LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Monday 27th August 2007

Double standards from Iain Dale

According to Stephen Tall, putting Iain's name in the heading is one of the ways to ensure people read your posting. So there it is. In his Diary, Iain complains by implication that the supermarkets are using their buying power unfairly to press down on British farmers. There may well be something in that: I think I heard Andrew George (Lib Dem MP for St Ives) arguing just the same case on the radio this morning. But what really interests me here is the Tories' double standards. For years they have preached the virtues of the free market and told ...

Big Branson is watching you

In Brass Eye Chris Morris once persuaded Rhodes Boyson to support his cashback scheme. Under it, rather than spend money imprisoning them, the government would give young criminals the cash directly so they could go off and do something useful. As this may well be Home Office policy by now, I should point out that it was meant as satire. In order to persuade Boyson to accept the scheme, Morris (in the guise of interviewer David Compression) suggested the following: DC: "Do you think perhaps enlisting somebody like Richard Branson to sell the cashback scheme... _might_ just work, might just ...

The Guardian has validated my lifestyle choice!

An interesting article in the Guardian today about the revival of boardgames. There is however something a little amiss in this story, in that it seems to assume that the health of a hobby is based on how well Britain is doing at an international level, rather than how many people are simply playing. It also has a preoccupation with ‘traditional’ boardgames. Although it recognises the Euro-game movement in general, and Settlers of Catan specifically, it seems to measure ’success’ by the popularity of games that granny would have known. Let’s be clear: a lot of ‘traditional’ games such as ...

A missed opportunity for European leadership

The fires in Greece, the cradle of European civilisation, are clearly streching the capacities of the Greek authorities. To extinguish massive forest fires needs as many hoses and helicopters as possible. But I have neither heard nor read a single report of any European leader declaring that we shall bear any burden and meet any hardship to support our friends in this time of need. The UK doesn’t have a huge surplus of helicopters (as troops in Afghanistan know too well) but there must be material help we can give and we should do so. We should do so because it’s morally right to save lives, homes, and forests. ...

Out and about

Last Wednesday evening a group of Dodington Parish Councillors took our summer minibus ride round the parish to make sure that we all know what we're talking about (well, hopefully) We hired the minibus from Yate, Sodbury and District Community Transport - a group that the Parish Council has supported for many years. (Many thanks for an excellent trip!) These are some of the sites we looked at, together with a brief update on several of the "hot potato" issues: Sea Stores - The government has put it up for sale, and is awaiting bids. When someone buys it we ...

But committed no crime

Liberal Legend II draws my attention to the case of Yuan Weijing, 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. Had she committed a crime? Well, no, but that matters not to the One Party State that has embraced a capitalist economy (hooray)

Arson as terrorism?

It seems to me an odd contention that the terrible fires in Greece may be regarded as terrorism. Terrorism is the use or threat of violence to spread terror among civilians to achieve political aims. Even if this is (as suggested) a wicked scheme to turn protected forests into land that can be developed that doesn’t seem to me to amount to terrorism. If it’s just mindless vandalism then it certainly isn’t. There is an obvious danger in classifying more and more types of crime as terrorism: the application of emergency “terror laws” will become the norm rather than a special ...

John Prescott quits as MP

It's not really very surprising news, but at the age of 69, after 37 years as an MP, John Prescott is retiring at the next general election, whenever that turns out to be. There have been a lot of things said about John Prescott, but I've got no reason to believe he was anything other than a good MP when it came to his constituency. He's made a big contribution to British politics through his role in the Blair government and the Blair-Brown relationship - whether you think it was a good one or not, it was certainly significant.

Feeling a bit bloated? (Annoying adverts #1956)

No, actually. And I have never felt "bloated". Also, I have never seen anyone pathetically rubbing their stomach and heard them whining like a incontinent beached-whale: "I'm feeling a bit bloated". If people don't want to feel "bloated" they should stop eating too much food, particularly yogurt.

