Cameron: Cash for chats or abuse of office?
According to ThisIsLondon Cameron's fundraising is coming under scrutiny. Saturday 9th December 2006
11:49 pm
According to ThisIsLondon Cameron's fundraising is coming under scrutiny. 11:34 pm
Day 2156: Rat Boards Sinking Ship
Wednesday: Everyone at the BBC was in TURMOIL today on hearing the news that Mr Michael Grade is to leave to become boss of ITV. Certainly it caused no end of TIZZY in the studios of the Today Programme, with Mr Naughty and Mr Humphries each managing to use the word BETRAYAL about fifteen times – I am sure Mr Jim even managed to squeeze one into the weather forecast! News of the BBC staffer leaving the Corporation for a huge pay rise from a downmarket commercial rival was broken by Geoff Randall (ex-BBC staffer who now works for ... 10:34 pm
Follow the yellow brick road
These are the stars of a hugely enjoyable production of 'Wizard of Oz' by the St Paul's Players in Hook. I'm afraid if you want to see the show it's too late as the last performance was this evening - but worth waiting for next year's pantomime. This is a real community effort including people of all ages, and anyone who wants to get involved is welcomed. It... 10:12 pm
For one moment I thought this was about the former Archbishop of Canterbury !
I honestly clicked this link believing it to be about the fofmer Archbishop of Canterbury after I saw the headline on the BBC website titled: "Carey battles porn star over name" Click HERE to read the story. 10:12 pm
Men are from Mars Hill
Paul Burgin of the Mars Hill blog invited me to be the twenty-first contributor to his entertaining series, ’20 Questions to a Fellow Blogger’. Here’s a taster to whet your appetite for the other 19: Q: Would you regard the Lib Dems as being to the left or the right and how do you answer the charge from Conservative and Labour activists that the Liberal Democrats are the real nasty Party? A: Is 9:23 pm
Gone to the Dogs
It’s been a pretty knackering last few weeks - the result of trying to juggle my real job with keeping on top of the City Council’s about-to-be-published budget - so today was a self-proclaimed day of rest. I took full advantage of it to pop down to London to catch up with friends, and gorge on turkey ‘n’ trimmings. It was a perfect winter’s day - bright sunshine, blue skies, a not-too-biting 9:02 pm
Selection news: Warwick and Leamington, and Birmingham Yardley
Colin Ross brings news that Alan Beddow has been selected as the Warwick and Leamington PPC (Beddow caused a bit of a kerfuffle last week when he made a blog entry about his selection contest, but has clearly survived!). John Hemming has been re-selected for Birmingham Yardley. PPC list will be updated in a couple of days [...] 8:25 pm
Hogmanay in the City Centre 2006
If you click the headline above, you can download details of the events in the City Centre this Hogmanay! 8:11 pm
The problem with freedom of the press is just that
I've been following an argument in Liberal Democrat Voice with some interest, related to the appropriateness of a particular posting. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about the actual posting itself, as it isn't especially relevant for the purposes of what follows. As a blogger myself, and a bureaucrat too, I am well aware of the power of information. Used in the right (wrong) way, it 7:37 pm
Day in Perth & Greenmarket issue
Janet & I along with Helen, Claire & Murray from Dundee Liberal Democrats spent today in Perth at a LibDem pre-election meeting. Very enjoyable day and the Scottish LibDems are in great spirits ... I have no doubt that the party will perform well next May. Here's a couple of photos from today : Claire, Helen, Murray & me at lunchtime! And Janet's in this one because I took the photo! There's an issue about how unswept the Greenmarket area is and the extent of litter in the area - I have raised the issue with ... 
6:15 pm
Xmas card competition slide show!
About a month ago I decided to launch a Xmas card competition and wrote to local schools inviting them to design my xmas card. I had no idea how many entries I would have - 10, 30 - nope - 214!! I am ... 6:00 pm
Selection News - Birmingham Yardley
Councillor John Hemming MP has today been re-selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Birmingham Yardley at the next General Election. 5:07 pm
Do not insult the King of Thailand
If you do so in Thailand you are in big trouble. The Swiss man shown above has been arrested for allegedly insulting the monarchy by painting over images of Thailand's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej. He was caught on Tuesday on surveillance cameras spray painting over portraits of the king with black paint in several locations in the Mae Hia sub-district of Chiang Mai province. He was arrested on Wednesday night and faces up to 15 years in jail if convicted. Apparently the military have also launched a separate investigation into the incident suggesting Rudolf may have ... 4:27 pm
iTunes downloading?
