LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Thursday 29th May 2008

Is Britain's Got Talent is being manipulated ?

A strange thing seems to be happening each night on the show 'Britain's Got Talent'. Every night, of all the eight acts that perform, the winning act is the eighth and last one to perform. Strange co-incidence or is there another reason ? Well actually the reason is clear, and it harks back to similar issues of manipulation of the final of The X Factor (another Simon Cowell show ... hmm). Ant and Dec make clear throughout the show that the lines are not open, so watching each of the first seven acts, you are prevented from voting for one ...

Do you have an old photo of the Frank Jordan Centre?

We all know that the Frank Jordan Centre used to be an old Victorian school before it became a Community Centre in the 1970's. But what did the Lichfield Road frontage look like before the 1950's style entrance foyer was erected? The Town Council's architects are preparing some plans for a refurbishment of the building and are curious about the original features of the front of the building. So if your memory goes back far enough or if you have any old photos which might throw some light on the query, the Town Clerk would be interested in hearing from ...

How a leaked Gordon Brown email contradicts Tony McNulty

Labour minister Tony McNulty has been telling the world today how Labour is serious about seeking cross-party consensus on detention without trial, saying (to use the words the BBC reported) that "This is too serious to leave to partisan politics". Sounds reasonable doesn't it? One slight problem. We know from a leaked email I blogged about [...]

John Prescott: I cannot justify Iraq

Just back from a John Prescott event at UCL. The former Deputy Prime Minister was "in conversation with Michael White", assistant editor for the Guardian. Perhaps the most interesting thing he said, in answer to a question on Iraq, was a denunciation of the situation in the Middle East country at the moment, with an [...]

Question Time

It's very rare that I feel sorry for Geoff Hoon, but tonight is one of those times. He is getting a proper hammering from the rest of the panel and the audience, bless him. ETA: Oh FOR FUCK'S SAKE the nuclear family is NOT a panacea, and knife crime is not the fault of single mothers!!

Jonathan Meades has a YouTube channel devoted to him

Tonight's Magnetic North was a classic. A prolonged joke about eating beavers long before the watershed and while he described a battle in the Middle Ages we were shown pictures of small boys fighting with plastic swords, solemnly labelled 'Reconstruction'. No doubt it will turn up soon at the MeadesShrine.

Beware of Green Fascism

Just a day after I was rejoicing in the decline in environmentalism, tonight's BBC's Newsnight is championing that old green fascist nugget again - population control. It is the most terrifying and illiberal aspect of the environmental movement. Even the relatively moderate Jonathan Porritt would not speak out against China's one child rule. How long until we see the first green Pol Pot?

Suffolk Reviews: the Bungay Spring Garden Fair

Bungay is a small, but perfectly formed, town almost surrounded by a curve of the River Waveney on the Suffolk/Norfolk border and is well-known in the surrounding area for its street fairs. Mid-May sees the Garden Street fair, when Earsham Street, in the middle of the town, is closed to traffic and stalls are set up to sell plants and gardening related items. It isn't just flowers and shrubs

A doomed attempt to silence Tony Greaves

From the Burnley Citizen: Health chiefs considered taking legal action over allegations of bad management in Liberal Democrat election leaflets, it has been revealed. Acting chief executive of East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust Gary Graham sent a letter to Pendle councillor Tony Greaves, branding the attacks 'unacceptable' and 'libellous'.But our Lord is not having any of it: 'This is clearly a clumsy attempt to shut us up and close down our campaign. But I am afraid that the weight of evidence is now so great that the case is overwhelming - they have to bring back a proper hospital to ...

Mark Oaten to force Winchester by-election?

The Times reports: David Cameron is preparing to avenge an historic by-election defeat after the Liberal Democrat MP Mark Oaten confirmed that he was considering leaving Parliament before the next general election. Mr Oaten, 44, told The Times yesterday that he was talking to potential employers and could leave his Winchester constituency before the expected poll in 2010.I am not sure that Mark Oaten's historic victory with a majority of 21,556 was a by-election. Wasn't it a rerun of the general election contest? Anyway, The Times later says: Contacted yesterday over rumours that he was preparing to depart, Mr Oaten ...

That thoughtless comment about the pub!

