LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Wednesday 2nd January 2008

Sian Lloyd gets married in Portmeirion

The BBC reports: ITV weather presenter Sian Lloyd, 49, has married her fiancé 10 months after they met.She wed motor racing entrepreneur Jonathan Ashman, 59, in the Gwynedd village of Portmeirion, the setting for the cult 1960s TV series The Prisoner.She had been engaged to Welsh Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik before they separated in December 2006.Not only that: Also reportedly there was former Prime Minister Tony Blair's son Euan, who is dating Mr Ashman's 19-year-old daughter Suzanne.

The great mystery of the New Year card

On returning from a joyful time with Catherine and her family, in Perth, at Christmas, I found an anonymous happy new year card on my doormat, which was delivered by the postie. The address was almost correct but omitted my house number and postcode. Text inside said: "Just realised you were back in Irvine" "Will be in touch" "Long time not heard from you." "a long lost friend" The handwriting is obviously female and I admit to a fair bit of history in my past. The postmark was unreadable but a Scottish 1st class stamp was used. I've also been ...

RSPCA finally takes on the battery chicken issue

I am pleased to see that the RSPCA is running a high-profile campaign on the welfare of battery chickens. In recent years, judging by their presence at Lib Dem Conferences, they have not emphasised farming issues. Instead they have talked about hunting, which raises great passions, but is a tiny matter beside factory farming. After that it was the welfare of domestic pets. Again, being worried about goldfish being given as fairground prizes seems pretty petty when set against the suffering of many industrially farmed animals. That didn't stop the Liberal Democrats adopting their proposals en bloc, mind you. So ...

Hit me baby one more time

The amount of hits that this website recieves has increased from about 300 per day, which was what it was getting up until Christmas, to about 3,000 per day, which is what it’s been getting since. Either I am very popular, or it is very broken. I suspect the latter, but if anyone has any clue, let me know. Rick

Cranking up the meeting-go-round for a whole new year of fun

41 hours into the new year, and the meeting-arama that is my life is back in full swing. This evening I attended a meeting of the Bury Lib Dem Council group to talk about priorities for the new year and start thinking about the important things for the party in the next four months. It is scary not only for my colleagues and I in general, but in particular for the frailty of my sensibilities that the next election is now less than four months away… There’s a lot of work to be done. Leaflets don’t write, print or deliver ...

Worst Case Scenarios #1

1. Millennium Elephant gets lost in a toyshop whilst looking for a mate. 2. Nick Clegg loses his rag in his first question time as leader and starts singing ‘Hey big spender’ at the top of his voice. 3. 50% of Lib Dem members begin their own merger party called ‘The Social Democratic Liberal National Party’…or SDLNP for short. 4. Lord Rennard slips on some cream cake in Cowley Street and slips into an alternative universe…finally appearing in a Doctor Who episode alongside Catherine Tate. 5. Nick Clegg gets talked into appearing on celebrity big brother and has a scrap ...

Presidential Indecision – The selection (finally) begins

Happy New Year to everyone who reads this blog! I will try to keep posting regularly but with uni work already building up (again) I will unfortunately be spending my time working my way through that :( So, 2008 will hold the Presidential elections for the United States of America (taking place on 4th November), and will therefore be President Bush’s last full year in office. He officially leaves office on 20th January 2009, so plan your party now. But for now we don’t even know who will be the candidates for the election. Democrats and Republicans will this year ...

Nick Clegg's Nickname

Wit and Wisdom is inviting suggestions for what Nick Clegg's nickname should be. Ming was Merciless, Cameron calls himself Dave, and Gordon is not Flash, so what should Nick be? I'd like to be the first to suggest "Tosspot". Nick "Tosspot" Clegg does have a certain ring to it and would bring back into fashion what has become a much-maligned swearword. Re-engineering this phrase for the 21st

Hey chicken - live fast, die young!

