LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Monday 10th September 2007

Durham University 175th Anniversary

Had a great weekend up at a reunion in Durham - the university's 175th anniversary, as it happens. Although as the youngest college when I was there, Collingwood is not quite so old (about 35 years, as you ask). Has been followed up by a very hectic day at work (planning for our fringe meetings at all three party conferences) and an Overview and Scrutiny meeting this evening, which I'm not long in from. I will be posting a few comments about items at tonight's council meeting, but for now... For the bargain price of £89.50, we had all got ...

Voyeurism populi

I know practically nothing about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, something I have in common with the rest of Britain, in spite of and also because of the sick-makingly voyeuristic media coverage this case has attracted. Like the rest of Britain I plead guilty to having followed this case with a horrified, saddened and sometimes prurient fascination. I have moved between judging the

Is Nigella Lawson the smuggest woman in Britain ?

I watched "Nigella Express" tonight on BBC2. I won't watch it again. Her self congratulatory style, praising herself for every little she has, grinning after announcing every ingredient and her use of bizarre ingredients from her pantry that I have never even heard of, despite the fact that she thinks we all use them, was just too much. For one recipe she told us to use some Moroccan paste, which I had never heard of, she didn't tell us what this paste was similar too or what alternatives we could use if we do not happen to have a Moroccan ...

Holidaying in Basra?

If Gordon Brown is so happy with the security arrangements in Basra why doesn’t he take him and his family there unescorted?

Nhs it

Later this week the Health Select Committee's report into The Electronic Patient Record will be published. I can't say too much about the conclusions of the report but it was a fascinating inquiry and could have been a lot wider. During the course of the inquiry the committee members were keen to see a hospital system being used "in real time" and we had decided to visit Winchester. I won't bore

Hospital food and cleanliness

Visited Winchester Hospital today. The visit was prompted by a flurry of letters complaining about a number of aspects of their service. To be fair the hospital has been without a Chief Exec and a Trust Chair for some considerable time so this cannot have been helpful. Also to be fair, some of the problems have been acknowledged and are actively being dealt with. Actually the food was really

So was I a Christian Child?

Today's publication from the Government and numerous religious groups on faith schools boldly states that in 2001 there were 5,098,930 "christian children" in England's schools. That's a very precise figure for quite an amorphous concept. It got me wondering, in the eyes of DCFS was I a "christian child"? Now from the rest of the document it is clear that when they talk about christian children

The real place for Birmingham’s best new bands

And that place isn’t Birmingham City Council’s B1 fiasco. The Birmingham Post has covered this embarrassing initiative well, as has The Stirrer. What Birmingham City Council should’ve done is given Chris Downing a call. Chris is the man behind Brumcast, an excellent weekly podcast packed with music from local acts (iTunes users click here to find out more and subscribe) Brumcast features music from established local bands such as Murdoch and the Mexicolas, but also from complete unknowns. It also spans genres, ranging from punk and metal to ska and dub. Whatever your taste in music, I guarantee you will ...

Big Duncan Day 4: you decide

It's day 4 in the Big Duncan conference house. The task is drinking. But which who will win? You decide. Will it be the approved candidates reception - sponsored by Tesco. A couple of free glasses of wine and some nibbles to sell my soul to Tesco, possibly Britain's least socially responsible supermarket. Or will it be the Lib Dem bloggers drinks at the Evening Star. Where I will have to buy my

Replace Warner with Warner - an enticing prospect for US Democrats

Mark Warner is a lamentably under-utilised resource in the American Democrat party. Until recently, he was Governor of Virginia (he stood down due to term limits). He is a politician who connects extremely well with rural Americans and, most crucially, comes from the South, in a party which desperately needs southerners at its helm for demographic reasons, if nothing else. I had a tenner on him

Petition against “THEpUBLIC”

There still seems to be silence on the future of The Public project in West Bromwich. For those unaware of the project, check out this Guardian article from last year. The latest development is a petition to the Prime Minister asking for guarantees that no more taxpayers money will be pumped into the project.

Big Yate Park & Ride to be cancelled?

The Evening Post reports that the new Conservative administration on South Glos Council has decided to cancel the Park & Ride project at Nibley. They want to have smaller sites at Falfield, Almondsbury, Yate, Cribbs Causeway, Emersons Green and elsewhere. When the Nibley site was first suggested, there was a proposal to put in a smaller Park & Ride first - but it was rejected because the demand would have overwhelmed it. Who wants a Park & Ride you can't park at? After the first couple of times you wouldn't bother, you would just drive past. It's not likely to ...

