LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Thursday 8th March 2007

In honour of the ringing in my ears stopping

On Monday night I went to see the Inspiral Carpets in Norwich at "The Waterfront". I went with a group of friends, some like me who vaguely remember the Inspiral Carpets singles, one who was a mad Carpets fans and one who was too young to know them from their early 1990's success. All I can say is that we were all blown away by a sensational gig, exactly reproducing their sound, perfect vocals, lots of audience interaction, and all in a venue which holds about 500 people. Fantastic. I think the ringing has now fully stopped ...

Lib Dem Head of Media resigns

{Marklittlewood} Word reaches me that Mark Littlewood, head of media in Cowley Street, has resigned. Mark was named as the "conference briefer" who claimed that Ming's speech last week was a precursor to a Lib/Lab coalition. I have to admit none of this surprises me. I only spoke to Mark once, very briefly, in Brighton, had he wasn't too discreet at the time about his thoughts on the next election. All talk of coalitions needs banning, or the Tories will simply screw us at the next election. Which is why this is probably for the best.

Keeps it interesting

Overall another confident European performance from Spurs against Braga tonight. A penalty that shouldn't have been awarded and a second goal from a free kick that shouldn't have been awarded nearly screwed us over a bit though. But, on the plus side, the 3-2 win at least makes the £52 spent on my ticket for the home leg *slightly* less pointless. With Newcastle beating AZ but conceding two goals at home and Rangers being held 1-1 at home to Osasuna, I think we've still got the best result of the British sides tonight. Got to be confident ...

I can't ever remember this happening to one of our candidates at a count !

I guess THIS is the sort of thing that could only happen in Northern Ireland. A Labour activist one tried to hit me at the 1997 General Election count when I told him we would target his seat in the next local elections (which we did, and we won it), but I can't remember anyone ever being arrested. Has anybody got any stories to share ?

Referred from Liberal England

In recent days this blog has appeared in a couple of other people's lists of top referrers. Liberal England was 20th in Iain Dale's list for February and 16th in Paul Linford's list for January and February combined.

Dads and Doughnuts

They're the subject of my latest column:In the end if our children run riot or fail to flourish then that is our own responsibility first and foremost. Yes – the government and various authorities have an important role to play to – and they may fail our children in terms of their schooling or us in some or many ways – but in the end we are the parents. The recent UNICEF report on children’s

Welsh Lib Dems stop WAG dictating safety in North Wales - Burnham

Eleanor Burnham AM has today to block the Labour Assembly government plans to cut funding available for policing in North Wales. Labour's Finance Minister Sue Essex moved a motion seeking to cap the amount by which police precepts could rise, limiting what our police could spend on making North Wales communities safer. Ms Burnham, Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for North Wales said: "The Labour government in Cardiff has no right to dictate how much money is sufficient to keep people in North Wales safe. "We have a North Wales Police Authority that knows first-hand the problems facing the region ...

Trivial Fact of the Day

The country singer Kris Kristofferson once boxed as a light-middleweight for Oxford University against Cambridge. Thanks to the Daily Telegraph.

Horrorgate, the aftermath

It’s been an odd seven days for the Lib Dems. This time last week, party activists were focused on the Harrogate spring conference, and the crunch Trident debate. By last Saturday, the leadership could have been forgiven for breathing a sigh of relief: delegates voted - by a whisker - to support their favoured multilateralist stance, in part thanks to a passionate speech by Ming Campbell.

What’s all the fuss about?

I always thought racism was treating people differently because of their race (however you define that). So, surely if you call someone a black bastard when you do not insult others because of things which are different about them then its racism, but if you are in a situation where you pick out things about people [...]

URGENT: How long is John Thurso's mustache?

The dogphone has been all a-buzz this evening with text messages from numerous leading Parliamentarians asking questions such as, "who was the first Secretary of State for Wales?", "how many different official posts are there an MP can take up in order to resign?", "what is the minimum size for a signature box on a postal vote application form?" and "how long is John Thurso's mustache?". I think someone, somewhere might be in a quiz ... I'm sure it's just initiative and not cheating though you know.

Lib Dem Voice says Mark Littlewood has resigned

The Liberal Democrat media chief is reported to have resigned.

