LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Wednesday 11th October 2006

Now children, spread the love

The BBC reports a new scheme to encourage young school children to role play the effects of taking drugs: Pupils act out effects of drugs: Primary school pupils will be encouraged to act out the effects of LSD and cannabis as part of an anti-drug programme. Hmm - notice they didn't choose ecstasy. "Now children, I want you all to hug each other, make friends with someone you don't know yet, and share your sweets with the whole class. No, stay awake Johnny, you're not doing it properly!" I do wonder about the cannabis one though ...

Good telly: too important to leave to the BBC

What is the Lib Dems’ policy on the BBC? asks Martin Hoscik in a stimulating article on Lib Dem Voice. My answer: unthinking, conservative and wrong. Let’s start with some liberal first principles: freedom of the individual, the democratic accountability of public institutions, and the merits of free and fair market competition in raising standards. Which is why I am baffled by our party’s

How clean is your local?

A very useful service has been launched in Southwark that gives people access to the results of hygiene inspections on local businesses and services, including for example your child's school. I was reading about it tonight while tucking into a takeaway from the local Chinese. They turn out be 0 stars out of 5 on the Council's award scheme. This is not good. Might think again about that one. Might also be avoiding some of the services around London Bridge Station on the same basis. Check out your local High Street... the impetus for improving the Walworth Road ...

600,000 Dead In Iraq?

A new study has suggested that over half a million Iraqi civilians have been killed as a result of the war in Iraq. That would be twice as many deaths caused by our invasion of Iraq than were ever caused by Saddam. The margin of error is huge: from 300,000 to nearly a million. Still huge numbers though, even at the smallest estimate). The US government, of course, has denied these figures saying it's closer to 30,000 - 50,000. Isn't it sad that tens of thousands of innocents being killed in a wholly unnecessary war ...

Internet TV station 18 Doughty Street debuts

Mad dash to Iain Dale's new TV (internet) company, 18 Doughty Street, for its inaugural program. A cab is sent for me - but sod’s law - gets stopped by security coming into the Commons to the Members' entrance. After 15 minutes waiting for it to clear, the policewoman on the door where I am waiting calls to the search post to find that they have found something in the engine they don't like and

DNA records

Went to New Scotland Yard to meet with Gary Pugh (in charge of forensics) about DNA. DNA is taken from people who are arrested, some of whom are then found innocent. Now here’s the thing – if you look at the DNA taken from innocent people, a far higher proportion of it comes from members of the ethnic minorities than their overall proportion in the population. And remember we’re talking about

The Gang of Four - The Beginning of the Unfinished Revolution

As Cicero mentioned earlier today (beating me to it!) today is the 30th Anniversary of the arrest of the notorious Gang of Four. No, I am not talking about the founders of the SDP, I am talking about the little gang around Mao Zedong's third wife, Jiang Qing and three Communist party members from Shanghai, Zhang Chunqiao, Wang Hongwen and Yao Wenyuan. They were all put on show trial and sentenced to life in prison. Wang was the last of the four to die last December. Seems that history seems to come round in circles. Recently several ...

Disenchanted with the testing culture in schools

Now and then you do get an interesting article in the Guardian Education section. Today Mark Piesing writes about moves amongst parents and teachers to break away from the state system: Fiona Carnie, from HSE [Human Scale Education], who is also a consultant at the Centre for Educational Innovation at the University of Sussex, says: "These teachers and parents just want to bale out. They are disenchanted with the testing culture and spoon-feeding found in schools. By setting up for themselves, the teachers are reclaiming their professionalism." For others it is about the needs of their community. After the ...

Turned out nice today....

Looks like it's a pleasant day at the South Pole.

Ready for my bed..

Another busy day... 1)Wroked on my NPQH (Qualification you must have before becoming a headtecher) 2)Last 2 Performance Management Reviews 3)met with 2 curriculum leaders 4)Lunch 5)Phone conversation with surveyor 6) Met with a teacher regarding NPQH 7) Took assembly 8)Taught all afternoon 9) Met with a curriculum leader 10) Met with a teacher regarding NPQH 11) Dinner and met with head

Action Update - Butterstile Primary School Governors' Meeting

Today was my first meeting as a governor of Butterstile Primary School, my local primary school here in St Mary’s Ward. The Local Authority allows local political parties to nominate governors according to their local representation, and I have been fortunate enough to be chosen by the Liberal Democrats to fill this vacancy. The meeting today was a learning experience for me, and what I took in

Sometimes I wish I'd been born Brazilian

Although my football career reached its zenith when my team won the Marauders FC under-8’s 7-a-side league in 1989, I feel that my comments on the England team’s diabolical performance in Zagreb tonight are at least as valid as the people that write for the papers. So here they are… It’s not so much the result that annoys me. Every team loses every now and again, and I can’t remember the last

Ok, Corrie over, here's the rest ...

