LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Sunday 11th November 2007

Time to scrap forced gender voting in Lib Dem selections

The Lib Dems have an odd system for selecting candidates for European elections. For the uninitiated this means that you are forced to vote as your second preference for a female candidate if your first preference is for a male (and vice versa). This means that you might have two favourite male candidates, but one of them has to be in third place because you have to vote for a woman in second place (and again vice versa). So this mean that in the Eastern Region in the Euro Elections you had to vote for Linda Jack (who I think ...

European Parliament selections: turnout figures

Senior Returning Officer Jonathan Davies published some of these figures in a comment thread, but as they’re likely to be of some interest, here they are with some extra detail: Eastern 42.7% (-1.6% on last time) East Midlands 49.1 (+1.9) London 50.9 (+2.3) North East 63.9 (-2.7) North West 57.9 (-0.7) South East 45.4 (-3.8) South West 50.3 (+6.4) West Midlands 62.4 (+6.2) Yorkshire & [...]

Reinventing the State Chapter 9: Status versus Friendship and the Common Good

I was hoping that now we are out of the "principles" section that chapters would contain less grumbling about the state of the world, and more putting it to rights. Lynne Featherstone lets me down somewhat. The key question of the chapter is this: How can we create structures and environments the value our human good qualities more and place less importance on wealth and status?Unfortunately it

How Margaret Thatcher ruined British chess

Win a Taking Liberties DVD My posting on the leadership election using a chess analogy inspired Paul Walter to write about the Fischer vs Spassky world championship match of 1972. I was just getting into chess before it took place, so it had a huge effect on me too. It had a huge effect on many people in this country. The financier Jim Slater had put up extra money for the march when Fischer made one of his frequent threats to pull out. At about the same time Slater also offered a £5000 prize to the first British player to ...

Have I made it?

The story I posted about Linda Jack being the only woman on the East of England list for Lib Dem selection meaning she will be amongst the top 3 has been picked up by the famous Iain Dale. Does that mean I have made it in terms of blogging? Is this the first step to staring on Iain Dale's own television channel (hint hint)? Or is that it... my one and only chance, my 15 minutes of fame?

The Golden Age that isn't

I went to see Elizabeth: The Golden Age last night, a rare night out from the toddlers. Cate Blanchett is extraordinary and clearly the days of the film epic have returned. I enjoyed it, but kept my fingers crossed. I happened to hear a radio report just before about Gordon Brown’s attempt – abortive so far – to come up with a ‘motto’ for Britain. This is an interesting, but probably doomed idea, to somehow distil the meaning of what has always been a massively diverse nation. New Labour has no sense of history whatsoever. As arch-modernists, they don’t see ...

So do our politicians rely on the TV to make up their policies?

Having finished with The West Wing for the time being, for the time being being the most important part of that sentence, I am slowly watching Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister. In one episode, Smoke Screen, I was amazed to hear that the health minister was trying to get the newly elected Prime Minister to adopt some policies to reduce the amount of smoking related health problems. Of course

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #38

Welcome to the 38th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (4th - 10th November), together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed. It’s no surprise that the Clegg-Huhne leadership race is dominating the blogs. It’s perhaps also not surprising [...]

Why is Chris coasting on the environment?

This morning Nick Clegg spoke on GMTV about the need to enthuse and inspire people to tackle climate change, rather than threatening them with global disaster and, worse still, bad character development if they don’t play. By which I mean, I gather he did. I have been told so by people who know these things. Myself I was fast asleep and having one [...]

Chris or Nick ? Does it matter as we may not receive ballot papers anyway

Having posted a story an hour ago asking why I received no ballot paper for the European elections or any candidate information, it appears that it is not just mewho has been denied the opportunity to vote. Already commenters are saying that this has happened elsewhere in the country and there has been a cock up. So does it matter who I vote for in the leadership elections ? Let's face it, if we cannot organise internal elections for Euro candidates properly, in all likelihood I won't receive a ballot paper for the leadership election anyway !

