seems to be moving more 'assets' - aircraft carrier-shaped ones - into the Gulf region, suggesting to some that this is the build up to an attack in October. Headlining a speculative but well-researched piece the astrophysicist author asks: they couldn't be that stupid, could they?
Nick Clegg is off to a flying start in my new poll asking which Lib Dem MP had the best party conference. Over 40% of you have so far chosen the Sheffield Hallam sex-bomb Home Affairs spokesman as your start turn, followed by Chris Huhne (25%) and Ming Campbell (22%) who are currently vying for the runners-up spot. But there is still, of course, all to play for - which may come as some
Anticipating the Tory Party conference in a week’s time, Iain Martin has rather an odd thing to say in today’s Torygraph: So where is the beef, and will any of it be served up in Bournemouth? [Mr Cameron’s] determination not to commit himself to a specific programme is undimmed and understandable this far from a general election. So many outside the Westminster village, after all, are still only
I have been reviewing the Liberal Democrat Voice. Love the site layout and the colours. Have been listening to the podcasts and watching the videos. Great stuff from all the contributors. Very impressed with the podcasts of Alex Foster. I particularly like his interview with Iain Dale But why oh why do the individuals photos have to be published after each of their postings. It looks tacky and certainly smacks of Narcissism. Perhaps a better idea would be to list the contributors with their photos as a side column link. ...
The Eastern Daily Press likes to claim that it shows balance, but lets examine the facts. They have a once weekly column from a Tory "A List" candidate, they have a regular column from the former Labour MEP for Norfolk, they give a Green councillor a regular column, the have a former Tory MP who has a regular column and how many Lib Dems ? You know the answer already don't you ! Come on EDP, give a Lib Dem a regular column to balance things up and show you are truly fair.
I've often thought that for sheer fakery, fraud and self deception, in every sense of those words, modern society takes some beating. Here is a much more erudite article by George Walden on exactly that topic.
Mike Russell, former SNP MSP for South of Scotland, has caused considerable discomfort to Alex Salmond with his latest publication, Grasping the Thistle, reviewed in The Sunday Herald today. In it he proposes a “New Union” in which the SNP accepts Scotland’s position in the UK and argues for additional powersFurther:In such a New Union all of the matters reserved to Westminster would be devolved
The fifth season of The West Wing is not its best. While such assessments are by their nature subjective, I suspect most fans of the series would agree that the show’s fifth season is its weakest. I noted when I wrote about the first season that some of the dialogue, while very good, seemed less subtle [...]
One of the problems of getting so close to the end - besides the question of how do I get back to normality when I don’t have to get up every morning and walk - is that it gets easy to concentrate on the end and not pay attention to the days between now and [...]
Exciting stuff on TheyWorkForYou.com with the launch of their new API. This is all free to non-profit-making sites and thus lets Flock Together (as a decidedly non-profit-making site) access all kinds of information when users input a postcode, such as the constituency the postcode refers to and the MP that goes with that constituency. Now to work [...]
An honourable mention to This Boy's Life (BBC1, Tuesday 11.05pm), but it has to be the Powell and Pressburger fantasy A Matter of Life and Death (Channel 4, Thursday 1.35pm). Released in 1946, this fantasy stars David Niven as an airman who bales out of his plane without a parachute but fails to die because of a bureaucratic mix up in heaven. He then has to argue for his life before a celestial
Click and point it, matey. Indeedy-ho.
I've had BBC News 24 on in the background today*and as you might expect there's been a lot of talk about Blair and his departure plans. Will he lose his dignity? Some of those writing in to their Have Your Say section are defending him, arguing that the public endorsed his leadership just last year, so let him serve his full term. A similar thing was being said by Blairites two weeks ago when
Wednesday was the opening of the Women's Library exhibition on prostitution. I was particularly interested, due to my involvement chairing the Safe Exit forum to help women to leave prostitution. The exhibition aims for a balanced view to an emotive subject, it's certainly factual and rather than being voyeuristic concentrates on the day-to-day lives of women involved in prostitution....
