LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Friday 25th May 2007

Chariots of Ming

Today's House Points column from Liberal Democrat News. Not very sporting The Liberal Democrats should have come out against London bidding for the 2012 Olympics. It would have taken courage: in those days Tony Blair still had a little gloss left on him and we did not want to sound like killjoys. So at our Brighton Conference last year we trooped in to listen to Sebastian Coe and watched the Chariots of Ming video. But it’s becoming clear that London 2012 is the Millennium Dome crossed with the NHS computer fiasco and the national identity card scheme ...

Checking out the local election results

Hmm ... we won quite a lot of wards in Eastleigh, didn't we? It's hard to find a page on this map which isn't Lib Dem:

One of the most surprising stories uncovered by the FoI...

...is surely that the Head of the National Audit Office is spending about a hundred grand a year on trips abroad and stays in luxury hotels. Private Eye broke the story, and someone at the Telegraph has had a lot of fun checking it out: Sir John Bourn, the head of the National Audit Office, was embroiled in controversy yesterday over a series of lavish foreign trips to some of the world's finest hotels. Sir John Bourn stayed at top hotels such as the Balmoral The comptroller, who is paid to ensure taxpayers' money ...

"Have a nice holiday, don't get flogged!"

It's not often that the importance of human rights really comes home to someone who lives in a mature democracy. Yes, Labour might be authoritarian bastards, but their authoritarian bastardism only touches you if you know radical Islamists, Guantanamo Bay detainees, or Brian Haw. So a friend of mine going on holiday to Iran brought human rights back to my life with a shock. Particularly as this friend normally behaves ... well, like a sterotypical student ... and is a woman. So in a normal weekend at university she does things which are serious criminal offences in Iran. ...

Live stats

I’ve recently upgraded the MyBlogLog stats for LibDemBlogs. This now means that you see today’s most popular stories and not yesterdays on the site, and that I can see which posts were most popular over a period of time, making it a bit easier for Stephen Tall to do the weekly round-up each Sunday on [...]

Lemsip for lazy people

Have been a bit quiet on the blog this week - as well as it being a busy week, have had a bit of a cold which has left me a bit spaced out. But, thanks to Lemsip, feeling pretty much back on track and ready to enjoy the long weekend. I found out that Lemsip do a sort of instant 'shot' version - meaning that they've taken out the hassle of boiling the kettle, finding a mug and waiting for it all to cool down so you don't burn your lips as you drink. So have just been knocking ...

Extraordinary criticism by fellow Cabinet Ministers of Margaret Hodge

I feel somewhat vindicated. Oh, alright then, I feel completely vindicated. Last Sunday I criticised Margaret Hodge's article on housing, particularly her use of language used by the BNP - specifically the word "indigenous". I then spent much of the week responding to hostile comments about this, including several remarkably convoluted arguments. Well, now Madame Hodge has faced fierce

I have lobbied a Lord

I have now lobbied a Lord, namely Lord Stoddart of Swindon, to implore him to vote against a parliametary exemption from the Freedom of Information Act. It is all a bit surreal really. I have written copious letters to my MP in the past. But writing to a Lord is a bit weird. Through the "Write to them - Lords" website you can choose a random Lord or one with an interest in a particular subject,

The wrong kind of bees ?

Presumably if this had been a story about a train then they would have been the wrong kind of bees ?

Labour's race hate hysteria grows

While the nationals are focused on Labour spokesperson Margaret Hodge's unwise foray into a form of populism her own colleague Alan Johnson described as "using the language of the BNP", the Southwark Labour party have been roundly criticised by the local press and Conservative Deputy Leader for 'waging a race hate war'. I first reported on Southwark Labour's disturbing willingness to whip up race hate as an election tactic back in June 2006. The stunts they've been engaging in this month, and likely for the rest of this year, around the appointment of Cllr ...

Lessons in liberalism (courtesy The West Wing)

Over at CommentCentral, Daniel Finkelstein invites folks to relax on a Friday evening with a classic West Wing clip courtesy of YouTube. It’s an excerpt from the electric Ritchie-Bartlett presidential debate where Jed shows he’s not going to do an Uncle Fluffy. But it’s not my favourite… Here’s Bruno Gianelli, the political strategist’s political strategist, demanding a bit of kick-ass

Galloping Gravewards

(The title was how my friend R announced his birthday celebrations. I’m using it for general musings on ageing.) I read once, or someone told me, or I vaguely heard it on Radio 4 whilst sleeping, that in your subjective experience of your own life, time passes more quickly as you get older. Think [...]

Lobby a Lord for Liberty

For reasons that can only be described as self-serving some Tory and Labour MPs have got together to try and exempt their own offices from the Freedom of Information Act. They have managed to get their bill through the House of Commons, thanks to votes in favour by such local Labour notables as Keith Hill, Labour MP for Streatham, Joan Ruddock and Jim Dowd. Helped along by the tacit support through not voting by Harriet Harman, Tessa Jowell and Bridget Prentice. Liberal Democrat MP Simon Huhges on the other hand voted to stop the bill. For those ...

