I never understood why the original plan was to select our mayoral candidate at the same time as the GLA list. To have someone as a candidate for that amount of time would have meant they either had to seriously loaded, have lots of time on their hands (which really amounts to the same thing) or already have a paid political platform as Simon had. The "delay" moves the selection to when it should
Saturday saw me off to Stratford for the new productions of Henry IV Parts 1 & 2. This is no place for a review (go to enjoy the second half of 2 HIV, and prepare to be disappointed by the rest, especiallyby a Falstaff [David Warner] overladen with ennui). But if you don't, and don't therefore see the programme, you'll miss this gem of lovieness, written by Richard Cordery, who was excellent as Humfrey in last year's Henry VI and moves sedately into the role of the Chief Justice in 2 HIV. He is not concerned to reflect on his ...
This weekend I was at the Electric Gardens Festival near Faversham. Good points: small, and generally friendly. Saturday line up very good - I saw Pull Tiger Tail, Kate Nash, The Pipettes, Calvin Harris and Supergrass. I've seen Supergrass a few times before, they are never going to be in the top league, but a good performance. Sunday was marred by having to stand in the sun for an hour to get
The Daily Mirror claims: Shocked David Cameron was given a mauling by angry grassroots Tories in Yorkshire - who have warned they will form their own breakaway northern party if he does not shape up.Cameron is said to have been so shaken by the ferocity of the verbal assaults during the get-together with local activists that he could not finish his lunch.Even allowing for the Mirror's bias - in its way it is every bit as partisan as the pro-Tory papers - this suggests that Cameron is in serious trouble. If David Cameron's strategy of repositioning the Tories on the ...
My new job of the past week, after nearly 10 years as party staff means that I no longer have the contractual restrictions that stopped me slagging off the party on my blog. Of course I am restricted still about talking about anything I know from my employment, but now you can hear: Who I voted for in the leadership election My views on the ousting of Charles Kennedy What I think of the party 
So Chris Keating and I have drawn with Lynne Featherstone in Stephen Tall's league of top Lib Dem blogs. Surely some mistake! I am not worthy to be on the same level as Lynne's esteemed and long standing blog. But I do note that bloody pink dog, that briefly took over my blog here, here, here, and here has beaten me in Nich Starling's league table. I demand two recounts. One to elevate Lynne
A couple of years ago the BBC reported a trend for British-Caribbean parents to send their children back to the West Indies for a more traditional education. Today's Leicester Mercury reveals a novel twist on this phenomenon: A man who sold cannabis to pay for his children's education in Jamaica has won a cut in his jail term.Judges at the Court of Appeal in London were told that Robert Cecil Taylor was determined that his children would have a better start in life than him.He had no formal education during his childhood in a Jamaican village and cannot read or ...
'The US military cannot account for 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to the Iraqi security forces.' (BBC) How the hell do you lose 190,000 guns?? Lose! Not stolen, lost! They must know who they gave them to? Surely? That's just a whole new level of incompetence - lets just hope they keep a tighter hold on their Nuclear weapons! No wonder they weren't sure if Saddam Hussien had any weapons of Mass Destruction; they've probably lost half of theirs and just presumed someone must have have them :-P
Iain Dale gets his knickers in a twist in a quite spectacular manner here, ably assisted by half a dozen Welsh Tories and some unbearably smug Wales Labour activists. I haven't enjoyed one of Iain's posts so much for ages.
Now the warm weather is here I find myself partial to the occasional glass of cider. The cideruk website has a county by county guide to pubs that serve good cider. That could be useful. 
I remember, only too well the last Foot and Mouth outbreak, I was working for Paul Keetch MP in Hereford. Whilst I was mainly employed to work on the campaigning side there was no escape getting involved in Foot and Mouth - it took up almost all of his time and his staff. It was horrendous and the situation for so many was unimaginable. I also have a vivid memory of funeral pyres that will stay with me forever. So many people suffered last time, I can only imagine what people are feeling now there has been another outbreak.
