LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Tuesday 23rd October 2007

Drop Jonathan Ross and save the BBC £18m

Liz Hunt, in the Daily Telegraph, says "BBC's Jonathan Ross is sleazy, smug and crass." I don't know about that, but I am watching Film 2007 and BBC's Jonathan Ross is dull, dull, dull. The BBC has a broadcaster on film who would make it a more interesting programme overnight: Mark Kermode. He was on Newsnight Review with Matthew Sweet a couple of weeks ago. Both are infinitely more interesting on film than Ross is. With Ross you always suspect a conflict of interest. If he gives big Hollywood names bad reviews, will they refuse to appear on his chatshow ...

Working hours

Councillor's working hours are in the spotlight again. Labour on Redcar and Cleveland Council are talking about making Councillors fill in time sheets for each day. Just who do they think they are, we are elected or not by our constituents and it is them we serve, not the Labour Party. And just when do we find time to do this filling in. For the last 2 days I've worked pretty solidly for 14...

Clegg vs Huhne

In the last election campaign I used this blog to declare my support for Chris Huhne. It was not a hard decision to make. To my mind he was by some way the best of the four candidates set before us. This time I find the candidates - Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne - much more evenly matched. Therefore the sensible thing to do is to see how the campaign develops and decide whom to vote for when the time comes to send my ballot paper in.

Who's winning? Does Chris need a 12 pt swing?

Is it possible at this early stage in the Leadership contest to make an educated guess as to the final outcome? We don't yet have any serious opinion polls of the membership, and as the 2006 contest proved these can be pretty unreliable bellwethers anyhow, given our small membership. However, given the close proximity of the contest and other indicators we can take a reasonable punt. We start with the result last time - Menzies Campbell - 57.1% - Chris Huhne - 41.6% Our starting point is the simple suggestion that Chris retains his support and Nick inherits the mantle ...

In Defence of Oxbridge (part I)

Oxford and Cambridge are no British ENA I have just started a degree at Oxford University and so it feels appropriate to blog a bit about the institution where I now live and learn. Don't worry, these posts are not going to be about JCRs, unions and fellowships but instead about the political questions raised by the existence of 'elite' universities. In another, post I will look at the often discussed issue of the small number of state school pupils being admitted to Oxbridge but for now I would like to examine the other side of the universities. We hear ...

Would Jim Callaghan have won an autumn 1978 election?

Paul Linford has posted an entertaining list of what he regards as The Top 10 Political Misjudgements. At no. 1 in his list - by which I assume Paul believes it to be the most disastrous misjudgment of all - is Jim Callaghan's decision not to call a general election in the autumn of 1978. He writes: Prime Minister Callaghan ducks out of an autumn 1978 election after private polls show it might result in a hung Parliament. The ensuing Winter of Discontent puts paid to Labour's credibility as a governing party and leads to 18 years of Tory hegemony ...

All for Clegg?

I’ll be honest with you - I’m still bloody indifferent to the leadership election. I know my post yesterday suggested a leaning towards Chris Huhne - but it also included possibly the most idiotic statement ever made on a blog - and that’s saying something. Nick may win us more members/voters but I’m not sure that is the best thing for the party In hindsight this is idiotic - I think I still agree with the basic sentiment behind it but the way its worded there is completely ridiculous. The premise is that - if one candidate better suits the ...

Is Political Suicide a Spectator Sport?

Paul Walter, bless him, commented on "My lips are sealed" last night - Gagged?! We don't appear to be hearing the last of it! How right you are Paul (as ever how tiresome is that?!). So.............I have outed myself on Facebook..............and somewhere else.

Europe is not a foreign country

Time for a posting on something other than the Lib Dem leadership election. I read a comment piece in one of our local papers today (I would provide a link, but the website concerned has failed to put the piece on the web as yet) about how close we are to having a common European identity and what that means for existing national identities. The author, Jim Miller, believes such a European identity is not too far away and that people may have to get used to expressing their identities on many levels. As a liberal, this is an argument ...

