While I was attending the Liberal Democrat Party Conference in Brighton earlier this week I took up the opportunity to see An Inconvenient Truth - the film about Al Gore and his presentations on the threat of global warning. Al Gore is better known as Bill Clinton's Vice President and the unsuccessful Democratic US Presidential candidate in 2000 (he won the popular vote across America, but lost
I notice that Jenny Tonge has got herself into a spot of bother again over the Palestine-Israel issue. She's been attributed with claiming during a fringe meeting in Brighton that the party was "probably in the grip of the Pro-Israel lobby". I have to say that given the Party's stance towards Israel's disproportionate response in Lebanon and the commitment of many Liberal Democrat activists to the "roadmap to peace" which would lead to a two-state solution her argument really doesn't hold too much water. Nearly all of us recognise the right of Israel to exist but most of ...
In recent weeks, the sheer scale of the failure of the West in terms of building what might be recognised as functioning democracies in Afghanistan and Iraq has become ever more painfully obvious. I've become suspicious that the problem lies with the American attitude to constructing a civil society, combined with the failure of Europe to provide an alternative example. If you are genuinely
The agenda for the Selly Oak District Committee meeting at 7pm on Tuesday 26 September 2006 has been published and can be found here. Items on the agenda include the Selly Oak Constituency Development Plan 2006-2008. The meeting will be held at Holy Cross Community Centre, Beauchamp Road, Billesley, Birmingham. (P.S. District Committees appear to have been renamed Constituency Committees on
At this conference I spent a lot of time (including the whole of Tuesday (although mainly due to a terrible hangover) sitting in Conference Hall and I got a real grip on how we do things ... I had an idea before but to see it happen throughout the day and on so many different subjects was a real insight. (Remember this was my first conference). I am so pleased that we do our business this way. It truly is inclusive and exactly why we are who we are. It can be long-winded and the comment I read somewhere on ...
I have had the dubious privilege for supporting my beloved martlets for more than thirty years, one of the cursed collection of sporting teams which suffer my backing with more forbearance than I deserve. However, days like today make it worthwhile, as Sussex County Cricket Club swept to a thoroughly deserved County Championship, slaughtering Nottinghamshire by an innings and 245 runs as Trent
Mike Zorbas has been a key played in the media strategy of the party for nearly 2 years. Alas, he is returning to Australia this Sunday. He will be greatly missed. I've just come from his leaving do in Westminster though I had to leave early to catch the 9pm train out of Kings Cross to Newcastle (I'm on the train now).I get into Newcastle at around 1am but then have to go straight over to the
{Adult Cereals}
Friday morning was spent on day job activities - I am organising (along with the Northern Ireland Chief Executives' Forum) a conference on local government reorganisation - taking place in Belfast next month - and whilst its going very well, its time consuming too!This afternoon, apart from visiting residents in the Ancrum area about their concerns regarding overgrown trees and helping a constituent with a passport application problem, met with council officers, Tayside Police and the West End Christmas Group volunteer pyrotechnician to look at the health & safety aspects of our West End Christmas Week fireworks display this December. ...
This is the first posting written on my new laptop. I went out and bought it today as my PC expired just before Conference. So far it hasn't burst into flames once!
Now I noticed quite a few people (well maybe just Will and Rob) reading LibDem Blogs via their mobile. Using Opera Mini they were able to shrink the whole site so that it fitted on their small screens. However I was using a script that I wrote some years ago. This script only loaded the posts and ignored everything else. After speaking to Will in the bar I decided to revamp the script and publicise it. So the new url is www.libdemblogs.co.uk/mobile/. It's been tested on Opera Mobile 9 on my P990i and the built in browser on Heather's K800i. ...
Wednesday: Today was the BEST day of Conference! My favouritest MP Sarah Teather was on stage TWICE! She opened the debate on headteachers and then had a speech all of her very own later on. The story about HEADTEACHERS is very interesting: everybody remembers Sir Mr the Merciless’s first question at Prime Minister’s Punch Up Time. Lord Blairimort said it WAS often difficult to find a leader for a failing organisation. When we compare how EASY was the dignified search for a Liberal Democrat leader to all the DIFFICULTIES of the Labour scheming and spinning and backstabbing as people ...
I no longer need the following: eBay: a beginners guide Purchasing artificial limbs: a practical guide Don't cause a bomb scare! A step by step guide to packing safely for the post unusually shaped objects
Well, the title of this post might be misleading. Then again, perhaps not. Read this article. It is the most compelling and comprehensive case I have yet seen for massive greenfield house building. Yes, you read that correctly - GREENFIELD HOUSE BUILDING . Supporting the right to build may yet be the single most decisive issue as inter-generational inequality continues to bite. Eventually, we will have to do it - demographics demand. Voters will eventually become fed-up with an inability to live in decent and affordible housing. So quite why the Baby Boomers think they are going to be ...