Yate cinema site floated

The owners of Yate Shopping Centre have said they've checked out the overflow car park area, and it's not likely to flood - so it could be a site for a new cinema. They've asked the Environment Agency to confirm their findings. Let's hope they're right - the risk of flooding was one reason they didn't want to build the new health centre there. A spokesman for the shopping centre owners said work could start on the cinema next year, but they won't submit a planning application until they're certain about the flooding. See the full Evening Post story here. ...

I Met Boris Today

He came in to 18 Doughty Street for a half-hour interview with Iain Dale (airing tomorrow at 9pm). And now for my Cheshire Cat grin and him:

Frenchay Hospital - maybe some progress

This is the short version - you can read the full story on Steve Webb's blog. First the bad news - we tried to get the Parliamentary Ombudsman to investigate the way they decided to downgrade Frenchay Hospital - but she's decided she can't because nobody has "suffered injustice" yet. And by the time they have, the hospital will be closed and it'll be too late. And now the GOOD NEWS (maybe) - The new Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, has said in the Commons “…I will, as a matter of course, ask the Independent Reconfiguration Panel - our expert clinical ...

The chilling clarity (and silence) of John Bolton, US Neocon

If you missed it, it's worth listening to the interview with John Bolton, former (unconfirmed) US Ambassador to the UN, on Radio Four's PM tonight (it's about 15 minutes in). George Bush is forever banging on about spreading democracy across the world. Indeed, one of his retirement plans is to set up a "Freedom Centre", to encourage international democracy. It is remarkable that George Bush's

Why calling for UK population controls misses the point

Madeline Bunting purports to be thinking the unthinkable in her Guardian column this week, calling for the UK to consider population controls. Indeed, I made a similar point when reviewing the Centre for Um’s recent pamphlet on demographics. Sadly though, I must add my name to the members of the blogosphere who think she must be tad confused. The most fundamental point which she seems to miss is that, leaving aside immigration, indigenous European population growth is rising extremely slowly. It is hard to see what sort of policy you could adopt in a liberal democracy that could slow it ...

Another new blog

I wouldn’t normally add a brand new empty blog to my blogroll, but judging by the first post, LiberAll has could have some potential. Having looked through LiberAll’s blogroll, I’m pretty sure I know who’s behind it. Time will tell!

Does John Bercow stand a candle in hell's chance of standing again for the Conservatives?

I wouldn't bet on it. Conservative Home today reports speculation over the deselection of Bercow and Patrick Mercer, his fellow Tory Brown adviser. That follows a Daily Mail article talking about "Grassroots fury" at the two. Conservative Home reckon that pressure on the two is not massive, particularly in Bercow's case. But, we have already had Iain Dale having to hold his swear words about

Brian Paddick for mayor?

I can’t help but feel sorry for the other two people going for the Lib Dem nomination for Mayor of London, as Brian Paddick is always going to be the star attraction and I’d be astonished if he doesn’t get selected. I was going to reserve judgement on him until I had read more about his platform and heard him at conference, but having read Alex Wilcock’s excellent and informative posting about him I am pretty convinced already. I wouldn’t say that I always agree with Alex, because I don’t. But he is one of the best people I know ...

Child Of A Dentist

Today I learned, O Waly, Waly, that Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) was the child of a dentist. Britten celebrated his fiftieth birthday on the same day that both Aldous Huxley and C S Lewis died, which - as all students of such matters are vibrantly aware - was the date of the assassination of President John F Kennedy. Incidentally, not long before his death, the spookily tall and almost blind Huxley answered the doorbell of his California home to a young vacuum cleaner salesman named Don Van Vliet, soon to be better known as Captain Beefheart. It would be fitting if ...

Faith schools ought to be funded by the government

With the document ‘Faith in the System’, the Government is moving to support more faith schools, in particular for ‘under-represented religious groups. As reported by the BBC: "The government recognises that, in relation to the overall size of their populations, there are relatively few faith school places in the maintained sector available to Muslim, Sikh and Hindu children compared to the

School meals - can they be good?

I read last week's blog entries on school meals with interest. Knowing that school meals have been slated so much in the press I was really pleased when the councils contractor providing meals decided to leave the contract early. A new supplier had to be found - hopefully a better supplier. Of course being in opposition means I was unable to take the decision as to which firm were employed but I...

Internet People

A tribute to internet people down the ages:

Kick in the teeth for public sector workers from Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown delivered his first speech to the TUC conference today as Prime Minister, and taking advantage of the generosity shown to "new" leaders, decided to give a further kick in the teeth to public sector workers by justifying that their pay rises were "part of the fight against inflation". What Gordon Brown never accepts is that 2.5% for prison officers or teachers over 18 months equates to an annual pay rise of 1.9%. This is lower than inflation, meaning that, in effect, these people take a pay cut "in real terms". Under Gordon Brown the public sector pay review ...