Nick Clegg: My Vision for a Liberal Britain

One of the reasons that I’m backing Nick for leader is his enthusiastic and wide-ranging interest in policy ideas – and this afternoon in a major (not to say fairly lengthy!) speech, he set out what he stands for, as a potential Leader of our party. He identified five major challenges for defining what his vision for Liberal Britain means, across a whole range of policy ideas: • how to tackle what he called ‘the epidemic of powerlessness’; • how to create real social mobility; • where to strike the balance between national security and individual liberty; • how actually to engage the public ...

Clegg Focuses on Root Causes, Pragmatic Liberalism

We now have some detail to go with Nick’s campaign launch. His five policy areas are, empowering individuals, extending opportunity, balancing security and liberty, protecting the environment and engaging with the world. On the surface then, pretty esoteric stuff compared with more typical categories of “Health, Law and Order, Education, Immigration, Europe” that we’re more used to. Nick’s pitch is aimed at Party members. Would ordinary members of the public really be able to see how these policy areas actually encompass nearly every aspect of public life? In fact, as an aside, for a man who’s considered to be “the ...

Slapdash government

I noticed Bridget Fox’s comments on the reneging of renewals targets by Brown. What seems evident is that this is a classic example of slapdash Government taking precedence over long-term thinking to create nice headlines at the time. Why on earth did they agree to these targets if they couldn’t be politically fulfilled by nu Labour? No doubt some weasel words will emanate from one of the myriad of `fall guy junior ministers`. We must though come out fighting - two leaders can not one!

Tories in a muddle on Europe (plus ça change)

Tory leader David Cameron found himself on slippery terrain today when giving his monthly press conference to journalists. The question repeatedly asked was straightforward enough: the Tories have committed to holding a referendum on the EU reform treaty - will that commitment hold true if the treaty is ratified, and they should find themselves in [...]

Nick Clegg Lampoons 'Sat-Nav Politics' of the other Parties

At Nick Clegg's Leadership launch at the National Liberal Club today, which was packed with large numbers and a good cross section of councillors, MPs, and activists. Nick gave a long and very thoughtful speech: 'Breaking the Deadlock, Building a Liberal Britain', setting out his vision, principles, and ideas, on a whole range of issues. I was impressed, I liked what I heard, I could identify with much of it. Phrases like- ' I want to show how liberalism is the only creed capable of tackling the epidemic of political alienation and powerlessness in our country' The Sat-Nav soundbite was ...

Opinion: Labour surrenders claim to climate change leadership

Today’s Guardian reports on Labour’s plan to abandon renewable energy targets: Leaked documents detail strategy for climate change U-turn. It seems that John Hutton at the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform thinks the 20% target for renewables is too tough for the Armed Forces and big business to meet. And he is arguing that [...]

Bovine Tony Blair?

So I was just flicking idly through a routine briefing from the party, when I found myself reading the following sentence: • A report by the government’s Chief Scientist, Sir David King, is calling for a cull of badgers in some areas affected by Bovine Tony Blair. I didn’t immediately clock at it first, but something didn’t sound quite right in the sentence so I looked at it again more carefully. “Bovine Tony Blair”? That sounded pretty abusive for an internal party document so what did it mean? Our former Prime Minister wandering the nation behaving in a cow-like fashion? A ...

What a difference the Green Party makes!

You'd have thought that a city in which the Green Party regularly polls up to 20% of the vote, holds a quarter of the county council seats and a sixth of the city council seats (and the latter in a minority administration to boot where their vote in council can effectively make or break a policy) and where they have been in a joint administration even, would be one of the most sustainable cities in the country. You'd be wrong: OXFORD people are among the greediest in the country in consuming the Earth's resources, according to a new league table. ...

Opinion: Leave them swingers alone, Dr Pugh

The Sir Bufton Tuftons of this world hark fondly back to a golden age when you knew what was what with people’s sexuality. Sex within a good Christian marriage was acceptable. Any other sort of sexual activity - from masturbation to homosexuality, sex before marriage to flagellation - was an excellent indicator that someone was [...]

The Eulogy Song

Via Bloggerheads.

Are the Tories cr***ing themselves about Clegg?

