LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Sunday 9th September 2007

Pimms - a gateway drug?

image63 Originally uploaded by acme Yep. It has no alcohol until the bottom of the bottle. Hic! It's sweet and tasty. You could give it to a child in place of cough mixture. Definitely a gateway drug. Why are they allowed to sell it by the litre? No wonder they advertise it using prisoners! If you're conscientious you should even manage one of your daily portions of fruit or veg in every glass. But for me, I figured that frozen sweetcorn just wouldn't be nice in it so didn't boher!

BritBlog Roundup 134

Over at Liberty and Learning (two things of which this blog thoroughly approves).

Ming interviews very well

I do not think I have ever read or heard a bad interview with Ming. This latest interview with The Times is pretty good. The following emerge from it well: 1. He pays little attention to spin issues (the discarded media advice ‘accidently’ left around for the reporters to see); 2. Politics is a near life-long interest, but it’s not all that consumes him; 3. He is a real liberal and gives an example of a liberal attitude with which most voters (but not Conservative activists) would concur (ref. his comments on women’s ability to make life choices); 4. He is genuinely courteous ...

Missing the Boat

Now I’m doing more blogging, I’ve found myself thinking about some of the things I missed in those months while illness and a certain amount of indolence were intervening. There were two new Prime Ministers – one a scary, warmongering, manipulator who tolerates no opposition and wreaks a terrible vengeance on his enemies, and the other in truth the Master. Doctor Who was outstanding (and, in related news, I briefly became a model). Fabulously and astoundingly, the Traveling Wilburys topped the album charts. And one Lib Dem blog post in particular wound me up, so here’s an incredibly late reply… ...

More bad news on the London Olympics

On Thursday night I picked up a copy of Writers' News at my writing group. The lead story runs: Writers and arts organisations are protesting against proposals to slash Arts Council funding to help fund the 2012 Olympics.Although hosting the event is undoubtedly a coup for the UK, an underestimation of the Games' eventual cost has led to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's decision to use National Lottery funds to plug the spending shortfall. As a result it has been proposed that the Arts Council England's Grants for the Arts budget be slashed by 35 per cent. This means that ...

Sunday 9 September BBQ and Islamic Exhibition

Heritage Week - Islamic and Holly Quran Exhibition I was very interested to attend the Kingston Mosque and find out more about the Islamic faith during the Heritage week display on the Holy Quran. For more information please see this site http://www.kingstonmosque.org.uk/ Tolworth Communtity Gardening Club Summer Barbeque The...

Roderic Bowen

Roderic Bowen, who was Liberal MP for Cardigan between 1945 and 1964, died in 2001. His Independent obituary recalls a nice anecdote: Bowen displayed great wit in private and was much admired as an after-dinner speaker. Lord Hooson, a former leader of the Liberal Party in Wales, recounts a tale about the first visit the then Lord Chief Justice Parker made to Wales in the 1970s. Bowen remarked to the distinguished guest: "You are about to meet a Welsh jury for the first time. Beware. Welsh juries are against sin - but not dogmatically so."

Selection News: Elwyn Watkins to fight Oldham East

Rochdale Councillor Elwyn Watkins has been selected to fight Oldham East and Saddleworth for the Lib Dems. Elwyn, 43 beat off 4 other candidates and has now promised to hit Labour hard. Elwyn, a financial analyst for a Sheikh in the Middle East said, “I am obviously delighted that local members have shown their [...]

Tories, "green taxes" and the "poor"

Over at ConservativeHome they're spinning the line that "Green Taxes" such as those that might be recommended by the Gummer-Goldssmith review might hit the poorest hardest: Green action mustn't punish the poor. Green taxation - like the congestion charge and VAT on domestic flights - can fall most heavily on the poorest. {Zac Goldsmith - image courtesy of BBC} Zac Goldsmith: Green taxes must not appear to be the rich telling the poor what they cannot have! According to our figures I think they need to look either at who would be most affected, or who they are calling ...

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries

From the BBC website: Knights, cardinals and bearded ladies have been swarming round the grounds of Doune Castle as fans marked the third annual Monty Python Day.Built by Robert Stewart in the 14th Century, the keep appeared as Castle Anthrax in the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Since then, thousands of devout fans have made their way to the castle, outside Stirling.

Another day, another two Tory policy review blunders

You’d have thought that by now that someone in the Conservative Party might have learnt to check their policy review documents carefully before printing them. I mean, how embarrassing is it to publish a document that points four different contradictory ways on the same policy, be caught out using ten years old data or propose a new [...]