Tennants and Residents Join Forces

Local residents of Green Walks got together last night in one of our cosy local pubs to discuss how to improve the difficulties of their area - mainly the four access alley-ways that criss-cross their cul-de-sac which are a source of person and crimes nuisance. We were told that the cost to alley-gate with keys will be over 5 thousand pounds - the cost of which needs to be found or raised by

Supporting America isn’t Supporting Bush

The President of the United States, George Bush has an approval rating in the low thirties and has done for a long time. This is the lowest level of support that a president has enjoyed since Nixon was impeached for corruption, and it was said that all this proved that you can fool 30% of [...]

A Byword For Utter Gorgeousness

I have had a couple of enquiries from readers asking if Hubermann’s department store (motto: a byword for utter gorgeousness) has a mail order service. Hubermann’s was mentioned in both Balsa Wood Crow and Annals Of The Frankish Kings, for those of you who need to catch up. I am slightly fretful about Tim [...]

In bemused praise of weekly rubbish collections

I am getting a little puzzled by the arguments over weekly and fortnightly rubbish collections, especially the claim that fortnightly collections increases recycling and decreases the amount of rubbish going into landfill. I really don’t see how this adds up. Could someone explain? It could be that there are misunderstanding about ‘how things are done’ elsewhere – is it possible to make detailed comparisons between service provisions and costings for those services for various authorities – or would this kind of detail come under the obscuring cloak of ‘commercial confidentiality’? If it is possible I think it would be ...

On Liberty, Online: FOI debacle: holding Stephen Hammond MP to account

Readers of Lib Dem Voice and Lib Dem Blogs will doubtless already be aware of the scandalous Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill - otherwise known as the David MacLean Secrecy Bill to Stop Publication of MPs Expenses! If any readers are unsure of the background, have a read through Lib Dem Voice since April 20 (or check out the campaign's Facebook group). I have written an open letter to Conservative MP Stephen Hammond following these absurd comments on his website: "Interestingly, given the noise they are making about the Bill, it is noteworthy that not a single Liberal ...

I'm rich, rich, rich!! And I've binned my wife. And myself.

Spam's a funny business, isn't it. In one day I have won the South African lottery (though I didn't buy a ticket), been offered a grant of a million Euros for my business development becasue of a random sample of shopping receipts, and been offered "high-excellence pain killers" by Alan Johnson (whom I thought was in education, not health!). Meanwhile, Mrs. Polemic's attempt to add me to Facebook has been junked(she'll be very upset), as have... er... I. That's right: Yahoo Mail has actually interpreted an email from my yahoo account to that self same account as spam. Genius! ...

Free Open Day at the Birmingham Museum’s Collections Centre - 28 May 2007

There will be an opportunity to see behind the scenes at the Museum Collections Centre this Bank Holiday Monday (28 May 2007) between 10am and 4.30pm. Objects include a real stage coach, a 1950s electric dustcart and an early computer the size of a room! For family visitors there will be a variety of quizzes and trails to do as they walk round. Just a couple of miles from the city centre at 25,

Nominated for an award!!

Friday 25th May 2007 - I was delighted to see both my web site and my blog have been nominated for the New Statesman's New Media Awards, thank you to those who kindly nominated me!!

Survivors of the 1945 Parliament

With the death of David Renton, it appears that there are now just four people who were elected as MPs in 1945 still alive: Michael Foot, John Freeman, Ernest Millington and Francis Noel-Baker. Millington is the only one of them to have been in Parliament before the 1945 election, having won a wartime by-election for the Common Wealth Party. Since I wrote about this subject last May, Sir Arthur Dodds Parker has died. In that posting I also suggested that Edward Carson (the son of the Ulster Unionist leader) might still be with us, but according to Wikipedia ...

BritBlog Roundup: A reminder

As I reported the other day, the next BritBlog Roundup will appear on this blog on Sunday afternoon. If you would like to nominate a post to appear there, please send an e-mail to britblog [at] gmail [dot] com giving the link. Any posting from a British-based blog or British-born blogger made this week can be be nominated. And, yes, you can nominate something from your own blog. Please send any nominations by Sunday lunchtime. This week's Roundup can be found at Clairwil. And links to all the previous ones can be found on Tim's Worstall's site. ...

Graham's blog entry 25th May 2007

A house-price crash will save the Government from finding a policy solution

I’m sure Henry George was spinning in his communally-owned grave last night (though having seen this, I wonder if he’s been spinning for some time!). Newsnight devoted most of their programme last night to housing. (Not that you’d guess by reading the first comment on the Newsnight blog, which drips anti-Semitic bile). Gavin Estler chaired a debate between Housing Minister Yvette Cooper, a Tory shadow less aristocratic than Michael Gove, the owner of a chain of estate agents and somebody from pricedout.org. It was interspersed with a few reports. In the first instance, just about everybody ...

Congestion charging and the long weekend

The news has been full of congestion charging stories today. My advice is not to believe everything you read, and certainly not to get carried away in the hyperbole of it all. From what I was hearing this morning, the media was carrying on as if people would be charged a fiver a day from next Tuesday! This simply isn't the case, and any charge will be many years off if it ever happens at all. The

The truth about the run?

