LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Tonight’s first episode of BBC2’s The Line Of Beauty was as good as the previews had promised, even if it did take me a few moments to re-adjust to Blackadder alumnus Tim McKinnery playing Tory MP Gerald Fedden. (At any moment I expected him to look amazed, turn to Lord Kessler, and exclaim “can it be true, my lord, that I hold in my mortal hands a nugget of purest GREEN?” I can’t imagine why

Ok so I got curious and started to do my background checks on Dave's hot list of stars for the next election. But with my analytical technique this may take longer than expected so in alphbetical order here are the first 10 and some interesting titbits about each of them. Caroline Abbot: PPC Sheffield Heeley 2001, PPC Barnsley East and Mexborough 2005 and Euro Candidate Yorkshire and Humber 2004

Not quite Nixon in China, but you'll find this piece from Autoexpress amusing. You might have thought that new Conservative leader, David Cameron, would do the sensible thing and keep his nose clean while giving his troubled Labour colleagues just enough rope to hang themselves with, as their poll rating slumps to a 14-year low. But oh no, Chopper Dave - read on and it'll make sense - seems to be doing his best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, thanks to some classic transport-related cock-ups on the part of him and his spin doctors. First he bleats ...

Welcome to a new blog "trying to factcheck Polly Toynbee, because her editor clearly doesn't". Thanks to Tim Worstall.

In his column in today's Grauniad Jonathan Freedland describes a scheme in Kent which found a group of women who walked their dogs after the school run. Kent spent public money providing the group with a trainer, so they would walk faster. Freedland's piece is actually a largely sensible call for public services to be locally controlled and make more use of the voluntary sector. But the idea that the state should decide the speed at which people walk their dogs is ridiculous, whether you are talking about national or local government.

were discussed in a this thought-provoking post by Pharygula. It goes to the heart of a lot of recent LDB posts: what do we do about Cameron's envirolite (TM) positioning, the effect of the Green vote, is nuclear power necessary, a necessary evil or just evil? The question was posed by another science blog: "Will the human race be around in 100 years?" Pharyngula's Prof Myers replied: "We'll be

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is opening its new store, the Museum Collections Centre, in Dollman St, Nechells to the public for the first time. The Open Day is planned for Monday 29th May from 10.00 - 4.30. An Historic bus service will run between Aston Manor Transport Museum Open Day, Thinktank at Millennium Point, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Edmund St) and the Museum Collections

Yes, it's finally time to take a stand on one of the big issues for Winchester. Hanging baskets - tourist attraction or waste of scarce water? Like most people, I appreciate the floral displays in the city. They certainly add colour and variety to shops and offices in the city centre. These displays have been subsidised by the City Council (when it was still under our control) to the extent of

On Monday I went to the Lincoln Book Festival. I saw Mark Billingham and John Harvey talk about crime writing. Heather not too keen on the subject stayed at home, but I still had a good time. Managed to spend £23 on books which I probably won't read for another 6 months, as I now have a shelf full of books to read.

Here's Guido Ming Doesn't Mess Up PMQs He did the "magic tragic" trick to calm the house first (paying condolences to Iraq war dead, stops the baying of the house). He then asked a more attacking question coupling Blair going with bringing the troops home. And here is 2005 politician of the year Iain Dale I've got to the stage of almost willing Ming Campbell to do well at PMQs. But today again he asked two questions which were frankly embarrassing in their naivete. I don´t inhabit this parallel universe in which PMQs ...

I was going to use this blog title when I first heard the news on the radio this am. But then realised the Guardian had beaten me to it by a long distance.But which button has he pressed?By going nuclear now, is he diverting attention away from all the other mishaps (eg Dr Reid being dumped on in his new job), or does he really believe that Nuclear will solve all our problems?On the energy question, I actually think we shouldn't rule out nuclear, and that it is a valid source. But we need to be pushing all the other ...

The Oscar Peterson Trio playing 'Hymn To Freedom' here (work warning, music starts to play sharpish). Finest kind jazz, you can even forgive him the mad tremolo bit four minutes in. It's from the album Night Train which ought to be on everyone's shelves.

