LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Lovely summer sunny day and down in Midsommer Norton with some colleagues from Wansdyke delivering a residents survey and in the High Street discovered a useful letter box nicely sealed up so it was not useable. Quick as a flash out with the digital camera and hey presto. Nathan is a very keen young Liberal Democrat activist. We already have several young people looking/considering standing for...

This post by Peter has got me thinking about the Conservative A-list. When I first heard of it, I thought it was a vaguely good idea for them to try; if the traditional image of the Tory party is of stuffy middle-aged men, how better to change it than to bring in some youth, some women and some ethnic minority candidates? But after thinking about it some more, and having seen some of the people on the list and those who didn't make it, I'm not so sure. And, it seems, the Conservatives of Bromley and Chislehurst have their ...

There is an unfortunate article on Cuba by the often admirable Labour MP Ian Gibson in today's Guardian. Granted, America's obsession with its small neighbour is rather silly. Granted, it deals happily with many regimes that are worse than Castro's or equally bad. But what should we think of a passage like this? Amnesty International claims that 72 prisoners of conscience are detained in Cuban jails, an allegation rejected by the Cuban government, which argues that all were tried and found guilty of being in the pay of an enemy power - the US.So who is right? Do we trust ...

In "Let Our Cities Breathe" earlier I wondered whether there was a mechanism that could make it financially feasible to redevelop whole neighbourhoods of private housing to cope with the post oil-age and climate and demographic change without any existing resident losing any of their existing equity value and whilst making space for fifty per cent more bedspaces in configurations more closely suited to current housing market needs and still sell the additional units and below market value. So I set about to try to prove it on paper, and there is a spreadsheet now that purports to show it ...

There is a piece in the Guardian's Education supplement today on the Into University project. This is a scheme to encourage children from disadvantaged backgrounds to think of going to university and sounds wholly admirable. Rachel Carr, one of the organisers says of it: "The idea was always to provide the sort of support structures that middle-class families take for granted." She adds: "When children are living in cramped accommodation with a lot of noise going on, it's hard for them to concentrate properly on their homework - especially if they are not getting a great deal of help or ...

I was apprehensive before seeing United 93, having heard the viewing experience was going to be uncomfortable due to the film's subject matter. The film centres around the passengers on the only hijacked flight on 11th September 2001 that didn't make it to it's target, United 93, and their uprising against those that hijacked the plane. I wanted to see this film, but wasn't looking forward to

Or so the BBC tells us. But is 101 per cent enough? Wouldn't 110 per cent or even 120 per cent be better?

It has to be said that one of the vagaries of devolution is that those parties who have never had to think through their policies on a Welsh level before have had to grapple with the myriad of powers and competencies available to the Assembly, whilst at the same time thinking up issues on which they can differentiate themselves and which the Assembly can actually make a difference. As a result manifestos have either been very vague, unachievable or, as with the Welsh Liberal Democrats and Wales Labour last time, wrongly costed. Inevitably, this has led to newspapers like ...

Since the days of Sir Alec Douglas-Home, the Tories have gone for an ex-grammar school pupil for the job as leader (exceptions being William Hague - comprehensive, and IDS - educated at HMS Conway). They took the decision - more or less consciously - to avoid looking like a bunch of aristos and to cultivate a more "normal" public face. Indeed the governments of Mrs Thatcher were full of ex-grammar school boys - people who had often done quite ordinary jobs before entering politics. These are the people who are going to be excluded by the A-list - to ...

Saturday’s Doctor Who was particularly good, a return to the ‘claustrophobic terror in distant space’ style of story with some great performances, scary Cthulood monsters and the most chillingly villainous voice in the world, all to build up to the Satanic revelations of this week’s episode and tie in with today’s favourite-of-numerologists date. But you know how it is. Some people are never satisfied. I wrote a few weeks ago about the similarity in ‘tribal’ feeling between politics and Doctor Who; well, now Doctor Who has its own panic about ratings, just like the Lib Dems over the local elections ...

IraqForest GateTragedyFarce All come to mind. It is hard to know whether one wants the police information to be wrong or right.

AN archaeological team that has been delving deep to dig up the past on the site earmarked for the multi million pounds Coatham Links scheme in Redcar has not found anything that could delay the development. Redcar and Cleveland Council’s development partner Persimmon Homes has commissioned the investigation as part of the preparatory work for the planning application due later this Summer. A team of five archaeologists will be on the site until Friday, including Senior Keeper Steve Speak and Keeper of Field Archaeology Gary Brogan from Tyne and Wear Museums, who have dug out seven trial trenches across the ...