And taking of Corrie, got a really nice e-mail from Glenda (aka Flaming Nora) editor of Corrieblog following my earlier blog about Coronation Street and www.corrieblog.tv - and she tells me LibDems have already been mentioned on the Corrie Blog (click on headline above to view!)Ok, back to business! Homebase site - lots of residents asking what's happening with the site following planning approval. You'll recall I was strongly against the planning application but it was unfortunately approved last December. Here's the latest feedback from the City Council planning officer :-"I have recently contacted the applicants agent (11.10.2006) who has ...

Lancet article on deaths in Iraq

Today's news has been full of the Lancet article on deaths in Iraq since the invasion of 2003. You can download a .pdf file of the whole thing from the journal's website. Here is the abstract: Mortality after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: a cross-sectional cluster sample survey Gilbert Burnham, Riyadh Lafta, Shannon Doocy, Les Roberts Background An excess mortality of nearly 100 000 deaths was reported in Iraq for the period March, 2003–September, 2004, attributed to the invasion of Iraq. Our aim was to update this estimate. Methods Between May and ...

Review: Britain After Blair - A Liberal Agenda

“The Son of Orange Book” hasn’t had nearly as fiery a reception as its predecessor. One review described the original as ’smelling faintly of brimstone’. No rumors of right-wing conspiracies have accompanied this volume. This autumn, the essays are more measured, and the potential future leadership candidates more cautious about what they say. Stripped of its [...]

Lots to report back on...

Ok, the last couple of days have been seriously busy, so I'll start with the chronology .. Tuesday: 4 pm : West End Christmas Week meeting - very good progress - on launch day (2nd December - art mural and street football for primary children from St Joseph's, Park Place & Blacknes s Primaries); on 6th December, Children's Concert in Dundee West Church followed by torchlit procession to Seabraes, Christmas Lights Switch-On and a rather larger fireworks display than last year - and many thanks to Robin Carstairs and West End business community for making this possible; ...

A family day out at the casino?

Last night I wrote my first House Points of the new parliamentary season and touched upon gambling. I am sure that when changes to the law were first proposed a Labour minister talked about families enjoying a day out at the casino. I have a feeling it may have been Peter Hain. Yet when I searched for the quotation last night I could find no trace of it. Can anyone remember who said it or supply me with a link?

Fruitcake feud continues

The Devil's Kitchen has a reply to Richard Sucharzewski's resignation letter from within UKIP.

Flock to London on 4 November

I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before, but I’ve added the National Climate Change March and the iCount Trafalgar Square Rally, both on 4 November, to Flocktogether. Remember when over 2,000 Lib Dems came together on 15 February 2003 as part of the anti-war demonstrations? This march and rally should be less [...]

Q: When is a civil war not a civil war? A: When it's in Iraq

I'm reliably informed that the conflict we know as the Yugoslavian civil war or the Bosnian war is thought to have claimed between 250,000 - 300,000 lives from 1992 to 1995.This piece in The Lancet is likely to be hotly disputed, but the truth is that no-one really knows, and it could just as easily be a higher figure for all we know. So what do we call a war that has almost certainly killed more than a recent civil war? That'll be an 'insurgency' of course.

Brown speaks...world spins on

It is refreshing that Grodon Brown has done a major interview on general policy and the world hasn't fallen in. (Unless I've missed it)...No Blairites bleating that Brown is trying to force Blair out of Number Ten...No Brownites saying Blair is a slippery devil and needs to name the day he will leave....No ministers screaming unattributed profanaties down the line to Nick Robinson... It seems

US Tide flows even more towards the Democrats

The US Democrats are seeing some phenomenally good polling results in the run-up to the November Congress elections. Nationwide, CNN puts them a stonking 21 points ahead of the Republicans. That's up from 11 points 9 days ago. USA Today/Gallup puts them 23 points ahead - up from even stevens last month. In the micro polls at district level, Chris Bowers of MyDD puts the Democrats on course for

Is the veil the most important public issue in Britain today?