The RSPCA has launched a campaign today to persuade retailers to only stock higher welfare chicken - such as those labelled Freedom Food, free-range or organic and for people buying chicken to only buy higher welfare chicken. Now before I get an outcry in the comments - this is a campaign to persuade retailers and buyers to make this decision. It isn't a call for regulation. A couple of decades

Blogging 2007

A year ago I did a posting on how the last year had been since I had re-started blogging. The prompt being that I reached the landmark of 3,000 views at New Year itself. So I thought I should probably do an equivalent one this New Year as it’s been quite an interesting [...]

My Highlights of 2007

A bit late but here are my own highlights of 2007. Two sections: political and personal. Political 1)getting re-elected to Gateshead Council with the biggest vote, majority and share of the vote of any candidate in Gateshead. 2)capturing Labour’s Mugabe-style bully-boy tactics on camera and posting the result up as the “Battle of Trimdon Green” during the Sedgefield by-election. You know you

Manchester councillor defects to Tories

A Lib Dem councillor in Manchester has defected to the Conservative party, giving them their first representation on the council since 1996. Faraz Bhatti had been PPC for Stretford and Urmston in 2005. The Lib Dem leader on Manchester City Council, Simon Ashley, has told the Manchester Evening News that the defection comes after Cllr. [...]

Giant knickers put out house fire

It's nice to read a good news story for a change. The BBC reports: A family home was saved from burning down when a pair of giant knickers were used to put out a fire.Jenny Marsey's size 18-20 cotton pants were a lifesaver when they were grabbed to cover a frying pan fire at her home in Meryl Gardens, Hartlepool, Teesside.Her son and nephew were trying to fry some bread when the blaze broke out.But the quick-thinking pair used the Marks & Spencer underwear from a pile of washing, doused them in water, and threw them over the fire.Follow the ...

My week in media

I've been tagged by Iain Dale for a new meme to tell you what I have been doing this week via the media that I use or view. What I've read I am not a great reader, perhaps because of my school work and always having to read up on things I find reading a chore unless I am next to a pool in boiling hot sun with a cool beer in Greece or Mexico, then i can't put a book down. So if you are asking what i am reading this holiday it is "100 Maths Lessons - The ...

Let's abolish traffic jams! A How-To Guide

As I was sitting on the M6 two days after Christmas, going nowhere, a thought struck me. Britain has abolished smog and smallpox. Why not abolish the traffic jam. I'm rarely to be found in a car, so traffic doesn't worry me often. But heavy traffic really gets on my nerves - like everyone else's. It's remarkable when you think that there is a solution which within a few years could abolish the traffic jam entirely and mean that more people use the roads, making quicker, cleaner, stress-free journeys. Road pricing is a simple idea, but there are a mammoth ...

The Two Kellys

Just spotted this on the BBC News website, from their coverage of the New Years Honours: Perhaps [Tom] Kelly's most difficult moment came during the "cash-for-honours" affair, when he failed to tell the press that Mr Blair was being interviewed by the police, having not been told himself. This little mishap (which was hardly his fault, after all), pales somewhat in comparison to the time he

The Obscenity of US Elections

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama go into tomorrow’s Iowa caucus with $100 million each in their campaign chests — and they are just two of the candidates in the running for just one of the parties! No wonder experts predict that the 2008 US Presidential election is going to be the most expensive ever. It wouldn’t [...]

Old Year Resolutions

Last week Linda tagged me with a request to come up with some 'Old Year Resolutions' of things to do before 2008 got started. Mine would have been; Get rid of the nasty cold that I have had since Christmas Eve Spend a few days reflecting on the past year and making plans for the next Write some thoughtful and entertaining posts on the above for this blog As it has taken me until now to

Holla

Hi Everybody, Wow, since my last blog a lot has happened; I passed my masters Nick Clegg is now Liberal Democrat leader Been to New York Christmas NYE. So yeah you can probably understand why the idea of blogging havent been at the top of my mind. But First of all Congrats to Mr Clegg for winning the Lib Dem leadership election, I backed him and I hope that he will bring us more success this year. Again, Vincent Cable started this but I think Vince may be the starter, Nick's going to be the driver and we shall see ...

