When you go canvassing with the Lib Dems, normally, you’re armed with canvass cards that carry quite detailed information. For any given household, you will know the full names of the people on the electoral register, their dates of birth if they have recently turned 18 or are about to. You will know whether or [...]
There was a bizarre item in the People column in the Guardian today. I quote it in full: Tracy-Ann Oberman, the actor who played Chrissie in EastEnders, once refused to wear a crucifix for the part. They didn't realise she is Jewish: "I said: 'I am not doing that. My mum would have a heart attack. I would have thought it was blindingly obvious, if only from my curly hair," she told jCast, for the Jewish Community Centre with the Jewish Chronicle.Would the Guardian be so approving of a Christian actor who refused to play a Jewish character? Since when ...
so, the final list of candidates for this years Lincoln city councilelections has been published :) i will be fighting for the park ward, along with current councillors Ryan Cullen and Heather Quinton good luck to everyone standing this year, espically those Lib dems who are also standing in Lincoln :)
Colin Ross reports the welcome news that the Lib Dems have retained control of Rugeley Town Council, even if it is because 16 0f the 19 councillors have been returned unopposed. My chief memory of Rugeley is that it is the only place that a ticket clerk has ever tried to dissuade me from travelling to. It was back in the early 1980s and I was trying to buy a return from Lichfield Trent Valley to Rugeley Trent Valley. "You don't want to go there," he said. "There's nothing there." But it was famous in the 19th century ...
Scant weeks after I wondered what it would be like to have Ming Campbell on Twitter… someone’s doing just that!
This is a bit late, but in Sunday's Observer was the most brilliant article by Jonathan Porritt on our material excesses and I simply have to blog it. We are a nation drowning in an unquenchable thirst for material posessions which generates knock-ons to amongst other things personal debt and the environment. The answer truly is to buy less and not necessarily to buy ethically and this article looks at why and how.
Natallie Evans today lost her final appeal to put her freedom of choice entirely above her ex-partner’s and use embryos fertilised with him before she became infertile. It’s heart-rending to see her distress, but while I feel sympathy for her, I have none for her abhorrent demands. If a man with testicular cancer hounded his ex-partner through the courts to force her to implant and carry his last-chance embryo right up to birth, would any news outlet have given him a couple of seconds, let alone – as News 24 did this afternoon – reverentially broadcast an entire press conference? ...
Try the BBC Assembly Quiz here. For some reason I got 12 out of 12. It seems that the BBC were expecting me: You got 12 right! Excellent: are you an assembly member, by any chance? Er, yes! Does that mean I shouldn't have tried it?
Over the weekend I took a bit of time out of campaigning to pop along to the funfair at West Park with Kate. On the way to the funfair bit we fed the ducks and listened to the brass band, I always find a wander through West Park very relaxing.
I have signed up to the Manifesto for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Wales. Hopefully, my name will shortly appear on their website here. The Manifesto contains five pledges: 1. Welcome people seeking safety from persecution 2. Empower refugees to rebuild their lives 3. Provide fair and equal access to services 4. Protect children and young people 5. Develop a strong evidence base so as to plan services effectively for refugees and asylum seekers and to evaluate the effectiveness of policies. 
Everyone likes naming things - whether it be a sponsor paying to call a building after their company or a school child winning a competition to name a bench or something - it’s part of British life. Well in Jersey there is a ‘campaign’ to find a name for the new Transportation Centre and it’s being [...]
We got back from London late last night. Nervous as we were about everything it was a really lovely couple of days and the boys took it all in their stride, they were brilliant. We showed them the palace, the Queens Guards, Natural History Museum, Science Museum etc. I have never been in London with children before and I have to say it was a revelation. Underground staff smiling and joking with them, people on the tube engaging with us all, people laughing at their amazement of the whole place. It was heartwarming to see such a different ...
Labour's campaign for the Scottish Parliament has sparked controversy yet again. Jack McConnell's visit to Nairn to open their new golf centre over the weekend has allegedly sparked outrage from local residents. Not you understand for anything he said, but because he went on a Sunday. Apparently there is an unwritten rule that the parties don't campaign in the Highlands on the Sabbath, and the
Fair green future Dyfodol teg, dyfodol gwyrdd Contact/Cyswllt: Media line 029 2031 3649 Welsh Lib Dem party response to Labour manifesto: “This is a stale manifesto from a clapped-out administration. The so-called “eleven for eleven” is a line-up assembled more for the Nationwide Conference than for the Champions League. And there’s nothing that they can throw on from the bench that will convince the people of Wales that Labour deserve a majority. “A lack of ambition is what marked out the last four years, and there is no sign of them upping their game for ...