The young Michael Crick

The other evening there was a Newsnight report by Michael Crick about embarrassing photographs from the pasts of David Cameron and Tony Blair. A school friend of Crick's later sent in a photograph of the young Michael which was shown on air. You can find it on the programme's website. They say they have "cleaned it up", whatever that means. Anyway, here is the young Michael Crick. Not changed a bit, has he?

The winds of change

My family seem to be moving en masse these days. My sister is currently in China, and is returning to the UK next week after some months of teaching / travelling. My Mum is selling her house. And we are selling my Grandpa's house. So tonight was an odd one, as I trawled through the loft at the family home, emptying it of the various detritus that has accumulated there since we moved in twenty

Those conference pics I promised

I'm back home in Gateshead and now have a chance to post up some of the pics from conference. By the way, the photos I took at the Susan Kramer and Nick Clegg photo ops have now all been emailed out to the people who turned up. Around 80 members or groups had their pics taken. I've included the one of me handing on the Post Office petitions we collected in Gateshead to SK. Other pics

Shocked at Patrick Mercer's behaviour

So Patrick Mercer has been dispatched from the Tory front bench for some less than attractive comments about the acceptability of racism in Army life. What shocks me is not that there are members of the Tory front bench with less than progressive views on race relations. It is that Mercer was stupid enough to voice them. If your party has a problem with being perceived as racist, and your party

Will the US be the good guys?

Although the criminal investigation into BAE has been dropped in the UK, BAE may still face prosecution in the US. If people or firms in the US were involved in any backhanders, then they could be open to prosecution in the US - regardless of what the British government has done. Lib Dem Deputy Leader Vince [...]

Clissold Arms, Fortis Green & The Kinks

One of the pubs in my ward is the Clissold Arms on Fortis Green - a name that will be very familiar to any Kinks fan. The Kinks played at the pub in their early days, based in the area, and there are references to it in their music. The Clissold Arms has always had a range of Kinks memorabilia on display and been a place to visit for their fans. There was an article in the local paper, which I didn't see, suggesting that new owners are keen to get rid of that link. I don't know ...

The Bird Who Knew Too Much

The colour Emma Peel episodes of The Avengers are among the most distinctive television ever made; sometimes a bit too silly or too stylised, if anything, but you can’t mistake them for any other series. This one, then, on BBC4 at 7.10 this evening and 11.30 tomorrow night, is unusual for being… Ordinary. Despite the presence of Ron Moody, Kenneth Cope and Anthony Valentine, there’s something a little drab and prosaic about this tale of espionage and birds, made up of an uneven string of set-pieces rather than a strong story. And what do triangles have to do with it? ...

That's Entertainment

The Welsh Liberal Democrat Conference comes to Swansea tomorrow and last minute preparations are underway. On the Friday night, following the rally with Sir Menzies Campbell, the local party is organising a social. However a few days ago we suddenly realised that nobody had booked any entertainment. Immediately, a message went out to Welsh Party Leader, Lembit Opik: 'Entertainment needed on Friday night. Bring Cheeky Girl. Leave harmonica at home.' We are still waiting for a reply.

You Dawk!

For a man who is clearly extremely intelligent, Richard Dawkins can be a fucking idiot at times. The worst thing about all this is, it has the appearance that the only reason Dawkins is saying this is because he is suffering from an irrational sense of rivalry stemming from this literary prize. At least his wife probably [...]

>> Mark Littlewood, Liberal Democrat head of media, resigns

More to follow later - at the moment I don’t have access to the statement that was released to the media, and I’m, er, off to the theatre. But it has been confirmed, and a statement has been released.

Cameron ditches green policies

(hat tip: Liberal Review) The Tory confusion about the environment deepens. The problem is, they now love the environment but hate one of the best tools we have for protecting it: the EU. Out of desperation, they have thrown themselves into the arms of a party that is deeply opposed to climate change policies: In [...]

Principles ± 3%

One of the things that continues to fascinate me about the Dear Leader is his continual insistence that nothing he has done in government constitutes an abandonment of Labour principles. As with so many of the Rev. A.R.P. Blair’s mantras, it has been accepted with religious fervour by the party faithful. Which in itself is no bad thing, except that you get the feeling that in this case, Tony

The limits of collective bargaining

No-one can deny that collective bargaining has brought ordinary people very real rights that they could never have acquired through other means. Every employee in the country has a lot to be grateful to the Labour Movement. But there comes a point where the disadvantages of the hive mind approach starts to outweigh the advantages. [...]

