LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Simon Hoggart reports, rather deliciously, in today’s thegrauniad on David Cameron’s speech championing “the new politics” at the National Family and Parenting institute: "We have got to big up Asda!" he told us, excitedly. I wondered which Tory leaders would have brought the same message to the people. "Swan and Edgar - Respec'!" Churchill might have said. Or "Let us give due esteem to Sir

Today was a very busy day in terms of Council business. This morning I had a meeting of the Council's Local Services andProgress on the Houses in Multiple Occupation Licensing Scheme. The Housing Act 2004 introduced a licensing scheme for properties with 3 or more stories and 5 or more occupants who form more than one family group. This includes (but is not limited to) student households.

Monday night was spent at the COSLA Excellence Awards in Glasgow with the City Council Revenues Team who were shortlisted for the Service Improvement and Customer Needs award to mark the great strides forward in Council Tax collection levels in Dundee. See photos below. A thoroughly enjoyable night and great to see the City Council Revenues Team's efforts being recognised. Click on

Will Howells reports the welcome news that the Lib Dem peer Lord Avebury (who as Eric Lubbock won the historic Orpington by-election for the Liberals in 1962) has started writing a blog. Intriguingly, Lord Avebury reveals that Eleanor Paston his 13 times great grandmother married Thomas Manners, the first Earl of Rutland. The Manners family are now the Dukes of Rutland, which reminds me of the following entry in Lord Bonkers' Diary: I was sad to read of the death of my old friend Thor Heyerdahl. No one gives him much thought now, but in his day he was ...

No sooner does Tony Blair announce he's going buy two jets at a cost of £12 million a year, the Dithering Brutus next door announces he's going to buy a whole new set of ballistic missile submarines. Trident's replacement will cost "between £10 and £25 billion depending on what form the missiles or submarines take". Well, waterproof would be a start, but pink, leaky and crewed by Samba bands

I am grateful to the 3Ps for alerting me to Anne Atkins' "Thought for the Day" on BBC Radio Four this morning. I oscillate between Our Tel and Moylesy in the mornings, so I avoid "Thought for the Day". Although I cannot think of many things more wonderful than listening to the Rabbi Lionel Blue, the thought of actually having to listen to the voice of Anne Atkins, dentist-drill like, at 7.50am is

I see that the Guardian Diary has picked up on my googling about the incorrect "claim" of Mr Emmanuel-Jones to be "Britain's only black farmer". Totally unprompted by me, of course. Here is a link to my original posting on this.

Oh dear. It's finally happened. Auntie Beeb has pulled the plug of Top of the Pops after 42 years as reported by Guardian media. I suppose that something which was based around the "Hit Parade" and Jimmy Saville breathlessly explaining who was up and who was down in a chart which involved millions of record sales was bound to gasp its last breath in an era when singles sales are a fraction of

The BBC reports that Tony Blair is to get not one but two jets for his use and that of Her Majesty (and others). "They are expected to cost around £12.3m a year - about £2.7m more than the current arrangement (of chartering)." Staggering. This is totally unnecessary in my view. It is emblematic of our President Blair's extravagant self-importance. Apart from anything else the current cost of

I recently noticed that a GP of my acquantaince was down to give a talk on depression to a local church group. When I saw her next I asked her if she was a specialist in depression. Her reply was telling: "I am a GP. Every GP is a specialist in depression". ...i.e. the problem is one which GPs face with grim frequency. The figures bear this out. One person in six could be diagnosed at some time

Meet Becky (World at One Reporter) at 9am to discuss my constituent's case and campaign with regard to Munchausen by Proxy issues. The issues in this case - the man and his family were wrongly suspected of harming their child but persecuted along the way with accusations, lack of support and guidelines and procedures just not being followed. The prevailing attitude from the Minister and thus the

One of the things you are often asked to do as a Councillor is to be on the board of an organisation, either as a member or an observer. I try not to do too many of these as it can become really hard to fit it all in.. but today I was at a meeting at one of those I am going to be doing. It's the North West Disability Arts Forum, which I already knew a bit about from a previous job. They are so enthusiastic.. and actually have made so much progress.. its really ...

