LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Sunday 18th May 2008

Sack Jo Swinson and Jenny Willott?

Just listening to a very interesting debate on the Westminster Hour on Radio 4. Why do people keep arguing that Welsh and Scottish MPs should be axed rather than simply reducing their salaries? They obviously don't handle the same workload as their English counterparts, although it would be good to hear what Jo Swinson or Jenny Willott thought about that point! As Welsh AM's salaries rise it's obvious that devolution must be easing the burden considerably, although I'm sure the socio-economic mix of an MPs constituency must directly affect the size of their casework folder. Why can we not increase ...

Nick Clegg does it again

Nick Clegg appeared in the Guardian's Weekend Q&A feature alongside a frank photograph (if there is such a thing - the web site photo is different from the one in the hard copy magazine). The answers are, once again, refreshingly breezy and frank - something we are getting used to from Nick (although there is nothing in the 30 lovers league). His super-power would be breathing under water.

Gordon Brown is asking for trouble with this...

Ask the Prime Minister: Still, at least he’s making an effort, even if he is pulling out his Tony Blair impression in the first five seconds to do so. You can submit your no doubt hilarious and thoroughly unhelpful questions to the PM here. PS. Telling phrase of the video comes in the final few frames: "And [...]

How dare they ? Let's have a corporate ASBO

They dare because they get away with it. Day after day. They break the law, break the rules, break agreements they have agreed to. Am I talking about wayward youth ? No, men in suits. Developers. In our ward we have builders who have not built houses to plan. They are higher, look different, and they have removed hedges that had to remain in place. Everyone is commenting on how...

US electoral fact of the day

If the Democrat primaries were being run on first�past the post (rather than allocating delegates in proportion to the votes won by the different Presidential candidates), then Hillary Clinton would now be the Democrat nominee for President, despite having won fewer votes overall.

Cheers Boris!

Let us be under no illusions. Boris Johnson's first act as mayor - to ban both open containers of alcohol and its consumption on all of London's public transport services - is a disgusting example of gesture politics, designed to please his core vote of the suburban middle-aged, middle-class self-righteous. To my mind, this ban has all the limitations of the hunting ban, and a fair few more besides. They are both incredibly difficult to enforce, have no real effect on the practice they seek to prohibit, criminalize otherwise law-abiding people and reek of cynical core vote appeasement. Both were ...

Britain in the Technology Third World.

How smug do I feel? Twice today I have read and seen further evidence of my campaign that clearly shows that Britain is in the third world when it comes to technology and its internet access. Fast broadband ROFL. There was I watching the tv this lunchtime, good old John Craven on his weekly countryfile slot, low an behold a story about rural areas and the speed of broadband and the stifling

The Ulster Folk and Transport Museum

�The 55th Liberal International Congress ended on an unconventional note, with an evening reception�at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum in North Down, whose Alliance Party Mayor, Dr Stephen Farry, greeted the delegates on arrival. We were entertained in the (indoor) Transport bit, rather than the (outdoor) Folk bit, though colleens from the Royal Tara [...]

Karen Gillard chosen to fight South East Cornwall

Or so the Plymouth Herald says. This is a Lib Dem seat, currently held by Colin Breed.

How not to curry favour with people: a lesson from the BBC

I pawed off a complaint to the BBC about lack of Liberal Democrat representative - yet again - on Question Time. The response thanked me for raising an issue about "the Liberal Party". Someone's ankles need biting if you ask me.

Fairport Convention: Sir Patrick Spens

Today's video comes from a concert given by Fairport Convention at Maidstone in 1970. One genius, Sandy Denny, had already left the band but another, Richard Thompson, is still in place. Like all good folk songs, this one involves drowing sailors. It is sung by Dave Swarbrick. Fairport Convention are still going strong, though these days everything about them seems a little beery and the lead vocals are in the charge of Simon Nicol, whose nasal folk voice can become irritating after a while. Still, every year I get invited to go to the Cropredy Festival with friends and one ...