The gardens at Bonkers Hall

Some literary theorists have tentatively identified Nevill Holt in Leicestershire as the model for Bonkers Hall. Their suggestion appears more securely based when one reads a description of the gardens at Nevill Holt: The first garden has elaborate iron gates with a stone crest, a medieval font and lead griffins. This leads through to the second area, a 2,500 square metre vegetable garden with peach and apricot houses as well as an extensive potager. Look at gardens The third, an Italianate garden, has well stocked herbaceous borders and a classical portico overlooking a pool.You have to admit Meadowcroft is doing ...

Fresh blood for Transylvania

The Ludlow & Tenbury Wells Advertiser reports that a dozen young workers are being recruited to go out to Transylvania to help restore an ancient building. I think we all know what is really going on here.

Guardian logs anger in the Tory ranks over Ashcroft paralell HQ

Yesterday I blogged about Lord Ashcroft causing a potential rift in the Conservative party by setting up a parallel campaign HQ. Today, The Guardian features some of the reaction on Conservative Home to this development. It is worth wallowing in a bit: Fears about the rise of Lord Ashcroft were expressed by activists on the Conservative Home website this weekend.One said: "The Ashcroft takeover

Isle of Mull takes an unusual interest in 20th Century French Literature

Over the years, I have written a rather embarrassingly large number of letters to the editors of newspapers. To date, I was most proud of the letter I had published in the Suva Times in Fiji. But now I have chalked up another letter to a local paper in (for me) an impressively far-flung place: The Oban Times. Here is what I wrote: Dear Editor Firstly may I congratulate Oban, Isle of Mull and

Islington Bank Holiday

{duchess-of-kent.jpg} On Bank Holiday Monday, normal people take their kids to Alton Towers, watch a match, go to the beach or just flop around at home. But LibDem activists deliver! In fact, Islington LibDems held an action day today that pulled in such a good group of people that we polished off the whole of Holloway Ward in the morning and those who had both the time and the energy to continue in the afternoon went out surveying. In between there was a very pleasant sit-down lunch at the Duchess of Kent gastropub on the corner of Liverpool Road and Ellington Street. One ...

Opinion: This is what the Welsh Liberal Democrats are for

In a major new pamphlet, published in full here on Lib Dem Voice, Peter Black, Welsh Assembly member for South Wales West, sets out the challenges and opportunities for the Liberal Democrats in Wales. The challenge The outcome of the 2007 Assembly elections was both frustrating and disappointing for the Welsh Liberal Democrats. Despite increasing our vote [...]

Hello Conservatives?

Ah, it’s started up again By which I mean comments appearing on this site which have all the following in common: First time comment from someone Minimal name information given Person uses “us” or similar phrases to talk about the Liberal Democrats Person says the party is heading for disaster, eats babies and doesn’t know how to make [...]

He’s gone!!!

…Well nearly anyway. Alberto Gonzales, the Attorney General (AG) of the United States, has finally resigned, with this taking effect on September 17th 2007. His resignation has been called for, for months by members of both political parties, due to the dismissal of 7 U.S. Attorneys in 2006 (which is perfectly legal, but highly unusual), and his replacements for these positions that did not, because of their jobs, need to be approved by the US senate. This was seen as a political move to have conservative leaning people representation the administration across the country in federal cases and it was ...

Angelic upstart, icon or rip off? A return to the Angel of the North

The Angel of the North has been in place for 9 years. Some describe it as being like a crashed airplane whilst others describe it as an icon. I have however decided to write this post about it because a week ago a survey of visitors to tourist attractions rated the Angel as the 2nd most disappointing sight. It was beaten, oddly enough, by Stonehenge, for the slot of most disappointing

Guardian - 8 years behind

Dear Guardian editor, Today you had a Liberal Democrat logo on your front page. Please note that the logo you used was replaced 8 years ago by a fatter design. You are not alone in making this mistake. the Scotsman kept making this mistake in May, and I have seen it in other papers. I would have thought you would have deleted the out of date ones from your system by now, and only had the "new"

Doctor Who meets Doctor Death

Rooting around in the attic, I have discovered one of the lesser-known educational books for children from the 1980s. It was never going to sell as many copies as Doctor Who Discovers Early Man and Doctor Who Discovers Prehistoric Animals, but it remains highly sought after by fans. {Doctor Who discovers Social Democrats}

Causes of crime

A book I read earlier this summer was Patrick Hamilton’s “Hangover Square”- a dark-humoured novel about people in their mid-twenties in London who drink a lot and occassionally visit Brighton. The main charcter, George, is ludicrously obsessed with a manipulative girl, Netta, and decides that the only way to overcome his unrequited fixation is to kill her. In real life, inability to deal with “relationship issues” is a cause of crime alongside drugs and alcohol. I have prosecuted and defended in a number of cases where normally law abiding men and women can’t handle something like the end of a relationship and commit a nasty ...

