LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Mark Lawson talks to James Lovelock (BBC 4 10 pm this evening) was an enthralling hour of TV, not least his description of his eureka moment in formulating the Gaia theory. Working the the NASA jet propulsion laboratory with Carl Sagan, an astronomist brought in data on the CO2 atmospheres of Mars and Venus and the idea of earth as a self-regulating organism was born. If that extraordinary

... from Tim Hames in today's Times. (Treasure the moment like the retinal imprint of a shooting star.) First, the idea Ming is about to fall victim to another internal party coup is bollocks:Many [Lib Dem MPs] speak warmly of the way he chairs meetings and contrast this favourably with what is belatedly conceded as the chaos of the Kennedy era. There is a sense that Ming will allow his Shadow

A tribute to Mr Cameron's gatecrashing of the Beckhams' bash, courtesy Adam and the Ants: I'm a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend I'm a friend of a friend but you don't know me I'm a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend And if I come on the night Can I get in free? Adam and the Ants, Friends

Such searing analysis... I look forward to future such robust BBC reports: Fancy a nice cuppa?, asks DaveLet's all make nice, says DaveAin't life grand, declares DaveFirst, Frank Luntz, then Nick Robinson - is there room for any other BBC journos up Mr Cameron's central office?

Lib Dem blogger Mary Reid is the new mayor of Kingston upon Thames. And when I looked in at the Commons today, guess who was on the government front bench as a new junior defence minister: Tom Watson.

I have had three events in my diary for some time - then to my delight found myself attending them all officially. One was the inspection of the 2nd Hook Scout and Guide Band (see yesterday) which has its home in my ward. On Sunday morning we joined in the Unity Service for churches in Surbiton and Chessington. Around a thousand people attended at TRC, enthused by an...

Swithun, of course, is our most noted local saint. Read all about him at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Swithun Swithun's alleged relationship with rain is well known - if it rains on St Swithun's Day (15 July) it's supposed to rain for forty days. Ever since I wrote a piece for this blog about the south of England drought and hanging baskets in Winchester it has rained every day. Has St

According to a press release issued by the Liberal Democrats today “Four prisoners slip out of jail every day - Lib Dems”. What were all those Lib Dems doing in prison in the first place? And who’s training them in escape techniques? I hear Charlton Heston in my mind - “let my Focus delivers go!” In other [...]

Some things never change. As reported here last week Gerry Adams stood up to propose the Rev Ian Paisley as First Minister and his colleague Martin McGuinness as deputy First Minister. Then Paisley declined saying that his "reasons were well known and had been endorsed by the majority of the unionist voters". Afterwards he also showed it was not sectarian when he added, "If Mr [Reg] Empey [the

Rule 1 of Labour government: People express concern. Government responds to concern by suggesting something that mentions concern but really either does the f****g obvious OR is unenforceable. Case study: John Reid suggests victims should have a say in the release date of offenders by being represented on parole boards. Many victims of crime won't want offenders released at all. Isn't this

Oh dear. Raith Rovers' most famous fan Mr G. Brown with residences in Westminster and North Queensferry has become overly friendly to the team of the three lions. While he might have got away with supporting the only home nation qualifying for next month's World Cup in a survey of Scottish cabinet ministers he overstepped the mark when he chose his favourite footballing moment. Admittedly the

Another day, another apparently vacuous announcement from Mr Cameron. But, after reading Truth, Lies and Advertising - I've got him figured. Say you wanted to sell more milk (this really is relevant - bear with me). You figure there are people already using milk, and there are people using no milk. It's easier to sell more milk to people using milk already than convincing people who don't

Hot on the heels of the Presiding Officer's views on the future of the Assembly, we now have former First Secretary Alun Michael expressing his views on why he lost his job in the Assembly. In an interview with The House Magazine, Mr. Michael re-opens an old row with Presiding Officer Dafydd Elis-Thomas by suggesting the PO ignored legal advice. 'Lord Elis-Thomas's actions paved the way for "endless challenges", says Mr Michael. He had been under pressure in the Assembly over European funding and had been trying to operate without an overall majority. The Cardiff South and Penarth ...

Matt Sellwood in Peak Oil claims that: The fact that only the Green Party is talking about this problem is extremely worrying...politicians of all new parties need to be planning for our 'energy descent'. Matt sits in a council chamber with Lib Dem Sue Roaf, who has been going on about this since I first knew her. Lib Dems federal policy on housing promotes Community Land Trusts which we who are promoting that in turn see as a way of implementing things like change in the housing stock to achieve self-sufficiency in ...

The vote for independence for Montenegro means that this year's World Cup in Germany has actually just gained another country in the draw. Having qualified as Serbia and Montenegro the narrow vote (as yet not finalised) over the 55% threshold means that the team will have representatives of two states in their squad. In political terms it would mean that Serbia, once the hub of Yugoslavia, will

I heard on the radio this morning that Dave wants to make people happier (clue: human rights help with this!) I wonder whether he's been reading Lord Layard's book? Cameron thinks we should focus less on our GDP and more on our GWB: apparently this means our general well-beingand not our George W. Bush I understand that this is the main difference between New Labour and the New Tories these

Dave Cameron now wants his party to reach into our skulls and make us happier. The biggest displays of spontaneous public happiness I've seen were the Ashes and Rugby world cup wins, and May 1997, when the Tories were thrown out of office and perfect strangers did deeply unbritish things like laughing out loud, smiling at one another and talking to complete strangers.

In his continuing search to stay in the headlines without doing anything as drastic as announcing the odd policy or twain, David Cameron is now grasping the "happiness agenda". As well as avoiding announcing hard policies in traditional political areas, he now wants to also avoid policies in non-traditional areas such as making people happier. I was fascinated to watch an interview he gave with

Yesterday at Rugby Park Kilmarnock the Scottish Junior Cup ended in a narrow 2-1 win by Auchinleck Talbot over Bathgate Thistle. Bathgate had been getting progressively more garlanding in Blue and White (Thistle's colours) through the week and for a change a guy was selling scarves and flags on St. David's Street on Saturday. While Auchinleck picked up their seventh Junior Cup title this was the

Absolutely gutted by yesterdays shambles of a performance by Leeds. Quite simply most of the team did not turn up on our big day. We defended poorly and lacked any real creativity and pace. Congratulations to Watford - Their whole team did turn up and did them proud. Quite simply the best team on the day won. Good luck in the Premiership

As is by now well-reported, the Presiding Officer has fired a broadside at the Assembly, challenging us to get our act together in response to the new Government of Wales Act. Presiding Officer Dafydd Elis-Thomas has strongly condemned the "horrendous time-wasting" and "worthless processes" of the Welsh assembly. He said it was "exasperating" the full assembly sat only two afternoons a week, and then often finished early. Lord Elis-Thomas said voters neither loved the body nor had value for money. He had some particularly strong things to say about Plenary and the ...

Or it seems not. Leeds United have been defeated in the play off final 3 - 0 by Watford. Now I am not a football fan. In fact sport doesn't interest me at all. However you don't have to live here very long to realise the complex vortex of pride, passion,pain, loyality, hope, fear and love that represents Leeds United. Moving up a league is also the dreary officer speak that is used about the plans to bring the city upto European standards (whatever that means). Whatever my own views there just is something about having a premiership football club ...