LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Sunday 28th October 2007

RE: Nuclear Policy

George, First of all, a couple of clarifications in light of the much welcome comment on my last post. Whilst I concede that I was mistaken in asserting that the US was installing boost phase missile defence in Czech Republic and Poland, and am thankful for the correction, I still maintain that potentially the Czech Republic and especially Poland would make ideal locations for boost phase defence sites. The aim of such installations though would not be to deter Iran, but to deter Russia. Middle Eastern missiles could be deterred through erecting similar sites in friendly countries such as Azerbaijan. Additionally, my ...

The end of British Summer Time

Some people say we should keep British Summer Time all year round. If you are one of them, think about the question again on about 6 January. And ask yourself if you would really like it to be an hour darker and colder when you have to get up for work.

Tim Gill: Rethinking Childhood

Over the past few days Tim Gill has had a fair amount of publicity for the launch of his book No Fear: Growing Up in a Risk Averse Society. According to this press release, Gill argues: We all want to keep children safe – but are we going the right way about it? By over protecting children we stop them developing the skills and resilience they need to protect themselves – while those working with children can become so anxious about risk prevention they lose confidence in their own good judgement.Readers of this blog will know that I hold similar ...

Respect to split?

Just been `reading` Chris Paul’s polemical site and clicked on bloggers for labour. I noticed www.davidosler.com (26/10) and it seems that Respect have had a major split in Tower Hamlets. The reason why I write this is because I’m fascinated by these extreme groups and the way they fall out with each other. It’s like a window into a different world. It’s almost as if they live in a safe fairy tale existence where falling out doesn’t matter as there was nothing serious there in the first place.

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #36

Welcome to the 36th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (21st-27th October), together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed. The leadership election rather unsurprisingly dominated the week - get used to it… there’s another seven weeks to go. [...]

Islington Lunch with the Chain-gang

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Statistics is Clegg/Huhne speeches

James Graham, in a thorough review of Nick Clegg’s current platform, suggests Chris Huhne should avoid using statistics. I don’t agree with James’ source that Chris gave the recent Newbury audience a pile of stats. While I didn’t take notes it wasn’t something I felt myself and I am pretty sure he only gave one statistic: the increase in tax regulations under Labour from 4kg to 6kg. I actually think that using that statistic is good. It evokes an effective image of Brown piling dead weight on hard working families and small businesses. James challenges Chris not to use any statistics in his next speech ...

Vince Cable boycotts Saudi state visit

I welcome the news that acting Lib Dem leader Vince Cable MP is to boycott this week's state visit to Britain by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, due to Lib Dem opposition to the Al Yamamah arms deal. It is reported that Vince has declined to meet King Abdullah or attend a banquet by the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

Can someone explain to me why Ricky Gervais has an acting career?

I went to see Stardust on Thursday and despite having low expectations of it, loved it. Getting the balance of humour and fantasy right so that it doesn’t look like self-indulgent nonsense is tricky and I think they even just about managed to pull off Robert De Niro in a dress. But one thing spoiled it for me: Ricky Gervais’ cameo. This was basically David Brent in a silly hat and stood out like a sore thumb. It reminded me of Paul Heiney’s cameo in 1985’s Water. Paul Heiney was a That’s Life presenter who made a series called In ...

Bafflement over English committee proposals

One of Gordon Brown's proposals for constitutional reform set out on 2nd July this year was a "Commons committee for each English region". (Indeed, the Liberal Democrats have long proposed a constitutional convention to sort out the "West Lothian question" amongst other points). That is not a million miles from the proposal today from the Conservatives for an English Grand Committee. So I am a

Opinion: Is Sir David Steel the New Messiah?

Books and newspapers are filled with news and debate about crime. As far as I can tell from the evidence, crime in the UK peaked in 1995, dropped sharply up to 2000 and has dropped more slowly since. There are variations for individual categories of crime, and the whole business is complicated by changes in [...]

