Fresh from his election as Scottish leader, Tavish Scott has unveiled his new team. Liberal England and Caron's Musings have the details.
I was astonished to read that Sarah Palin as Governor of Alaska had allowed benefits for same-sex couples in Alaska. This was until i read this: http://mediamatters.org/items/200808290025 ie - she did it because the law (or the Constitution of Alaska) forced her hand There is a problem then for McCain in all this. 1. If she can't actually do [...]
Phew......never one to regard a deadline as anything other than something to think about with 15 minutes to go.........I have surpassed myself and got my nominations in with 33 minutes to spare, am I impressed with myself???? Am I! Who did I nominate..........(?) hmmmm, that's to be winkled out of me over a J2O at conference (!), but suffice to say I went through the list and picked out those I enjoy reading but aren't the usual suspects, given that my top of the listers will have already been nominated by others. I think it is great that we have ...
The Welsh blogosphere has exploded with blogs about Sarah Palin. The Republican party running mate. Shes one stunning lady. Even for 44 the former Alaskan beauty queen is sex on legs! I'm sure the Liberal Democrats would give her free membership! If shes ever needs a motel when she comes across the Atlantic, Rhetoric can assist!
From today's Sunday Telegraph: 'I have voted, yes, but I'm not going to tell you who for,' he smiles. 'I'm not Conservative or Labour, I don't have a political leaning, I'm a tactical voter. ... I'd like a single transferable vote, because I think it would make more sense, particularly for the Lib Dems because they [...]
k.d. lang's 2004 Hymns of the 49th Parallel is an album of songs by fellow Canadians. As you would expect, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen are all represented. But one of the highlights is this song by the lesser-known Ron Sexsmith. There is no video of lang performing, I am afraid: just this slide show. And I hate to think what New Labour would make of a lyric like: You opened your arms like a school door to summer days.
... and an excellent reshuffle of parliamentary party already.
I'm not about to say one word in favour of Sarah Palin - she is a christian fundamentalist, pro life person who I do not want to see gain the vice presidnecey or presidency of the US, or hold any other public office, for that matter. I am, however, as someone who hails from the Highlands, a bit put out by the "she can't run anything cos she comes from a place where there are more caribou than people" tendency. As any of the Liberal Democrats who represent the Highlands will tell you, it's wonderful to be there, but life ...
I needn't have worried when to get my sleep today, it was the only chance to read the Council minutes and that is guaranteed a snooze. Odd to reconcile when there is so much going on, so much that affects our communities, and yet so little of relevance is decided upon in the public minutes. I had met some people earlier collecting names on the "Justice for Kelly" petition started by...
This evening's episode of Heartbeat featured an unscrupulous haulage contractor who demanded that his drivers drive dangerously fast. All of which will be familiar to anyone who has seen the 1957 British thriller Hell Drivers. Borrowings by modern TV serials from old films are not unknown. I remember an episode of Foyle's War whose urchins collecting salvage came straight out of A Canterbury Tale. Later. Youtube has the trailer for Hell Drivers.
Tavish Scott has made some sensible decisions in his reshuffling of his team. I can't think of anyone better than Robert Brown at Justice - to me he symbolises fairness and I completely trust his instincts. Ross Finnie stays at health where he has produced a fair number of killer blows over the past year. The team of Alison McInnes and Jim Tolson at Local Government and Transport is a good one - both have loads of experience in their field. Mike Rumbles becomes uber-establishment as Business Manager, an interesting post for someone who's been at times a maverick. Let's ...
Heading west from Swansea into Pembrokeshire yesterday took me further into the west of Wales than I have been before. Top Welsh blogger Stephanie Ashley has asked me to come over for a local Party barbecue, and being in the area (well a mere 55 miles away), I was happy to go over for the afternoon. Apart from being a gorgeous area, it was fascinating to learn more about the workings of a council dominated by self-styled independents who seem impervious to the contradiction of being within a ruling political group with a whip. Finding simple and attractive messages to ...
