LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Friday 24th August 2007

Summer of British Film: Horror

The BBC's Summer of British Film moves on to horror next week - there is a full listing of the films on the season's website. Th0se films chosen display a broad interpretation of that genre. In what sense is Brazil a horror film? First, a warning. In Dr Who And The Daleks Roy Castle gives what has a strong claim to be the single worst acting performance in the history of British cinema. I know the Lib Dem blogosphere is swarming with Dr Who fans, but this has to be a low point of the whole oeuvre, doesn't it guys? ...

Reading in the mud

Pictures of festival goers wading around at Reading brings back memories of my first ever festival - 30 years ago this weekend, Reading '77. Headlined by the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Thin Lizzy and Uriah Heep. Wading in mud, this year's festival kids don't know they are born (and other Victor Meldrew rants) pictures and links to pictures here.

Lib Dem blogmeet in Brighton

Liberal Democrat Voice announces that there will be an informal meeting of Lib Dem bloggers during the party's Conference next month. It will take place at the Evening Star pub (near Brighton railway station) on the evening of Tuesday 18 September. We held a similar event there last year, and a good time was had by all.

WikiScanner

Making the news for the past week or two has been WikiScanner, a website that allows you to discover which organisations having been editing Wikipedia entries. As Slate reports today, it's been throwing up some interesting results. (This video will disappear on 22/09/2007 - blame Comedy Central) My favourite edit comes from my old friends the Scientologists, who edited Kurt Cobain's entry to

Everything that an action film should be - The Bourne Supremacy

I am not one to give film reviews, but after seeing two rather ropey second sequels this year (Pirates of the Caribbean and Shrek 3) this year and being badly let down, I have just seen the Bourne Supremacy and can honestly say it is the best film I have seen in a long, long time. Brilliant acting, superb direction, necessary violence but no gore, such a clever storyline, this film just cannot be faulted in any way. If you have not seen it, do so.

Yet Another Chinese Communist Human Rights Outrage

Jonathan Watts has reported today that Yuan Weijing was detained at Beijing Airport and her passport revoked when she attempted to travel to the Philippines to collect a human rights award on behalf of her husband, Prisoner of Conscience, Chen Guangcheng. Further information here. The report suggests that her mobile phone was also confiscated. I'm delighted to see that the British Embassy are on the case and are raising these cases of human rights activist and journalist harassment by local police and turning out to give moral support. The way this is all going sanctions of some kind are going ...

Off to sunny chester!

Well i'm away on another canal holiday this week so I'm afraid they'll be no more blogs for a while. au revoi!.atom.xml

OPINION: 3 Leaders back to back - and we lose. Badly.

This recess period is a good chance for Liberal Democrat members, those in other parties and the general public to view the presentations and speeches made recently by all three party leaders, back to back. BBC Parliament are showing Brown, Cameron and Campbell back-to-back as part of their rolling programme during the recess. This represents a [...]

Kowtowing to Beijing

In a striking blow against free speech, Yahoo and MSN have signed up to China's euphemistically named "Public Pledge of Self-Regulation and Professional Ethics for China Internet Industry". This agreement further tightens Chinese control over the domestic blogosphere, with signatory companies pledging to “encourage” real-name registration, and to “safeguard state and public interests” (i.e.

Comment is Free - Guardian - comments closed

The Guardian kindly invited me to write for their blog area which I did (it is linked). Because they couldn't moderate such a legally sensitive area over the weekend they have shut down comments. One by someone with a pseudonym "niceday99" is well informed and deserves a proper response - to the technical points made. As I understand it, you're basically suggesting that the adoption system of

Amnesty International Up the Pressure on Beijing

I had an e-mail today from Amnesty International highlighting their campaign to improve the human rights situation in China. Put simply, their campaign intends to hold the Beijing regime to the promises that were made in 2001. Amnesty have published a twelve point plan which can be downloaded here. The highlights of this plan are: 1. Putting in place measures to significantly reduce the use of the death penalty as steps towards full abolition of the death penalty in China (I think similar pressure should be brought to bear on the United States as well). 2. Take concrete steps to ...

LibDems Gain Seat from Conservatives in Tory Heartland

Election Results: Thursday 23rd August 2007. Suffolk CC, Thedwastre South LD Penny Otton 927 (41.8; +7.5), Con 833 (37.5; -9.4), Green 287 (12.9; +12.9), Lab 88 (4.0; -14.8), UKIP 85 (3.8; +3.8). Majority 94. Turnout 32.4%. LD gain from Con. Last fought 2005.

