LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Monday 12th November 2007

18 Doughty Street: crawling into the chrysalis

I’ve just got back from appearing on what it turns out was the last ever Blogger TV. 18 Doughty Street is, well, the best way I can think of putting it is that it is about to enter a chrysalis from which it will spend the next couple of months changing into something else. Whether it emerges into a beautiful butterfly or a moth remains to be seen. In all seriousness, I’m pleased for them. It certainly does appear that this is a move forward. Their studios are to move to Westminster, they’re planning to step up the news content ...

Reminder: Win a Taking Liberties DVD

Enter the Liberal England quiz and win a Taking Liberties DVD. A few minutes with Google could bring you hours of pleasure.

Wars Never End

Regardless of my overt support for Nick Clegg, as the brother of a serving soldier I was absolutely delighted to see that should he be elected as our leader he will be taking the issue of the treatment of our servicemen and women seriously through the establishment of a Military Convenant Commission. Remembrance Sunday should not be merely to remember the dead but also to remember the mained and injured (both physically and mentally) who have returned from Britain's military engagements over the years. Nick has rightly identified that our treatment of armed forces personnel, present and past, is pretty ...

Culprit found for fire at London Olympic site

Honestly, all Lord Coe was doing was testing the Olympic flame.

Community day for the anniversary

Today is the 26th anniversary of my election to Stockton Council ! My life has never been the same since - and neither has the Council - but that was the point of that by election. I've spent it where I belong, amongst the community I represent. Too many issues and problems there still, but, it is where I wanted to be. I won't elaborate on the problems, the "Inspectors" are in at...

Packmores Trees & Community Base

I popped into the Packmores area residents meeting this evening. The main discussion were the tree's in some of the nearby roads. Listening to the residents and looking at the trees and pavements its easy to see the cause of the problem. If you look at the trees its clear they used to be cropped to about half their current height. Some years ago funding was cut and this stopped. The trees have grown and this has caused problems with leaves clogging gutters, blocking light into homes and the roots have grown bringing up the pavements. People in this road ...

Bird Flu in Norfolk - Someone should tell the press this is not just a problem for farmers

It seems odd that the press are so blissfully unaware of the potential for bird flu to transfer itself in to a killer form of flu that will affect humans and kill millions. Experts warn that 30-150 million people worldwide will die from a mutated version of the H5N1 flu bug when it does eventually spread between humans easily. Yet the press reports the outbreak in a Norfolk poultry farm as though it is a minor incident. With each outbreak the chance of it being caught be a human increased, and if it is caught by a human with human ...

Can’t attend a leadership hustings in person?

There are eight hustings taking place across the country in which Chris Huhne and Nick Clegg will get to make their case to Lib Dem members. But there are other opportunities to see the candidate put through their paces. On TV Thursday, 15th November (BBC1, 10.35 pm): Question Time Lib Dem leadership special. This is, without doubt, [...]

The special relationship

-Your citizens are subject to unequal extradition rules forced on you by your partner; -Your partner keeps dragging you into needless conflicts and wars of conquest; -Your soldiers are routinely killed in ‘accidents’ perpetrated by your partner’s ill-trained troops; -Your ‘independent’ nuclear arsenal is under the control of your partner; -Your partner welcomes your flirty French neighbour, with whom he has been in conflict with for decades and with whom he disagrees on many fundamentals, with open arms; -But after all this, your partner brings you a box of chocs and some flowers and tells you you’re special… In a ...

The giddy heights of 14th

Yesterday's football at White Hart Lane was a lot better than it has been for much of the season, even though it was a pretty cold, wintry day, as you can see from the photo of Michael Dawson above. Maybe it's a bit too early to get that excited about what could be the revival of fortunes we're looking for - after all, Wigan were really very poor (worse than Derby earlier this season) and it was still only our second league win - but it was nice to be able to have a rare celebratory pint at Bootlaces after ...

Parliament goes green but should it go to bedfordshire instead?

The Guardian today reported on plans to introduce new environmental measures for Parliament to reduce its carbon footprint, including the possible introduction of bore holes for water, tidal power at what is apparently a very good spot for such technology and a rather large wind turbine in the neighbouring park, Victoria Gardens. The newspaper states the bleeding obvious when it says that ‘there is likely to strong opposition’ from the various groups who want us to live in a rapidly overheating but oh-so-pretty museum. It would be nice to think that these plans would be taken forward but I remain ...