Much has been said about my weekend post about who and who wasn't in the pub during the abortion vote. Although this was only referred to in the headline of the post. I've been told three times now that Jeremy Browne was in China on a parliamentary trip during the vote and therefore couldn't attend. I know he was in China as he's written his column about it today in the local paper. He was in Shanghai (IN CHINA) and so couldn't be in London as well, as MPs aren't superhuman. (Sob) not even Jeremy... I was rather worried that ...

on Nepal

Today, as Google's homepage tells us, is the anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Everest. This event took place in 1953 by Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay, a journey which started out in Nepal. Yesterday, another momentous journey began in that country. The new Constituent Assembly of Nepal met for the first time, and its first decision by a 560 to 4 vote, was to abolish the 240 year old monarchy thus creating The Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. The monarch seized control of power in February 2005 following what had become a civil war with the Maoists, 14 ...

Why would anyone go from labour to tory?

In 2005 I didn't have much understanding of politics. I was happy labour had won (family influence-it has worn off) but I told my dad I liked the LibDems because they were celebrating even though they came third! In fact they seemed happier than labour who had won. My father corrected me, that the LibDems had more MPs than they'd ever had and of course labour had lost a lot. Why did we do well? The guardian speaks of the dramatic wins we won of labour in urban areas but how we failed to win seats from the tories in ...

Waterfront - and a dynamic city

With thanks to one of the City Centre & Harbour Community Council folk (a community council I used to work closely with, but the local government boundary commission regrettably put paid to that) ... if you click on the headline above, you can see Dundee Waterfront (and more) featured on the 'skyscrapercity' site. Furthermore, the photos on flickr are great - see :

BBC Question Time: open thread

'Fraid there are no Lib Dem panellists on tonight's Question Time, (broadcast on BBC1 and online from 10.35 pm GMT) - but only for the second time in three weeks so no complaints from me. [/irony font] The panel will include the government's chief whip, Labour's Geoff Hoon, the shadow secretary of state for communities and [...]

A Pan-European journey of dogs and girlfriends

A quiet day today, dominated by work and the return of Tamsin, who arrived back from France this evening, riding a bicycle, sporting a bunch of onions round her neck, and promptly going on strike and blockading the front garden. She surrendered fairly quickly though, so all is now well bar grumbling of discontent about the length of the working week. Ward work wise, I found out a little more about the baffling dog waste non-prosecution today. This caving in by the forces of good against the forces of irresponsible canine carelessness is the result of my work in reporting ...

Kids these days are out of control. They fight the police and riot

At least that's what is going on in Chile. High school kids and university students are protesting in favour of education reform and better (free) public transport. Incredible. I just can't image my sixteen year old brother or any other high school kids in this country rioting for a better education. Check out the incredible photos courtesy of the first post.

Tories meeting with unions

Earlier this week I blogged about Cameron cuddling up to the City but it seems he is also seeking to build more cordial relations with the trade unions. The Guardian reports that the Conservative party's new trade union envoy, Richard Balfe, claims to have held around 20 meetings with union officials, several of whom belong to trade unions affiliated to Labour. Balfe says his role is to; 'to reassure them that we want to know them and that the days of Thatcher are past. That we want a good constructive relationship and that we are not out to get them.' ...

YouGov poll: C 47 L 23 LD 18

Bloody hell. 24 point lead. I really don't know what to say other than that Brown is in serious trouble. Plug that into electoral calculus and you get CON 452, LAB 138, LD 32. This is using UMS for the whole country, not even taking into account Labour's particular problems north of the border or the suggestion that there will be tactical unwind from LibDem voters away from Labour. The Lib Dems suffer under UMS predictions as they tend to do well in areas they already have representations, bucking national trends, and get tactical voters. So the real Liberal figure ...

Makoni: Zimbabwe can't afford another election

Simba Makoni, the ex-Zanu-PF Cabinet Member who turned Independent and came 3rd in the first round of the Presidential election really sums up the desperation of Zimbabwe. He said Zimbabwe, 'cannot afford another election'. 'Effective government functions have been paralysed since the launch of the election campaigns in January 2008,' and 'The people have been under immense political pressure since the beginning of the year, which... is now intensified by the violence of the last month.' What he says sums up the hardship the Zimbabwean people are going through. That another election will make it worse with violence. Instead he ...