Of course, not. It is of minuscule, but perhaps totemic, importance. And yet we have had a procession of Government ministers pontificating on the subject...Straw...Kelly...Hain...and now Brown. (It is very difficult not to conclude that there is a mixture of the dog-whistle and the Labour leadership contests behind all this.) Gordon Brown's comments about the veil yesterday were measured and

Brown can’t duck this question forever

According to David Blunkett, Gordon Brown was not an enthusiastic supporter of Blair over Iraq. I was waiting for something like this. The biggest millstone around Blair’s neck is Iraq. He will never recover from it - they will be making documentaries twenty years from now entitled ‘Why did Blair back the invasion?’ because it [...]

Nottingham podcast

Not me! The City Council takes advantage of free advertising by appending short sentences to the bottom of every email. Not just the usual legal waffle, but also very on-message little snippets. Last month it was ‘Congratulations to our children and teachers - exam results have improved’ or something like it. This month they’re promoting the “Notice [...]

Tea room

Much anxiety for members as, for the second day running, the tea room next door to the chamber is closed for cleaning. It appears that persons unknown stuffed paper towels down the Senedd toilets, causing a flood, the contents of which do not bear thinking about. I suspect that those suffering the most from this loss of service are the whips, who cannot now track down AMs for votes as easily as they did previously.

Ming and PMQs

I watched PMQs today. Biased though I may be, I have to say I think Ming's performance was solid and statesmanlike. This image was assisted by the Punch and Judy show of Blair and Cameron that preceded his question (which was on the Northern Ireland peace process). Ming is the only politician in the Commons who can perform the elder statesman role. Forget any attempts to portray him as a young

Iraq is sliding towards civil war

Responding to a new report in the Lancet suggesting that over 665,000 people have been killed in Iraq since March 2003, Liberal Democrat Leader Ming Campbell said: It is a disgrace that we have no clear idea of the numbers of Iraqi civilians killed since the war began. There is no doubt however that there is a [...]

Pushing the train

In the light of the issues raised frequently in Plenary sessions one would be forgiven for asking why it is that Assembly Members seem so obsessed with substance misuse and trains. The answer of course is that these are amongst the many issues raised with us by our constituents. In some cases however, the obsession has more to do with the relevant AMs' own experiences. Nobody would suggest that a wild night out is something that either William Graham or Rhodri Morgan have much experience of but that did not stop them discussing what one might look like: ...

It's Good To Talk

Dr Paisley...Deal or No Deal The seven parties that won seats in the Northern Irish Assembly are meeting for talks in St. Andrews for the rest of the week. This is probably the last change saloon for the Assmebly which has been in suspension since 14 October 2002. The parties have until 24 November to come to an agreement on power-sharing or else the whole process will be mothballed. As this

A lack of ambition for the BBC?

Why does it so often feel as if the party has a lack of ambition for the future of the BBC? It seems that the only time we comment on it is when we’re attacking the Government or their proposals. It’s hard to recall when we last put forward imaginative plans to “secure the BBC’s [...]

Great campaign photographs part two

This is the photograph being sent out by Welsh Liberal Democrat MPs as part of their campaign for a Climate Change Bill. I have to admit that I had to ask who the person in the mask was meant to be. Apparently, it was the Queen. Still, at least the placard is being held up the correct way around.

Progressives for a Minimal State

Tim Worstall has an excellent article on the relationship between progressive politics and the state here, written in response to a Guardian piece by Derek Draper, a disgraced New Labour lobbyist. Draper's main assertion is that: Progressive politics is about one simple idea: that the power of the state can be harnessed for good.That's certainly one simple idea. The elephant in the room

Get bidding!

As promised, details of some of the items we’ve got for the charity auction on Friday night, so you can take a look and decide if you’re interested. First, a t-shirt signed by the cast of Channel 4’s Shameless, including David Threlfall (Frank), Maxine Peake (Veronica) and Dean Lennox Kelly (Kev). Thanks to Marjorie Yates for [...]