It is common for liberals (or “carrot crunching lefties”, as the people in my office call us) to be critical and often quite snobbish about the tabloid press. The recent campaign by the News of the World regarding “Megan's law”...

Just back from a lovely event at the Urban village hall in Garston. Two local primary schools singing newly written songs. the songs, plus a few others, are on a CD which was given away. On the cd itself there is also a picture of the sunset from Garston shore... so you are reminded of garston even before you play the music. The maestros behind this were Mike Axworthy and Ken Parry and the two schools performing were Banks Road and Holy Trinity. The song - Take My Hand - was performed twice.. the second ...

The LibDems have acquired another blogging Lord, and their first blogging hereditary peer, in the shape of Lord Avebury, aka Eric Lubbock, former MP for Orpington. You can read about, amongst other thing, his exploits on the by-election trail in Bromley and his speeches in the House of Lords at http://ericavebury.blogspot.com/. I met him in Orpington [...]

Apologies for condition of site. My server provider has ‘up-graded’ their system, and as such you now see the complete disarray. I have lost photos, graphics and the complete ‘own multi – choice’ layout has now gone. For the time being I will keep the text available for viewing, but to me this new system is not acceptable. Thank you for your patience. I hope to rectify this problem shortly.  SP 

This week is the UK's annual Bike Week. The Council's Cycling & Walking map shows off-road cycle routes and advisory routes on quieter roads. You can request a copy of the map on the Council's website here. As part of Bike Week, the Council's Sustainable Transport Team are organising a "self-led" (i.e. cycle at your own pace!) family bike ride along the Rea Valley Cycle Route (which runs past my

Tonight is London Liberal Drinks (as I realised yesterday). I shall be attending having mostly shaken off vague illness and needing a drink to combat banks, flat hunting, wedding planning and having to do some statistics at work. Details here. (many thanks to Mr James Graham for organising this) Tags:drinking liberals

I regard myself as being quite in tune with the ideas of liberal economics - free markets and so on. I think most of the privatisations of formerly nationally-owned industries were good, and that we're all better off for that having taken place. But the UK water market leaves me scratching my head in confusion. {Water} The whole point of a market is that companies compete to offer the best deal to the consumer, yet the UK water companies do not compete with each other. Instead, they operate a kind ...

The combination of Watford Liberal Democrats’ excellent victory in a council by-election last week and Iain Dale's ongoing criticism of Lib Dem campaign techniques prompts me to muse on the morality of election leaflets. I have been writing Focus leaflets and the like for 20 years’ now, with some success and the inevitable accusations of dirty tricks from opponents of various stripes. It is noticeable that such charges have been levelled against us in Watford are usually very generalised, as if the mere fact of campaigning for a Lib Dem victory is itself a dirty trick. But there is ...

Its that time of year again. Various parliamentarians collected at St Pancras Station and then set off at 10am on a mixture of their own bikes and others hired for the day. Notwithstanding televised rows between the cycling police and white van man, half the group taking the wrong route, and the usual large number of delaying red lights all of the group managed to get to the House of Commons in

It was inevitable really that Rhodri Morgan's tardiness at the Queen's 80th birthday celebrations would come up in the chamber yesterday, and as certain as night follows day, they did. First up was Rhodri Glyn Thomas, who prefaced his question about the health service with a pointed reference both to the event and the half-empty Labour benches behind the First Minister: Rhodri Glyn Thomas: It is nice to see that you have turned up on time this afternoon, although many of your colleagues seem to be following your example and leaving it a bit late. However, it ...

North Norfolk District Council will be discussing the now published report into a land transaction deal between the District Council and Tescos at the next full council meeting on 28th June.

I used to run National Bike Week and the MPs bike to work (John Hemming blogs about participating here) was a day of eye-popping blood pressure as we shepherded a scrum of cycling MPs and Peers through the streets of London to Parliament. It always got the press coverage we needed, and allowed us to talk to MPs and ministers in a way we rarely could in meeting, but I lived in morkul fear of an MP

The most wonderful about Tiggers is I'm the only one. from Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones A-Lististo and now Conservative PPC for Chippenham has had his Tigger credentials to be the only Black Farmer in Britain exposed by the Grauniad today, although fellow Lib Dem blogger Paul Walter got there first. Just for the record Wilfred David Mwanaka grows maize, pumpkins and butternuts in Essex, and is another Black Farmer who farms in the UK.