6 empty bottles standing on my desk

One birthday (Will Howells) and one person leaving Cowley St (Andrew Reeves - heading north of the border to be the party's Deputy Director of Campaiigns for Scotland): both had to be celebrated today. So birthday boy meal was in Pizza Express at Millbank, one time home of New Labour and now buzzing with Conservatives (some cruel people would say they were the same!) And in the afternoon it was

Tony Blair: the world's messiah

So he's finally taken his strong interest in his personal faith and inter-faith to a whole new level. All hail the messiah, the uniter of faiths, the ender of poverty, the dawning light of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven, the Prince of Peace. Somehow, I just don't think many people are gonna buy it. Do you? Oh, hang on, what was it that Jesus purportedly said?

Farmers Come to Town

There was a mini Farmers' market in Stockton High Street today, organised entirely by the town centre manager rather than by a commercial organisation. She'd only invited a small number of people who fulfilled rather tight criteria and it seemed to have worked. There was a lovely array of meats, Yorkshire cheeses, pickles, preserves and an almost empty cake stall whose occupants said they'd

Hazel Blears and her incredibly shrinking claims

Hazel Blears always strikes me as a bit of a Comical Ali figure for Labour, smiling away through the utmost Labour adversity, pushing the message that everything is fine. Well, I discovered on her website a claim which stretches the suspension of disbelief to breaking point. According to a press release in her name, she claimed in April that national debt 'had been paid off.' And that meant the

Obama dancing to Beyonce

How did I miss this? Check out the video below.

Opinion: Winning where?

For me, last week's Crewe and Nantwich by-election was a disaster. Not a disaster for our candidate, Elizabeth Shenton - who achieved a good showing on difficult ground - but a disaster for the party's integrity. I speak of the Lib Dems' 'Winning Here' spin. Whilst I realise that it was important for us to maintain [...]

So much for changes and improvements

Ok so I've not actually done any of the things I said I'd do to improve this blog. Its been a very busy week (moving house, three essays etc). I will do my upmost to turn things around for next week.

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #66

Welcome to the (belated) 66th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (18th-24th May), together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed. Let's get straight down to it, in descending order of popularity: 1. UPDATED: The dangers of Nick Clegg's [...]

Song for Europe

Despite Bob Piper's protestations this is actually nothing like a Liberal Democrat Conference! It is though enough to turn me into a Euro sceptic.

Don't Vote Lib Dem. You heard me: Obey, or Else

Nothing unites liberal minded people quite like telling certain people to get fudged when they try telling us what to do. So, it struck me that the best possible name for this blog would be: Do What You're Told: Don't Vote Lib Dem. I mocked up this quick poster as a pitch to get the job of running the billboard and election broadcast campaigns at the next election. Yep, I can see it now. The phone will start ringing any second...

Where does Labour's implosion leave the Lib Dems?

It is extraordinary how much the political mood has changed in recent weeks.Until fairly recently the winner of the next General Election was a hotly debated issue. Now people are treating a Conservative victory as a foregone conclusion. People have forgotten how unclear things seemed just a few months ago. In today's Guardian Peter Wilby's premise is not only that Labour will lose - but that they were always going to:'a Conservative victory at an election in 2009 or 2010 was always likely as part of the cycle of democratic politics.' (Peter Wilby - Labour has much more to lose ...

Train and booze don't mix.

News reaches Somerset of a planned public display of drinking on the tube by the 'youth' of our party this saturday. Seemingly in response to the proposals by Boris to outlaw the act of holding a can of stella on the tube or bus in London, it seems a bit, erm, dare I say it, embarrassing and unnecessary. Won't this prove the point for Boris? You will be careful won't you? It also triggers a disturbing memory I'd rather forget of using public transport along with alcohol. Only 24 and new to London, I decided it would be a great ...

Last Post for Post Offices

The Post Office have announced the results of their 'consultation' about closing 29 post offices in the Greater Bristol area. Surprise, surprise - all 29 will be shut! In our area this means Tesco Express Station Road and Old Sodbury. So people will be travelling to post offices a long way away, and standing in the long queues at Yate Post Office. Steve Webb told the Gazette 'The depressing thing about the whole consultation process was that we always knew that if we got the post office to change their mind about one of the offices on their list they ...

Crucible of Terror - Part 2

Bloodbath Ibn Saud now ruled over a people with a myriad of different tribal and religious identities. To add to his problems, the social base that he could claim among the ruled was thin. If the new territory were to be governable, then the creation of a unified identity was required. Given the fact that the new entity was created by conquest, with not a hint of any movement from below, this would have to come from above. In short, everything pointed to a bloodbath and that was exactly what happened. Wahhabism was a minority religious sect that viewed intolerance ...

