LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Saturday 3rd February 2007

Politics Index

This blog is one year old today, and this is my 200th post. You expect a wildly controversial topic in celebration? Nah. I’m now so tragically middle-aged that I just thought ‘Ooh, it needs a tidy-up’. I’m pottering about making some small changes, and have started this thrilling index. It’ll help you find any of my articles on politics, should you peculiarly not wish to scroll through two hundred lengthy archived articles. It’ll be updated regularly, and when I update the Previously… Politics set of my favourite old articles in the sidebar (hmm… September), I’ll peg it at the top. ...

Make the difference... get involved with splashing the cash

If you've got a little idea for improving your local community - a place that needs a bench, a spot that could do with a tree, a playground that needs a new swing - then now is your chance to get it done. The annual Making the Difference bidding round is underway. Residents and local groups have until March 16th to get in a bid. There is 50k available for our Area Assembly, with a maximum of 10k per project - but most successful bids tend to be much smaller than that. If you want more info or ...

Steve Webb Rules OK!

Just back from a day contemplating the manifesto with my fellow FPCers. Well, managed to get them agree to "No New Trident" as a campaign theme! (No sorry, just teasing, did get three votes but have to confess two of them were mine!) I have to say how impressive Steve Webb is and how fortunate we are to have him heading up the development of our manifesto. I don't think there is anyone else in our parliamentary team who has the sharpness of intellect combined with awesome organisational, people and listening skills to be able to do such a ...

Bird Flu

I didn't really need Norfolk Blogger to wind me up about Bird Flu. I have already been petrified at the prospect for a good couple of Winters. If we don't keep it under control and it starts spreading from human to human, we are in trouble as there aren't enough antiviral drugs to go round. With a child and (albeit a very young) 55 year old in this house, I worry. Today's news about the outbreak in Suffolk is much worse than the death of a lonely swan in picturesque Cellardyke last year. I guess I just have to ...

Tasteful Loos Muze?

Well, the white was so boring.............apologies for my total shallowness but have had to forgo the pink and opt for the tasteful brown on beige...........not quite Little Shop of Horrors.......but I think it will do...?

We'll Always Have Paris (We Hope)

It's been a busy couple of weeks in our neck of the woods. First of all, an Asda planning application in the ward I represent got passed on appeal. This was disappointing. We thought that the case that the ward members, local residents and traders had produced was quite compelling. But at least this is the second application that was passed. It has some community uses that weren't included in

Strictly Come Blogging

I am aware that at least one of the regulars here is a fellow Strictly Come Dancing fan - so for a special treat I thought I'd do a bit of a plug for Strictly Come Blogging. The author, Louise, certainly knows her stuff and has provided an entertaining commentary on all things Strictly which, thankfully, continues all year round, just like the Liberal Democrats.

Another false dawn? (England 42 - Scotland 20)

Just got back from Twickenham having watched perhaps the best all-round English performance since before the World Cup. Jonny Wilkinson will get all the coverage tomorrow, and he was almost back to his awesome best (that try was simply stunning). But even better IMO was the performance put in by Harry Ellis, the oft maligned Leicester scrum half. Not only did he make a series of searing breaks

St Raphael's in party mood

St Raphael's Church in Surbiton is an imposing listed building facing the river on the Portsmouth Road. It is the home of a thriving Roman Catholic community, with around 600 people attending Mass each Sunday. And they know how to enjoy themselves, so yesterday evening Ian and I found ourselves on Ravens Ait sharing in their fundraising dinner dance. We don't get to as many...

Cornish captain saves England!

It was with considerable excitement that I settled down to watch the rugby this afternoon. Strangely enough, it wasn't Jonny Wilkinson's return that was exciting me the most. It was the sight of Cornishman Phil Vickery running on as England Captain. In fact, if I might wax lyrically for a little bit, Phil Vickery is not only a Cornishman, but it is not hugely inaccurate to call him a "Bude Boy",

Boothroyd predicts outcome of May elections

Indigo public affairs have e-mailed through their predictions for the outcome of the May elections. Four years on from a huge protest vote to the Liberal Democrats in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq, with around half of all Liberal Democrat Councillors in England up for re-election this year, it may be a suprise to see [...]

Public Meeting on how to spend £10,000 in Lewisham Central ward

I'd like to invite everyone in Lewisham Central ward to a public meeting to put forward ideas to spend £10,000 from Lewisham Council's locality fund. The meeting is on Wednesday 7 February, 7.30pm at Lewisham United Reformed Church, Courthill Rd (near junction with Lewisham High Street). Local resident Peter Ranken has already costed a number of ideas such as sprucing up the terminus of the 225 bus in Springbank Road. Please come along to discuss these and any suggestions you might have for the area. Alternatively, please e-mail me and your other local councillors. Also, I'd ...