Alpha Healthcare - Dodgy Donations or Media Witchhunt

The Times reports a link between Crossbencher Peer Khalid Hameed and Alpha Healthcare which has made a series of significant donations to the Party. Bhanu Choudhrie is a well known Party donor and Alpha is part of the Company he runs with his brother Dhruv. As I posted earlier the Press have been digging for something and apparently this is the best they can do. Typically it is late in the Times article that it is mentioned that: 'Lord Hameed, High Sheriff of Greater London, is a prominent Muslim promoter of interfaith dialogue, and a winner of the Sternberg Interfaith ...

Elect the Head

I’ve been thinking over the Christmas and New Year break ___ (space there for you to enter your own joke) and I’ve decided that I don’t think a referendum over the Monachy is a good idea - it will be a pointless waste of time and probably a fruitless excersise. My thinking: Whatever the question asked the options in a number of peoples minds will be either the current Monach, an entity with little or no power but a very high status or a politician and we know how we’ll they’re doing right now. You see there won’t be any ...

Liberal Democrats and Conservatives: A Love Story

Anybody else noticed how obsessed the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives are with each other, at the expense of attacking Labour? From the Clegg / Cameron debate through to donation rows and instant-a-fisking of policy proposals (and not-so-instant-a-fisking), the two parties (or rather, their activists, it has to be said) can't take their eyes off each other. If the political system was a

The nub of the faith schools debate

Jonny Wright and LibDem Voice have written about faith schools in the wake of Nick Clegg's comments about them over the festive season. The nub of this debate is "what kind of faith schools are we talking about?" If we are talking about the CofE model as clarified by the Lord Dearing commission, that is where there is an absence of segregation and a policy against any "bussing in". That is,

Crossroads

Hillary Clinton asks Iowans to take the first step toward a new beginning by caucusing for her on January 3

Avoision as an alternative to the Brunstrom drugs approach?

A different light to shine on the current Chef Constable Brunstrom uproar. Check out an article in SLATE (The online magazine in the USA) on the ‘other’ US drugs legalisation movement. The process of avoision is giving US drugs consumers legal alternatives to most illegal drugs so they can get the effects without doing the time. Not magic mushrooms but magic market? ……. over the last two decades, the pharmaceutical industry has developed a full set of substitutes for just about every illegal narcotic we have. Avoiding the highly charged politics of "illegal" drugs, the pharmaceutical industry, doctors, and citizens ...

Goodbye 2007 welcome 2008

So how has 2007 been? A mixed bag I think. But for 2008 I predict that Nick Clegg will proove a good leader for the Liberal Democrats, The David Cameron Conservatives will not advance as they expect in the May elections and that Gordon Brown will continue to struggle with his new role of Prime Minister. First the bad bits.. Governments around the world have brutalised their...

How Starbucks could save the greasy spoon

In the UK greasy spoons are rather notorious. The sitcom 'Angelo's' has just aired in Britain, set in one of these legendary places. And by the way,if you have a hangover then a visit to a greasy spoon and a full English breakfast normally does the trick. Greasy spoons tend to be family businesses and they are not known for their exquisite coffee or superb cooking. With the arrival of Starbucks, Costa Coffee, Pret a Manger and the like, many thought the death-knell rang for such establishments. But take a walk up any high street and you will see the ...

David Cameron is Clegg-lite

Did you notice the almost audible gulping and stuttering from the chattering Tory websites after Ming Campbell’s sudden resignation when it was obvious that Nick Clegg would stand for the leadership? Not to mention their deeply unusual restraint since the leadership election results were announced. I have a theory about all this and I think it [...]

Faraz Bhatti - I'm not doing my job...

...so I'll go set up a one man "group" and be even less likely to be able to do it: Some of the excuses that execrable defectors use are astonishing really - "Faraz Bhatti, 34, who also stood at the 2005 election, told the Manchester Evening News the Lib Dems were not providing a credible opposition."