Labour split on Crewe tactics

Earlier I blogged about Ed Miliband's defence of Labour's tactics but there are signs tonight that adding to Labour's woes is a potentially damaging split within the party over the tactics that are being used. Should Crewe fail to return a Labour MP next Thursday it makes you wonder what the ramifications will be; one side will almost assuredly blame another and the prospect of damaging infighting breaking out into the open becomes a distinct possibility. The Guardian reports that Harriet Harmen admitted that Labour's tactics were "not the most positive" when she was interviewed on BBC1's The Politics Show. ...

King Bladud's Pigs

Well done to Gitte Dawson and her team for bringing an exciting explosion of public art to Bath over the summer months. Taking an idea from Germany (I think) of cows, Gitte has got nearly 100 sponsors to buy pigs which are then decorated by artists or schools and the displayed in the streets of Bath and elsewhere over the summer months. Already several have escaped from the studios onto the...

Foreign Affairs

Zimbabwe - check out the Sokwanele link on the right. Apparently the Chinese arms shipment has been unloaded somewhere and has reached Zimbabwe. The people do not need guns and bullets aimed at them by the forces of oppression. They need freedom, fairness and above all justice. Morgan has agreed to go back and contest the elections. Good Luck Morgan - the hopes and prayers of many people round...

46 Redlands Rd

As previously mentioned, the developer proposing to build 14 flats at 46 Redlands Rd, has now appealed to the Planning Inspector, after his plans were turned down by the Council. A number of residents have raised queries about the appeals process. For this reason, there will be a short meeting at 61 Allcroft Rd this Friday 23rd May, starting at 7pm. Please come along if you would like to discuss the matter. I will be chairing the meeting, since I am a member of the Committee that turned the plans down in the first place! We look forward to seeing ...

Winchester MayFest

MayFest is the name for Winchester's annual folk, roots and blues festival. Despite the grey skies yesterday it was good to see the streets of the city full of colour and dancers of many varieties. A great day for an old folkie like me to wander around with my camera. The resulting pics can be found here.

Yorkshire wins Roses match and march onto Twickenham

�� Yorkshire beat Lancashire today to book a place in the final of the Bill Beaumont Cup (effectively the County Championship) where they will play Devon at Twickenham on June 1st. Well done to them. It is ironic that this should come on the day the Regional BBC Politics did a piece on how Rugby League [...]

Twerton PACT meetings.

The next series of Pact meeting dates have been announced and the next meeting will be on 3rd June 2008 6pm at St Michaels Junior School Newton Road Twerton, the meeting will start at 6pm and all residents are welcome to attend. The initial discussion will take place on the 3 priorities that were identified by residents at the last PACT meeting and to remind you what they were in...

Awards for staff who help vulnerable and older residents

I am pleased to be able to tell you some good news and that is Staff providing care and support for older and vulnerable residents across Bath and North East Somerset received recognition for developing their skills. Raising the skill levels of staff and carers means that improvements are continually being made to the services received by local people. Bath & North East Somerset...

Expecting the most

I was listening to Diane Abbot's Desert Island Discs earlier today. One incident from her past struck me. She talked about how she had spoken to a teacher about attempting to get into Oxbridge and had effectively been told she wasn't up to it. She replied that she thought she was up to it.... and wasn't that the point? She's obviously someone who carried on despite some low expectations. But I wonder how many other youngsters achieve a lot less than they could because of the low expectations of teachers, parents or others. It strikes me that poverty of aspiration ...

Rose takes its first million

I've just heard that the Rose Theatre has taken £1million since it opened in January! An amazing 50,000 seats have been sold so far. I went last night to see 'Come on, Jeeves' which I have to admit was not really to my liking. But it did demonstrate that a show designed with a three-sided room set for a traditional stage still works well in our unique space.

Abdullah Ibrahim at the Barbican

Had a welcome evening of music at the Barbican last night with my best friend Mickey and my son, to watch the great South African Jazz pianist and composer, Abdullah Ibrahim. He played with the BBC Concert Orchestra and the BBC Big Band, who were hugely impressive. Mickey who is herself from Cape Town remembers Ibrahim visiting her house as a child, and was as uplifted by the centrepiece of the concert, as were the many South Africans in the audience, with his famous piece - the Mountain, and with Mandela. The Voices + Abdullah Ibrahim Trio, were awesome, with ...