Environmentalism Versus Electability

Having been mulling over starting a new blog, I finally decide to take the plunge after reading Nick Clegg's piece in the Torygraph yesterday. Those who remember my old blog will remember I was an advocate for Clegg's leadership because, quite specifically, he promised - and yes, I know, I'm naive and stupid and all the rest - that he wouldn't dwell on subjects only of interest to Lib Dems. He promised to reach out to the wider electorate and get in touch with the concerns of real voters. So, imagine my dismay, and frankly despair, upon seeing an article ...

Labour and Conservatives set to abandon green policies

Politics Home has an interesting survey of political opinion formers today. They were asked their views on how seriously Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats will take environmental policies in the future. Andrew Rawnsley's write-up says: The PHI100 reckon that most of the politicians will follow the voters and downplay the environment. Saving the planet will [...]

Name of the Day

Mr Calder, I see your Julian Swift-Hook and I raise you Association of Chief Police Officers spokesman Alf Hitchcock. Commenting on knife crime.

PHI100 divine the green agenda

Politics Home's PHI100, a panel of 'UK insider and expert opinion' poll some fairly stark results when asked which parties would still care about the environment during an economic downturn and a closely fought election in two years. I wouldn't be surprised if the Liberal Democrats do the right thing either.

Henley by-election: Conservatives off to a slow and troubled start

When is a flying start not a flying start? When it's the Henley Conservatives. Amused to see that the Conservative Party has already had to send in David Cameron to sort out the Henley Conservative Party. I'd have just gone and bitten their ankles until they submitted. Normally it only takes a couple of nips before they're eating out of my paws. Double amused to see them boasting of getting their Henley by-election campaign off to a flying start - by doing something this weekend - when one resident is already saying the Liberal Democrats have got to them three ...

Anarchism, legality, religion and stoopid USians

Sheldon: The Daily Comic Strip by Dave Kellett Washington DC: Built by morons... (but then, London's not that much better) (tags: rome greece architecture) Web 2.0 and User-Generated Content: legal challenges in the new frontier This is rather good (if a bit weighty), legal responsibity of online content, who's gets sued for libel, etc and what your web host should be aware of. Seems to back up my view that screening comments can cause issues (tags: law libel) el_staplador: She called herself a 'Christian' Kathleen on how many Christian campaigners are distinctly unChristian and her own particular brand of liberal ...

Hillary Clinton, The final Curtain.

John Major once said upon leaving Downing Street for the last time,"when the curtain falls it's time to get off the stage'. H e was right then and if he, or anyone, were to say the same about Hilary Clinton they would be now. It is fair to say that an out right victory could be declared for Barack Obama, without going through the motion of this long drawn out farewell tour on which Mrs Clinton is embarking. Although the polls frequently show the Republicans in decline, time cannot be wasted, and John McCain has already begun. it should be ...

The invisible hand in political finances

As it is revealed that the Labour Party could be up to 24 million Pounds in debt, and that the senior officers of the party could be personally liable. It begins to look like the slow erosion of the Labour Party might end up being something a lot more dramatic. Could this be the free market's revenge against Socialism? However, when I hear Conservatives trying to claim ownership of the ideas of the free market, I do get a bit irritated. Why? Because one of the biggest rigged markets of all is the political market, and Conservatives seem determined to ...

What future for Israel

The news today that leader of the Israeli Labour Party, Ehud Barak, is calling for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to step down, is the latest crisis to hit Israel. It comes at a time when one of Israel's leading intellectuals, Amon Rubinstein a former minister of education and justice recently went on Hebrew Radio to say he anticipated that the Israeli state would not survive. His view is shared by a number of intellectuals who fear that the external threat, lack of confidence in the state's future and severe polarisation amongst society's components may all lead to Israel's demise. Abraham ...

'Emo?'

No wonder school children rarely read the news. This BBC article really is pure filler. Actually I urge you not to read it. In any case, what self-respecting young person loves My Chemical Romance? Its only cathartic like ipecac!

Boris to serve just one term as Mayor?