Top Tory axed over Army race row

Full story here.

Drugs report is a wake-up call

Commenting on today’s Royal Society of Arts report on drug laws, which called Britain’s drugs laws as “not fit for purpose”, Ming Campbell said: “This report is a wake up call. Our current policies are clearly not working. The drug problem is complex and not susceptible to simplistic solutions. We need a non-partisan [...]

Attempt to block Coatham Links development fails

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, acting as Highway Authority, has today been successful in its application under section 116 of the Highways Act 1980 to ‘stop-up’ certain footpaths on the land known as the Coatham Enclosure, Redcar. Teesside Magistrates ruled that the specified footpaths are unnecessary as there are other routes that are equally as convenient for public rights of way for the purposes of either work or leisure. The remaining public rights of way on the land at Coatham Enclosure, which provide access to and from the land, will continue to be waymarked and maintained as public ...

Tory Patrick Mercer in racist language shocker !

Sorry for the tabloid style headline, but I don't know how you would explain Patrick Mercer's outburst in a polite way. If you don't already know, Patrick mercer, who was Conservative "Homeland Security" person on the Tory front bench has been forced to resign after stating that calling someone a "black bastard" was normal language in the Army. Read the full BBC report which goes in to all the gory details. In mitigation to the Conservative Party, at least he was asked immediately to resign his position from the Tory front bench, but equally, it is disturbing ...

NI Elections

Whilst I still have little understanding of NI politics, I always love watching results come in. Does anyone know of a better website than the BBC which clearly shows all the votes and transfers in each constituency?

Welcome to the New Conservatives

{Mercer} "That's the way it is in the Army. If someone is slow on the assault course, you'd get people shouting: 'Come on you fat bastard, come on you ginger bastard, come on you black bastard.'" "I came across a lot of ethnic minority soldiers who were idle and useless, but who used racism as cover for their misdemeanours." That was Tory MP Patrick Mercer. He continues: "But equally, a chap with red hair, for example, would also get a hard time - a far harder time than a black man, ...

Anna Lo predicted to win a seat

The BBC are reporting that Anna Lo is expected to win a seat in the Northern Irish Assembly. I hope this pans out as it will be a great result for her and a gain for Alliance.

Tom Hanks warned us this would happen.

Roleplayer blurs fantasy with reality? Clearly Rona Jaffe was right. Ban this filth now, or face losing your knickers. Share This

freecycling

Not as the name suggests some form of freestyle biking, but recycling useful stuff that you no longer need. Today has been my first experience of freecycling. I've had a spare bed base taking up a chunk of room in my house for a month of so, and finally got around to offering it on Birmingham Freecycle. Within an hour of the email hitting the list it was taken. Hopefully to be collected this evening.

Biscuits

Today’s press leaves me supremely uninspired. More than faintly disgusted with John Reid, faintly amused at Nick Clegg’s comparing him to Alf Garnett, but not shocked enough by ‘tough talk’ segueing into bigotry to rant about it. Likewise ‘Tory front-bencher sparks race row with “black bastards” gibe’ and ‘PC admits using “brute force” to arrest woman’. So far, so depressingly routine. Camilla Cavendish in The Times caught my eye though, with ‘Will someone look beyond their nose?’ This is the latest of several recent musings on short-termism. My ...

A bad day to be a Tory MP

Not a good day for the Tories today. First off, their sole Scottish MP, David Mundell, has been slagging off his Holyrood colleagues - albeit in a “confidential briefing paper”. Said to be a briefing for David Cameron, it accuses MSPs of failing to understand the party’s new moderate approach and reportedly says: “There are more obvious [...]

Watching PROPER election results come in from NI

Yes I am a PR geek... Watching the proper PR results come in from NI and musing how it would be if we had a real electoral system in the rest of the UK.... who says the PR counts wouldn't be exciting. The first results show a strong surge for our Alliance colleages in East Belfast, with Naomi Long elected on the first ballot. Now we shall see how her surplus of 1350 votes transfers, there being alas no further Alliance candidates in that constituency. Alliance first preference vote doubled from last time in East ...

It's not a good afternoon to be a Tory MP

a) Patrick Mercer quits as a front-bencher because of his comments about black soldiers. b) David Mundell’s comments about Tory MSPs (in brief: they’re crap) are leaked. Oh dear.