Leadership isn't everything

This post at Stumbling and Mumbling (a blog I highly recommend) provides a timely reminder of the risks of leader-worship. It's important to remember that a leader is dependent upon many other individuals and many situational factors go into determining his achievements. This can be added to my reasons for not declaring in favour of a candidate just yet. Candidates should be evaluated on their performance, not some intrinsic 'gift' for leadership that can inspire a following out of thin air.

First Leadership Hustings

I attended the first of the leadership hustings in Rugby yesterday. This was a chance for both candidates to outline their vision for the party. It was also an opportunity for members across the West Midlands to question each candidate on a range of issues from policy, party organisation and their vision for the future of the party. This is going to be a tough choice for all members and we are fortunate in that we have two very talented candidates. Chris Huhne has led the parties green agenda, which has stood out from amongst the other parties and received ...

It's another "What are you ... " blog quiz

I like this little blog test/quiz thing. My favourite colour is blue, so I am amazed to find that this accurately predicted I am blue. Give it a try. You are most like: You are Blue You are cool and soothing, with a hidden spontanious side. You are deeper than most people percieve, and you care a lot for those whom you surround yourself with. Take this quiz: Which Crayola Box of 8 Color Are You? Visit Toys For Your Blog.com for more blog quizzes

What Happens On Facebook Stays On Facebook

Charlotte Gore raises an important point about Facebook's political categories and the debate going forward (although missing the reason why those categories are the way they are, namely that Facebook is American and wouldn't know a socialist if Bernie Sanders hit it with one.) Charlotte has perhaps also missed one of the wonders of Facebook, in that the numbers to inform the answer are but a

Youngster's "bike ride sponsorship" scam

It appears there is a scam going on throughout Chipping Sodbury, Yate and Dodington, relating to a young girl seeking sponsorship money for a sponsored “Bike Ride”. She usually goes by the name of Natasha, Natalie, or something similar. The girl is knocking at random doors and claiming to be someone with ‘Special Needs at Chipping Sodbury School’. Fortunately, the Head of Year at Chipping Sodbury School realised she was not a student, and what's more there are no sponsorship events even running. The form looks very official (with the school logos and everything).The police have been alerted and are ...

Tooth Review: 1560 (obligatory spoiler warning)

Three old staples return. Dredd and Button Man are on good form as well. Cover (image to come): Nikolai Dante by Kev Crossley. Competent but nothing to blow you away. Spoilers below… (more…) Share This

LDYS Conference in Quite Good Actually Shock

So LDYS conference this weekend was actually quite good. I'm sure this will come as a surprise to many people. I have to say it was a bit of a suprise to me... The quality of the guest speakers was very high - particularly Ed Davey and Andrew Dakers. There was a lot of training about campaigning and branch building - that aspect of the conference felt like we were starting to get it right, after several years of not doing so. What's more, LDYS actually turned down a chance to call for legalising more drugs. The leadership hustings, added ...

Facebook Political Catagories

I still find it amusing that the political catagories for Facebook profiles has a ‘liberal’ to ‘conservative’ axis rather than a ’socialist to conservative’ axis - which is what ‘left’ versus ‘right’ is, by the way. This is a new and interesting for the British public. For the Liberal Democrats to win a general election, “Are you liberal or conservative?” needs to become *the* question asked. It is a dangerous question. 80% of the BBC described themselves as liberal - quite unusual considering the charge that they’re supporters of a highly conservative quasi-socialist Labour government. The fact is all of ...

Why did Chris keep quiet over the Harrogate Trident vote?

Nick Clegg supporter Linda Jack has asked a very good question: why did Chris Huhne not speak at last Spring conference, when the Trident fudge was proposed by the leadership? I thought this deserved an answer, so I phoned Chris this afternoon. He said that he had not changed his mind from the last leadership contest, but Ming had made it clear that this was a key issue for his leadership and that there was shadow cabinet collective responsibility on the matter. Moreover, the position effectively postponed a decision to 2010 at the time of the non-proliferation treaty review. As ...

