LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Today's Observer reports: Radical proposals promising a 2p cut in the basic rate of income tax, funded by a green levy on air flights, and tougher tax rules for the wealthy will be unveiled by the Liberal Democrats this week. Assuming that this represents the verdict of the party's tax commission rather than an attempt to pre-empt it, my initial reaction is favourable. My worry about environmental taxes is always that they may work too well. If people change their behaviour because of the new taxes, won't that reduce the amount they bring in? How would we fund our ...

Pickled Politics has one too. Mind you, I am still not convinced that "roundup" is a word.

I'm fairly sanguine about individual opinion polls. Thats why I wasn't too panic stricken in January and am not to panic stricken now. However I do look at trends and think these need to be taken seriously. Two things are beginning to emerge from the recent polls which tomorrows for the SUN confirms. 1. The Lib Dems are not benefiting from Labours national implosion (at least at headline figures) 2. For a small but signifigant number of people the stigma attached to saying they will vote Tory has gone. Now David Cameron has got a very hard time from ...

I went looking for a low energy light bulb in Brighton yesterday. I was looking for a bulb to fit in a desk lamp, so it had to be the same size as a standard tungsten bulb. Most low energy bulbs are a little to large to fit that lamp. The first shop I went to [...]

It comes from Shropshire, of course. But it's not from the Shropshire Star. It's from the BBC's Shropshire pages. Bogus pie seller causes concern

The Observer has been given a sneaky-peak of the Lib Dem’s Taxation Commission’s current thinking and it sounds good. 2p off the basic rate of income tax, paid for by increases in environmental taxation and “tougher tax rules for the wealthy”. By the latter, I’m taking it to mean, at least in part, to some [...]

I can't imagine many people (or even any people) signing up for this, but you can now subscribe to podcasts of this blog using the Talkr button in the right-hand nav column, so long as you don't mind hearing it in a robotic American monotone that bears no resemblance to my own Home Counties mumbling. You can also listen to any single post (the recent ones, anyway) by using the 'listen here' button on each post. You can find out more about Talkr by following this link - I first saw it on Tom Reynold's blog a while ago ...

I'm going to out up a new poll over at m'other gaff soon, asking the question: who is your favourite must-read British political commentator? I'm going to short-list seven, probably from among the following (in alphabetical order): David Aaronovitch (The Guardian)Nick Cohen (The Observer)Matthew d'Ancona (Sunday Telegraph / Spectator)Danny Finkelstein (The Times)Simon Heffer (Daily Telegraph)Simon

Inspired by Nick, I’ve had a go at making a Doctor Who scratch video. The soundtrack is ABBA’s Happy New Year; most of the footage comes from the 1996 Paul McGann TV movie - now, gosh, ten years old. You can see it (on broadband only, I suspect) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2lqivhz9gE. And wasn’t The Impossible Planet great? [...]

Wales on Sunday tells us this morning that Catholic Priest Father Michael Burke believes that fans should check their conscience before they roar on Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago and Sweden, who play against England in the group stage. Father Burke, communications chief for the Mid Wales Minerva diocese, said: "It's the wrong attitude. It's not the Christian attitude, certainly. "No-one wishes ill on anyone. It is no better than wishing bad fortune on your next-door-neighbour. These games are meant to be seen in a light-hearted way and should be taken in this context." The priest said he ...

My weekend at the Hay Festival was both fascinating and enormously frustrating. The plan had been to take my Blackberry with me and blog whilst I was there. However, the entire area turned out to be a blackspot for O2 and I failed to get an adequate signal on my mobile phone or my blackberry for the whole weekend. I thought that at least I could compensate by using my camera phone to take pictures to post on getting home. However, having captured the photo above of Beth Orton at the Friday night gig, the battery failed on Saturday just ...

Tim Worstall's BritBlog Roundup and The First Post's review of the Sunday papers are both in place. You may also want to look at my anthology blog Serendib. This is a collection of amusing or thought-provoking passages I have come across in the course of my own reading.