First result in from Northern Ireland - great news for APNI

Alliance candidate Naomi Long has been elected in the first round of STV counting in East Belfast!

The mask slips...and the "Nasty Party" are back

To you, black servicemen are probably a sign that integration is - slowly - working. To one senior Tory it means something horribly different.

Passport blunders cost £350,000

The Identity and Passport Service has paid out £350,000 in compensation to travellers who have had to cancel their holidays because of delays in getting hold of a passport. The story - which came out thanks to a Freedom of Information request by the Press Association - is here. OK, so it’s only half a percent [...]

Quiz Ming Campbell about global warming

There will be a Question and Answer session with Ming Campbell after a special screening of Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth on Monday 19th March in Leicester Square, London. Tickets for the film and Q & A session are only £5. More details on FlockTogether. Note: You can watch a short film from the Stop [...]

Council Tax cut!

Rugeley Town Council has cut it's Parish precept for 2007/08 by 10%. The Liberal Democrat controlled Council (all 19 Councillors are Liberal Democrat!) have been able to cut the precept despite providing a brand new purpose built, disabled friendly Town Council Office. Additionally there will also be no decrease in the amenities for the people of Rugeley!

Party Animals

Last night I watched Party Animals, as I chatted on-line with a editor friend of mine (about sentence construction & gussets) and learnt about my new mobile. That is how terrible the programme is. I can happily multi-task as I watch it. It is full of daft errors and the romantic angle is way too contrived. Also they all look to clean and well-rested to be at a by-election. I think the Lib Dems are going to storm it because Ashika and that cardboard cut-out Labour bloke really aren't doing any work. One ...

Recruiting a Parliamentary Researcher

John Hemming is in the process of recruiting a Parliamentary Researcher. If you are interested in applying follow the link above to the 'Working for an MP' website where the job is advertised. Some tips on apply for the job can be found on John's website: http://john.hemming.name/researcherjob.html

Northern Ireland election results

The first results should be coming in in a couple of hours - the BBC has a page here, and the Vote 07 election programme has started and can be watched online here.

Now the battle with the Lords begins

So, the will of the Commons is a 100% elected second chamber. Strange one that, and somewhat unexpected. In principle it suits me down to the ground, but it also makes the whole process from here much more difficult. A 50/50 split, or even an 80/20 split, would have been a step along the road. The 100% option takes us all the way there is one step. The Lords, and many in the commons (mostly Tories, if one examines the division records) will be digging their heels in for a fight over this, and immense political will is required ...

Lightfoot Loss

The world of political hackers has lost an important contributor with the death of Chris Lightfoot. I especially enjoyed his work on the Political Survey. As a then practising politician I found this very insightful in respect of voter thinking - take a look at this great non-PowerPoint, non-Flash presentation on the results.

National rules on dog mess? No thanks.

I admire the Welsh Lib Dem campaign, and the use they are making of the internet. But the latest campaign looks dodgy.

Explaining computers to the wife

At some point in the next two months I’ll be buying a new computer. It’s getting a bit desperate with my old piece of junk in the corner. I’m starting to do basic animation and more serious video editing and the piece of turd can’t cope. So we’ve decided to get a new one. After all [...]

International Women's Day

Thursday 8th March 2007 - As it's International Women's Day, not to mention the EU's Year of Equal Opportunities for All, I thought I'd do some sums to see how the European Parliament fairs in the gender equality stakes. Not bad, but nothing to shout about it seems to me! Only 30% of members of the European Parliament are women - that's just 236 out of 784 in the House. It's a similar story in

Elected second chamber - most of the answers can be found in the US

It is always entertaining when there is a debate about the House of Lords. We get all sorts of pompous fossils who legislate on our behalf, such as Lord Strathclyde and that funny bloke whose ancestor got drunk with Pitt, coming out of the woodwork. Lord Redesdale is an exception to this observation - what a marvellous man! Lord Strathclyde said last night that, although he was in favour of a 80

The Great Firewall of China

I’ve just come across an interesting idea about the ‘Great Firewall of China’. Freeborn John discovered he was blocked so placed some pseudo communist blurb which an intelligent reader would realise was rubbish but a computer might not. Lo and behold he was removed from the blocked list. You can find out if you’re blocked here. [...]

