My first blog was obsessed with Blair, and subsequently Brown. Because the pair of them are renowned for tactical machinations, so I devoted myself to deconstructing their messages to get at the underlying intentions, the underlying tactics. Back when he was first made leader, Brown's strategy was utterly transparent: Brown is Strong. Strength for Britain! Brown is a man of Substance! Strong and Substantial! It all seems rather tragic now, like the Tories hoping that William Hague would be able to 'connect with the youth'. I wrote that no matter how revolving I felt Brown to be, he could secure ...
Andy Murray has beaten world number one Rafael Naal to get to the US Open Tennis final. This is a phenomenal result from the brilliant British player who is now ranked as world number 4. I expect I will be glued to a radio tomorrow night as the commentary this evening was surprisingly good, given how difficult it must be to commentate on such a fast and visual sport as tennis. I don't know what Murray's politics are but I can't help wondering how long it is before either Alex Salmond or Gordon Brown adopt Andy Murray as their 'champion' ...
I think I will beat Mr. Black to it by blogging on this one tonight! What a chuckle! A husband and wife Tory Councillors are offering £100 sex for the pair at their Wolverhampton semi. It says in a newspaper. The geezer is governor of a C of E school. He introduced his wife to an investigator wanting £80 for her or £100 for him thrown in! God forbid... Who on earth would do that? The full article is here
Being a Radio 4-o-phile I listened to this Point of View from Katharine Whitehorn this morning. It is excellent and one of the best critiques of the deification of the market I have ever heard. Should be required listening, but if you don't want to listen - "Heard the one about how many economists it takes to change a lightbulb? The belief that the market would take care of it has been shaken, says Katharine Whitehorn. I was brought up by a classical father who believed, with Socrates, that "where the wind of the argument leads there we must follow ...
Gotta love anony-trolls. Is LiberalSim the kind of Sim who really pisses off the LabourSims and TorySims? I've never really played it, but I know some of you guys have. In other news, I have a Doctor Who-based rant brewing (thanks Steph!) but no matter how good a rant it grows to be, it's never going to be as good (and probably not as sweary, either) as this one about the politics of rape by apiphile
This fanciful suggestion is made - without proper attribution - by an article from Wales Online: Kirsty Williams is racing ahead in the battle to become Welsh Liberal Democrat leader - and the first female head of any party in the country, Wales on Sunday understands. Fans of the mother-of-three have compared the Brecon and Radnorshire AM to both US presidential candidate Barack Obama and "a street fighter".Apart from that it is a sensible look at who may become leader of the Liberal Democrats in Wales. Jenny Randerson has not made up her mind whether to stand yet. Eleanor Burnham ...
Reading this article featured on the BBC website you would think that at last the government is about to abolish the End of Key Stage Two tests (know as SATs). In fact changing to the new system of single level tests means that children will sit at lease two Government inspired tests in their school life. A child will sit a test when their teacher feels they are working at a certain level.
The Honourable Lady Mark has reminded me of something that really, REALLY winds me up. Our Glorious Leader has recently started using terms like hard-working families which I had previously considered the preserve of the other two parties - The Labour because they want to think that they are helping the deserving poor, and the Tories because they are only bothered about net wealth creators. Every time I hear it, it makes me get that Stressed Eric throbbing vein. I think: what about childless couples, and gay people, and widows, and teenage burger flippers? Their work's not good enough, isn't ...
Nick on the wonderful Westminster Hour explaining the inexplicable and accusing those who don't get it of "splitting hairs". Well at the risk of splitting hairs, my reading then is that £20 billion is first for reallocation and second for tax cuts. Please can we have some more meat on the Bones (excuse the pun!) - if we are going to have a bun fight over this I would really like to know where exactly it is we are aiming our buns. Despite my differences with him on this issue I have to confess that Nick came across very well ...
I have linked to this case because it is an important case. I have not myself come to a view on it as yet.
We are delighted to see that the new cafe in Vauxhall Park is now open and went to see Henri, the owner (in the centre of the picture) and try out some of the delicious refreshments. We can recommend it and suggest you give it a try! Congratulations to all local residents who campaigned for this, in particular to the Friends of Vauxhall Park for all their hard work and persistence in making it a reality. The cafe is on the corner of South Lambeth Road and Fentiman Road, just a few minutes walk away from Vauxhall tube, bus station ...