LibDemVoice Blog Meet

In association with LibDemBlogs we’re inviting bloggers to join us for a drink in Brighton. Place: Evening Star, 55/56 Surrey Street, Brighton, BN1 3PB Date: Tuesday, 7pm - late Everyone is welcome, even those who aren’t at conference. The pub is a short walk from the conference centre and very close to the railway station. View Larger Map

Back to zero tolerance?

Daily Mail-type paranoia seems to be something of a theme this week, with David Cameron's ill-judged assaults on the Human Rights Act and on British youth in general featuring prominently. The Conservative leader tried to use the deportation of Learco Chindamo to make a case for scrapping the Human Rights Act - but as the Economist pointed out ('A flawed fight-back'), his reasoning was pretty dubious:The right to a family life guaranteed by Article 8 of the act was indeed interpreted in Mr Chindamo's favour (his mother and siblings are in Britain, where he has lived since he was six). ...

Free Blog Advertising

Matt Wardman of The Wardman Wire is playing about with a WordPress plugin to display adverts on his site. So for testing purposes, he’s after 468×60 pixel banner ads of people’s blogs. It doesn’t matter how small or new your blog is, Matt is willing to promote you. For more info, plus a competition to [...]

Devil's Advocate

Just before I left for my break I left a post pointing out that the Tories were trying to condemn a treaty that they were highly unlikely to have even read. I felt that this sold the whole idea of "Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition" down the river, since they had simply opposed without even thinking. Chris at Devil's Kitchen then had a good old go at me - as is his want, and why people read him- in words of one syllable and four letters, for having the temerity to, even tentatively, support the idea that a reform treaty of ...

In Defence of the "PC Brigade"

On the Jeremy Vine programme yesterday (which should really carry a health warning for liberals), they were discussing recent statistics showing an increase in the number of people leaving the UK to settle abroad. One listener emailed to say that he left because, inter alia, no-one takes responsibility for their actions, there are too many "do-gooders" and the "PC brigade" makes life difficult. It struck me that his reasons contradicted each other somewhat. The "do-gooders" are precisely the people who do take responsibility, both for their own actions and for the state of society in general. Moreover, the "PC brigade" ...

European selections: candidates named, hustings listed, forum open

English Party members eligible to vote in the European selections for the 2009 European Parliament elections are being emailed today by Jonathan Davies, the Senior Returning Officer, with three key website links: List of candidates and their contact details on the main Liberal Democrat website List of hustings events on Flock Together Link to online hustings (The Scottish and [...]

Labour MP sponsors motion praising herself

The title from Jonathan Wallace’s blog piece about Labour MP Sharon Hodgson pretty much sums it up.

The Norman Lamb scammer just won't go away

Being on holiday gives me an enormous amount of time to scan my stats and see just who is looking at my blog. So I was interested today to see that the Norman Lamb scammer is still trolling through my blog, and no doubt the blog of many others, to see just what is being said about him. The scammer has been hunting through my blog tagging system under the search term "Norman Lamb", and is checking up on further comments to the stories already published about the scam they have organised. Considering the Eastern Daily Press reported yesterday that ...

Wales is not being singled out by the BBC

Adam Price, following the lead set by the Scottish Nationalists (how often has that been said of Plaid!), has achieved some cheap publicity by accusing the BBC of ignoring stories from this nation. However, Mr Price and Mr Salmond are wrong to see a nationalistic bias on the part of BBC. The English regions are ignored just as thoroughly. Witness the uneven treatment given to the reporting of the floods in Yorkshire and in southern counties. News coverage varies indirectly with the distance from London. Nor is BBC Wales immune from this metropolitan bias. The south-east corner of Wales seems ...

Recycling and refuse again

Last Friday I mentioned West End recycling and refuse issues (click on headline above to view) and here's a couple of updates: Firstly, with regard to the possibility of siting one of the mini-recycling units for the Abbotsford/Corso area adjacent to the commercial units in Peddie Street, I am pleased to have been informed by the City Council that the private landowner has agreed to this. The City Council will now progress with consultation letters regarding the other two proposed sites to get residents' feedback. Secondly, last Friday, I mentioned the "second phase" of the wheeled bin refuse extension in ...

Labour MP sponsors motion praising herself

I stumbled across this whilst looking for something else but I feel I must share it! This line is from Commons Early Day Motion 1386 which attacks the customer complaints procedure of EasyJet. The motion includes the gem "welcomes efforts by the hon. Member for Gateshead East and Washington West to ensure that the rights of online consumers are incorporated in the Consumer, Estate Agents and

Election Results: Thursday 23rd August 2007.