Hague, Dawkins or Campbell? Not for me. And on that note, and on the high of doing a number two over at the redoubtable Norfolk Blogger’s blog, see you all again soon…
Ron Brown - who served the people of Leith as their MP for 13 years, until 1992 - died last week of liver disease, aged 69. BBC Online chose to headline his death, Former MP 'Red' Ron Brown dies. Quite why they felt it necessary to repeat his nickname so prominently even beyond death is a little beyond me. To me, its refusal of dignity shows a casual lack of respect. Even the most anti-BBC
So I’m buying a new set of cutlery, when the sales assistant tells me there’s a problem: he can’t serve me. Erm, why not, I ask: I’ve brought money with me and everything. Turns out he’s 17, and so cannot sell a knife to me. Even knives whose power of serration will scarcely trouble poached salmon. He calls over a colleague, who keys in her number to his till, and he then sells me my new set of
I've had an email and a comment requesting my full top 100 blogs, so you'll find below the rest of my top 100. One person also enquired by e-mail why I had missed some out that should have been in the top 50. The answer is that I judged all the ones I was asked to and any others I could find that had noticably been missed by Iain Dale. If your blog is quite new, it might have been missed and for that I am very sorry. 51 MKNE Political Information http://politsmk.blogspot.com/ 52 Process Guy http://processguy.blogspot.com/ 53 Adam Teladia ...
That's {Photo of a beach} the title of my latest newspaper column - and I think you can guess the answer! As I wrote: The media obsess about the long ‘holidays’ that MPs have – but of course – recess doesn’t equal holiday. I don’t know about all MPs – but certainly all the ones I asked had pretty intense programs. So - what do MPs actually get up to in the summer then? You'll have to read my piece to find out!
Now that the summer holidays have definitely begun, I thought that it would be helpful to provide links to information on some of the activities and events that will be in Birmingham (particularly for children!) over the 2007 summer holidays: Summer Activities in Libraries;Leisure Centres and Swimming Pools; Activities in Birmingham's Parks;Museum Service;Some Sport Events; and Children's summer
Chris Huhne today attacked Gordon Brown’s green credentials, pointing out that he has just downgraded the Government’s top committee dealing with environmental matters and axed completely another key body. Not exactly a sign of taking the issue seriously…
Ask yourselves this, why do I believe in Global Warming? If you don’t then pretend you do. The most likely answer and the most credible is that all the science and scientists said it is happening and that humans are the cause of it. This causes you to believe that certain things should be done even compulsory or at least encouraged or discouraged though taxation. These actions are justified because of the science. But how can you know yourself for sure that the science is right. Our climate science might in truth be as real as the idea that the ...
This is utter genius. Comic geeks imagine breakfast cereals designed specifically not to appeal to children. I genuinely can’t imagine anything better than starting the day with a cartoon depiction of Martin Amis and Christopher Hitchens arguing.
I was delighted to be able to help out the Liberal Democrat candidate in Heworth Without ward in York yesterday afternoon. This is a seat the Lib Dems lost to the Conservatives by just 34 votes in May so with a by-election now pending the local party is taking it very seriously indeed. The snag with volunteering yesterday was the heat. Although I have delivered leaflets all around the country over nearly 20 years, I have never done so in such heat. The temperature when we finished was 32º Celsius! Pretty remarkable for Yorkshire. This heat, of course, is in ...
The language in this party news release is rather more lively than most. A sign of things to come?
Firebrand former Labour MP Ron Brown has died after a long illness. Like other former Labour Scottish MP's, he had something of a penchant for visiting dictatorships (North Korea and Libya), although he drew the line at praising Saddam Hussein. Whilst he may have had some deeply held views, particularly left wing extremist ones, I am afraid as a politician I could not abide the way he acted or the company he kept. But for Tam Dalyell to laud him as some sort of prophet about Afghanistan, is ludicrous. To put it in to context, when Afghanistan was a Soviet ...
