LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Tuesday 12th June 2007

Excuses, dull tennis, catching up and cheekiness

I've managed to not get around to blogging for over a week - easily the longest gap since I started last December. Ooops. And while I've been neglecting it, the counter has crawled past the 10,000 visitors mark nonetheless. Just been a very busy week or so, especially mad at work. Also spent a couple of days in Manchester on a training course last week, had a few council meetings and other stuff going on, then went to Paris over the weekend. Was at the French Open final - but the disappointing, dull ladies final, not the men's which ...

Alan Titchmarsh as you've never seen him before

I was bored and looking on Youtube when I came across this video clip. My apologies if you have seen it before.

Not Lions but Pussy-cats

When Tony Blair addressed the Women’s Institute conference at Wembley seven years ago, he felt he had walked into the lion’s den. He was slow-handclapped and a number of audience members walked out, complaining that he spoke for too long and too politically. And that was long before Iraq, remember. At the time, Charles Kennedy [...]

The truth about recycling, according to the Economist

One of the questions that’s - quite reasonably - asked by recycling-sceptics is: prove it’s more environmentally friendly to recycle than to throw away, given the respective consumption of energy in both processes. So I was particularly interested in a long feature in this week’s Economist, The truth about recycling. It’s worth reading in full, but I thought I’d fillet it a bit… First, here

A weekend of Downloading

I spent the weekend listening to VERY LOUD rock music at the excellent Download festival which takes place at heavy metal's spiritual home, Donington. 21 years ago I attended my first 'Monsters of Rock' festival at Donington which was headlined by the hilarious Ozzy Osborne (back when he was a little more coherent than he is now) supported by the very boring Scorpions, the excellent Motorhead and the very funny Bad News. Amongst my teenage mates at the time going to Donington was something of a rock pilgramage - a rockramage if you will - a rite ...

Putting our green money where our mouth is - Park win Green award

At the last General Election I had numerous printing companies beating down my door to do work for the party. I was quietly looking for a company, or network of companies, that I could point constituencies at that would be able to deliver at a good, though maybe not the cheapest, price but most of all give maximum attention to customer service. One company ended up getting my recommendation to

An obituary of Richard Rorty

Rorty's death was one of those stories that spread in cyberspace for some time before the newspapers took it up. Now the obituaries have started to appear. The first in Britain appears to be the one in the Daily Telegraph: One of the reasons for Rorty's popularity, and the esteem in which he was held, was his lucidity as a writer; even in technical works for an academic audience, he was at pains to spell out his analyses clearly, and not to duck their consequences. This alone made him stand out from almost all other writers and philosophers who ...

Currently reading…

I’ve just started reading a book that describes itself as “a journey into the English mind”. The book - “Welcome to Everytown” by Julian Baggini is about six months he spent living in S66 - apparently the most typical postcode in the country statistically. The book starts off by pointing out how most [...]

Holiday snaps: the first five

I'm back. My camera is back. It has photos. Here are the photos (batch one). Just arrived: Working out where to go: Meeting a bear called Japser in Jasper: Looking at how the trains used to be: Check out my new earring!!!!!!!!!!!!! :

Fisking Tony Blair

I’m usually a fan of Tony Blair’s speeches. They combine rhetorical, oratorical oomph with persuasive, linear logic. So his speech today to the Reuters Institute on ‘public life’ was a disappointment. It’s not that what he said was wrong, it’s that much of it has already been said before by many media commentators: “The media world - like everything else - is becoming more fragmented, more

A new Mayor's blog

Whilst I've been away the Mayor's blog has sprung into action again - this time it contains the thoughts and excellent photos of Cllr Shiraz Mirza.

George Bush reaches the heights of Norman Wisdom

Norman Wisdom is a national hero in Albania. So is George Bush. Mr Grimsdale!!!

Snows' stonking Battlefield series

You may wonder what happened to Peter Snow when his arms finally fell off after waving them about so much in front of the swingometer. With his son he has been presenting an excellent series of Battlefield programmes. Their programme in the first series, Battlefield Britain, on the Battle of Newbury was superb. I understood the subject for the first time - and I live in Newbury. Now they are

And through social networking I shall have that power!