Green Electricity

We switched to a green electricity supplier today. It's pretty hard to choose between them, because they all have such different approches. In the end, we went with Ecotricity because they were top of the listing at WhichGreen.org. The listing compares the suppliers by the amount of new renewable energy that they're building, adjusted for the number of customers they have. Some resellers don't do any building, so they don't do very well in this rating. Ecotricity, on the other hand, topped this league for the third year running - they were 10 times better than the number 2!

Brown On Cameron

The Observer publishes this: Brown has said to MPs: ‘The guy reads out a script, with a studio audience behind him. And it’s the same script and the same response, no matter what answer you give him. It’s not parliamentary debate: it’s just soap opera and soundbites. I’m not going to do that rubbish.’ Brown raises an interesting point. Blair, in PMQ’s, used to have a standard way of dealing with every single question thrown to him. Question comes in. Identify which policy/policy area the question relates to: the NHS. Law and Order. Terrorism, etc.. Respond to question by repeating ...

Still Questions for Chris Huhne on Trident

Thanks to those of you who tried to answer on Chris's behalf. But that still doesn't answer the question about why he kept quiet during the debate. I have heard that at the hustings at the LDYS yesterday he reiterated that a) he didn't see the case for Trident AFTER the multilateral talks starting in 2010 (which equates current party policy) and b) he still believes in a replacement (if an independent one) for Trident. So the obvious questions which Chris hasn't answered as yet - does he believe in scrapping Trident now? If only after the multilateral talks what's ...

Ming the clam is ‘oldest animal’

From the BBC website The cartoonists must be kicking themselves that he isn’t around anymore!

Blackmail is a crime but selling to a newspaper isn’t.

The royal blackmail story exposes the hypocrisy of our society’s deference to the mass media. The facts of the case seem to be that someone claimed to have a tape of a member of the royal family behaving scandalously and threatend to release it unless Buckingham Palace paid them a sum of money. They have been arrested, charged, and an Old Bailey trial awaits. Of course, if they had simply gone and sold it to the News of the World or some other tabloid they would have received a large sum and not have broken the law. It seems to me difficult to reconcile the position where one but not the other ...

Olympic rowing course run dry

An interesting thread on the rec.sport.rowing messageboards here. The Olympic rowing venue in Beijing has run dry due to drought. The Beijing authorities are going to divert another river to replenish it. The course is in the arid, urban region Shunyi of Beijing so natural run-off to replenish the it is practically non-existent. This is bad planning that could have been caught from the start, but neither the IOC nor the Beijing committee have done anything. So for the rowers going to Beijing, not only are the already going to have to deal with breathing difficulties from the massive pollution, ...

Blackmail, Sex, and Drugs at the Palace

I just heard the BBC say, “The person said to be on the videotape [snorting opiates, performing sexual acts] was not the Queen.” I didn’t really imagine that it would be!

ITV Thames Valley report on 6a bus victory

We’ve finally had confirmation that we’ve stopped the County Council completely cutting the 6A. After a huge amount of pressure, the 10.10 and 12.10 services have been saved. It’s taken a lot of hard work to get the County Council to see some sense on this. The 6A is a service that was designed to support elderly and vulnerable people living in sheltered accomodation and it was a disgrace that the Conservatives on the County Council ever considered cutting it. We will still be campaigning for more than two services a day, but this is already huge progress. You can ...

Sunday caption competition

Come on then, let's have your ideas for this picture of Alex Salmond. Best suggested line gets free entry to Tate Modern. Second place gets two free entries, etc, etc.

Derek Conway expenses

A correspondent reminds me not to forget the story of Derek Conway paying his son out of parliamentary expenses. You can actually find the story if you click on the Derek Conway label at the bottom of this story - the Sunday Times link is particularly worth a read.

It's not migrant workers we should criticise

I know you don't have to go to London to understand the value this country gains from migrant workers, Indeed, here in Norfolk large elements of the economy are dependent on workers from the EU. Companies like Bernard Matthews, Kinnerton Chocolates and various others, most notably in food production and agriculture, are utterly dependent on workers from Poland and Portugal. However, I was astonished by the state of dependency on migrant workers in London. Aside from when we went to the theatre (where all the staff appeared to be British), every bar, coffee shop, restaurant, indeed, even our hotel, was ...

