LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Enough of thegrauniad: they're on their own today anyway - the other papers are full of praise for Ming Campbell's speech yesterday. I was especially please to see the Financial Times's warm endorsement of the Lib Dem approach: ... it is good to see tax policy go beyond the tired question of whether tax should go up or down. The Liberal Democrats deserve praise for this. Even better, the rough

thegrauniad has taken to being rather scratchy about the Lib Dems in recent weeks. Ten days ago its editorial unfairly dismissed Ming Campbell’s impressive speech on crime without seeming to have troubled to read it. Today, it is just as sceptical about the priorities for a liberal Britain Ming yesterday outlined: What - and whom - are [the Lib Dems] for? Hunting for a maturity justified by the 6

It's been a year since I began this blog. When I started out I wanted to write a blog a week. Sometimes I have done four blogs in a day, other times nothing for a month. So for anyone who reads this blog, thank you and apologies for the lack of consistency. I have tried to write with a certain objectivity about politics but while admitting my own preferences. Does that make sense? Is that

This is today's House Points column from Liberal Democrat News. Bob Russell's complaint about my Essex MP jokes can be found here. The jokes themselves were in the House Points column for 9 April 2004. The Shropshire joke was inadvertently invented by Lord Bonkers in his diary for July 2002. There you will find another example: "My wife comes from Shropshire." "Long Mynd?" "That's rather personal, isn't it?" Oral traditions Bob Russell once objected to my invention of the Essex MP joke. (‘Why do Essex MPs support VAT? Because they can spell it.’ You know the kind ...

I went to Bromley to help in the by-election today. It was hot, but nothing like as hot as polling day in Littleborough and Saddleworth for those of you who remember the by-election there. You can find the Lib Dem HQ next to Bromley South railway station - map here. All help will be gratefully received and well used. Yes, we are in that rather swish modern office block, in case you are puzzled when you arrive.

David Cameron has recently being talking about happiness. Richard Layard, Labour party adviser and professor at LSE, has written a book about it. Their view appears to be that society should be constructed to maximise happiness for people. Why? Well Jeremy Bentham said that the aim was the greatest happiness for the greatest number. And the US constitution says people have a right to the

Thames Valley Arts Club - a network of artists who work in a range of media - is 100 years old this year. Do go along to their exhibition in Kingston Museum Art Gallery. I opened it this evening, and it was a real treat to see the works and meet the artists. There are plenty of original paintings to buy at very reasonable prices - I know because I bought a subtle water colour by Ann...

Ming Campbell, leader of the Liberal Democrats, - in case you hadn't realised - has made his first major speech. It was mostly concerned with taxation. There were two other points that stood ouut and struck me. He argued that the party must prepare itself to fight an election in October 2007 (no not a leadership electon after Ming stands down but a General Election). Everything he and the

Choice is the buzzword these days. Tony Blair says he is pursuing a choice agenda. Cameron thinks Gordon Brown is a roadblock to choice (the roadblock to the electorate choosing Cameron perhaps?) and the Lib Dems are a party all about freedom and presumably choice. In fact, these days we have little choice about having to think about the politics of choice. How important is choice? Blair

Liberal Review recently did a brilliant deconstruction of David Cameron and his hypocrisy on many issues. Well, now there is evidence that our Dave is even two-faced when it comes to the simple matter of music. Yesterday he was in the press for slamming Radio One, in particular DJ Tim Westwood, for encouraging violence by playing hip-hop songs. Close analysis of lyrics sung by two of David

I'm utterly appalled that a browse through LibDemBlogs.com and the LDYS forums has failed to come up with a single person challenging the US and Iraqi forces decision to kill the man, rather than bring him to trial. If they knew where he was (which the deployment of two highly destructive bombs suggests they did), why did they not go in there and capture him. His subsequent trial, like the current

The 'short violent life of Abu Musa al-Zarqawi' is covered in a long article in the Atlantic Monthly. Required reading I think for anyone who wants to counter the enrgetic myth-making of this killing being a 'blow to al-Qaeda'. On the contrary the removal of the chief formentor of a civil war between Shi'ite and Sunni Iraqis may well benefit real al-Qaeda objectives. Don't let Blair get away with his chorusing of the Bush disinformation mantra. This for example is what happened when al-Zarqawi met Osama bin-Laden in December 1999. (Al-Zarqari) and bin Laden met at ...

This Sunday there are Carrom Games at Arnold Circus on Boundary Estate. A similar event was held last year as part of the Bethnal Green Spaces. It's a great time to discover the circus, why not come along...

The facilities at Princess Alice Hospice in Esher are available to anyone living within 10 miles, which includes the whole of Kingston. Today I was invited to the first official tour of their new building, along with the mayors of the other boroughs that it serves. The new build means that they can now offer 100 hospice day care places, centred on this light and airy day...

The Police are sometimes accused of acting in a heavy handed manner but Clive Wolfendale, the Deputy Chief Constable of North Wales, has taken the concept to a new extreme. His warning that people flying the English flag during the World Cup were failing to act in a decent and courteous manner is way over the top. Mind you North Wales Police have form on these issues. It seems that we are being overrun with an unnecessary and disproportionate political correctness in a way that it is undermining the equality agenda. I know that Wales is a largely tolerant ...