{ashdown-2.jpg} The US Under-Secretary of State, Nick Burns, has opined that the world needs a figure of the status of Paddy Ashdown in Afghanistan, where the successful implementation of peace, security and good governance is proving problematic. Paddy rubbed a lot of local politicians’ fur up the wrong way when he was High Representative in Bosnia, but he is widely credited with ensuring that that country returned to a semblance of normality and has set it sights realistically on EU membership one day. When the Guardian contacted Paddy about Burns’s suggestion, he half demured, commenting that the mandate of any international repersentative ...
Having been setting my Sky+ box to record the US TV series "Heroes", I had to make a decision about whether I was actually going to watch the programmes or delete them (we need the space on the hard drive), so when my son woke me up at some unearthly hour of the morning demanding a clean nappy and baby milk, I decided that it was the perfect time to watch all three programmes back to back. And I am so pleased I did. The production values of Heroes is incredibly high, it really is like a film, a good ...
Certain things in politics are bound to leave you feeling slightly dirty. As it’s been in the blogosphere lately, I should go on the record at this point to say that Liberal Democrat practices at by-elections are not such a thing. The other parties should grow up a little and be clear that there is a difference between saying that the other candidate is an unqualified carpetbagger who doesn’t
If you puff something or someone up too much they eventually burst. Having watched and waited for nearly 12 months as the Tory press piled praise on praise for Tory leader David 'Hug a Hut...
Last year I offered some criticisism to Iain Dale for his "best of" lists, so when Iain asked me to help with the judging this year, I felt obliged to agree. I have sent a top 100 to Iain, but thought I'd publish the top 50 here for people to see. Like Stephen Tall, it took more than one day to do, and depending on my mood, my tiredness or how much my son was demanding his food or a nappy change could also affect my generosity, so I have to apologise to anyone who feels they didn't get as ...
Simpsonized Barcharter...... and Mrs Barcharter.... And Barcharter-ette Hat-tip Arwen Folkes http://simpsonizeme.com/(link now correct - apologies if you tried it while it still had the typo)
The Lib Dems have launched new transport polices to create a zero carbon transport system by 2050.The plans include a commitment to double investment in the railways by introducing a toll on road freight and a charge for internal air flights. The plans will be debated at the autumn conference in September, which unfortunately I won't be at because it takes place about as far from my house as is
I am working from home today, allowing me to get on with work without the distractions of a noisy office andf the phone ringing every thirty seconds. This afternoon was also supposed to be when Tam got back from her two weeks away, but unfortunately she is stuck on the M6 and has been in the Stafford area since about 13.00... Her return can't come soon enough. In the two weeks she has been away
Monday 6th August 2007 - Just a brief update to let everyone know I am enjoying my family break with Zahida and the children here in Dubai. The weather is superb but we have been able to go ski-ing in the wodnerful indoor snowdome that opened here last year. I hope like me everyone is able to get time to recharge their batteries for what promises to be a busy Autumn ahead of us and the prospect
If you live in High Barnet ward you will shortly be receiving our latest Focus leaflet if you haven't already. Delivering leaflets is one of the key ways that we can keep in touch with all 6,500 households in the ward. High Barnet is a big ward stretching from the A1 all the way over the the railway line down at New Barnet. All our delivery is done by volunteers. If you would like to help please let me know.
One of the most extraordinary things I have seen on television was a Take That reunion programme in 2005. It was remarkable because the chemistry between the group was obviously strong, with the exception of Robbie Williams who appeared via video. He explained afterwards that this was nothing to do with his busy schedule but the fact that he found it difficult to be in the same room as Gary
A trip down to the beach at Penmaenmawr completed the tick boxes for the trip to Wales this morning. More video and photos taken. In total on this trip, I have taken about 300 pictures. I'm on the train heading to Euston now, doing some work for constituents.---Sent via BlackBerry
I just have to further propogate this classic from the Mirror via Peter Black (with thanks). The thought of this poor silver-spooned Etonian white-faced and unable to finish his meal due to the ferocity of the full-frontal onslaught from bluff Northerners is all too distressing!
