Before the ban on hunting with hounds, we were told the law was illiberal because it would destroy hunts, put people out of work and take away the liberty of people to enjoy hunting. Now we are told that the law has failed because it has not destroyed hunts, not put people out of work and has not taken away the liberty of people to enjoy hunting. Huh?! Have I missed something?! Could it be
Q: What's the news that 78% of Britain doesn't want to hear?A: That the housing boom is over. But it seems like it. Actually, a glance at statistics reveals that it was over two years ago, but people who have invested heavily just don't want to know about it. I think though that this year's expansion, just squeaking into double digits and heavily weighted by the central London bubble at that, will be the last inflation busting rise for several years to come and is almost wholly attributable to the temporary (and in my opinion misguided) shaving of a quarter ...
Part 1 ended with June. In 2006, the next month was... July I rhapsodised about A Canterbury Tale , complained about the sums the BBC was paying to Jonathan Ross and Chris Moyles and disclosed my 10 most overrated films. August A possible saviour of English cricket was glimpsed. We did not know then how much he would soon be needed. Meanwhile I questioned the validity of Charles Kennedy's attempt to present himself as a man of strong opinions who had been neutered by the system and exposed the connections between John Reid's authoritarianism and his youthful ...
Good news heading into the New Year... I think I have cleared all my current casework! So if you are a resident in Fortis Green and are waiting for a response from me then please do drop me a line at matt.davies@haringeylibdems.org and I'll follow it up immediately. The only exception is the ongoing issue of waste double charging... I'll post more details about that some other time if anyone's interested, but it's something I've been trying to get the Council to address for years now - the one thing where I have consistently come up against a brick ...
Flicking through a discarded copy of The Times on the train today (it’s just about value-for-money when it’s free), I noticed a chain of correspondence concerning young people’s ignorance of who Marie-Antoniette was. I can’t find it in myself to feign shock. I have spent a reasonable amount of my life learning history; indeed I have a degree in it. In seven years at ‘big school’, I was taught
Last year I had the idea of looking back on the past 12 months of this blog, but did not get round to doing it. Now Mark Valladares at Liberal Bureaucracy has inspired me by doing something similar. So here goes... January This blog is not without influence: on 6 January I wrote Charles Kennedy must resign and on 7 January Charles Kennedy resigns. I was also inspired by the travails of Oaten to write a survey of past Liberal scandals. By the time it appeared Simon Hughes was in the Mulligatawny too. February I explained why I ...
Liberal Review has rediscovered my review of The Orange Book and reprinted a couple of paragraphs. Rather to my surprise, they read quite well.
One of the most painful experiences of the Atlee government was having to borrow loads of dosh from the US. The good news is that today we have finally paid it back!: Gordon Brown's officials will (today), at the push of a button, make two electronic transfers of so-called "war loan" across the Atlantic, marking the end of a chapter of British history that began under Labour chancellor Hugh
They have issued the following statement: The Trust has been in communication with Mr John Hemming MP about his concerns relating to research carried out by Professor David Southall and colleagues. Mr Hemming has made a number of allegations that officers of the Trust have behaved unlawfully and has made repeated statements of his intention to issue Judicial Review proceedings against the
I have today received what I can only regard as a lecture in an anonymous post. Quite why someone would go to the lengths of cutting and pasting a large chunk of text from a Conservative press release (which is what he or she did), then ranting on about something completely off-topic, then, having gone to this effort failing to even put a name, I will never know. I'll make clear my rules on whether comments get through the moderation stage. you will always be published if: 1) If you stick to the topic in hand 2) If ... 
Christmas and the New Year are quiet times for all but the hardest core politicians and political activists. The biggest festive challenge is usually to come up with New Year's resolutions that a...
Thursday: Headless-chicken impersonator and VERY MUCH full time, in her own words "every waking moment", chair of Lord Blairimort’s Labour Ms Hazel Bleary has a bit of a problem. She was on the Radio anyway, having to make the usual excuses for her boss, Lord Blairimort. Asked about whether His Lordship was off on a freebee with a Bee Gee or would in fact pay his own way, Ms Bleary told us how DISAPPOINTED she was with the public and that really we all ought to be doing better. "If you don’t buck your ideas up, you won’t DESERVE ...
