The wormery is a success: teabags, vegetable peelings, bits of newspaper etc have been converted into dark, crumbly compost that will be great for my plants, and it's free. The worms are plump and thriving. They don't like onion, though. 
I'm on Twitter.
Welcome to the 57th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (16th-22nd March), together with a quintet hand-picked by Lib Dem blog readers you might otherwise have missed. Lets get straight down to it, in descending order of popularity:
Thank You to all those residents of both Aberavon and Neath Constituencies who have supported our Save the Post Offices Campaign over the past several months. Many of you replied to the campaign by adding your signatures to the Focus Leaflets and mailing them back to us. This petition has now been handed into Downing Street by the Liberal Democrat Party's Post Offices Spokesperson, Sarah Tether MP. Over 50,000 signatures were presented calling on Gordon Brown to STOP Labours's Post Office closure programme now.
Last month I wrote about Traffic, the band Steve Winwood formed after he left the Spencer Davis Group as a veteran of 18 with two number 1 hits behind him.Here they are on stage in Santa Monica in 1972. Traffic had a complicated history: Winwood had already temporarily ended the group in 1969 so that he could join Blind Faith, the short-lived supergroup, with Eric Clapton. Dave Mason the guitarist came and went, but it seems that Jim Capaldi and Winwood could never quite forgive him for writing "Hole in My Shoe".At one time Traffic were a trio: here there ...
Welcome to the Easter edition. What with everyone being busy eating chocolate and skiing, we are a bit short of nominations this week. But, no doubt, what we lack in quantity is more than made up in quality. Thanks to all those who did flag up a posting or two. Blogging The Debatable Land informs us that LOL-Blairs are the latest thing in the British blogosphere. The example below is taken from Pickled Politics... Looking at competition between blogs and the mainstream media, Iain Dale asks if size always matters. Clive Soley reports on an interesting development - a group ...
Well I am sorry but I can not resist the temptation but to gloat as Bath Rugby are now back on the top of the premiership with a good solid home win. It was worth the cold freezing weather to watch a fully professional win against a spirited London Irish team that could have snatched victory at the death. As a Bath person it has made my weekend to see that Bristol lost...
The German Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, enabling Adolf Hitler to rule by degree as a dictator. Seventy-five years on, British MPs look set to allow the Catholic Church to effectively decide how the British government conducts its affairs. People never learn!
For those who like alternative history, here's a timeline where Archibald Sinclair leads a Liberal Government. It's not a very nice world though: The 10th Duke of Devonshire paced his rooms in a silent fury. How dare the BBC relay this disgusting rubbish out of Germany ! But ever since the Liberal victory in the aftermath of the economic collapse, the UK had been to Hell in a hand-basket. He
Ma Ying-Jeou has been elected President of Taiwan as the Kuomintang candidate, he beat the candidate from the Democratic Progressive Party. Kuomintang is a conservative party which believes in eventual re-unification with China, although strongly anti-communist. It has been campaigning for greater trade links with China. The Democratic Progressive Party are the centre-left liberals who believe in Taiwan's sovereignty. They have urged more caution with Chinese relations and have used Tibet in their campaign saying Taiwan wouldn't want to become like Tibet. So most Liberal Democrats would surely agree with me that the DPP would of been better to win. ... 
"People care. They just dont care about politicians." Nick Clegg. He said this in his speech to conference. To put it into perspective this is what he was saying, "People do care about issues. Climate change. Poverty. Their local school or hospital. There are marches and campaigns and petitions launched every day of the week. People care. They just dont care about politicians." Nick Clegg really grasped the change we need in British politics to regain people's trust and interest. At school I am always trying to show the link to school friends between important issues to them and politics. ...
With a UN force now in Darfur, it's enough to kid the internation community the problem is going away. Well it's not. For a start the UN peacekeeping force is only 9,000 and may not reach the full number until the end of the year. That could be an optimistic prediction. UN missions usually lack enough equipment and investment. The latest round of attacks forced 30,000 people out of their homes. So far the genocide has killed between 200,000-400,000 and left over 2.5million people as refugees. The Sudanese Army has criticised a UN report on it's use of rape on ...