Now THIS is a local election count I would like to attend. I am a massive Blur fan so would have to think long and hard about my vote before eventually voting Lib Dem anyway (how could anyone vote Labour at the moment !) 
Fair green future Dyfodol teg, dyfodol gwyrdd Contact/Cyswllt: Media line 029 2031 3649 10 years in power, 10 let-downs from Blair – Welsh Lib Dems The Welsh Liberal Democrats today exposed Tony Blair’s ten let-downs for Wales. Ahead of the Prime Minister’s visit to Cardiff tomorrow, the party has set-out ten areas in which he has failed Wales during his decade in Downing Street. Jenny Willott, MP for Cardiff Central and chair of the Welsh Lib Dem election campaign, said: “Tony Blair has not been a great friend to Wales. His farewell tour may ...
Victoria and I have been on the road for a few days, but only spotted the first sign of any elections anywhere while lost in Llandudno. The poster is for Euron Hughes, the Lib Dem candidate for the assembly elections in Aberconwy.
Chipping Norton town councillor Keith Greenwell has resigned as deputy chairman of the Chipping Norton and District branch of the West Oxfordshire Conservative Association, the Tory leader’s constituency group … He alleges his integrity had been compromised after he was fed misleading or false information from the party which he later relayed to voters. See the [...]
Bad news for Labour and Conservative activists who don’t like those pesky liberals. Sorry folks. I’ve been taking a look at the recently published Thrasher and Rallings projected results for the new Westminster Parliamentary boundaries. Take all the seats where Labour and first and the Conservatives are second, or vice-versa, strip out the three-way marginals and … [...]
I read this article about Kosher Coke a few weeks ago, found it vaguely amusing, and forgot all about it. Then yesterday I was in Waitrose and noticed that in their passover section they had Israeli Coke. This is odd because, as the Guardian article says, UK Coke uses real sugar and not the dastardly [...]
For the Conservatives, Gateshead is one of their most parched electoral deserts in the country. The last time they topped the poll in any ward in the borough was in 1992 when, in the afterglow of the general election, their one remaining councillor hung on in a ward that the previous year had gone Lib Dem and the year before that had gone Labour. It is now a very strong Lib Dem ward with the
Lunch today in Exmouth Market, Islington, with a former BBC World Service colleague, Tom Porteous, who is now London Director of Human Rights Watch. He’d just come from a meeting of NGO staff in Hackney to discuss the critical situation in Somalia, which has received nothing like the attention it deserves in the British media. [...]
Every advance in medical science can bring new ethical dilemmas for the medical profession, and for society at large. The decision today that a woman cannot be made pregnant using frozen embryos without the father’s consent is heart-rending for everyone concerned. But I believe that the right decision has been made. In some areas of pregnancy [...]
There was a story in the Times over the bank holiday weekend about ID cards. This issue had gone a bit quiet media-wise, but thanks to Freedom of Information its getting noisy again. It seems there are some Home Office documents which predict 15 million people refusing to co operate with the scheme. This could be by refusing to show the card, or by refusing to provide information. Interestingly, although the Labour party had said the cards would not be compulsory (although the link with passports makes them pretty much so), these papers talked about the ...
Just as well that I took time off this Easter to plant things on my allotment, because there was an official Inspection on Sunday afternoon, shock horror! Bad marks get you a notice to quit. My patch had just enough signs of being tended to be acceptable: phew. My neighbour Ron generously shared a bottle of cider, quaffed from enamel mugs in the late afternoon sunshine - very nice too. The friendship, gentle humour and community spirit among allotment gardeners has to be experienced to be properly appreciated. Which is one reason why ...
Off work today to get broadband and cable TV installed. Our TV reception (analogue and Freeview) was almost unwatchable for some channels, so it’s a pleasure to finally be able to watch terrestrial TV, plus have lots more channels and one of those “catch up” features that let’s you watch programmes from the last week, [...]
I am not sure how to react to this pilot of 'Sarah's Law' in three areas around the country except to say that the more I think about it the more misgivings I have. As I understand it, parents and teachers will be able to access information about sex offenders in their neighbourhoods. Single mothers will be able to ask police about the risk posed by new partners, and headteachers will be told about dangerous offenders in their communities. Except that they won't. Instead they will be told how many sex offenders live in their area but not who ...
The Scottish Labour Party have released a cartoon attack on Alex Salmond. It’s…. OK… but why ever is Mr Salmond portrayed as being in his underpants?
I would imagine that there are more than a handful of people who will be having a drink tonight following THIS news. Tragic news like this is never something to celebrate, but sometimes you get the feeling that justice is handed out eventually and I am sure that there are many people who have had misery brought in to their lives through this man's actions who will sleep easier tonight. Who am I to judge them ?