After coming 22nd in the Top 40 Scottish Blogs, my head size has continued to soar (not really) on hearing that I'm also 28th in the Top 50 LibDem blogs! Click on headline to view. OK, still way behind Scottish LibDem blogging ace, Stephen Glenn of Linlithgow fame, but a rather good result from a lowly councillor from Bonnie Dundee! Another aside ... thoroughly enjoying Martin Clunes' "A Man and His Dogs" - great telly!
I was travelling through to Elgin last night on the A96 and had a puncture. And when I managed to stop in a lay-by, I then discovered that I had no credit left on my phone with which to call out my breakdown assistance. I have been shown how to change a tyre, but I wouldn't be confident enough to do it myself at this stage. I was therefore in a somewhat sticky situation. Thankfully, a few minutes later a couple stopped and offered to help. The guy changed the tyre for me and waited until I'd got going again ...
Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust has a family event to celebrate 2000 Years of history at Lower Woods Nature Reserve, near Wickwar, on Sunday 7th September from 11.30 am to 5.00 pm. There will be a guided archaeology/history walk with experts around the Roman Villa and World War II sawmills (N.B. Excavations are not visible) and guided wildlife and geology walks through the Woods. There will be a marquee with displays of archaeology, history and wildlife, plus demonstrations of traditional woodland activities. There will be family activity walks in the Woods, and children can help to build an Iron Age roundhouse (probably ...
The Press Association reports: Newly elected Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott has announced a reshuffle of his backroom team.Leadership rival Mike Rumbles has been appointed chief whip, having previously been rural affairs and environment spokesman. Ross Finnie, also a contender for the top job, remains party health spokesman.Glasgow MSP Robert Brown becomes justice spokesman, taking over from Margaret Smith who moves to education. But former leader Nicol Stephen will not have any shadow brief in the new team.J. Arthur MacNumpty has further details and some reasoned comment.
There's been a wee bit of a stooshie in the media this week over a mocked up photo of Kate Garraway apparently breastfeeding a calf. People like Ulrika Jonson are outraged at what she's done, for a documentary she has made about women who nurse other women's babies. We are the only species, as far as I know, that habitually chooses to feed another animal's milk to our young - most infant formula is cow's milk based, and we seem not to worry about this at all. However, when presented with a photograph that appears to show the reverse going ...
From 1st September 2008, the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd has generously agreed to match, pound for pound, any *new* income that NO2ID receives. Which means that for every pound you give from 1st September NO2ID will receive TWO pounds to spend campaigning against the ID scheme and database state. Please send your donation by cheque to our office (please mark your envelope 'JRRT'): The NO2ID Campaign Box 412 19-21 Crawford Street London W1H 1PJ Or you can donate by credit card or via PayPal using the 'Donate' button on our website, http://www.no2id.net (left hand column) Double your money offers ...
...with a "Two peoples separated by a common language" twist. Stephen Tall writes about the McCain choice of Palin in a LibDem Voice article entitled: "The importance of a good number 2" (My English teacher used to tell a story about a colonel in his army regiment in Africa who used to base all his pep talks, invariably, on that theme). Meanwhile, in a Time article about the candidates' "vices
Having met a large swathe of the Welsh Party in South Wales over the past few days, I have been impressed by their enthusiasm and sense of optimism, not something that you always encounter. However, the Welsh Party, like its Scottish counterpart, suffers from a lack of resourcing. Unlike the English Regions, whose back-office functions are handled by Cowley Street, the Welsh and Scottish Parties
The FCC's final agenda for the party conference lists 19 slots for speeches (or presentations) by MPs from Saturday lunchtime to the leader's speech at the end on Wednesday lunch. It's 20 if you include Nick's speech at the rally too. But there are only 6 slots listed for MEPs and three of these are in one 20 minute presentation. There is [...]
Maidstone is going to be a very interesting constituency at the next election. The Tory Candidate (who, er, was Labour until fairly recently) is from Reigate. You can read all about her peacocks and Surrey mansion in the Guardian. The local Conservative Party is full of splits and divisions and the sitting Tory MP is rather less active [...]
Hurry! I may not be able to prevent myself from carrying out restorative justice...