Leadership Platform 1: Chris Huhne - I will lead a Liberal Revolution

Thanks to Stephen and the Lib Dem Voice editors for this chance to speak to members. The blogosphere has certainly been buzzing, and I’ve enjoyed reading a lot of posts and comments, as well as having the pleasure to meet Millennium Elephant and his friends last week. I thought I’d use this first post to show [...]

European parliament, more like eurovision!

{210px-Flag_of_Europe_svg} Can anyone throw any light on how the Liberal Democrats elected their candidates in England for the European Parliament elections in 2009? Apparently, Liberal Democrat members in the South West have elected the following candidates for those elections: 1. Graham Watson 2. Kay Barnard 3. Robin Teverson 4. Justine McGuiness 5. Humphrey Temperley 6. Paul Massey Rather worryingly, I am a Liberal Democrat member living in the South West and I can't recall voting. I do recall receiving the odd email from one or two of the candidates but that's it. Perhaps when Vince Cable says "we have selected such a strong field of ...

Reinventing the State Chapter 8: Using Community Politics to Build a Liberal Society

We now move into the "individuals, communities and the state" section of the book, with Mark Pack's spirited advocacy of community politics. He makes some similar arguments to this excellent piece by James Graham - that we need to be willing to go beyond that which generates casework, to cut ourselves out of the loop where people have the chance to engage more directly with local government. A

Scott Walker: Jackie

Win a Taking Liberties DVD This Sunday's video is a live TV performance by Scott Walker of Jacques Brel's "Jackie". Such are the wonders of YouTube that you can also enjoy a performance of the song by Brel.

Blogness

Having started this on Friday, I've found people actually read what i write, which is amazing! Also Ive started to get used to this thing so here's a picture of me; Dont I look lovely? ( also I just clicked it and I did not realise that photos from phones could be that big!) Anyway, if you want to find out more about what I do in NUS you could always go to Officer Online. Or just comment on here. Ohh I just seen there is a video option. Mind you I'm not going to run before I can walk ...

Showing off your English knowledge to feed the hungry

There's a great site here. For each definition of a word you get right, you donate ten grains of rice to the hungry (it's done via advertising). The words get harder and harder as you go along. I was disappointed that for years I thought "pusillanimous" meant "spoiling for a fight" when actually it means "cowardly". But it is great fun to guess a word's meaning from its struture and letters.

Apparently the European selections took place - Nobody informed me !

Apparently the Lib Dems have selected who will be the Lib Dem candidates in the European elections in 2009. What surprised me was that I neither received a ballot paper, any information about the candidates or any information about hustings for theses selections. I tried to find out about the elections by doing a search of the Eastern region Lib Dems website a few weeks ago but found nothing whilst publicity of events, hustings, meet the candidates events seems to have been in very short supply. It's nice to know my membership counts for absolutely bugger all ! Update: It ...

Leadership Platform 1: Nick Clegg - ‘Clegg so far’

The Campaign Team has set out a “Clegg So Far” briefing to be circulated on Monday to journalists – but Lib Dem Voice is getting a first look. Manufacturing In a Radio 5 Live hustings where Nick was the favourite candidate for all four callers he championed the cause of British manufacturing. Listen again. Affordable Housing Speaking at a [...]

Paul Linford's Top 10 Political Turning Points

Win a Taking Liberties DVDPaul Linford has posted another of his entertaining Top Tens. This one looks at the political turning points of his lifetime. At no. 1 is the "winter of discontent" of 1978/9. Having recently suggested that Jim Callaghan would have lost an election if he had called one in the autumn of 1978, I suppose that I have to query this judgement too. I would date the collapse of Labour to the party's conference in 1976. That was the conference where Denis Healey was called back from the airport - he was on his way to an ...