Well, I have already torn a strip off Team Clegg for their website today, so this will redress the balance. I have a soft-spot for UK Daily Pundit. It's probably because he or she (any ideas anyone?) has the decency to read the occasional post on this blog and make the odd comment. Thank you UKDP. But he/she are also quite freewheeling. Iain Dale has him/her/them down in the Conservative Top 100

Brown Public Speaking Problems

The more we see of Brown, the more certain ‘ticks’ are becoming more apparent. His peculiar range of unnatural body language, including my absolute favourite the “Tommy Cooper moving the cup” thing he does with his left hand at the dispatch box or any other podium, his Jesus Hands and the classic, “thrusting the ball” give observers the impression that this is a man deliberately trying to add body language to his public speaking. It really is quite fascinating to witness. More interesting for me is that he is developing a tendency to say the wrong word such as his ...

To Boldly Go

It says in The Guardian Diary, that Chris Huhne yesterday compared himself to the fictional President Bartlet, of the West Wing. Don't know if its true, seems a pretty presumptuous thing to say. Clegg would never say anything so pompous. But if he did compare himself to a fictional character, then Captain James T Kirk of the Starship Enterprise seems the obvious candidate. Beloved by women across the Galaxy, rushing about saving civilisations in trouble, going boldly where no man has been before. Phasers to stun, Mr Spock!

Chris Huhne: an unfair society; ruled by a scary computer

It is a good rule of thumb that if the complete opposite of a statement is complete garbage, the statement is not worth saying. So I’m somewhat disappointed by Chris Huhne’s campaign slogan: “a fairer society; people in charge”. I mean, think about it. On the one hand, Nick Clegg is hardly arguing for a less fair society, and while that may be what the Conservatives and Labour have delivered, they would undoubtedly say that that was not their intention, or even that it was not true. But it's the other hand (or rather, clause) that really irritates me. People ...

Post Flooding Report - Phase 2 underway

The next phase of the restoration of our house has begun. However this is just another way of saying more demolition has taken place as the floors and skirting boards come out. The good news is that there is relatively little damp under the floor and so with a bit of luck the final stage of drying out may be shorter than expected. It also looks as if they may have to remove less plaster than was originally estimated. More than half the floor cam out today and the rest goes tomorrow. This picture shows the bomb site that is ...

Comparing Gordo, Dave, Nick & Chris

I've been collecting for comparison a few relevant facts about Gordon Brown, David Cameron, and the current Lib Dem leadership contestants. Here are the results so far. Date of birth: Brown 20/2/51. Cameron 9/10/66. Clegg 7/1/67. Huhne 2/7/54. First degree, university and year of graduation: Brown history Edinburgh 1972. Cameron PPE Oxford 1988. Clegg social anthropology Cambridge 1989. Huhne PPE Oxford 1975. What they did between graduation and becoming MPs: Brown 1972-1982 postgrad student of history of Scottish Labour Party (PhD - eventually! - 1982), 1976-1980 politics lecturer, 1980-1983 journalist/editor, Scottish Television current affairs dept; elected as MP 1983. Cameron ...

For anyone wanting to raise a smile after the Rugby World Cup

There may be one or two people still feeling a little bit unhappy after the Rugby World Cup final on Saturday, so if you are one of those people, and you need to raise a smile from somewhere, why not enjoy the clip below. As I recall this Spitting Image classic was released as the B side to the Chicken Song, but I am prepared to be corrected on that. A Hat Tip should go to Theo Spark who seems to have found the clip and posted it on his blog first.

It’s a liberal party, Jim, but not as we know it

Civic Platform’s convincing win in Poland’s General Election on Sunday is welcome news for liberals. A vote spread of 40% for the liberal centre; 30% for the conservative right and 12% for the social democratic left is the stuff of dreams from a British liberal perspective. But strategists looking to emulate the success of Donald [...]

Comments on Chris Huhne’s announcement speech

A very close friend of mine emailed that she has read this blog on her honeymoon and thinks I have never in my life been neutral about anything. Well, I accept her point, but I take her reading it at such a time as the ultimate compliment. If she had just married me I would apply for divorce. I expect a second email from the Eros Suite will contain harsh swear words. In furtherance of my neutrality, here are thoughts and observations on Chris Huhne’s speech. It is 335 words compared to Nick’s 760. Neither is better or worse than the other because ...