Tories in sensible prisons policy shock

News that Jonathan Aitken is to advise the Tories on penal reform policy has been met with scorn by Labour Whip Tom Watson, who said: "Next week, Jeffrey Archer heads the truth and reconciliation commission, Neil Hamilton on modernising parliamentary scrutiny, and Shirley Porter reviews London housing." Well, far be it from me to disagree with a representative of this far-sighted and oh-so-cerebral government but this seems like an eminently practical decision on behalf of the Tory Centre for Social Justice, Ian Duncan Smith’s think tank. The work of IDS since he was ousted in favour of Michael Howard is ...

Reinventing the State Chapter 10: The Politics of Parenting: Confronting the F Word

Matthew "two chapters" Taylor returns with a chapter about how marvellous parents are for children. In terms of policy it is crucial that welfare provision does not punish couples in relation to lone parents, but given the advantages to children of two-parent models [3 would be greedy], the state must take pains to ensure that tax and benefits do not discourage it, and that we do not allow the

Remembering the second victim - Stefan Kiszko

On the day that Lesley Molseed's real killer was convicted, we ought to remember the innocent man who served 16 years in prison, found guilty of her murder, and released after multiple appeals, only to die a year after his release, Stefan Kiszko. Despite having broken his ankle a few weeks earlier meaning he could never have climbed to where Lesley Molseed's body was found (evidence hidden and suppressed by the Police) and being medically impotent, meaning he could not have left semen stains on her clothing (again, evidence hidden by the police), Stefan Kiszko was found guilty by a ...

EU/Israel Trade Agreement

WeIl, it certainly looks very unikely I will ever get a reply to the question I set both Team Clegg and Team Huhne. However, forever the eternal optimist, I thought I would try my luck on the blogosphere - I understand Chris Huhne has personally replied to a question over on Alix Mortimer?s blog, so maybe they will pop up in person to answer mine. So, if you are reading this Chris and Nick. My question to you is: What is your position on the ME motion passed at conference and would you support an amendment to suspend the EU/Israel ...

Children, ADHD and Ritalin

Win a Taking Liberties DVD This evening the BBC1 Panorama programme is showing a documentary on the prescription of Ritalin to children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. This seems an appropriate time to reproduce an article of mine that was published in Open Mind magazine (issue 123, October/September 2003) four years ago. Always on the Go A psychologist I know gives her last lecture of each year on a paper entitled ‘The aetiology and treatment of childhood’. It describes a worrying condition, with symptoms like short stature, emotional immaturity and a reluctance to eat vegetables – or ‘legume anorexia’. ...

Never let the facts get in the way of Labour propaganda

The conviction today, 32 years after Lesley Molseed was murdered, of her killer is an example of fantastic work by the police and highlight how valuable DNA evidence is in catching criminals. However, the facts of this case have been twisted by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith in a cynical way. On BBC Five Live earlier the Home Secretary said that the reason Ronald Castree was caught was because his DNA had been kept on the DNA register, which enabled the police to subsequently find a match to Lesley Molseed, which led to his conviction. This sounds great, but it is ...

Those blog comments we all love to read

Seeing the title of this post by Alix Mortimer reminded me of the reason I am trying to avoid reading the comments on websites such as Political Betting and UK Polling Report at the moment. They are getting so repetitive, and usually run along the following lines: Original post: Don’t you think the new Liberal [...]

Iran: Why America Needs the United Nations

The USA, and possibly this country, could be heading to war with Iran, for all the reasons we've head before in relation to another Middle East country – Weapons of Mass Destruction, links to terrorist atrocities and a dictator generally hell-bent on destroying Western civilisation. Some people say that the US has real concerns about Iran and the stability of the world, but personally I believe

David Cameron speaks sense about the issue of rape. But why do I doubt his statistics ?