Capital of Culture Year Starts!

Yesterday I went to buy one of the official Guides to Capital of Culture Year - more of a souvenir brochure than a guide you take out with you. It's a great publication for a fiver - and flicking through it made me realise just what a variety of things there are going on this year (and that's with the knowledge that not everything will be covered in the book). We've got a couple of things coming up. Later this week we are off to an event at the new Arena - which has been put on to make sure ...

Times: Peerage for Lord Hameed linked to LibDems' biggest benefactor

Times report here

Teenagers are doing it less

I know it is assumed that teenagers do everything to excess but according to Chad Lorenz, writing for the online magazine Slate, they are doing less emailing. I spotted his piece, 'the death of email', rather late in the day, it was posted in November, so it might be old news to many. But it is an interesting piece and worth a read. Lorenz believes that teenagers are switching to instant messaging (IM) and something called Twitter. If you use MSN Messenger or Google mail you will know all about IM. Twitter is something different and I have yet to ...

Great leader, great start but what do we call him?

2008 begins with much promise for us Lib Dems, with Nick Clegg on the first proper Today of the year railing about all sorts, just like we want him to. He faces a series of key challenges this year to keep himself and the party in the limelight as he gradually stops being the new boy of politics and to develop our public persona further as the other two party leaders increasingly hit the buffers (can one increasingly hit buffers or is this a metaphor too far?) One of the challenges our esteemed leader faces stands looming above all the ...

UPDATED: Why I think Nick Clegg is wrong on children's advertising

I am a little bit nervous about the emphasis given to the restriction of advertising on Children's TV in Nick Clegg's New Year message. Here's what he said about the issue: (We must change Britain for the better...that means...Putting British families back...) In control of what their children are exposed to on TV, not constantly struggling to protect toddlers from the pressure of advertising...

Pakistan elections delayed until February 18

It has been announced that the Pakistani Parliamentary elections have been postponed for 40 days until February 18. This is clearly a good move, delaying the elections but not by too long was a clearly needed move after the murder of Bhutto last week.

Crashing to Earth

Returning to work is simply the most awful thing in the world. This morning I was lurched violently awake by Five Live and sent kicking and screaming from holiday peace into the desperate waking nightmare of the office once more. Eleven glorious days off, gone in the blink of an eye. Of course, the thought of the return to work is twenty times worse than the reality. And the reality is three hundred times better than not having a job or living in a warzone or anything else remotely serious. But still, I walked from the car park to my ...

The big spin question of 2008

We’ve been hearing it in the Councils, in the media and in Parliament - the cover protection for Labour’s mistakes - why soft Labour voters should stay with them - that they have presided over a ten year boom. I take it then that Gordon Brown will be taking the blame for a poorer economy in 2008? No [...]

The real reason the Pakistani poll is being delayed

The BBC reports that the Pakistani general election is being delayed by the Electoral Commission from January 8th to February 18th. They say it is "not possible" to hold a poll on January 8th. This is despite the PPP and Nawaz Sharif's party demanding that it goes ahead as planned on January 8th. Of course, the real reason for the delay is that Musharraf wants as long as possible for the

Julian H Announces New Year’s Resolutions

Julian H today announced a new series of resolutions for 2008. The resolutions will tackle problems such as laziness, under-achievement and Julian’s position in Europe as a ‘monoglot’. Junior Minister of Orange By Name, Lackey Nulab-Robot, said: “These new resolutions show we are serious about eradicating Julian H’s faults. We will be investing in Julian H more than ever before. We will be tough on dossing around, and tough on the causes of dossing around”. Opposition spokesman Christopher Safeseat derided the resolutions as a ‘gimmick’, adding that Julian H would ‘fail miserably, just like every year since his so-called GCSEs’. ...

