LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Tuesday 11th September 2007

Bonding in Barnet

From the FT today: A bond to raise up to £360m for transport, schools and other local services will be proposed by a north london borough as it looks for new ways to raise money. The “Barnet bond” would provide as much as half the £733m the London suburb says it needs to improve its infrastructure to cope with expected housing growth over the next 10 years. The bond would be financed by earmarking extra income created by expanding housing stock, including higher council tax and business rate receipts. The borough also says it could raise money from the expansion ...

Ghazni appointed Lib Dems’ new National Diversity Adviser

Issan Ghazni has been appointed to the newly created position of National Diversity Adviser based at the party’s Cowley Street Headquarters. Issan has a consulting and professional background in Equalities and Diversity at the highest level and has extensive experience of the public, private and voluntary/community sectors. Issan is also a Liberal Democrat activist who fought [...]

Boris: I'll Ban Bendy Buses...........

Well, that's OK then, we'll all Back Boris! I was rather amused throughout the day (having traversed the city six times today) to spot this Evening Standard Billboard headline. Funnily enough I had travelled from Bedford this morning with Tory PPC Richard Fuller (I know I get into terrible trouble fraternising with the Tories!) and another Bedfordian, Hywel Davies. Hywel takes a bendy - sorry fold up - bike and from my point of view takes his life in his hands to traverse the city (one of my fellow commuters who works at Lehman brothers does the same thing all ...

Ashdown: Coalition would be madness

According to a brief report on The Times website, Paddy Ashdown has told the Parliamentary Monitor he believes it would be madness for the Liberal Democrats to go into coalition with another party.

11/9: Time to Move On

The 11th September (or 9/11, as it is regrettably and, for British people, incorrectly called) has rolled around once more and yet again tearful victims and relatives gather at the World Trade Center (or "Centre") and the Pentagon to commemorate the lives of those who died on that day. The ceremony is as big as it ever was (the New York Times have done a good job of summarising all the different

Opinion: BBC beaten by the anti-green lobby

There is meant to be a political consensus in this country. Global warming is taking place, and humans contribute to that. There is also a scientific consensus that this is the case as well, so since we are all agreed, it is surely the case that the BBC can go ahead to what is now [...]

Reinventing the State published

Three years ago, it was the infamous Orange Book which became the talk of the Lib Dem conference. This year it looks set to be Reinventing the State, published yesterday. (And which includes a number of the contributors to the original Orange Book, including Nick Clegg, Chris Huhne and Steve Webb.) On Thursday, Lib Dem Voice [...]

Eco-Park plans moving a step closer

As many as 20 companies could be based on a 53-hectare former steelworks site to be branded as the South Tees Eco-Park, with the first planning application for development expected later this month. Work on the site is expected to begin by next March in a phased development that will span several years and negotiations for a £2.5million funding bid are being progressed by the Council to construct access and highway improvements to serve the site. The North East company, Graphite Resources, is expected to deliver its plans for the site's 'anchor' development which is earmarked for almost half the ...

Lord Bonkers writes for Liberal Democrat Voice

My alter ego has an article over at Lib Dem Voice. He repeats some favourite diary items from the past 17 years - Lord Bonkers Diary first appeared in Liberator in the spring of 1990 - and paints a portrait of life on his Rutland estate: Down in the village you may find that celebrated hostelry the Bonkers’ Arms, which serves the best kept pint of Smithson & Greaves Northern Bitter that you will find anywhere. (I find the Dahrendorf lager too gassy for my taste - it has me going off like a pop gun all night.) Across the ...

There may be no tidy answer to the Maddie McCann mystery

Stephen Tall and Duncan Borrowman amongst others have commented very wisely on the...I can hardly write it....Maddie McCann investigation. As a father I really can't even think about this without getting the jitters. Moving swiftly on, on Thought for the day this morning (below) there was an interesting observation from Tom Butler. We're all so used to watching crime mystery programmes on telly

All that rain brings a vast apple crop

BBC South tonight reported that apple growers are looking at a vintage crop this year. Loads of cider will result: Growers are looking to produce a vintage cider season following a wet summer which produced a bumper apple crop, both in size and quality. I was reassured to hear this. We've made a few key policy decisions Chez Walter this year. Double glazing and regularly topping up our ponds

Attempts to block TUC vote on EU referendum fail

Well done to those more militant unions so often criticised for their obstinacy for digging their heels in over having a vote at the TUC conference on whether Britain should have a referendum on the EU constitution. It's a funny thing but the left wing unions, so often criticised by the Tories are singing from the same song sheet as the Tories and Lib Dem like myself who support a referendum.