I have already commented on the system used by Plaid Cymru to select their regional lists, so that women are put in the number one position regardless of their merits or, it seems, the number of votes they get. You may recall that in my own region of South Wales West the Plaid Cymru selection meeting was attended by 89 members. Sixty two of them voted to re-select Dr. Dai Lloyd, 14 voted for Bethan Jenkins. As a result Bethan Jenkins was given the number one slot whilst sitting member Dai Lloyd faces a tough battle to retain his seat ...

The opposition of the Assembly Government and at least three of the four parties in the Welsh Assembly to anymore nuclear power stations in Wales seems destined to come to nought. The Prime Minister used his weekly question time on Wednesday to make it clear that Wales cannot be treated as a special case when it comes to making a decision on building new nuclear power stations. This is the third big issue on which Labour in Cardiff Bay are at odds with their compatriots in Westminster. The other two are the loss of the Post Office Card Account and ...

Will Howells has an interesting two-part blog on Sir Menzies Campbell's speech yesterday and his chat with Ming: Part 1 Part 2 And also, thoughts on the speech by a right-winger. PS. Saddam and Osama, the cartoon.

...won't they raise less over time? This question is on many lips. Those of Nick Robinson for example. Here's my answer: No they won't. Demand for energy is fairly inelastic. Most users do not think much about the cost when switching on a light or driving to the shops. This means that we are a long way from the peak of the Laffer Curve in the eco-tax rates we're proposing to apply. Prosperity

A former work colleague has sent through news from north Herefordshire where he is a parish curate.This just seems like yet another World Cup tie in...Ashley's support for Walsall doesn't seem to have helped them this season, so I hope it doesn't rub off onto England.

Ming has at last come out fighting with the announcement that the Liberal Democrats aim to cut income tax by 2 pence. This is a bold move and one that should be supported. Of course you don’t get anything for free and as a result of this measure the so called green taxes will go up. So no more cheap flights and higher taxes for gas guzzling four by fours. Not that this affects me, as a recent graduate with loads of debt the nearest I am getting to a holiday this year is the Lib Dem Conference in Brighton! ...

Whilst down in London earlier in the week I managed to spend four or so hours helping in the Bromley by-election campaign. I hope to get down there again and will defiantly be going over to the Blaenau Gwent by-election election. Both contest are very important to the Liberal Democrats, in different ways.

I’ve come up with a good reason to not want England to win the World Cup. If we were to do it, you know that within seconds of David Beckham lifting the trophy, recording studios up and down the country would be full of people recording versions of ‘We Are The Champions’ to clog up [...]

Now we can get down to the real business of life, hopefully not distracted by income tax mutterings and competitive explosions in Iraq. I will of course be supporting Costa Rica in today’s opening World Cup match. And not only because their opponents are Germany. Who can resist a country with such enormously abundant wildlife, and no Army. Scots still smarting over the world Cup defeat by the Chicos several world cups ago may remember the background story, but for those new to the excitement the basic tale: there was an attempted military coup in 1948 which infuriated the Costa ...

If you need any better illustration of the promising effect of Thursday's Lib Dem announcements, it's the way it's suddenly open season on the party on certain right-of-centre blogs, such as Guido (no less than three knocking posts in quick succession) and Iain Dale (the rather comical assertion that the announcement represents the most left wing agenda since Michael Foot - they really ought to get their stories straight, as Guido is calling it Thatcherite). But obviously, I would say that, wouldn't I, as a Lib Dem? The question of impartiality has been vexing me rather, since someone ...

Having found a few spare minutes outside Standing Committee A etc I managed to issue the papers for R v The Prime Minister ex parte Hemming yesterday. So far the Cabinet Secretary, Prime Minister and Prime Minister's solicitors (Treasury Solicitors) have been unable to give a substantive response to my complaint that Ministers of the Crown don't answer questions. There are now very tight

This is a classic. According to the Guardian: Fed up with listening to two lawyers bicker for weeks over where to interview a witness in a civil lawsuit, US district judge Gregory Presnell decided to set a precedent by ordering the pair to settle the matter with a game of scissors, paper, stone. The laugh of the day award goes to the spokesman of the USA Rock Scissors League who said: "We will

I was very sad to hear of the death of Mike Caldwell, Vodafone's erstwhile communications director. I spent a year in the late nineties accumulating two cardboard boxes' worth of paperwork campaigning about the proposed (now built) HQ at Shaw. Throughout this time I came into contact with Mike quite a lot. Though I was on the opposite end of the debate to him, he was thoroughly decent and a very

"Liberal Democrats rejoice in a sudden attack of sanity" The best headline for us this morning - brilliant. It's as if Saint Chris himself paid them to write it. But...oh...um....look at the paper it's in....the Torygraph....aaah..does that tell us something?

Bad news this week about the decision on the Cranford Way concrete factory - the Inspector has given it the go ahead. Everyone is devastated. Following a tremendous campaign by local people and politicians across the parties - the Inspector deemed to find that all our cares and worries were as nothing. According to his findings we must all be mad. Sadly - it will be ordinary local people who pay

It's a funny old world when the replacement of a media-conscious young leader with a silver-haired patrician is the cue for the first ever free-for-all interview between a party leader and a bunch of bloggers. Admittedly, we were Lib Dem bloggers and therefore house trained, but our 45-minute session today with Sir Menzies Campbell explicitly had no preconditions attached, no advance notice of questions, no no-go areas, and no requirement for copy approval afterwards. Is this the future? I'd like to think so. To deal with the important stuff first, Ming has a genuine petrol-head's love of talking about ...