Rickshaw?... I'll come to that later. It was 'In Town Without Your Car Day' so that's what I did, starting with a trip on the K4 bus to Norbiton to meet up with some of the Road Safety and Travel Awareness team. Then we called in on the children at Coombe Day Nursery, where they were finding out about crossing the road safely. I learnt that almost all the...
If a man or woman is medically, psychologically or physically incapable of combat they are not allowed to join the Army. The only exception to this is when that person is royally incapable. So another toy soldier will indulge in a bit of aggressive camping! Wonderful. I am sure that will go down well with our overstretched armed services.
I have emailed Transport for London twice now to get them to put information on buses 20 and 167 at local bus stops. I have waited (twice) 10 days for them to get back to me and still I have had no reply. Why offer an electronic service if they can't be bothered to reply! Some poeple may argue that information at bus stops are very important. But I was standing at the bus stop yesterday and a
Coast & Country Housing have issued the following notice to residents of the Closes Estate: Consultation Event – Thursday 28th and Friday 29th September at Newcomen School Redcar – 10am to 4pm Coast & Country Housing are committed to improving both the homes and the environment of the Closes estate. We value your ideas and are keen to find out you views about the area. Please come along to the above event and be involved in shaping the future of your estate. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, parts of the estate were modernised ...
There is an ongoing debate on this blog relating to the nature of international affairs after 9/11 and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. As I said in a previous post, I will elaborate on why I think that the increasingly pacific left-liberal approach is flawed in logic and interpretation and why a more robust liberal interventionist response is the best way of proceeding hereon. As a first step, I think it might be useful to explore the issue of Iraq. Back in 2003 I was opposed to the war in Iraq. I was always sceptical of the contents of ...
After the Conservative flirtation with mag-lev trains, perhaps we should not be surprised that a crash in Germany has killed at least 15 people. Their support for Mag-lev, always looked like a gimmick- now it seems positively ill-judged 
Poor David Cam...sorry...Dave Cameron is having a hard time being the leader to wag the Tory dog. The A-Lististos have been facing mixed furtunes in the selection process. His colleagues in Scotland seem to be distancing themselves from him in the hope that a revival in their hopes is best not served by their leader in Westminster. Now it appears that the Tax Commission George Osburn set up has
On the day that NHS Logistics staff are striking about the supply arm being privatised and handed over to German company DHL, I started doing a bit of digging into a planning application at York Science Park to turn one of the units into a 'Healthcare Unit'. I wasn't quite sure exactly what was meant by 'healthcare unit' so I did a quick search of the applicant- Lodestone Patient Care. It turns...
To paraphrase: Am I bovvered? Do I look bovvered? Robin and Leah must be kicking themselves that they can’t read what Iain Dale has written about them in his new book.
With Ming’s speech all over today’s newspapers, I’m looking back in my usual up-to-the-minute way not at the current Liberal Democrat Leader but at two blasts from the past seen at Conference this week. Charles Kennedy made a much-publicised speech to the Conference on Tuesday afternoon setting out some key themes, but you could easily have missed a major speech by Paddy Ashdown at about, ah, 1am on Thursday morning at the ‘Glee Club’. Well, I say major speech. More of a shaggy dog story, really, but to an ecstatic reception. And no, he didn’t tell any jokes about Ming… ...
There are many Englands. Mine is the North. I was born in Northumberland. I grew up there and in Yorkshire. I lived for many years in County Durham. I now live in Yorkshire again. There are many things I love about these parts. The blunt warmth of the people. The Autumn that comes earlier. Beer that is pumped through sparklers. Black pudding. Dry stone walls. Mills. Soft water. The closeness of the houses. The largeness of the towns. The heavy, smoky cities. I found my love by the gasworks wallDreamed a dream by the old canalKissed my girl by the ...
Tim Ireland's other site is dedicated to holding the Tory MP for Guildford, Anne Milton, to account. He has also been busy documenting a particularly nasty smear campaign orchestrated by two prominent Guildford Tories against a Lib Dem activist in the town. I won't dignify the smears by going into the detail myself but suffice to say it is pretty horrible stuff. In brief the two Tories concerned set up some bogus websites, put up some smears against the Lib Dem concerned, and then added comments pretending to be him. You can read all about the detail - and Tim ...
A link to the new vid from Tim Ireland has just appeared, just over there on the right, below the Lib Dem Blogs box. Gets the point over nicely I think. If you would like to see some even harder hitting vids go to Tim's Backing Blair site and click on the links down the right hand column. I find them very amusing but effective at the same time. (Not for the faint hearted.)