Arma virumque cano

See, he may be the donnish one, but we can do a bit of Latin too "up the hill". Kudos if anyone can tell me where it is from... Anyway - I sing of arms and a man. Me. And a broken arm. It is well and truly broken, but what I hadn't realised was that the Ortho-what-do-you-callem Trauma unit were there to make the incident a whole load more traumatic. I was prepared for a scene out of the Inquisition with racks and stretching machines just so some sadist could prove how much ...

What do we want? Bomb North Korea! When do we want it? Now!

This article by Simon Jenkins appeared in the Guardian today. Not I think the best thought out military plan I've ever heard of, but the international community and the powers that be have been rendered absolutely impotent in the eyes of the world in the face of this provocation. Economic sanctions on North Korea are really a bit of a sick joke. Any other thoughts on how to get out of this humiliating impasse?

Tesco's rules Britain, but not Wolverhampton

Figures out today tell us that Tesco is dominant in 81 of Britain's 121 postcode areas (up from 67 last year) and second in 24 more. Wolverhampton is bucking this trend with Tesco having just a 5% share.

Brown didn't want to go to war in Iraq - or so we are told

I don't know if I am just cynical, well I do and I am, the big news today is Gordon Brown didn't want to go to war in Iraq, am I alone in thinking this is clever spin to make him different from Blair.

Theo is the star as U21's qualify

Theo Walcott was the star last night as Englands U21's qualified for the European Championship Finals next year. England battled hard to defend their 1-0 lead from the first leg first of all against ten men and then with ten men. Germany had Markus Brzenska sent off early in the first half and the Germans seemed to play better with ten than with eleven. They won a penalty and then shock horror..... they missed. Early in the second half England's Steven Taylor was red carded to make it ten vs ten. Sixteen minutes to go and on comes Theo Walcott ...

Walk about a bit

Neil Woollcott asks Are we making children lazy? Yes, we are. Not so much by giving them a free bus pass, as by the unhelpful example we set. Taking the car for even the shortest of journeys is the default option for many people. Increased reliance on out-of-town shopping malls can't be helping either. Encouraging people to walk a short distance every day would do far more for the nation's

Labour defies residents of East Kilbride

It looks like the Labour cartel running South Lanarkshire are going to press on with their determined effort to cut up part of Calderglen Country Park expressly for the purpose of selling it to a private housing developer, named as Cala Homes in today's Herald. It must be costing them a tidy sum to get their hands on the park. The whole system of planning consultation is brought into ridicule

Micro turbines: The jury is out

B&Q sent me an email the other day advertising their new Windsave rooftop turbine. This is likely to considerably boost penetration of this kind of product. I am a big supporter of wind power, and I think it would be great if everybody had a 1 kW wind turbine on their house, providing most of their electricity needs and recharging their cars. However, the question remains of whether rooftop

What no conkers madness?

News reaches me (via Liberal England) that the annual World Conker Championships were held last Sunday in Ashton (date for diary 2nd Sunday of October every year). Unfortunately I was trapped in Wolverhampton (combination of alcohol on Saturday and lack of Central Trains on the Sunday), so couldn't make it.I used to be a regular visitor when younger as its held in a beautiful village just a couple of miles from my parents. And it is still organised by my long retired 6th form tutor John Hadman, that rare breed of being someone who taught archaeology in a state school.Anyway, ...

Asian Conundrum

30 years ago today the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (then Hua Guofeng) announced the arrest of the Gang of Four. The arrest of these most senior figures in the Chinese Communist Party (including the widow of Chairman Mao Zhedong himself) is popularly thought of as being the end of the bloody turmoil of Mao's catastrophic "cultural revolution". Certainly the installation of Deng Xiaoping as the new moderate and reforming leader in 1977 turned the People's Republic of China into something much less murderous. China remains under the control of Communists that have not repudiated Mao, even while they ...

Comprehensive failure

If any more evidence were needed the Government's own new watchdog has come along to show that the Blair/Brown Government has comprehensively failed to run the NHS well. As NHS trusts up and down the country cut services, sack staff, close beds and shut hospitals this latest report shows that 200 NHS trusts are failing to run themselves properly. The report also highlights, by implication, the failure of Labour's approach to running services via top down targets. At a time of record spending on the NHS - which the vast majority of people support, it is an utter disgrace that ...

What Are Prisons For?

