LibDem Blogs - Archived!

That perception is everything (or very nearly) is, I imagine, the most depressing canon for those actively involved in public life. It must be a thought that frequently troubles our Chancellor, and Premier-apparent, Gordon Brown. Today’s thread over at PoliticalBetting.com poses the question, “What’s Gordon like under fire?” and observes that his likely assumption-without-challenge of the Labour

(and its drafters impaled) the Recreational Craft Directive, enacted at the whim of the large French and German yacht manufacturers. If you design and build your own boat then try to sell it - no matter how seaworthy it proves - without certifying it according to the RCD you get your ass prosecuted and fined. This came home to me with a bang today while teaching a bursting-with-pride family the

(and probably dispiriting), fortunately the US Geological Service has done it for you. Click, choose your glacier, run the quicktime movie and watch the ice recede. These films are from Glacier Bay National Park which will soon just be Bay National Park. From Inkycircus does Alaska.

Sure Start "harms children who need it most" says the Guardian website. But the words in the quotation appear nowhere in the report below. And if Sure Start does harm some children, then it is the last thing they need. So it was an odd headline to use. My feeling has always been that playgroups, nurseries and the like are excellent institutions and should be encouraged by the state, though there is no reason why it should run them all. But I have been wary of the New Labour attempt to give them an explicit therapeutic purpose. I ...

Today's House Points from Liberal Democrat News, none of which will come as much of a surprise to anyone who has been reading Liberal England this week. Do dare The man on the bus was wearing a “Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future” T-shirt. It did not seem a good idea to tell him I was working for the Emperor Ming. It’s like that at the Bromley and Chislehurst by-election. When I arrived at our headquarters, I was given a delivery round and told which bus to catch to reach it. From what I saw from ...

At our recent Community Services meeting, the town council agreed to give its full support (including some financial support) to the plans for a skating rink in the Market Place for two weeks at Christmas. The market traders came up with this idea. It is a very exciting prospect. Apparently there will not be another external ice rink of this type for many miles around.

At our recent Community Services meeting, the town council decided on the name for the green opposite the old hospital site on Andover road. It is not often a piece of land doesn't have a name! We have recently been having discussions about ensuring the preservation of this land. We had to refer to it as "the green opposite the old hospital site". We surveyed local residents to ask them what they wanted to call the land. A very knowledgeable resident came up with a list of six possibilities, all with connections to the vicinity.Residents overwhelmingly preferred the name "Old ...

At our recent Community Services meeting, I presented some research I have done into market canopies and awnings. I am not an expert in this area by a long chalk. But I did take some photographs and talk to the market manager at Andover. All their market traders use canopies, which improve the look of the market. The Market Manager at Newbury is encouraging all the market traders to move to these canopies as soon as possible.

At our recent Community Services meeting we received a reply from West Berkshire Council on our questions about the market place enhancement. Most of our concerns were around Town Council property or activities in the market place such as the Thursday and Saturday markets, bench, Christmas tree, hanging baskets, vehicular access to the Town Hall etc. West Berkshire gave good responses to all these points. We also raised a strong concern about traffic jams in Bear Lane which may be exacerbated by closing Wharf Road. West Berkshire council will monitor traffic flows closely while the work takes place, which will ...

There were a range of interesting topics covered in the recent Community Services meeting of Newbury Town Council. I am covering them in a series of posts. The first one was the most controversial. The future of a piece of land which the council owns in Derby road. Sovereign Housing Association have offered to buy it to build a wheelcahir/disability home. We had a group of residents from Derby

I've recently become more aware of the paranoia which seems to surround political groups. I've been aware of some in the LibDems who seem to think that having anything to do with the economically liberal tradition within the party will lead to a neo-Thatcherite take over of the party, or a move to Blairism, which to me smells strongly of paranoia. There are other groups however which are far more

I have signed up to the citizens initiative petition to end the European Parliament's costly monthly trips to Strasbourg. Each month the European Parliament packs up its offices in Brussels and heads to Strasbourg for just four days - a move that is costing EU taxpayers €200 million a year! Have you signed? You can at www.oneseat.eu

Top Ten Reasons for being Serb:1. You are not a Croat.2. Basketball team.3. You can choose between several war criminals in Presidential elections.4. You can enjoy the positive media coverage of your country when abroad.5. You can fight 600 year-old battles against the Turks and their domestic collaborators, be convinced that it's happening right now, and not be entirely wrong.6. You can always go to Greece and Cyprus and fear nothing.7. Grilled meat and slivovitz.8. You get to drink slivovitz and eat grilled meat even when under economic sanctions.9. You are the only European country which was bombed ...

I've consistently failed to complete the last 3 weeks worth of "Tough" and "Tricky" killers in The Times. Are they getting more difficult, or have I not fully developed a toolkit to solve them?