It’s Easter weekend, but unlike the rest of the population who either have time off with their families or go to church, I am spending it at work. Easter normally falls right in the middle of the local election campaign so I am used to it, but despite being so early I am still hard [...]
After two weekends away, I've been dreaming of a few days at home in Suffolk enjoying the peace and quiet of my cottage. Last Easter I was campaigning in Scotland, and had to buy sun cream - alright, I know Easter is early this year, but snow According to the pundits, we are statistically more likely to have a white Easter in Suffolk than a white Christmas but that doesn't make it right. With the nuptial countdown clock now down to 4 weeks and 2 days, there's been a host of wedding related tasks to get through, as well as ...
Fellow Barnet Cllr, Robert Rams has asked me to mention a new cross party think tank called Londonsays that he has founded. Part of this is a campaign called iwant The press release is below. Londonsays Launch iWant Campaign Londonsays has today launched its iWant campaign to hear what Londoners want from their Mayor of London. We would like to invite you the public to contribute to the debate by visiting our website: www.londonsays.org, dropping us an email at: iwant@londonsays.org, or by joining our Facebook group and letting us know what is important to you. The iWant campaign is going ...
It's been a slow Easter weekend - lots of food, walking, cafes and of course, living in North West London - the visit to Kenwood House. It's all part of the heath but of course managed separately - but the vast space and sense of openess is truly magnifcent for this part of urban england. I have just bought a copy of 'Hampstead Heath, by Deborah Wolton and David McDowell, photographs by Sandra Lousada' and whilst I can't match their pictures - taking pictures of what you see and being able to enjoy them at home is astonishingly satisfying. So ...
The Conservative councillor for Highgate Paul Barton has resigned. That's hardly a surprise. I think I only heard him speak once in his two year stint as a Camden councillor. The omens don't look good for his would-be successor. In the three Camden by-elections since May 2006, the Tories have managed just 12% of the popular vote. Arguably they're now the fourth party in Camden after the Lib Dems (46%), Labour (28%) and the Greens (16%).
Amazingly, London's run of by-elections has come to an end (five wins, two good seconds and Havering). And so this bureaucrat found himself in Creeting St Peter, delivering a walk small in numbers but large in distance. There are some rewards. Despite the snow, there is much to see, horses to pat, pheasants to admire - they're a bit more confident now the season is over - hares in the fields and
The recent "offer" from the Childrens Secretary, Ed Balls, to fund a new secondary school south of the Euston Road as part of the Building Schools for the Future programme in addition to the planned new school in Swiss Cottage comes with two important caveats which campaigners (and the Labour group) are ignoring. The first is that Mr Balls says we need to prove that there is a requirement for even more places south of the Euston Road than we are currently planning for. The second is the availability and affordability of a site. Mr Balls is not offering to ...
I've done several entries on Zimbabwe recently. Presidential and Parliamentary election are due at the end of March. Zimbabwe is in an economic meltdown, what was the breadbasket of Africa is full of empty fields, hyperinflation is 100,000%. My past entries have shown some of the emerging evidence that there will be widespread fraud. The latest is a leak the MDC got hold of, that 9million ballot papers have been printed for a country of 5.9million voters. 600,000 postal ballots have been issued for a few thousand soldiers, police, civil servants (and of course no refugees in South Africa of ...
Lib Dem Alamein Ward Councillor Len Gates has urged residents of Smannell to support the extension of an order that is aimed at tackling alcohol-related anti-social behaviour in the Alamein ward including Enham, Smannell, Little London and the woods surrounding the ward including Ridges Copse. In October 2007 the council executive agreed to extend the scheme across the borough to tackle the problems we have seen recently in Little London playing fields and Ridges Copse. A Designated Public Place Order (DPPO) already covers Andover Town Centre and the police have found it useful in tackling alcohol related crime and anti-social ...