For probably the first time, I am in almost complete agreement with David Cameron on the announcements he made today about the appalling conviction rates we have in this country when it comes to rape cases. What makes the figures even worse is the large number of unreported rapes where people don't go to the police because they know that the chance of a convictions is negligible. I had a close friend who was raped whilst at University. She was brave enough to tell her friends, but as a student of law, she knew that the amount of evidence in ...

All About My Mother

On Friday night went to see All About My Mother at the Old Vic. I'm a big fan of Pedro Almodovar's films, but this was the first time I'd seen one adapted for the stage. It was excellent, brilliantly done and acted. You've all got less than two weeks to catch it before it closes. Go see it now. Quickly before November 24th.

Why no debate about the leadership candidates cars?

Funny isn't it how during the last leadership election, the media made a big thing about the candidates cars. But this time ... nothing! No doubt Chris Huhne and Nick Clegg have appropriate cars this time, so nothing to write about. Last time it was Ming who was caught out. The Liberal Democrats consider global warming the most important issue of all, so how can Ming drive a Jag? Well the logic took over, and he got rid of it ... carefully. But it is worth considering how this impacts on another Lib Dem theme, one pushed by the very ...

Is Chris Huhne trying to smear Nick Clegg?

There’s some quite heated debate going on about whether Huhne is attempting to ’smear’ Clegg by alleging that he is supporting unpopular policies which he is in fact not advocating. So here’s the evidence, so you can decide for yourself if you think that’s what’s going on. The facts are: (more…)

Norman Baker: The Strange Death of David Kelly

Win a Taking Liberties DVD Yesterday's Sunday Times had a respectful review of Norman Baker's new book The Strange Death of David Kelly. The review was written by Nick Rufford, who says: At least half the readers of this book will suspect Kelly was murdered; for them, Baker provides plenty of support.For those who share my scepticism, however, it’s still an important work. You don’t need to be a conspiracy theorist to conclude that something murky was going on behind closed doors in Whitehall. Hutton’s remit was too narrow ever to get to the bottom of it.As an exploration of ...

European selection controversy rolls on...

Lots of posts flying around the blog world regarding the Lib Dem selection of their European candidates. The problem with having a gender balance is that it is not a truly open election, especially if there is only one man or one woman standing. If I didn't think the only male or female candidate shared the same values as me, I would only have 2 votes (1st and 2nd preference), anything below

Why I’m Still Backing Chris - 1

Because Labour and the Tories don’t want us to. Readers with long memories will remember that I backed Chris Huhne last time we had a leadership election. At that time, people were saying ‘Chris Who’ rather a lot. But Chris gained ground at a terrific rate once people began to see just who Chris was. Since then, I bet there are quite a few who regret not backing him then. I am convinced that had we done so, we would be in a quite different position now. Whether we like it or not, the public look at the three leaders ...

Green Council wins apple

Redcar and Cleveland Council in partnership with its highways partner Alfred McAlpine Government Services have won a bronze green apple environmental award at the House of Commons. The success came in the Building and Construction category of the national Green Apple Awards, now in their 14th year, which highlight best practices in various industries covering environmental initiatives. McAlpine met the criteria by the selection of environmentally friendly materials and recycling residual waste from both the office and roadworks on site.

The Conscience of a Liberal

Michael Tomasky is one of the writers on American politics that I enjoy most. I used to read him when he was at The American Prospect, and I enjoy reading him in the New York Review of Books now. Therefore, I was delighted that he had decided to review a book by one of the authors who I also admire a great deal: Paul Krugman. Krugman is an economist from Princeton who is unsparing on those that parrot populist nonsense at the expense of evidence-backed conclusions. His latest book, 'The Conscience of a Liberal', is a collection of historical chapters ...

How do Chris & Nick do it?

Reading Charlotte Gore's blog entry earlier today made me think...how are MPs coping with their internet inboxes? Don't they have 'real' campaigning on their 'to do' list? What is 'real' c...

Anyone know what the Tory party’s policy on Europe is today?

Last month, David Cameron went to great obfuscatory pains to refuse to give a straight answer to journalists asking if the Tory party would offer a post-ratification referendum on the EU Reform Treaty if they found themselves in government - a position not helped by a member of his shadow cabinet promising “absolutely” that the [...]