Posted by Chris This blog has been given a fresh new look and a facility for readers to vote on topical issues has been added. I have been interested in the debate about you tube and the dreadful pictures of youngsters being beaten up outside school. Having watched on TV the response from one of the owners of the site who appeared to over do the "we will not be sensored" bit I do think they need to introduce much firmer moderating. Showing anonymous films of kids being beaten up outside school is wrong. Having been an enthusiastic contributor to ...
Today's Western Mail reports that the regional wealth gap has widened between Wales and England during Labour’s 10 years in office. According to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) Wales’ economic output has fallen even further behind that of the wealthiest part of the UK, the South East of England, since 1997. In that year Welsh GVA (Gross Value Added) – the accepted measure of wealth per head – stood at 81% of the UK average, with London on 129% and England as a whole on 102%. But in 2005, the latest figures show Wales has dropped to 78% ...
Just when David Cameron thought he had survived the worst of the storm over his various misjudgements in the Ealing Southall by-election, a fresh one starts up. This time it is Yorkshire Tories who are telling him to shape up or they will ship out. Today's Daily Mirror tells us that the Tory leader was given a mauling by angry grassroots party members in Yorkshire. They warned him that they will form their own breakaway northern party if he does not shape up. The paper reports that Cameron was said to have been so shaken by the ferocity of the ...
No sign of a quote from Wittgenstein as yet.
A few weeks ago a report stated that having fortnightly collections does not increase recycling rates. Personally, I disagree as I have to recycle much more now to avoid an overflowing bin after 10 days, but I guess that is just anecdotal. Now, another group are claiming that having smaller bins increases recycling. Hang on. Doesn't this contradict the advice we were given two weeks ago ? I understand the principle. Rationing space in a normal waste bin encourages people to recycle more so they can use the wasted empty space in their recycling bin. Now if we are to ...
In today’s Guardian, Roy Hattersley takes John Stuart Mill and the Liberal Democrats to task (‘Liberty is not what it was’) and claims that their philosophy is outmoded in the modern age. He’s arguing with something of a caricature of Mill, though – in saying that “He would have rejected outright a more positive view of liberty since it required the freedoms of the few to be constrained in order to protect the freedoms of the many,” he ignores Mill’s willingness to support the requirement for children to be education, for example. Mill actually extended the idea of harm to ...
The government are apparently planning to raise the age at which people can drive in this country from 17 to 18 years. Since the demographic that has the most accidents is everyone under the age of 25, I don't really understand how this is going to tackle the problem of road deaths unless the government has a plan to stop everyone under the age of 25 from driving eventually ? The real answer is to have more retesting of people who are caught committing driving offences and real sanctions under law that take proper note of the fact that a ...
Elgar’s Enigima variations took on an almost Hogwartsian aura as I took a snap decision on the way back from a trip to Essex to call in at the O2 and watch Harry Potter instead. The Royal Philarmonic Orchestra were excellent as a group of pubescent teenagers who find that their magical powers regularly put them in perilous situations. However, generally my sense of this particular Prom was that not much happened, and then it was over.
How lucky we are to be living in the 21st century and not the 19th! The poor Victorians had to make do with John Stuart Mill as a philoshoper, but we have Roy Hattersley. Today's Guardian bills an article as follows: Roy Hattersley: Much has changed since John Stuart Mill's time, and his views on freedom are no longer valid.And what is Hattersley's argument when you turn to the article? The first principle asserts that "all errors which (a man) is likely to commit against advice and warning, are far outweighed by the evil of allowing others to constrain him ...
Today is the 62nd anniversary of the annihilation of of the city of Hiroshima by the first nuclear bomb, which was dropped on the city without warning at 0815 local time on the orders of United States President Truman.
This week's selection of the best in British blogging can be found grazing contentedly at Philobiblon.