Sarah Palin said in St Paul, Minneseota on 3rd September: America needs more energy. Our opponent is against producing it. And yet, just 30 days before on August 4th, her office issued this statement which is still on the official Alaskan Governor's website (above): Governor Sarah Palin today responded to the energy plan put forward by the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, Illinois
I have just uploaded my latest update to West End Community Council - please click on the headline above to view. The Community Council meets on Tuesday at Logie St John's (Cross) Church Hall at 7pm.
I've got feet up and a glass of wine to hand, resting after a long day at the Angel Canal Festival. The Festival runs every year with the goodwill of an amazing team of volunteers, who organise the day from publicity, to setting up stalls, to all the logistics from first aid to road closures. [...]
Rory Bremner continues to surpass himself on Sunday AM. His Gordon Brown impersonation is chillingly spot on. His Archbishop of Canterbury is also a killer. And there's a great Boris in there as well.
I have posted already about the strange leaflet put out by the Conservative candidate in the upcoming by-election in the Farnley and Wortley ward in Leeds which in fact did not mention he was a Conservative until the bottom of the back page. I put it down to embarrasment of the Tory brand, but now, [...]
No, not weight (or waist) watching, but waste. Islington residents are recycling more than ever before: since 2004, the amount we send to landfill has halved. But can anyone get their unrecycled, 'black bag' waste down to zero? Between 4 and 12 October, north London boroughs (including Islington) will be running 'Watch Your Waste' week; [...]
It is only four months since Boris Johnson became Mayor of London, but already critical appraisals are underway. This afternoon, at an (indoor) garden party hosted by Hackney Liberal Democrats, Caroline Pidgeon AM, Fiyaz Mughal and non-party political Josh Ryan-Collins (from the New Economics Foundation) gave their assessment of where the capital is now. Caroline gave [...]
I have noticed over the last year or so the enormous crossover between Liberal Democrats and really hardcore fans of Doctor Who. While I'm more the sort of person who has caught the occasional episode and found it entertaining enough to leave it on and watch it, I still found this Comedy Central voting-decision guide just delicious, which means that certain other Liberal Democrats, including a particularly fluffy one and a particularly Yorksher one, are going to ADORE it if they haven't seen it already. It lists all ten doctors along with which one of the candidates for the presidency ...
This is beautiful. I have long loved Lib Dem Blogs as a central reference point for scores of Lib Dem member opinions and news, and now we have everyone's tweets to look at, too. Ryan Cullen, you're a genius. Might be a bit more selective what I'm posting to Twitter from now on, though. I'm not sure how relevant the time I'm going to bed or what I'm having for dinner is to anyone who will be reading that. Good thing I still have my facebook status updates in which to be banal!
Don't laugh. Because "Move It" has a strong claim to being the great British rock and roll record. He was soon tamed, but back in 1958 Cliff was sexy. I heard Cliff interviewed on a recent television documentary. He said "I didn't just want to be like Elvis: I wanted to be him." And I think if has to be admitted that he came closer to fulfilling that ambition than any other British artist. Cliff went on to add: "I wanted to wait up inside him." But this week of all weeks is not one to snigger at him. Because, ...
According to a Post HERE two Conservative Councillors had been running a Brothel at their house. Now that just tells you how silly and not trust able this Party is, that their two Councillor's are making money selling sex in their own home. The fellow Conservative Councillor's from that Council must have enjoyed going round to this couple's home and Brothel. Not Looking Good on Cameron's vision!
Anna got a new hamster today and is very excited about this little powder puff on legs who is well on the way to capturing all our hearts:-). The wee rodent is very adventurous and loves playing in the tube attached to her cage. However, Anna can't decide what to call her. I thought I could extend my skills and try an online poll. I have to say that this is purely advisory in nature. As some of you will know, Anna is mad on Doctor Who. Therefore some of the nominations have a Who flavour - Rose, cos she's ...
stephashley_fd does the old old trick of taking an opponent back to dictionary definitions. Brilliantly funny post. enemy_reason_fd has issued a purple alert: Littlejohn approaching! Take cover! mark_val_fd has the best headline of the day. And dear old chickenyoghurt has the best TV pitch of the day.
