LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Ming Campbell's been copping a fair bit of flak in the last fortnight, so it was good to see and hear him in fighting form today, launching a major speech on the liberal approach to crime and justice. I put off reading the speech tonight, slightly concerned Ming might have conceded liberal ground to the brain-dead right-wing press. No need to worry. It strikes an highly effective balance between what Ming terms the twin pillars of a liberal society: the rule of law and respect for human rights. I try not to make ...

ConservativeHome informs us that Dave Cameron has, rather touchingly, written to all Tory members asking them to dig deep to help he and his colleagues get rid of Labour. Nothing wrong with that, of course: all political parties fund-raise. What is interesting is the content of Dave’s letter. After the usual preamble - “We can win the next election, but we need your help” - he sets out the key

The news media is full of the ill-considered and frankly barmy remarks by George Galloway in which he suggests that it could be "morally justified" to assassinate Tony Blair. Admittedly, the question as to whether a suicide bomb attack on Mr Blair would "be justified as revenge for the war on Iraq" was wild, but Galloway is experienced enough and intelligent enough to have avoided an obvious trap. That he didn't says a lot about his lack of judgement. There is no room for personal animosity in politics and there is no justification for violence in any ...

The South Shropshire Journal has the story of the day: Villagers were due to meet last night in a bid to halt a gay pop festival taking place in their parish. Residents in Clungunford, Leintwardine and surrounding villages were expected to meet last night, Thursday, to discuss a licensing application submitted for the Squeezy Lemon Festival, which organisers want to hold on fields at Marlow Farm, outside Clungunford. The vice-chairman of Clungunford Parish Council, Jonathan Roberts, says: “Author A E Housman said Clungunford was ‘the quietest place under the sun,’ but if this is allowed to go ahead then ...

Borrowed from Lenin's Tomb, who borrowed it from MRZine.

Today's House Points column from Liberal Democrat News. Face spotting It’s one of the sights of London. The Commons division bell rings and hundreds of MPs stream out of their offices in Portcullis House, along the tunnel under Westminster Bridge Road and into the House to vote. They make a sound like a coal train. And if you are going the other way at the time, they have much the same effect. Famous faces whoosh past – Glenda Jackson, Boris Johnson, Stephen Byers. Faces you thought were long retired. Faces you recognise vaguely, if at all. It must ...

A moment of deep satisfaction on the way back from the post office this evening. I noticed white paint on the road in York Road, outside number one. I experienced deep satisfaction. Perhaps there is something wrong with me. I reported a pothole in this spot back on 7th April 2005. It was filled in. A week ago I noticed that the edges of the pothole had deteriorated, creating three

While I suppose we shouldn't be surprised. David Cameron is a Benny Hill fan and knows all the words to "Ernie (The fastest milkman in the west)". Crikey. I can remember a few of the words (Strange things happened on their wedding night...Ghostly goldtops...they won't forget Ernie) but not all of them. But then I know the words to a few other songs (if you can call "Ernie" a "song") and David Cameron apparently only knows the words to "Ernie". Poor lad. Like the hero of Evelyn Waugh's "A Handful of Dust", one can imagine David Cameron ending up, through ...

I was genuinely impressed by the humility shown by George Bush when talking with Blair on television today. He said how he thought his language such as "wanted dead or alive" had been a mistake at the start of the "war on turer". He said that the biggest mistake of the US in Iraq was Abu Gharib (although his pronunciation of that prison was rather unfamiliar to me).I did not know Bush was capable of such humility as he showed with his manner when he made those confessions. He was very humble.Then again, with the lowest approval ratings of any ...

Desmond Dekker, who has died, was very much a pioneer of reggae music in this country. With the Aces, he got to number one with the "Israelites" in March 1969. Up until then, it is hard to think of any other reggae music in the charts here. The Equals with Eddy Grant and "Baby Come Back" (Number one in 1968) couldn't really be described as reggae. I'm struggling to think of any other reggae song which hit the charts before Desmond Dekker and the Aces. Perhaps someone can remind me. The Maytals didn't have their first hit in the UK ...

I've encountered the Police three times in the last 24 hours, on one occasion being escorted by them! This picture shows a pupil at Lovelace School showing his CoP card to Superintendant Sue Hill yesterday. The Community or Police sticker card is another brainwave of Sgt James Ellis of the Chessington Safer Neighbourhood team. They are handing them out to all the Year 6...

Ok as Tony is getting all confessional how about some other thing he might want to get off his chest. 10. I'm not English after all and will be supporting Trindad and Tobago at the World Cup in Germany. (Don't know why Dave got invited to David and Vicky's bash but not me.) 9. I thought when Cherie first said she would introduce me to C. Chaplin she was talking about the famous film star

according to this well-argued piece by The Yorkshire Ranter. Who, as Lord Emsworth might say, is sound on pigs. Tags: nuclear power, fibs Err, it seems that in the US a fib is something people knit, not a lie as in Eastern Atlantic English. Two nations divided by a single language indeed, although listening to last nights joint press conference with Preznit Bush and the Poodle of Albion, it seemed they were talking a common language of deluded lying panglossian bollocks. Under the influence of: far too much Lavazza, Mozart quintet for piano, clarinet, oboe, ...