Today’s report of John Curtice’s projections for next year’s Holyrood Elections makes interesting reading for all parties. His prediction, based on the Moray by-election result, suggests that the SNP would gain six seats, the Lib Dems ten and the Conservatives three, whilst Labour would plummet by 15. Whilst Dunfermline and Moray both point to this [...]

catch the germs in your hankerchief, as Tony Hancock sang to the tune of the German national anthem. (A very useful tune, you can put almost any words to it.) But not in the case of the Indonesian H5N1 family cluster, which was not human-to-human transmission, according to Reuters. As you were. Update: Maybe not H2H transmission not ruled out says more Reuters.

News from this morning's Social Justice Committee is that all four Chief Constables are heartily fed-up with the Home Office and seem to think that the Government are living with the fairies when it comes to understanding the needs of Wales and its Police forces. The BBC takes up the story: All four Welsh chief constables have written to the Home Secretary formally withdrawing from discussions over the idea of an all-Wales Police force. North Wales' Richard Brunstrom told a Welsh assembly committee that there was not enough money on the table. ...

On the Today programme this morning, Chris Smith (now Lord Smith) was interviewed about his new book 'The Suicide of the West' (or something along those lines). What was most interesting is he identified the liberal traditions being under threat as the greatest threat to western civilisation. He characterised this with the government's increasing authoritarianism and Blair's outburst against the

Well the Tory a-list appears to have been completed by Tim Montgomerie at Conservative Home. He writes more about his search and the secret society more commonly know as the 'modern' conservative party in yesterday's Grauniad. More a Dave not convincing Code than any connection to Leonardo. Mind you with Tony looking to go nuclear we may have to beware mutant turtles. Analysis to follow now

In a sign that news outlets care piss all about democracy, the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill passed its third reading in the House of Commons yesterday without any stories yet appearing on the BBC, Guardian or Times websites. To be fair, the bill hasn't been published in it's new form yet, although it looks like all the opposition amendments were unsuccessful, but the Government

No real surprise in this morning's Scotsman but the latest polling analysis from Prof. John Curtice at Strathclyde University suggest that Labour are in as much trouble North of the border as there were in this months council elections in England. In fact based on English results they fair better than recent results in Scotland. The breakdown of his analysis based on the Moray by-election would

With Mr Cameron’s ambitious attempt to seize the green mantle, a continued firming-up of the small but awkward Green Party vote on May 4th, and now Mr Blair’s macho commitment to nuclear power, environmental issues have rarely been further up the political agenda. For Liberal Democrats who’ve been plugging away on the green agenda for years, it’s ‘Be careful what you wish for’; the only party not being talked about is us. No wonder one of the big debates that the local elections sparked up in the Lib Dem blogosphere is how to tackle (trans: obliterate) the Green Party. ...

Sunny at Pickled Politics (and elsewhere) is always worth reading. His latest post on Britishness is a case in point. I constantly get asked by first generation Asians and their British-born offspring how can they see themselves as British when they face so much racism. I always reply that taking citizenship advice from BNP supporters is not a good idea. So here is my vision. This new sense of Britishness, if our aim is to form a common thread, has to be based on empowerment. It has to be about a message that says everyone has an equal part to ...

The Guardian speculates that Tony Blair's decision to go nuclear poses a major challenge for David Cameron over his green credentials. It seems that the Conservative Party themselves are torn on this issue even though the green lobby is firmly in the anti camp. As Chris Huhne has consistently pointed out the Tories' green credentials have been focussed on the easy decisions such as more recycling, personal choices on car use and better energy conservation. They have not been prepared to commit themselves on the really difficult issues such as environmental taxes and unpopular form of alternative energy such as ...

Further chaos with regard to the rerun of this Aprils General Election ordered by the courts. The Election Commission has picked a date of 2nd October. The court had suggested that the elections should be rerun within 60 days i.e by early July. Just to add to the confusion the courts had suggested that the Election Commission should resign but they do not appear to have the power to remove them. They have now said that the meeting which was held and which agreed the October date was illegal as not all the commissioners were present. Just to add to ...

This was the state of the One O'Clock Club before local residents started working on it. The Club was closed - I believe due to mismanagement - last year and the building and its grounds have deteriorated since. North Brick Lane Residents Association have asked to create a community garden and the Council has given them permission to do this while the site is empty. ...

The BBC has identified the mole who told us that they pay Chris Moyles £630,000 a year. Sam Walton, a 23-year-old temporary agency worker, has been sacked. But why shouldn't we know how much people like Moyles are paid? It is our money.