Congratulations to Mike Bell who has been chosen as the man who will take Weston-super-Mare back from the Tories at the next election. And he will. Mike’s an amazing campaigner and couldn’t realistically be any more local, so was a natural choice for the candidature. At thirty-three, it will be interesting to see what local Conservatives make of a candidate who’s significantly younger and more dynamic than the incumbent MP Mr Penrose, especially as they considered age to be so important during the general election. Exciting times ahead.

Mick Bates's revolutionary short debate this afternoon entitled 'Supermarkets - Jolly Green Giants or Incredible Hulks?' has hit some problems. Already some members have questioned whether the use of a powerpoint presentation is appropriate - are we a debating chamber or a lecture theatre? On top of that the Assembly's legal bods posed the question last night as to whether Mick had permission from the copyright holders to use various images on his slides. According to the legal advice a specific exemption was built into the Copyright Design and Patents Act 1988 to deal with Parliamentary proceedings ...

Zoe Williams examines politics and cycling today in the Guardian. Her take on these "Cameron-bikers": Generally, though, the principal purpose [of cycling MPs] is peddling a set of ideas rather than pedalling. Of course I don't need to spell this out, but fashion for yourself an image using these key words and phrases: green; sustainable; wholesome; ruddy; cheeky; fun; family man/lady; safety first; our planet is for our children; oops; after you, copper; ah, Bisto; help, I'm having an Englishness overdose, get me some garlic!

Really, you couldn't make it up. That well-known England supporter Scotsman Gordon Brown swans in to a corporate box courtesy of the German Government. Meanwhile, "Dave" Cameron chokes the life out of what little remains of his green credentials in the fumes from his private jet, which he used to rush him over to Cologne, having blagged a ticket from his corporate chums. And both laughably claim to be "men of the people".

Today's leader in the FT puts our recent pronouncements on nuclear power under the microscope. Link to FT Editorial I suppose we score 4 out of 10 from the FT. Sir Menzies raised the legitimate doubt of whether new reactors could be built "without massive state subsidies" or "rigging the market" to guarantee future prices. Those arguments are rehearsed on Ming's website Campbell on nuclear stealth taxes. When we can have a green, local, cheaper and more flexible alternative, why on earth should we and future generations pay more for radioactive nuclear power? A flexible, decentralised energy infrastructure that ...

Today's thought for the day was by Anne Atkins, which was today a rant about discrimination towards the murderers of Jody Dobrowski. (If he had been heterosexual their sentence would have been shorter).The mention of Anne Atkins reminded me of a blog entry by Alex Wilcock who postulated a device that would switch from radio to CD at the very mention of this woman's name. Quite how the BBC get away with the series of so called religious commentators on prime time radio is beyond me.

Last night it has been reported that the Eton educated conservative member for Witney was sitting with the mass of English travelling support in the stands at the RheinEnergieStadion, Cologne. Meanwhile a son of a Scottish manse Labour politician was sitting with the Hoi Polloi and German Government representatives in the VIP box. But apparently all was not well between the two. The Raith Rovers

Lichfield, one of the West Midlands Moving Forward Seats, has advertised for a prospective Parliamentary Candidate. The advert appeared in last Friday's Liberal Democrat News (although slightly incorrectly, a correction will appear this week).

No not talking about the world cup, but I've played 3 times in the last 3 days. And feeling the effects of it.Sunday I was in goal for the first time in ages. Managed to pull off some great saves, but I let in one of the worst howlers you're likely to see: ball rolls to me, not too quickly, but towards the goal, and somehow my chocolate wrists let it go through my legs, and virtually throw it into the goal. Fortunately, we were already 1 goal down, and not looking like getting through their defences.Monday was the regular ...

It is meant to be a joke, isn't it?