Seems like everyone’s got a Facebook profile these days… (via Mat B)

Bob Monkhouse returns - A clever and poignant way to raise an important issue

Anyone who has seen the advert featuring Bob Monkhouse, or a likeness of him, raising the issue of prostate cancer couldn't help to be amazed by how cleverly done it is, but also what a clever way it is to increase awareness of this killer illness. Full credit ought to go to Bob Monkhouse's widow for allowing the ads to be made and I am sure Bob would approve. The link HERE takes you through to the website of the Give a Few Bob campaign. I'll certainly be making a donation.

Imagine what a devastating loss it would have been to the country

Had Hazel Blears been in the building when it collapsed ! The loss to the country might have been, um, well, err, now ... um, now I come to think of it ... P.S. This is not to negate the seriousness of the incident and with every hope that the one remaining trapped victim of the building collapse is okay.

Goofy, Macabre

One of the difficulties that beset Joost Van Dongelbraacke throughout his career as a so-called “suburban shaman” was the ruinous cost of insurance. Having been dragged through the courts by a Pointy Town quantity surveyor who claimed emotional distress, disfigurement and loss of earnings after being entranced into a week-long state of whirling ecstatic [...]

Bob Monkhouse rises from the dead!

When I walked into W.H.Smith in Stratford today, I got a bit of a shock. There was a poster displaying Bob Monkhouse's photo with some text below it, as if it was him speaking today. I did a bit of double-take. "Bob Monkhouse is dead" I thought. It all turns out to be an excellent advertising campaign for Prostate Research, with the full co-operation of Monkhouse's widow, Jackie. "What killed

Princess Anne falls over and gets cross

I knew there was a good reason I picked up a discarded Metro off a seat in the tube today. It had some fascinating pictures of Priness Anne falling over in Guernsey: The Princess Royal landed on her backside after slipping on a cobbled street – then gave an ear-bashing to a man who tried to help her. The slip-up happened in front of hundreds of people as Princess Anne visited Guernsey on Monday

The Rhodrifather: Part II

According to the BBC: A senior Plaid source said it had been given an offer that would be very difficult to refuse. Cue: visions of horse’s heads and wedding parties. To be honest, I think this is the best possible outcome. It will of course drag Labour off to the left, which in turn will force the [...]

Is there really slavery in the UK?

I was reading about a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) today that talked of contemporary slavery in the UK. According to the report, slavery still exists in this country, two centuries after the trade is slaves was banned. For the report’s authors, “all forms [of slavery] share elements of the exploitative relationship which have historically constituted slavery: severe economic exploitation; the lack of a human rights framework; and control by one person over another through the prospect or reality of violence.” There is no doubt that the above conditions do exist within the UK – particularly, ...

Rhodri makes his move

The BBC is reporting tonight that Labour have made a formal offer to Plaid Cymru to come into a coalition government with them. I understand that the offer involves a minimum of three cabinet seats and the guarantee of a referendum on full assembly powers. Plaid AMs will discuss the offer on tonight, and according to the BBC a senior party member said it was an "odds-on certainty" they will support further discussion. Responding to these events Mike German said that they bear an uncanny resemblance to what happened with Alun Michael in 2000. "When the Labour Party ...

Willow, leather, a pint……and a book

When I was at school, I wasn’t very good at sport and didn’t like it much either. Most games didn’t offer much in the way of get-outs, but as anyone who has ever watched a game of cricket knows, it generates a multitude of statistics, and so there is actually a role specially designed for [...]

Is that a yellow rosette on George Osborne?

There's a lot of chatter in the media today about this: ConservativeHome's ToryDiary: Lowering and simplifying tax for small business George Osborne is giving a speech to the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development and the British Chambers of Commerce today, about simplifying the administration of income tax, national insurance and VAT. Here's the original: read more

The surreal Ghost Town which will become the Olympic Park

Just to prove I was there today, here is a photo I took of an industrial estate just off Waterden Road, which is in the heart of what will be the "Olympic Park" in Hackney/Stratford, East London. The whole place is going to be shut off and boarded up on July 2nd. The area in the photo will become the multi-storey car park, just behind the warm-up athletics track. The whole place is like a ghost

Check out the ‘products’ in my new shop..