BAE - corrupt or shrewd business deal?

Regular readers may remember my exclusive view from a BAE employee, a close source who I kept anonymous. Today it emerged that two executives from BAE were arrested when they landed in the US on business. One must imagine they are in a state of absolute shock, as BAE employees remain convinced they are not guilty of any wrongdoing. Although one wonders how the authorities managed to extract any useful information in 20 minutes. Despite allegedly using the US bank system "to transfer regular payments to accounts controlled by Prince Bandar at Riggs Bank in Washington", many BAE empoyees regard ...

Open source economics and Meetup politics

I have almost finished reading Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody. If I wasn't writing this, I would have finished it. It's an interesting book and well worth a read if you are interested in social/ digital media, work in PR or political communication. Shirky is very good at explaining why the sites such as MySpace and Facebook have made a difference to how people organize things and why this matters. Two things in particular got my attention. In the latter part of the book he discusses the Meetup phenomena. If you have never used Meetup this is how it works. ...

Conservative Euro-MPs slammed over expense claims

Here’s a selection of the criticisms from today’s News of the World about MEPs and their pay and benefits. Some of the criticisms are a little wide of the mark (such as pointing out that, shock horror, MEPs get a salary) but there are also activities they highlight which are in a very different league: Tory [...]

The Government clearly doesn't worry about all of the working poor

In terms of Civil Service pay, I'm comparatively lucky. I'm never going to become rich on my salary, but my needs are met as long as I don't get careless. Many of my colleagues, on the other hand, earning less than £20,000 per year, struggle to raise families and put a roof over their heads. Housing in London is increasingly out of their reach, their salaries have lost value in real terms, and

Facebook has it's own House of Commons

I joined an interesting looking Facebook group last night. This is not usually occasion for a fanfare as Facebook is pretty well know for it's extensive groupings. However, this one is worthy of note it seeks to establish a 'virtual' House of Commons composed of members of all political parties ranging from the far-left Respect to the far-right British National Party. It seems that there is quite a diverse spread of activists involved despite the group only currently having 317 members which at least should make for some interesting discussion. Each grouping has it's own group of officers who qualify ...

Cherie Blair and Princess Margaret

An extract from her memoirs: One evening I was at the Royal Opera House for some gala performance and was talking to [Princess Margaret] about what we had seen when Chris Smith came over (the then Minister of Culture, who is gay). “Have you met Chris Smith, our Culture Secretary, Ma’am?” I asked. She peered at him. “And this [...]

Let's face it, anything but a comfortable Tory win should be unthinkable

The Tories keep playing down their chances of victory in Crewe and Nantwich, raising the labour majority of 7,000 in 2005 and trying to manage expectations. but let's be clear, if the Tories cannot win this comfortably they have problems. For starters, if the Lib Dems had been in second place just 7,000 behind Labour would anyine bet against the Lib Dems ? Of course not. And let's face it, the Tories have a lot going in their favour at the moment. Firstly, much of Labour's 7,000 majority in 2005 was a personal vote for Gwyneth Dunwoody who had been ...

Appearing on Any Questions?

Friday was a long, long day! Crack of dawn start to get to York to meet various youth and equality projects. First stop was to meet the Equalities spokesperson at the Council (LibDem minority control) - Cllr Keith Aspden - who briefs me on the groups I will be meeting. A quicke radio interview with Minster Radio and then off to meet the CVS - the Community Voluntary Sector - who have fantastic facilities where a number of local voluntary groups operate from as well as facilitating rooms for meetings. Seemed a very well-developed and properly functioning centre - and ...

Exposure magazine

Visited Exposure last week - the magazine that is produced for young people - the amazing magazine produced for young people in Haringey. It is mostly contributed to by young people who come there for skills training and work experience - expedited by a seriously committed but very small group of professionals. Andy (who manages the scheme) has created a fantastic atmosphere where young people who have not necessarily always been at ease in the education system can blossom. They learn, depending on their proclivity, to write articles, to do page layouts and graphics or work on video productions. I ...