President Gore... and other things that never happened ed. Duncan Brack pub. Politico's/ Methuen, 25 September 2006 by Phil Grant This book's predecessor, Prime Minister Portillo, a collection of speculations in counterfactual political history, was an immense pleasure (albeit in some parts a guilty one - one thinks of Iain Dale's cheery wish-fulfilment piece that gave the volume its title and amused, in its different ways, Tories and non-Tories alike). President Gore succeeds in being for the most part entertaining and thought-provoking, and often both at once. Duncan Brack now takes over in full the ...
Ming got the Arctic Monkey test wrong at Brighton last week. He said that they had sold more records than the Beatles when he should have said that they had released the fastest selling album of all time. But Ming's point was that he wasn't claiming to be a fan. The politician who loves the Arctic Monkeys is Gordon Brown, who told Woman magazine (according to the Telegraph) Gordon Brown would have preferred to be a football manager if he had not become a politician. His wife Sarah thinks George Clooney should play him in a film, while his dream ...
Just come back from helping to clean up the River Ravensbourne in Ladywell Fields. It certainly makes me feel my advanced age (50 next week) and general level of unfitness. Still, I suppose it did me and the river some good. Not quite so many people as at previous clean-ups, but good to see young kids helping out. I don't think my waders were entirely waterproof, so dried out afterwards at the cafe in Ladywell Fields. Had a very interesting chat with the owner, who seems to double as an auxilary police force, warning off ...
Janet & I took part in the Alzheimer Scotland Memory Walk in Balgay Park this afternoon (see photos below!) It was a really wet horrid afternoon but a great turnout of people to help raise funds for Alzheimer Scotland. Janet & I raised £180 between us and very many thanks to everyone who sponsored us. You can link to the Alzheimer Scotland website by following the link above. Was on the Tay Talk-In earlier on about the issue of Houses in Multiple Occupation in the West End. I am pleased ...
One of the minor ambitions of my life is to actually get to the Big Conference. Although I've been in the party for about 25 years, I've never found the time to go... and life is really busy. So I have definitely appreciated the veritable cornucopia of posts from all the assorted Lib Dem Bloggers who were there - in particular I enjoyed reading Millennnium Elephant's pieces on Sarah Teather and
One of the features of a conference is all the trade and lobby stalls. This morning I wandered around collecting biros and knickknacks and talking to stall holders. Spent a lot of time at the Blackpool stand discussing their super casino bid to aid regeneration of the town. Bath has also applied for one of the small licences and got through to the short-listing stage. Gambling is a very emotive...
For the uninitiated Rugby League Raw is a fly-on-the-wall magazine programme broadcast on BBC1 (in the North) that charts the lower divisions of Rugby League in the run up to promotion. On last night's episode a referee was faced with a player who had in some way deliberately impeded him. In admonishing the player he said [my emphasis]: Look, you know and I know that holding a referee is against the religion of Rugby League. That the good word is only available on free-to-air in the North is, frankly, unforgivable (especially when the alternative is some obscure film with Whoopi ...
It is easy to be one of those that scoffs at golf, and I try not to do it. I like a game of pitch and putt, and golf is a good way to get some gentle fitness (I don't subscribe to the view that Golf is a good walk spoilt). However, like squash, I find golf deathly boring on TV. So, why have I just been glued to the TV for the last few days, relishing my SKY subscription ? Of course it's the Ryder Cup ! So well done to Europe for winning (funny how we all like ...
For no particular reason other than I recently found a second-hand copy on sale cheaply, I have just finished reading Demos’s 1997 collection, Life after politics. Although these days Demos –with its reports on the crucial importance of hairdressers to modern society – tries a little too hard to be different and thought provoking, it was [...]
I was just enjoying the early Autumn warm weather with a lie-down in Stroud Green, Newbury, while my daughter played with her friend. After a while I realised that I was surrounded by thousands of daddy long-legs which seem to be swarming around the park. It seems it is a good year for them. Their other name is "crane flies". Fortunately they are harmless and seem to spread themselves out so
The good things about not having a car - you get a bit of exercise without even thinking about it, you don't have to worry about parking, you don't have to pay for petrol, insurance etc, you don't cause pollution. The bad things - well mainly the rain. I took the bus this morning to deliver some leaflets - got half way through and a long way from any shelter when..... claps of thunder and heavy rain. Got absolutely drenched (memo to self - get a better waterproof). Needless to say after an hour or so at ... 