And so we come full circle (almost), with a call for tax cuts for the working middle classes. Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to tax cuts per se, and firmly believe that government should not be spending money where individual choice might be more effective. However, promising tax cuts implies that you have a pretty good idea as to the role of government. I'm yet to be entirely convinced
With the paraolympics opening yesterday thought it was a great shame that we are still treating the paraolympics as an after thought. I thought I had heard that the London 2012 games were going to integrate the two. But, on looking at the website again this does not appear to be happening. At the Manchester Commonwealth games the two were successfully integrated, which I believe, riased the
Labour in Oxford are living proof there's such a thing as a bad winner. A couple of months ago, their government effectively gave the green light to an urban extension at Grenoble Road. Let's leave aside that, as I pointed out before, it will only provide well under 2000 units of affordable housing, that it would have been better to have a strategic review of the whole Green Belt, not just one part of it -- this is not the solution to the housing crisis that Labour would like to pretend it might be, but at least there are going ...
The US convention season is over as the UK party conference season begins. The Lib Dems, the only major party visiting the seaside this year, kick off three weeks of domestic politics in Bournem...
The County Council run Project to build new schools in Burnley and Pendle has flopped. Pendle Vale a Nelson School was meant to be opening this week but failed to open and now is planning a date to open in the coming weeks. The County Council which is run by the Labour Party should be ashamed with themselves. This was one of the biggest and probably only large projects like this they have had to deal with in the last couple of years and they messed up on this. The people will in 2009 decide if the Labour Party and ...
Colin Ross has the story, from today's Sunday Mirror: According to the Sunday Mirror two Wolverhampton Conservative Councillors - Councillor Carol Bourne and Councillor David Bourne are running a brothel at their house. I am not prude and I don't really care what people get up to in their sex lives but I do [...]
All is quiet on the Opik front as we enter day six of the race to be Lib Dem party president. The media is still getting excited about his plans to go to prison and genius campaign slogans but of new stories, we have nothing. So we are left to go back to YouTube. Here, it is revealed that Lembit is one of the very few people who actually watches Big Brother 9 (is it still going on?): If Lembit can show this much passion for something as dull and uninteresting as a beauty contest on Big Brother, just think ...
The Government has upped the development allocation for South Gloucestershire to 32,800 new houses. Yes, we need affordable housing. No, we don't need this many houses - especially without the infrastructure to support them. They're planning to shut our major hospital, Frenchay. They're planning to cut the number of hospital beds. The roads are beginning to seize up already. And the Government has deleted public transport proposals like the Yate rail turnback from their consultation (this is vital to get more trains to stop at Yate Station) THREE THINGS YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT... (1) Tell the Government what you ...
Plans to free local police forces from the grip of central government bureaucracy and targets have been welcomed by Liberal Democrats in Hastings & Rye. The proposals have been launched by Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary Chris Huhne MP and will be debated at the party's conference in Bournemouth next week. Nick Perry, Lib Dem parliamentary campaigner, [...]
I just discovered that anonymous comments were disabled by default on this blog. I would never knowingly have stopped them, so as of now anonymous comments are now active. Thanks.
Title from the headline of this story in the Independent. Oh, I'm sorry, and there I was worrying about yet another massive loss of personal data. Silly me. I thought 'lost' meant that you couldn't possibly know where something was or who had it. Are this government working with a different definition of the word 'lost' to the rest of us? I couldn't really blame them, I suppose. When I look at the the entry on dictionary.com for 'lost', there are no fewer than twelve definitions. Let's see if any of them could be Jack Straw's, eh? 1. no longer ...
Diplomacy has replaced Scrabble a Facebook's most fun game. I had neither played Diplomacy before. Basically, you control one European country at the start of the twentieth century and compete with the others to conquer half of Europe. I think there is as dark side to it though. In Srabble you become a better player by improving your vocabulary, [...]
I'm struggling to work out what on Earth the Nick Clegg line on tax cuts actually is. Since the launch of the Make it Happen, I've assumed that this is down to poor communication on his part. As I summed it up on Lib Dem Voice last week: My big concern is that we currently appear to be talking about two different piles of £20bn. The £20bn that we will shift from low and middle income earners and onto the wealthy and polluting, and another £20bn that we are looking to cut from existing government spending. Most of the latter ...
Cameron is asking the Labour Party to either Sack Brown or Support him! Cameron is more then comfortable in his own home thinking he is gonna become the next Prime Minister. He probably will but will he do a better job then Brown, I think not! Cameron doesn't even have the experience as Brown. We are gonna suffer through Hell if Cameron and the Conservatives come into Power.
...in Canada. For those who don't follow Canadian politics, this has been on the cards for a while. The ruling Conservatives are a minority government who have had to really on the support of the two oppostion parties, the Liberals and Bloc Quebecois for some time. In recent months, this situation hasn't been working and several [...]