Golwg goes for another golden duck

It is noticeable that whereas the Western Mail spent much of the summer relying extensively on Golwg to fill its pages, the Welsh Language magazine itself has been turning to the internet. Whilst journalists on the newspaper were ringing up to ask for an advance copy of Adam Price's column, Golwg's gossip columnist was scouring blogs for material. The outcome of this little fishing expedition was that a month ago they discovered that I was undertaking the long trip north for the National Eisteddfod, put two and two together and got five. To be precise they speculated that I had ...

Leeds United make it to zero points in shortest possible time

The biggest crowd in the Football League this season saw United make it five out of five and wipe out the 15 point penalty in the shortest possible time. One goal in each half from the dynamic duo, Tresor Kandol and Jermaine Beckford, was enough to see off Hartlepool. Leeds best start to a season since 1973 means that many teams in League One are still close enough to catch within a very short period of time. It is Bristol Rovers away next Friday and a win there could actually see United off the bottom, at least for one day. ...

It doesn't happen very often

Three English teams, winning in a single day has to be worth acknowledging. So well done to the football, cricket and rugby teams, who all won important competitive matches on Saturday.

The certainty of faith?

Simon Hoggart is a marvellous journalist. His parliamentary sketches are hilarious. His Saturday diary is absorbing. However, the latter output does tend to display a rather waspish side to the fellow. One might even use the word "snobbish", but one would obviously be shot down in flames immediately - good grief, the man writes for what was the "Manchester Guardian", after all! There is nothing

Brazil tipped to win Rugby World Cup

A survey reported in the Guardian reveals the UK's...er....interesting grasp of Rugby's essentials. Fewer than a quarter surveyed knew how many players make up a rugby team. 10% thought a "hooker" is a woman who sleeps with rugby players. But my favourite finding is that a significant number surveyed predicted this year's Rugby World Cup title would go to Brazil. Interestingly, Brazil have

£120 grant to pregnant mothers is daft

The government are floating the idea of giving pregnant mothers a £120 grant when they are seven months pregnant in order to but healthy food. The problem is that this will be open to everyone, so millionaires Will also get the money, and the government will have no control over whether the money is spent on healthy food or cigarettes and alcohol. Perhaps it might pay for some drugs, who knows, least of all the government. So what is the point in it ? if we had received £120 when my wife was seven months pregnant, we would not have ...

Two fatal flaws in the Tory quality of lfe proposals....and counting

Jock Coats was up late last night and spotted a Tory bloomer within their Quality of Life commission report. That is that outlawing stand-by functionality on TVs has already been announced by the government...thirteen months ago. Iain Dale, bless him, has now spotted another fatal flow in one of the proposals: I've just watched Zak Goldsmith's interview with Andrew Marr (HERE). His Quality of

Campaigning in the Abbey by-election

Today I was back over in Abbey Ward in Nuneaton campaigning ahead of the by-election that will take place on 20 September. I was canvassing in an area not too far from where I was last week. I thought the response was better this week and there was certainly movement towards us with former Labour supporters saying they were planning to switch this time.

Back from Conference and latest updates ...

We've been away for the past few days running my Institute's Scottish Conference (day job) which seemed to go very well. Was pleased to note on return that the "To Let" sign at the roundabout on Riverside Avenue (just west of the Marmalade Pot) has now been repaired by its owners, Ryden (see above right). I had contacted Ryden's Dundee office recently following complaints by residents that the sign was damaged and swaying in the wind. Noted with some hilarity that the Norfolk Blogger (AKA - Nich Starling) has given me a mention in his "Top 50 LibDem blogs" (you ...

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #29

Welcome to the 29th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (2nd - 9th September), together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed. Without further ado: 1. Am I too ‘right wing’ for the Lib Dems? on Tristan Mills’ Liberty Alone A [...]

I think I need to eat more rice

Anthony Hook's excellent blog has brought up the issue of Ann Widdecombe becoming the first MP that he can think of that has endorsed a product, for payment. The fact remains though to me that anything Ann Widdecombe supports is usually on my long list of things to dislike. Now that she is endorsing pasta, I think I need to eat more rice.

Becoming A Refugee....

