A Poll for Liberal Democrat Activists to Cheer... No, Im afraid I don't bring news of a post conference poll that shows us ahead of the Labour party, all in good time... I am referring to the publication of a fascinating marginals poll, unique in that it has a sample size of 34,000. The headline news from the poll is that the Conservatives are on course for 146 seat majority and that Labour's support in the marginals has totally collapsed. On surface value, the forecast that the Lib Dems are on course to lose 19 seats does not make ...
Over the past week, there have been signs of major progress in the Liberal Democrats' efforts to communicate with the outside world. Let's start with Framing Science, who cite a new survey on why people are planning to vote for either Barack Obama or John McCain. Obama voters are motivated by the promise of "change" more than anything else. McCain supporters are most likely to explain their vote with references to McCain's experience and qualifications. Where the candidates stand on policies and issues came way down both lists. For instance, just 1 per cent of voters cited the environment or ...
PPC for Pendle Afzal Anwar has backed Lembit at the Party Conference. The Comments made by our PPC for Pendle are: "Lembit has shown his commitment to the party for twenty years. He has my full support and I believe he'll be the best person for the job" That is basically one of the best ways to sum up Lembit. To be honest with you I am a person that was backing Ros until I discovered Lembit and now I am backing him. Until about a week ago I didn't know Lembit was running but I am backing him now ...
The first live show of the new series of Strictly Come Dancing took place tonight. As some readers know, I am a bit on the obsessive side of Strictly. I thought it might be kinder to the hardened politicos who read this blog to set up a new one devoted to Strictly at Strictly Sequins and Sparkles. I do not promise never to mention Strictly on this blog again, but at least it has an outlet for its excesses.
In case you've missed it, OurKingdom has Henry Porter's speech at last week's Lib Dem Conference Rally. Mark Pack has some sage, if counter intuitive advice to bloggers (especially grumpy ones): in short if you're in a hole, keep digging. Richard Kemp is concerned about how the party's policy making process is increasingly being subverted and ignoring the views of local government. Oh, and can I just say I'm starting to like the pattern that is forming opinion poll-wise. More please.
The welcome return tonight of Strictly Come Dancingbrought with it the dulcet tones of Craig 'petty-boy' Revel Horwood. Commenting on the quite reasonable debut performance of Holby City star Tom Chambers, Craig described him as 'smug' and 'mincing'. Well Craig, I suppose you should know!
This morning I was at the AGM of the Orpington Liberal Club (of which I am a life member), and was interested to see that their monthly informal conversation group for German-speakers is still going strong. The British are notoriously insular about foreign languages, often believing that everyone round the world ought to speak English [...]
A year ago this week I created the I'm 4 Ros button for this blog, and shared the code for others that wanted it. Up to now it has pointed at Ros's normal website. I have just updated the code to point it at her campaign site.
We have had a bit of a debate about this - so Janet's competition of the week. Best version: * Elvis Presley * Willie Nelson * Leon * Michael Buble * Ray Charles * Dinah Shore * Anyone else you care to think of - the song is brilliant and loads of people have recorded it Votes on a postcard to my wife - janet@frasermacpherson.org.uk - she thinks the Elvis version is best, but some of us think Willie Nelson is rather superb.
An interesting Independent article today about those who experience Out of Body Experiences or Near death experiences (NDE's). Twenty-five UK hospitals are taking part. Including Swansea's Morriston Hospital. The cardiac Arrest room will be changed to try and influence the person having a Heart attack to remember certain things. An intrigueing study. In many different cultures people have said that they have been looking down at there own body whilst being resuscitated. Or entering a tunnel and witnessing Christian figures. It has been Philosophers in the main followed by Theologians who have thought about these NDE's. This is an example ...
Well, I've arrived here at Bournemouth for our conference. The weather is fantastic! Here's a photo (left), which I took today from the end of the pier, of the conference centre, as I made my way to it. UPDATE: Something strange is going on. I went up to the conference centre for the debate on the Security Paper. Instead of our normal pale yellow-clad stewards, I was greeted by Postman Pat and
Hadron Collider broken. Ryder Cup going to the US. Channel Tunnel on reduced service. Airlines going bust. Riots in the streets.
