edward Lucas Make Gravity History has caught my eye. His argument seems to be, broadly, that a) more and freer trade will help spread prosperity around the world, and so is a good thing (so far so good); and b) that therefore charity is a waste of time (huh?). The choice of title 'make gravity history' suggests not a better strategy for ending poverty, but resignation to its

The Economist's Edward Lucas writes an excellent piece on how the West often denies the third world the very things that created the West's success: Barely an eye’s blink ago in evolutionary terms, having a nice flint axe and a dry cave was the summit of human ambition. Modern prosperity is not the norm, but the result of specific institutions and habits. It is not just recent, but fragile—like water flowing downhill, wealth trickles away unless it is well husbanded. The good news is that we now know the rules of that husbandry. The bad news is that so ...

Times columnist and new convert to blogsphere William Rees-Mogg has today added his concerns about David Cameron's so called A-List. His first concern is that the Tories are saying they are for open politics yet have still to publish this list. Lord Rees-Mogg like the rest of us has had to rely on Conservative Home for the news as it leeks out. Currently there are 67 names available there. He has also looked at the make up of the list, it does reach the objective of being over 50% female. However, he is disbuting the calibre of the women ...

Today's Guardian contains a balanced and lucid defence of the Human Rights Act against opportunistic politicians who, having passed it in the first place, now seek to use it to distract from their own failings. Marcel Berlins argues that the Act is increasingly being made a scapegoat for government incompetence, maladministration and badly drafted legislation. This passage goes to the heart of the issue: The government usually blames the judges and is looking for ways to negate decisions under the Human Rights Act which it doesn't like. Contrary to Tony Blair's ignorant assertion, the courts do not have the ...

For liberal civil servants, it's been a pretty ghastly weekend. First, the Government start to float the idea that the Human Rights Act is causing problems in terms of their crime and community safety goals. If that wasn't bad enough, this morning's newspapers are full of claims that our Prime Minister is proposing to 'rescue' public services. The Human Rights Act was one of the key things that