Back In the Firing Line

I seem to have woken up from an extended working Holiday. For the whole of August I have been pottering around either Leeds Parks or Cumbria doing unusually large amounts of Council reading. I've also done more than usual " Civic Hall " time trying to wressle with the officer core in office hours which can be at a premium when you have a job. Alas its all over. Apart from being a bit broke the long stretch to Christmas has started, the Council has come back to life and the next stage in the electoral cycle start. ( As ...

Dog-whistle prosecuting

A Liverpool jury is reported to have acquitted the 72-year old lady whose grandchild was killed by an illegal pit-bull. I am not totally surprised. An advocates room test for predicting a jury decision is to work out what they will say when they ask themselves ”could it have happened to me (or to my gran) that some dog I was looking after would go crazy?” It doesn’t work in every case but the more emotive the material the more likely it applies. The CPS’s comments to the press are troubling. “When anyone is killed following an attack by a dog and where there ...

These boots are made for walking

Dodington Parish Councillors are currently walking the patch systematically - every road, front and back. We're checking for things that are broken, problems that need fixing and the like. Potholes, broken walls, graffiti, you name it - we're compiling a big list of defects, and passing them on to whoever is responsible for dealing with them. If you live in the Birds or Shire Way/Rodford Way areas, and you see something that needs fixing, please let us know - we might have missed it. Click here for a list of your local councillors. Of course you can tell us about ...

The local annual Horticultural show is just days away!

From our gardening correspondent, Flora Rusticus-Arfcut Excitement is mounting as we approach the annual Blogsdon-on-Libby Garden and Horticultural Show, with annual rosettes for the town’s greenest fingers. This year there are two ladies of the female gender (Copyright: Daddies’ Sauce) amongst the final entrants. Our local Worshipful Honourableship the Lady Mayor M.Reid, despite her onerous

Lord Bonkers’ Diary: 17th Anniversary Souvenir Special

It is only fitting for Lib Dem Voice to mark the 17th anniversary of the publication of Lord Bonkers’ diary with this special cut-out-from-your-computer-screen-and-keep souvenir special. Through the good offices of his literary secretary Jonathan Calder, who writes the blog Liberal England, Lord Bonkers writes exclusively for us. I have been asked by the editors of [...]

Tories to bite the hand that feeds them?

UPDATE: I see that Dave's already poo-pooed this idea in a Q&A session with Telegraph readers . Is there going to be anything left of this report that will actually make it to party policy by the time it's released on Thursday? In more of the drip, drip, drip of revelations from the Gummer-Goldsmith "Quality of Life" report the Telegraph today reports that the Tories are to end out-of-town free parking: Tories to end out-of-town free parking By Graeme Wilson, Political Correspondent Shoppers using out-of-town supermarkets would be forced to pay car parking charges under new Conservative proposals to defend ...

Freedom of Expression in Egypt

The British Council in Cairo today hosted a seminar on Freedom of Expression, organised by Egyptian PEN. Fellow writer Shusha Guppy and I attended on behalf of English PEN. Though the Egyptian constitution guarantees freedom of expression, and censorship laws of the 1960s and 1970s were scrapped, because the country has been in a state of emergency for half a century, emergency regulations can be deployed and sometimes are. Moreover, individuals — notably from a conservative Islamic tendency — can and do instigate prosecutions against writers and journalists. Several of the participants at the seminar had been in jail, usually for short ...