I’m working on a couple of more detailed political posts that you should see in the next few days including one on the proposed changes to the makeup of the States of Jersey but for now here’s a quick techy question. I was recently downloading two songs from two different artists. One of the artists is [...] 3:59 pm
Progress
Work has started on the crossing at Bethnal Green Road/Brick Lane which we've been campaigning about. I can see it out the window of the internet cafe from where I'm writing this. If I was really organised I'd have a camera on hand so that you too could see the island which was bizarrely placed in the middle of the junction has today been taken out altogether! However, still no... 3:20 pm
On the ninth day of advent
A special treat on the Doctor Who advent calendar today. If you’re looking forward to New Year’s Day’s introductory episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures (series title subject to change, according to DWM), take a look for a short clip. 3:19 pm
Outsourcing posts
I was going to write a post about the Daily Mail’s latest ‘War on Christmas’ inanity, but I see that James O’Malley has written just about what I would have, so I can send you there to read him instead. 3:00 pm
Selection News - Hereford
Today Tracey O'Brien and I went to Hereford to provide the local party with Selection Committee Training. Obviously the election of Paul Keetch in 1997 means it has been a long time (1994) since the last proper selection in Hereford for the Liberal Democrat, making it essential that all of the Selection Committee is properly trained. As well as over a dozen members from Hereford Liberal Democrats there were also a few from Leominster to ensure they could also start the process of selection. 1:47 pm
Klutz of the year
Even now, three days later, it is almost too painful to write about it. I have done so, however, because if I don't then inevitably, somebody else will. Within 24 hours of winning a very attractive glass trophy as the BBC Wales AM-PM Communicator of the year, I had done a Joe Calzaghe and broken it. I had put it in its box into my bag and placed the bag on the back seat of my car. Unfortunately, in the stop-start conditions of the M4 in winter the bag fell off the seat. When I got home and proudly handed ... 1:05 pm
Only in America ?
Sad little story from the BBC website the other day. Read it HERE. I wonder how many British parents would call the police in such circumstances ? It's one the situations that is difficult to comprehend, but if his parents had tried everything else, who knows, may be it will have some effect. 12:30 pm
Guardian Advent 9th December
Todays link takes you here. This is a website all about Mistletoe. You can find out all about the Tenbury Mistletoe Festival. I was amazed to read that there was loads of mistletoe, and all very-heavily berried. I was led to believe that Mistletoe was in such short supply that anyone buying was almost criminally guilty of killing off a plant that was in severe decline. Apparently not so. The site goes on to say that with the glut of mistletoe prices are low - normally they expect in the region of 700 - 800 entries at the first ... 11:45 am
Tory Troubles
I know that many people read my blog for some of the Norfolk stuff I put on here and don't trawl through other political blogs, so it is worth me highlighting to potential Tory voters in my own neck of the woods (not many of them left, to be fair, in Fakenham) just some of the problems the Tories are having nationally. They have, this week, lost control of two councils, in Dover and Crawley with in both cases Tories defecting to the Lib Dems. This is reported on the Lib Dem voice blog HERE. Then there is the problems ... 11:19 am
Moving
I have been told that moving home is the third stressful thing after death and devorce. I can quite believe this. I am currently selling up and moving on. But for me, it didn't really seem planned, it just happened. I had been thinking that my flat was getting a bit small for me, now I don't mean because I was getting bigger, but because my dining table became my desk etc etc. So I had it in 11:05 am
Ideology trumps journalism in BBC debate on “ethical shopping”
You know you’ve touched a raw nerve when everybody attacks you. So Kendra Okonski discovered when she was interviewed on the BBC this morning. The Environment Programme Director at the International Policy Network had been invited to appear to discuss a report in The Economist about the contradictions within the ethical shopping industry. According to The Economist, organic production is less intensive than production that relies on chemical fertiliser, and so requires more land. Thus a greater reliance on organic production would require turning more of our natural environment into cultivated farmland. Ms. Okonski noted on the BBC that ... 10:34 am
March 2008 General Election ?