If you want to write a Joke book, now is the best time than any. All you have to do is go to Manchester and take part or even visit the Labour Party Conference and you will be coming out with jokes like the Following: 10. Close your eyes and pretend I'm Tony Blair. 9. You know what they say about guys with huge portfolios? 8. Is that a composite motion in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see me? 7. Something's rising, and I'm not talking about the PSBR. 6. That's not my hand, but don't stop ...
Lembit's Vision for Party President:I'll make Party structures robust enough for government I'll support the Leader and NEVER compete with his role I'll ensure our decision-making processes work faster I'll develop positive membership growth I'll be your strong voice with Part HQ and the Leadership
We can all sleep very soundly in our beds. With a generous passing hat-tip to the newly and quite rightly ennobled Alix Mortimer, Tatler, the home of stringent political analysis, have done us all a great favour and revealed the future Tory bright stars who are waiting in the wings to take the levers of power in Britain. Phew! What a relief! It turns out that they are all very talented indeed,
It might only be for 24 hours, but it doesn't stop me singing!
Political Betting has the details.
The lovely people at CAAN (the Consenting Adult Action Network) are campaigning against Labour's recent invasions into the bedrooms of the UK. They've come up with a Statement of Principle and would like to see recent laws about extreme pornography and safeguarding vulnerable groups amended to avoid discriminating people on the basis of their consensual sexual activity with other adults. "We believe in the right of consenting adults to make their own sexual choices, in respect of what they do, see and enjoy alone or with other consenting adults, unhindered and unfettered by government." "We believe that it is not ...
I just got to integrate all three. A bit fiddly but worth doing. First of all, Lightning adds calendar and task list functions to your email client. That didn't want to play the first time I tried adding a couple of tasks, but it cleared itself after a couple of restarts of Thunderbird. Apparently this has happened to other people too. You switch between email client, calendar and tasks by using the icons at the bottom left of the screen. So I now have lots of tasks up, some repeating, and two calendars, one for me and one for HPI. ...
Andover Liberal Democrats have this weelk launched a new website for the town. This will contain news items of interest to residents across Andover and updates on the work carried out by our county councillors and candidates for county council elections next year. The link to the new website is http://andoverlibdems.blogspot.com/ The three candidates selected to represent Andover are Andover North: County Councillor Robin Hughes Andover South: Vince McGarry Andover West: Josie Msonthi
{lloyds-tsb.jpg} The Chair of North West Hants Lib Dems has today written to Lloyds TSB CEO Eric Daniels expressing the party's concerns over the deal that sees Lloyds TSB purchase HBOS. In a highly unusual move for a bank merger, the company insisted it would retain its Scottish HQ and that its "management focus is to keep jobs in Scotland". This statement is considered by many commentators to mean that a political deal has been done by Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling to limit the job losses in Scottish banking at the expense of the English operations of Lloyds TSB/HBOS. ...
Every year the US State Department does a report on religious freedom across the world. Whilst I welcome the criticism of China, how the report possibly note improvements in Saudi Arabia! What improvements? There is still no religious freedom in Saudi Arabia, therefore their are no improvements. I wonder why the US Government might change their tone slightly towards the Saudis? (sarcastic, we all know why)
South African President Thabo Mbeki will now resign following calls from the ANC to do so. It is thought Mbeki may have interfered with the corruption case against Jacob Zuma. This resignation is great news. Jacob Zuma will have a very different stance towards Robert Mugabe, this stance was needed ages ago, but at least we may see a change now rather than in 2009. There are still deep inequalities in South Africa and that will be Zuma's biggest challenge. Under Mbeki inequalities have become worse. Of course there were all those allegations, but hopefully they were simply allegations.
As pointed out first last night by Lib Dem Voice, we're up four points in a YouGov poll after conference, up to our highest levels with that pollster since 2005 and only four points behind Labour. Great news, and something that I hope will be reflected when ICM publish their next offering. Coupled with the Luntz focus group, this has got me thinking how badly Labour are off, and whether they can recover at all. Although it is still too early to say, there are signs that are showing the idea that the Lib Dems could replace Labour as the ...