Federal Conference Committee: procedures need serious review

Leading Lib Dem blogger James Graham generously wrote at the weekend that I write interestingly about current affairs. I’m going to spoil things now by writing geekishly for a moment about party rules and procedure. Conference is the sovereign body of the party and its agenda is fixed by the mostly elected Federal Conference Committee. The FCC receives motions and amendments from within the party and selects which will go on the agenda. In the Constitution and Standing Orders the available grounds for the FCC to reject a motion/amendment are very narrow. Amendments can only be rejected if they are insubstantial, outside the scope of ...

Ming Campbell: does being a Liberal Democrat mean never having to accept the result?

As Conference arrives, and the background rumbling for and against Ming Campbell’s leadership continues, I am moved to think about what I want from the Party leadership and, equally important, from my fellow activists (the Daily Telegraph called me an activist, and who am I to doubt them?). Now don’t get me wrong, this won’t be an attack or defence of the reign of Ming the Merciless, or of any

Blogging

Hat tip to Valleys Mam

Is Norman Lamb omnipresent?

Well he is according to the Conference Directory for Tuesday's lunchtime fringe. Assuming he isn't omnipresent, I hope he has a good pair of running shoes to get between these health meetings!British Medical Association, NHS Confederation, Royal College of Nursing, the New Health Network NHS: where should power lie? Chair: John Carvel, The Guardian. Speakers: Norman Lamb MP; Ann Rossiter, SMF;

Catching Lambeth's Liars?

The Register reports that Lambeth Borough Council is to use lie detectors to finger benefit cheats. And apparently it can all be done on the phone... By John Oates Published Tuesday 11th September 2007 13:15 GMT Lambeth Council has done a deal with KPMG to use voice recognition software to finger cheats contacting call centres to sort out benefits. Everyone contacting the centre will be told they are being scanned and will then be asked 19 questions. KPMG's "Voice Risk Analysis" will then finger voices it considers suspicious. The pilot is being paid for by the Department of Work and ...

Bin Laden on 9/11

Bin Laden appears to have released a video eulogising the 9/11 attacks. Dead or alive, even terrorists are broadcasting only repeats these days! Conveniently, no comment has been made on the pro-Taliban suicide bombing in Pakistan that killed 16 people today. Not to mention all the blood that has been spilt around the world in the name of 'resistance'. I wonder whether we'll ever evolve morally.

Labour hypocrisy alive and well in Islington

Islington South & Finsbury Labour MP Emily Thornberry - who was just 484 votes ahead of the Lib Dems’ Bridget Fox at the last General Election - is used to being in the papers talking about the need for action on affordable housing. Islington is one of many London boroughs where the rise in property [...]

Senate gains

When the British press discusses the 2008 american elections, it tends to talk about the presidential election. But it is the Senate races which may prove the most interesting come January 2009.The Democrats currently hold a razor thin 51-49 seat majority in the Senate, which in a chamber which allows a 40 of senators to stop a bill being voted on, is not much use.Three republicans are retiring - Wayne Allard in Colorado, John Warner in Virginia, and the maverick Chuck Hagel in Nebraska. In all three, the Democrats are favourites to take the seat - with Congressman Mark Udall in ...

Mike Gravel on Hilary Clinton

More from my new political hero, Mike Gravel. Here he is laying into Hilary Clinton on The Huffington Post: In an indignant voice she decried the Bush administration's ''stunning record of secrecy and corruption, of cronyism run amok. . . It is everything our founders were afraid of, everything our Constitution was designed to prevent.'' Actually, our Constitution grants Congress the power to prevent these ills but Hillary and her colleagues weren't up to the task. Our founders' legacy did not stop Hillary from voting for the Patriot Act and then supporting its renewal in 2006 despite revelations that the ...

Unauthorised absence from school

There is a piece on the BBC website trying to make us all worry about parents who take their children out of school for holidays during term time. I was struck by a comment by the minister, Keven Brennan: "Travel companies have a role to play in keeping prices competitive during school holidays."The government insists that family holidays are taken in a limited number of weeks in the year. They then complain when the price of holidays goes up during those weeks. What exactly did they expect to happen?