Not fit 4 Purpose

John Reid- a strutting popinjay of a politician- announces that his department (you remember the "not fit for purpose" Home Office) will now text those whose visas are about to expire to ask them to leave the country. He denounces scrounging foreigners who come over here stealing our benefits... So how many illegals do in fact claim benefits? Er... not known. Is it a serious problem or not really? Er... not known. How many people are in the UK illegally? Er... not known. Is John Reid a loud mouthed incompetent more interested in headlines for himself than ...

Mick Bates in dogfight for cleaner parks.

Mick Bates will today support moves to clean up Welsh streets and come down harder on dog fouling. Mr Bates, Welsh Liberal Democrat Environment Planning and Countryside spokesperson said: “At the moment, dog mess left on the streets receives different punishments in different parts of the country. “I want to see obligations on councils to punish this, a clear and uniform system of punishment and I think most people in Wales want it too. “Nobody likes dog mess on the streets. It’s unhealthy, it’s unsightly – and it projects an ugly message. I ...

Welsh Lib Dems going Green

Welsh Liberal Democrat Enterprise spokesperson Kirsty Williams, AM for Brecon and Radnorshire, said: “We will make Wales a world-leader in the new green economy by creating jobs and businesses that help the environment. “Wales has the potential to take advantage of the renewable energy revolution, and not only does this mean cleaner energy, but greener jobs. “We will establish a Green Jobs Strategy to capitalise on this. This will involve a joined-up approach to new businesses and diversification into renewables, waste management, recycling and eco-tourism. “We will make full use of organisations such as Construction ...

Angry Ming

There isn't any point echoing Alex's authoritative post on the trident debate/leader's speech, much of which I agree with (I'll save my disagreements for a mega-post on coalitions which I am working myself up to), but I did want to make two observations; Made for TV speech First, more than any other leader - or indeed other senior Lib Dem - that I've seen give conference speeches Ming's are the

Verdict on Brown's favourite policy: millions wasted

A new report from the National Audit Office has heavily criticised private finance initiative (PFI) deals - heavily pushed by Gordon “prudence” Brown - for wasting millions in public money.

Lords reform

Lordy! Lordy! Not for long. Yes - it was an historic day as the Commons voted to put paid to the bad old, bad old appointed Lords. Perhaps less of the historic and more of the hysteric. On a series of votes designed to find which proportion of appointed to elected Lords we will have in future - from fully appointed, through 20%, 50% 60% 80% to fully elected - we trooped through the lobbies. To

Fantasyland

Last night I actually enjoyed an episode of Party Animals. It certainly hasn’t got any better, I’ve just grown immune to its ludicrousness. It’s also trying to trick my senses, playing out last night with Walls come Tumbling Down by the Style Council, which was a pretty cheap, though effective, ploy. There was however, one unforgivable inconsistency in the episode. I can accept researchers booking BBC appearances for Ministers, I can even suspend disbelief and allow the same researchers to hand their resignations into the Chief Whip in Portcullis House. But the idea of the Tories being poised to make ...

Corporate Prophets

Bearded sociopath Abdul Muhid was convicted of soliciting murder yesterday. What was his final act outside the Old Bailey? Was it a call for the Ummah to rise up and slay their kuffar oppressors? No. He was photographed slurping on (sorry, annihilating) a MacDonald’s milkshake, a drink known to be favoured by Zionists, American Pigdogs and other assorted unbelievers. I’m so reporting him.

Coalition Council plans to restore Marske Valley Gardens

Hundreds of residents in Marske are getting the chance to have their say in restoring the town's Valley Gardens to their former glories in a £200,000 investment scheme. Groundwork South Tees, working in partnership with Redcar and Cleveland Council, begin door-to-door interviews at over 400 homes from the end of this month. The Gardens, originally created to form a link between the beach and the town centre, were constructed in the 1930s, and now one of the main jobs will be to repair the 'vicar's trod' the main path originally used by the vicar and the monks to ...

First Facebook, now Flickr

First Ming had a Google map, then did a Skypecast, next joined Facebook, and now he has a Flickr badge on his website. Whatever next?