News reaches me that 16 of 19 Rugeley Town Councillors have been returned unopposed and all 13 Bererton Parish Councillors have been returned unopposed. This of course means the Liberal Democrats retain control of both these Staffordshire Town Councils.
The Evening Post, the regional newspaper, have published the following article about the video leaflet we launched: ..> CANDIDATE IN INTERNET VIDEO 10:40 - 09 April 2007 A Candidate for a ...
There’s been much mirth in the last few days over an SNP MP being involved in a ridiculously minor so-called ‘sex scandal’ (not something you’d even have noticed if you walked by and didn’t happen to recognise those involved). This sort of Schadenfreude is very tempting when the subject is a particularly sanctimonious sort whose party is embroiled in a ‘cash for bigotry’ scandal, but – at the risk of sounding like a puritan of the Isles – there’s no moral accomplishment in resisting something unless you’re tempted by it, and this is a sexual temptation that Liberals should resist. ...
I never thought I’d live to see the day… Via Facebook. In fairness to Iain, I suppose I should now link to his recent post about Facebook. Share This
Now your Council Information System (and indeed the LibDems nationally) have no excuse for being inaccessible by phone to deaf people. A big welcome for TalkByText, which should revolutionise access to ‘customer service centres, helplines, banks, hospitals, council offices, or any client-facing department.’ This product won the sustainIT National Well-Being Award for third-sector initiatives in March 2007. As the RNID fact-sheet points out: Many deaf and hard of hearing people find it difficult to use a voice-phone and prefer to use a textphone to make calls. However, traditional textphones are expensive, old-fashioned analogue devices, which do not ...
We have noticed over the past years the deterioration of the pavements in and around the Bathwick Estate. Unfortunately there has been complete lack of investment in this area for better pavements, and Local Councillors Colin Darracott and David Dixon will continue to campaign for improvements. We have seen pavements which are uneven, with puddles gathering in the middle and those which haven't had any attention for years. We have succeeded in the past on these issues, in 2002 Bathwick Street pavement was firstly resurfaced with tarmac and Cllr David Dixon managed to get this replaced with ...
I'm within my last month now as Mayor but two of the most significant events are still to come. Next week we will be enjoying the Mayors' Charity Ball on Ravens Ait, and that will be a wonderful climax to a year of fundraising for Young Kingston. I have a terrific Charity Committee to thank for everything they have achieved this year. Here they all are...
Few people in the UK are aware of the problems of the US sub-prime credit market. Even if people are aware of the fact that the market there has dramatically tightened, not many from outside the industry are aware about what that means. It means that in a period of about six weeks, credit has suddenly become very difficult to find- people who were financially stretched are now being forced to sell up, and the consequence is a serious down turn in real estate prices. The over extended US credit market is facing the consequences of the bankruptcy ...
Epping Forest Council have now published the nominations for the forthcoming elections. In Lambourne Stephen Metcalfe has done the Honourable thing and stood down so he can concentrate his efforts on winning the new Parliamentary constituency of South Basildon and East Thurrock. Therefore, I am up against Brian Wolfe, Mayor of Epping who was beaten last year by Lib Dem Janet Whitehouse for the
Wycombe Liberal Democrats are proud to announce that they will be fielding no less than 38 candidates in the forthcoming District Council Elections on Thursday May 12th: Booker & Cressex: Robert Perkins Bourne End-cum-Hedsor: Brian Pollock & Simon Fowke Bowerdean: Richard Groom Chiltern Rise: Steve Guy & Neil Timberlake Downley & Plomer Hill: Matthew Brown & Andy Randall Flackwell Heath & [...]
BBC News Online today presents a feature on a pay as you throw recycling scheme in Belguim. On first glance I like this idea. Often it seems there is little encouragement to recycle when the bin men come to take away your waste every week, regardless of how much you have. However, what about people in [...]
Correspondents have occasionally wondered why I spend so much time plugging enthusing about programmes on BBC4. Well, I am an unabashed BBC fan, though while the show I make a point of recommending every week that I get round to it – The Avengers, on Thursday and Friday evenings – is now a BBC4 fixture, it’s actually the finest show ever produced by ITV. This afternoon, I can return the favour; if you tune to ITV3 at 3pm, you’ll see Richard Griffiths starring in the opening episode of one of the BBC’s most entertaining ’90s series, Pie in the Sky. ...
Pleased to learn today that the graffiti on the very prominent utilities boxes at Sinderins junction has been cleared off, following my request. As you can see, it looks a whole lot improved. The Evening Telegraph has contacted me today about the graffiti issue; this is an area where the City Council has been very proactive, reaching agreement with Virgin Media (formerly Telewest) about action to remove graffiti. One other site I have asked to be given priority given the extent of residents' complaints is at Corso Street (see below left). I have also asked the Leisure & Communities ...