Cameron: Rape as Political Football

In one sense I'm glad to see that David Cameron is trying to address the issues I raised five months ago. However his announcement today, widely spun as "Tougher Rape Laws", was pure politics, aimed at securing his still flaky support on the Conservative right. However let's do something radical and look at what Cameron said. His speech (PDF) is here. There are three recommendations: Review sentencing for rapists, on the grounds that rape sentences have been falling. I can't see any evidence that sentences have been falling. As things stand, rape is one of the most serious criminal offences: ...

North London line - good news at last?

It’s good news that the new ‘London Overground’ promises that North London line services through Canonbury, Highbury & Islington and Caledonian Road & Barnsbury will finally accept Oystercards. This should end the nonsense where passengers who had prepaid to travel and passed through the ticket barrier still got hammered with penalty fares. Now we need the [...]

Nick Clegg is storming ahead

Nick Clegg has reported that more than 1500 supporters have now signed up to back his bid to become Leader of the Liberal Democrats. On Facebook too, Nick is in the lead. 'Nick Clegg for Leader' currently has 729 members, whilst Chris Huhne has 316. The latest big endorsement came last week when Baroness Shirley Williams announced that she was backing Nick.

Aberavon leisure attraction delay

The Evening Post is reporting that there are further difficulties at the 10-pin bowling alley development at Hollywood Park. Is this going to be, like Swansea, a case of another Labour fiefdom, another leisure centre crisis?

Parking, litter-picking and tidy-mindedness

A good session helping Winchester Litterpickers at the station this morning. They meet every Monday at 9.30 a.m. on the Station forecourt - anyone who wants to help is very welcome - equipment will be provided if you don’t already have a litter picker of your own. It’s both amazing and depressing how much litter can build up in a week - and very satisfying to help pick it all up. The Litter Pickers are a great institution and make a really important (and noticeable) difference to the city: it was excellent that John Green-Wilkinson’s role in setting up the ...

Cameron on Rape

I agree with most of what David Cameron says about rape. It is an appalling crime, and many people adopt an attitude to it that is far too relaxed. The conviction rates are also in serious need of examination. But I just want to make two quick points: Firstly, I wish he would stop citing everything as an example of a general "moral collapse" in a way that rivals Lord Devlin and makes him sound like an over-zealous preacher. By doing so, he undermines and distracts attention from the particular issue he is trying to address. Moreover, he implicitly blames ...

YouTube leadership hustings

Chris Rennard, the Liberal Democrat Chief Executive, revealed today that the party will be running a YouTube hustings as part of the leadership election: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qR_sRSWk-o You can submit your own clips of yourself asking a question on the YouTube page.

UK teenagers world-ignorant - but Welsh youngsters better than most

British schoolchildren are bottom of the class when it comes to international awareness, according to a report today. The British Council survey scored children in ten countries round the world, on a series of questions. On a scale of 1 to 7, Nigeria came top with 5.15. Not unexpectedly, US teenagers turned in a miserable 2.2. However, they were kept off the bottom of the table by the UK with 2.19. The relatively reassuring news for Wales is that the nation's schoolchildren beat even the Scots within the UK. (Wales 2.43, Scotland 2.35, Northern Ireland 2.25 and England 2.17)

Ham-fisted

Rent-a-twat Neil Hamilton has a characteristically crass and vituperative column in the World’s Worst Newspaper ®. In his latest piece, he frets: "On current trends, ethnic Britons will cease to be the majority group in Britain sometime in the next century. Would you vote for that? Don’t worry, the politicians won’t ask you to."I’d be quite surprised if anyone asked me to vote on the ethnic composition of my country, I can’t say I care a great deal. Anyway, Neil employs a modish variant on the old "some of my best mates…" defence, explaining, "Christine has a Polish god-daughter". Gosh. ...

Chris Huhne’s grand

Chris Huhne has passed 1,000 declared supporters for his leadership bid. The thousand for Huhne have declared themselves supporters on his official campaign site.

Chris on Lib Dem Voice

Both Lib Dem leadership candidates have appeared on Lib Dem Voice, in the first of a twice-weekly feature. You can see Chris’s first message - introducing a video of his manifesto launch - here. In both 2006 and this leadership contest, Chris supporter Edis Bevan has rightly raised the importance of subtitles in online videos, to ensure everyone can enjoy them. I gather Huhne Team interns have spent a happy afternoon getting transcriptions ready to ensure such accessibility!