"George, you look beautiful tonight. And the answer is always yes... you can be the cat"

Connecting for Health Q:To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the status is of the Connecting for Health IT project.(John Hemming) A:I refer the hon. Member to the reply given on 16 May 2006, Official Report, columns 939-40W. (Caroline Flint, Minister of State, Department of Health) NHS Finances Q:To ask the Secretary of State for Health what formula her Department uses to determine the

Can I congratulate all of the Residents of Bridgnorth who have supported the 101 service. The usage for service has more than trebled in four years. As Liberal Democrats we campaigned on behalf of residents to restore the Town Bus service when the service was axed. Residents launched a petition, lobbied Kit Sheldon, myself, BDC and [...]

So the Local Plan has been assessed by the Planning Inspector, with some mixed messages for Bridgnorth District & for the Council. The Inspector considered over 2000 representations, amounting to 1687 objections. In Summary, the number of houses required to be built under the plan has been drastically reduced and the time frame for their construction has also been [...]

What do you get if you rush through sensitive legislation? What do you get if don't allow sufficient time for Parliament to scrutinise and debate such legislation? Well obviously for starters parts of it get overlooked and the repercussions are not fully realised until something that should normally happen without a glitch goes wrong. Step forward fourteen probationer Methodist Ministers from

My vague potterings were interrupted last lunchtime by a cat's cradle of blue tape across the road in my path, cordoning off (among other things) the scene of a shooting the night before and the restaurant where I'd been planning on eating.Police were still there in numbers, even though the shooting actually happened on the previous evening, and at one point a group walked line abreast, peering at the tarmac for kloos. They looked bored, like 14-year-olds on a geography field trip.It was a bright sunny day, and nobody felt like hurrying so everyone was content to watch them quietly, ...

The Conservatives on BDC are confused bunch. Earlier in this month the administration group split. A new group was formed called the Independent & Conservative Alliance. The new admin includes 11 from the previous admin leaving 6 of the old admin members behind in the Conservatives with Independents group. After a farcical, bitter & vitriolic power struggle [...]

Things are getting a bit fraught in the Assembly. There are tensions in the Office of the Presiding Officer between the PO and his deputy and there are a number of members who, faced with some real electoral threats to their future in the Senedd, are starting to get edgy. There was an exchange a few days ago for example between Llanelli AM, Catherine Thomas, and the Plaid Cymru rival for her seat, Helen Mary Jones, that just bristled with malevolence. John Marek is another member whose bitterness has spilled out into the chamber. He was attacked by Labour last ...

During the 1997 General Election I was based in the Welsh Liberal Democrat Office in Cardiff helping to co-ordinate our campaign across the Principality. Mainly, we spent the time thinking up ways of getting our message across in the media. This led to a number of stunts such as the Quangobusters and Plaidwayman. We also sought ways of livening up our daily press conferences by introducing props to illustrate our message. This could be as sophisticated as a giant mocked-up railway ticket or as simple as a piece of wood with a nail through it. One thing quickly ...

Once again, it’s time to crack open the champagne. This time to thank James Graham for launching a Liberal Drinks blog. We’ve mashed-up the Flock Together RSS feed for Liberal Drinks and the Google Maps API again to create a map of upcoming events. I hope there’s plenty of entries for the Liberal Drinks logo competition.

Inspired by the success of the last few Liberal Drinks in London, and out of a desire to see similar events happen around the country, Martin Tod and I have been working this evening on a new website to work as a focal point for the initiative (special thanks to Martin for letting me have [...]

I'm listening to the Blair/Bush press conference live on Radio 5. Its painful to listen to Bush. Perhaps its my liberal euro centric ear but he just sounds like, well, a complete idiot. What however is Blair's excuse. Urbane, intelligent perhaps the most talented politican of his generation. The press core is in awe of him and you can hear Bush's embarisment at having someone clearly more gifted next to him. And yet the only thing he is going to be remembered for is Iraq and I suspect that History will not forgive him. The day he leaves/is thrown out ...

I avoid these if possible as they are time consuming and raise issues of personal safety and boundries. However some times they are needed. Seeing a problem for your self or putting someone at ease by moving onto there territory can help. Yesterday evening I visited someone in a Council property who was having difficulty getting repairs done. I won't comment further on the specifics for obvious reasons but it was humbling. I was greeted with real hospitality and getting out and about is a nice change from email/paper work. As a Councillor I have no direct power over council ...

I'm doing the Walk for Life in London on the 30th of July to raise money for Crusaid. As anyone that knows me will appreciate the idea of me actually doing a RUN doesn't really work. So a walk it is. Its an excellent cause so please sponser me if you can. The link below is my online fundraising page www.walkforlife.co.uk/davidmorton