Smashing barriers - improving Union Council

The University of Manchester Student Union's Council is an interesting contraption; it's frequently criticised as being rather pointless. The obvious question is why is it pointless? I am going to attempt to answer that question, and propose some solutions. That question can be broken down. Is Council pointless: - because of its structure? - because of its power/responsibilities? - because it has few resources? - because of its current members? First of all, what is Council and why does it currently exist? The constitution defines Council as "sole representative of the student body of the University in all matters". It ...

Remembrance Day Parade Whickham November 2007

I laid a wreath in at the War Memorial today during the Remembrance Day service. This is the video of the procession and service.

Sunday Caption Competition - Jonathan Aitken

Anyone got a good caption to go with this picture of Jonathan Aitken leaving prison ?

Ken Livingstone should stop trying to smear Jean Charles de Menezes

Tipped off by Nich Starling, I've been reading what Ken Livingstone said on Andrew Marr's program this morning about the shooting dead of Jean Charles de Menezes. Our Ken talked about de Menezes making a movement that made the police think he was a suicide bomber. The implication of this to me is clear - it was in part de Menezes's fault for behaving like a suicide bomber and there was no mistake or misjudgement by the police - especially as Ken didn't enter into any caveats or further explanations. So let's be absolutely clear - that's nonsense. The report ...

You Decide!

Vince Cable MP is the acting Liberal Democrat Leader until the result of our leadership election is declared next month. He has published the following today about how our Parliamentary Party will app...

Phil Bennion gets to #2 on European List.

I had some great news yesterday. The results of the Selection for the West Midlands European List were counted. Now that the selection is over I can be more public in my support for Phil Bennion. I supported Phil as his campaign manager during this contest because I believe that Phil has the Experience, Expertise and Vision to make an excellent MEP, representing the West Midlands in the European Parliament. I have worked with Phil over the past 12 months and accompanied him on a visit to the European Parliament for briefings with some of our current MEP's in June. ...

Who could possibly believe this?

I think the boffins here at Home Office Watch have worked out the Home Office’s new PR strategy. It’s to make mistakes that are so absurdly over the top that no-one will believe the stories are true. After all, it would be pretty amazing wouldn’t it if it turned out the Home Office had cleared illegal immigrants work as security staff wouldn’t it? Particularly if some of them then got jobs at the Met Police. I mean who could possibly believe that?

A great piece of satire about Iraq (or the Apple iRack)

Well worth a look.

Up the Railway!

Posted by Chris: My dream tie for the second round of the FA Cup Leeds United v Harrogate Railway almost came off. Down to the last four balls in the pot and both teams still in the draw, I was sat on the edge of my seat when Leeds United or Hereford United came out. But alas, it was the monkey hangers instead of the Railway. Harrogate Railway got a home draw against Mansfield Town. It is a real shame Leeds, who have yet to get past Hereford, just missed out playing them. It would have been a huge boost ...

Clegg’s Council Tax proposals make no sense

I’m afraid my brief excitement that Nick Clegg was about to ditch local income tax proved to be groundless. As Valerie pointed out, he spelt the policy out on the Guardian website earlier this week. At least I think he did: Mr Clegg added that he is committed to replacing council tax with a local income tax, but that he wants to cut council tax for low- and middle-income families by introducing a progressive tax on those living abroad (sic - is it me or are those two clauses contradictory?). He plans to raise £1bn from non-domiciles to fund council ...

Islington's Multi-Faith Remembrance Day

Attended Islington's Remembrance Service at Islington Green this morning. As ever, I found it a very moving event, and more so this being the first Remembrance Day since I lost my father a few months ago. I felt sad that there are now so few people from his generation, those who lived through the last world war, attending the service. The service was Multi-Faith, with the various churches represented, a representative from the Jewish faith, and messages from the Islamic, Hindu, Sikh and Buddist faiths read out. Thousands of men and women of all faiths lost their lives and until ...

Another question mark over the 'Liberal' Conspiracy...

