LibDem Blogs - Archived!

A new task force set up to target ‘street cruising’ drivers who drive dangerously in built up areas and blast loud music from their car stereos, has hit the streets of Birmingham for the first time. In a groundbreaking operation Environmental Health Officers from Birmingham City Council joined the Police on Saturday night on Landor Street, Nechells, to crackdown on dangerous drivers. By

For a month now an Indonesian flu H5N1 outbreak has had experts sweating as the virus inches closer to being a pandemic threat. If it does go pandemic, it will be too late to start planning and asking questions of your local health authorities, utilities and public services. So: what's happened to make fluxperts sweat? Eight members of an Indonesian family contracted H5N1 and six or seven died.

Tonight, I watched BBC's Question Time right through for the first time for several years. I was struck at how Geoff Hoon resembled all those wooden numpties who spoke for the Major government in its dying days. All they do is speak in a monotone, repeating "the line to take". It is a joke. The only time he showed any animation and authority was when he was talking about divorce settlements. He is

Lynne Featherstone came to chat to Oxford University Liberal Democrats tonight, and did a great job, talking about the future of the party and also her own David-and-Goliath story of building towards a Lib Dem victory in Hornsey & Wood Green. She even mentioned in passing that she'd been told about an internet poll in which she was the favourite new Lib Dem MP. Is there no end to the spread of Councillor Tall's readership?

It’s that time of year when the blog needs a bit of a spruce up. It’ll carry on changing a bit over the next few days, but first off I’ve switched to a fresher-looking two column theme. I hope it will make posts a bit easier on the eye. Tags: wordpress

If you enjoyed Lord Bonkers' Diary you may want to explore the archive of earlier diaries on his own website.

... It's entirely comprehensible why Nick Guest's boogeying on down with the ex-PM Mrs Thatcher has been flagged up as a highlight of the series by numerous journos. It IS the only highlight of the series, except perhaps for the welly-wanging. Question - was that supposed to be humorous? The plot moved with the speed of a toked sloth. It had all the drama, suspense and nail-biting excitement of

After posting details of the new Liberator yesterday I have received numerous letters asking me to post the whole of Lord Bonkers' Diary here. Although the letters are all postmarked Rutland and all in the same handwriting, I have decided to do what they ask. A few words of explanation or new readers: I have contributed this column to each issue of Liberator since (gulp) 1990. Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West between 1906 and 1910, and remains a vigorous presence in Liberal Democrat politics. He describes himself in Who's Who in the Liberal ...

I discovered how to make videos on the computer, so now I’m having a world of fun while I should be doing other things. Anyway, if you want to see what I can do with a Mercury Rev song and a Doctor Who episode then click here. (More information and download options here.)

I met these two colourful characters at the Fun In Sheltered Housing day.

Hundreds of Kingston University students volunteer to help the local community every year, so it was great to be able to honour some of them on Tuesday evening. And where better than in Oceana? - all those who won the special 'Stand Out' awards were able to stay on for a good night out. There was more to celebrate last evening when I gave out the certificates at Kingston Rotary's...

Letter received from staff at Ryedale House   On behalf of all staff in the Benefits Department at Ryedale House, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your kind comments and very genuine support at the council meeting last Thursday night (18th May).   The past year has proved to be very difficult for our staff and there has been a great deal of anxiety and distress in facing such an uncertain future. Our main concern has always been and will remain, with the customers of Ryedale and our service to them is our first priority. ...

As mentioned earlier, I listened to James Graham on Resonance FM last night. As well as talking politics generally, he was promoting Hands Off Our Future, his new website (and forum) promoting the issue of generational equity. With pensions - erroneously often not considered a young persons’ issue - in the news today, it’s well-timed. [...]

I mean, honestly. I wouldn't class it as particularly 'normal' taking the time to video and report the incident. That's before we get onto how 'normal' it is to be 'extremely shaken' by the sight of a nude woman 'walk[ing] back and fore completely naked'. And what's 'normal' got to do with it anyway - has it suddenly become a criminal offence to do something that others might regard as abnormal in

“Where would you draw the line?” asked the trailers for BBC Two’s The Line of Beauty. Having watched the lacklustre first episode, I was tempted to draw it there. No, I thought, I’ll give it another chance - maybe it’ll get going in the second episode - and, fair enough, the second part was a [...]

The war of words in Blaenau Gwent has broken out again with the Independent candidate for the Parliamentary seat accusing Labour of insulting the memory of Aneurin Bevan by selecting a candidate for his old seat who works as a top lobbyist for a controversial drugs firm: Mr Law's agent Dai Davies, who is standing as an independent with the backing of the Blaenau Gwent People's Voice group, said Pfizer's controversial international record made Mr Smith a wholly inappropriate candidate in the seat once held by the NHS founder. Although widely known for manufacturing the sex drug Viagra, ...

Today’s Herald carries a story that will make gloomy reading for the SSP. There have been suggestions that Tommy Sheridan’s libel battle might spell the end of the party as party secretary Alan McCoombs will soon appear in court facing demands to release minutes of the meeting that removed Sheridan from office as party leader. [...]

It's 93 degrees, humidity is at about 70%, and I'm sheltering in an internet cafe near Eagle's Nest, the family manse here in Mahim, one of Mumbai's now inner suburbs - it's entirely relative, I know. Having conquered my jetlag, I ventured into the city by bus to do a little shopping and to reacquaint myself with the sort of conditions that will be commonplace on this part of my journey (Vietnam

is unlikely to come from remote North Yorkshire farming villages, so would the USAF's rowdy F15s please fuck off at once and stop making repeated loud and very low passes over Hinderwell. We haven't seen the skies for a week thanks to fog and torrential rain and could do without Tom Cruise alikes ruining what is passing for our summer. We're nothing like Afghanistan or Iran here, but I've heard Lancashire has passing similarities. Try there.

Nicol Stephen has laid down a challenge to Labour over nulear power for Soctland. He stated that the Scottish Liberal Democrats will be distancing themselves from the policy that Labour are veering towards which is embracing new nuclear power stations for Scotland. Nicol said that Scotland is ideally poised to harness its unrivalled potential in wind, wave and tidal power to make a major

Earlier this week Gordon Brown told us that 60% of Scots would be doing it, along with him. However, Scotland's First Minister Jack McConnell has revealed he will not be one of them. Jack has said that while he is personally disappointed he will be supporting Scottish based enterprise, determination and graft. He will also be looking at those that provide flair and seeing how they progress with

This year's Big Brother is, to all intents and purposes, already over - despite only six days of its 13-week run having passed. The truly dreadful Shahbaz, a walking exemplar of everything defective in the human psyche, has left the house, but not before becoming the victim of a shocking extended period of bullying in which almost every single other contestant behaved quite appallingly. I have to say that had I been in the house I would certainly have joined in with them - Shahbaz went so far out of his way to be obnoxious to as many ...

The BBC reports that Rhondda MP and arch-Blairite, Chris Bryant, was one of the two Labour MPs behind the fundraising event where a copy of the Hutton report signed by Cherie Blair was auctioned. He has apologised and has said that no money will now be accepted for the sale of the report. To be fair, this is an unusual failure of judgement for Chris Bryant, who is well-versed in the ways of the media. His only previous gaffe, posting a picture of himself in his underpants on a gay contact website, is well-documented but has more to do with ...

This is straying into "you couldn't make it up" territory. The town (which calls itself a "city" for some reason) of Black Jack, Missouri, USA has a law, recently confirmed by the local council (pictured), which bans unmarried couples with more than one child from occupying homes there. One such couple is facing fines of £270 a day for continuing to live in such a situation. I can feel one of my