Barack Obama is not the only liberal with a good chance of replacing a conservative government in the next couple of months. The UK Liberal Democrats' sister party in Canada have launched their general election campaign under the slogan "Richer, Fairer, Greener." The Grits (as the Canadian Liberals are known, much as UK Conservatives are called Tories) have [...]
According to the Sunday Mirror two Wolverhampton Conservative Councillors - Councillor Carol Bourne and Councillor David Bourne are running a brothel at their house.
I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to upset some of you with this statement: My name is James Shaddock, and I don't like Chrome. I tried, I really did, but it is no Firefox. It's style is bland at best (as has always been my criticism of Google products), and while it's faster, I [...]
Sun 7th
14:43
Sarah Palin for Vice President of the United States? Why my wife is better qualified...
Sarah Palin has led a state government with a population that was, in 2000, approximately 620,000. I should be impressed, especially when you consider that I've never run anything. My wife, on the other hand, led one of the two ruling parties on Suffolk County Council, population in 2001, approximately 670,000. Sarah Palin believes that her trip to Germany and her residential proximity to Russia
A constituent has pointed out to me this classic bit of SNP spin from their Dundee website: "Cllr Jim Barrie - SNP Candidate for Dundee West Jim Barrie is well-known - and well-respected - as a Dundee Councillor. He has represented the West End since the Logie By Election in August 2000 when he won the seat with a large swing from Labour. He increased his majority in Logie in 2003 and in May 2007, was elected for the West End multi-member ward at Stage 1 with the highest number of votes of any of the candidates. " Err ... ...
That's the title for a competition being run by the Sunday Telegraph. Now it's not a paper I normally read, but the details cropped up on the Rose Theatre website, because the theatre is jointly sponsoring the competition. The shortlisted entries will be performed by professional actors at a gala evening in November in the Rose. It comes at the end of the 'Love's Labour's...
From The Observer: A Prime Minister cannot be on perpetual probation. That is a recipe for the government to carry on fragmenting, for his reputation to continue to disintegrate and for the Conservatives to cement their huge poll lead. It is evident what the Labour party should do for the good of its own political health. [...]
I am writing this post on the Google Chrome browser. I downloaded it as soon as it became available but must confess I struggled with it at first. But given how much of a fan I am of all things Google, I figured it probably had benefits that I hadn't spotted. It was Charlotte Gore's post that made me decide to go back to it and use it for a few days. She is right, it is faster. It also makes moving from different web pages easier and it helps you track what you are doing. It isn't perfect yet ...
In today's Independent, John Rentoul discusses the problems Brown and the Labour party face. Worth a read.
I have really enjoyed my dip in to the Coastal Currents Arts Festival this weekend. We popped in to the Open Studios in the Old Town, and we went to The Beacon, on the West Hill, on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning too. It was great to see the place abuzz with outside theatre and some wonderful [...]
There has been a rather tetchy debate going on over at LDV, so I thought I would put me 10penneth in. In The Sunday Telegraph today they tell us that Mr Clegg has announced that he will cut £20 billion from public spending, which will be ploughed into tax cuts for middle earners. "We are now in a process of identifying what I believe will be the most radical package of tax- cutting measures for people on middle incomes," Now, as others have pointed out, I don't remember Nick having this as one of his objectives in the leadership campaign. ...
So I talked about Daddy Brown and the "The Greater Good" mentality of the Left, and now it's time to talk about another political grouping: The Right. What makes the Right distinct from liberals? What is it that makes them tick? For the Left, it's "The Greater Good". For the Right, it's "Tough Love". They are the "Tough Lovers". It's interesting browsing Right Wing blogs and seeing the diversity of opinions and beliefs. Not every person writing under a Conservative or Centre-Right banner even says anything Right Wing. Just as there are many liberals who write under a Labour banner ...
Sun 7th
12:26
Palin's Campaign Video: "Because apparently anyone can lead the free world these days, so why not?"
Like peterblack_fd says, this was bound to happen sooner or later: (Note: it seems only fair to point out that Michael Palin (or at least his wife - scroll down to "Palin by Comparison") is at pains to point out a total lack of connection - genetic or political - with the governor of Alaska)
There's a rather remarkable turnaround from former top Tory Michael Portillo in his column in today's Sunday Times: Labour - and the Conservatives - have manoeuvred themselves into the stance of opposing taxation (at local level at least) based on ability to pay. It is not an easy argument to sustain. [The SNP's Alex] Salmond has [...]
