LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Sunday 19th November 2006

Bush understands

At least according to The Nation here. Well I guess there is a first time for everything. According to The Nation "Despite Washington's disapproval of the coup that usurped power on September 19, US President George Bush said yesterday he understood the situation in Thailand and shook hands with military-installed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont on the sidelines of the Apec leaders summit" Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont assured the Apec leaders that the country would "proceed along the democratic path" and would "try to put the draft of the constitution to a referendum later on." The US had criticised the military ...

Pimp your wheelie bin

Here in Oxford the Lib Dem ‘recycling revolution’ is being rolled-out with the aim of doubling the city’s recycling rate. Good news for the environment and all that jazz… What I hadn’t appreciated was the limitless opportunities for self-expression that arming every citizen who wants one with a wheelie bin would provide. It was my ward colleague, David Rundle, who first alerted me to the

Live blogging The Return of the King

I'm off to listen to The Westminster Hour, but it's not looking good. The orcs are winning a lot of line-out ball and the elves are making too many simple handling errors. Now Frodo has been caught by a spider.

Dundee Christmas Lights Switch On!

Saturday morning spent with colleagues in the West End delivering leaflets and then to Edinburgh for a great night at a Scottish Ceilidh. Back to Bonnie Dundee today for the best Dundee Christmas Lights Switch On ever! Our friend Allan and his younger children Kimberley and Shain came with us - the City Square looks brilliant with the new Christmas Tree, decorations and superb Caird Hall lighting. OK, a few photos! Photo One : Janet, Allan, Kimberley & Shain in the City Square - waiting for the lights to go on! Photo Two : Janet took this one! ...

Another guilty pleasure

Remember Q magazine's list of guilty pleasures? I posted my own list back in August and have just thought of another one: Bright elusive butterfly of love - Val Doonican.

Beat the BNP- The campaign for 2008 starts here!

The first Loughton FOCUS is now ready and starting to be distributed. It features stories about the issues local Lib Dems are currently campaigning on including the state of our roads and keeping planning issues local. Currently there are six BNP councillors in Loughton, three of which are up for re-election in 2008. If you are available to help beat the BNP either through delivering a few

A village called Milton Keynes

Distinguished blogger Paul Linford believes that "until the 1970s Milton Keynes did not actually exist as a place". Not so. I refer the Hon. Gentleman to a posting on my anthology blog Serendib. In his Buckinghamshire Footpaths, published in 1949, J. H. B. Peel wrote: In Broughton you turn rightward along a lane into Milton Keynes, as fine a small English village as you are likely to encounter in these parts, or, for that matter, in any other parts. Milton Keynes is a homely place. Fields encroach upon the dusty by-lane, and brim over the scattered cottages. There is nothing ...

I've been aware of the Kingston Bahai Community for several years, but have nev...

I've been aware of the Kingston Bahai Community for several years, but have never really met tham or had a chance to ask about their beliefs. So I was only too happy to accept an invitation yesterday to the celebration of the birthday of the founder of their faith, Bahá'u'lláh. We enjoyed an excellent meal of mainly Persian dishes (spicy, but aromatic rather than hot) and good...

Funny picture (or so I thought)

Reading the rather serious story on the BBC website HERE about the Pakistan/UK agreement to fight terrorism, the picture struck me as being rather funny. It looks like Presdint Musharraf and Tony Blair are pictured standing slightly in front of the two winners of the "Saddam Hussein look-a-like competition". Take a look yourself HERE.

St Paul's Hook

Now I normally do go to the Winter Fair that supports my own church, St Paul's Hook, so it was a bit odd to be turning up in RBK1 to a formal welcome. I said that I was probably more nervous about speaking to them that to anyone else, because they've known me for very many years and I can't pull the wool over their eyes. But I duly declared the fair open, and later that afternoon...

RSS Feeds now available

Creating a blog is easy, but in order to get it to the masses requires some basic knowledge of HTML, or at least cutting and pasting in to HTML. So I am proud to announce, after some hassles, that I have cut and pasted all the neccessary for you to receive your NorfolkBlogger via RSS. Hopefully the template is due for an update soon as well. You can subscribe to the RSS feed by clicking on the icon show on the right.

Sabbath Day

I managed to visit Kingston, Surbiton and District Synagogue twice in one week! Last Sunday was a very special occasion, but yesterday was the Annual Remembrance Day Service, which I have attended several times in the past. Visitors are always very warmly welcomed at the synagogue, with members nearby to help us find our way through the service. I arrived for the last half of the...