Shall We Send Ken to Cairo?

{cairo.jpg} I can think of nowhere that needs the congestion charge so much as Cairo. The city centre is in almost permanent deadlock during daylight hours and both the noise from horns and the fumes from exhausts are overwhelming. Crossing the road is a skill not for fainthearted pedestrians. At the current rate of growth the whole city will grind to a halt before too long. So, should we send Ken off to the Egyptian capital, along with his C-zone? Of course, the Egyptian capital would need to improve its public transport system, increasing substantially its tube lines and quadrupling the buses. ...

Opinion: Nuclear? Not now!

Imagine, for a moment, that the terrifying secrets of nuclear fission did not wait until the wartime dash for knowledge under Robert Oppenheimer. Let’s imagine, instead, that the basis for nuclear energy was developed closer to Einstein’s breakthrough, maybe just before the Great Depression. Ask yourself, what would the Chamberlain government have done with [...]

Calling all would-be novelists

If all the Atonement activity in Redcar has inspired you to have a go at writing your own historical novel, then Redcar and Cleveland Council's Library Service has just the thing for you. Author Wendy Robertson will be running a half day writing workhop called "The Historical Imagination" at Redcar Library on Saturday, September 15. Tickets cost £5 and include tea and a biscuit. For more information contact Sandra Reddie on 0191 222 1332

Disturbia

Yesterday Grace and I went to a preview of Disturbia in Leicester Square for our wedding anniversary. Basically Rear Window, meets US teen flick, meets a touch of horror... More edge of seat hair raising suspense. (No Mr Hornsby, I think it would be too much in parts for the future Mrs H).

Labour point both ways in Rochdale

Labour’s Rochdale candidate - Simon Danczuk - has just done a leaflet opposing the idea of fortnightly weekly rubbish collections. He thinks it is a “crazy idea”. Only one slight problem. Can you guess the connection between the man who is his election agent and the man who was leader of the council when the decision [...]

Missing children

For the UK as a whole, over 77,000 children go missing every year. Latest on the barrage of stories about Madeleine McCann, is the steady flow now of indignation at the press coverage. I have wondered all along why it has had quite so much coverage. Though clear factors is the exposure the parents have courted, the fact they are middle class British parents in a foreign land, the fact that it can

Burgess Park Shooting

Disturbed to read today of a shooting in Burgess Park this weekend. One of the strong factors emerging from the Burgess Park survey that we have been conducting is that many people do not feel safe in the park, particularly after dark. This story will no doubt make the level of fear grow justifiably. Our office is in the middle of the park and the man murdered was one year older than me. This is all getting a little too close for comfort for my liking. I worry a little about the safety of my brilliant team here. As the ...

Lib Dems hold first hustings for London Mayor candidate in…

…Brighton. Now that’s what I call lateral thinking.

Making history - but gambling with local communities

We made history in Winchester this morning. The City Council's Licensing Sub-Committee heard the very first application anywhere in the country to licence a new betting shop under the Gambling Act 2005. The first, because the Act only came into effect on 1st September and, boy, does this Act stink! The Labour government loves gambling, hopefully less now under Gordon Brown, but it certainly

Liberal? It's all in the mind err... brain!

Research by psychologist David Amodio found that a specific region of the brain's cortex is more sensitive in people who consider themselves liberals than in self-declared conservatives. As reported in the Chicago Tribune: The brain region in question helps people shift gears when their usual response would be inappropriate, supporting the notion that liberals are more flexible in their thinking

Liberal Democrats launching consultation on party's Europe policy

Europe will feature prominently in the Liberal Democrat conference next week. Among the many highlights of a conference that will debate climate change, terrorism, the Millennium Development Goals, human rights, civil liberties and the Israel/Palestine issue, the Europe working group will be launching a consultation paper to review the party's EU policy ahead of the Autumn 2008 conference.

A fusty nut with no kernel - Shakespeare authorship and political myths

Oh Good Night! Another round of the so-called controversy (see this Observer report) about who wrote the plays of Shakespeare. Looking at these weird argumenst may however help us to understand why some current controveries carry on the way they do. It seems that just about anybody alive at the time and a few who were not are candidates for the authorship. Francis Bacon. The Earl of Derby. The Earl of Oxford. Queen Elizabeth the First. Christopher Marlow (from his grave). A secret committee organised by the Queen’s chief spymaster Burghley to spread pro-protestant propaganda. A secret committee organised by ...