If you saw the Lib Dem Party Conference Broadcast during the week you might me interested to this this mock up of the New Tory Labour Party's response to the key issue raised in that debate. Well done to Tim Ireland for an excellent job. He may well be getting contacted by 25 and 39 Victoria Street to carry on making New Tory Labour broadcasts in the future.
Volunteers Q:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what consultation was undertaken by his Department in advance of the change in guidance from his Department regarding lunch expenses for those on benefits who work as volunteers; and with whom such consultation took place; (2) what assessment he has made of the likely impact of new guidance from his Department regarding lunch
"WE ARE THE PARTY OF SUBSTANCE, NOT SPIN" Well what a fantastic week! The media got none of the 'drama' they were expecting and we got everything we could wish for. I have to say this was by far the best and most up-beat conference I have been to. The supposed close call on the tax debate, and a fantastic debate it was too, turned out not to be close at all and the policy was approved unamended
Then this should sort you right out: No Tags
Tim Ireland of Bloggerheads fame has created this smart vid for the Lib Dems, to support the party’s new environmental tax policies. I have to say, Tim Ireland is a man I wouldn’t hurry to get into a quarrel with.
One of the truly awful things about conference this week was music used for the video photomontages - all three of them - that they insisted on playing before the leader’s speech, all three of which were to the tune of the most vein-opening soft rock I’ve ever come across. Personally, I’d never heard [...]
The Lib Dem website has a little film about climate change made for the party by Tim Ireland. Now don’t go humming the jingle all day…
Looking at the Green Tax Switch campaign website there are clear signs that the campaign is starting to take off. Two weeks ago only a handful of Local Parties had set up their action days. Now, as word of mouth and conference have spread the word, there is almost a mapful. (Press the green action week button on the riught and it takes you to Martin Tod's very clever flocktogether website). You can also download a rather nifty campaign pack produced by those nice people in the Campaigns Department and a PDF of good advice on how to run ...
I’ve had a complaint concerning the lack of recent comment on the world of fine dining. Genuinely. I have only eaten in one restaurant in the last month, so I am obliged to pass judgment on it. Speaking of passing things; the single most notable thing about this restaurant is its lavatories. Attempting to evacuate your mojito into the urinal trough of the Crazy Bear in Fitzrovia is a baffling and rather disconcerting experience. If you can find the secret panel on the wall to gain entry to them (clearly, the restaurant was designed by the same chap who did ...
In our final two Podcasts, Alex Foster speaks to Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat shadow Home Affairs spokesperson about his week in Brighton, and to Jeremy Hargreaves of the Federal Conference Committee, to hear about moves to make conference more accessible to the disabled. It’s worth drawing out here the efforts the conference committee is going to [...]
Hat tip to Iain Dale*. It appears that we are weeks away from a new Political TV station. This will be a first on the internet and will be 4 hours of policial vox pops and looking at political blogs from Monday to Thursday, either live or downloadable and podcastable. However, with two Tory bloggers as the main frontmen we shall have to wait and see how balanced the views end up being. For more info visit their blog but here is a summation of whats on offer: Tim Montgomerie will present UP FRONT - a fair ...
A rather self-indulgent column from today's Liberal Democrat News. Books galore Books of Liberal Democrat essays are like buses: you wait for ages for one to come along and then three turn up at once. Actually, Brighton buses aren’t quite like that. In my experience three buses turn up as you approach the stop and leave before you can catch any of them. You then wait 20 minutes for another one to show. Yet the buses have their compensations. Brighton may not have trams, which are one of the few good things about Blackpool – come to think ...
I appear to have left a little bit of me in Brighton. 2kg to be precise. Having eaten my body weight in cooked breakfasts and buffets over the past week at conference, I weighed myself this morning and got a pleasant surprise. So the leaner, meaner Jonathan is back in Cowley St savouring the week's successful events. Even the weather was great - interesting that it is now raining, just in time for the Labour gathering in Manchester when they will re-enact the Battle of the Somme. I'm not a fan of blood sports but I'll ...
Labour held on to their seat in Lye Valley ward in Oxford last night. If the feedback I heard is correct then this was in large part down to the Labour candidate being very popular in his local patch and his track record in the community. Congratulations Bob! I managed to miss an article on Antonia's Blog about a leaflet we put out during the last by-election in Oxford which was in Hinksey Park Ward in July. (I was off on my hols by the time Antonia posted it.) Now she is entitled to her ...
I have got the Lib Dem video working on my blog now. It is in the sidebar just below the Lib Dem Blogs Button. Easy to do and in my opinion looks great. Thanks to Martin Tod for doing this - anyone else who wants to put it on their site should click here for the instructions.
It is always tough for the party representative to go on Question Time the day that the autumn conference finishes. Usually this is because the events of the week are fresh in the audiences mind and any faux pas made by or at conference is liable to be held up to ridicule. This year the choice of Charles Kennedy to be our representative made it a matter of waiting for the ineffitable question and seeing how it was handled. The question came in the form: What does the future hold for a political party when the ex-leader outshines the ...