Labour council refuses free school bus pass to unbaptised boy

I could hardly believe it when I first read it but the news release below arrived a few minutes ago from the office of Fiona Hall MEP. So Labour are refusing a free bus pass to a child attending a Catholic school on the grounds the child has not been baptised! Surely this must be a breach of the Human Rights Act? The news release speaks for itself: COUNCIL REFUSE BUS PASS FOR UN-BAPTISED SON

ELDR group set up to find ways to combat climate change

A newly formed ELDR (European Liberal Democrats) climate change working group will be meeting for the first time today at the ELDR Party's headquarters in Brussels. The group meeting, entitled "A Cross-Sector Approach to Tackling Climate Change", will be chaired by Lord Teverson, the UK's Liberal Democrat spokesperson for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and includes liberal MEPs and MPs from across the European Union.

People who take things from bags left for charity shops

I've had my rant, and not entirely welcome hitcounter hyperactivity, for today, so I have breathed into a brown paper bag for several minutes before writing this. This is just anecdotal, but I have noticed that bags of items left (out of hours) outside charity shops often get "raided" by people looking for bargains prior to the charity shops opening them. I saw one quite lady going through some

Joined Up Government

What the Government effectively said yesterday when announcing plans for more faith schools: "At a time when we're worried about the isolationism and radicalisation of young people, we're going to be setting up more faith schools, in order to encourage segregation and breed suspicion of those who do not share their beliefs." Eloquently put reactions: James GrahamClowns to the Left of Me

Young Kingston is the new charitable fund that I set up during my year as Mayor...

Young Kingston is the new charitable fund that I set up during my year as Mayor. Yesterday the funds collected for the Mayor's Charity were finally handed over. The grand total raised through the Mayor's Charity and since is just over £23,000. I'm absolutely delighted and want to thank the Young Kingston Steering Group, the Mayor's Charity Committee and especially Alison Croucher who...

Yet more problems for the Tory quality of life proposals

It seems to be one danged thing after another for the Tory quality of life proposals. They appear to have more holes than your average-sized colander. The latest squall is to do with the proposals about shops and green taxes. The Sun fires off at Cameron saying "he is barking mad if he thinks supermarkets should charge for parking". Richard Littlejohn, never missing an opportunity to shoot

Is Mandy setting his sights on Hull East now that Prescott is on his way?

Peter Mandelson spent last Friday in Hull opening the city’s new World Trade Centre and later speaking at the University. In between he did some stuff with the local Labour party. It seemed odd that he should spend quite so much time in Hull, attractive location it undoubtedly is. The thought occurred to me that as Mandelson had earlier in the year hinted that he might want a return to Westminster and of course John Prescott has just announced his plans to stand down from his Hull East constituency at the next General Election, there was more than a coincidence ...

Petraeus testimony changes nothing for UK

Commenting on General Petraeus’s testimony to Congress, Liberal Democrat Leader Ming Campbell said: “This report changes nothing from the standpoint of the United Kingdom. “There is no case for the continuing open-ended commitment of British forces. “Nor does General Petraeus provide any help to the British Government in answering the two fundamental questions – what military purpose is being achieved and what political objectives are being met by our continued presence in Iraq. “I repeat my call for a framework for phased withdrawal of all British forces.”

Bristol 10 year old dies

The death of a 10 year old in Bristol has raised further concerns about the priorities of the system. The issue is clearly not the absence of references, but that the priorities system of the local authority is wrong. Priorities are driven by targets. Quod erat demonstrandum.

Scrutiny - a good tool to use on ourselves, perhaps?

Last night was the latest meeting of the Resource and Performance scrutiny commission, on which I am the Lib Dem representative. There were reports on our current budget position, and revisions to the way that the Council manages its assets. The main event was the debut before the commission of the new(ish) Executive Member for Finance, Cllr Peter Redstone. He was there to talk about the budget. The point of scrutiny is, as far as I am aware, to allow members to gain a better understanding of the issues placed before them, and to question the Executive Member responsible about ...

Youth

The meeting of the Parks Committee went along quickly enough last night. In truth the Parks Manager and his staff do such a good job, that there's not much for the Committee to do, other than rubber stamp his decisions. But at the end the Mayor raised the matter of people misbehaving on Furniss Island. The Island is a little patch of greenery in the middle of town, where office workers like to eat their sandwiches. But this summer it's been taken over by young people. They can be intimidating, but they don't actually pay any attention to me when ...