St John's Church in Downshire Hill, Hampstead NW3, is one of the loveliest urban settings for a church. Built in about 1823 it is a proprietary chapel - privately owned - chapel - the last one in London (?). The building was completed in 1823 with the first service on 26th October. The churches website reads: "From its earliest history, St John's was founded within an Evangelical tradition to preach the good news about Jesus Christ clearly and faithfully from the Bible to all who might enter its doors and to those in the surrounding vicinity." "As a proprietary chapel, ...
I'm on the 16:25 from Cardiff Central to Paddington, minding my own business. The mother and daughter combo sitting across the aisle on me rank amongst the most annoying people EVER. Whilst the daughter is vaguely whiny, the mother is without doubt one of the most ghastly people I've encountered in a very long time. She shouts when using her daughter's I-Pod, spends her time making telephone
The US national Hurricane Center have an excellent site. I use it frequently as I have a friend on Florida's coast. By my reading of the maps, Hurricane Gustav is going to hit the coast of Louisiana about 30 miles west of New Orleans at 1pm tomorrow GMT (7am CDT). This is possibly the worst scenario for New Orleans as hurricanes travelling north often inflict their worst hit on northeastern areas
I went to a Pakistani Independence Day celebration event which was none political and guess who was invited the £26 000 man Mr Karim. Mr Karim the Defector from the Liberal Democrats said that he was proud to be connected to Pendle and Nelson. But let me tell him a large group of people in Pendle and Nelson are not Proud to be connected to him we are actually ashamed to be connected to Karim through our Town Nelson. Anyway after going to this event i would like to write a Nashiaat which is a small poem from the view ...
It was damp, but it was fun. The organisers, John Azah and Prabha Shetty, with the Mayor
Should I bother to renew my party membership? I thought the party may be a party of liberalism, but with such illiberal, nationalistic rubbish coming from the leadership on things like 'energy independence' I begin to doubt it. The culture of 'something must be done' is too strong. The party leadership seems to reject devolving power in [...]
Thanks to everyone who voted this blog the fifth best by an MP and the sixth best Liberal Democrat blog. Meanwhile - on to the award that really matter (!) - the Liberal Democrat / Lib Dem Voice Blog of the Year awards. Nominations close at midnight tonight - so don't forget to get your nominations in!
Before my two-week break I finished The Political Brain by Drew Westen. Westen is a clinical psychologists and American Democrat. He looks at how the brain works and the part our emotions play in how we vote. Anyone interested in how politics is communicated, in fact in how any message is communicated, should pick up a copy of this very readable work. Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic convention is a casebook example of how to put Westen's recommendations into action. It is probably best to look at the speech once you have finished the book.
Above : Yesterday I was delighted to attend the opening of the new tennis courts at the West End Tennis Club. A really good turnout of local people - here's some of the crowd at the opening! Above : Judy Murray cut the ribbon! Above : Today, the Friends Of Magdalen Green launched their super 2009 Calendar - here's us all at the launch at the bandstand, together with some of the competition winners. You can read more at : www.magdalengreen.btik.com Above : Later this afternoon, as the City Council's Planning & Transport Convener, I was pleased to give a ...
As readers of Ros's blog will be aware, we've been in Wales, meeting members and, in between, enjoying some scenery. I've not been slacking off though, and have demonstrated my knowledge of obscure facts - did you know that New Zealand was the first country to give women the vote? - earning us a bottle of wine to take home from Bridgend, met the author of 'All Along The Watchtower' and been to
Tonight's the deadline for nominations to the 2008 Liberal Democrat Blogger of the Year Awards, and if you're still looking for a favourite posting to propose - or, more importantly, just want to read some of the finest Lib Dem writing of the last twelve months - then I've collected a set of links for your surprise, familiarity and delight. Since I appealed to any and all Lib Dem bloggers to pick their own favourite pieces from the last year, nearly twenty have done so, and if you missed any, I've collected them all here (thankfully, none have deleted themselves). ...
Vote for John McCain or else!