You've probably seen the debate about whether Liberal Conspiracy is particularly liberal or not. Today i'm tending to Not. Is the right place for an ex-Trotskyist in the Green Party or the Labour Party? That's today's question in search of a 'left-Liberal' answer. No mention whatsoever of the Liberal Democrats. This is a surprise because two thirds of the 'left-liberal ideas' the author, Dave Osler lays out - "libertarian social policies that would cause instant myocardial infarction among Daily Mail leader writers, a foreign policy that consistently promotes democracy and sustainable development, and the realisation that the environment is the ...

Why are Labour lining up to support Sir Ian Blair's Failings?

In the fall out following the conviction of the Metropolitan Police over the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, Ken Livingstone, in explaining why Sir Ian Blair should not resign, tells us this weekend that 'In a situation like this, mistakes are just going to happen' This is deeply worrying. Since the Government has done its best to whip up fear in all of us over the terrorist threat, the least I think we can expect is that mistakes like this WON'T happen again. Instead we see Labour politicians lining up to tell us that Sir Ian Blair must stay, ...

Once more into the fray

Notably absent for the last few weeks, this blog is back. My participation in the Euro campaign would have curtailed what I could say here, so I said nothing. Then, I had to bite my tongue through Ming’s surprise resignation, and furthermore, we were specifically forbidden from endorsing a leadership candidate (lest any return endorsement were implied). But yesterday, the votes were counted - and normal service was resumed in Wycombe. I have asked Ryan to re-instate me - and as soon as he does, I’ll tell you why I have decided to support Chris Huhne again - and about ...

iPhone Magic

Via The Daily Irrelevant:

Mark Littlewood on The Politics Show

Mark Littlewood is writing a series of six articles for the BBC's Politics Show website. Despite the fact that they began to publish him three weeks ago, which means the series will be finished&...

And the winner is .......................

{libdems2} To those still undecided as to who should be our next party leader - a word of advice. Ask your wife or partner. Confused, don't be, let me explain. Having watched the candidates on TV last week, I casually asked my wife who she thought had won the argument. That's easy she said......"Chris Huhne looked and sounded every bit the politician; smooth,confident, polished. Whereas Nick Clegg looked, sounded just like the man in the street.......pick Nick Clegg" When pressed for a reason why, she said - "Chris Huhne is no different from the rest". So there you have it - party members may ...

Voices of the few

One of the most remarkable books I have read in recent years is called The Last Post by Max Arthur. It is simply a collection of interviews with the final World War One veterans still surviving. Fourteen in total, although several passed away before publication of the book, and now only five remain. There is no analysis. No critique of their views, or detached reflection. Just the few who were there telling the stories as they remember them. I urge as many of you as possible to read this book. The BBC have done something similar now, interviewing all five remaining ...

One of these days a public event will pass without inner turmoil…

Remembrance Sunday is a solemn occasion. And rightly so. I genuinely think that it is the most important thing I do in the year as a Councillor, and I take the responsibilities of representing local people and keeping fresh the memory of military sacrifice extremely seriously. Unfortunately I am also, much of the time, unable to partake in any kind of social activity without worrying that I am doing something unforgivably terrible and so out of kilter with how normal people act that on-lookers are quite simply gawping in horror at my ineptitude. Which is another emotion to have affected ...

A New Wiki Is Born

I can hardly contain my excitement about the fact that Liberal Democrat Voice has just added a wiki. This is because I'm a very sad person, and have drunk too much caffeine this morning.

Remembrance parade

This morning I attended the annual Prestwich Remembrance Day service, this year held at the newly built Heaton Park Congregational Church. Father Croft led the service with his usual gusto, entertaining the adults and children and conveying the important and timely mesage that peace can only come about through selflessness sharing and trust. It was lovely to see so many people there representing a variety of organisations. Councillors from all political parties, our MP, representatives of the armed forces, cadets, Scouts, Guides, Brownies, St John Ambulance and others all coming together to remember the fallen and the brave men and women ...