Conservative Home reported on David Cameron's remarks to the Financial Times which it claimed called on centre-right leaders to 'defend capitalism'. In fact, in the article Cameron himself even calls for; ""sensible" steps to improve transparency and regulation" Meanwhile, Iain Dale writes; Listening to Shaun Woodward on ANY QUESTIONS I was struck by several things. Firstly, he seemed to acknowledge that this credit crisis had happened on Gordon Brown's watch and he should therefore apologise. I suspect it will be a cold day in hell before that happens. But apologise for what? According to Woodward and his Cabinet colleagues, the ...
Here is the piece I wrote for the Total Politics Guide to Political Blogging about what bloggers should do when bad news about themselves breaks. When things go wrong or bad news breaks, it can be tempting to hunker down and say nothing. If you're a blogger, particularly one who allows comments, the idea of having [...]
You can read all the press releases there are about the housing crisis, but it's not until you come up against hard facts that the message sinks in. Hard facts like work being stopped on new builds or a statistic like this: that brick production in the UK is set to drop to its lowest levels since the 1940s. Back in the Assembly next week, Welsh Liberal Democrats have chosen as a motion for debate: "To propose that the National Assembly for Wales: Notes the current lack of affordable housing in Wales. Calls on the Welsh Assembly Government to: 1. ...
I just wanted to say both well done and commiserations to all my friends and former colleagues in Leeds who were fighting a by-election in the Farnley and Wortley ward on Thursday. Commiserations, because they missed out by 32 votes, but also a big well done, because they increased the Lib Dem share of the vote by over 20% in just a few weeks. This is a good result, with the Green's vote halved and clearly vulnerable, Labour's static, and potentially on the slide, and the Tories nowhere. After this by-election, this ward will surely become a target in 2010, ...
No, not that one but for the other lady! Given the fact that Lembit can't even get his high-profile endorsements right (someone 2nd on London MEP list and a R4 presenter) I can only see it as mendacity or lack of judgement/checking. After seeing the Conference pic on Ros's website it's clear that Jonathan is on [...]
This article by Matthew Syed of the Times, for me, sums up everything that is wrong about Newcastle United Football Club. The Myth that they are somehow a "big" club, with the country's most loyal fans has been perpetuated for far too long. What have Newcastle ever actually won? Ok, so they had two seasons where they finished second in the Prem, and were runners-up in the FA Cup. Ooh, what a huge club that makes them. Yeah, since entering the Premier League their fan base has increased significantly, but as was pointed out in Syed's piece, in the ...
From the Daily Mail: A senior Labour MP is facing demands for a sleaze inquiry after intervening in a court case on behalf of a party donor. Keith Vaz, chairman of the influential home affairs select committee, urged the High Court to delay proceedings involving a friend from whom he and his family had received lavish hospitality. We [...]
Sat 20th
14:16
If you're wondering whether the Guardian has taken a turn against the Liberal Democrats...
... it's ok, this piece is actually by a Labour Parliamentary candidate. It's true that if you click through on her name or scroll beyond the end of the story, you can find this out, but it does raise the question about how clearly articles from MPs and candidates should be labelled as such on [...]
Jonathan, It has come to my attention that it is shown on Lembit's website your endorsement of him for Party President. Am I correct in this assumption or is this some devious attempt on his part to attract votes? Or could it be just an oversight? In my mind I was under the assumption you were voting [...]
The news that J. K. Rowling has given the Labour Party £1m leads me to think of other children's writers and their politics. My own boyhood favourite Malcolm Saville voted Labour in 1945, but later became chairman of Lewes Conservatives. E. Nesbit and her husband Hubert Bland were among the founders of the Fabian Society. They jointly edited the society's journal and even had a son named Fabian. Arthur Ransome was a journalist in Russia during the Revolution and married Trotsky's secretary, but his own politics in the era remain a matter of debate.