Via Lynne Featherstone and Natalie Hayne’s article in the Times today about the teaching unions’ attempts to ban YouTube, I came across this press release on the BNP’s website: “Pork rain” complaints from pushy Muslims More evidence that Muslims haven’t settled in Britain to adopt to our ways, but instead continue to push their own agenda, comes after it was announced that Muslims have objected to plans to build a pet food factory on the grounds that it could rain down pork! Butchers Pet Care, who planned to build a factory in Coton Park near Rugby, now may have to ...
My RSS feed has beeen playing up so you may have missed these posts... Senedd Peter's plight Minneapolis / St Paul Holiday Inn Chessington Civic disengagement? Big Wild Read Hope you like the new page design too.
With all the curiosity around this man I've decided to do a bit of digging. What I've found has generally been pretty encouraging, the guy is definitely a liberal for one thing, he's also intelligent, open and from what I gather a pretty honest guy. Can he hack it as a politician? Well thats still a bit of an unknown. From what I've seen of him speaking he's no great orator (though to be fair I have only seen two short youtube clips of the man), although he's certainly able to take the punches of the far right on the ...
Ken, Boris or now Brian for Mayor. As someone running a charity that might go looking to the winner for support and money in the future, I can’t really have an opinion on their various merits. However, what is interesting is what these boys have in common rather than their differences. I first encountered Ken when he came wheezing and sneezing, suffering badly from hay fever to speak at Corpus Christi College, Oxford about twenty years ago. Then famous for a radical approach to equalities at the GLC, he was invited by my college JCR president, a young David Miliband ...
Well it is official. I am the Lib Dem candidate for the by-election in Loughton Alderton Ward on 30 August. The by-election was called after the disgraced BNP councillor stood down. There is a real opportunity to boot out the BNP and gain our first seat in Loughton so if you are able to help please contact me. There is plenty to do between now and polling day.
There's a good piece in today's Times about whether or not YouTube should be closed.
The Liberal Democrats have just kicked off a new transport policy making process. A consultation document will be produced ready for debate at the Spring 2008 conference, but you need not wait until then to start having your say. The first stages of the online consultation are already up and running over on the party’s [...]
The fridge in Cowley Street now has cow-style black spots. No-one seems to know why. Is it a gesture of solidarity with farmers (and animals) suffering Foot and Mouth disease? Did a Campaigns Department training session go horribly wrong? Did Banksy sneak in over the weekend to create guerilla art? The mystery goes on.
Changes to the way in which parking is managed in Warwick & Leamington start today and already there is confusion. Some residents have not yet received their permits and many of the on street parking ticket machines do not appear to be operating yet. Recently painted double yellow lines were obliterated last week when roads in Warwick were resurfaced. Why they did not wait until afterwards to paint the lines is anybodys guess. I have spoken to some of our Lib-Dem councillors who have told me that the parking wardens will be taking a soft approach early on as people ...
Very cosy. All in a government office, by the look of it.
Arwen Simpson! www.simpsonizeme.com
Further to Saturday's blog entry about this (see below!) you can now hand in any jewellery donations at the Tartan Coffee House, 53 Perth Road.
I’ve been meaning to post something for a couple of weeks about how pleased I was to discover that London is hosting an ‘India Now’ festival this summer. Starting with the somewhat bizarre spectacle of a replica of the Taj Mahal floating up the Thames to be photographed next to various famous London landmarks, it is now incorporating all sorts of activities including for example a three-week festival in Trafalgar Square, and a mela in Ealing, as well as lots of other things. I think it’s great and definitely plan to go to some of their events, probably the big ...
Richard Carter of Gruts has kindly drawn my attention to this splendid passage from an autobiographical sketch by Thomas Henry Huxley: {hux.gif} I was born about eight o’clock in the morning on the 4th of May, 1825, at Ealing, which was, at that time, as quiet a little country village as could be found within half a dozen miles of Hyde Park Corner. Now it is a suburb of London with, I believe, 30,000 inhabitants. My father was one of the masters in a large semi-public school which at one time had a high reputation. I am not aware that ...