Week 1 of the American writers strike.

As the writers strike continues the studios begin to look for ways to get the writers back at their desks, and one studio has turned to affectively attacking the other members of the Hollywood production industry. The LA Times is reporting that 102 production staff of the America version of ‘The Office’ have been fired by the shows network NBC. Production of the show had already shut down when on Monday Steve Carell refused to cross the picket line. The staff fired range from casting agents, to drivers, to the shows caterers, to the writers own assistants (who as not ...

Cute Child Endorses Cable

Vince Cable received a huge boost today as a Little Girl in a Red Dress endorsed his stint as Acting-Leader. Cable, 64, had been appearing on the Liberal Democrats’ latest ‘TV film’, also known as a ‘Party Political Broadcast’. Little Girl in a Red Dress said: “Vince has done a wonderful job at uniting the party; what should be a difficult time for the Liberal Democrats has been transformed by a wave of optimism at the prospect of a free, fair and green Britain”. Pointing at some stuff in a tray of water, she added: “This is pondlife. Remind you ...

Referendum blues

Writing on Liberal Democrat Voice, the acting leader of the Liberal Democrats, Vince Cable, has announced that the party will tomorrow table an amendment to the Government’s parliamentary motion proposing the Queen’s Speech, which will call for a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union. I am no great fan of referendums. It seems to me that they act contrary to the principles of a representative democracy, in which elected politicians are required to exercise their judgement on the basis of the facts in front of them following an informed debate. I do not believe either that such mechanisms ...

King of Spain singes Chavez's beard

When you're accusing someone of being a fascist, it helps to be taken seriously if you've never attempted to take power in a coup, if you've never suspended democracy to rule by decree (twice!), you're not planning to end presidential term limits, and you're not trying to enlist 2 million of your citizens in a military reserve. So it was ironic when Hugo Chavez (who has done all of these things) accused former Spanish Prime Minister Aznar (who hasn't) of being a fascist. After several people politely asked Chavez to shut up, the King of Spain told him to, impolitely. ...

Birmingham Remembrance Parade 2007

As usual I took photos of the remembrance parade from the VIP stand. Although there are other people who take photos I don't think anyone else posts them on the web. I also take the view that it would be good to have photographs of record that involve all the participants including the crowd. However, I have to take mine from a stationary position which is not ideal as you can see from the

Before pointing the finger at Labour, the Tories have to accept they were the first to break the military covenant

We hear much of the breaking of the military covenant at the moment. This guarantee or bond that the government will look after the military, make sure they are properly equipped and ensure that they are looked after properly if they are injured, is a fundamental principle that all governments are expected to uphold. On this day it is even more poignant and important. Let's be clear, in so many areas Labour have failed in this duty. But how on earth the Tories can point the finger is beyond me. The biggest problem at the moment is the monumental lack ...

The Leadership Contest comes to Lib Dem Voice

In the next few weeks, we’re delighted to welcome both Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne to Lib Dem Voice as twice-weekly guest contributors. Both Nick and Chris will be given a blank page of 500 words (or multimedia we can handle!) to address party members reading this site. The first contributions will be today, with regular [...]

Remembrance Sunday Service at Surbiton War Memorial

Inter Faith Group Kingston Mosque : Prayers for World Peace on Remembrance Sunday :

South American News

The King of Spain has told a fat Venezuelan to shut his piehole, after he called former President Aznar a fascist. Meanwhile, it seems Interpol are after Iran’s Deputy Defence Minister for his role in the 1994 bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina, Buenos Aries’ Jewish cultural centre. They believe that the IRGC Quds Force arranged it.