Chris this, Chris that!

I trust Chris Huhne will reward Lynne Featherstone for her almost disciple-like admiration during this leadership campaign. It seems that barely a day goes by without Lynne singing Chris' praises in one way or another. Only today I see Lynne was "Glad to see that Chris Huhne has made it quite clear in a news release that when the show comes to town in the form of the Olympics, the right to peaceful protest must be upheld". Is there no bounds to her admiration of this man?

From the Potteries, With Love

It turns out that Russia’s latter-day Kym Philbys aren’t Cambridge-educated communists, but Keele-educated Tories. In the event that my school friend Ross (who would have been a member of Keele CF at the same time as this young man) is a reader of this blog – perhaps he can enlighten us as to whether this guy used to wear a dodgy trenchcoat and talk about geese flying to Moscow…?

EU Pie in the sky

It seems very weird that the EU is planning to set up a civilian navigation system in the sky, via upgraded sateillites. It really seems strange that they are getting involved in such an area while other more essential areas are crying out for cash. I would ask: "What is wrong with the current systems in place?" But the response would be: "Ah well, if you're driving along the A1 and want to get

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Miranda Grell and the case of the mysterious court transcript

Well, well, here’s a puzzle. In response to my previous blog posting about the Labour councillor convicted of smearing her opponent, Joanne made numerous comments defending Miranda Grell, including this one: Rubbish. I have read the transcript of the trial and Grell said during that trial that she thought Mr Smith’s partner was 19 because she had seen [...]

Politics in Wales - and from the Lib Dems too!

Go Kirsty, go! http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/7089713.stm After far too long a Lib Dem in Wales is coming out fighting on the future of liberal democracy. It´s too easy under the federal cop out for England to sit back and regard itself as UK relevant when the reality is that for the last 18 months or so the Lib Dems in Wales and Scotland have been having a pretty torrid time. And after what were clearly difficult Assembly elections we now have all out local elections facing us. But this stuff from Kirsty is good and strong and based on some pretty good ...

What will the next Lib Dem shadow cabinet look like?

Five weeks’ today, the Liberal Democrats will be announcing who is to be the next leader of the party: Nick Clegg or Chris Huhne. One of the first jobs for whoever is the victor is to decide who should be in their shadow cabinet - never an easy task. First, you have to reward those who’ve [...]

The Batemens do London village

Saturday was one of those days that ticked all my boxes. An election count (well seeing someone press a button to show an electronic count), massive fireworks, and live music. The election count was anti-climatic. Firstly I wasn't prepared for the particular result given the amount of work that had gone into the selection. Secondly, electronic counts are fairly boring for the observer... run the software... result... We were lucky enough to be intime to pop down to see the Lord Mayor's fireworks on the south bank at 5pm. We managed to get a spot just past the festival hall, ...

Liberals, shut up, you’re irrelevant

Well I feel put in my place and no mistake.

An unfortunate turn of phrase from Iain Dale

Writing about Michael Ashcroft, Iain said: Not a single story has actually alleged any wrongdoing. Everything has been duly declared. Now, that’s a rather careless choice of words. Why? Well, because Ashcroft gave money to the Conservative Party in North Norfolk whilst Iain was their candidate, and the party broke the law by failing to declare it [...]

This week in the humanities

In line with my first post about the humanities, what have I been up to: Art history: no, had a week off this week. Music: Bruce Springsteen, Nightwish, Mary Chapin Carpenter. There aren't many rock songs that contain the phrase "taconite, coke and limestone". Religion: an interesting insight into the fractures in Christianity when I learned that in Lewes oneof the Anglican vicars a while ago tried to ahve the Quakers remvoed from the Churches together organisation, because in his view they were not Christians. Can't even start to get my head around that, but it's a good example of ...

Does the right to protest matter?

Glad to see that Chris Huhne has made it quite clear in a news release that when the show comes to town in the form of the Olympics, the right to peaceful protest must be upheld: The Olympics are a chance to put our values in the global showcase which is why the organisers should plan for and allow the right of peaceful protest, which is such an important part of our political tradition. It will not be on display at the Beijing Olympics. Diversity and freedom of expression is what has always made our society strong, and we should ...