Electoral Calculus adapts

It's always welcome when an organisation responds positively and quickly to criticism. The Electoral Calculus website forecasts the outcome of British General Elections based on current polls. Earlier this month, I and a number of others raised some questions about their forecast of zero Liberal Democrat seats on a straight swing model. In response they have created a new forecasting model, that takes account of strong and weak support for parties. This now puts the Liberal Democrats on 16 seat on a similar poll ratings to the previous prediction. Still I suspect far too low, but a welcome move in ...

Pressing the nuclear option

I find myself in part-agreement with James Graham on quaequam blog this morning. Leadership candidate Chris Huhne has announced, that if elected, he would change party policy towards scrapping Trident, a development of a position first mooted in the last leadership contest in 2006. James comments: "For all my criticisms of Clegg for demanding the party move out of its comfort zone and reaching out beyond our supporter base and then not doing so, I agree with the sentiment. Kickstarting a debate about Trident doesn’t do either, although it does at least address one of my major concerns which is ...

Trident: The Only 2006 Huhne Policy Left Undone

Is Chris a new convert on opposing Trident replacement? No - we have the newspaper quotes below. Hywel asks on this site what Chris said in the 2006 leadership election on the issue. In the 2006 campaign, Chris majored on four big policy ideas. The first was a green tax switch, which the party later adopted. The next was that troops in Iraq were part of the problem, not solution, and should be withdrawn. Ming came to the same conclusion, and made it party policy. Thirdly, Huhne called for a Freedom Bill to repeal attacks on civil liberties. Nick Clegg ...

Clegg & Huhne disagree on Trident... so what?

There has been much made of an apparent difference in policy position between Chris Huhne and Nick Clegg, on the issue of Trident. You can read just some of the blog posts here, here and here. But, so what? Last time I checked, unlike the other two parties, it was delegates voting at conference that made our policy - not the party leader. Part of the excitement at this "disagreement" might be a desire to inject some news into what is necessarily a relatively dull - but very important - contest. And don't get me wrong, personal policy views from ...

Huhne: is Trident the right issue?

Chris Huhne clearly believes the Trident issue is key to his success and yesterday I was sent an email from Duncan Brack, Chair of the Federal Conference Committee, endorsing him specifically for this reason. They may well be right and they are certainly right that our current policy of sitting squarely on the fence in the hope that we never have to make a difficult decision is unsustainable. I certainly don’t share Linda Jack’s cynicism - if you are a senior cabinet member you must choose your battles carefully, especially when you have a vulnerable leader and rivals who are ...

Reclaiming liberty in order to destroy it

I find this quite perplexing: ‘Gordon is trying to build up a systematic argument in a slow burn,’ one cabinet minister said. ‘If you talk about Britain’s, and his, commitment to liberty, then you provide a context for further debates about issues such as 90 days [for detention without charge.] It is a new approach. Under Tony, the 90-day idea came out of nowhere.’ A change on detention without charge - doubling the current limit of 28 days to 56 - is likely to be signalled in the Queen’s Speech once Brown’s message on liberty has been digested. So, basically, ...

Interruption of service - for some of you

The 27.6% of you trying to access this site with Internet Explorer 7 (at least - I'm not sure about the other 35.2% using IE6) may have been experiencing problems access my site recently. It appears that when I added a module to make the list of blogs down the left hand side collapsable so as not to take up so much space IE7 didn't like some of its Javascript. Only one of you contacted me to say there was a problem but since I could reproduce the error 100% of the time when I did look at the site ...