Lib Dem manifesto site launched

The Liberal Democrats have launched a website as part of the process of drawing up their next general election manifesto. Liberal Democrat Voice quotes Steve Webb, as saying: Unlike the other parties, we want a genuine conversation, and the manifesto we produce will be better as a result. The days of the mass-produced print manifesto are over. Our manifesto for the next election will embrace new technology designed to reach people who have been excluded from the political process for too long.Whether the people traditionally excluded from the political process have easy access to personal computers, I rather doubt. Still, ...

Why "denial" is a dangerous concept

On Tuesday I noted with approval an article by Frank Furedi which discussed "denial" as the first of a series on "Really Bad Ideas". Just how bad an idea it may be can be seen from an article in yesterday's Daily Telegraph: People who question the official history of recent conflicts in Africa and the Balkans could be jailed for up to three years for "genocide denial", under proposed EU legislation. Germany, current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, will table new legislation to outlaw "racism and xenophobia" this spring. Included in the draft EU directive are plans to ...

Welsh Assembly Vote Deadline Approaching fast

{Ballot box} Voters will have the opportunity to cast two votes in the electionsAs the three-month countdown to the Welsh assembly elections begins, people are being urged to register to vote before the 18 April deadline expires. On 3 May, voters will go to the polls to decide who will run Wales for the next four years. But about 130,000 people are still not registered to vote, according to the Electoral Commission. It said the deadline may be sooner ...

Local radio for local people

I was walking across The Square in Market Harborough this morning when somebody handed me a leaflet for Harborough FM.

Day 2224: Master of the Universe

Friday: "I am Lord Blairimandius, King of Kings, Look on my Works ye Conservatories and Despair!" Defiant to the bitter end, Lord Blairimort has given an interview to Mr Humpy on the The Today Programme, probably his first proper political interview in YEARS. And that goes double for Lord Blairimort. The most ASTONISHING thing, the most TELLING, was that the interview was totally dominated by Lord Blairimort's AGENDA. Even when the subject was "why don't you resign before you get arrested" it was STILL all about HIM. This means the political climate remains centred around ...

Day 2223: Naked Appeal

Thursday: You people are SO FUNNY sometimes! Here is a story about a man going jogging. "He passed me and said 'Good evening'," said equestrian Sue Bowdoin, who spotted the man while riding her horse, Randy, on a trail in Fremont Older Open Space Preserve last summer. "I thought: Ugh!" What a charming response to a polite passer by! And do we really need to know the name of her HORSE? Why is this rude lady news? Well, I forgot to mention that the jogger had NO CLOTHES ON! ...

Global Warming denial group offered $10,000 to experts to criticise global warming report

The Eastern Daily Press reports that two experts at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit were offered $10,000 to write a report that was critical and cast doubts on evidence and “distort” the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) study, compiled from the detailed research of 2,500 scientists. Read the EDP report HERE. The group who offered the money are the American Enterprise Institute, a body that includes oil companies such as Exxon/Mobil. Those who ally themselves with those who deny that global warming is affected or could be slowed by man are discredited. The ...

The landside in Brockworth

Excerpt:

Another Green Week

Interesting week - from few people being interested in climate change issues- at long last people are talking but will much be done and soon enough? Just received an e-newsletter from Chris Davies MEP reporting the same and comittment from the EU- "Both German Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking on behalf of the EU Presidency, and European Commission President Jose Manual Barroso declared last

Molly Ivins - my kind of gal

It is strange to read an obituary of someone of whom you have never consciously heard, but immediately feel a great affinity with. That is how I felt when I read the obituary of the American journalist Molly Ivins: America's funniest political columnist - and one of the staunchest and most sensible voices of what passes for the American left - she gave her audience everyday reasons to fight for

What will UEFA do about Italian football violence ?

I remember in the bad old days of English fooball hooliganism that UEFA were always quick to slap bans, fines and make threats to the FA and to English football as a whole. So on reading the news about continued violence in Italian football, I wonder why UEFA are so silent, just like they are when it is Dutch hooligans or Croatians or Poles who are rioting. I guess the problem is with UEFA, it is easy to attack the FA and England, a country that has taken the hooligans on and where the police, the football authorities and the ...

Carbon off-setting = selling indulgences?