Dear Mr Khalid Mahmood MP,
Very traditional, very British… Sunday afternoon was spent picnicking in Christ Church meadow (albeit eating tortilla and jamon, which is perhaps a little more recherché). Half a century ago, this idyllic setting was the subject of a bitter planning wrangle, following the proposal by Thomas Sharp, in his 1948 report, Oxford Replanned, that an ‘inner relief road’ be built across the meadow.
A local Conservative Party Councillor in Oxfordshire has walked out on the party because of David Cameron's failure to oppose NHS cuts.
The SNP are correct to point out that claims about passport checks on the border if Scotland becomes an independent country are wide of the mark, but on one issue I’m a little confused. If they are to retain the pound as currency, who will set the interest rate, and in whose interests will they be [...]
We have been indundated with stories and pictures of awful parking in and around Thomas Street. This picture shows a double parked car next to the turning for Pera Road, anyone turning out of Pera Road wanting to turn left would have had severe diffculties. Residents are urged, that if they must double park, that they do so for a short time, put a note in their window to tell people where they are, and PLEASE be considerate. Space is tight, the are still too many cars parking in this area and many spaces are being taken up ...
The seventh of our weekly† round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator, together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed. Let’s kick-off, in time-honoured descending order of popularity: 1. ‘Richard Porter: “Why I defected to the Tories”’ on Jonny Wright’s Hug A Hoodie blog. Does [...]
Wasn't it just the loveliest weather over the Easter Weekend? I won't be blogging again until after next weekend as am taking a few days to do things with my daughters! No doubt the world can wait.
The Government are to set up a commission to investigate why there are relatively fewer ethnic minority, young or women councillors. I'm not going to patronise anyone here by stating the obvious reasons for this, and I am sure it doesn't need a commission. Surely the reasons are the same as to why there are so few ethnic minorities and women in senior management posts ? And erm, I wonder why so many young people are not interested in politics. Could that be a reason why they don't actually want to be politicians ?
For those who aren't aware, Sheffield will be conducting a second e-voting trial at the upcoming local elections. Between 7.00 am on 26 April and 7.00 am on 30 April, those who have registered in advance for a password will be able to vote on the Internet or over the telephone. There will also be an early voting "kiosk" at the Town Hall available between 9.00 am and 5.00 pm on 26 to 29 April. I will myself be sticking with a postal vote. I, like the rest of the Lib Dem group, have grave concerns over ...
An interesting debate has sprung up in the US following threatening comments against blogger Kathy Sierra. She writes her own account of what happened. This has prompted Tim O´Reilly, the guru of Web 2.0, to propose a code of conduct for bloggers. What I find especially interesting about the whole debate is the fact that it [...]
I've taken some time over the last few days to look over the new Home Office Watch website, which chronicles some of the shambolic legislation and mismanagement of the Home Office by the Labour government. Barely a day goes by without the news reporting on another unnecessary law / costly mistake / piece of spin from the Department which is at long last to be split up soon. And here is a
James Graham asks whether Angus MacNeil's private life is fair game.
I see that this has already been picked up in the LibDem blogs by Chris Black, although Chris doesn’t give the whole letter, which can be found (nicely formatted) here. The whole thing originates here. A quick summary: Ex US Marine and academic Prof. Walter F. Murphy found himself inconvenienced by his inclusion on the terrorist watch [...]
Eleven Conservative Councillors quit the party last week in North Essex. The bizarre story involves allegations of a break in at the Conservative Offices in Harwich - and subsequently to the expulsion of a number of councillors from the party.
Jonathan Calder quite rightly draws attention to the remarkable career of George Cole, who appeared in Diamond Geezer on ITV last night. In terms of longevity of his acting career, it is worth sparing a thought for Ian Carmichael. Although not a child screen actor like George Cole or James Fox, Carmichael was on stage acting from 1939 and film acting from 1952. As well as being in some hilarious
As anyone at all conversant with the politics of Oxford can tell you, this city is one of Britain’s many Tory-free zones. The Conservative party repeatedly poll fourth across Oxford. This leaves us with a County Council which is run by a party which has no representation at any level in the capital of the shire it claims to represent. But might that be about to change? Of course, I’m not imagining that the Conservatives are going to storm to victory in the good clean fight of an election. We don’t have elections here this May. And recent ...
This would seem to be a rather silly idea, almost as silly as what Jimmy Wales is wearing in the accompanying photo. By all means, have the debate, but what on Earth will it achieve? I can’t help but suspect that it’s on its way though, and certain forces of darkness will embrace it with open arms. [...] | < | April 2007 | > | ||||
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