In a shocking oversight which was pointed out to me today, I forgot to mention that, yes, Cllr O'Hanlon beat me in Sunday's Great Manchester Run. By about a minute. However, I maintain strongly that this was due to a number of competitors recognising me from the recent campaign Focus leaflets, flocking towards me, and causing congestion which slowed me down. Meanwhile, so alarmed were the other

Balgay in Bloom!

The Balgay in Bloom event takes place this Sunday from 12 noon to 4pm. There will be activities, displays and live music. It will be held in Victoria Park near the Scott Street entrance. Click on the headline above to see more about this.

European Parliament Selection: your chance to have a say in the Selection Rules

The advertisement seeking applications for candidacy for the European Parliament will be issued on 8 June. As part of the preparations, English Candidates Committee will meet on 2 June in London to finalise the Selection Rules prior to submission to English Council for ratification at its meeting on 30 June, also in London. Rather than leave it to the last minute, and bearing in mind that I was

For the sake of clarity

Many people seem to think that I have organised some massive putsch both to rid the world of Mike German and to sabotage the rainbow coalition. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is true that I have taken a consistent line that the Welsh Liberal Democrats need to regroup and learn how to take the party's distinctive message out to voters within a Welsh context. We need to re-learn how to campaign at a national and local level. However, that does not make me opposed to coalitions of any sort. The issue is that the party must ...

Going Quite

I am away from home for the next couple of weeks and so will have limited internet access which means that I will not be adding many new stories to this site. However I will be back from Malawi on 16th June and will try to update the site more regularly.

Government Resistance

The Government has now responded to the Local Government and Communities Select Committee report into coastal towns. No surprises there as the appropriate Government Department has to respond to...

Ambassador, you are spoiling us

I know Freedom of Information is an important and serious topic and all that - but I did enjoy the news that one of the ‘vexatious’ questions that has been asked is “How much does the Foreign Office spend on Ferrero Rocher chocolates”!

Oh yes, how much better that sounds!

Today there is no song, but a really nice clip featuring, amongst others, Heavenly’s Rob Pursey and Cathy Rogers, talking us through the guitar. If this doesn’t leave you smiling, nothing will.

Wales

I was thinking of blogging on Wales, but James Graham and Stodge seem to have said it all. I read the proposed agreement and found it gimmicky. But the argument Peter Black attributes to Alex Carlile also strikes me as amazingly weak: Lord Carlile will, I understand, be telling the BBC's Dragon Eye that unless there is a very strong incentive in terms of, for example, a significantly fairer voting system introduced for the next Assembly election together with STV for local elections, there is no sensible basis for doing a coalition or arrangement deal ...

Sculpture in Hunter Street

Earlier this week, a constituent contacted me about the sculpture of a violin bridge that the university used to have on display in Hunter Street (just north of Old Hawkhill). When the building work started some months ago, the sculpture was removed. He asked what was happening to it? Very prompt replies from the University Secretary and the City Council Director of Planning & Transportation. The Secretary to the University advises: "The sculpture is in storage at the moment. We do plan ...

Twisting in the Welsh wind

In Wales, it would appear, it is all over bar the shouting. The Welsh Lib Dem Executive voted down the deal hammered out between their negotiating team, Plaid and the Tories and even though the special conference called to approve any coalition deal is happening anyway, it is hard to see how the [...]

Norwich residents to pay more if they have a longer one (car that is)!

Norwich City residents are to see increases in their car permit prices based on how big their car is. Small cars under approximately 3.92m will pay £16 per year, cars under 4.45 m will by £22 and any larger cars will pay £30. The move seems to have been largely welcomed by the three main parties and in my view is a good idea.

Liberal Democrats win Dudden Hill by-election

Congratulations to Pawan Gupta and Brent Liberal Democrats for winning the by-election in Dudden Hill: Liberal Democrats 1,262 (39.8%) Labour 1,177 (37.2%) Tory 412 (13.0%) Respect 160 (5.1%) Green 156 (4.9%) Majority 85 (In 2006 the three Lib Dem majorities were 32, 114 and 297 in this ward). Turnout 34.2% A particularly good result as the Liberal Democrats have taken the lead in running [...]

Dudden Hill

Well done to the LibDem team and helpers working on the Dudden Hill council by-election in Brent - we won by 85 votes. Congratulations to Cllr Pawan Gupta who is therefore re-elected.

Second sequal problems for Pirates and Shrek

According to reviews, the new Pirates of the Caribbean 3 film is an absolute turkey. On top of early reviews from American suggesting that Shrek 3 is also a miss rather than a hit and the widely accepted view that Spiderman 3 is also the weakest of the three films in that series (although I liked it best), there seems to be something of a trend developing in serial films which are not based on books. Films based on books (Lord of the Rings, James Bond, Harry Potter) or scripts written many years before (Return of the Jedi) don't ...

Something must be done

As a commenter pointed out, the syllogism Something must be done.This is something.Therefore it must be done.comes from Yes Minister. You can find it and many other great lines from the show on Jonathan Lynn's own website.

Friday 25th May 2007

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