J.K. Rowling has donated a million pounds to the Labour Party and is being quoted as saying: "The Labour government has reversed the long-term trend in child poverty, and is one of the leadi...
JK Rowling has given the Labour Party one million pounds. Apparently motivated by Labour's 'record on child poverty' Rowling said; "I believe that poor and vulnerable families will fare much better under the Labour Party than they would under a Cameron-led Conservative Party." Obviously we never got a look-in which is rather disappointing to say the least especially since Labour's record on child poverty actually leaves something to be desired. As to the question posed above the answer has to be a decisive no; it is not as if Rowling can actually wave a wand and reduce the parties rather ...
Why bother meeting the candidates and asking searching questions when I can just look at their websites and make a superficial decision? That happy day has arrived so I'll take a look at the websites of Lembit Opik and Ros Scott. I'll leave others to discuss the relative merits of their sites, but I noticed that the company that designed Lembit's site also has Felicity Fyre-le-Fay in their portfolio. Here's the thing about the Lib Dem presidency. Members will, if they know what's best for them, vote for Lembit or Ros depending on the job they want the president to ...
At about the time the Liberal Revue was starting in Bournemouth on Monday, Newsnight showed Jeremy Paxman's interview with Nick Clegg. Nick acquitted himself reasonably well, but the interview did show the problems with our current policy of promising to save £20bn of wasted government spending but not saying where those cuts will fall. Nick gave two defences of this approach. The first, which is also the one commonly offered by Cowley Street insiders, is that we cannot give too much details now in case the other parties steal our plans. I do not find this convincing. If you are ...
Tax cuts are great. They are brilliant, everybody would like them and to promise them is surely a good idea? My main reason for not being particularly sure about offering them are mainly practical; As things stand they are largely uncosted. It is commonly accepted that the economy is in recession and that public debt is high. The natural question thus arises where is the elbow room for £20 billion worth of tax cuts from the public purse?? It may well be that at the time of election the economic climate will be different but in current climate it is ...
Good news. The ARCH blog - ARCH as in Action on Rights for Children - has woken up.
As a political gambler who bases most of my predictions on YouGov (and none at all on MORI), I consider the above poll very good news for us. Note that the fieldwork took place immediately after conference, thus reflecting a clear bounce due to the various media coverage received. An ICM poll is expected in the Grauniad soon (in my opinion, the most accurate predictor of Lib Dem support), with fieldwork also conducted soon after conference. In the last ICM poll we scored 19%, so we should be looking at the low 20s in the next. I would say, albeit ...
Yesterday Iain Dale suggested that if (Iain said "when" - arrogance may yet be the Tories' undoing) David Cameron should make Kenneth Clarke chancellor of the exchequer. I have always liked Clark,e and the Tories should certainly have made him their leader after losing the election in 1997. He would have busked it and kept the Tories cheerful while they worked out how the hell they were going to fight back against Tony Blair. But what is really interesting here is where this leaves George Osborne. Iain writes: "The idea of making Ken Clarke Chancellor should in no way be ...
JK Rowling has given one million pounds to the Labour Party. The creator of Harry Potter has obviously decided to support the crumbling government of Lord Voldemort.
JK Rowling has given the Labour Party £1 Million according to the Press Release by the Labour Party that you can read HERE. It also has become clear that she is a personal friend of the Brown's...what a Coincidence. Bet she will be getting a Honour, we might even see her in the Lords as Baroness JK Rowling!
Lembit doesn't have a Fancy Site but he Does have a Segway!
I've no doubt that Labour will be phenomenally grateful for Joanna Rowling's donation of £1 million to their cause. I'm not entirely sure the message it sends out is very posistive. The endorsement of someone so fabulously wealthy that they no longer need to work, no longer need to worry about mortgage payments, energy costs, fuel costs or the cost of food... only someone completely out of touch with what life is like for the rest of us would think that, if you wanted to give £1 million to a good cause, that the best place for it to go ...