As you may have noticed, there is now a new button on my website, called ‘products’. On the products’ pages, you will find a wide variety of clothing, stationary, badges, stickers and more. There are designs for the Esperanza Network, for various political campaigns (including defend freedom of information), and you can even design your own, perhaps for your campaign or protest (substantial discounts are available for bulk orders). Prices are very competitive and all profits go to charity. Check it out!

The White Moose of Finnmark County

Thanks once again to the good people at Aftenposten, for the world’s most ridiculous looking animal. This moose has no dignity.

Written Parliamentary Question 12 June 2007

Transport: Vehicle Number Plates: Theft Q:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will issue guidance to car vendors requesting that they advise people of the availability of anti-theft number plates when cars are sold. A:When the tamper resistant plate initiative was launched after the first manufacturer passed the standard in 2006, DVLA provided publicity material for the Society of

Written Parliamentary Question 12 June 2007

Treasury: Departments: Ministerial Red Boxes Q:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what tendering process is used to decide which company supplies ministerial red boxes to his Department. A:As the value of orders placed for the supply of ministerial red boxes is below the minimum HM Treasury threshold for competition, the requirements are placed on a single tender basis with Barrow and Gale

Who To replace Bush - The Republican's Nominee

Every week MSNBC.com publishes a ranking, created by Nationaljournal.com, of the current presidential candidates. one week they rank the republicans, the next they rank the Democrats. 3 weeks ago the last set of raitings from MSNBC.com were published, with the demmocrats being rated. Now after a hiatus the republican candidates have beeing rated ""Last night in Manchester, New Hampshire, the 10 Republican candidates prepared to take the stage for their party's third 2008 presidential debate ... of 2007. ... This debate wasn't about policy discrepancies. It's about America and the imminent death of its people if ...

The Good Life in Gateshead

Next year, our aim is to grow as much of our food as possible. And if we don't grow it, we aim to pick it wild. That is the intention anyway. It's our bid to cut down our carbon footprint. So we now have one and a half allotments which we need to get ready. They are quite a size and need quite a bit of work doing on them. Nevertheless, we have made a start. One, admittedly small, corner has over

Three Questions for Children's Services

John Hemming, MP for Birmingham Yardley, and chairman of Justice for Families has challenged the adoption industry to answer three questions to justify current practise in handling adoptions. The questions are: How do those working for Childrens' Services, the Family Courts or elsewhere in similar spheres justify (using quantative methods) the following: a) The massive growth in newborn babies

Extending freedom of information

I am sponsoring my Lib Dem colleague Tom Brake's 10 Minute Rule Bill today which extends the Freedom of Information Act to stop ministers having the final say and putting that say instead in the hands of the Information Commissioner and Tribunal. It also brings in laws about delay - as prevarication is often the game and non-supply - let alone timely supply. It would also brings private contractors who do public sector contract work into the remit of freedom of information legislation. So - a good thing to be sponsoring!

Great Welshmen

My attention has been drawn to the Cardiff University Magazine for Spring 2007 and an interesting article on the economic role of universities by Mark Alexander. The article starts with the words: "The great Welshman and British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli said universities should be places of light". A quick check on google confirms that the great man was born on 21 December 1804 in London, England and remained throughout his life very English. Oops! More light needed perhaps.

Polite caution not to commit murder

I reported some time ago that I was concerned that the Police were using ASBOs to deal with matters that properly should go to court and result in jail-time. I wondered at the time whether this was an isolated thing. Figures investigated by the Liberal Democrats Home Affairs spokesperson, Nick Clegg, appear to suggest that the situation is widespread, and much worse than just the misuse of ASBOs. Nick reports that in the 5 years since 2001 8,000 cautions have been issued to sex offenders, there has been a 161% increase in cautions for committing violence against ...

BBC: MoD implicated in Saudi Prince payments

Last night’s Panorama on BBC One alleged that the Ministry of Defence “directly administered payments of more than £1bn to Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia”, according to The Guardian. According to the BBC, MoD officials in Whitehall themselves processed quarterly “invoices” from the Saudi prince, who was seeking payment for “support services” for his role in [...]