Kingston Grammar School

I'm still catching up! But I'm afraid I have no photos of Kingston Grammar School's Prizegiving. It was held in Kingston Parish Church (which is now cosily warm after all the problems of last winter). The Head, Duncan Baxter, spoke about the frustrations of the National Curriculum and other government initiatives. Some of his thoughts were neatly counterbalanced by Prof David Miles,...

Lords,Ladies and Gentlemen.

Times have been busy so apologies for lack of blogging. Hope you have not missed me too much! We have plenty to update you on and I will try to do some regular blogs in the next few days to bring you up to date . I had an excellent evening on Friday attending the North Wales Liberal Democrats Dinner where the Guest Speaker was the Rt Hon Jim Wallace QC MSP. What a speaker! Most interesting. He is the former Scottish First Minister - be great if Mike German could recipricate ! The food was excellent but I could ...

Stan Hardy - still going after 60 years

London Region conference yesterday. Simon Hughes presented Stan Hardy with an engraved glass for his 60 years dedicated activity for the party. I have known Stan for a mere third of this time - the first time I met him was taking artwork about 20 years ago to Stan and Maud at their printing works at Denmark Hill Station. Stan is a stalwart who will go on and on. Some younger activists could

And how could I forget...

I really should introduce today's guest editor, my cat Franklin, who is literally peering over my shoulder. Franklin is the oldest of my five cats, and is fifteen years old. Recently, he has developed the curious habit of waiting until I fire up my computer and get myself comfortable, before sitting in front of me to get my attention, and climbing up my right shoulder before settling across the

Back from Brum

I’ve just got back from the Kick-Start weekend, so whilst I still have the energy, I’ll write about it! Over 100 Liberal Democrat activists from around the country gathered in Birmingham to get their election campaigns “Kick-Started,” and from a personal point of view I really do feel energised to go and campaign to win in Bury in May. AFter Cllr Andrew Garner and I became temporarily lost in

Cemeteries open all hours?

Congratulations to my colleague, Altaf Khan, for his campaign to get Oxford City Council to recognise the needs of the city's diverse communities in the burial service it provides. It is an issue that was raised a year ago, in the bad old days -- now there'll be a change of policy to allow the possibility of weekend burials. And it doesn't matter whether the change is necessary in law: the point is that it's the right thing to do, anyway. But, having said all that, some people's comments in reaction are, to be blunt, dead depressing.

More Labour hypocrisy

Fresh from the news about Labour Mayor Steve Bullock both praising and condemning local swimming pool campaigners, we have news from Blaydon of Labour campaigning against local council parking policies. No prizes for guessing which party it is that runs the local council… blaydon labour party Opposition watch

YouTube

I'm on YouTube now! The Liberal Democrats have started putting various films up on YouTube, and they include some of the ones I've done about climate change, Al Gore etc plus one of me presenting the Lib Dem blog of the year awards. You can see them at www.youtube.com/profile?user=LibDem

Iain Dale is a brave man

You have to admire someone who dares meet Ron "Chopper" Harris and Anne Widdecombe in the same afternoon. Brian Glanville adds: The presence of rugged defenders like Eddie McCreadie and Anne Widdecombe gave Chelsea players like Charlie Cooke and Alan Hudson the time and space to express themselves.

ITV "cock-up" means no new Spitting Image

The excellent Digital Spy website reports that a cock up by ITV, who apparently failed to secure proper agreement from Roger Law, one of the 'Luck and Flaw" team who created the original Spitting Image and designed the puppets, means that Roger Law is no longer prepared to give permission for a new series of the show. Read the full report HERE. Perhaps the BBC could be asked to approach Roger Law instead as it appears that ITV couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery properly ! As John Lloyd, former produce of Spitting Image said in the ...

Liberator 314 published

Liberator 314 has been published and the magazine's website now carries some of the articles from it. These include Commentary and Radical Bulletin, as well as Lord Bonkers' Diary (which I posted here the other day). This issue also includes an article by David Boyle, who reviews the three books of Liberal Democrat essays that appeared for the Brighton Conference: Community Politics Today, Liberalism - Something to Shout About and Britain After Blair. I shall not quote all of it here, so let me quote one paragraph at random. Writing of Liberalism - Something to Shout About David says: That ...