Derelict garages on the Mercator Estate

I'm at a loss to understand why Lewisham Council has allowed the derelict garages behind Freshfield Close on the Mercator Estate to get into the appalling state shown by the photos which I took on Saturday 25 August (follow link to view).

Job centre recruiting for prostitutes ?

Hat tip to Ordovicius for this rather stunning story about how a Job Centre is placing adverts for "Escorts - £100 an hour". The Daily Post reports that "An advert on the government-run Jobcentre Plus website seeks men and women to “provide clients with a personal escort service in an unsupervised environment.” But a website for the firm which placed the vacancy ad makes clear the services on offer are somewhat less innocent. One girl, Samantha, charges £150 an hour or £950 for an overnight job, and offers “no-strings adult fun, men only”.The decision to place the adverts was last ...

Top Lib Dem blogger’s £27k donations to party

The South Wales Evening Post has highlighted Lib Dem Welsh Assembly Member (and top Lib Dem blogger) Peter Black’s generosity to party funds in the last four years - totalling an impressive £27,000, which Peter has used to fund his election campaigns: … the Cwmbwrla ward member on Swansea Council laughed off any suggestions that he [...]

Contact me right now for help with campaigning

I’m on the shortlist to replace Emma Nicholson MEP and it’s important that I meet as many Liberal Democrats in the South East as possible to let you see whether I am up to the job. I also love campaigning so if you’re doing some canvassing, or whatever it may be, please contact me right now so I can give you some time. Email me on antony@antonyhook.com

Half-price buses for people on income support, tube still extortionate

The Mayor of London has launched a half-price bus and tram travel scheme for people on income support - so if you're eligible, then make sure you make the most of it. It means that with an Oyster card you will get a bus journey for 50p. Cynics might point out that it's yet another push to get everyone onto identity, ooops, sorry, Oyster cards, whether they want one or not. They might wonder how many of those eligible will actually take up the offer or if it's just a very cheap way of getting publicity for Ken ahead of ...

What they deserve

Some people were recently surprised when I told them that the Court of Appeal has approved sentences of 7 or 8 years for people who bludgeon to death an unfaithful spouse (provided it’s on the spur of the moment and it’s their own unfaithful spouse). The logical extension of Conservative obsession with state support for marriage would be to argue that unfaithful people get what they deserve and the sentence should be a £50 fine or something. When I was a history student we had that old chestnut about Left and Right eventually becoming the same thing at their extremes. There is a similar structural relationship between Conservativism and ...

Get loaded in the Park 2007

Started a good bank holiday weekend with some drinks after work on Friday, then Saturday night went to the Backyard Comedy Club in Bethnal Green. I've been a few times, always a good laugh, and if you sign up to their mailing list they're pretty good at sending you out free tickets. Yesterday was Loaded on Clapham Common, had a great day. Well, I got stung by a wasp, it was way too hot and the whole place smelled like someone had tipped 5000 gallons of sour milk onto the grass before it started. But all those were just minor ...

Equality in Money Laundering

About a month ago the Government published the Money Laundering Regulations 2007, which come into force in December. They implement a European Directive (2005/60/EC if you’re interested) and legislation of the same effect has or is being implemented in the other Member States. The regulations impose obligations on pretty much anyone professionally dealing with lots of money (accountants to estate agents to casino operators) to criminal money being put through their business (the aim of it being hidden). The regs define what amounts to proper due diligence. I would not be surprised if some complain about the burden of extra red tape and ...

Iain Dale says Ming must stay but others say go now after Cameron fails to lure Lib Dem defector despite selection abuses leading to bad opinion polls

I see top spot will be mine in next week's Lib Dem Voice "Top of the blogs" golden dozen, at least if Stephen Tall is correct.