A Message to News Outlets

To all those news outlets running wall-to-wall coverage of the Madeleine McCann stories (Sky have just interrupted Brown's TUC speech to show a press conference by McCann's great uncle that reveals precisely fuck-all): WE DON'T FUCKING CARE RUN SOME REAL NEWS LEAVE THE POOR SODS ALONE

Big Bad News, and Little Good News

I received a very disturbing email today from a resident, who told me that he had been subject to a serious assault in Prestwich recently, and that despite reporting the incident, the perpetrator is still roaming the Village. I have to confess that the email upset me. First of all I was upset the anyone could do that to another person, and live in the kind of moral vacuum that apparently exists there. What type of skewed moral plain do some people live on, how have they come to get there, and how can we get them back? But I ...

Two Neighbourhood meetings

Oops! Between us we have managed to plan two Neighbourhood meetings at the same time and at the same venue on Thursday - so plenty of scope for confusion there. The Police Safer Neighbourhoods teams for Chessington South and for Chessington North & Hook will have their open meeting this Thursday at 7pm in the Kings Centre. This is your regular opportunity to hear about crime...

Why can’t the BBC get anything right?

Is it too much to ask for the BBC to get anything right? Take this quote for example: [Chamali] Fernando is a barrister from Finchley, who says he plans to put forward issues, ask tough questions and campaign across London. He wants to present Liberal Democracy “as the tonic for Londoners from all walks of life”. What is wrong with this picture? Well, as a quick google or even, radical I know, glance at the Lib Dem website will tell you, Chamali is a woman. But it gets worse because, while the Guardian has a reader’s editor, the BBC doesn’t ...

Ken Bates in talks with Freddie Shepherd

Leeds United Chairman, Ken Bates, has had preliminary talks with former Magpies supremo Freddie Shepherd but denies press speculation that Freddie is about to launch a take-over bid.

Come on Dave, get Gideon to tell us which taxes you'll cut...

ConservativeHome highlights a speech at the LSE in which (despite what I assume to be an error in the first sentence) Cameron today says that whilst they will want to increase environmental behaviour modifying taxes, they will want to use this to cut taxes elsewhere. Of course they already know that the Lib Dems have specific and costed taxation proposals that use green taxes to cut four pence off the basic rate of income tax and take many low income earners out of income tax completely. We also have a long standing commitment to replace the Council Tax (though of ...

London Mayor shortlist published

The Liberal Democrats have just announced their shortlist for London Mayor. The final choice will be made by party members in London in a postal ballot. The people are: Chamali Fernando Fiyaz Mughal Brian Paddick More details, including hustings, over at the party’s website.

Avoiding the Papers

I find myself with too many books and too little time to read them these days. Part of the problem is that it is too tempting to pick up a newspaper for my daily commute rather than use the time for a longer read. But this week I have no urge to buy a newspaper at all, as long as they are full of the McCann story. I’m sure I’m not alone in finding the endless speculation in the media awful and depressing. We are drawn in to treating it like a murder mystery story which is tempting (I’m not ...

Vindication for Ming on Iraq - Brown is exposed as Bush's Poodle 2

I have blogged fairly regularly about Ming Campbell's strong and authoritative interventions on Iraq, which have often been backed up by his conversations with army commanders on the ground. Last month, Ming was asking why British soldiers seemed to be lingering in Iraq simply to shore up a lame duck US President. Gordon Brown replied to Ming's letter on the matter, saying that the soldiers were

Tories are not doing better in the marginals after all

Last month there were reports that the Tories were doing better in the most marginal seats than in the national polls. Triples all round on Conservative Home and Iain Dale's Diary. Except the authoritative (fast becoming my 'word of the month', I know) figure of Stephan Shakespeare (co-founder of YouGov as well as J.Archer's former spokesperson) explains on Conservative Home that the optimism

Reflection

Humankind has evolved over many thousands of years from being simple tree-dwelling creatures, through those first tentative steps on the Serengeti and across east Africa, to hunter gathering, then to cultivation of a few crops, the domestication of animals and the creation of surpluses. From this, we have achieved the development of civilisation, written language, technologies such as paper and pen, the wheel, steam power, the internal combustion engine, space flight, computer technology and the internet. With all the wondrous developments we have collectively achieved as a species, and in the certain knowledge that I owe my complex lifestyle to ...