Daily Mail goes crazy over Brunstrom

Jock Coats highlights a very important point regarding North Wales Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom. If you read Chris Bryant MP's comments about Brunstrom, they are actually putting forward one of the strongest arguments for a form of legalisation of drugs: I think these are very dangerous views. Ecstasy is not a safe drug and the people who sell ecstasy to youngsters in the Rhondda also sell

Is Gordon Brown thick?

I know I’m no genius but even i can work out that there is little sense in Odila talking to Kabila without a transparent recount. Does he not know of the history of the Kenyan legal process and Kabila’s treatment of Odila in the past? Nick had it right - shame on the BBC for [...]

Cameron: OffSick

Where to start on David Cameron's dim witted idea to fining health care trusts that do not hit targets on MRSA? The last thing that hospitals that are already struggling with erratic funding need to deal with is some extra complication that could reduce the transparency of their funding still further. A free market would probably respond by pricing in an acceptable level of MRSA risk- is that what Mr. Cameron really wants? Well, no, he probably wants to eliminate MRSA risk completely. That however requires strict hygiene rules- probably including drastically limiting visitor access to the wards- a policy ...

Day 2557: Eight is the Magic Number

New Year's Day My Birthday: Hooray, I am EIGHT! [R: He is seven, but there's no arguing with him.] Today I had a very happy birthday, with lots of presents but my especially favourite was getting all of Mr Pierce on DVD from Daddy Alex along with this EXCELLENT card: The Name's Dome, Millennium Dome {Posted by Picasa} 'Tis the season to get Tag'd, it would seem, and so we had a VERY SEASONAL Magic Eight Meme from Citizen Alix, while everyone else seems to be picking their eight wishes for '08. Here are MY eight BIRTHDAY wishes then: 1. ...

Who are you going to believe...

...the copper at the top of his profession or the MP/topless model/sometime priest whose speciality is rent seeking and boondoggling? And I repeat my call - Chris Huhne, please do something to support Brunstrom before he is hounded out of his career by small minded authoritarian meddlers.

Nick Clegg gets tough on Kenya

Click here to hear Nick Clegg on Today this morning calling for EU sanctions against Kenya. There is also a BBC Report here which says: Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said Kenya should be given a two-week deadline to carry out a full recount of votes or face Commonwealth and European Union sanctions. This is precisely the sort of high visibility stuff which I wanted to see from our leader

Mike Huckabee - Is this really the man who could lead the USA ?

A lot of pollsters are predicting that Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is favourite to win the Republican caucuses in Iowa tomorrow leaving him a a strong position in the race for the Republican nomination for presidency. However trawling around the net brings up some very odd information about him which ought to worry any liberal minded person. To Dim To Lead ? - He has stated that scientists believe the earth is "six billion" years old. He then contradicted himself by also stating that we "just don't know" how old the earth is. A Liar ? - He is accused ...

Brunstrom on drugs

Whatever one's views on the legalisation of drugs, it does seem that the only person publicly promoting this agenda at the moment is North Wales Chief Constable, Richard Brunstrom. He went onto Radio Four yesterday to restate his well-known views that the only way that we can possibly win the war against drugs is to decriminalise them. Mr. Brunstrom believes that such a measure is 10 years away. Judging by the reaction of MPs such as Chris Bryant and papers such as the Daily Mail, that may be a conservative estimate. Those who disagree with Mr. Brunstrom do so from ...

Nick finds his head

I am back in Cardiff Bay today and the first thing I noticed is that the cardboard cutout of Tory leader, Nick Bourne has resurfaced. Avid readers will recall that this life size effigy was produced for ITV Wales as part of their election coverage last May along with similar cut outs of Rhodri Morgan, Mike German and Ieuan Wyn Jones. Somehow, following the Politician of the Year awards last month, Nick Bourne's head was knocked off. Nobody is quite sure what happened to the cut-outs of the other party leaders, though somebody has suggested that they may have ended ...