Ethical investment angst

Took time off from my holiday, during which I am trying to leave my brain idling in neutral, to complete a questionnaire (sent annually, I am told, by an investment manager to a random 3,000 investors in its "Ethical" fund) about my investment priorities. The questions were difficult. For example: is the climate change issue my top priority, or only one of my top three, or not even in the top three? (Answer after much angst but, after recalling all I have seen and read about this, especially Al Gore's film, unhesitatingly: my top priority.) Am I against all investment ...

Why Ming must go!

Gibraltar added to European Arrest Warrant’s domain

As of this month, Lord West (the admiral who is now a Home Office Minister) has made The Rock a Category 1 territory for the purposes of the Extradition Act 2003. This means that European Arrest Warrants now have force between Gibraltar and Britain. Anyone in Gibraltar wanted by our authorities or vice versa can be extradited (or “transferred” to use the word of Part 1 of the Act) very easily, as already between EU states. There is no requirement for the requesting state to show evidence of guilt. The only way to successfully resist an EAW is either to show some defect ...

How The Silly Season Works, Apparently…

Loathe as I am to “work” on a bank holiday, I feel duty bound to respond to today’s Western Mail advert against nuclear power, as noted by Peter Black. I’m required to call it that, because on closer reading we discover that this “news story” is actually just a press release from the Welsh Anti-Nuclear Alliance that the Mail has printed essentially verbatim because it’s that time of year.

Six mile walk to hospital for deaf and blind person

The Council recently sent us some information about patient transport at North Middlesex Hospital - they have changed the way that they assess whether transport should be provided for patients or not.Their basic aim is to reduce costs by not providing patient transport for people who are walking, under 65 and live with six miles of the hospital. Six miles would be quite a long way to walk to a hospital appointment... but anyway, so long as those who really need the transport get it, that seems reasonable enough to me.However, looking at their points system for assessing entitlement, there ...

Up Front on 18 Doughty Street

On Wednesday on was a panellist on Up Front, internet TV station 18 Doughty Street’s daily half-hour news discussion show. It was my first time on the programme - having previously been on other Doughty Street shows - and my first time on with Conservative presenter Donal Blaney. You can watch it in the 18DS archive here.

More blogging lists, and the ultimate Lib Dem Golden Dozen headline

Even in the three weeks I was away, the lust for lists continued unabated: James Graham, over at the essential-reading Quaequam Blog!, has been totting up which Lib Dem bloggers appear most regularly in Lib Dem Voice’s top-of-the-blogs Golden Dozen feature (I came second) - to which I shall return; and my fellow Oxford city councillor Richard Huzzey (who has, frankly, done too good a job of

Forget the plague of slugs, there is a much bigger problem than that !

Newspapers, website and TV and Radio have been making much in the last week of the so called "plague of slugs and snails" sweeping across the country in the wake of all the recent wet weather. And yes, they might be correct. However, there is something much worse than that abroad, and I am not on about the dreadful moss that has infested my lawn too.; Spiders. Absolutely bloody great big giant spiders. I hate spiders. I loathe them, detest them, fear them, in fact, you could say I dislike spiders as much as I dislike Green party activists. And ...

Stop shouting

Hopefully a new line of code in the LibDemBlogs script should stop shouty headlines. So this is a test.

Born free?

Over at Antonia Bance's blog she's got a piece on what we can do to help prevent any more Rhys Jones type horrors. One thing stands out for me. She says: I don’t believe that anyone is born a criminal (one of the reasons why I’m on the left) I'm not sure that follows. The other day I was having a dicsussion on another forum with someone whose personal political hero was, he said, Peter Hichens. I don't think that people at that end of the spectrum would ever believe that people are born criminal either. Where they would differ ...

BritBlog Roundup 132

We interrupt your Bank Holiday with news that this week's Roundup has those no-good Redemption Blues. It is a terrific piece of work by the Chameleon. When I do the Roundup all you get his subheadings and a few off-comments.

What price citizenship?