MoD try to call up 51 year old Lib Dem MSP

A very interesting story from yesterday's edition of Scotland on Sunday: "His Country Still Needs Him" For the full text go to: http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1788292007 A brief precis and some comments by me: Before entering politics 51 year old Mike Rumbles MSP (West Aberdeenshire & Kincardine) was a Major in the Army Education Corps. He left the army 13 years ago. Recently the MoD sent him a letter asking him if he would agree to allow his being "called-up" for active service overseas. retired soldiers can be recalled up to the age of 55 in the event of a serious and major ...

Explosion in East London?

Apparently there is a "large plume of smoke seen rising from...East London" (BBC). Some colleagues of mine have had text messages from friends to the same effect. No further details are yet known. Update: seems like this is a fire in a bus depot. Typically the first reaction is to suspect terrorism; the authorities seem to be ruling this out. No casualties have been reported. More information is now available via the Dirty Digger's Lot.

I'm wearing my wifes knickers

Having seen the Armstrong and Miller show last Friday. I've been imagining Sir Ian Blair turning round to a camera and uttering this phrase whenever some committee or press conference presses him on continiuing in post. One of his more outrageous responses was during the hearing at the GLA. He equated the call for his head with someone calling for the head of the british army or the head of a hospital to resign on the death of a soldier in combat, or a patient on the operating table. My understanding of both of these situations is that the soldier ...

The last train to

On Saturday night we had the unexpected pleasure of being amongst some of the last passengers to use a Silverlink service from London to Watford. From Sunday morning they became LondonMidland. The downside to this was that the last train was at the much earlier time of 2345 to allow them to de-livery the rolling stock. Which meant we had to leave the pub where we'd gone to see a band before the end of their 2nd set.

Boris - a 'vanity politician'? Shurely shome mishtake?

In an article on Conservative Home, YouGov founder and 18 Doughty Street chairman, Stephan Shakespeare, calls for Boris Johnson to "get going" with his mayoral campaign. He witheringly writes: I don’t think Boris has yet said anything that could interest any Londoner Shakespeare also makes this telling point: There are two types of politician. The one who enters the arena because he or she

Bury Lib Dems AGM tonight

Tonight is the Annual General Meeting of Bury Liberal Democrats, taking place from 7pm at Elton Liberal club. All members of the local party are welcome, as is anyone else who would like to join. Tonight marks the end of my year as Membership Secretary. The year has seen our membership continue to rise, and it is more or less double what it was not much more than 12 months ago. Bury Lib Dems are a party on the up. Two more Councillors this year, and hopefully more to come in 2008. More successful campaigns, more successes locally for the ...

The tension between redistribution and democracy

There is a tension in Britain at the moment between Central and Local Government. On the one hand we all want more powers for Local Government (the relationship to be turned on its head somewhat). However, there is a further tension as to where the money should be spent and how it should be raised. In short, [...]

That Friedman/Pinochet myth

One of the anti-liberal left’s favourite charges is that Milton Friedman supported Pinochet’s totalitarian regime. Its recently been dug up again by Naomi Klein in her latest book. To anyone who knows anything about Friedman’s political views should be obvious that Friedman would never support a totalitarian regime. He was an indefatigable defender of freedom. He [...]

The Return of the King

As predicted here on Saturday, Cllr. Mrs. Shona Johnstone has resigned as Leader of Cambridgeshire County Council. She will be replaced, temporarily at least, by Cllr. Keith Walters who only stood down in May, after 10 years as Leader! Now, the cynics among us, might marvel at the Return of the King, when at the Council Meeting of two weeks ago, Cllr. Mrs Johnstone was attempting to pass the blame for the Council's appalling ratings on to the previous administration. Why Keith, we might wonder? I suspect I wouldn't be too far from the truth if I were to say ...

"Archer, Aitken, Ashcroft..."