Derek Conway joins the Bexley Tory gravy train

I see from the Kent on Sunday that Old Bexley & Sidcup MP Derek Conway is the most expensive MP in Kent. To be fair on poor Derek, as he points out he is not a Kent MP, he is a London MP. Of the £140,943 he claimed, £22,060 was for a second home in the centre of town. As a Bexley resident I use the train home from Charing Cross (or Waterloo East if you nip down the Jubilee line from Westminster),

Chris’s website redesigned and relaunched

Now he’s an official candidate, the Chris2Win website has been given a new lick of paint and a new design. There’s also new content there, including statements from Welsh MPs Roger Williams (Brecon and Radnor) and Mark Williams (Ceredigion). Roger says: I’m pleased to say that I will be supporting Chris Huhne. I feel that he will be a champion of liberal values and provide strong leadership with a sense of purpose; He will make it clear to people what the Liberal Democrats stand for and will make a fairer and more democratic Britain. Chris has experience of the world ...

Trident.......when exactly was Huhne converted?

As I hinted at yesterday, there was not much to choose in policy terms between Nick and Chris, they even used the same words on occasions. This therefore means that the only issue, touched on by Chris but not Nick, was Trident. Chris, expectedly, got huge support in the hall when he spoke of his position on Trident. The truth is that the grassroots of the party are against our policy position. Had the parliamentarians and PPC's not been whipped last year I believe the motion would have been lost. I am of course delighted that Chris has taken this ...

Thank goodness - a difference on a policy that matters

Up until now the LibDem leadership contest could be called the "fag paper" election - it has been very difficult to put a fag paper between the two candidates on most issues and criteria. Thank goodness we now have two major differences (one of emphasis) on matters of policy. Duncan Borrowman points out that Chris Huhne (note please that I don't call him "Chris") has started putting real

Praise for the Tories

I fully support calls for an English Parliament, but short of that, I have to give praise for the Tories who are considering giving only English MP's the right to vote on issues that affect England only. Not only is their a democratic deficit, at present, for those of us living in England, where because of government formulae Scotland gets more money spent on its residents, per head, than English voters, but there is a growing feeling amongst English people that we are somehow the second class citizens of this land. The Tories have worked this out and, I believe, ...

The Rose Go Marching On

Well the Scottish Junior Cup holders are making the most of the new set up for the Scottish Cup. Following up their 6-0 win down at Newton Stewart in the first round Linlithgow Rose took on East of Scotland League side Spartans. Spartans are no slouches in the Scottish Cup. In 2005-6 they beat league sides Berwick Rangers and Queen's Park (sadly not at Hampden) before holding St. Mirren (who

Rugby hustings reports

Both The Independent on Sunday and BBC News have articles about the Rugby hustings. If you were there, then please use the comments section to let us know your opinions on them.

Cameron gaffe

The Mail on Sunday reports: David Cameron was accused of a politically incorrect gaffe last night over a lighthearted remark he made about one-legged Lithuanians at a meeting with leading figures in the arts world. Labour said the Tory leader was guilty of "crass insensitivity" after the comment, made at an Arts Council lunch on Tuesday, was leaked to The Mail on Sunday. According to Arts

Pathway from Rosefield Place and Bankmill Road

Pleased to advise that the City Council has removed graffiti from the walls here, following my passing on residents' complaints.

I’m backing Sherwood Forest

I’m backing Sherwood Forest’s bid to win £50m of lottery funding. I’m always suspicious of big-money Government projects but the money will go to one of the four projects and I am backing Sherwood Forest because of its commitment to: Community access and involvement Environmental sustainability Expansion of the forest itself Promotion of a sense of pride in the locality and the values it represents You can find out more at www.robinhood.co.uk and I have also joined the group supporting Sherwood’s bid over at www.facebook.com I’ll be voting for Sherwood Forest when the vote is launched (the companies running the ...

Huhne nukes Trident fudge

Chris Huhne has this weekend admitted a key difference between himself and Nick Clegg over defence policy. While both resist Labour’s enthusiasm for the ‘Son of Star Wars’ project, Chris has said he regrets the party’s stance on the replacement of Trident nuclear weapons. Nick supports the current policy of waiting to make a decision, rather than declaring one way or the other now. In an interview with the Observer, Chris outlines why he thinks new Trident would be a bad buy and that the Liberal Democrats cannot afford to sit on the fence.