I have just had a two week holiday. Some of that time was spent at the Edinburgh Festival. For the train journey up and back I chose to read Thaler and Sunstein's Nudge. The book has generated a lot of interest. I have read that Barack Obama is taken with it and it has caused quite a stir among the British Conservative party. Much of the book looks at current nudging, mostly by the private sector. It is only near the end that the authors suggest some practical nudging for government that would, they claim, improve our lives while still ...
Yesterday we held the Watford LibDems Summer Party & BBQ. I thought it showed that we had a better skill at choosing dates than Gordon Brown. As well as a short appearance from Simon Hughes MP, my daughter found a rather colourful guest lurking near the food. She'd even come dressed for the occasion. But can anyone tell me her name? {Our surprise guest} Our surprise guest
I've just been hearing about the latest trend in reducing pressure on post natal beds in hospital in Melbourne, Australia. For some insurance companies and some hospitals it's become cheaper to install a midwife in a luxury hotel and rent a suite for the new mother and her husband and baby and other children for a few days than to keep said mother and baby in hospital!! So for some mothers,
Any of you wondering where today's is will have to wait a bit longer. Sunny has made a lot of alterations to the way the site runs, and one of these is that the Netcast is no longer a post in its own right, but edited into the news post. He has forgotten to give me editor privileges, so I can't do it, and I didn't discover this until I tried.. . I've saved the post as a draft and someone might get to it later, but I wouldn't hold your breath. In my experience neither of the people whom ...
I've learnt something new today. I now know what a "Hail Mary Pass" is. I'd heard the phrase used twice to describe McCain's pick of Sarah Palin: A Hail Mary pass or Hail Mary play in American football is a forward pass made in desperation, with only a small chance of success. The typical Hail Mary is a very long forward pass thrown near the end of a half or end of a game where there is no
Michael Moore is one of those people (like Richard Dawkins and Chris Dillow) with whom I generally agree with the substance of his opinions, but really wish he would learn to phrase them differently. For instance: Moore has made the pronouncement that Hurricane Gustav is God's punishment for the Republicans. Now, this is transparently a satirical reference to all the far right arseholes who said that Katrina was God's punishment for tolerance towards gays and stuff, but it's not going to be far right arseholes who are going to be dying, is it? And even if it was... People are ...
The Liberal Democrats' commitment to reducing UK carbon emissions to zero in the long term has been joined by a new goal: for Britain "to become energy independent within the EU by 2050". Nick Clegg's energy paper advocates an Apollo project for British energy independence. This would have three stages: "a credible strategy" for meeting the UK's 2020 renewables targets; sourcing all energy requirements from within the EU by 2030, with targets for the progressive reduction of energy imports from outside the EU; and becoming a net exporter of energy by at least 2050. We should focus on energy security ...
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Britain's Finance Minister, is an enigmatic figure. Alistair Darling has established himself as a managerial technocrat, of the type much favoured by the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, yet he also managed to retain a working relationship with Gordon Brown- the the point that Brown trusted him enough to hand over the Finance Ministry to Darling upon his elevation to Number 10. His public image is dominated by his grey hair and seemingly grey personality- hence his nickname of the Badger. This seemingly buttoned-up Morningside personality has, however, been making statements that are so emotional ...
As it Hurricane Gustav bears down on New Orleans, it seems that the Big Easy is going to be struck by a very big storm again. Hurricane Katrina left the city in tatters, and three years later much of it remains beyond repair. The hurricane was in many ways the final straw for America's patience with the Bush administration. The President was praising Michael Brown, the responsible official in the FEMA, despite the fact that it was obvious that he was totally out of his depth. That Mr. Brown had no qualifications appropriate for his office saving his friendship with ...
Stephen Carter, until today the Prime Minister's Head of Strategy has an unusual communications strategy of his own. According to legal papers filed in the US, Carter allegedly said: "What I tell them is nine-tenths bullshit and one-tenth selected facts."
Yesterday Alister Darling spoke out and backed up Brown and now Blackburn's very own Jack Straw is doing the same. These cabinet ministers and are really putting their power and efforts into supporting their party and the PM up but its not going to get them very far. As far as i am concerned the economy in the UK is this bad no thanks to the Labour Party and most of all no thanks to Brown. They need to be held accountable by this and on the ballot the verdict will be announced. What Percentage of the UK Vote do ...