Stephen Tall has agonised, it would seem, over a little incident at Lib Dem conference. He should have no fear. At least he tried to catch the fainting damsel. Worryingly, I managed to walk right past at the crucial moment and completely fail to notice anything had happened. What planet do I live on? No Tags
Having been away for a fortnight and not having the time yesterday to look at the overly large pile of post waiting for me, I've started to sort through the the missives sent in my direction this morning. My favourite was the letter from GNER containing a £26 cheque as a part refund for an abandoned journey in August. (The trains weren't running that weekend 2 months ago because of a power
The following seats have recently announced they are seeking Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (people to run as the Lib Dem candidate for MP at the next General Election). We list the constituency name, application closing date, and the contact details of the Returning Officer, whom you should contact for an application form. Hexham, 16 Oct, Penny ReidjeffandpenWHOISATmsn.com (replace [...]
Those were the words of comfort offered to me at the enquiries desk at Leeds rail station yesterday when I asked " When is the next train to Whitehaven?" The woman huffed and puffed at her computer for a few minutes before offering the above reassurence. I had just missed my "Gold Dust" connection via the Settle to Carlisle line and now had to go via Manchester and, Dear God, use Virgin Trains. I had had an over long coffee with a prospective Council candidate who foolishly thought I could offer good advice on his prospective career and turned ...
according to this piece in The Observer. It's not a Frankensteinian corpse jigaw given a bolt of lightning to jump start life, this is at the other end of existence. These early embryos had been generated for IVF and for whatever cellular and developmental reason had failed to divide beyond a certain stage. 24 hours later they were pronounced 'dead', dismantled and lovely pluri- or possibly
So I wasn’t going to blog about this… Last Monday was my first time on live telly, on BBC News 24, where I was asked to give my reflections on the opening day of the Lib Dem conference, alongside a political correspondent for the Financial Times. The interviewer, James Landale, asked her a question; then he asked me a question (a different question to the one he’d said he would ask, but
I had the opportunity to talk about our Save Heaton Park campaign at Manchester Environment Forum's pre-Labour party conference conference on Friday. It was great to also have the opportunity to network with other campaigners as well as get plenty of hints and tips to help our campaign too. Yesterday was the Peace March in Manchester - an amazingly poorly reported and fantastic event - my son
I've produced a video of each of the speakers at the Blogger of the Year awards. They are now on Youtube if you want to view them. Lynne Featherstone: Lynne Featherstone at Blogger of the Year Award September 2006 Stephen Tall: Stephen Tall at Blogger of the Year Award September 2006 Alex Wilcox: Alex Wilcox at Blogger of the Year Award September 2006 Mark Pack: Mark Pack at Blogger of the Year
I was pleasantly surprised today to see that on the southern regional slot on the Politics Show on BBC1 they had an article looking at how the Lib Dems would introduce Land Value Tax - portraying it indeed as a "silver bullet" (Paul, and the BBC, have a great deal more confidence than I have in this respect!). Cllr Paul Bizzell of Vale of White Horse, where they carried out a paper based
It has been widely reported that Gordon Brown will seek to introduce a written constitution if he becomes PM. Academic lawyers will positively salivate at the prospect, but it is of more than academic interest. We live in an era where there is increasing concern about the power of government, particularly the executive. Government and judiciary clash relatively frequently, but the answers to the disputes are by no means obvious. We are also more aware of our fundamental rights, but in some ways they are under threat like never before in modern times. A written ... 
I am having a Lib dem day today. Just returned from a Residents' Survey in Grange Hill Ward. About to send out the minutes of the last executive meeting (I am the secretary of the local party) and then finishing off a FOCUS.
It is well known amongst bloggers that Labour Central Office do not really get blogging. They are wary because they cannot control it and because it might encourage public dissent amongst the ranks. In this regard they seem to have a bigger problem with their MPs than anything that is happening on-line. These reservations are of course, shared by spin-doctors in all political parties and frankly, it is hard cheese. They will have to live with it. Iain Dale expands on this issue in today's Observer: Blogs are a spin doctor's worst nightmare come true - and then ...