Final results

First preferences: Chris Davies 1683 Saj Karim 637 Helen Foster Grime Flo Clucas Sue Maguire Qassim Afzal N Corlett M Clayton P Hurst S Cooke After transfers the order of candidates is 1, Chris Davies 2, Saj Karim 3, Helen Foster Grime 4, Flo Clucas 5, Sue Maguire 6, Qassim Afzal 7, N Corlett 8, M Clayton 9, S Cooke Chris Davies was elected to first place on the first round. Saj Karim was elected to [...]

Lib Dems should drop the EU referendum idea

Win a Taking Liberties DVD I am sorry to see that Vince Cable is pushing ahead with the idea of calling for a referendum on British membership of the European Union. I had hoped that it would be laid quietly to rest when Ming Campbell stood down as leader. The important question is not whether Britain should be in or out of Europe: it is how the European project should develop. But I fear that question would not be raised in such a referendum campaign. Instead, the pro-European forces would concentrate on scaring people about the jobs that would be ...

Livingstone gives the lie to ID cards

I noted that Ken Livingstone on the Sunday Edition this morning stated that ID cards (at a cost of billions) wouldn’t deter one bomb. He said that the only valuable thing they will do is prevent low level criminals giving a false name and address! That’s a lot of money for something that neighbourhood policing could [...]

Oooh, Vince, how spiky you are today!

Vince Cable is going to be moving an amendment to the Queens' Speech calling for a referendum on whether we're in the EU or not. Normally I'm sceptical of us talking about Europe. However I think this time we have a point - there's no point pussyfooting around the issue . We can either be in Europe and getting the benefits of being part of the EU, or we can go back to being an independent island nation - not the world-dominating power of the 19th century, but the impoverished, divded irrelevant one of a few centuries before. If we're ...

Leadership Roadshow comes to Edinburgh

The Scottish Leadership hustings were held yesterday in the home of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the same room which housed the first 4 years' business of the Scottish Parliament. In such illustrious surroundings Nick and Chris treated us to an extremely high quality hour and a half. I am unavowedly and unashamedly backing Nick and, if anything, his performance yesterday made me wonder why on earth I'd put myself through nearly 3 weeks of tortured angst. I should have gone with what I have always known about him from those early days in the East Midlands ...

Vince Cable: we will force a referendum vote in Parliament

Tomorrow the Liberal Democrats will table an amendment to the Government’s parliamentary motion proposing the Queen’s Speech. Our amendment calls for a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union. This does not signal a change in our party’s attitude towards the Europe. We remain constructively pro-European, but we see this referendum as an [...]

Fiona Hall tops the list for Euro Elections

Fiona Hall MEP tops the list of three North East candidates selected by the Liberal Democrats to contest the Euro Elections in 2009. 1. Fiona Hall 2. Chris Foote-Wood 3. Neil Bradbury The full list for England can be viewed here.

Ken Livingstone - Propaganda Minister for the Metropolitan Police

Ken Livingstone this morning on the Andrew Marr show gave us the clearest and most obvious reason why someone else, indeed anyone else would be a better Mayor of London than him. He repeated the lie that the Metropolitan Police made and used this as a reason why Sir Ian Blair should keep his job. He said words to the effect of "If Jean Charles de Menezes had not made that move towards the Police, he might not have been shot" Sorry Ken, what move was that ? Was this the move that the two armed policemen who shot him ...

Barclays Bank - Mugabe's biggest supporter

This story in The Sunday Times today says it all. Barclays Bank, it is alleged, funded and organised Mugabe's stealing and handing over of farms to his supporters. Time for a campaign to boycott Barclays ?

The postman has got your ballot paper

Maybe they are still in the Royal Mail sorting offices...along with the Unison ballot papers asking members to strike against a below inflation pay offer which resulted in less than 1 in 4 members vot...

Week of Busyness

Hello everybody! Right, firstly yup dissy due in this week, why did I even start a blog? Any ho, other than that I'm in Bangor on Saturday which is going to be interesting. A group of officers from around Wales are trying to scrap the full time NUS Wales Womens' officer and replace it with a full time NUS Wales Welsh Language officer. As you can probably guess, I have a unique understanding of this issue! Having sat in several University of Wales meetings only to see it's demise this year. Second I'm former NUS Wales NEC so again I ...