Liberalism vs. Progressivism

The ever worth reading Simon Kovar has written a very interesting review of an IPPR pamphlet on the interaction of 'liberalism' and 'progressivism'. The introduction by Margo is available on the IPPR website, but Kovar's analysis is spot-on. I suggest that you all go read it.

Is it the Nick Huhne or the Chris Clegg Show?..........continued........

OK.....I have returned, unscarred from my Murder Mystery. Totally confused it has to be said, I was convinced it was me what dun it, with the help of course of Captain Pastings............ So, where was I? Q - I think this was something about priorities? Nick talked about his Freedom Bill, and that one of our first acts in power should be to remove a swathe of laws. He touched on ID cards, the DNA database, the right to protest. He talked about the research he had done, widely reported, to discover that there were 3,400 new criminal offences. He ...

Clegg-vision, and an apology

Charlotte Gore mentioned that Nick Clegg has provided us with a 4000 word (I'll take her word for it) treatise on his "Vision for Britain" and so I went in search of this document to have a look. I have to agree with her lament that Chris has, as yet, not produced something similar, though you'll remember my disdain for people with "visions" when actually i want government and politicians to interfere less, but I suppose when you are claiming that your vision actually involves government and politicians interfering less it is forgivable! I do think Chris needs to produce ...

Rachid Taha: Rock El Casbah

Now that I am into this embedding videos thing, here is a current favourite song. This is a live version, recorded with Mick Jones from The Clash.

Craig Murray's blog is down

Does anyone know why? (It ought to be here.)

Duncan Brack: Get off the fence with Chris Huhne

Duncan Brack, the Chair of the Federal Conference Committee and co-editor of Reinventing the State: Social Liberalism for the 21st Century, has today joined Chris Huhne’s campaign team. In an e-mail, he wrote: Dear Colleague, We find ourselves with an important choice for the Liberal Democrats in picking a new leader. I have made my choice and have joined Chris Huhne’s campaign team. I was delighted to hear yesterday that David Steel, Liberal Party leader 1976-88, has also decided to endorse Chris. I was the party’s first-ever Policy Director, from 1988 to 1994, and for me, the Liberal Democrats always ...

Why Gladiator is way better than Elizabeth

I am too afraid of commitment to go to the cinema very often. Going to see a film involves sacrificing time and money with no certain guarantee that enjoyment will result. If I start a book and don’t like it, I can put it down again. If I go to the pub and it’s no fun, I can leave. If I watch a film on tellybox and it only half holds my attention, I can make some tea or paint my nails, read the IKEA catalogue or do a bit of blogging perhaps. But to walk out of a cinema ...

OBSERVER Huhne: I would scrap Trident

This story in the Observer confirms my view expressed earlier tonight.

Embedding Stanley Unwin

I am beginning to see why the young people make so much fuss about this Internet thing. Two weeks ago I pointed you to a clip of the immortal Stanley Unwin on Youtube. If you visit that page now you will find that I have embedded the video. Deep joy.

New target for vandals - street cabinets

The metal cabinets you see by the roadside are either electricity, BT phones or cable TV/phones. A couple of weeks ago a BT cabinet in Harescombe was pushed right over during the night. In the latest incident on Wednesday the Virgin (ex Telewest and Blueyonder) phone box between Blaisdon and Woodchester was damaged by fireworks and burnt out inside. Cable phones in the area are off until Sunday or Monday because of the repairs needed.

Did you put your clocks back?

I don't know about you, but when this time of the year comes around I spend the extra hour looking for all the clocks and the gadgets with clocks in and resetting them, so I don't gain an hour at all. And what's more, when we return to Summer Time I lose one hour because of the change, and another hour looking for the clocks and things again. Multiply that by however million households in the country... Mind you, I've got a radio that I only ever use when I go abroad in the summer. So I leave it permanently ...

Sunday 28th October 2007

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