I feeling very inspired today. This morning listen to speech by our Capo for Criminal Affairs Nick "BabyDon" Clegg. "Friends, the United Territories is a nation of immigrants. We draw our strength through diversity and unity through common decency. So I say give us your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, and let us charge them a reasonable fixed fee for citizenship. No criminals or illiterates, we charge them double." It great scheme. Anyone who can't pay, come for brief stint of work for the Family in passport-printing works until they pay-off debt. We then get ...

Day 2427: And the Sky Full of Stars

Friday: I have been using the new GOOGLE SKY (just like the ordinary sky, except your BRAIN-WAVES are automatically recorded for Google’s marketing department) to try and spot the Starship Voyager 2! Here is the view of SPACE above my flat! Watch the Skies! {Posted by Picasa} (Strictly speaking, it is the view at six o’clock in the evening.) If you look up there you can see the bright blue star of VEGA in the constellation of LYRA. Well somewhere between there and the constellation of HERCULES, that is where you will find Voyager 2, hurtling ahead of us into ...

Lib Dem peer attacks Lord Offshore Ashcroft

‘Ashcroft’s hold on party raises fears of Tory rift’ shouts the Telegraph headline, re-reporting the (month-old) news that top Tory peer, Michael Ashcroft, is directing and funding the party’s key seats strategy: Tory concerns at the growing influence of Lord Ashcroft have been heightened by a memo to candidates from the billionaire peer instructing them on [...]

Terror firma

I would apologise for my three-week absence from this gaff, but I would be knowingly perjuring myself. I had worried that such a long time away from my laptop would provoke cold-turkey withdrawal symptoms; that I might awake in the night sweating with fear that I had deprived the world of my essential thoughts on gun crime, NHS closures and the latest shenanigans from the goldfish bowl of

Day 2426: American President Rouses Veterans: “Let’s finish what we started… in Vietnam!”

Thursday: Is anyone else getting just a bit BORED with gung-ho right-wingers from America bad-mouthing our British Troops in Basra? Accusing our forces of having “failed” and of “running away”… it not very POLITE to the one country that was DUMB enough to stick with as you got yourselves into this mess, now is it? And it is DOUBLE IMPOLITE when we are only doing, in handing control back to the Iraqi people, what you said the plan was SUPPOSED to be! If you do not WANT us as your allies, just say so! I am sure that our troops ...

What should be done about illegal immigrants in the UK?

Nick Clegg and Simon Hughes had an article in Liberator magazine recently outlining the policy proposals they will be putting to the party’s autumn conference. That article is online, and there is also a flavour of the plans in today’s Independent: Up to 600,000 illegal immigrants should be given the right to “earn” full citizenship, the [...]

Apart From That, Did You Enjoy The Play Mrs Lincoln?

Not a good weekend. My dad died after a short illness. It was just 7 weeks from diagnosis for lung cancer to passing away in the local hospice. Sorting out his affairs and funer...

Three cheers for Mrs Sarkozy

Cecilia Sarkozy, the wife of the French President, has been back in the news over her involvement in the release by Libya of the Bulgarian nurses it was holding. There have been calls for her to testify before a Parliamentary inquiry into the affair. But the coverage has reminded me of her so-called gaffe at the [...]

Tories Cry Wolf over Warwick Hospital Again.

Well it looks like the Tories are crying wolf again over Warwick Hospital. Having been caught out last December making claims that were simply not true. They have included Warwick in their recent list of hospital’s that may be at risk. (The same list the prompted an apology and then a retraction in Kings Lynn) Of course the Hospital is one of the most important assets our community has and if I felt it was under threat I would be out there with the Tories campaigning to preserve it along with most of the town. I visited the Hospital last ...

attacks in Ladywell Fields

Thought I'd publicise the following message which I've received about recent attacks in Ladywell Fields: There has been a spate of attacks in the middle and south fields of Ladywell Park , so far 7 have been recorded and all have been on women and different times of the day, motivated by money but using some force. The police have advised they are looking for a man who is black aged 18-22, slim build, 5 foot 8 to 5 foot 11. He has worn a grey top, a grey striped hoodie and been dressed all in black. Anyone seeing someone matching ...

So when is Easter then?