Simply Stunning

From Last nights Britain's Got Talent;

All about TPO's

I'm only on a couple of committees at Stafford Borough and I was told that neither of them meet very often! So I may have been a bit gullible because this morning I attended the first meeting of the Public Appeals committee. This was to determine an appeal against a Tree Preservation Order made in respect of six trees on a site off Newcastle Road. I had been supplied with a very full set of

Welcome back Craig Murray

Craig Murray's blog has been down for a couple of days. We were worried that he had been spirited away to Guantanamo Bay. But it seems not, as he is back with a characteristically thoughtful posting: The most important rift in British politics today is not between left and right, it is between authoritarians and libertarians, between those who support human and civil rights, and those who prefer "Strong government". This fault line coincides closely with those who support, and those who oppose, the Iraq war, largely because both issues depend on the prior question "Is might always right?". ...

The lower Lea Valley before the Olympics

Diamond Geezer has been wandering the site of the Olympic Park before the bulldozers move in: Dragonflies floated silently above the water's edge. Bumble bees buzzed from dog rose to convolvulus. Freshly-paired waterfowl paddled between the reedbeds. Were it not for the excavators digging the foundations of the new Aquatic Centre on the opposite bank, it would have been hard to imagine that this was central London at all. But this won't be an overgrown rural idyll for much longer. By 2012 this towpath will have been swept away to make room for the Park's central walkway, and crossed ...

Feeling our way

Betsan Powys has the full contents of Ieuan Wyn Jones' response to Rhodri Morgan on her blog here. It is very much as expected, with a demand for more concessions if the First Minister is serious about drawing Plaid Cymru into supporting his government. Betsan reports later that there were also talks today between the two parties but no indication has yet emerged of what was agreed if anything. My money is still on the 'Rainbow Coalition' if only because I cannot see the vast majority of Labour AMs and members stomaching a formal deal with Plaid Cymru that ...

Wyre Forest select Ron Cockings

Last night Wyre Forest Liberal Democrats selected Ron Cockings as their Parliamentary Candidate for the next General Election.

Katie Hopkins - You're fired from your new job at the Met Office

Oh, I know you shouldn't take delight in other people's suffering, but when she has been so awful, nasty, arrogant and spiteful to other contestants in The Apprentice, you do have to smile wryly at Katie Hopkins getting fired from her new job at the Met Office.

The Sheriff of Nottingham's bath

Niles's Blog informs us that the Sheriff of Nottingham has a bath in his office at the city's Council House. It trust it will soon be stolen so that the downtrodden peasants of Sherwood Forest can use it instead.

Is the media a ‘feral beast’? Science has the answer!

Tony Blair is lamenting about that eeevil old media. You know, the thing that he used to become Prime Minister: the media can operate like “a feral beast” and its relationship with politicians is “damaged” and in need of repair. Can this be true? Well, it would appear that we now have a way to [...]

Listening to Ming

I’m just listening to Phone Ming on Radio 4. Slightly odd. Soft lobs from the presenter so far… what will the callers ask? Will they cover the Saudi Arabia Al Yamamah scandal?

Ming on Radio 4

Lib Dem leader Ming Campbell is on Radio 4’s consumer programme You and Yours right now. If you’re listening, why not tell us what you think?

Take action to stop secret CIA detention!

Tuesday 12th June 2007 - The US government has constructed a wide-ranging detention system for terrorism suspects and others it considers to be implicated in the "war on terror". I was the first Member of the European Parliament to raise this matter on the floor of the House in front of then UK President in Office, Douglas Alexander MP. My concerns were dismissed by the UK Government and

The Bear Necessities

Goldilocks could have done with one of these Bear Detection Kits from the World Society for the Protection of Animals. The kits would undoubtedly have detected the traces of bear in all three bowls of porridge - but their main use is detecting medicines made from illegal-traded bear products. The WSPA estimates that over 12,000 bears are kept in captivity in awful conditions to supply the black market in bear bile, which is a (readily reproduced) ingredient in some medicines. Extra honey for the WSPA!

One rule for them ...

Once again the Government that promised an 'ethical foreign policy' is in hot water, this time because of the Al Yamamah affair. I was listening to a discussion about this on the Today programme on Saturday morning between a recent ex-diplomat and Craig Murray. The recent ex-diplomat argued that the Government's aim should be to decide what is in the 'national interest' and act accordingly. He believed that the damage to our relations with Saudi Arabia, in particualr the possible loss of their cooperation in fighting terrorism, meant it was reasonable for the Government to cover up ...

