Those of you who have been waiting with baited breath will no doubt be delighted to know that I have fixed my accommodation problem for the Brighton Lib Dem conference, and booked a nice looking Gwesty which Googlemaps assures me is 0.9 miles from the conference centre. This was achieved thanks to the Conference Delegates [...]
If you are married to a foreign woman and have a young child as we have then the story that appeared in the Guardian today on the treatment of foreign mothers with babies should chill you to the bone. On reading this I was absolutely appalled and ashamed at the treatment dished out to these two women. Lord Eric Avebury (who was the Orpington hero Eric Lubbock in a previous incarnation) did a fantastic job in standing up for them. I wonder if the Home Office officials concerned have been disciplined in any way? ...
As popularised amongst LibDem bloggers by Neil, the Countries I’ve Visited Map Meme. As I’m much more insular than the others who’ve done this and haven’t been outside Europe, there wasn’t much point me using the World Map. Caveats: I’ve selected Italy, although I’ve only been to Sardinia I’ve been outside geographic Europe, as I’ve visited Tenerife in [...]
The oldest record shop in the world is for sale. Spillers Record Shop, on the Hayes, has been the centre of attention for music fans since 1894. But now the 112-year-old shop has been put on the market and the owner says that if it is not sold by next March then he might close it. The Western Mail reports that it is in the Guiness Book of Records and has been the subject of a question on Radio One. Former customers include Will Young and Robbie Williams. It seems that a lot of people go there ...
Election fever is in the air once again. Well, a mild temperature perhaps, as today's Lib Dem News carries an advert announcing 'Election of President of the Liberal Democrats, 2007-08': nominations open in a fortnight, 4th September, and close on 27th September. The post was last up for grabs in 2004, when there was a Simon Hughes-Lembit Opik face-off. I was one of the 24,333 (71%) members who
Soon after the sense of disconcertment felt at the recent news of the unfolding of a large-scale terror plot, came the outrage at some of the ‘security’ measures imposed. Aside from the fact that I think they are simply panicking and not applying the right technology, using intelligence and so on. What’s this thing about books? Imagine my panic when I read that the only books and papers one could
Since others are doing it, here’s a map of places I’ve visited. Not much below the Equator… create your own visited country map or check our Venice travel guide
It wasn’t quite pelting it down today, but the programme I was listening to whilst stuck in all-but stationary traffic on the M1 this afternoon was about various global efforts to beat drought. Dew ponds in the South East. Tenerife schemes to use greenhouse (real greenhouses, not metaphorical “greenhouse effect” greenhouses) heat to evapourate sea [...]
A couple of people on Lib Dem Blogs have had a go at this so I thought I would join in. create your own visited country map or check our Venice travel guide
Haringey Council has been forced to admit Labour broke the Council's rules when approval was granted for a controversial planning application.
I am gradually ending my viewing of sixth session 'The West Wing' and my knowledge of how the last session came about is clearly developed. It's a small world. Although a friend's son would argue there are 5 billion inches between the poles so there isn;t quite small. Another friend had said that Stokard Channing, who played the First Lady, in the West Wing was a celebrated actress. Just done
Another piece of Liberal history (after David and Winston ), though he soon went to the Dark Side. Today's Liberal Democrat News carries my review of Ian Grimwood's biography of Leslie Hore-Belisha. You can find it at the bottom of this page.
I saw this on Neil Woolcott's blog and couldn't resist. create your own visited country map or check our Venice travel guide
create your own visited country map or check our Venice travel guide
I was watching Fox News at 11pm last night*, where the Special Report with Brit Hume was on. They had a brief 3 person panel discussion on the recent decision by US Judge Anna Diggs Taylor that wiretaps not authorised by a judicial warrant are unconstitutional (reported here). Judge Anna Diggs Taylor There was not person on the panel willing to defend the reasoned 44-page decision of a judge of
August 17, 2006: Ming Campbell emailed party members as follows: Politics never stands still. Even in the short time since my election as Leader of the Liberal Democrats in March, the landscape now looks quite different. Tony Blair is looking increasingly insecure as Prime Minister. His handling of the crisis in the Middle East has [...]