There was a classic letter in the Guardian yesterday: Has anyone noticed the similarity between carbon offsetting (Report, January 27) and the medieval practice of selling indulgences - where a sinner would "offset" his wickedness with a paid-for prayer at a handy monastery. Perhaps Chaucer's Pardoner - a great sin-offset man if ever there was one - is alive and well and working for Bono?Paul

Bad News- Flu strain in Suffolk is H5N1

You can read more about this story HERE. Let's hope the government officials can get on top of this outbreak straight away. If you want to read my earlier posting from last Autumn about Bird Flu, click HERE.

Could Giuliani run as an Independent?

The knock on Rudy Giuliani's bid for the Whitehouse has always been that his socially liberal views would mean he couldn't make it out of the Republican Primaries. Well according to Newsday (hat-tip Political Wire) he may be considering bypassing the GOP primaries altogether and running as independent. Although history suggests that third party bids for the presidency always end in failure

Selection news: Islington South & Finsbury

Congratulations to Bridget Fox, re-selected to fight Islington South - Bridget came within 484 votes of taking the seat last time. If you know of a selection I’ve missed, please give me a shoutrobWHOISATlibdemvoice.org (replace WHOISAT with @ to e-mail), and in addition the party maintains an official list of PPCs here.

**Manifesto consultation launched

For the next election the Liberal Democrats will produce a web-based interactive manifesto, which will use audio-visual communications as its centrepiece rather than the written word. Commenting, Steve Webb said: “This site is all about giving party members a real say in our manifesto for the next General Election. “Unlike the other parties, we want a genuine conversation, [...]

Ballots, Balls and Bikes or is it?

I have been running this blog for a little over a year now and the title was derived from those things I thought I would most likely be blogging about namely UK Politics, Football and Motorcycles. The new version of Blogger has introduced the concept of labels and I have finally finished labelling all my posts so I thought it would be a good opportunity to see how my proposed theme for the blog has turned out. There are 440 posts up on the site. Ballots 106 posts were labelled as UK politics with 54 labelled ...

Al Gore success!

I note with great pleasure that the Government has announced that they are now going to send the DVD of Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth' to every secondary school. Given that this was my suggestion in the Climate Change debate on 12th October 2006 (even praised in the debate by the Tory spokesperson in his closing remarks as a jolly good idea) and which I followed up by a letter from me to

Real democracy vs. 'eye-catching initiatives'

Excerpt:

Graffiti working party meeting

We have now planned the next meeting of the Graffiti working party. The objective has to be simple. To catch the people who perform this type of vandalism and ensure that they are punished for the consequences of the damage that they do.

Blogging, Gambling and the Perils of Delivering Leaflets

Today there’s an exciting all-day meeting of the Liberal Democrats’ Federal Policy Committee, so there’s just time to say ‘Hooray!’ for this being the first anniversary of my taking up blogging. A day crammed with scattergun policy detail seems curiously appropriate, then, though my participation in our early discussion of the next Manifesto may be a little limited: no papers have been circulated, so it’ll all be on the projector and I’m currently blind as a bat. Before I go, though, I’ve noticed the Lib Dem blogosphere sizzling with two issues in the last few days – gambling and letterboxes. ...

Squinting For Bargains

While peering fuzzily around London the other day, I spent some of the time I might profitably have used researching glasses looking for other bargains. Doctor Who bargains, particularly, though also the odd bit of chocolate. I know it’s a little late for the January sales, but there are still a few decent sales around. The reductions on Doctor Who toys were disappointing, but if you want to pick up The Doctor Who Storybook 2007 or Doctor Who – The Official Annual 2007, hurry and you can still find them at many bookshops for £1.99, or even 99p. Going fast! ...

Defining the issues

Rhodri Morgan's plea yesterday that voters should judge candidates in the forthcoming Assembly elections on Welsh issues, and not use it as a "referendum on things elsewhere" is an old tactic with a good track record. However, to make it work those issues have to dominate the campaign, whilst external matters are relegated to the sidelines in the minds of electors. On a Welsh stage that is just not going to work. Half of Wales rely on English media for their news, whilst even our indigenous media will increasingly become focussed on the 'cash for peerages' affair over the ...

Bird Flu - H5 strain found in Suffolk

I'll not bore everyone again with my fears over bird flu, but the H5 strain has been found at a farm in Suffolk. it is not yet clear if it is the H5N1 strain that has been so lethal in the far east. Needless to say, anyone who read my previous posts on bird fluw will be ware than when this does mutate in to a pandemic virus that can be spread to human, experts are warninf that up to 10% of the UK population will die from it. There are those who mock the chances of this ...

Saturday 3rd February 2007

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