For those of you with a faith based bent, Nicholas Whyte has some biblical translation discussion[1]. Which is interesting. For the rest of you His Holiness {[info]} drjon gives us the Easter Bunny story: (youtube link) Meh, I'm going to go back to eating the Maya Gold egg that {[info]} snapesbabe bought me. On offer from the wholefood shop. Cheaper than buying a bar in Tesco. How cool is that[1] With a wonderful anonymous comment from a Wikipedian taking the whole thing too seriously as well...
I see that the Gnats are trumpeting some analysis of local government by-elections which they claim would result in more seats for them if repeated at a Holyrood election. But what is most noteworthy about their figures is that they show the Scottish Lib Dems would be the most improved party in the Scottish Parliament, up five seats from 16 to 21. I wonder whether this means we would retake Gordon from one A Salmond I am delighted that even the Gnats are recognising that we're providing the most effective opposition to their string of broken promises.
I try and avoid doing two football related post on the same day, as that isn't the main thrust of my blog, but today I do feel justified in making an exception. Is this the face of the dirtiest player or just the unluckiest player in Scottish football The stats for Murray Davidson's first team games makes poor reading. 2 starts, 2 yellow cards, 2 red cards. That is the bear facts. He has also
First things first, happy birthday {[info]} briargate! Secondly, we just got in from a nice pub lunch and a long dog walk with our two dogs and our friends and their two dogs. And this inspires a poll.View Poll: Dog walking EtiquetteBetween the guy on the bridge and the other guy who just would not let his poor spaniel off the lead to play when it desperately wanted to in case its pedigreeness was sullied by our dogs' mongrelosity... * headdesk * Thirdly, the first of a bunch of things I want to link to today, here's an American data ...
{Twenty is Plenty} Hampshire County Council have agreed in principle to 20 mph speed limits outside schools. But the limits are not legally enforcable and the council expects the schools to pay for the signs. The “20 is plenty” campaign launched by Hampshire County Council this week has been condemned by Liberal Democrats as ineffective. County Councillor Adam Carew who sits on Hampshire County Council’s environment policy review group and is a school governor said “Although we welcome the 20 is Plenty campaign as a very positive idea in principle, the scheme lacks teeth ! ” The 20 mph being offered ...
An interesting verdict from The Independent's Readers' Editor: Bloggers. Dontcha hate 'em You can just imagine them out there in some grungy internet café, consumed with bile, prejudice and misinformation, drinking from a scummy coffee cup. One thing they won't be drinking from is any kind of fount of wisdom. And as for the 'Oxford English Dictionary', doubt if they've ever heard of it. Citizen journalists Pah! How dare they compare themselves with pukka representatives of the Fourth Estate, with their years of training, unswerving devotion to the truth, total lack of bias, and staunch regard for journalistic codes of ...
So - David Cameron's at the centre of a fuss again where he's being painted as someone who - basically - looks down on the rest of us. Previously it was his track record of breaking traffic rules ('Stopping at a red light Going the right way down a one way street Those are only rules for little people' seems to be pretty much his attitude). Today, it's a comment he's meant to have made to his daughter, as reported in the Sunday Mirror:David Cameron was at the centre of a political storm last night over claims he had compared ...
http://www.youtube.com/watchv=qCzbNkyXO50 This came hot on the heels after this link of seriously disturbed quotes from religious fundamentalists talking on bulletin boards.
Readers of this blog will know I have been campaigning in Council for action to be taken against the rogue traders who sell cars on North Road. Council wardens have taken action, with some success, but the problem persists. The practice is illegal if the same person offers two or more cars for sale within 200 metres of each other. The message does not seem to have filtered down
Im grateful to Hannah Strange of The Times for providing this collection of must-see videos of Reverend Wright (Barack Obama's pastor). Having watched them, I cant see why there's been so much fuss made about him. He seems a nice enough bloke to me ......not!
A sporting Easter weekend for yours truly. It started at the Acorn Centre in Torquay where we celebrated the new sports hall floor. Jim Clarke, the regional director of Sports England an organisati...