There's a new entry on the Baghdad Burning blog. For those who haven't seen it before, "Baghdad Burning" isn't updated very often, but gives a fairly stark account of life in the Iraqi capital. Or at least it used to. In the previous entry - back in April - the author advised that she and her family had decided to leave Iraq. It's only now that there's a new entry that tells how they left: ...

The true enemies of reason

I saw Richard Dawkin’s two-part documentary The Enemies of Reason a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been meaning to add a note of criticism here. It’s not that I disagree with his assessment that people such as spirit mediums and alternative health gurus are not antithetical to enlightenment values; far from it. My problem is that the programme lacked analysis about why such movements have grown in popularity over the past forty years. Take homeopathy for instance, and the fact that the NHS now ploughs millions of taxpayers pounds into clinics such as the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital. How ...

Ten years; a life changing decision

This month it will be ten years since I made a decision that would change my life. I joined a political party for the first time. Naturally it was the Liberal Democrats. Why naturally? Well I had been brought up in a Scottish non-conformist family all of whom had always, at least as far as I can remember of family discussions, voted Liberal. At least in my grandparents' day the Conservatives in Scotland were the party of the Kirk and the middle classes and Labour the party that the Papist working class were told to vote for by their bishops. ...

Sunday

Well, I managed to send the Carnival off in the right direction, and in roughly the right order, bringing an end to a busy week. Not an entirely successful week, not the result we wanted with the Railway Club and I got savaged in devilskitchen.co.uk, but we live to fight on for the Club and if you can't take a bit of criticism, you shouldn't be in politics. On the bright side the PPC planning meeting went well. Terrye is proving to be a hard working and determined PPC and is gathering a good team. We're ready for the election, ...

Two to challenge Mike German as head of Welsh Lib Dems in Welsh Assembly

It is being reported that Eleanor Burnham is likely to join Peter Black in challenging Mike German as leader of the Welsh Lib Dems. in the National Assembly of Wales. I don't know Mike German, I've never met him and can not therefore speak about his personal qualities. However, on TV I have always found him likeable but also a little too comfortable and a bit too agreeable. For me he seems to lack a an edge that I want to see from a leader. Perhaps this is just the view of someone living in Norfolk and if I loved ...

Introducing Antony Hook…

Antony Hook asked me to give his new blog a plug a few weeks ago, and I forgot. In the intervening time however I’ve found I increasingly look forward to his posts. His style is refreshing, doing what blogging does best: looking around current affairs and coming up with a unique and interesting take. So if you haven’t come across his blog yet, give him a go. Share This

Praise for the Tories - Who says I am not "fair" or "open minded" ?

Well done to the Tories for proposing something from one of their policy groups that is sensible, achievable, and isn't all about trying to give well of people tax cuts. The Tories have proposed getting rid of the functionality that allows your TV to sit in your living room on "standby", with it often using as much as 60% of the electricity it would use even if it were turned on. It seems crazy that standby can not be got rid of completely. I saw on BBC2's Dragon's Den last year two people who had invented a simple device that ...

Great policy Ming - now let’s campaign on it! (UPDATE)

Over at Our Kingdom I’ve given my view of the new Lib Dem policy paper on British governance. Broadly I think its great; but then I did have a hand in writing much of it! That isn’t the whole story though - predictably I have an amendment to propose. Watch this space for more details. UPDATE: I’ve now posted an article about my proposed amendment on Lib Dem Voice, and have set up the obligatory accompanying Facebook group. Please sign up! Share This

Free showing of 'An Inconvenient Truth

Lewisham Council is sponsoring a free showing of Al Gore's documentary ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, for Lewisham borough residents. The aim of the screening is to increase awareness and understanding of climate change, and, hopefully, to motivate each of us to do our bit to reduce our own carbon footprint. There will be a number of stalls on hand in the foyer from 7pm giving information, practical advice and giveaways about recycling, energy and transport. The free showing is at the Broadway Theatre in Catford, on Thursday 20 September at 8pm. Places are limited, so book early to avoid disappointment by ...

Photo opportunities at conference

Speaking with my political communications unit hat on, we are holding 4 photo ops at conference for candidates and campaigners. They will be held in the West Bar, next to the Internet Cafe, in the Brighton Centre as follows: Sunday 16th September: 3.30pm-4.30pm Norman Lamb - Dentists’ Survey (have your photo taken with Norman and a giant tooth!) This photo will highlight the decay in the NHS

Widdecombe: bringing public office into disrepute

Ann Widdecombe has taken £5,000 to advertise pasta. Being paid to endorse a consumer product is something no sitting MP has done in memory, and possibly never. Clement Freud advertised dog food but it was before he was elected. Only politicians could think this was okay. One of the grave doubts people have about politicians is that they use public office as a platform to enrich themselves. I need not recite some of the many examples. This is a most blatant case. Ann Widdecombe would not be paid this money if she was not a well known public servant. Morally, the ...