Stickler

At the Carnival I went and watched the Cornish wrestling, or wrasslin', tournament. Cornish wrestling is one of those things that's not that interesting to watch, for the ignorant layman, like myself, being very technical with quite complex rules and scoring, but in it's context can be very enjoyable. This tournament was held in the shadow of the Cathedral, on Cathedral Green, and watched by quite a large crowd, including the Bishop, many of them wearing Cornish tartan. But for me the most interesting thing was the Judges. Each bout is judged by three guys who walk around the ring ...

West End Community Council Update

If you click on the headline above, you can download my update for tomorrow night's West End Community Council meeting. Issues covered include:Traffic issues - Logie Avenue and Blackness RoadVandalised phone box - Magdalen GreenNewhall Gardens pavementsBus Timetables - in the West EndWheelie BinsParking in the West EndBus Lane markings - Blackness AvenueStep Row - temporary road closureWest End Christmas Week 2007

IRAQ: Ming’s right - more to be said?

I agree with every word Ming Campbell said on his site: http://www.mingcampbell.org.uk/ I happen to think there’s more to the story. We all breathed a sigh of relief when Brown became Prime Minister - yet are we not just experiencing a better actor? You’d have thought that the benchmarks for such a thing (after all it’s only service men and womens lives and billions of pounds of taxpayers money!) would be well-advertised on the MOD website. Not a sausage. I rang the MOD to which the reply was `you have to send in a request under the FOI!`. I sent ...

Not so green

The Labour Government's environmental credentials have come under attack today with the revelation that green taxes have fallen for the past seven years and are at the lowest share of national income for a quarter of a century. Using data from the Office for National Statistics, Liberal Democrat Shadow Environmental Secretary, Chris Huhne, has revealed that taxes such as fuel duty and air passenger duty account for only 2.7% of GDP, down from a peak of 3.6% in 1999 and the lowest since 1981, when Margaret Thatcher was prime minister. The Guardian adds that the Labour government inherited the fuel ...

Cycling in Essex

This week's award for urban design goes to Essex County Council, who have decided that cyclists in Harlow need to work harder in navigating this gentle slope. The website 'Warrington cycle campaign' take up the story: Essex County Council is promoting cycling as an effective and enjoyable form of aerobic exercise to reduce the incidence heart disease, high blood pressure and obesity in the county. Unfortunately it was discovered that, rather than pedalling briskly, Harlow's cyclists were freewheeling down this gently sloping path. To counter this, signs have been introduced at regular intervals requiring cyclists to get off and walk. ...

British Government closing down debate on Iraq

Speaking ahead of evidence to be given to the United States Congress today by General David Petraeus, Liberal Democrat Leader Ming Campbell has accused the British Government of closing down debate about the continuing British military presence in Iraq. He said: “While the strategy followed in Iraq by the United States has been under constant review by the Iraq Study Group, by both houses of Congress, and now General Petraeus, the British Government has failed to show the same openness. “Rather than promoting debate regarding our future role, it has been closing it down. The Government has still not explained ...

50 years old

Not me! But David is, or was, on Friday. And by coincidence, arriving in my council courier bag over the weekend was a leaflet about events and activities in Gateshead "for those aged 50 and over"! David's turning 50 opens up a whole new world for us as well. I'm really looking forward to a Saga holiday and going to B And Q for the older people's discount evenings. There is of course another

Brian Paddick: He’s Not the Messiah, He’s a… Very Distinguished Police Officer

Today, the London Liberal Democrats announce their shortlist of potential candidates for London Mayor. I don’t know who’s applied, let alone been shortlisted, but there’s a candidate I’m taking a gamble on supporting… Despite not yet having met the guy, and the likelihood that, if shortlisted, he’ll be the only candidate without a long Liberal Democrat record. If all this makes me sound like the worst sort of fact-free blogger going off into fantasyland (and I sometimes am), there’s something remarkable about this potential candidate: he was a senior police officer with an outstanding, liberal, controversial record. He’s Brian Paddick. ...

Opinion: Talking Coalitions

Some of you may know that I have recently finished authoring a book on coalition governments. I wanted to speak directly to Lib Dem members to explain my conclusions, having spent the best part of the past nine months researching and writing the book, and how and why I have come to them. It’s not [...]

Lib Dem Mayoral Candidate........Brian Paddick or Fiyaz Mughal?

Interested to hear from my pal Fiyaz Mughal this evening that he has been selected as one of our potential candidates for London mayor. Of course Brian Paddick, who is also on the list starts ahead of the game because of his celeb status; however, I would caution against thinking he is an automatic shoo-in. Brian may have been a Lib Dem supporter for some time, but he is a new kid on the block as far as the party goes...........and as we all know, us Lib Dems can be an arsy lot when we think we are being forced ...

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