The Daily Pundit has an intriguing piece of speculation about Boris Johnson's career plans:Rumours are rife that Boris Johnson isn't a happy chappy after being forced by the Tory leadership to give up his plum Westminster seat of Henley. 'One term' Boris was quick to react to the edict issued by David Cameron last month by swiftly announcing that he would be returning to his old job at the Telegraph as a columnist on a reputed £250,000 a year. I'm reliably informed the next bombshell for the Tory leadership won't be Johnson's rumoured return to the BBC's Have I Got ...

Henley: Ready when you are Dave

I'm off for the third time to Henley Constituency today - it's a very sunny day so it should be great. Please help if you can - BBC South Today had a very positive piece for us last night featuring particularly the 'READY WHEN YOU ARE DAVE' sign in our Thame HQ. There is an excellent campaign web site here. To save on travelling, leaflets can now be picked up from three locations in the south (

And the Presidential nominee is...

The big US Presidential race was concluded earlier this week.

Live Advertising on C4

If you are in front of your TV tonight at about 8.10ish, you might want to switch over to Channel 4 to see Britain's first live TV ad. From The Guardian: "The programmes that surround them might habitually rely on cliffhangers to maintain attention, but advert breaks are not normally known for their sense of jeopardy. That could all change tonight when Channel 4 and Honda stage the first ever live advert on British television, featuring a team of skydivers leaping out of a plane over Madrid. During the first ad break of the reality show Come Dine With Me ...

The Mary Whitehouse Experience

I rather enjoyed Julie Walters portrayal of famous 'anti-filth' campaigner Mary Whitehouse in last nights BBC 2 TV drama 'Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story'. I thought the drama was cleverly constructed. It was a sympathetic portrayal of Whitehouse. Her principled convictions, determination, and personal sacrifice was highlighted and we got a clear sense of her motivation to protect a middle

Is Denis MacShane about to defect to the Lib Dems?

Nah. We should be so lucky unlucky ambivalent. This is one of the more vocal backers of the Iraq war, after all. But it's an odd set of parallel universes we occupy if it hasn't crossed his innermost mind, if only just once, if only on a Tuesday with a prevailing wind when the moon is in Gemini, sign [...]

Henley and Paddy's memoirs

The Tories seem to be having problems deciding on who should replace Boris Johnson as their candidate in Henley. Meanwhile I got an email this morning from Lord Rennard about why I should go and help the Lib Dem campaign there: When Paddy publishes his memoirs, he will pay great tribute to a particular group of people. This group is the one that travelled across the country and worked so hard to bring about the famous by-election victories that established the Liberal Democrats. A particular debt is owed to those who came to help in the early stages of the ...

And now we all need to puke

This is a little private spat, now public, in which both parties are perhaps equally appalling - though in quite different ways. Here, the astonishingly smug Mary Ann Sieghart shows off about the time she outwitted a surly John Prescott, who she regards as a thicko anyway, by her incredible ability to read upside down. Top boffins should hook this woman up to a machine, we need to harness her powers.

Boris Johnson's crime maps, data protection and land values

Unaccustomed as I am to defending Boris Johnson, I'm not convinced that publishing crime maps would necessarily result in a breach of data protection. Didn't we solve this problem with census data decades ago? A more intriguing objection is the complaint by RICS that "publicising high crime areas in such detail could literally wipe thousands off house prices overnight, further disadvantaging those who are already struggling to make ends meet." I think this is possibly true, although it is a particular problem for the UK where we don't have proper land/property taxation. In countries which use property taxes more extensively ...

Labour's finances - the mire rises

Oh dear me. Five weeks to find £7.45 million. I would have thought that tapping up someone rich for that sort of scale of spoondoolicks would be difficult given the current state of unpopularity of Gordon Brown and Labour. How's Sainsbury's doing these days? Senior officials in the Labour party, including Gordon Brown, could become personally liable for millions of pounds in debt unless new

Single Equalities Bill: changing the legal framework on discrimination

Continuing my mini-series on the forthcoming Single Equalities Bill and what the final Act should contain, I do not think the courts that deal with discrimination have enough powers to really put an end, or even significantly dent, discrimination. Since claims are brought by an individual, the courts can only look at what wrong that individual has actually suffered and seek to compensate them for this through damages. Whilst the court discrimination awards are unlimited and can include 'hurt to feeling', in certain cases this quite simply isn't enough and amounts to no more than a small financial slap on ...

Recycling paper and cardboard - an update!