Suffolk CC, Thedwastre South LD Penny Otton 927 (41.8; +7.5), Con 833 (37.5; -9.4), Green 287 (12.9; +12.9), Lab 88 (4.0; -14.8), UKIP 85 (3.8; +3.8). Majority 94. Turnout 32.4%. LD gain from Con. Last fought 2005

The Health Statistics for this week

Top health statistics for this week; 1) Scottish women have the lowest survival rate from cancer of any group in Western Europe. 2) Cancer survival rates amongst the general population are are on a par with poorer parts or Eastern Europe. 3) British stroke victims have also the lowest recovery rate of any nation in Western Europe. 4) £80million has been paid out to health bosses in the wake of reorganisations in the NHS. 5) Alan Johnson, the former "favourite" to be Labour Deputy leader and currently Health minister backs plans to close four maternity units in Greater Manchester. I ...

Celebrity Big Brother Axed - What will all the Z list stars do now ?

Channel Four has axed the next series of Celebrity Big Brother which had been scheduled for the start of 2008. So where will Z list celebrities and bigots go now ? I guess there will be more of them on I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here !

Are computer games really the problem ?

Keith Vaz, as some regular readers of this blog will know, is not my favourite politician. He seems to be the very model of a publicity seeking vain political who is quick to tell us what is going wrong but short on any ideas that offer solutions other than banging on about things that appeal to the Daily Mail readership, but actually, in truth offer no real solution. Witness also that these words apply to David Cameron. A few months ago Keith Vaz achieved his weekly 15 minutes of fame by claiming that computer games are behind today's street violence ...

George Orwell and CCTV in drug addicts' homes

The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment.How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug ...

Indulging my Van-ity

A musical treat for the weekend, a live performance of Van Morrison’s Bright Side of the Road. This song was used on the adverts put together by UNESCO for Press Freedom Day in 2004. I was hoping to link to the brilliant and insightful feature I wrote for the student newspaper Exeposé on the occasion of Press Freedom Day 2004 (incidentally, my 21st birthday) but it seems that it was so good it had to be removed from the internet. So you’ll just have to imagine an enthusiastic but rather self-satisfied student hack rant about censorship instead!

No Celebrity Big Brother next year

Could this be the first sign of a rebirth of civilisation? The Guardian reports: Channel 4 will not screen Celebrity Big Brother next year, as part of a major programming shake-up designed to refresh the network and reaffirm its public service broadcasting credentials.

A ray of sunshine

The sun is shining at long last, summer is starting to come good and to top it all they have cancelled Celebrity Big Brother. Can it get any better? I doubt it. Something must be due to go wrong soon.

Why I am switching to back Charles Kennedy to win

Charles Kennedy has put together a fantastic case to win. I was initially seduced by Des Lynham and his Seven Sisters cliffs in Sussex. But, hey, they are chocolate-boxey and sentimental. They are falling apart anyway. Hadrian's Wall? Come off it. A couple of thousand years old. And don't even get me started on Blackpool Tower and Mr Cheap-as-Chips. No. When you look around this kingdom of

Cameron's empty talk on family values exposed

I blogged back in May about the case of Pauleen Lane, who was banned from breast-feeding in her official limousine while Mayor of Trafford. I am delighted tosay that Ms Lane has won her case and £7,000 in damages and an estimated £170,000 in legal costs. During the case, the QC for Conservative controlled council told the court that Ms Lane should have expressed milk or left her child in the

EU ends ban on UK exports

Some good news regarding Foot and Mouth. The European Union has lifted the ban on exports of British livestock, meat and dairy products imposed after the outbreak.

A face of evil

Reading this week's coverage of the decision to allow the murderer of Head teacher Philip Lawrence, Learco Chimdano to remain in the UK takes me back. In September 1996 I was a journalism intern at the Telegraph in Canary Wharf, and was dispatched for a day to the Old Bailey to take notes on the Philip Lawrence trial. What I remember most vividly about the experience was looking down from the press gallery at the face of the accused. Although only 15 at the time the dead-eyed expression of cold sociopathic indifference to the events around him was chilling. It ...