Common sense prevails

So the House of Commons has finally voted in favour of reforming the upper chamber. The 80% elected 20% appointed option was the one that was expected to come out on top so I was delighted that whereas that option got a majority of 38 the option of 100% elected got an even bigger majority of 113. The only thing that stuns me is that in this day and age 224 Member of Parliament could oppose the concept of a wholly elected chamber in the first place. Does anyone know where we can see a list of who voted ...

Goodbye to the Lords

The papers are full of yesterday's historic vote in the House of Commons to create a second chamber. However, headlines such as this in The Times may well be premature. This is not so much goodbye to the Lords as a serving of notice of intent. There is still a long way to go before we get a fully elected chamber and that journey has to overcome the obstacle of a new Prime Minister, the government timetable, political will to make progress and whether yesterday's vote was a genuine majority or bolstered by tactical voting. We also have ...

Bird Observation

Pansy Cradledew reports that a pigeon, or possibly a cumulet, has become a regular visitor to her sixteenth-floor windowsill. The curious thing about this pigeon is that it spends all its time on these visits standing on one leg. Pansy wonders if this is normal pigeon behaviour, or if her visitor is some sort of [...]

60% of people want Local Income Tax - BBC Poll

60% of people surveyed by the BBC and NOP said they were in favour of replacing the current tax with a Local Income Tax. The poll was conducted just two weeks ahead of a report by Sir Michael Lyons on the future of taxation.

insincere voting

The aftermath of last nights voting on House of Lords reform is just beginning. The first accusation I heard this morning is that there was a lot of insincere voting in favour of the most radical option. Theresa May hints at it in her quote on the BBC. Of course this was always bound to happen as they had rejected any form of preferential voting, and instead used multiple FPTP votes. As FPTP is a system that relies on insincere voting the result was almost inevitable. The next battle will be ensuring the fully elected option makes it into the ...

Leave the Cannabis Gran alone!

I can’t believe we’re still talking about the Cannabis Gran. Time to get real here folks. The law should intervene when drug use becomes harmful to oneself or to wider society. Is Cannabis Gran waking up in pools of her own vomit, unable to remember where she was the night before? No. Is Cannabis Gran on a terror [...]

Day 2256: Guilty of Perverting the Course of Justice

Tuesday: Nick, who's a mate of Dave, wanted to say to us that Mr X had said to him that he'd seen a note from Ruth to Jonathan that said that Jonathan should say to Tony that what Michael had said to John wasn't the same as what Ruth had said to John but before Nick could say that to us, John spoke to Peter who spoke to Caroline who told Nick that he couldn't say anything at all, so Nick (and Fiona and Kirsty and Jeremy and Huw) said nothing but Alan went and blabbed it all ...

Day 2255: Lunar Eclipse NOT proof of divine intervention

Monday: We stayed up late to watch the moon eclipse. We enjoyed it lots. But then along comes Mr Clifford Clongley on the The Today Programme's Fart for the Day and says: "Oooh, pretty – there must be a god!" Worse than that, he talked about INTELLIGENT DESIGN. "I don't mean whether it is good science – which I don't believe it is – but whether it is true – which I do believe." Well, WAKE UP Mr Clongley: Intelligent Design CLAIMS to be a SCIENCE. If you DON'T believe it's good science ...

My Wii Number

I just got myself a Nintendo Wii. Nintendo dont want anybody to actually use the Internet via this machine, so they have decided to make it nearly impossible to connect to friends without first exchanging ponderously long numeric codes. These are called “Wii Numbers”. Mine just happens to be 4176 5000 6548 4340. If you [...]

Believe it or not, the European selection campaign is underway (or maybe it just seems like it)

One of my work colleagues is convinced that I'm always out doing something, and I'm beginning to think that he might have a point. Tonight, I was at the National Liberal Club, acting as Rab Makki's stand-in (for those of you who don't know Rab, he is Nick Clegg's self-appointed stalker) at the Barnet Borough Liberal Democrats Dinner. Given that tonight was the vote of House of Lords reform, we

House of Lords Reform

I'm actually disappointed that a majority of MPs voted in favour of a fully elected House of Lords. Don't get me wrong, I am a democrat. But I think an upper House full of (or at least consisting mainly of) experts who would never win a popular election is a useful check on the fickle ambitions of the Commons, which come complete with insecurity of tenure. There are, however, two reforms I'd like to see to increase the legitimacy of the House of Lords. Firstly, as far as possible, we need to ensure total independence from ...

Thursday 8th March 2007

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