Baron Phillips of Worth Matravers , the Lord Chief Justice for England, spend a day on "Community Payback" , painting a wall and removing graffiti, to find out if punishment through service to the community worked. It might be pushing it to claim this as a marvelous piece of research, rather than a publicity stunt. However, at a time when English prisons are at capacity (and Scottish ones too, I understand, but it's not become a political issue here), surely the role of prisons must be reviewed. Prisons have multiple roles: 1) To punish 2) To keep dangerous ...

A Great Day for North Korea?

It is impossible to defend anyone who makes the world a more dangerous place. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, more commonly - and accurately - known as North Korea, has today warned of more nuclear tests. Yet more trouble for an already troubled world. Its government has praised the bomb tests as a great day for the country. When you look at it from their point of view, it is. The DPRK was relatively docile until Bush took over as US President. Latterly declaring the country as part of the axis of evil may have made ...

No monomanual man...

...would ever have invented the shirt button! Blasted things! ...or the lace up shoe (memo to self: get pair of slip ons quick!)

More support for wind farms

Ofgem says the current arrangements fro those who install microgeneration units and sell any surplus electricity are too complex for customers, with some people not being paid for power they supply back to networks. The regulator has also urged suppliers to act as a one-stop shop for information on how to install microgeneration units and to help customers obtain meters that can register exports of surplus electricity they may want to sell. Ofgem went on to say "Suppliers need to compete against each other to raise their game and address these issues so they can respond to the growing numbers ...

Day 2105: Full Up

Sunday: That nice Mr Dr John Reid must be VERY PROUD this weekend as he is close to reaching his TARGET and filling up all of our prisons. Both Liberal Mr Nick Clogg and Conservatory Mr Davis David have pointed out that it is a bit incompetent of Mr Dr John to have got to his target without enough places to put everybody. But instead of asking: "Why do we not have MORE than 80,000 prison places in which to put people?" shouldn't we ask: "Why do we need as many as 80,000 places in the ...

Too much egg

I believe that there is such a thing as 'over-egging the pudding' and Tory AM and blogger, Glyn Davies, comes perilously close to this state in this morning's Western Mail. He argues that next May's National Assembly election may be the only chance ever for the Conservative Party to play a part in governing Wales and that the Tories, Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats have a national duty to bury their differences and remove Labour from power. I have speculated before that one of the reasons why the Conservatives keep playing this coalition card is because ...

We have started eating the planet

This refers to Ecological Debt Day which apparently this year fell on 9th October. The day symbolises the day of the year when people's demands exceeded the Earth's ability to supply resources and absorb the demands placed upon it.The worlds first "ecological debt day" fell on 19 December 1987 and since then it has only got worse by 1990 it fell on 7th December, by 1995 it fell on 21st November, by 2000 it fell on 1st November and by 2005 it fell on 11th October.

Rewriting history

The David Zucker Albright Ad Thanks to Dizzy for drawing my attention to this ad made by David Zucker, apparently for the GOP congressional campaign. It shows the depths that Republican strategists have sunk to in an attempt to turn around their slump in the polls. Dizzy tells us that the ad was pulled because, given recent developments in North Korea, it might be considered to "hot". Maybe that should read 'embarrassing'.

The Bat is Back

Yes that human mountain of a rock singer Meatloaf is back with Bat Out of Hell III - The Monster is Loose. The original Bat Out of Hell was one of the first albums I bought and was a great favourite of my mates as a teenager. Arriving at the height of punk it was derided by the music press at the time but it went on to sell 30 million copies worldwide (3rd biggest selling album ever - fact fans) and stayed on the UK album chart for most of a decade. It graced the front of the ...

18 Doughty Street

I watched most of this evening's output from the new internet politics show 18 Doughty Street. This is the brainchild of top Tory bloggers Iain Dale and Tim Montgomerie and friends and is, in their words, an attempt to cover politics for adults. With that aim in mind I thought it was very good and it made sitting here artworking Focus leaflets that bit more enjoyable. I hope they can maintain a reasonably objective approach and they certainly seem to be inviting a fair range of guests on. Hope it works.

The Doctor sings even more

A while ago I posted a link to a site which has Tom Baker - the greatest Doctor Who of all time - singing various well known songs. I see that more have been added to the site including an excellent House of the Rising Sun, and interesting Baggy Trousers and a doesn't quite work as well Bo Rap.

Wednesday 11th October 2006

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