As usual the Glee Club was held on the last evening (Wednesday) of the Liberal Democrat Conference. It featured a mini-show from the Liberal Revue team. I made my debut with them, writing and performing the following piece. Ralph Bancroft introduced me as "Professor Jonathan Calder" ... Thank, you Ralph. And as Ralph said, this is something of an experiment. But I hope you will find this session useful. Yesterday the party votey through of a new policy. Hands up and showit and all amendies defeated. Deep joy of a Ming Campbell. Now I am asky ...
Conference has been a gone for another year. I have to say I really did not enjoy it this year, mainly because I spent most of the week really quite ill. I spent most of my conference training in the Holiday Inn whose Air Condition left a lot to be desired, this combined with the general in and out of hotels and the conference centre left me with the most awful head-cold. To add injury to insult I also got struck down by eating salmon which I have an allergy to at the International VIPs and Diplomats reception (obviously I ... 
“A chicken can be hypnotized, or put into a trance by holding its head down against the ground, and continuously drawing a line along the ground with a stick or a finger, starting at its beak and extending straight outward in front of the chicken. If the chicken is hypnotized in this manner, it will remain [...]
"Sincerity: if you can fake it, you've got it made." George Burns Well, now we know- the Lib Dems are big on substance and actually... They are. It has been customary to decry them as lightweights and to mock their aspirations of power, but the reality is that they have had a pretty substantive body of policy for many years- as even a fairly cursory look at their policy documents will show you. So where do we stand now in British politics? The political pendulum is swinging- and Labour must be feeling ever more nervous about holding on to ...
It is said that if you wait long enough then your reward will come and so it proved earlier this week when my pathetic attempts to generate electricity on a push-bike on behalf of World Wildlife Cymru at the Royal Welsh Show were acknowledged by the arrival of a very smart-looking certificate. Headed 'Pedal Power Champion; politician's category', the certificate tells me that I produced enough power in 2 minutes to make toast. If I have to do that every time I feel like a piece of toast then I will be much fitter. On the other hand I could ...
£200,000 to effectively encourage local parties to widen their selection criteria. I am sorry but that is a bribe. As a woman, who may or may not have long term political ambition, I know that if I were selected for a seat due to a financial incentive I would be disgusted .. as should the other candidates. And to be honest, I would prefer the local party to not accept the fund if I were selected as it would create a constant question mark over my ability and the reasons I got selected in the first place. I will admit ...
On one of the last Daily Politics of last "season" they had Ken Clarke and a couple of others talking about school dinners. The whole issue is back on the menu this week as we hear of parents delivering non-school dinners to their children in schools to get round the supposedly more healthy food on offer inside. The thing that struck me about Ken Clarke's argument was that he said "we must allow
The culture portfolio in the National Assembly for Wales has been subject to more than its fair share of controversy since Labour took it over in 2003. Rows have blown up over the amount of money being allocated to non-Cardiff based Arts Organisations as compensation for the Government's revenue support for the Wales Millennium Centre, over the Welsh Language Board, and of course, over plans to castrate the Arts Council of Wales by directly funding the six biggest Arts bodies. On most of these issues, the Government has been frustrated by the opposition parties. It seemed entirely appropriate ...
If the world is a more dangerous place, it's as much because of people like Richard Armitage: US threatened to bomb Pakistan as it is because of people like Bin Laden. I hope personally that we will choose to stand shoulder to shoulder with our Commonwealth brothers and sisters who have provided us with many of our residents and not a few friends and colleagues than a regime that even remotely
One of the highlights of an excellent Brighton conference was seeing Jane and Paddy Ashdown amongst us. What Paddy said after Charles' speech was quite controversial, but right: You never quite say never in politics. There are always exceptions and one of those exceptions is when you leave the stage, you leave the stage. Hearing this finally made me realise that Charles Kennedy will never be
Alright, this is going to come across as a mite naive but what the hell... As one of the political theatre's more delicate actors (albeit more understudy than star), the one thing that really bothers me is the way that some people seem to think that it is better to undermine others rather than earn credibility themselves. I accept that it is probably easier (credibility is hard to gain, and
Today was Ming’s big moment. Did he pull it off? Yes, I think he did. The word I would use is solid. It had the right messages, and there were some particularly good lines. It could perhaps have been delivered more strongly, but then the majority of people will only hear clips on the news [...]
Not content with making Lib Dem video easily available for your website, it’s now available for your phone! The last conference video done by Alastair Reed and myself is now available in 3GP format as follows: ConferenceVoxPops.3gp (3GP, 1.8MB) Let me know if there are any others you want converted into telephone format… | < | September 2006 | > | ||||
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