South Bristol Ring Road – Regional Spatial Strategy for the South West

With local residents, I have been campaigning to oppose the plans to build the Bristol South Ring Road. This would be a dual carriageway road probably built through the heart of my ward and across th...

Hither Green urban design and development: meeting on Thursday 23 November

Thought I'd post the following from Lewisham Council advertising a meeting on 23 November, at Hither Green Baptist church, Radford Road, Lewisham, SE13 6SB. between 10.00-12.00 and 19.00-21.00, to take forward the Hither Green urban design and development framework "Consultation on the framework was carried out with local residents, businesses, council officers and ward members. The programme was divided into three parts; an issues and problems identification stage, consultation on options, followed by a presentation of the final report. A range of methods to engage people and stakeholders were used including meetings, presentations and exhibitions, ...

Kitten shield

I do enjoy these re-writes of history. Hat tip to Tygerland.

Can anyone hum a Pete Doherty song ? Does anyone c...

When I listen to Radio One (yes, I am still just about young enough to do so), I occasionally here about the "brilliant" or "genius" Pete Doherty, yet, apart from him being well know for various convictions, mainly drugs but also plenty of others, I cannot tell you anything about his music. The other day, the subject of Pete Doherty came up, and apart from one song he did when he was in "The Libertines", which people sort of remembered the tune, but didn't know who it was, nobody could hum a Pete Doherty tune. All we knew was ...

With Arab governments like this, is it any wonder ...

The Times reports today that the Saudi government is threatening to cut all diplomatic links with Britain and suspend co-operation in fighting terror groups if the UK goes ahead with investigating a £60m slush fund set up, it is believed for some members of the Saudi royal family. When you consider that Al-Qaeda was set up in the first place because it oppposed the corruption in Saudi Arabia and wanted to overthrown the Saudi Royal family, is it little wonder that they have such support in the middle east. The Saudi government are also threatening to cancel a ...

A member of the English Candidates Committee responds to criticism...

Liberator 314 included a piece critical of English Candidates Committee and of the selection process generally. Sadly, but inevitably, the Collective are not alone in their criticism so, perhaps, we need to have an open debate on our processes, what they seek to achieve, how they work and what key failings need to be addressed in order to move things forward. I’ve been involved in the selection

Norwich City deserved defeat - Shame on Ipswich fa...

Let me say straight away, what a poor performance by Norwich, too much standing off the ball, sloppy passing, woeful levels of effort and generally, and complete opposite to Ipswich's endeavour, effort, pace and skill. I'm sad to say it, but Ipswich were worthy winners. However, shame, shame and more shame on the Ipswich fans who abused Luke Chadwick as he clattered in to the advertising hoarding in front of them doing himself a very nasty injury in the process. The appeared to be one Ipswich fans standing above the hoarding and shouting at Chadwick as he lay ...

Nick Clegg on the Politics Show

Excerpt: The boy Clegg played a blinder. You can catch it here (starts about 8 minutes into the latest programme).

SIDS Conference in Yokohama

This conference included an interesting abstract: 20 s) began only up to 13.7 min. (median 2.7) after this alarm in 5 infants and 7 to 20 s before it in 3; in the remaining infant, stimulation occurred prior to any apnea. There was no evidence for any arousal reaction (e.g., body movements). These observations suggest that prolonged apnea is unlikely to be a primary mechanism in the sequence of

Liberal Legend selected

Liberal Legend Toby Philpott has been selected as the Lib Dem Prospective Parliamentary candidate for Folkestone & Hythe Toby has been living in Bromley for the past couple of years (having worked as an economist in China). He is now going back to his Folkestone roots. With Michael Howard out of the way I reckon Toby stands a good chance if all the Folkestone & Hythe activists pile in behind

Reading win and Leeds slump

Reading easily dismissed Charlton 2-0 yesterday afternoon. Reading played well within themselves and had they been more ruthless should easily have been 2-0 up at half time and could have run out winners by 4 or more. Charlton fought hard but without ever really threatening the Reading goal. Reading played well but lacked a certain amount of quality in the final third. Still, 13 games played and 8th in the table with 19 points - nearly halfway to the much talked about survival target of 40. Match report from The Observer here. Meanwhile Leeds got thrashed 3-0 by Southampton ...

Demanding value for money

Talking of value for money I note that the new marketplace in education created by Tony Blair's tuition fee regime is having unexpected consequences in terms of the expectations of students. Undergraduates are to draw up charters detailing what they expect from universities in return for their fees - including having more time with lecturers. The move follows a National Union of Students' poll of more than 3,000 students at 40 universities which reveals anger among first-years that they receive the same education as their older peers, but pay far more. In return for their fees of up to ...