McCann story: platitude parade does politics no credit

Critcising the media over the Madelaine McCann story is easy. But one expects a higher standard from somthing like Andrew Marr’s Sunday AM programme. Alas, he couldn’t resist asking the Home Secretary about it. The offensve thing is that it’s such a pointless exercise. What can a British politician sensibly tell us about a crime in Portugal, or indeed about any specific crime? All she could do was repeat platitudes about confidence in the police, sympathy in all the right places, etc. When there are so many important issues actually within the Home Secretary’s jurisdiction it was such a waste to ask her ...

Nazis arrested in Israel ?

I thought this was some sort of odd joke when I saw the headline, but apparently eight Nazis, all Israeli citizens who moved from Russia, which presumably means they themselves are Jewish, have been arrested in Israel. Having come from the former Soviet Union their knowledge might not equate with our own history of the Nazi's. In the Soviet Union there was an emphasis on teaching that the Nazis were anti Communist and that concentration camps were set up to kill Soviet Citizens. There was a tendency to devalue the holocaust as the Soviet Union itself had a long history ...

Algerian terror attacks - More innocent Muslims killed by Al-Quaeda

We are told by the press, by community workers, by politicians, that the rise in fundamentalism and support for Al-Quaeda in the UK is due to a feeling amongst Muslims who feel that Britain is anti Islamic. My personal view is that the UK allows more openess and freedoms to Muslim people that any state I can name in the whole of the Middle East. But if anyone is toying with the idea that Islamic terrorism is a way of setting Muslims free, then they should witness the latest Al-Quaeda terrorist attacks in Algeria which has seen more than 50 ...

Just how did the BBC contrive yesterday’s sport options?

Just as I was wondering how I was going to balance my cricket, rugby and football viewing yesterday afternoon (all scheduled to be on at 5pm), Collingwood and Pietersen started tonking the Indian attack all round the place so that the winning runs were scored at precisely one minute past 5. And then England’s performance against the USA in their opening game was so abject that the decision to concentrate on the football was an easy one. How did the BBC contrive this? On the matter of the Euro qualifiers last night, two results stood out for me: firstly Iceland ...

Will the TUC be a "yes" men to Gordon Brown on the EU Constitution ?

Radio Five this morning were having a pre conference chat with TUC officials and finished their chat with the thorny topic of the EU Constitution referendum. The presenter put it to the TUC official that two unions had submitted motions asking for the EU constitution referendum be debated and voted on. The response though from the TUC official was less than clear. She said it would very probably be debated. However, another speaker claimed that Gordon Brown had already put pressure on the TUC leadership to either : 1) Allow a deabte but have no vote. 2) Subsume the motion ...

Opinion: Time to listen to the people

Last week, the Liberal Democrats unveiled their latest policy paper on UK governance. As a member of the working group that drew up these proposals, I strongly endorse them. The paper covers a broad range of issues, from reforming the Commons itself, committing the party to developing a UK constitution (and spelling out [...]

Launch of Human Rights Watch report

Sunday 9th September 2007 - Sri Lanka is in the midst of a human rights crisis and has been the topic of extensive high-level discussions in Brussels this week. The ceasefire between the government and the armed secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) exists only in name. Since mid-2006, when major military operations resumed, civilians have paid a heavy price, both directly in the

By-elections are like buses...........

Sunday 9th September 2007 - By-elections appear to be like buses at the moment in the North West, coming along in threes!! There are currently contests for vacant seats being fought in Warbreck ward in Liverpool following the sad loss of Joan Lang as well as in Rossendale and Cheshire. This weekend I was able to find time to visit Rossendale and Liverpool (seen here with our candidate Ritchie

What the Welsh Liberal Democrats are for - revisited

While I was away I notice that Vaughan Roderick has commented on my pamphlet. Sanddef has very kindly translated the post here. Vaughan concludes that it is hard to see anything unique in my message and he is right. Originality was not one of the virtues that I have ever claimed for this pamphlet. In fact I published it with the express intent of starting debate by setting out very much where the Welsh Liberal Democrats stand at present both in terms of political position and policy. What is distinctive about the effort in my view is that it pulled ...