Most Flummoxed Cold Caller Ever

Chris K has just posted about his Worst Cold Caller Ever and like Chris I too work in a call centre environment so know a little of what the person on the other end of the line goes through. So I'd like to nominate my most flummoxed cold caller ever. It was shortly after the Labour/Lib Dem Scottish executive had introduced free personal care for the elderly, and if I remember correctly I was in

Top 100 Most Influential Liberals

Stephen Tall has started an interesting thread over at Lib Dem voice: Who are the most influential Liberals in the UK? Well, I can certainly make a case for many individuals, but I am interested to hear what other people think (Omissions or errors are my own and these are people who are British and are either open supporters of the Liberal Democrats or are thought to support the party (some may be controversial... :-) ). HM The Queen Nick Clegg MP/Chris Huhne MP Vince Cable MP Graham Watson MEP, Leader of ALDE Lord Rennard- Chief Executive of the Liberal ...

Last couple of days and Magdalen Green update

Yesterday I had organised a site visit with Leisure & Communities and Planning & Transportation staff to Hillcrest Road following a resident's concern at the proposal to remove some trees (one is diseased, another causing damage to a resident's wall and the roots from these and four others are causing significant damage to the pavements, creating trip hazards). It is a real shame to see lovely mature trees having to be felled in this extremely pleasant street and I was anxious that the officers fully explained to both the resident and myself the detail of the survey of the trees ...

Leaked document alleges BAE hush money

BAE Systems has being accused of paying hush money to two Australian airlines, the Daily Mail reports: In a House of Lords debate, Lord Tyler pointed the finger at the defence company over a 14-year secret deal between British Aerospace Regional Aircraft, East West Airlines and Ansett Transport Industries. The Liberal Democrat peer claimed a leaked document signed in 1993 shows BAE paid the airlines £329,000 to silence them about ‘the leak of toxic fumes into aircraft cabins’. Lord Tyler’s questions and the Government’s responses are available on the TheyWorkForYou website here.

Foot in mouth

The view of the UK government's chief scientist that badgers should be killed to prevent the spread of TB among cattle has really put the cat amongst the pigeons, to coin a phrase. Sir David King believes that culling could be effective in areas that are contained, for example, by the sea or motorways. His report though follows a previous study that said culling badgers would be ineffective. That previous report by the Independent Scientific Group (ISG) assessed the results of a nine-year experiment to discover whether killing badgers would stem the spread of disease. Its findings, published in June, ...

We have enough problems raising turnout without 146,000 votes being rejected

It was evident to me very early on the night of the Scottish elections that something very odd was happening with the voting. There were in the first few announced results an astonishingly high number of rejected ballots, and with issues in Ohio and Florida in mind, where counting machines rejected tens of thousands of votes in the US presidential elections, it seemed as if we had another scandal on our hands. A report today concluded that Scotland's voters were let down by inadequate systems, a lack of proper education of the different methods of voting and a lack of ...

Worst Cold Call Ever

I think I've just received the worst junk phone call ever. My desk phone rings, and someone starts talking to me in a largely incomprehensible way about a mobile phone. I ask "Where did you get my phone number?" Him: ""Your phone number is 020 7227 1203.." Me: "Yes, that's my phone number. Where did you get it from?" Him: "The marketing department." Me: "Oh that's interesting, I'm in the marketing department..." It's a shame that the conversation didn't go on longer, because I think he would have benefited from some constructive feedback. For instance, "Get another job." For me ...

Pass me that nail, i need to stick my colours up here

Having read almost every article and interview which has come out in the last week about our two fine (but not yet formally) candidates - and, it must be said, in the absence of the two people I would favour most as candidates - I have decided to come down on the side of golden boy Nick Clegg. Aside from being an accomplished MP with lots of experience in key areas, there are numerous reasons to support him which fit in with the frivolous tenor of this blog: 1. David Cameron will be livid. His image as the new boy ...

The First Cut is the Deepest

Sadly it appears that the pound speaks more highly than the need as far as the Post Office is concerned. The announcement of the first Post Office closures in Scotland are being announced today. The Post Office Ltd is announcing these in phases and the first trance of these for Glasgow, central Scotland and Argyll are a lot deeper than expected according to the Scotsman. 24 of the 44 offices

Government blocks corruption bill without debate

The Government has killed off the Corruption Bill without any debate in the House of Commons. The Bill aimed to tighten to rules on British companies operating abroad, and was necessary to meet treaty obligations to fight corruption and bribery. The Corruption Bill was introduced by Lord Chidgey and passed successfully through all of its legislative stages in the House of Lords, but the deadline has now passed for it to be given time in the House of Commons. David Heath MP, the Liberal Democrats’ Shadow Justice Minister, strongly criticised the Labour Government’s failure to allow the Bill to be ...