Today is the end of a 14 week marathon. It is the last night of Big Brother. It cannot have come too soon. What exactly Channel Four is going to put in its place has yet to be seen but surely any replacement cannot surpass this in exploiting some very vulnerable people and in manipulating its audience. All the media in Wales are rooting for Glyn. Even the Welsh editions of The Sun have been urging people to vote for him - yn Gymraeg. It cannot be denied that Glyn has briefly mainstreamed the Welsh language for a lot of ...
Politics never stands still. Even in the short time since my election as Leader of the Liberal Democrats in March, the landscape now looks quite different. Tony Blair is looking increasingly insecure as Prime Minister. His handling of the crisis in the Middle East has laid bare just how exposed he is in his party and in the country. His Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott clings to office despite the media ridicule. The Home Office is being overhauled after years of mismanagement. The Identity Card project is looking more and more expensive and less and ...
The government are clearly Maoist believing in continual revolution. What we have is the symptom of the financial problems in the NHS. It means that it will not be seen as a mechanism for improving services (and unless I review each item in detail I would not be able to comment on the merits), but instead a panic response to a financial crisis. Too many changes at once. I had a letter today
Friday 18th August 2006 - Friday Prayers today! This week I attended prayers at The Bilal Mosque in Blackburn. I try to attend prayers at a different mosque every week. My faith is extremely important to me and this is also a great way of maintaining connections with the Muslim community across the North-West. I'm also fortunate enough to be able to accept invitations to places of worship of other 
Collecting signatures at the Wheatsheaf, Sheldon for the Knife Crime Petition Putting sustainable fuel in the tank Getting the fuel from Wednesbury Relaunching Sheldon Community Centre and opening the Fun Day. I am setting up a facility for people to refuel relatively easy using pure rapeseed oil and paying the 27p duty to Mr Brown. There are no planning issue, but the Health and Safety
The Electoral Commission has announced they have found a "significant number" of previously undeclared donations to both the Conservatives and Labour parties. They will be releasing a report on Wednesday which highlights the discrepancies.
Before we can move on to the canonical episodes of season 3 of The West Wing, we first must deal with the “play” that was broadcast in place of the season opener in response to the events of 11th September 2001. It’s called “Isaac and Ishmael” and I didn’t like it when it was first [...]
There is still a chance that I shall be proved wrong. I sincerely hope I am. France are proving to be dishonourable cowards: Some countries, including France, said they needed to know more about the UN force's terms of engagement before they decided whether to risk troops. They fear a scenario in which their soldiers are killed trying to enforce peace. What precisely did they expect? A camping holiday? This situation is worsening. The offer of troops from Indonesia and Malaysia is likely to weaken the security situation - not strengthen it. The reason? Neither state recognises the ...
the FT follows. Tabman wrote a piece on the Tories non-policy statement "Built to Last" the other day with the comment what of this document’s title, “Built to Last”? Daniel Finkelstein sussed out its origin back in July – it’s also the title of a business management volume by Jim Collins written in 1994 . Today´s FT leader starts Built to Last is the title of a best-selling management book that analyses what makes a company succeed over the long term. It also happens to be the title of David Cameron's statement of principles, a mini-manifesto of where the leader ...
I have linked to Homestart. This is a charitable organisation that supports families. In some ways they fit in where the extended families have been split up via motorways. I opened a funday for my local Homestart this morning. They are a very effective way of supporting families in such a way that does not result in children being at risk. Massively more money goes into Social Services Child
A really interesting and enjoyable article, but I do have several reservations about it's line of reasoning - and indeed the HoL select committee's. Firstly, at no stage is it made clear in concrete terms why it is preferable for parliament should be consulted before war or a troop deployment. It is just assumed that transfering power from the executive to the legislature must be a 'good thing', and therefore the current arrangement constitutes an abnormality. In fact, I would argue that the conduct of warfare is highly suited to executive decision making and highly unsuited to 'decision by committee' ...
Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary today held a press conference to reiterate his opposition to the Government’s new airport security regime. O’Leary’s complaints centre on the nonsensical situation whereby air passengers are banned from carrying “bottled water, women’s cosmetics and toothpaste” in case these be misused by terrorists yet the same items are being freely carried on the [...]