According to a number of sources, the dreadful Hazel Blears has written to Labour MP's warning to be prepared for an election in the next 16 months. Read The Times report HERE. Does this mean an election will happen ? No, not at all. To my mind it is Labour trying to get moribund and inactive Labour local parties to start being more active, select candidates and raise some money. I know some Labour members in a couple of different constituencies (one is Labour held) and even they say little proper campaigning is going on, so I would ... 
10:18 am
How many villages will die after Post Office closures ?
The news today that up to half of all Post Offices will close under plans by the Post Office to save money will be a shattering blow to many, but particularly those in rural communities whose local Post Office is often the very heart of the community and is what keeps the villages sustainable. I was impressed by plans adopted last year by the Liberal Democrats to part privatise the Royal Mail (the people who sort and deliver the post) in order to raise funds to invest in the Post Office network. It appears though that the government are less ... 10:12 am
Day 2155: Life, but not as we know it
Tuesday: Scientists are today VERY EXCITED about a piece of rock that fell to Earth in the year 2000 and hit Canada. They now think that it might yield clues about one of the GREAT MYSTERIES: how life began! Early organic molecules could have been carried to Earth in similar meteorites from the outer limits of the solar system where they formed in the cold gas clouds of space. Hollow spheres found in the primordial meteorite could yield clues to the origin of life on Earth! Dr Lindsay Keller of NASA's Johnson Space Center ... 9:57 am
St David's Day
I have just become the 3,000 signature to a petition for St. David's Day to be declared a national holiday in Wales. You can add you name on the 10 Downing Street petition site here. You have until 20 February 2007. The Western Mail reports that a rival petition calling for St George's Day to be made a national holiday in England had, by comparison, only attracted 904 signatures. 9:06 am
In At The Deep End
Mustn't forget to take my swimming trucks to my advice surgery this week. I'm holding it in a swimming pool. Well, not actually in the water, although that might be a novel way to reach ou... 1:21 am
The Internet is More Powerful Than The Sword
Mark Tran has published an interesting article on Guardian Online regarding web journalist jailings . As several of you who bother to read my posts on China know, I have been highlighting the cases of a number of dissidents including Shi Tao who has been adopted as a Prisoner of Conscience by Amnesty International. One third of all journalists in jail are there for "crimes" related to use of the internet. This is the most telling quote: "China is challenging the notion that the internet is impossible to control or censor, and if it succeeds ... 1:04 am
Toby Defects to UKIP
No, not me! You have got to be joking haven't you? Got your attention though did I? I'm referring to Toby Horton , one of William "Only 24 hours to Save the" Hague's former aides. Seems that the spectre of Polly Toynbee influencing Tory social policy was too much for that Toby and he's gone headbanging with Nigel Falange. Sorry, I meant Farage. Looks like my hypothesis that there is a slow realignment of the political right going on is coming true.... 12:58 am
Morrissey 10 Wembley 0
This posting had so many headings that went through my head... Here are a few: I’ve been dreaming of a time when the English are sick to death of Labour and Tories... Wembley Arena is a 21st century american style pit I would never go to another gig in... Madonna you murdering bitch... Tonight Grace and I went to see Morrissey at Wembley Arena. Firstly the Mozfather, was as always superb. Now 12:28 am
Safe from the guards of intellect and reason?
This is the longest period without an entry since I started this humble blog some fourteen months ago. Don't think that I haven't thought about posting something but, if truth be told, I've felt rather uninspired. I've also been very busy, which given the prolific nature of some of my fellow Lib Dem bloggers, makes me feel vaguely guilty. But enough of that, what have I been up to? Mostly 12:12 am
Another blow for Cameron
According to Liberal Democrat Voice, the Tories have lost control of another local Council following the defection of one of their Councillors to the Liberal Democrats. This has been confirmed by our group leader on that Council, Councillor Gordon Seekings. The defection means the Tories’ lose their majority on the Council which is now 18 Conservative, 16 Labour and 3 Liberal Democrat and becomes No Overall Control with the Liberal Democrats holding the balance of power. This comes just days after a defection by a Conservative on Dover District Council led to the Tories losing their majority on that Council ... 