The Observer reports that Gordon Brown has something else in common with Sir Menzie Campbell (apart from them both being Scottish, etc. etc.). It seems that neither of them can name a single Arctic Monkeys track: Put on the spot by a men's magazine, the Chancellor proved unable to name a single track from their debut album beyond insisting that 'they are very loud'. And he confessed his favoured listening was actually Coldplay - the band music aficionados love to despise for their middle-of-the-road sound, described by Oasis's manager Alan McGee as 'music for bedwetters'. The Arctic Monkeys debacle ...
Osama's not dead. He's watching a telly somewhere in Tora Bora. 'Ayman, fix the picture then run down the bookies and bet the farm on Europe to beat the Great Satan. Did you see Casey's hole in one yesterday? Bring my Pringle jumper before you go!' Green post credentials: this rather poor gag is recycled from 2004.
After sacking their manager on Wednesday Leeds showed what they were made of yesterday under acting manager John Carver beating table topping Birmingham 3-2. Yes the defence was clearly dodgy from the reports that I have read and some serious work will need to be done is this area but the Leeds spirit appears to have returned and they were playing more of an attacking game and getting the ball in the box more often. The Observer report can be found here Meanwhile Reading entertained Manchester United in the League for the first time ever in their 135 year ...
Remember the 1997 General Election? One of the key planks of the Labour campaign was their attacks on Tory sleaze. Well wads of cash in brown envelopes seems small beer now compared to Labour's loans scandal. Setting aside the possible link to peerages, it is now clear that the Labour Party, or, to be fair, a small group of individuals in senior positions in the Labour Party, had a deliberate
Those of you who had a sleepless night worrying about whether the Tooth Fairy would turn up can rest easy tonight. I was woken at some ungodly hour this morning by Jimmy proudly clutching a nice shiny one pound coin. Thank You Tooth Fairy, wherever you are ;-)
How many books did you read over the summer? Not only had these children from Latchmere School managed to read at least six each, but the whole school had beaten all others in the number of books consumed. This explosion of reading was encouraged by Kingston Libraries in their summer challenge for 2006, which had adetective/special agent theme this year and was named The...
Narrow boats, river cruisers, barges - all moored along the Queen's Promenade for the RNLI Regatta within sight of Raven's Ait. Fortunately the tail end of the hurricane that drenched us on Friday had swept away and it was one of those surprisingly warm end-of-summer days by the river. Fundraising stalls were set up along the path, mainly in aid of the Royal National...
There's a line in the Lib Dem PPC approval form that reads: Which elements of Liberal Democrat policy would you like to see changed and why? The Lib Dem policy on smacking was always my hot favourite answer to that question. Not because I'm in favour of clobbering small people or anything, the annoying little... [SNIP] but because I'm deeply uncomfortable about a debate which includes components
Andy Kerr, Scottish Health Minister has said that the tonic wine Buckfast is a "seriously bad" cause of antisocial behaviour. This naivety fills me with horror. If you take his comments to their logical conclusion, all we have to do to have a nation of happy, respectful, responsiblepeople is to ban Buckfast. It's the sort of scapegoating we are used to from Labour - anything to avoid looking at the root causes of a problem. The availability of cheap alcohol is a worry - but why blame one drink when you can get a half bottle ...
A long, long time ago I thought about starting a blog. I got as far as registering “theobp.blogspot.com”. I never actually managed to post any thing on there. Three years later, I’ve decided to give it another go (well it can’t really be any less successful than last time). And so “As I look out over this magnificent vista…” a blog named after a quote from the first season of the West Wing is
They really are in the s**t now.
Liberal England questions what the job of the party president is. This comes after Simon Hughes publicly slated Ming Campbell's speech. Firstly I think this shows perfectly why Simon should not be our president any longer (although there have been no mention of a challenger). I get the deep impression that Simon is still bitter about losing the leadership to Ming. I ask Simon again, please | < | September 2006 | > | ||||
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