Next year a lot of people are going to be surprised to find that Easter does not fall in the school holidays. How could that happen? Well, for many years attempts by the Government to rationalise the school holidays have met with failure. So three years ago the London boroughs decided to work together to make it happen. Education was in my portfolio then and I supported the changes on...

Two Jags to stand down

It's not exactly a surprise, but John Prescott is to step down as an MP at the next election. As has been written about elsewhere, he has already had his leaving reception in his constituency, which indicates a probable early election, so this statement opens the way for the quick selection of a new labour candidate before a probable October poll. Like him or loathe him, Prescott is certainly a character and to rise to the position of deputy PM from being a humble seaman is no mean achievement. Certainly his rather bullying and every so confident handling of PMQ's ...

Love a sense of humour

Comedy, satire and taking the p*** out of ourselves and our government is a the heart of island life - even the Battle of Flowers Float Builders have been getting in on the act. I hadn’t noticed this at the time but I’ve just found this photo of one of the floats. {Battle of Flowers 2007} Normally the tractors pulling the smaller floats are decorated with a few flowers tied to the colour scheme of the float it’s pulling - this one went full out with a flying banana and the words ‘Life Enriching‘ down the side. I’m sure Jersey ...

Working with the LGA

Earlier this year, I was elected by my fellow councillors across the country to represent them at the Local Government Association (LGA). Specifically, I am now a member of the LGA's Culture, Tourism and Sport board. The LGA is a politically balanced organisation, with each political party allocated places throughout the structure in proportion to the number of people their councillors represent. Across England, Scotland and Wales the Liberal Democrats have over 4,400 councilors. Consequently, our Group at the LGA plays a major role in the organisation. We are the persistent defenders of local democracy, arguing that what a local ...

Crap summer?

Everybody seems to be going on how this summer has just been crap, and for those who are still living in temporary accommodation after the flood it must be, however: In June, Heather and I got married and had perfect weather all day. Our honeymoon in Sorrento was in the 30’s everyday. We went to Kew Gardens, where it was lovely except for a small thunderstorm. Heather sang at Bury St Edmunds, St Edmundsbury Cathedral where I sat in the sun for hours and had a great time at the Greene King Brewery. We took Sasha and Rhys to Whipsnade ...

The nuclear question

This morning's Western Mail raises the question of just how affordable is nuclear power. Those campaigning against wind farms often raise the issue of public subsidy to support their case that these turbines are unsightly and unsustainable. As the paper points out however, British Energy was bailed out with £5 billion of public money in 2002. Nuclear power is only sustainable at all if the taxpayer picks up the tab for the decommissioning process once the power stations reach the end of their useful life. The Government is hoping that the new generation of nuclear power stations can be built ...

The tragedy of continuing bloodshed of British troops in Iraq

For once, I feel I am on the same side as Christopher Hitchens. In the Observer he listed the reasons why Vietnam can't be used as a parallel in the context of Iraq. I just can't believe George Bush would bring the Vietnam comparison into the Iraq equation. What he said was: One unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens

Matt Lucas and David Walliams get '£2 million a year from BBC to do very little'

Pendennis in the Observer suggests that the Little Britain duo are being paid something like £2 million a year to do very little for "quite some time". Oh, that's all right then. It's only licence payers money and they are soooooooooooooooo talented aren't they? It's worth paying them all that to keep them off ITV or Sky and preserve them for the 'national broadcaster', isn't it? No, I thought

Bus Timetables

Following the update I did in July regarding the Stagecoach Strathtay bus services that run through the West End (click on headline above to view), the bus company has kindly sent me updated timetables for the various services it runs through the West End. If you’d like me to send you copies, please e-mail me at buses@frasermacpherson.org.uk or come along to the September West End Community Council meeting (Logie St John’s Cross Church Hall, 7pm, Tuesday 11th September) where copies will be available. Timetables include : Tayway Service 13 : Monifieth to Ninewells Hospital via Hawkhill and Perth Road Tayway ...

Tommy and the Weeks

No time to write more than to say: Tommy and the Weeks, 4.30pm, Pleasance Courtyard, final show is today (Monday). If you’re in Edinburgh, do go along. I went along yesterday and it was very funny. I’ll explain later.

Monday 27th August 2007

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