Driving back to Swansea from my mother's today we stopped in Newtown for a quick snack. As I browsed for something suitable in one of the convenience stores on the A483 my eyes were drawn inexorably to the Montgomeryshire edition of the County Times and Express. At first it was the strapline above the title - 'Proud to be local' - that made me check myself to ensure that I was indeed in Newtown, Powys and not Royston Vaisey, but then I realised that the paper contained far more exciting fare. Tucked away on page four is a regular ...
Coun Andrew Carter, Leader of the Conservative Group and indeed Leader of Leeds City Council thinks we should defend the Christian meaning of Christmas. I and the rest of the City knows this because of his "Dog Whistling" letter to the YEP in early December attacking the Royal Mail and "Political Correctness" for not having any Christian images on this years Christmas postage stamps. How odd then to receive Coun Carter's official "Christmas" Card. I put the C word in italics because it sported a picture of the Civic Hall with the tempory Ice rink outside ( Which ...
I am always a bit late reading books. I have just got round to John Peel and Sheila Ravenscroft's "Margrave of the marshes". It is a wonderful book and underlines what a wonderful chap Peel was. It is a shame that John Peel only got round to writing about a third of the book. The third that he did write is absolutely fascinatingly and beautifully written. The tales of his time in the USA are 
In the dim and distant past I went swimming in the sea on Christmas Day. This year, I was delighted to repeat the exercise. I did it with my daughter and nephew in some style at the Mike Moyle Memorial Christmas Day Swim at Crooklets Beach, Bude. The event was organised with considerable panache by Bude Surf Life Saving Club. It sounds simple - run in, have a dip, run out. But there were 200+
Niall Ferguson's critique of the British Empire's role in shaping the modern world asks tough questions of Liberals.
There is a young lady called Aurelia who sells The Big Issue in Newbury by W.H.Smith. She has been selling the magazine there for several years, in all weathers. She originates from Romania and lives in one room with her two children and mother. She recently featured in a photographic survey of Newbury and had her photograph exhibited at the Corn Exchange. I congratulated her on this when I
Number Ten's website now has a virtual tour on it. It kills a few minutes. It is reasonably impressive, although I notice it still has "beta" written on it. It has a "beta" feel to it!
I have recently been thinking about what would happen if Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and Shane MacGowan appeared at an X-factor audition (putting aside, for a moment, the fact that Johnny Cash is in some heavenly choir and Shane MacGowan is otherwise detained enriching Dublin pub-owners). Imagine the comments: Johnny Cash: "Hopelessly flat" - Louis Walsh. Bob Dylan: "Tuneless whining" - Simon
I cannot possibly match the pith of the eloquent Cicero, who wrote his own short word about Hazel Blears. But words must be written. Hazel Blears, the Labour Party Chair, has attended a protest in Salford to object to Government policy that will close the maternity ward in her local area. Defending her actions, Ms. Blears said “As a constituency MP, I am representing the strong feelings of my constituents. The people of Salford and Eccles come first.” Actually, they don’t. Ms. Blears has clearly forgotten (if she ever knew) Edmund Burkes famous dictum that constituents do not ...
The Guardian today reports that Gerald Ford gave an interview with Bob Woodward, stipulating that it should only be published after his death. His criticism of Bush's policy on Iraq is devastating. That is not just because the critique is from a former Republican President. It is made all the more powerful because Ford bases his comments on the American interest: I just don't think we should go
Oh dear, I have failed to write anything here for weeks. As the New Year approaches thoughts turn to resolutions like ‘I must return to regular blogging form in 2007′ as well as the usual ones of more exercise, less drinking etc. And I will… starting with this message saying little more than hope you [...]
Yesterday, Adrian Sanders MP wrote an entry in his blog (speakers on when you visit it!) entitled Don’t swallow that coin, in which he argued that early doubts about the euro have been proved unfounded. I am unable to leave a reply on the blog (MySpace is fighting me!) so I am obliged to do so here. Though it is true that early scepticism about the euro has given way to cautious optimism, the evidence that Mr. Sanders gives for hailing it as an untrammelled success is flawed. His statement that “the new currency is competing with the Dollar ...