I recently made enquiries on behalf of constituents about the recycling of cardboard - previously not available from the kerbside blue bin collection. One resident mentioned to me that although she had noticed cardboard in her blue bin was now collected, any overflow left neatly adjacent to the bin was not collected. Here's the response from the Waste Management Department (below). I am pleased that larger blue bins are now being made available and that cardboard is now collected - all helping Dundee's recycling effort. 'We recently carried out a trial in selected areas of Dundee collecting cardboard along with ...

E-campaigning and us

Several debates have taken place on Liberal Democrat Voice and across the blogsphere about how best to approach the question of e-campaigning. Broadly speaking I think it is helpful to split political websites into two categories' 'talking to ourselves' and 'talking to others' by which I mean activists networks for debate and news and places where we actively campaign to win support for our ideas and our party. One of the things that has initially impressed me is how proactive we are in the latter category things like the Focus newsletter show a willingness to reach out which does have ...

Opinion: The great embryo debate

Introduction Now that the dust of Crewe and Nantwich has settled, it might be worth revisiting some of the parliamentary divisions of last week. The figures for the abortion debate have already been picked over a little, and a few eyebrows have been raised at the voting patterns of various Liberal Democrat MPs. However, while it [...]

Foster care cut off

This article from todays Times (29th May) will hopefully help prompt some changes. A couple of years ago I visited a family in Speke. Without going into huge details, a 17 year old girl was happily there as a foster child, but the funding was about to end. She was applying for University courses and the family would have been more than happy for her to stay while studying at one of the Liverpool Universities or another one reasonably near. Yet because of the money situation it looked as if either she was going to have to put this off ...

Another station cat

Following on from Jonathan Calder's piece about Tama the nine-year-old tortoiseshell cat who sits by the entrance of Kishi station in Japan in a railway uniform cap, posing for photos for tourists, a Guardian letter writer reveals that we have our own homegrown version. Peter Argent tells us that Romsey station has an almost identical station cat that chases mice off the line, gets trains away on time and organises the booking office staff. Sadly, First Great Western have yet to issue the appropriate uniform. Give the cat a cap I say. Sounds like a job for Sandra Gidley.

Is the Labour Party about to go bust?

I've always been slightly sceptical about the financial difficulties that the Labour Party is in, in that whilst they might result in Labour having to make big spending cuts I find it hard to believe that when push comes to show the trade unions would really let Labour go under financially (as opposed to playing [...]

Labour Cash Crisis

The link is to the story about Labour having to find about £7m in cash. This is a consequence of the large sums of money spent on campaigning. Parties have fewer volunteers in part because there are fewer volunteers in many types of activity, but in part because there is less of a willingness to be involved in party politics. This is replaced considerably by spending money. A party that

Cash crisis

At least one blogger has already commented with glee on the financial crisis facing the Labour Party: The party has five weeks to find £7.45m to pay off loans to banks and wealthy donors recruited by Lord Levy, Tony Blair's former chief fundraiser, or become insolvent. A further £6.2m will have to be repaid by Christmas - making £13.65m in all. The sum amounts to two-thirds of the party's annual income from donations. The figures are a conservative estimate as they do not include interest that will also have to be paid. A Labour source said that although the total ...

Hanging on the telephone

This morning's Western Mail reports that the DVLA is among 30 organisations named and shamed by a leading consumer watchdog for making money from customers through premium-rate helplines. Apparently, the DVLA made £3.4m from its 0870 number in the last financial year. There are a great many things that can be said about this news and no doubt they will be said clearly and loudly by a host of people. None of this should detract from the hard work and commitment of the staff, who are not responsible for this policy and its implications. What strikes me however is that ...

Boris Johnson Resignation Watch Day Something: The reverse inheritance is ruined

It seems Boris Johnson's dad's hopes of becoming the next MP for Henley have been dashed, if the Daily Mail are to be believed*: In a hastily arranged private meeting, the Conservative leader [David Cameron, he of the absent chin and sympathy for the poor] successfully persuaded the constituency association to pick a local candidate [i.e. [...]

Nuclear power - yet another thing Gordon Brown has got wrong

So, a quick peek at the politics section of the BBC news website shows two articles, one after the other, about Nuclear power. One informs us about Gordon Brown's plans to increase Britain's use of Nuclear energy, particularly in light of rising fuel costs. He stated now is the time to be "more ambitious" about our nuclear power plans. Just below that article, is another telling us how the cost of cleaning up our existing nuclear power plants has soared to over £73bn. Even if we ignore the short and long - term environmental implications of nuclear power generation, and ...