Money and celebrity will not make us happy - thanks for the advice Dave!

With the new policy launch, David Cameron is telling us that money and celebrity will not make us happy. Well, that's very easy to say when you are rich and famous like him, Cameron, and one of the main authors of the report, Zak Goldsmith. The Sindie reports: The proposals, to be published by David Cameron, are expected to urge people to pursue a "slower" lifestyle that may involve a cut in

Great Tory idea: bring back evacuees

After "bring back National Service", the Tories now seem to be suggesting "bring back evacuees". Victoria Cohen in the Observer highlights a gem of an idea which was contained in the launch of the recent Conservative public services review. Co-author Baroness Perry said: 'Discipline, achievement and standards are better in small schools than they are in big ones. So why can't we close the

Cameron chickening out of green air taxes - MIrror

The Sunday Mirror reports that "advisers to Mr Cameron believe they have now persuaded him to dump the plans for green air taxes". So his chickening out of one of the most necessary green policies, then. Sunday Times reports enticing green tax cut proposals from the Tories: The Conservatives are proposing to offer tax cuts worth thousands of pounds to householders who make homes more energy

Desperate Cameron contacted Eliasch 15 times to try to stop him defecting

So says the Sunday Telegraph: David Cameron made a series of desperate bids to persuade Johan Eliasch, the Conservative Party's former deputy treasurer, from signing up as an adviser to Gordon Brown. It was claimed that Mr Eliasch, a millionaire businessman, was contacted as many as 15 times by Mr Cameron as the Tory leader made a vain effort to dissuade him from defecting to the Prime Minister.

LDV: one year old today

It’s 12 months to the day since site creator, Rob Fenwick, uttered the immortal words: “Hi and welcome to Liberal Democrat Voice.” Since when LDV has gone from strength to strength, quickly establishing itself as the leading independent website for Lib Dem members and activists. To commemorate the occasion, Rob has kindly sent us an [...]

Tackling AIDS

In mad panic to try and finish off everything as I leave for South Africa tonight. I am going to look at AIDS projects there. Several companies who have many employees with AIDS are funding these projects, and three MPs are going to see how this aspect of international development really works on the ground. Needless to say, having perused my wardrobe - I don't think I will be suitably attired - but there ain’t no time to worry about that!

Supermarket rubbish

On a recent trip to Europe to visit an old school friend I accompanied her to the supermarket. The first thing that struck me on entering the store was the fruit and vegetable counter - not a single product wrapped in plastic, when my friend selected her vegetables she put them in bags she had brought with her. The drinks aisle had crates of drinks. Each bottle has a monetary value so...

Number 10: Good News Day (REVIEW)

I’ve just listened to the new Radio 4 drama Number 10, about which Peter Hyman wrote about in the Guardian on Friday. Spoilers below… (more…) Share This

Oops - standby for another Tory bloomer?

Today's Observer highlights a story about the Conservative's upcoming report on "Quality of Life" which includes measures to be outlined to "burnish their green credentials". Amongst the measures highlighted is that a future Tory government will ban the provision of "standby buttons" on things such as TVs: Ban the standby button, say Tories Conservatives target plasma TVs in radical report on how to tackle global warming Nicholas Watt, political editor Sunday September 9, 2007 The Observer Television sets and other domestic appliances will be fitted with special devices to switch off standby power as part of a radical plan to ...

30 man dance off

One for the Girl (who likes a bit of haka)

Tees Valley goes worldwide

Great anticipation today as the world came to Tees Valley, and one of the outposts of "Last Night at the Proms" was at Middlesbrough in the new space by the Mima Art Gallery and floodlit Town Hall. A "proper" picnic was packed with olives, salmon and strawberries, and we headed off with picnic rug and folding chair. I have wanted to go to a performance ever since I was a young girl, but by the...

How the last night of the Proms was ruined

{Last Night of the Proms panorama} If I’ve ever said or done anything unpleasant to you and you’ve thought “I’d like something nasty to happen to him… not fatal, just deeply unpleasant” then rejoice, your moment of schadenfreude is upon us! I love the Proms. Adore them. This year for the first year I was able to buy a season ticket, which meant this year, for the first year, I was able to attend the Last Night. I queued for ten hours to get my place ‘at the rail’ up in the Gallery. The difference between being at the rail ...

Sunday 9th September 2007

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