North Road Primary Consultation

The public consultation process concerning the new North Road Primary School started last week with an open evening at the school for parents and local residents. Facilitated by a charity, the British Council for School Environments, the children and teachers had already taken part in a number of workshops to find out what they liked and disliked about the current school and what they wanted to

The meanining of neutrality

This what the dictionary says, neutrality noun 1. nonparticipation in a dispute or war 2. tolerance attributable to a lack of involvement [syn: disinterest] 3. pH value of 7 My pH value has always been fine.

It´s public services, stupid!

We LibDems have long prided ourselves on our willingness to address uncomfortable truths, think new thoughts and challenge outdated consensus. Indeed, in most areas this is true, from Iraq, to the Environment, to civil liberties - it´s the Lib Dems who have set the pace with others running to catch up. However, there is one policy area where we have been woefully lacking in new thinking - public services. For many years, ever since the Alliance days in fact, we have allowed our thinking on public services to be dominated by the views of the professionals who run them, doctors, ...

Baloti Liberala Demokratio (that’s Esperanto for vote for us)

I was lobbied today to take up the cause of Esperanto if I become an MEP. I disappointed them that I don’t accept that the spread of English is “linguistic imperialism”. But I was interested in evidence that teaching children Esperanto then helps them learn other languages. They have an interesting video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YHALnLV9XU

Text of Chris Huhne’s announcement speech

I am very grateful to the person who emailed me the text of Chris’ speech. As I haven’t seen it anywhere else I thought I ought to put it in full before commenting. “I will stand for the leadership of our party. “I’ve spoken to my family and my friends, and I believe I can lead our talented team of parliamentarians to our greatest successes yet. The best is still to come for our party. Charles Kennedy took us to new heights and Ming has put the foundations in place for further progress. The greatest tribute we can pay Ming ...

Planet or people?

Governments aren't perfect, but it's the libertarians who bleed us dry Cue Tristan...

Want to be a Huhney Monster?

Ryan Cullen now has campaign t-shirts available.

UK Government and Renewables in Europe

What I found interesting from Herr Fell yesterday was that the UK government is actually lobbying to prevent the Germans from encouraging renewable electricity generation. He also explained how the MPs had to fight the government to force through legislation to achieve what is being done in Germany. I presume it will be the same here.

(slightly) Liberal party wins Polish elections! Huzzah!

Vaguely good news from the east, the highly authoritarian Law and Justice party has been kicked out of government in the recent elections and replaced with the pro European classical liberal (to be kind) Civic platform. This is great news for Europe as a whole as Polish national government officials seek to build links between Europe rather than simply isolate themselves. For Poland the prsopects may be slightly better than before(I'm always up for replacing an authoritarian catholic government with a liberal one) although the civic platform are less keen on electoral reform and social justice than any of us ...

Neighbourhood meeting

It's South of the Borough Neighbourhood Meeting today at 7.30pm in the Hook Centre - all are welcome. There are seven planning applications (see below), but I think the main discussion will be around the proposed site for Castle Hill Primary, which I wrote about a couple of days ago. If you missed the consultation meeting last week then this is another opportunity to ask...

New poll: the alternative leadership contest

Barring something remarkable taking place between now and close of nominations, the coming leadership campaign will be a two-horse race between Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne. A number of potential candidates have ruled themselves out of the race despite messages of support from many party members. So the new poll question is simple: “Of those [...]

Tram enthusiasts are known to operate in this area

I am reading over the results of the Cross River Tram Consultation published by TfL in September (just don’t ask). The first question requires respondents to give their views on the proposed route from Euston to Waterloo. 77% gave positive views about this route and 11% gave negative views. This much I understand. But 12% of respondents apparently went further and ”expressed spontaneous support for a tram on this route”. Which presumably means they approached the questioner, unable to contain themselves, and started talking about it. You, sir! You look like a sensible chap, I’ll wager you’ll agree with me, sir, ...