Back in the day, long before he was reviving Doctor Who or writing Queer as Folk, Russell “The” Davies wrote a couple of BBC children’s drama series, 1991’s Dark Season and 1993’s Century Falls. Both were excellent pieces of kids’ TV. Dark Season, which featured a young Kate Winslet among the cast, was, in many ways, [...]

I have no interest in fashion, as anyone who’s seen me would be able to testify. But nestled away in theguardian’s G2 supplement each Monday is “Ask Hadley”, which I read every week. She will ease your fashion pain, apparently, but I read it ‘cos it’s funny. Not highbrow humour, but suitably silly and, despite [...]

The BBC offers a summary of the first 100 days of the Leaders of the Opposition (not of Liberals or Lib Dems sadly). Reading the entry for Kinnock it is hard to miss the parallels with Cameron The new Labour leader had performed "adequately" in his first few months, Nicholas Comfort wrote in the Daily Telegraph. "However, Mr Kinnock and his associates have no wish to break the spell by talking about detailed policies. "Nor has the 'hard left', which sees itself as the guardian of conference decisions, yet made an overt challenge, though no one doubts that ...

After the fun of the dragon boat races on Sunday I went back to the Guildhall to prepare for the Civic Service that marks the beginning of the Mayoral Year. This event requires full robes for the Mayor and Deputy Mayor, two maces and a procession through the Ancient Market, escorted by the Police. Each year representatives of voluntary organisations are invited. This year...

The Lib Dems have launched a petition against homophobic bullying, something the party’s MPs have been campaigning on for a few years; not the most glamorous or vote-winning cause in the world, but good on everyone involved for pushing it. It’s the last type of abuse by ‘group’ still socially acceptable for many; more difficult to identify than, say, racist abuse, and therefore to stop; and instead of relying on parents for support, many kids will feel they couldn’t tell them in a million years. Worse, if some parents found out, they’d be worse to their kids than the bullies ...

Within the course of a day we have seen some very different opinion polls released. Some seem to show the Tories are moving ahead, others show a recovery in Labour. I am slightly surprised to see the government not being hurt more by the recent rash of bad publicity. The unmasking of John Prescott's secret Croq (uet) habit may not have any major impact, despite the shrill and rather snide comments in the press. As for Larry Lightweight- the current Tory leader- his rather pitiful choice of Ernie, the Fastest Milkman in the West as one of his Desert Island ...

Oh dear. I know every party has people who say dodgy things, but when you reach a certain level of responsibility, you should aspire to think before opening your mouth. A Conservative Member of the London Assembly, my local mini-Parliament, thinks London isn’t concreted over enough. No, seriously. And I say ‘a Member’; actually, he chairs it. He’s London’s top elected Tory. Brian Coleman (Con, Barnet and Camden) told the Evening Standard: “I think we could do with a multi-storey car park on the site for 1,000 cars. That’s what Londoners need. Parks in central London we’re not short of.” ...

"Tories will not promise tax cuts"....."LibDems to cut income tax by 2p"...I did feel a bit like Alice slipping down the rabbit hole when I heard that couplet of headlines. Cameron is becoming a LibDem to get elected, while we're becoming Tories to not get elected. I jest. But I was very gratified at the evidence of some radical thinking on tax. From all the reading (not much) I have done on

Last night I went to see the Beautiful South at Wolverhampton's Civic Hall with my friends Caroline Cheyne, Christine McHugh, Dave Hodgson, Dave Radcliffe and Nicola Davies. The band were great and are currently touring with their new album Superbi - if they are coming to a venue near you make sure you go!

I've been thinking about affordable housing, urban design, community involvement and climate change. I think back to the aerial photographs of Headington Quarry tucked away in the Coach House taken in, if memory serves, 1930. The familiar streets we know today as Weyland Road, Margaret Road, Mark Road, Wharton Road and so on are laid out in plan form with half built houses dotted about. Clearly a big estate in the making. And I recall also reading of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century development of much of inner suburban Oxford, like the terraces and semis around ...

We now have outline plans for our replica of HMS Beagle here. Co-founder David Lort-Phillips (descendent of John Lort Stokes, who sailed with Charles Darwin on the 1831-36 voyage) and shipwright Detlev Loll are meeting Milford Haven Port Authority to view the site which has been allocated for the Beagle rebuild. We have also picked up a pretty high profile supporter: a professor of history from Cambridge University whose name will head the list of supporters on the website The replica will take 14 months to build and will be launched in 2009, the 200th anniversary of ...