LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Yesterday (Tuesday 13th June) prior to the West End Community Council monthly meeting, Community Councillors and residents had a guided tour of the Riverside Nature Park, courtesy of the City Council's Leisure Harbour Community Council meets. Issues covered include :CCTV - Gellatly Street Car ParkRecycling in the City CentreCity Centre Play ParkNethergate/Marketgait junctionYou can download this

...and meant to be settled down somewhere in a nest with wife and kids when you see "The perfect gift for Father's Day...Level 42 - The Definitive Collection". Oh well.

I have always suspected that I imagined Bishop's Castle. A small town with two pubs that brew their own beer (The Three Tuns and The Six Bells) and the best secondhand classical record shop I know is just too good to be true. But this story from the Shropshire Star proves that it exists in the same world as the rest of us: Youngsters at a Shropshire primary school are being banned from wearing open-toed sandals during the heatwave because they could stub their toes in the playground. Bishop’s Castle Primary School has introduced the ban for health and ...

It has taken a while for the New Labour Government to find its voice. True its desire to control and its contempt for established procedure was there from the beginning. By the second half of their second term we started to see what they were really about and now in their historic third term, with talk of summary justice and harrying criminals, we know that New Labour is offering the electorate

Today's Guardian has a mildly sceptical piece on the Lib Dems' 4Rs Commission: Ironically, it seems the Lib Dems might have expressed themselves more clearly on this point. It quotes Anne Karpf, the author of a recent book on The Human Voice. Her views are a more charitable version of my own: "I'm all for people being helped to express themselves better ... but the idea that you teach it rather than encourage it I find slightly worrying. Soon we're going to have exams in it, which you'll be able to fail."

are here. Apologies to previous visitors who got the 404. Go look. Tags: HMS Beagle replica

On World Blood Donor Day Lorely Burt MP, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Women and Equality, has called for a review of the ban on blood donation by gay and bisexual men, which also affects the female partners of bisexual men.

Just when you thought you'd seen it all you walk along a marina pontoon and happen across someone gluing a five foot golden reclining Buddha to the stern of a Lagoon catamaran. (For the unfamiliar: Lagoons look like a German-designed bungalow - complete with patio and patio doors - bodged onto two giant bathtubs.) I thought I was having a flashback from That Terrible Night In Godalming. A three

I had one of those days yesterday. With 40mins notice I was asked by our ward support officer whether I was available to do an interview for the BBC. Fortunately, my office is just around the corner from where the interview was going to be held. So managed to pop out for 20 mins to do my piece. The package was being put together for BBC Birmingham (so only available on Sky Digital, the interweb, and will probably end up on Central Trains next week...). So not the largest audience to hear about the Rubbish Amnesty that we were operating ...

No, not yours truly in spandex*, but Prime Minister's Questions today in the House of Commons. Every bloody week there's shouting, jeering and booing across the floor as MPs attempt to ask the PM what his favourite curry is/whether he'll give them a job, but this week it seemed much worse, especially when David Cameron was speaking. It's the big red one in the middle you're wanting Do

Reading the various reports from Andy and Will, I feel guilty for only having written one report on our interview with Ming. Will's blog Andy's blog My excuse? Events, dear boy... But I thought I would follow up with a couple of observations: one negative, one positive. Getting the bad news out first... ..one of the themes emerging from our questioning was "how are we gonig to get through to "ordinary people". We phrased this in different ways (people who are not terribly green, people who read the tabloids etc) but the underlying theme was pretty consistent. There was ...

The unemployment rate is starting to rise again after about 3 years of bumping along at a respectable 5%. One of the main reasons for the rise is that the government's stealth expansion of public sector employment, which in itself was used to keep figures low, is no longer sustainable without massive tax rises. Public Sector employment is still growing at double the rate of private sector employment, but at the same time one of the main sectors shedding jobs is education, health and public administration. This either means public sector turnover is increasing, which is no bad thing, ...

It is often the case that question time in the Assembly fails to fulfill its functions because members insist on making speeches rather than asking questions. As a result we are often treated to long, sometimes-tedious discourses, read out by a member from a closely typed script. There is also a tendency for members to bring casework to the chamber but, instead of using it to illustrate a point they read out the letter they should have written to the Minister in the first place. This happened yesterday with firstly, an essay by Lisa Francis on the ...