It was a real blast from the past this morning, hearing Jonathan Aitken, the ex-con Conservative, who is apparently being considered as an advisor on prisoner conditions. I know we are supposed to be a bit forgiving he has, after all, "paid his debt to society", but there was still just a whisper of the old arrogance in his interview on Radio 4. It was hard to avoid the contrast with another disgraced ex-minister John Profumo, who genuinely did serve a penance for his behaviour. Of course the political opponents of the Conservatives will make hay- it is a misjudgement ...

An Apple (and an aeroplane) a day…

I was staring vacantly out of my office window this morning, wondering whether five days of desk-based tedium could be topped by five minutes of close contact with a white hot shard of flaming metal direct to my temporal lobe, when I saw a plane coming in to land at the airport, and it jolted me into realizing that maybe the world and everything in it isn’t so skull-crackingly horrific after all. Just floating there in the sky. Looking like it was barely moving. A flying machine taking people places! Just 200 years since we all worked in fields with oxen ...

Principles

Last week, as a Licensing Sub Committee, we heard an application from a club that wanted to extend it's opening hours until 4.30 a.m. The Police objected and sent along an Inspector,no less, who told us that after 3 a.m shifts change and there could be as little as 3 policeman on duty to cover the entire town, at a time when the club is emptying between 500 and 900 people out on to the streets. An incident elsewhere could mean that the police would be unable to respond to calls if there was trouble outside the club. Before I ...

Ed Miliband - the new spinning longshotter!

I was amused to hear Ed Miliband state that we now have a `new government` - erm, when was the election for it? Either you have a leader that has been at the tiller for ten years and say you’re carrying on with that agenda or you slog it out in an election and state that [...]

European Selection: a massacre of the innocents

It is all over, and now it is time to confess what some of my colleagues, Duncan Borrowman amongst them, have been saying all along. The system that we use favours incumbents. I’ve always known it, but it is not the kind of thing you say when you’re trying to encourage competition, and present yourself as a neutral arbiter of the process. And sure enough, the incumbents got in with, for the most

Monday's Music Madness

This is 'I'm Shipping Up To Boston' by the Dropkick Murphys. Now, I have not indulged my love of American sport on this blog enough, so this is partly in homage to the 2007 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox. With the Pats rolling in the NFL, the Celtics looking all kinds of good after their off-season moves, all looks good in the world of Boston sports. Brentford even got a very creditable away draw against Luton in the FA Cup!

The perfect solution to get more people interested in politics - singing foreign ministers

The EU has an image problem, we are told. Many people, especially youngsters, are, apparently, bored with it. So, what better solution than getting the German and French Foreign Ministers to record a duet together and release it on You Tube? It is such an obvious and attractive idea than you really wonder why on earth it wasn't done years ago.

Good news on Haringey schools and vulture funds

Good news on the fair funding for education in Haringey. Haringey Youth Council are going to join the campaign and are going to start their own petition! Excellent to have their support - and on an issue which primarily affects them - spot on! I had a huge response to this campaign so far and to the petition I've been organising. My next move is to present the petition to the Government - and that reminds me - don't think Gordon B has yet answered my letter following up on my question at Prime Minister's Questions a couple of weeks ...

Huhne’s Posting Comments Now?

Over on Alix Mortimer’s blog, Chris Huhne has personally replied to her question in the comments. Has he been popping up - in person - elsewhere in the LD Blogosphere? Does this mean that Chris is concerned about keeping bloggers on-side? Does he see blogger opinion as important in this contest? Perhaps we should be asking whether or not the blogosphere really could impact this election? How much of the debates we’ve been having here are filtering back down to local branch parties? My perception is that Chris is winning with Lib Dem ‘A-List’ bloggers, as predicted by his campaign deliberately designed ...

Free Think festival

I hadn't heard of the Free Think festival before, but now I have taken part and seen just how many events there are I'll definitely keep an eye out for it in the future. My very minor role this weekend was as one of the "thinkers" in a "speed dating" event at the FACT centre. The idea is that people spend three minutes with each "thinker" who pitches an idea, and at the end the public vote for their favourite idea. I am afraid mine came no where near winning - although the one that won on Saturday was also ...