Leadership campaign websites: Huhne 1 Clegg 0

I am still undecided and trying to act dispassionately. But take a look at Chris Huhne's leadership campaign website, and then visit Nick Clegg's. Chris' site is the full enchilada. Nick's has the look of a temporary placeholder complete with "emergency" battleship grey background. And I thought he has Richard Allan helping him! Come on Nick and Nick's team. Surely one of the issues of this

Seeing crime, seeing a doctor and seeing the light

I missed watching last night's Spurs match up at Newcastle because I had an Overview & Scrutiny meeting. Turns out it wasn't such a bad one to miss. But I'm still not worried about the season. As usual, we covered a big range of subjects at Overview & Scrutiny. Probably the most interesting for residents in my ward is the news that following the CCTV scrutiny review I chaired and months of work from John Hajdu's Muswell Hill and Fortis Green Association, Muswell Hill is finally to get some new - working - CCTV cameras. There will be two cameras ...

The leadership contest on video

For those who (like me) missed the Clegg-Huhne debate on Andrew Marr’s Sunday AM show on BBC1 last Sunday, here’s the link. Well worth watching, as both candidates are on excellent form. And NewburyToday.co.uk was on hand at the party’s South Central regional conference to film head-to-head vox pops with them both, which you can watch [...]

Chris says party must pass ‘Hampshire Test’

Speaking to the Daily Echo, Chris has said that the challenge he and other Lib Dems have faced against the Tories in Hampshire is good preparation for the future battles we’ll have to fight. He points to Hampshire - where his Eastleigh constituency lies - as one place in the south where our share of the vote has grown and the Tory advance has been fought off. He also used the interview to talk about policy saying that his experience of creating his own business showed that the Liberal Democrats need to be the party that encourages success by reducing ...

The myth of anonymity

Toby Philpott has flagged up a case where a court obliged a website to reveal the identities of some anonymous contributors. I have recently put a gentle warning on my sidebar to point out that "anonymous" contributors are not actually anonymous. Of course, I can see their IP address and, in extremis, Internet Service Providers have been known to be made to reveal the identity of IP addressees.

New Facebook group for Chris

Especially for those of you in Wales - Welsh Liberal Democrats for Chris Huhne.

Shhhh, dave, it's europe...

Nice to see a proper battle in the Commons over Europe yesterday but it is always highly amusing to hear the Tories preach on this subject. The party which ducked referendums on the original accession treaties, on the Single European Act and on the Maastricht Treaty now champions their use. The appropriate work for their approach ends in 'ocks'. What is reassuring is to read that the rabid end of the Tories is calling for them to commit to a referendum on this treaty after the next General Election, regardless of the fact that even their own advisers admit it ...

It's health but not as we know it

According to the Independent – so it must be true – the Chair of the humbly named ‘Health England’ has called for us all to be required to ‘opt out’ of healthy living, rather than going through life in a booze- and salt-fuelled death binge, or something similar. His plan is for smokers to have to buy a permit each year to allow them to buy cigarettes, for larger companies to introduce a daily ‘exercise hour’ which people would have to opt out of, for all salt to be removed from prepared foods and for alcohol to be a little ...

Jacqui Smith admits Liberal Democrats were right all along

Yesterday, Labour Home Secretary Jacqui Smith admitted to the Home Affairs Select Committee that there hasn't been a terrorist case yet where there was a need for detention without charge beyond the current 28 days! Yes - well that's the point I and other Lib Dem colleagues have been making since the Labour proposal for 90 days (to come back again next session) reared its ugly head. Jacqui Smith's admission is at least a step forward from the previous attempts to provide "examples" of when 90 days detention would have been useful - examples which fell apart when examined closely ...

Making a virtue of your so called weaknesses - Possibilities for Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne

According to the media, Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne have both been naughty boys. Apparently Chris Huhne possibly (with the emphasis on possibly) put his name to an article in the 1970's asking for people to be more tolerant of some drug use, notably LSD. Whilst Nick Clegg set fire to some cacti in Germany when he was 16 years old. Surely these are both strengths to talk about, not hide. To put this in to perspective, Chris Huhne wrote an article (possibly), nothing more, nothing less. Unlike David Cameron, who prefers not to mention anything in his past associated ...