It is 15 years since the beginning of the August coup which ultimately led to the breakdown of the Soviet Union. The arrest of Gorbachev which took place on August 18th 1991 triggered the immediate disintegration of the USSR as the various Republics sought to escape from the attempt by hardliners to reimpose a more centralized order upon the disintegrating state. Since that time Russia, as the legal heir to the Soviet Union, and as the inheritor of most of its territory and all of its nuclear weapons, has struggled to come to terms with the Soviet legacy. The Second ...
I’ve posted a few times about how to use Google Video or YouTube to post your videos on your website or blog. Michael Pollock has written an excellent article on how to use the free Riva Flash video encoder to create your own videos and put them on your blog using the FLV video player without [...] 
Regular readers will know that we are big fans of Millenium Elephant. Today he has turned his attention to former Communist and authoritarian poster-boy John Reid, and relates the anecdote that: A story that appears in BOTH papers – so no doubt it is one he is PARTICULARLY proud of – is the one about how he was in the bar at the Labour Conference in 1983 and when someone suggested that the party was split by the strife between the Marxists and the non-Marxists he quickly put them right: "We are the Judean People's Party and the ...
Thursday 17th August 2006 - General admin again this morning before a lengthy telephone conference with my team in Brussels around lunchtime. Sylwia has been employed in the Brussels office to help me with a World Trade Organisation report, one which has now taken on vital importance when placed in the context of the breakdown in talks towards the end of July. The collapse of the talks means that
Firstly, a new FOCUS newsletter for parts of the West End launched - click on the headline above to read it. A useful City Centre & Harbour Community Council meeting last night including a session on core path planning. Updated the Community Council on the safety work in Commercial Street (work scheduled for October). Also details of the Lord Provost's Youth Parade a week on Saturday - from City Centre Manager - see below! The Lord Provost's Youth Parade takes place on Saturday 26th August 2006. This is part of a special Twinning weekend hosted by the Lord Provost and ...
Alan Beddow: I almost found myself agreeing with John Prescott All true enough. And it hasn't gone down badly with the spineless ones either. Am I suffering from the general deluge of conspiracy theories, or is it all a bit convenient for Prescott to 'accidentally' criticise Bush like this? After all, Prescott's sole function is to give people who believe The Working Class to be an objective entity a reason to continue voting Labour. A bit of raw populism isn't going to hurt his case at all.
Guido and other tory bloggers have been building up Inigo Wilson for martyrdom, after Orange suspended him from his job in the wake of a posting on ConservativeHome. They pin the case on his definition of Islamophobe: Islamophobic - anyone who objects to having their transport blown up on the way to work. and the subsequent complaints from the MPAIC, Sunny at Pickled Politics has more on the subject though. His source tells him that the real problem here was not bad taste, but another definition, just a giggle to most of us, but important to Orange: Consultation - a ...
PC in this instance refers to the French Communist Party. It remains, however, that it is worth having a proper international investigation into what happened both by the Israeli bombing of Lebanon and also the Hezbollah bombing of Israel. We cannot just sweep under the carpet what has happened. I find it interesting how a few persistent people can ensure that issues are addressed. I am
Friday Isn't it interesting, the way that the same idea goes around? In this case, the rise and rise of Dr John "not an attack dog" Reid. I have been thinking of putting my woolly brain to work in order to write about him and suddenly there are a spate of other people getting in ahead of me! I think this is because Dr John has made a big splash in recent days by SINGLE-HANDEDLY defeating terrorism and making the world a safe place for bunnykins. (Transport CHAOS and panicked responses to CLAUSTROPHOBIA and HAND CREAM notwithstanding!) Mr ...
The Pandora column in yesterday's Independent reports that Greg Hurst's biography of the former Liberal Democrat leader will be published to coincide with the party's conference next month. The excitable newspaper says: The book, which was supposed to be released last month, now threatens to cast a shadow over Kennedy's proposed comeback, as it will reveal a number of details about his battle with alcohol addiction. It is also expected to make several claims about events leading up to his demise that could prove hugely embarrassing to his party colleagues.Last one to the conference bookstall is a sissy. | < | August 2006 | > | ||||
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