Are the US building a case for an invasion of Iran ?

It is interesting to note today that Iran is now being directly linked to the bombing of a synagogue in Buenos Aires, with the reporters responsible for the story being based in the US, whilst Gordon Brown is being old told by the US government to be "more like the French" and to be tougher with Iran. It could just be me, but is this the start of a concerted effort by the US to build a case for invading or at least attacking Iran ? With Nicolas Sarkozy in America this week, the Americans are clearly buttering him up, ...

Congratulations Liz Lynne

Liz Lynne, the West Midlands Liberal Democrat MEP was yesterday re-selected to top our list at the next European Elections in 2009.

It was much better than it sounds (Cloud Nine - Almeida Theatre)

Trying to explain the plot of Caryl Churchill's Cloud Nine to my philistine work mates was a thankless task. I mean how hard can it be to grasp a plot where the first act is set in 19th Century colonial Africa and the second in Clapham in 1979; but only 25 years have passed for the characters. Oh and all of the actors swap roles (and in many cases genders) at the interval. I mean compared to the

iPhone: Heart versus head?

The Norfolk Blogger writes pithily and authoritatively on the iPhone: So expect the new Apple product next year to be prefixed with the letter "i" and have an Apple badge on it which will ensure it sells in massive numbers. Yes, I can reveal the next product from Apple is the Apple iDog Turd. Stephen Fry in the Guardian gives the opposite view, anticipating all the points which NB makes:

How Ian Blair and Ken Livingstone got it wrong

In amongst the debate about whether Ian Blair, London's top cop, should quit (my view? yes), not much has been said about what the IPCC investigations into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes actually found - so I thought it worth quoting in some detail some of them: [The key questions are] 'If they thought he [Jean Charles de Menezes] might have a bomb, why was he allowed twice to get on a bus and then on the tube?' 'If they thought he didn't have a bomb, why did they shoot him?' Nor must there be any attempt to ...

The Fence

If you start to read this blog regularly you will find that the Sandfields Road Fence will be a regular feature. Well, it's important to local residents. It's a constantly broken wooden fence by a local brook, which is dangerous whenever it rains. The County Council Highways people refuse to replace it, much to the frustration of us all, especially our Lib Dem County Councillor for the area, Sandie Giles, shortly to be photographed next to it, yet again, in another press release for our local papers. The real fascination for me, is how much bad publicity a Council with ...

Aitken to advise Tories - but there is a missing answer

Jonathan Aitken is to advise the Tories on prison policy. While accepting the man's "redemption", Peter Preston in the Observer asks a pertinent question: But why, years later, do you find just a twist of lemon amid the sweetness of return? Because, to this day, we still don't know why the minister we trusted to oversee our defence procurement was in Paris that long-ago weekend to meet the

Free Xmas Park and Ride

Miss the jams and take the Park & Ride bus If you want to avoid the Christmas traffic on Saturdays in Bristol, one way is to take the free Park & Ride service from UWE in Coldharbour Lane, Frenchay - just follow the "Christmas Park & Ride" signs off the Ring Road. The bus drops you on the edge of Broadmead and you can catch it back from Lewins Mead or outside the Bristol Fashion (opposite House of Fraser) Click here for the official leaflet about the service.

A leader by any other name

Another interesting letter in yesterday's Western Mail from Tory Councillor Peter Davies of Newport, father of David Davies MP, contained the following gem: For your correspondent’s information, Nicholas Bourne is not the leader of the Welsh Conservative Party, he is merely the leader of the group of twelve Conservatives in the Welsh Assembly, similar to the way those of us who are councillors elect one of our number to be the leader of our group in those bodies. I can further assure your correspondent that a number of Conservatives who voted in favour of the Assembly last time have now ...

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