Wobbly Wednesday for the Nats

Alex Salmond may well have been jealous of Gordon Brown yesterday. Sure the Tim'rous Beastie of Downing Street has had his trouble but they haven't hit three main policy threads on the same day to quite the same devastating effect. Yesterday it was Alex's turn to miscalculate, face tax problems and be attack whilst on the U-Turn. The Nats have been quick to attack Labour on the illegality of

Can this government not do anything right?

With reports that the project to digitize our NHS records have been delayed yet again, due to yet another contract termination, this time with Fujitsu, one has to ask - can our government no do anything right? The system is already running 4 years behind schedule, having launched in 2002, the proposed deadline was initially 2010. But how long does it really need to take to digitize our records? I know of fairly large companies that have digitized millions of data records within months, so I would hazard a guess that this could realistically have been achieved within a year ...

How did you get here ? Squirrel Nutkin Norfolk

I have missed out doing my semi regular 'How did you get here ?' feature for some weeks so I thought I'd do a mid week one to catch up (especially since other blogs are now copying this idea ). For those who are new to this blog, I look though my stats and find an unusual way that someone has got to my blog via a search engine. This week someone did the search 'Squirrel Nutkin Norfolk' and got to THIS story about Nick Clegg and Europe, a story that made me public enemy number one with some Lib ...

Has the Daily Mirror gone up market?

So, I was reading the Daily Mirror yesterday, no, it is most definitely not my usually read, it was left by my seat on the train home from work, and I saw on the front cover they had an "exclusive interview", nothing new there. Until I finally got to the interview itself. So, anyone that watches Britain's got talent will know that on it, there is a young girl, Kate Nicholas who performs quite wonderful with her pet dog, Gin. Well here's the Daily Mirror exclusive - they've managed to get an interview with Gin, the dog. Here is that ...

Government U-turn on vehicle tax

In response to public anger and protests by hauliers, senior labour ministers have hinted there may be a rethink on the proposed vehicle tax increases, and possibly the proposed 2p increase in fuel duty. Jack Straw stated Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling were "listening to public concerns". John Hutton went on to say "..I think we should wait and see on that. The Chancellor is listening to what people are saying about vehicle excise duty, as he has done on a number of occasions about tax rises." A bold reversal? Or in the words of Jeremy Clarkson, was this just ...

'Evening all!' in olde Hampstead Towne

No particular point of issue here, but this just seemed such a great picture to take. It's the lamps at night outisde Hampstead Police Station and i just think it is great - it's just a shame that whilst the lights are on and people are at home the front desk is closed up and there is no public access... It's quite easy to worry that if you hammered on the door you might not get a response. But I guess that's one of the reasons why so many of us care so much about local policing and are prepared ...

Henley-on-Tenterhooks...

Back in October David Cameron made reference to Gordon Brown losing his bottle by failing to call a General Election. But are we now seeing 'blue bottles' over Henley? There has been indecision for the Tories in selecting their candidate, and this week's Parliamentary Recess has helped them buy a little time. Cameron has personally visited the local party to try to override their choices, leading to a split among them and a meeting scheduled for this Friday to have another go. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrat team are more than prepared for the Henley by-election and declare themselves 'Ready when ...

So, I'm now a Conspirator... Sort of

They have this thing on Liberal Conspiracy called 'Casting the Net'. It's a daily Linkspam post (think a sort of cut down {[info]} who_daily for Political types). The one guy has been doing the whole thing all by himself for months, and he's finally cracked and asked for help (something to do with moving to Estonia or some such lame excuse). And, well, one of his helpers is going to be me. I'm scheduled for Sunday and Monday, and the post generally goes up about 11 am. I'll let you guys know when the first one goes up, but as ...

What... Is The Air Speed Velocity Of An Unladen Swallow?

Regular readers (by which I mean Sid and Doris) may be wondering what I'm doing blogging at half one in the morning. And indeed normally I would save it for a time when, well, anyone was going to read it. But in this case, it's apt to raise the issue during the event that inspired it. To explain, I'm rather fond of hidden social indicators, the little things in life that demonstrate a wider

Thursday 29th May 2008

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