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all! Here’s to a succesful and peaceful 2008. Here’s Nick Clegg’s New Year message:

Recycle those Trees

Although the 12 days of Christmas aren't over yet I know that for many people the return to work on 2nd January signals the end of the festive season so a reminder that this year Stockton Council is trying a different system for recycling real Christmas trees - phone o1642 321959 to arrange a day for collection. The trees are chipped and composted to produce soil improver for the parks and

Iowa Predictions

I have blogged a bit about the US Presidential election, and how I hope that Barack Obama wins the Democratic nomination. However, what I want is very different to what I think will happen. So, here is what I think will happen in Iowa: Democrats This is going to be a surprise. Edwards' support in rural areas, his infrastructure compiled since 2004, and his populism will see him through after the votes of 'non-viable' candidates are reassigned to win Iowa. This will give him a big enough bump to take New Hampshire. Obama's support will wither away as the anti-Hillary ...

The Times: Tory Blogs are "dowdy and self-regarding"

A hornet's nest has been stirred up on Iain Dale's Diary. Glory be! Tom Baldwin (a journalist I remember well from his days as a rookie on the Newbury Weekly News when, perhaps apocryphally, the editor had to stand over him as he washed himself in the lavatories due to his (Baldwin's) hygeine habits still being a bit student-esque!) has written this (in an article on the US Presidential campaign

13,515 visitors to this blog from LibDem Blogs in 2007

A very happy New Year to all readers of this blog. Thank you very much indeed for reading my blog over 2007 and particularly for the many fascinating comments left! According to Google Analytics, over 2007 Liberal Burblings received 57,638 visits. 13,515 of these came from LibDem Blogs aggregated and 3,335 of these came from LibDem Voice. The LibDem Blogs figure is much higher than the one

Nick Clegg on Today

Good to wake up to the dulcet tones of Mr Clegg on Today this morning, starting as he means to go on and speaking with wisdom and authority about the situation in Kenya and Pakistan.

Do the Lib Dems need a gym membership as our New Year’s resolution?

When I sit down and draw up my New Year Resolutions I always think of St Augustine and his prayer “Oh Lord make me Chaste, but not yet”. Resolutions can be affirmative but more often than not we use them to try and break long term habits we don’t like. Even if we don’t [...]

The whole Brady Bunch of them!

Yesterday I linked to ToryHome's bigging up of George Osborne. Today they've done a review of the whole team that they would want to end up on the government front benches given the chance. We should be doing this sort of thing. For a group of sixty odd MPs we often say we have the best strength in depth. We must not go letting people forget how good Vince is just because he's no longer acting leader for example. And we need to tease out the information about our other Shadow Cabinet members. I hope this gets done as part ...

PPP announcement on formation of government

Samak Sundaravej the leader of the PPP announced yesterday that they will be forming a coalition government together with three smaller parties with a total of 254 parliamentary seats. The coalition government will include three other parties - the Ruamjai Thai Chart Pattana, the Matchima Thipataya and the Pracharaj parties. Between them the four parties will have between 251 [...]

Cunning stunt? Buy a calculator

A few days late on this one, but I have been meaning to follow up on this article about Grant Shapp’s cunning stunt over the Christmas holidays: “Our plan would build more houses than the Government. But the way to do it is not to do it in a centrally planned way. That has always failed. “The way to do it is to incentivise communities to want to build houses. It works by saying, ‘build these houses and you get a new town centre or other services like a hospital or school.’ The existing community gets the gain, not just ...

Faith based schools - a personal perspective

There's been lots of discussion about whether Lib Dems should support state funded schooling via institutions that have a religious guiding philosophy, let's put it that way, since Nick Clegg, self-proclaimed atheist, seemed to offer such schooling support recently (see the links at the bottom for the discussion elsewhere). Some caveats here. I was brought up in quite a religious family. All my grandparents were "Gospel Hall Brethren"; a small Scottish anti-clerical sect. My family were frequently ex-patriates in Africa. The first school I really remember was in Nairobi. I don't remember it being "faith based" but looking at its ...

Wednesday 2nd January 2008

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