Thursday: Today we got the report into the aftermath of the tragic shooting of Mr Jean-Charles de Menezes. If you remember, this was in the days after REAL terrorists had exploded fifty-two people on the London tube and on a bus, so the police were on high alert and probably a bit PANICKY when they mistook him for a threat and so shot him very, very dead. In anybody's book, this is a TRAGEDY. Another innocent victim in the War on Adjective, and doubly so because we are supposed to be the GOODIES. Well, I SAY in anybody's book, but ...
The link is to a story where the Ombudsman has judged that a council should pay compensation to a family that was investigated by Childrens Social Services. Note particularly: As well as recommending the apology and the £4,000 payout to the mother, the ombudsman said another £1,000 should go to one of her daughters for the distress she in particular was caused, Why when the system is supposed to
Baby Milk Action (more commonly known as the Nestle Boycott people - BMA) is a campaign I support and feel passionately about. Real Baby Milk (my company) is about promoting breastfeeding in a way that makes more women want to do it .... in many ways BMA is about preventing the promotion of artificial milks that make women want to artificially feed rather than breastfeed ... as you can see a fair amount of synergy. In this country, the government have refused to ban the outright promotion of artificial milks which would help mums make the right choice for their ...
From today’s edition of The Herald: Scottish Labour lost the May election because of infighting over control, a poorly thought out manifesto and the facts that the party had little momentum or a positive message … The Colwell memo states the campaign was “relentlessly negative with little that can be judged to be positive. “The national organisation was [...]
Tim Hames in The Times reveals that Boris Johnson "implied he was a supporter of the SDP" as part of a plan to reinvent himself after an election defeat in the 1980s at Oxford University. It worked - so perhaps Boris should thank the SDP for launching him on a political career in the first place? Hames also makes a fairly safe prediction: Boris is incapable of maintaining discipline until next
This caught my attention in The Times - Jeremy Clarkson thinks the Reva G-Wiz DC might help you save the planet "but you might lose your legs in the process" and: There’s another thing, too. Children playing in the street can hear a Range Rover coming and know to get out of the way. The G-Wiz, on the other hand, is near silent, which means they may run in front of you to retrieve a lost ball.
Well it is "William Wilberforce: The Life of the Great Anti-Slave Trade Campaigner" by William Hague, so they can be forgiven. Apparently, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" makes number three on the MPs' holiday reading list purely because of its popularity with LibDem MPs. The Independent remarks: It might be supposed that this has something to do with the resemblance between the Liberal
John Kampfner gives an interesting tour de l'horizon over at the Guardian. He basically says that Labour should look out most for Michael Ashcroft - not David Cameron. This is because, courtesy of the Ashcroft millions, the Tories have been quietly beavering away in marginal seats in England. Kampfner suggests the Tories' fortunes will improve in the autumn "when the final three reports from
Far be it from me to actually do something approaching real blogging, but you may like to check out this job advert posted yesterday by Anne Marie Morris, the theoretical challenger to Richard Younger-Ross in the constituency formerly known as Teignbridge. Of particular interest is this line; "The post is voluntary, although expenses will be paid ... so long as you don't turn up in a private jet
I was expecting the BBC’s new iPlayer to have launched by the time I returned from my hols, thus allowing me to catch up on Heroes. Instead, it would appear they have little more than a beta version (how long has this thing been in development? Certainly long enough to produce an omega version!), which the main BBC website doesn’t link to, but Google does, and that when I register to subscribe to, it doesn’t send me a confirmation email. And that’s ignoring the fact that it doesn’t run on Macs, or even Windows Vista. I find it truly extraordinary ...
I meant to blog about the Centre for Um discussion paper on demographic change by Alasdair Murray a couple of months ago, but I ended up getting distracted. As part of my general post-holiday catch-up, I thought I’d get my comments off my chest now, but as it was a while since I read the paper, I’m a little rusty. On specifics, I don’t quibble with a lot of what the paper is saying. It is surely correct to point out the problems of simplistically emphasising how the aging population will lead to more elderly dependents on the economy without ...
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