Kate Maclean the Labour MSP for Dundee West has announced that she will not be seeking re-election next May. Her majority in 2003 was 1066 so maybe she is getting out after five successful election campaigns and representing parts fo Dundee for 19 years befoire she ends up with a metaphorical arrow in her eye. The seat is one of the most likely to fall to the SNP in May. Meanwhile I have sized up the seven candidates for the Liberal Democrat Lothian list. I have been on the campaign trail with all seven of them at various points in ...

Today being the 21st, it is the first day you can book a return ticket to Brighton conference arriving on 16th sept and leaving on 21st sept. Book early for discounts, as they say

According to theguardian: The education secretary, Alan Johnson, dismissed the accusation, saying: “The point about John Reid is he is not Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. He doesn’t get pushed around by anyone.” Could someone with more literary nous explain the allusion? Was Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm particularly acquiescent? I now can’t shake an image of John Reid [...]

I couldn't leave Las Vegas without addressing an issue that has always nagged away at me, i.e. the question of self-image. This is without doubt an astonishingly shallow place and there is no pretense that it might be any other way. So, in a world of glamour and excitement, how do I see myself? I've never really had a terribly high sense of self-image, even when I was slim and had all of my hair

What is it about the Assembly's voting system that causes apparently intelligent and capable Assembly Members to fall apart when faced with the prospect of using it? Yesterday's debacle in which the Health Minister vehemently opposed a public inquiry into the Wales Ambulance Service and then voted for it is just the latest in a long line of such incidents since we moved into the Senedd. Earlier in the day we had a vote on the Government's Business Statement, which should have resulted in a 28-28 tie. The guidance says that the Presiding Officer would then have cast his ...

The Guardian reports today on the appointment of a woman as presiding bishop of the US Episcopal Church. As usual, this has prompted furious statements from around the world and a very carefully worded pronouncement from Lambeth Palace. I usually find that life goes on throughout these furores. People still go to church and the conversation rarely turns to these sorts of developments. That does

Indeed, welcome to quite possibly the most surreal place anywhere on Earth, where the temperature peaked today at 106 degrees fahrenheit (that's 41 degrees celsius for those of you that prefer it that way). It has to be admitted that, after the comparatively gentle charms of Luxembourg, Mumbai, Ho Chi Minh City, Seoul, Kyoto, Rotorua, Auckland and Nadi, this has all come as something of a sensory

Leeds City Council offers its members an excellent IT package (installed at home) which is wasted on an old technophobe like me. However the scary part of it is, if you aren't careful, that email becomes the centre of your existence. I have just returned home after exactly 7 days away and received in that time 111 Council related emails. If I'd been here to actually send any myself it would have been double that figure with replies. After an Hours "Triage" session this has been whittled down to 21 that need reading properly/a substantive reply/acknowledgement in some way. ...

Within 20 minutes of getting off the train in Leeds today I had seen (a) appalling litter (b) ample graffiti (c) lagered up ingerland "fans" (d) traffic congestion (e) road rage (f) a real live hoodie gang (g) the chorus of a burglar alarms to name just a few of the joys of inner urban life. However there was also (a) a theatre (b) a cinema (c) non white people (d) buildings over 3 storeys high (e) functional public transport (well almost) As I turned the final corner towards my house after a week away I saw the Hindu temple ...

Using my two new bits of kit (a Sony ECM-MS907 Microphone and a Olympus WS-300M digital voice recorder), one old piece of software (Audacity) and one new piece of software (Switch Sound File Conversion Software), I managed to record a couple of podcast recordings for Ming, edit out various train announcements, ticket collectors and refreshment [...]

Jamie Reed is the new MP for Copeland (which is the dreadful 70's rebranding for the Whitehaven district). He was in the same year as me at school and we were old sparring partners. The fact that he has made it to the Commons aged 32 caused me much gloom and introspection last year. The fact thats its a seat for life doesn't help either. It hasn't returned a tory since 1929 and as Labour held them off by 1800 votes in the 1983 landslide year I suspect its going to stay that way. (and congratulations to the CLP for ...

Cllr Sheila Griffin, is now blogging about her life as Deputy Mayor as well. I think we may well be the only blogging mayoral pair in the country!