On Tuesday the Assembly will be debating a motion calling for an inquiry into the Welsh Ambulance service. This is a hot topic in Wales at the moment, especially after its former boss went to the press claiming the service is in a dire state and blaming the Labour Assembly Government for under-investment: The service is struggling to hit its targets for responding to 999 emergency calls and needs an estimated £35m of investment in staff, vehicles and communications equipment, including advance satellite navigation. The crisis in the service was brought to a head last month when Roger ...

As some of my regular readers may know I work in a call centre and last night I got called upon to cover the shift that finished at 7 o'clock. Fortunately work very kindly has TV sets so we can at least watch the action while contiunuing to take calls during the World Cup. However, from 5pm to 7pm last night while we were constantly taking calls I only had two from male customers, every other

There's an article in the Guardian today that suggests the 50p rate will be offered as a costed option at party conference rather than ditched as previously stated. The article is not attributed so may not be true and I hope that it isn't. The main point of contention is the following passage:Senior Lib Dems are so nervous about the reaction of activists, who will vote on the proposals at the party's autumn conference, that they have now decided to offer an up-front option of retaining the 50p rate. They fear that otherwise members could pass their own motion to ...

The author of Mrs Dale's Diary (former candidate for Norfolk North, former David Davis campaign manager, apparently named by London Evening Standard's Power People list as one of the top 200 most influential people in London, yet not one of the top 100 Tories not yet in the House of Commons) visited this site yesterday evening and left a comment I would like to answer if I may. Mr Iain Dale said

Earlier this year, as part of the fallout from the "Mohammed cartoons" incident, various attempts were made to boycott Danish products on the Middle East. Unofficial boycotts occured in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, with Iran banning Danish imports. This followed the Danish Prime Minister's refusal to censor the newspaper which printed the original pictures; he correctly replied that it was no business of the government to tell newspapers what to print. In response to the boycott, an international campaign was mounted to "Buy Danish". Christopher Hitchens, writing in Slate reports ...

Neighbourhood committee next week - and one of the things I am raising is how we can do more to make sure walking is possible when there are street works going on. there is some essential work going on on the corner of Banks Road and Speke Road. it needs to happen and no one is quibbling about that. My grumble is that, if you are a pedestrian (and I walk this way to work every day) it is either not at all clear where you should walk or it is actually narrow and difficult (and I ...

The health service in Liverpool is looking at creating what they call "super surgeries". These would be groups of GPs and other services all in the same place. Its early days yet but it looks like they have identified Grassendale and Childwall as possible venues for two of them. On the face of it a one - stop-shop for health services sounds really attractive - but we need to stop and take a proper look. If some GPs end up moving to these centres, there will inevitably be some people who find themselves a lot further ...

Whatever else might be said about our Prime Minister, Tony Blair, we can at least be grateful he's not George W. Bush. The President's gauche exchange with LA Times reporter Peter Wallsten has unsurprisingly attracted some adverse comment, not least from the ever-brilliant Daily Show's Jon Stewart. Watch it here. And weep.

Another example of why taxing a piece of equipment is silly and antiquated: the advent of broadband makes the task of taxing everyone even more unlikely.

I'm catching up a bit this week, because I still haven't mentioned the Royal Kingston District Scouts. Their AGM was remarkably well attended despite of the rival attraction of the World Cup. The word 'fun' kept cropping up - Scouting develops self esteem, confidence and community spirit in their members through laughter and enjoyable activities. The meeting reflected on another year...

It is great to see further progress on the consultation on Victoria Park. Full details, including the questionnaire being sent out, can be found on the Town Council's web site. There are a number of things going on regarding Victoria Park over the next few months. It might be helpful to outline the different items: 1. Town Council consultation about Victoria Park happening now. Asking people how they use the park, what they like or don't like about it and what facilities they would like to see less or more of. It also asks users or non-users why they do ...

Vicar in ... We'll have to get used to calling him Priest-in-charge, and eventually Rector, but I expect many will still be referring to him as the Vicar of Kingston. On Tuesday, in a service which was both warm and dignified, Rev'd Jonathan Wilkes was formally welcomed to his new role, which gives him oversight of All Saints and St John the Evangelist. All...

I enjoy hammering the Grauniad, although hammering perhaps isn't the term - prodding with a Pythonesque sense of the Grauniad's absurdity (perhaps using a shrubbery), maybe... Hammering suggests hysterical indignation. But I feel I can engage with this article on Comment is Free about the unfortunate who submitted a screaming head on a plinth to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition... and found

Its arcane rituals seem designed to scare off most normal people, but I found when I spent the whole day in Parliament as though I had entered a different world. It's the third time I've been to a Crossrail Select Committee now and I'm understanding how it works and feel at home. But first I went to the debate in the House of Lords about the report of the Power Inquiry. This was a...