Since Liberal Conspiracy started there have been people complaining that you CAN'T be Liberal AND left, and that the conflation of the two terms is a bad thing for linguistic accuracy. I agree with the latter part of that, but not the former: I think that saying the former shows a misunderstanding of both terms. Left is an economic marker; liberal a social one. If you are in the bottom left quadrant of the Political Compass, you are both. This is why I don't have a problem with Sunny using both terms in the description of the site (although, for ...
A Labour Minister has been sending a string of unpleasant text messages to a 25 year old who worked for him. The 25 year old women received text messages that made her eventually want to move to a different department. The Article can be read HERE. The Labour MP from Bury broke up with his wife for a Labour Councillor and then he went on to doing this. Is this Person Fit to be MP? I don't think he is.
1, I'm not going to take any lectures from people who attack others for going back to their own blog in the middle of an argument and then do exactly that. Seriously, Tim, I hate to resort to Christianity, but before criticising the speck in my eye... P.S., if you make a response, do be sure to link to me somewhere in it: rather like your nemesis whom you increasingly resemble in style and content, I don't actually read your blog unless the trackbacks tell me to, because I find it supremely boring. And don't expect me to comment on ...
In an interview with the Telegraph published today Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg makes clear that the 4p basic rate income tax cut the party has already announced is just the start: Mr Clegg has announced that he will cut £20 billion from public spending, which will be ploughed into tax cuts for middle earners. "We [...]
As if things were not bad enough for Labour already, what with being 20 points behind in the polls, having a massively unpopular leader and a Chancellor of the Exchequer who is intent on doing a passable imitation of Private Fraser from Dad's Army, the start of Conference season has seen the Unions jump in with both feet as well. The Observer reports today that the leader of Britain's biggest union has launched 'a venomous personal attack on Foreign Secretary David Miliband'. The paper tells us that: Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Unite, the union with the biggest group ...
It had to happen!
The spectre of Michael Brown - currently on the run ahead of a fraud trial due to begin this month - and his £2.4m donation to the Lib Dems in 2005 returns to the headlines today, with news from The Observer that Lib Dems face court over funding: The Liberal Democrats are facing an embarrassing High [...]
Last night, a post from Stephen about our current survey degenerated in the comments to a rather ill-tempered argument about whether Clegg should be proposing now to cut taxes in general when he didn't mention that he wanted to when standing for the leadership. All that aside, the key interesting thing the comments generated from my [...]
Looking at the web this morning, there are 355 reports of Lynne Featherstone's critical comments on the now infamous petrol giveaway in Stroud Green on Friday. Lynne was in Wood Green at the time, but went down to Stroud Green to explain to the broadcast media why she thought it was irresponsible. Lynne was right. We all enjoy a freebie and I wouldn't begrudge anyone a free tank of petrol, but there was traffic chaos in the morning rush hour, with traffic and the W3 bus disrupted for over an hour. If the stunt achieved exactly what was intended - ...
I haven't seen any comments about it, but Barack Obama has been developing an interesting technique. Traditionally, stump speeches have been, more or less, delivered at a podium and, more or less, the same speech is repeating over and over again. But from several videos I have seen, Obama is perfecting an engaging technique of wondering around on a stage amongst spectators, tieless, jacketless,
Last night a group of us went to see the Andorra - England game in town, the football was rubbish but that is not what annoyed me.
The Observer reports: The Liberal Democrats are facing an embarrassing High Court battle with a lawyer who says that the party wrongly accepted £632,000 of his money as part of a donation. Robert Mann, 60, claims that the party failed to carry out adequate checks on the money which was received as part of a £2.4m gift from the financier Michael Brown. ...A Liberal Democrat official confirmed
Most people who have served on an Executive Committee, at any level of the Party, will have horror stories of meetings that run on for hours, sapping the will to live and causing generic unhappiness. Admittedly, most of this is the fault of the Chair (not anyone I know though, no sirree Bob...) but you can help make it easier. What you want is written reports, circulated in sufficient time that
It's a well-established pattern that during this Parliament internet pollster YouGov consistently gives the Liberal Democrats lower levels of support than other pollsters (as, for example, I previously blogged about on this site). Looking at the details of polls published so far this year, this pattern remains but there is also an interesting detail when it [...]
Why are the British so addicted to murder mysteries? I confess that I am as hooked as the rest. At school, I devoured the entire oeuvre of Agatha Christie, alongside the more acceptable blood and guts of William Shakespeare. Having an appalling memory for plot, I can still watch a Hercule Poirot as if the [...]