Collecting views

Out on Saturday morning helping with a Lib Dem residents survey. A good response plus quite a bit of casework collected. On the plus side for me too.. knocking on a door tends to alert you to the presence of a dog so even if you do end up putting something through the letterbox you know to be careful (that's my resolution from now on)

Ministers evade scrutiny again

The warning in this morning's Western Mail that cuts in government plans to slash health research funding in Wales could lead to patients being denied life-saving drugs is a good example of the mess that the One Wales Government has got itself into over the budget. Whilst, Professor John Williams, director of Word, the Assembly Government’s body which commissions and funds health and social-care research and development, has tendered his resignation over the cuts, the government is insisting that it is sticking to the commitment in the Labour-Plaid One Wales agreement to work to create a National Institute for Health ...

iPhone - a Ferrari which can only be used to power your lawnmower

More deliberations on the iPhone. I am a long term reader of John Naughton, who writes brilliantly and very readably on IT in the Observer Businesss section each week. On the one hand, Naughton praises the iPhone as "the most powerful computer ever shoehorned into such a small and elegant package." On the other hand, he points out that its operation is severly restricted by the constraints

Memories and Memorials

Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th November A strange couple of days as memories ricocheted to and fro. Where had I, and we as a Country, come from and where were we going ? At the war memorial in Thornaby, where John was laying the wreath as Deputy Mayor, our thoughts went back to the First World War, through to the Second World War, through the Falklands, and right up to...

Why don't we just stick with Vince Cable as leader?

There is great praise for Vince Cable from Andrew Rawnsley while relating the tale of the Queen's speech debate: The most wounding comment at the expense of Gordon Brown came not from David Cameron, who was predictably rude about his lack of 'the vision thing', but from Vince Cable...What he had to say about Mr Brown was the more personally hurtful because the MP for Twickenham and the Prime

Cancelling phone books

We never use the phone book, or yellow pages. And, they're hard to recycle. So, I thought I'd have a go at cancelling them. It turns out to be very easy. Each has a phone number for ordering extra copies printed in the front. It turns out that the people at the other end are happy to cancel deliveries, too. The numbers are 0800-833-400 for the phone book, and 0800-671-400 for yellow pages. It only takes a minute. Online services are available at the Yellow Pages web site http://www.yell.com/ and BT's web site http://www.bt.com/ for personal and business numbers Encouraged ...

EXCLUSIVE: Chris Huhne makes state visit to People’s Republic of Mortimer

In the comments below. We are only a very little Republic so it’s very exciting for us. Quick, somebody prepare the guest tower!

The cold has arrived

I first felt the cold yesterday morning when I did the Remembrance Day Parade in Whickham. Afterwards I went down to the allotment and felt the cold there. The weather forecast showed the North East was going to be frozen overnight - with London enjoying a milder 5 degrees C. So I got up 10 min earlier this morning, expecting to have to scrape the ice off the car. Not a crystal in sight! Despite

Candidate for the East Midlands

I have been selected in second place on the East Midlands Lib Dems’ list of candidates for the European Parliament elections. If you helped or supported me, ‘thank you’. If you didn’t, well, there’s still time because (in the first of many cliches to come) the hard work starts here. You can visit www.edmaxfield.org.uk and click [...]

Gender Balance and Euro Selections - setting some facts straight

Tories simply adore Nich Starling, they like to remind us. He’s apparently the only Lib Dem blogger who tells it like it is, and gets snubbed for his troubles. Personally speaking? While I occasionally find myself agreeing with him, I find he tends to be ill-informed and reactionary. Different strokes for different folks I guess. But I can’t allow this to pass. This evening, following on from a post by Iain Dale, he has decided to have a pop at the Lib Dem’s gender balance rules for selecting Lib Dem Euro-candidates: The Lib Dems have an odd system for selecting ...

November Community Council Update!

In my November 2007 Update to the West End Community Council various West End issues are covered, including : * CCTV at Seabraes * Pennycook Lane - handrail * Leaves on local pavements * Pavement Repairs - Perth Road at two locations * Digital TV The Community Council meets this forthcoming Tuesday (13th November) at 7pm at Logie St John's (Cross) Church Hall. You can read more about the update by clicking on the headline above.

West Midlands Liberal Democrats announce candidates for European Parliament elections in 2009

The West Midlands Liberal Democrats announced their candidates for the European Parliament elections in 2009 they are:

Monday 12th November 2007

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