Nuclear Policy

London Liberal, Firstly I would note that our debate seems to have moved to British nuclear policy, an issue far more worthy of debate in this forum. Nuclear war, is the single greatest catastrophe that could happen to the human race short of the earth being hit by a meteorite that destroys all human life and reunites us with the dinosaurs. In 1960 CP Snow, the British scientist and politician was quoted on the front page of the New York times as saying that “unless the nuclear powers drastically disarmed, thermonuclear war within the decade was a mathematical certainty.” Although ...

A Lord Does Come in Useful

{john-lee.jpg} Dinner last night was at a South Twickenham LibDem event in a bijou bistro housed in a converted public convenience on Twickenham Green. Not at all what you might imagine. It’s a discreetly chic place, with good food and friendly service, and the place was full of local LibDem diners (plus me and Brian Paddick), and a somewhat bemused young couple who had come in to celebrate the male partner’s birthday and stayed right through the speech and questions and answers. They were justly rewarded by winning a raffle prize. The speaker was meant to be Nick Harvey, MP, LibDem ...

Labour U-turn on Renewables

Well, I guess this shows you just how committed to the environment Labour are. They only signed up to the deal in March. Interesting comments at the bottom of the Guardian's article on this: One of the main objections of government to meeting the renewables target set by Mr Blair is that it will undermine the role of the European emission trading scheme. This scheme was devised by the Treasury

Could there be a Lib Dem Granita pact?

Just floating an idea prompted slightly by a throw-away comment at the Not-the-first-hustings on Saturday about the dark days of the dual leadership of the two Davids... Why not have two leaders? Many people have commented that Chris is good on policy and strategy and Nick on presentation. On a personal level I find Chris has the sort of presence that would lend itself to armchair conversations persuading groups of our ideas (not unlike CK) and Nick the big platform speaker. We need both roles. And I still think that one weak area for Nick is economic/fiscal policy where Chris ...

Leadership Elections? My lips are sealed..............

When everyone is chatting about the leadership election and I am gagged................what to say???? Well, I have had an interesting few days in Berlin, when I was delighted that a motion I initiated on the situation of the Arab citizens of Israel was passed. But I am not convinced that the way ELDR do business is the right way. Motions are submitted, amendments follow, there are then working groups to try and reach a consensus. Votes are only taken on contentious issues, motions are passed with little or no debate. This is very unfortunate. I wanted to get a feel ...

Day 2484: Thunderballs Up

Saturday: Today, children, "Sesame Street" was brought to you by the letters "W" and "W" and by the number "3". Allegedly, when President Billary-Hillary's team left the White House in January 2001, they HILARIOUSLY sabotaged all of the keyboards, taking away the letter "W"s. Clearly, the current bunch have a similar jape in mind that will leave incoming President Hillary-Billary in need of "W"s in ABUNDANCE! This is because the Monkey-in-Chief is now so CRAZED that he is threatening World War part Three against Iran. This was supported by the ACTUAL President, Darth Cheney. And Lord Blairimort was in town ...

The West Midlands Liberal Democrats Leadership Hustings

The West Midlands Liberal Democrats Leadership Hustings will be on Saturday, October 27, 2007 at 11.45 am and will be followed by the European Selection Hustings in the afternoon.

Day 2483: It's a Two Horse, One Elephant Race!

Friday: It looks very much like there will only be two MPs challenging me for the leadership of the Liberal Democrats. Mr Hewn has launched his campaign and now Mr Clogg has launched his. They have gone "head-to-head" at the Southern Regional Conference and appeared side-by-side on Mr Andy Marrmite's BBC sofa. It is a difficult thing to have to choose between them: brains and charm, beauty and the beast – and Mr Clogg is just as good! Mr Nick Assinder wonders: Will We still be the "Lovely Party" at the end of the contest? The answer is OF COURSE ...

Tuesday 23rd October 2007

Previous days:

Archives

Search for...

Adverts

Buttons

LibDem Blog Box

Contributors

Campaigns

From the BBC...

Backlinks...

From the LibDems...

From the Independent...

From Politics.co.uk...

From the Guardian...

Adverts