U.S. officials rethink hopes for Iraq democracy

I've been expecting this story to appear on the BBC for a few days now, I first read it on the CNN website and if true could mark a pretty fundemental shift in US policy on Iraq: Nightmarish political realities in Baghdad are prompting American officials to curb their vision for democracy in Iraq. Instead, the officials now say they are willing to settle for a government that functions and can bring security. Continuing violence -- like this Baghdad blast from May -- is causing a rethink of U.S. goals, generals say. A workable democratic and sovereign government in Iraq ...

The Americans kill more British soldiers

Yet another case of US forces bombing their so called allies, this time in Afghanistan, results in three British soldiers being killed and two seriously injured. Thanks goodness the Americans are on our side. They are on our side, aren't they ?

Labour’s Language Lunacy

For the third year running, the numbers of British schoolchildren taking French and German at GCSE has fallen — 8% in the case of French, and 10% in the case of German. John Dunford, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, says employers must bear a substantial responsibility for this. ‘Unless they send out a much stronger message to young people that languages are important in the job market, GCSE numbers will continue to be low and British industry will continue to struggle in the global market.’ This is, of course, true. But the Labour government deserves to shoulder ...

If you were born in the 80s?

According to the BBC, in response to the SNP 100 days' document: 'The Liberal Democrats accused the nationalists of "one of the biggest spin operations since Torvill and Dean".' Why are we once again campaigning as if it it were the 1980s??! I thought we'd managed to escape that after the bizarre 'where's the beef?' incident(s). Even if it was still the 80s this still wouldn't be a particularly catchy analogy. If anybody's listening please, please get some 21st century people into our press rooms!

CCTV in addicts’ homes?

I nearly fell off my chair while listening to Five Live a few minutes ago. The reason? A Scottish ‘drug expert’ has recommended putting CCTV in the homes of drug addicts to protect their children. Where do I begin? Take the drug-addict problem. A common side effect of drug addiction is extreme confusion and paranoia. How does a drug addict have any hope of rehabilitation when their every move is being monitored? Recent figures suggest there are up to 160,000 children in Scotland living with an alcoholic or drug-addicted parent. Let’s take that as 80,000 homes. How many CCTV cameras ...

Rumble under Redcar - was it an earthquake?

People have been phoning BBC Tees after feeling an earth shaking rumble in Redcar today. Glynis thinks it might have been a jet flying over but I think it was the postman dropping letters to the editor of the Evening Gazette from the Labour leader of Redcar & Cleveland Council.

Amy Winehouse - what a mess

Taken from *gulp* The Sun: “BLOOD-SOAKED and battered, AMY WINEHOUSE shows the terrifying extent of her meltdown after an incredible dawn bust-up with junkie hubby BLAKE FIELD-CIVIL.”Our shocking pictures reveal the pair’s cuts from their brawl — while the blood on Amy’s ballet shoes is evidence of her habit of injecting heroin between her TOES” Drugs. Don’t do it kids.

A Climate Conference?

Just been flicking through the Fringe Guide for the Autumn Liberal Democrat conference, and one thing stood out: Climate Change. So I’ve now created a nice Google Spreadsheet to help those pick which of the 47 climate related fringes they might want to attend! Note, I may have missed some, titles aren’t always that clear, and other might not exactly be about climate change.

How not to respond to a planning objection

You are concerned about a planning application in your road. You decide to send an email to the Chair and Vice Chair of the Planning Committee, outlining your objections. You turn on delivery and read receipts on your email so you can be sure your objections have got through. You send the email. You get an automated response back [...]

Q(ue) Club reopening night revealed

Thanks to BrumBlog:

Kneejerk reactions to youth violence aren’t helpful

The standard kneejerk response to concerns about young people and crime seems to be: “There’s not enough for young people to do.” I heard it again on the Today programme yesterday as a local councillor reacted to the latest teenage shooting tragedy. As the Director of a charity in South London that, amongst other activities, provides Things For Young People To Do, we would often benefit from that reaction. As youth crime hits the media, the call goes out for more funding for youth workers to provide distraction or diversionary activities. Whilst my staff and charities finances might benefit I’m ...

Lord Bonkers' Diary: Friday

The week continues: FridayTo Southall for a day’s campaigning in the by-election. I meet a group of jolly Sikhs who, despite sporting Labour rosettes, are all decent chaps in their own way; I am grateful for the chance to practise my kitchen Punjabi. I know it is the height of bad manners to say that these fellows all look the same, but after luncheon I could have sworn I saw the same group all wearing Conservative rosettes. I return to the nerve centre of the Liberal Democrat campaign to find our people cheered by the publication of a photograph of ...