I am consistently getting up to five hits every day to my blog under the Google search "problems with Setanta Sports". Which despite its launch over six months ago, seems still to be causing all sorts of problems to its customers. Often when looking through how people have got to this blog via Google or other search engines, I feel they might have got here by mistake and ended up linking to a story that they were not actually interested in. However, as can be seen from the moe than 60 comments left on THIS story about Setanta Sports and ...
A number of constituents have written to me about the above Bill. It strikes me that this is an issue upon which I have no formally established position. On that basis I would wish to try to hold a public meeting at which Constituents (and only constituents) can attend to express their views about the issue. I am not particularly religious, but I am worried at the extent to which we as a
For the worst possible reason, is there a revival of interest in Proportional Representation amongst Labour MPs From Andrew Rawnsley’s column in today’s Observer: “Another indicator of rising anxiety is a revival of interest among Labour people in electoral reform for Westminster elections. I was talking to one of Tony Blair’s allies the other evening. This [...] 
Gordon Brown has hinted he might allow so me Labour MP's to vote against the new Embryo Research Bill bill so long as he wins the vote anyway. This might be a compromise that works for the Labour party, but it speaks volumes about the politics of the country that so many of our MPs seem prepared to do as they are told by their religious leaders as opposed to making decisions based on the evidence and science. Imagine the furore if a group of Muslim MPs existed and they chose to vote as their Mullah told them to vote. ...
When I first came to Fortaleza nearly 30 years ago, Iracema was on the very edge of the city — a place people came to enjoy the beach at the weekend. But now the city has engulfed it, spreading several miles along the coast, to the port of Mucuripe. Luxury tower-blocks and hotels stretch several [...]
"Its quite simply a national disgrace" - Nick Clegg Liberal Democrat News Report: At a mass protest outside Parliament on Wednesday, the Liberal Democrat Leader was given a box full of medals by angry Gurkhas who have served in the British Army before 1997 and who are being denied a full pension and the right to British Citizenship. "When I told people what you get from the Government in return for the years of brave, loyal, uncomplaining service, people simply don't believe it." Nick Clegg told the ex-servicemen. It is quite simply a national disgrace. I am simply saying you ...
I’ve been loathe to write anything about concessionary fares since the local Tories came up with their alternative budget which offered nothing genuine to the residents of Maidstone. Instead, they shocked me by coming up with a cruel political stunt, in my opinion, to do nothing more than win a view votes in May. In the background I’ve continued to speak to Norman Bakers office about what can be done, spoken to (and kept updated) a number of those affected by the withdrawal of our voucher scheme, and finally have been investigating the possibilty of getting EU funding to continue ...
Today's Wales on Sunday contains an interesting article on the Matthew Taylor Review into affordable housing. Although the review covers just England, Community Housing Cymru has felt the need to give evidence to it because of the impact that its recommendations may have on Wales. Chief Executive, Nick Bennett believes that restrictions on second home ownership imposed on England could send investors across the border into rural Wales. He is particularly concerned with proposals that would require local Councils to give planning permission for a second home in England. He is worried that if such a requirement does not apply ...
I attended the Spring meeting of the Western Cemetery Association (WCA) on Friday which proved most worthwhile. A site visit will take place shortly at the Cemetery with Association members and the City Council Leisure & Communities Department, to look at further ways the Association can help with gardening improvements at the Cemetery. You can read more about the Association's activities by clicking on the headline above. The Friday WCA meeting took place at Blackness Library ... which brings me to ... Blackness Library, and an update on the 100th anniversary celebrations. Back in February, I mentioned that the ...
The LibDems have just expanded our presence on Facebook with a new page where you can sign up as a fan of the Liberal Democrats - click on the headline above to do so. You can see the latest news from Nick Clegg, view our latest photos from around the country, have discussions with other like minded people and much more.