Over at Town Councillor Paul Mckenna's blog he has raised two issues which i was going to comment on but i didn't and i thought i would do a post on it. He in one of his posts says "I seldom agree with Councillor Lord Tony Greaves, but when Cllr Greaves said that he believed Gordon Brown and the government don't care about either Pendle or East Lancashire". Well it's great to here that one Tory agrees with a Lib Dem as normally the only thing we here from you conservatives is that you Lib Dems are "Liberal Cowboys". Then ...
Melanie McDonagh, writing in the Independent on Sunday, writes an engaging piece on the launch of Accord. Accord is a campaign group seeking to end the religious discrimination practised by faith schools and seeks to open them up to all. Now it is not a normal one by any standards; it is not staffed and supported by the usual suspects who you would expect to be against faith schools like the National Secular Society but has substantial support from progressive religious figures. A progressive Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Romain, is the chairman and it has support from the Christian think-tank Ekklesia. ...
Canvassing yesterday in Farnley and Wortley in west Leeds where there is a by-election on September 18th. We were overlapping the Tory candidate who with a couple of chums was delivering his leaflet. One resident, having just got the leaflet, showed it to me and said there is no reference to what party he is [...]
I was surprised to wake this morning to the news that Gordon Brown's Head of Strategy has resigned. Not because I knew very much about Stephen Carter - but I was surprised to hear that Brown HAD a strategy -let alone a Head of Strategy. Carter only joined the Number 10 team earlier this year and his appointment soon led to the departure of Spencer Livernore, a senior Brown aide for more than a decade. Livermore had suffered blame and recriminations over last autumn's 'cancelled' election, but was still expected to play a major part in the next General Election. ...
The Sunday Telegraph tells us that Parliamentary officials have finally got to the bottom of mysterious black pen marks that have been appearing all over the beautifully carved Government dispatch box in the House of Commons. Apparently, it was the Prime Minister what done it: As Gordon Brown gesticulated wildly with his black marker pen, stabbing at the papers in front of him and missing to hit the wood beneath, the awful truth was clear. The PM was the vandal. The damage is such that the French polishers have been unable to remove many of the deep markings, which can ...
The council by-election campaign in Hampstead Town, Camden, is in full swing. Yesterday several of us were out making good use of the one day of real summer this month, manning a survey stall in the High Street, canvassing voters and delivering leaflets. The choice of candidate is often key to winning such contests and [...]
If stories in today's press are to be believed then this government really could not organise a piss-up in a brewery. Faced with allegedly the worst economic crisis in sixty years, a collapsing house market complete with negative equity and rising repossessions, soaring food and fuel prices and opinion poll ratings to rival those of George W. Bush, Labour's relaunch seems to be running off the tracks before it gets going. For a start it turns out that Alistair Darling's hand-on-heart interview was not part of some cunning government plan to get the public's attention prior to the introduction of ...
I had been quite looking forward to August. I had two weeks stay-cation planned in which I would explore South Wales from the comfort of home, plus lots of leafletting, some days in the Cardiff Bay office and quite a few visits around my region. Alas the weather stymied most of those plans, particularly the visits and the leafletting. What is worse the silly season has been as dire as ever. Even Matt Withers has been scraping around for copy, though to be fair he has managed to avoid any mention of the Cheeky Girls today. Nevertheless, I quite enjoyed ...
Interesting post on the subject of transwomen in women's space, by an abuse survivor. (Note - since this has been a controversial topic amongst my friends recently, I am expressly reminding people to observe common decency in comments, please. In particular, I interpret this as excluding any comment that suggests trans people are not the gender they identify as; comments that do this will be deleted and may result in the commenter being banned, depending on the specifics of the comment. My journal, my rules. Comments questioning gender constructs in general are fine, provided they target trans- and cis-gendered people ...
Catherine Bennett in the Observer singles out Eric Pickles as the Tory most needed to "set an example", as Andrew Lansley and David Cameron have said, in the ground-breaking Tory war on fat.