According to the Times here today is the day that the United Kingdom make its final payments to the United States of America and Canada Britain will this week pay off the last instalment of the multibillion dollar loans that were secured from them under lend lease more than sixty years ago to help fund the war effort. The final payments will be the last part of payments totalling over 9.5 billion dollars which have been made over the last 56 years. The other interesting point made in the article was that in 1950, Britain’s national debt stood at about ...
Wednesday: I cannot let Christmas pass without wishing a very Happy Season to MR BALLOON, last seen by my fluffy agents on the Thursday before Christmas getting VERY CROSS leaving HMV in London. I do hope the special edition "Lord Blairimort's Greatest Speeches" DVD that he wanted from Santa wasn't out of stock! With the CASH-FOR-HONOURS scandal still flapping about like a loose ermine robe, Christmas gifts are in SHORTER SUPPLY this year. No longer can Mr Balloon look forward to finding a cheque from a Saudi Arms Dealer in his Christmas stockings. Still, Mr Balloon is never ...
When Labour MPs shed crocodile tears for the NHS when joining protests against the loss of NHS services in their constituencies you have to ask where they were when they devised the policy that...
I’m just listening to Virgin Radio’s all-time top 500 songs and it’s got me wondering whether anyone’s ever attempted to organise joke voting for one of these polls? OK, you could argue that some of the results could only be the result of a sick joke on the behalf of the music industry, but has [...]
So, as the old year draws to a close - and what a year it was for us - who knows what the new one will bring..............another new leader?????? Or is that blasphemy?! I have to confess that the assassination of Charles still sticks in my gullet a bit, even as someone who was strongly of the view that we would need a new leader by the time of the next general election, but not then and not in that manner. There has been a fair bit of analysis on our performance this year on my beloved radio 4 (no ...
Stephen Tall does a very good job of analysing yesterday's Guardian editorial entitled 'Liberal Democrats: In search of adventure’, however there are two points in his dissertation where I would take issue with him and where I believe he has allowed an element of complacency to creep in. Stephen identifies the essential criticisms in the Guardian piece, namely that the party's poll ratings are stagnating, that Sir Menzies has failed to find the authority and gravitas he had as foreign affairs spokesperson, that the Liberal Democrats have not yet found a defining issue in this Parliament to make their ...
Queen are my featured band on the last Rock Show of the year on Palm 105.5. I was going to make it a Christmas special, but if I hear Chris Rea's Driving Home For Christmas one more time I will ...
Happy New Year to each and every one of you.
One of the advantages of being the eldest of a family generation scattered to the four corners of the Earth is that there are lots of weddings to attend, and children to look at and say "Isn't he/she/it adorable? Looks the spitting image of (insert name of relative)..." And so you might guess that I'm doing that at the moment and I welcome you to Mumbai accordingly. My cousin Clyne is getting
Does it make me a geek that, after a night out with my old schoolmates Andy, Johnny and Sarah, I have got back to my parents and still managed to get excited by the news that John Edwards has announced his bid to be the Democrats' presidential candidate in 2008? I don't think anyone needs to answer that for me. Edwards seemed to be by far the better half of the Kerry-Edwards ticket in 2004 - though you might argue that was no great achievement. If the Democrats had been brave enough to make him the candidate instead of ...
The US Media report that Saddam Hussein is about to be handed over to the Iraqi authorities and could hang as early as Sunday 31st December. Various issues arise, such as the implications for Britain being associated with an execution. However the Iraqi authorities may be more sensitive to the rhythm of the Islamic calendar, Sunday being the date of the festival eid al-Adha – the Festival of Sacrifice. This commemorates the story of Abraham (Ibrahim) being willing to sacrifice his son. Same story as in the Jewish and Christian Bibles basically. Saddam has been describing his projected death ...
My dad got my mum one of these. Just look at this crazy thing: Yes, it's what she always wanted. A climate-controlled butter dish that keeps your butter cool enough to stop it going off, but warm enough to spread nice and easily. It gets its power from a base station, but the internal batteries allow it to power itself for up to two hours on the table. How on earth did people cope before they invented these things?! The King’s Breakfast (by Jonny Wright, with sincere apologies to A. A. Milne) ... | < | December 2006 | > | ||||
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