Neil Gaiman rules

I'm sure many of you reading this already knew that, but... Here's what he had to say about David "Doctor Who" Tennant playing Hamlet:I know that David Tennant's Hamlet isn't till July. And lots of people are going to be doing Dr Who in Hamlet jokes, so this is just me getting it out of the way early, to avoid the rush... "To be, or not to be, that is the question. Weeelll.... More of A question really. Not THE question. Because, well, I mean, there are billions and billions of questions out there, and well, when I say billions, ...

Campaigning in Crewe from the comfort of Muswell Hill...

I had an email from the Cleggster yesterday. “I’ve cleared my diary for next Wednesday…” he began. Nick, that’s ever so kind, but really it’s not necessary to put aside a whole day to consult me on the future of our national campaigning. Three hours should be perfectly sufficient. And do bring your own pen [...]

Another bonfire needed

Our friends, the Taxpayers Alliance have just produced another report entitled 'The unseen Government of the UK'. As the Sunday Times records this concludes that the cost of Britain's "hidden state" of unelected public bodies has soared to more than £100 billion a year. This is not necessarily a bad thing provided that Government is able to demonstrate that the money is being well-spent to provide essential public services, that the way it is being spent is transparent and that there is a clear line of accountability, which accomodates proper scrutiny by MPs. Alas, the Taxpayers Alliance report casts doubt ...

St Nadine the Martyr and the Hounds of Hell

Nadine Dorries appears to be in the thick of it. Insults scrawled on the fabric of her house, dismembered dolls through the letterbox and heaven knows what else. No wonder she is a little overwrought. These, needless to say, are a�ghastly and unnecessary set of campaign tactics that can only be the product of sick minds, [...]

Miliband - Labour's Crewe campaign 'not a mistake'

The sense of outrage about Labour's campaign in Crewe and Nantwich is palpable - to me it shows just how bankrupt the party is when it comes to having any concrete ideas. It also smacks of complete desperation to me, they know they are losing and since they have no positive ideas to turn it around result to the purely negative in a last desperate throw of the dice. My memory is drawn back to 1997 and the infamous 'demon eyes' that the Conservatives used against the then surging Labour Party under Tony Blair. It will probably not surprise anybody ...

Rise of the shredder

The rise of increased transparency in public life does not suit everybody as is evident from this item in the Sunday Times. The paper tells us that some of Tony Blair's expenses claims, which the High Court last week ruled should be disclosed to the public, have been shredded. The documents, itemising Blair's claims for household expenses during a year of his premiership, were destroyed in the midst of a legal battle over whether they should be published. As is pointed out it is a criminal offence to destroy documents to prevent their disclosure under freedom of information laws, but ...

Bureaucrats' mistakes cost taxpayers £560m

Commenting on benefit fraud and error statistics released last week, Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Danny Alexander said: "We now have a benefits system so complex that even Government officials can't understand it. It is absolutely unacceptable that the amount wasted because of official error has risen in the past year to £560m. "Ministers have spent £3.9m since 2001 on campaigns to tackle benefit fraud, but yet again we see that the system is being exploited at massive cost to taxpayers. "The targets to reduce fraud and error have been missed by a mile, yet ministers still insist ...

Lembit says that government must do more to help struggling homeowners

Commenting on new measures to help first time house buyers announced by Housing Minister Caroline Flint, Liberal Democrat Housing Spokesperson, Lembit Öpik said: "Finally the Government has realised that their first time buyer schemes have helped too few families into homeownership. But where is the support for those facing repossession and homelessness? "The Government must now consider how struggling homeowners could be helped into shared ownership schemes to prevent repossession. "Unfortunately at the moment homelessness and hopelessness is where we seem to be heading."

Tamsin Dunwoody: Iron Lady or Freak?