So, I renewed my passport, as did my parents (although their reason was ostensibly so they can attend my wedding, both having expired ones). My parents sent both their application in the same envelope, mine was sent the next day. The odd thing is, my father's passport came back earliest and was an 'ePassport', that is it has an RFID chip in it, with a digitised copy of his photo on it, whereas my

This from A Fistful of Euros sets out the problem clearly. Worth a click. Tag: EU constitution

I’m experimenting with Opera Mini (link to follow via PC) on my mobile phone. It’s much better for browsing than the installed browser, with an improved display and proper handling of cookies. This means I’ve been able to update my CNPS stats on the move - having got four plates today after another slow week [...]

The Liberal Democrats have launched a new policy commission, called the "4Rs commission". I'm all in favour of some fresh thinking on education, and I don't necessarily share Jonathan Calder's reservations about the makeup of the panel. The announcement simply states that they will be providing ideas on schooling, not a full policy package, so I assume that we will be free to scrutinise their findings before any changes are made to policy. I think it's important to draw a distinction between ideas and policies, particularly where education is concerned. A long-standing and fundamental plank of Lib Dem ...

Much as I'd like to think Sir Menzies Campbell read my blog this morning and aimed his question at PMQs today based on that, I doubt it. After all he did speak on the subject yesterday to a group of businessmen. However, Ming added a new twist which must have made the fading shade of green Chameleon shirk in his seat across the ailse as he asked something that David William Donald Cameron

A meeting for people in Garston last night about the Garston cultural village plans. It's really good to see how things have moved on - particularly re the groundwork that's been done. The movers behind this realy should be congratulated. Last night was about getting some feedback and views from local people - but also about having people there to answer questions. Peter Millea, a fellow councillor was there too, as were some council officers and a lot of the people who are already very involved in Garston and its organisations. Here's hoping for even more progress!

Overheard on a train in London on Friday. Londoner: They don’t have litter bins at stations any more because of the bombs. American: Really? Londoner: Yes, they were worried about bombs at stations so took the bins away. American: To stop them rooting through the rubbish? Tags: american+english

This morning's Western Mail reports that golden goodbyes to senior WDA executives were 'hidden' by the Assembly Government after it promised scrapping the agency was not about cutting jobs: Redundancies were supposed to be avoided when the WDA merged with the Welsh Assembly Government, but in 'a significant' number of cases staff were given high severance payments. This happened in contravention of procedures agreed with the unions. The report continues: 'a significant number' of WDA employees were given ad hoc redundancy payments before the agreed merger process had even been implemented. This has not been ...

A short blog-post by Tom Hamilton on Assault in the NHS is heartily recommended. In it Tom criticises lazy journalists for not spotting what amounts a fairly pointless and probably counterproductive policy generated by the Goverment's obsession with new measures to tackle anti-social behaviour. Luckily for us Tom gives this measure a sound thumping - something that would cause a fine if you were on NHS property....

A prime Tory seat that of former leader and Home Secretary Michael Howard has selected only only 2 of Chameleon Dave's A-List of candidates in their short list of 20, that's TWENTY candidates. That is a one in ten chance of a A-lister which are worse odds (2 in 3) than in Bromley and Chislehurst where the local party failed to select an A-lister. Most high profile of the failures is Adam Rickett

Oh dear they claim to talk the talk but clearly neither of them walk the walk. David Chamelons new green caring Conservatives clearly are not even prepared to talk about key issues. The had agreed to discuss environmental policies with the Liberal Democrats but when they failed to commit on issues such as nucleur power and climate change levy Sir Menzies Campbell pulled the Lib Dems out of the

But this takes the biscuit. It's not really surprising why: the Rural Payments Agency... fail[ed] to pay £1.5 billion of European subsidies on time to English farmers and landowners. The staff were obviously... otherwise occupied. Recommendation to Blair - maybe NOT somewhere to move Prescott; the office party pictures would be TOO much.

This is not meant to be a review. It is a record of my impressions after watching Jerry Springer:The Opera last night. My first reaction was that this is a very moral play. It is a parody of the Jerry Springer style of television, but it also makes the serious point that for many people this sort of public confession and confrontation gives them some purpose in life. It is almost as if achieving their 15 minutes of infamy justifies their existence. The central thrust is that television has taken the place of God in providing meaning to people's lives. ...

We went to see Tracy Chapman last night in Bristol as she kicked off her European tour. I have seen her live several times and she was as ever absolutely brilliant. She played many of my old favourites and there were only one or two that I did not recognise. For me two songs really stood out. Her performance of “America” was so strong and powerful it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and her performance of “Behind the Wall” was absolutely awesome and you could have heard a pin drop ...

Mark Oaten is on Question Time tonight. Make sure you hold a mirror in front of you. If you go white or green you are holding your breath for too long. An emergency influx of oxygen may be necessary. ??????