Shock Doctrine - Nation Building the 'US of A' way!

This is worth a read, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein. Naomi draws a parallel between the process of torture and the events in Iraq at the beginning of 'Operation Iraqi Freedom'. From the 'showing of the instruments' months of media coverage of how the US air power would attack Baghdad, the silencing and blinding of the nation through the destruction of the telephone exchanges and media stations and then the unfettered looting of the nations infrastructure, treasures and culture. The final stage in the process, following the dehumanising is the reprogramming, in some ways ...

Opinion: The Lib Dems on tax - progressive, distinctive and popular

The Liberal Democrat conference tax policy motion is based on the report of the Tax Policy Working Group, which I chaired. The Group was established by the Lib Dem Federal Policy Committee after last year’s conference had approved a pretty comprehensive policy covering the principles which we wanted to underpin our tax policy and specific [...]

Late night emergencies, Labour incompetence and fat children

Sitting on the Overview & Scrutiny Committee is more interesting than it sounds - aside from getting to chair scrutiny reviews (on issues ranging from CCTV to allotments), the full committee meetings throw up interesting stuff as well and give us a good insight into all areas of the Council. At last night's meeting there was a short discussion on the out-of-hours customer service provided by the Council, as a colleague questioned the Labour Cabinet Member for Community Involvement (and Deputy Leader of the Council) about it. She actually said "I don't think we are offering a good out-of-hours service" ...

Spurs - not just about football, boccia too!

Tottenham Hotspur do a lot of good work in the local community, in Haringey and beyond. Have had a newsletter through which was packed with interesting stuff they've been doing recently so thought I'd give you just two examples. Last year, for Local Democracy Week, I went to talk to the students at the Vale base at Northumberland Park School - which happens to be directly behind White Hart Lane. It's a special school and it was a great visit. Well, Jermaine Jenas has been there too - I expect the students were marginally more excited by that. He was ...

What's the difference

Yesterday's Guardian carried a fascinating piece about scientific research which sought to find a link between political beliefs and brain patterns. The paper tells us that Scientists have found that the brains of people calling themselves liberals are more able to handle conflicting and unexpected information than the brains of their conservative counterparts. The study points to a likely neurological basis for complex personality and behavioural traits. You don't say. David Amodio, of New York University, writing in the journal Nature Neuroscience, says conservatives were found to be "more structured and persistent in their judgments"; in tests they had "higher ...

The public dismantling of Jim Davidson, aka "Hell's Kitchen"

Jim Davidson's career has been on something of a downward trajectory for some time. Once fêted by Margaret Thatcher, the toast of Conservative Association Dinners and host of The Generation Game, he is now somewhat sidelined in the entertainment world, if not in the twilight world of the Conservative party. Last night on Hell's Kitchen the reasons why Davidson is now arguably persona non grata

Mike Gravel for President

Yesterday Da Fink pointed us to to the Candidate Calculator. This is a site which asks for your views on a range of issues and then tells you whom you should support as the next President of the United States. Taking the test, I found I should support the Democrat former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel. I have a 91.67 per cent match with his views. I have to confess that I have never heard of Mr Gravel. But I wish there were a British politician I was 91.67 per cent in agreement with.

Anita Roddick dies

I have just seen in tomorrow morning's papers that Anita Roddick, pioneer of green and socially responsible consumerism and Liberal Democrat supporter has died of a major brain haemorrhage. I was a devoted customer of the Body Shop for many years, the combination of their ethos and the quality of their products was a compelling selling point. Full story here.

The Great Faith School Swindle

The Phantom Laurence points me to this excellent article by Francis Beckett about faith schools. In a weird cosmic juxtaposition last night (which, were I of lesser intelligence I might attribute to a Higher Power), after watching Munich on DVD I found myself watching the tail end of Jonathan Sacks’ BBC programme about Rosh Hashanah. It was basically propaganda about the need for faith schools, in which he visited a Jewish school in Birmingham which accepts pupils from all denominations. All very nice and fluffy, except that this is the exact same Chief Rabbi who said the following about government ...

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Tuesday 11th September 2007

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