{Do you want a Tory con man or a Dunwoody? Tamsin Dunwoody - one of us.} Labour’s campaign in Crewe and Nantwich appears to go from low to new low (James Schneider). It is the most unjustifiably bad behaviour I have seen since Birmingham Hodge Hill in 2004 (and there’s been some steep competition, believe me). I’m fascinated that they are using “con man” on their literature. I’ve always understood this to be a definite no-no on election literature (even when using against a CONservative) as it creeps beyond the garden of mockery and legitimate criticism and into the realm ...

Cheer up...

Cheer up Gordon it may never happen...

Burma emergency

This story deserves plenty of attention.

Made in Thai

Last night my friend Sarah and I went to Made in Thai in Wolverhampton after watching the FA Cup final. I have been wanted to go to Made in Thai for a while but never quite got around to it.

Doing A Line Of Coke

One of the embarassing things about last week's visit to the Radio One Big Weekend was the state of my shirt. On the way to get the train down to Maidstone the bus had to make an emergency stop ...

Crewe voters tied up and gagged!

It seems Iain Dale is spouting more lies about the Crewe by-election than you can shake an angry twig at...(Wait till you see the final statement)... "The Conservative campaign is the best organised I have ever seen" Well, you would say that, you've just been photographed next to the election 'mastermind' Eric Pickles MP. "The number of people pouring into the constituency to help has to be seen to be believed" I'll have to take your word for that, as I don't intend to do any research to prove you wrong. "I didn't see a single LibDem or Labour campaigner ...

A little pick me up

Don't know why, but I've been feeling out of sorts and down in the dumps lately. Don't mind admitting, I was in serious need of a little pick me up. That's when this video clip was brought to my attention (very big thank you and hat tip to Susan Gaszczak, Liberal Democrat Councillor for Eastcotts Division, Bedfordshire County Council and Executive Member of East of England Regional Assembly and all round 'good egg'.) Having watched it a couple of times now, I have to admit it did make me laugh and things don't seem so bad now. Thanks Susan!

Weekly catchup 5th-11th May

Our belated guide to the highlights here at LDV. Read this if you don’t read anything else this summer: Our guest contributors included Alexis Rowell, exhorting us to eat less meat Neale Upstone’s review of our performance Martin Turner’s consideration of Apathy in the UK You, our readers, weighed in with dozens of comments about Linda Jack’s article about child poverty Our [...]

Thousands of children face starvation - charity

Save the Children has said that thousands of children are in danger of starvation following the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargris. It estimates that 30,000 infants under the age of five in the Irrawaddy Delta were already "acutely malnourished" before the cyclone hit on May 2. However, following the cyclone the situation has dramatically worsened. Farmers in the Irrawaddy Delta - the country's rice bowl - have been prevented from sowing seeds in time for the monsoon harvest. So, while the military junta continues to hamper the aid effort, Save the Children believes some children are already dying from malnourishment. ...

Give me a hug!

My exams start tomorrow. I'm taking my finals in French and German, which run until a week on Thursday. Understandably, blogging will be quite infrequent, probably non-existent, for the next week and a half.

CCTV in the West End

Following the incident at Londis earlier this week (click on headline to view), I have now written to the Chief Constable in the following terms : Chief Constable John Vine BA MCIPD Tayside Police P O Box 59 West Bell Street DUNDEE DD1 9JU Dear Chief Constable Provision of CCTV - Perth Road west of Roseangle Following the recent armed robbery incident at a store in Perth Road, I have again received concerns from residents about the lack of CCTV provision west of Roseangle on Perth Road. Although I understand the store concerned does have its own CCTV system, the ...

SNP shambles on PE targets

During last week's FMQs, leader of the Liberal Democrats in Scotland, Nicol Stephen MSP challenged the First Minister to provide clarity on the SNP's mixed message for physical education targets in schools. "In March, a Government spin doctor said that the guarantee of two hours of physical education had been dropped, but the First Minister issued a clarification and said that that was not true. "This week, the Minister for Schools and Skills said that the two-hours target included walking to school, but yesterday the First Minister issued a clarification and said that that was not true. The Scottish National ...

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Sunday 18th May 2008

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