Paying for the Olympics

If the building of Wembley was a farce then the staging of the 2012 Olympics could well turn into a blockbuster. Today's Observer reports that the cost of putting on this prestigous event has increased from the robust and rigorous £2.4bn figure given at the time of the bid to well over £8bn and that by the time all is done and dusted the Country could well find itself with a £10bn bill. That is an awful lot of lottery money. Questions around this event outside of London will now inevitably move from 'how can we get a benefit ...

Let the Train Take the Strain

Normally I enjoy journeys on public transport. Friday was an exception. The trip to Birmingham on Thursday had been uneventful. The train was clean, not too full and ran on time. The return...

The Bolam Test and Medical Ethics

There has been some debate about Medical Ethics. Since Nuremberg there has been the Nuremberg Code . In essence in non-therapeutic research doctors are not allowed to Harm human beings to find out what happens. It is more permissible when the research is supposed to benefit the patients. The Bolam Test (see link) is a test for medical negligence. If a doctor harms a patient when trying to

Blog Club

Fascinating time at the Jolly Farmers on Saturday evening. A gathering of Lewisham bloggers organised by former Blackheath councillor Andrew Brown. An impressive turnout, but I'm afraid the political bloggers outnumbered the real people by about 2 to 1: Andrew Brown and John Paschoud (Labour), James Cleverly (Conservative), Sue Luxton (Green), The Man From UKIP (sorry, didn't catch name) and Max Calo (you count as a politician now, I'm afraid!). A veritable alternative Cabinet for Lewisham, if you don't count me (although someone did mistake me for Gavin Moore, after not so many pints as to be ...

Men's Health: Cancer

Dear Political Diary Tuesday: attended meeting of governors' of Hither Green School. Wednesday: to The Bridge leisure centre, for a meeting of Lewisham Council's Men's Health Scrutiny Group. Very good idea to have a Council meeting in a real place, away from the Town Hall. The subject of the meeting was cancer, in all its various forms and malignancy. And it was interesting to explore the various graphs and trends of particular types of cancer. At the risk of generalising, - and mustn't forget that different types of cancer are, well, different - Lewisham isn't ...

Go Duncan go

Quite impressive the number of LibDems having a go at blogging. Even some of the dead slow blogs have had a spoon of multivite and returned full steam. One that I've taken to reading recently is Duncan Borrowman's blog all revamped in pretty colours. A key Bromley/Bexley activist, can't say I know him very well. During my stint at party HQ only spoke to him a couple of times but my ears pricked up recently once his name came under attack in the gossip pool at party HQ. From ...

Not banking on it....

So we may see the end of free banking for current account holders who retain a credit balance –if the current (pun intended) plans of the Directline bank are a model for the industry. There is perhaps a parochial political consequence – for all of us who have been or may become election agents. The standard advice has been for each agent to open a bank account separate from our personal accounts and also from the local party accounts, solely to conduct the business of an election. This suggests possibly thousands of ‘dormant’ accounts out there held by LibDems ...

According to Radio 5 Live

the Sunday Times is reporting a prison-funding spat between John Reid and Gordon 'Bosola' Brown. You read it would here five weeks ago.

The unbearable lightness of waiting in Haverstock

This time last year, I was focused on ensuring that my motion of diversity and equality passed trial by London Liberal Democrats, and thus I didn't enjoy the Regional Conference as much as perhaps I should. A year later, I was busy trying to be helpful (presumably a good thing) and so today was rather more enjoyable. The day didn't get off to the greatest of starts. I overslept and, as a result,

Another true one...

told by a wildlife film maker. A group of five New Zealand lifeguards were on an open water training swim when they were mobbed by dolphins. The dolphins circled them, swimming very close and in such a tight pattern that the swimmers couldn't push their way out. They became alarmed, thinking that the dolphins were about to turn ugly and that being done to death by a load of dolphins would be

Minute by minute: Charles Kennedy resignation videos

I unearthed a pile of recordings I took on the day of Charles’s resignation, and thought that as we now have a clearer idea of what was going on within the parliamentary party at the time thanks to Greg Hurst, they might be of interest to people of a liberal history bent. In chronological order, then: 14:14 [...]

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Sunday 19th November 2006

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