If I had a pound for every time a leftist writer called for a 'new direction' or some such other regeneration then I would never have to worry about my overdraft again in my life. It was thus with a degree of weariness that I looked at Mike Killingworth's article on Liberal Conspiracy. He wants to "advance new themes for the centre-left for the next ten years" and to do this he wants to 're-think the role of the state'. His basic contention that markets are now in effect more powerful than the nation state is certainly one that appears ...
Yikes! What is this unlovely shower of coutured smuggery? Why, it's a future Conservative cabinet, of course! Thanks to society magazine Tatler, 10 young Conservatives - billed as the party's stars of the future - were treated to a makeover, transforming them from dour political animals to fashionable clothes horses. Tatler says the photo shoot, involving several [...]
In other news, one obsessive control freak without original ideas who did OK in the beginning but cocked up massively by the end has decided to fund a whole bunch of similar to the tune of one million quid. I'm rather glad I didn't buy book seven now. Meanwhile, Paddy has come out 4 Ros (watch video with annoying music here). This is a much more satisfactory coming out ;)
Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse ... Martin Newton (councillor for Fortis Green ward) has been doing a survey of parking bays in Muswell Hill and found that many of them don't meet the rules for how parking bays should be laid out and explained to the public. Earlier this year we forced Haringey Council to replace confusing and contradictory parking signage - and also to add further stickers to pay-and-display machines to try to explain bewildering restrictions. More recently investigations by Liberal Democrat councillors also uncovered that at five of the seven yellow box junctions enforced ...
The YouGov poll in the Telegraph shows the Liberal Democrats up at 20%, only 4% behind Labour. Coming on top of the very positive Frank Luntz focus group on Newsnight, it all adds to a flow of good news for the party. 20% does not sound terribly high, of course, but the significance of it is that YouGov are generally the harshest pollster for the Liberal Democrats. You have to go back to November 2005 to see a Liberal Democrat figure so high in YouGov (borrowing an Obama phrase, my twins couldn't crawl the last we were on this level ...
Today's Guardian contains extracts from a book by Sky News' Adam Boulton giving the inside story on Tony Blair's time as Prime Minister. As is to be expected everybody swears a lot, not least John Prescott who, according to one anecdote showed remarkable intolerance to his homeland: On John Prescott cursing the Welsh language: "I had got on well with both Prescott and his wife [before Sky broke the 'Prescott punch' story] and missed his amusing contributions to our programme: Prescott swearing loudly and repeatedly during a taped interview because he was being put off by 'that fucking taff speaking ...
My comments at the Lib Dem Conference that we need to strike a new balance between the parliamentary and councillor wings of the party has clearly struck a chord with councillors. The immediate reason for my outburst was the way that the police debate had been approached by the Parliamentary Group - well, to be fair, [...]
From Iain Macwhirter Now and Then: David Cairns is being described as an obscure Scottish politician of whom we know nothing. That may be true in England, but not north of the border, where Cairns is well known and respected as one of the brightest and ablest politicians in the Scottish parliamentary group, and a sound media performer. The departure of the Scotland Office minister has caused blank astonishment among the Scottish political classes precisely because he seemed the ultimate party loyalist. If Cairns can turn against his leader then anyone can.
Just doing my usual morning trawl of websites and found the video had changed on Ros Scott's website to an endorsment from Paddy... Worth a watch
Banking is the trade to be in. You can make lots of mistakes, take lots of bonuses while you make them, and then the government comes along with a big truck, loads up all your mistakes in it and takes the mistakes off to a big sort of septic tank for storage. What a great trade to be in! One interesting comment came in a BBC piece about Lloyds TSB. They said that Lloyds TSB is in a fairly good
I have been Amazed by the Experience Lembit has, I think I am going to swap Allegiance as I am left here in my seat going "wooooooow". His Site definitely isn't like Ros Scott's actually far from that but I think I am going to Back him. http://www.lembit4president.co.uk/index.php
There was an astonishingly thoughtful editorial in Thursday's Times about the composition and direction of the Liberal Democrats. Not necessarily glowing in every part. Just thoughtful. Not only does it, in the teeth of my latest outpouring of anti-meedja bile, "get" liberalism in a way I've rarely seen a national newspaper manage: In an interview on [...]