Of course I shouldn't speculate on party policy on the basis of an Observer report much less so by quoting Michael Meadowcroft, however it doesn't stop anyone else so here it goes. I hope that todays reports are true and that the Lib Dems are about to announce a plan to cut 2p from the basic rate of Income Tax in a revenue neutral package that includes Eco Taxes and a gentle squeeze on the very wealthy. I always recall the Michael Meadowcroft quote that higher taxes "were progressive but not liberal". You may very well persue a liberal outcome ...

Andy Darley has a pretty full review of internet comment on the Tory choice for Bromley. Guido is quoted as writing: "So Cameron's Conservatives in Bromley and Chislehurst have chosen Bob Neill, a pin-striped, old, grey-haired, male barrister to fight the by-election. Back to the drawing board for the A-list, which hasn't worked out too brilliantly this time... UPDATE : He doesn't actually live locally and he is an opera loving Freemason (Greater London Lodge). Isn't it all just so retro 1950s?" And the Telegraph has the photo of the campaign Liberal Review previously covered Bromley here and the ...

My home broadband is from a company called Madasafish. While that may not seem immediately promising, they’re as fast as BT - since they use the same exchanges - and cheaper. The normal price is £17.99 a month, but you get the first six months at £11.99 a month, so the first year (which is [...]

The linked blog entry from an NHS GP give a good example of how what is potentially a good idea (caring for some patients at home rather than in hospital) starts becoming a problem in a financially constrained situation. Basically to save money the local health service is aiming for "care in the community" where potentially this could be argued rather than a balance made upon medical judgements.

I noticed this in the Oxford Mail the other day: Get Rid Of Gravestones Says Councillor (from thisisoxfordshire): UNSTABLE gravestones in Bicester's cemetery have been laid flat and could be thrown away if not claimed by relatives within two years. In the past, Bicester Town Council has repaired unsafe headstones, but councillors say it is simply becoming too expensive. A total of 28 unsafe memorials, whose owners cannot be traced, have been laid flat or cordoned off in the cemetery. At a meeting last week, town councillor Carol Steward said the council needed to adopt a firm policy for ...

Normally in these situations, I'd hold off from commenting until all of the relevant facts are in. There's an investigation underway, as occurs with all police shootings, and there is no clear and definitive account of what happened. But so far, based on the BBC report, it appears possible to conclude that: 1) Police were acting on a tip-off of some kind 2) They expected, or hoped, to find evidence confirming the tip-off 3) They don't appear to have found it yet 4) In the course of the search, one of the inhabitants of the house, Mohammed Abdul Kahar, ...

Well, who'd have guessed it, the Liberal Democrats could now be in the position of being the only mainstream political party to go into the next election promising a lower tax burden and radical tax cutting measures for most. In today's speech Tory Shadow Chancellor George Osborne promises tax simplification: but refuses to promise tax cuts. I wrote that a couple of days ago and and have been holding off writing more for 48 hours or so since I thought that with the Tax Commission meeting next Tuesday it would not be helpful, but today, says The Observer in ...

One of the things that has happened whilst I have been away was the announcement of the Conservative A-List and their first 35 Target seats that will select (both detailed below).

On Wednesday evening our neighbours gave us a surprise send-off party. We're going to miss them all. So far, so good. Our possessions are on the way to Canada and we are at my mum's. Yesterday we walked over the downs to Lewes. It was a glorious sunny day. We had lunch at The Long Room and then I bought some clothing at Gossypium, the Fair Trade cotton shop. On the way back we stopped for a while to listen to the larks and admire the hovering skills of two kestrels who were ...

I have been looking forward to my first Citizenship Ceremony at the Guildhall. Yesterday 49 new citizens, including several children, took the oath of allegiance and were welcomed as British Citizens. Each was presented with a certificate and a pin showing the Union Flag alongside the Royal Kingston logo. Some of Kingston's new citizens waiting to take the...

A mini master piece directed by Wim Wenders. Its ages since I went to see a serious film so I poped to the late show at the Hyde Park Picture House. ( www.wonderassociates.com/hydepark ) Its a sort of morality play set in contemporary small town america (the seedy mid western version). A burnt out, over the hill actor past the peak of fame finally looses the plot and absconds to find himself and his family. However he finds more family than he bargained for but is reborn in the process. Hardly an original story (but then are there any original ...