Today's Face the Facts on Radio 4 12.30pm

BBC Times Times Comment Guardian PA Story Face the facts today at 12.30pm has some new material including a whistleblower who has been a senior social worker and confirms in essence that the thesis I have argued is true. On the back of this PA sent out a news story which has gone verbatim into about 30 local papers such as The Lancashire Evening Post I did an embargoed press release as well The

The conundrum of Blog site statistics

One day I might succomb, but so far I have resisted blogging (i.e posting) about my specific site statistics (although I have a little thing that gives my alleged "total visitors" in my sidebar). They are very low anyway, but I get the odd blip. "Top Gear North Pole special", "Simone Clarke BNP ballet dancer", "the late Fiona Jones" and "Diana - witness in the tunnel" have had people hovering

Oxford deserves better than unholy alliance of naive council and rent-seeking landowners

Depending on what side of a fractious political divide in Oxfordshire you sit, news that the South East Regional Plan as amended by Whitehall will next week recommend a review of Oxford's Green Belt and the development of 20% more new housing over the next twenty years than proposed at Oxfordshire Structure Plan level will be seen as victory or worst case scenario. Whilst some, such as City Council leader John Goddard quoted in the linked Oxford Mail article, point out that we are looking at developing just 1% of Oxford's Green Belt, the true story is that the total ...

The truth about the Labour economic miracle

The Independent headline today shows us exactly how Gordon Brown maaged his economic miracle. It's called putting it on credit cards. The thing I have always learnt though is that if you put it on credit cards, eventually you have to pay back a lot more than you borrowed.

Barack Obama on the daily show

My favourite living politician on my favourite political show, not bad ehh. Both Obama and Stewart also had quite a few good points to say so its certainly an interesting watch. enjoy.atom.xml

Get JW on Facebook reaches 100

Well, the target has been reached. I promised I would go on to Facebook if 100 people signed up to the Get JW on Facebook Group, set up by Dave Hennigan from Rochdale, and my recent colleague on the Sedgefield campaign. With a bit of help from the New Stateman, the group's growth has rudely brought me back to the commitment I made. So some time during Friday I will have to set up a site. Unless

My piece for the Community Newsletter

A few local issues to mention. First of all, I went on a inspection tour of the public areas in Badger Farm with a couple of City Council officers during July. It was a useful opportunity to look at some of the most overgrown areas and to agree action to get them sorted. Most of the planted areas in Badger Farm are owned by the County Council and are "looked after" by the County's Highways

Must see American satire about the Middle East

Many thanks to All Along The Watchtower for linking to this hilarious but oh so cutting commentary on the Middle East and America's role there.

Day 2425: Daddy on the Radio

Wednesday: This morning, just as we were settling down on my sofa to watch the PG Wodehouse Playhouse, half-a-dozen strange men wearing FEDORAS and TRENCH COATS burst in, bundled Daddy Alex into a SACK, retuned my digital telly to Channel Radio Five Live and DISAPPEARED! Before I could UNFLABBER my GHAST, Mr Simon Mayonnaise was on the radio announcing that Daddy Alex was to be his next guest! It turns out that that CHARMING CHAP Mr the Don Liberali has taken over the Liberal Democrats Press Office… or as he calls it the Press GANG Office… and "volunteered" my Daddy ...

The budget of the EU : how is your money spent?

I know UKIP (and most of the press) never let the facts get in the way of their anti-European prejudices. But here are some of those crucial facts. Including how very little the EU actually spends, as a share of our total, collective income - 1% in fact. Not to mention that the EU Commission actually employs FEWER people than Essex County Council. See it all at The budget of the EU : how is your

Day 2424: Scores on the Doors

Tuesday: If you remember my special diary for the Liberal Democrat Voice, I said that it would be a good idea to keep an eye out for the quarterly statements from the Electoral Commission. Well, now they are in, and on the whole they look a little more promising for Mr Frown, but probably not enough for him to call an EXPENSIVE election, unless he has some secret source of funding ready to spring into service. The Labour got most from donors with about £5 million received. The Conservatories, however, got more actual money because in addition to their £4.6 ...

Baywatch in Birmingham

A link to a Baywatch in Birmingham video below.

Friday 24th August 2007

Previous days:

Archives

Search for...

Adverts

Buttons

LibDem Blog Box

Contributors

Campaigns

From the BBC...

Backlinks...

From the LibDems...

From the Independent...

From Politics.co.uk...

From the Guardian...

Adverts