As we approach the US Presidential Election day, I am starting again to trawl the polling sites of the likes of Ruy Teixeira (my favourite political scientist and a tough one to spell but I am helped by the fact that the people we bought our house from were of the same name), Charlie Cook and Polling Report. Polling Report carries some latest polling from USA Today/Gallup done on 29th August.
David Cameron's travails with his bike could be turned into a soap opera or a comic strip: the trips to work trailed by the media, the shoe chauffeur in the supporting role, running red lights, going the wrong way up one way streets, getting his bike nicked, then getting it returned courtesy of Ernest Theophile and some local youths.....there's endless material there. And now, the brakes fail:
In the aftermath of Sarah Palin's selection as John McCain's Vice-President running mate, the coverage I came across was dominated by the possible drawbacks of her selection. In this coverage the McCain campaign seemed to be failing very badly when it came to framing the discussion around her selection, but I didn't read too much into [...]
David Cameron has sidelined Boris Johnson amid fears the maverick Tory could steal the limelight at the party's annual conference next month. London mayor Mr Johnson has been relegated to a brief 15-minute slot during "snooze time" after Sunday lunch. The move will be a bitter blow for the outspoken politician who dreams of succeeding Mr Cameron and becoming Prime Minister. Tory Party chiefs
Pleased - and surprised! - to see this blog named as 22nd in Iain Dale's Top 40 Scottish blogs - see more by clicking on the headline above. I appear to be second in the Scottish LibDem list - congratulations Stephen Glenn of Linlithgow who topped this 'poll within the poll'. Great amusement reading some of the comments on Iain Dale's list - e.g. "At August 27, 2008 5:06 PM , Anonymous said... SNP blogs should be coloured yellow! I, personally, am outraged!" Err ... the SNP ones are coloured either purple or blue. But given Alex Salmond's recent comments ...
Following my interview on BBC Radio Tees last week, the Council has now announced the details of their cunning plan to rid North Road of rogue car dealers. I was asked not to reveal the details of this scheme when I went on the radio last week, in case it scared off the traders before the Council got to them. Bill Dixon, the lead Cabinet member in this matter, has now announced the plan here on
Who would have thought that the name of a local pub could be so controversial - and not just today. On the corner of Belsize Road and Abbey Road is The Cricketers pub - this is not a new pub but it is a new name. Now I'm nostalgic and like 'old things' but I find it a real shame that pub names are just changed like this. But of course in this case it's not a new thing... The pub is in fact built under Emminster House and came into existence in 1969 with the redevelopment of the estate. ...
We all make the occasional typo and, whilst unfortunate, it's no big deal. But sometimes there are typos just so bizarre that they deserve a wider audience. And so, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you page 5 of Labour MP Glenda Jackson's latest constituency magazine: Camden appear to be doing well in some areas, however, [...]
Maybe I should have headed this posting "Why Team Obama must listen to Team Clinton!" The one thing Team Obama must do is stay focused on the goal. They could do no better than to rake through the basement of Little Rock and dig out the the board: Change vs. more of the same. The economy, stupid. Don't forget health care. that James Carville used as the core of Bill Clinton's campaign. Now, Team
People very often misunderstand the root cause of problems, finding themselves chasing the wrong solutions, which in turn means the problems endure or, sometimes, get worse. This means people then chase the wrong solution even more, believing the failure was a result of not correctly applying the fix. Round and round they go, deeper and deeper, wanting more and more of the same in the hope that that little bit more is what's needed. It's madness. Here's a personal example. I know someone that's determined to find a pill that will cure symptoms of depression, make her enjoy her job ...
1, mle292 has a prediction for how the Veep debates will go and I think she's dead on. And while I am on Palin: are there really vast swathes of American women shallow enough to vote for McCain because they hope he might die and then we can have a female pres, despite the fact that Palin stands against everything any rational woman could want? Because the only people I seem to see suggesting this are male bloggers, and, of course, McCain himself in selecting her. 2, How likely are you to be a terrorist? cabalamat2 has the poster with ...