Just a note to wish everyone in the ward a happy Easter. We have woken up this morning to a white Easter, just like the ones we used to know. In the last Ice Age. Although I suppose there wasn’t Easter then, was there…. Either way, the snow doesn’t make leafleting any easier, which is what I am supposed to be doing at the moment. Nor does it make this evening’s planned trip to Buxton to see Kate Rusby a particularly appealing prospect. I am going to do absolutely nothing to acclimatise myself to the Arctic chill before I go ...
There is a considerable amount of debate about sub-post offices again with many Labour MPs saying one thing in constituencies and doing another in the House of Commons. The irony of this issue is that it relates to a misunderstanding and false management accounting in the "Counter Revolutions" report from the Cabinet office early this decade. The "problem" for the post office network relates to
A war raged far away. The Democratic Party was split down the middle. Out of the chaos, a young African-American was nominated as the party's Vice-Presidential hopeful. Sounds like a script from the West Wing, or even like a scenario that could unfold later this year. Actually it was 40 years ago and the 1968 presidential primary and nomination process is remembered as the most tumultuous in US history. At the convention, Georgian civil rights activist Julian Bond, 23, was nominated by the conference to be the Vice Presidential candidate, in the face of Hubert Humphrey's preferred choice Edmund Muskie. Bond declined the nomination on the grounds that ...
I was amazed to find out who one of the biggest fans of this series on football stadium is. So for her sake I'm determined to get to the end before the end of the fitba season. So I'm continuing to rattle my memory banks and going back to the game on the 19th January over at Forthbank the home of Sterling Albion. Location Forth Bank is on the outskirts of the Stirling on the Eastern side of
Theres a nice peaceful religious article in todays Observer for us all to read on Easter Sunday. It looks like Brown really is being shoved against the wall and threatened by the catholic ministers in his cabinet, one of which has been criticised before for being a member of Opus Dei, a group which encourages catholics to incorporate their faith into their work Government chief whip Geoff Hoon has taken the unprecedented step of saying ministers can abstain on the most controversial measures, when normally they would be expected to vote for government legislation or resign. He is understood to ...
11:51 drinking coffee and watching Heroes # 15:06 looking out the window at snow. Didn't spring start this week Not that I mind snow, 33 years without it makes it a novelty... #Microblogging by SMS, it's all the rage donchaknow. Using LoudTwitter and Twitter.
Mikhail Gorbachev, whose post political activities I've blogged about before, has come out as a Christian. Whilst this fills me with no particular glee, in fact on balance I dislike the fact (especially this "other Christ" crap), I thought it news worthy.
"God didn't call America to engage in a senseless, unjust war. . . . And we are criminals in that war. We've committed more war crimes almost than any nation in the world, and I'm going to continue to say it. And we won't stop it because of our pride and our arrogance as a nation. But God has a way of even putting nations in their place." (He) then predicted this response from the Almighty: "And if you don't stop your reckless course, I'll rise up and break the backbone of your power." Who do you think said this ...
Back in 1998 Jeremiah Wright was invited to the White House. Here is the remarkable photo of Bill with Obama's pastor. The photo was apparently made available by the Obama camp. Well played, I think. More information available via Ben Smith
http://www.youtube.com/watchv=U2rtBUfc6YA&NR=1 And i’m not talking about Burger King! On Friday she said about a trip to Tuzla in Bosnia when she was First Lady: `I certainly do remember that trip to Bosnia, and as Togo [West, former Secretary of the Army] said, there was a saying around the White House that if a place was too small, too [...]
Well, I tried setting up the deli.icio.us cross poster (again), but it keeps crashing on me, so here's my linkspam of the last day or so redone with stripped htmlsorry about some of the weirdness.New Statesman - Richard Reeves Wrote the bio of JS Mill I'm currently reading, which means I like him already. Very interesting set of columns, well worth looking over, even if they are in Staggers. to columnists media journalists Edible Dirt,Easter Sunday, Jesus wakes up Not original, probably offensive to those that care, rather funny to easter jesus funny webcomics10 Unfortunate Facts of Life | f*cking ... | < | March 2008 | > | ||||
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