Temporary Traffic Order - Logie Avenue

Dundee City Council propose to make an Order under Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 for the purpose of facilitating carriageway resurfacing works. The Order is expected to be in force for two weeks from 2 July 2007. Its maximum duration in terms of the Act is eighteen months. The effect of the Order is to prohibit temporarily all vehicular traffic in Logie Avenue on the North carriageway from Glenagnes Road to Sycamore Place. Pedestrian thoroughfare and vehicular access to premises will be maintained. An alternative route will be available via Logie Avenue - South carriageway. Please ...

Your Own Beeswax

I’m currently finishing off Kate Fox’s pop anthropology book, Watching the English. The key motif running throughout it, is that the bulk of English social habits can be traced back to an overwhelming desire for privacy. Our conversational structures, manner of greeting one another and homes have all evolved with the protection of our privacy foremost. So, it’s strange that we should now be so apparently soporific in defending what we value. The multi-national pressure group Privacy International publishes an annual table, providing an index which ranks the privacy of citizens in 17 countries. The most recent table places the ...

Do we use our cars because we are lazy?

There have been lots of initiatives (the word politicians use for something that is either unlikely to work or has no money behind it) to get us out of our cars and onto other forms of transport such as buses, bicycles or our own two feet. With the numbers of cars on the road increasing all the time, it would appear that the battle is being lost, but is this just because we Brits are lazy and will use our cars regardless? Part of the answer is yes, bearing in mind the number of times we use the ...

Will the US ever go green?

Two weeks ago there was hope, Bush was making speeches that sounded like conversion statements. Then the G8 got together, with serious proposals to combat climate change from Germany, and yet again America steps away from taking real action and forces a far weaker set of proposals. Looks like Bush wants to leave two huge international legacies when he leaves office in two years time – global warming out of control and Iraq. At least he’ll be remembered!

Who do councillors represent?

It’s a no-brainer question, isn’t it? Our residents, our voters, our punters - call them what you will, they are our bosses, we answer to them. So why ask the question? Well, I was flicking through a publication last night called ‘councillor’, produced by the I&DeA, and there was an article by Cllr Paul Bettison, Tory [...]

A new twist to blue on blue

According to The Guardian the US is currently arming Sunni dissidents in Iraq. Apparently "Arms, ammunition, body armour and other equipment, as well as cash, pick-up trucks and fuel, have already been handed over in return for promises to turn on al-Qaida and not attack US troops". Whether or not such promises extend to British troops is not clear and frankly from the tone of the article there seems to be a fair amount of scepticism as to whether or not the Sunni dissidents can be relied upon to hold to their promise. American forces already have ...

What will happen to the DTI?

Lib Dem shadow secretary of state for trade and industry, Susan Kramer, has been setting out her reasons for seeking voluntary redundancy, as the party again voices its commitment to abolish a “fundamentally flawed” department. Susan clearly believes Gordon Brown will soon make her dream come true in the imminent Government makeover: “My goal in coming [...]

Liberalism

During my early morning web browsing I came across one of the best summaries of liberalism I’ve ever read: At its core, liberalism is about the dignity and worth of every individual. It welcomes a society of choices about what to think, what to do, what to buy, what to be. Private property ensures the freedom [...]

Visitors in town

Wednesday 6th June 2007 - I was delighted to meet up today with a group of visitors from the North West that were in Brussels on a trip co-sponsored by Chris Davies and myself. There is no better way to get an understanding and an insight into the working of the European Parliament than to visit the place and see for yourtself what goes on. A packed programme made sure they met other MEP's from

Ile des Chiens 4min: Gare du Nord 70min

Over at The 1909 Group, a critique of the Olympic Games financing.

A Spicy Take on Trident

Kingston LibDems held what Mrs Merton would call a ‘heated debate’ last night, when Rosemary Addington, Chairperson of Kingston Peace Council, addressed a Poppadom and Politics at the Ajanta Restaurant in Surbiton on why Britain should not renew Trident. As a longstanding member of CND, she not surprisingly took a firmly unilateralist position, which was [...]

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Tuesday 12th June 2007

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