Lembit has now answered my questions, after a fashion. Linda Jack has rephrased them and got a response. But neither he nor his campaign team have deigned to even refer me to them. Is this what he means by "courage" and campaigning in "primary colours"? Is this "I'm not talking to you" act not just a teeny bit childish? I'll respond to them another time since I've been concentrating on other things today, but meanwhile I wouldn't want you to be deprived.
In his Lib Dem News column this week, reprinted on his Liberal England blog, Jonathan Calder poses what he terms "an awkward question that won't go away": How can you justify financing the BBC through the licence fee in a multi-channel, multi-platform, multi-everything world? Increasing numbers of people rarely watch its programmes and the fee [...]
Apologies for not posting recently. Unfortunately, my house was flooded at the beginning of September and I have only had limited internet access since then (as well as a number of other things to worry about!). I will try to fill in some of the gaps, but for those of you interested in the details of the flooding, pictures of the Selly Park South area on Saturday 6 September are available on
In a marvellous performance today Obama went deep into the North East industrial area of Stark County in Ohio. This county went marginally Dem in 2004 and is surrounded by marginal and Democrat counties in which Obama must do well on Nov 4th. I don't think I've heard such oratory, passion and fire in a politician [...]
So, today, we did go to the Library. It was shut for renovations most of the summer so I couldn't register, but it's now reopened. It is a typical small English town library, gifted to the town by the effective founder, and has an attached art gallery. It's gorgeous. I registered (painless process all on computer), but forgot to ask how many books I'd be allowed. Given that when I grew up in Devon it was 4, Exeter uni was I think 6, and Merton in Wimbledon was similar, while browsing I chose a pile, then put several back on ...
Spooks. It has to be. Apart from the terrific music, the riveting camera work, the authentic feel of tradecraft, they are just so ruthless with their characters. Adam Carter was the life and soul of Spooks. Plenty of strong characters around him but without him it would be different. And now we'll know, because they've killed him off. What other series on any channel, either side of the Atlantic would be so profligate with the characters it has nurtured so carefully? Adam is not the first, and it's a brilliant strategy because it underlines for us the cost paid by ...
Anyone who wants to know how thin the veneer of reasonableness that David Cameron has applied to the Conservative Party is should read Iain Dale's latest piece for the Daily Telegraph. You may recall the late 1990s as a time when the new Labour government could not be touched and the Tories were a rabble. Not Iain. He remembers it as something close to a Golden Age when Eric Forth and John Bercow "tormented the Labour benches". How to bring those days back? Easy: The Tories need to find modern day equivalents of David Evans, the former MP for Welwyn ...
{Bath University} The full masterplan for Bath University has been put on display in the Library on the Claverton campus. Following a 'planning for real' session and further residents' consultations, Prof Alan Day, the university architect and Dean of design, has presented his plans for the next few years of university growth. The plan shows accomodation development on the East car park and along the Northern fringe of the campus, with car parking moved out towards the Claverton Down entrance. The exhibition will be open in the library foyer until Friday, 24 hours per day, with staff to explain the ...
The BBC headline says "I made a mistake, admits Osborne". Just the one?
Not satisfied with having a representative like the loony Sarah McSame they now have a senator found guilty of seven felony counts of lying on his Senate financial disclosure reports by not revealing gifts and services totalling over $250,000. This is a tough time for Alaskan Republican voters - do they vote Republican and thus enhance [...]
Sunday night went to Ally Pally to greet Amma. Amma is an Indian woman who tirelessly travels the world with a message of love basically. This is what it says on her website: Through her extraordinary acts of love and self-sacrifice, Mata Amritanandamayi, or Amma (Mother) as she is known, has endeared herself to millions of people around the world. Tenderly caressing everyone who comes to her, holding them close to her heart in a loving embrace, Amma shares her boundless love with all-regardless of their beliefs, who they are or why they have come to her. In this simple ...
Thanks to Charlotte Gore I had the pleasure of reading an interesting post by The Nameless Libertarian on The Appalling Strangeness blog. This particular post compares fictional totalitarian dystopias such as the worlds of V for Vendetta and 1984 to our current situation and observes that we're sleepwalking into a police state and, if we're not careful, we'll wake up one morning to find that, without realising it, all our freedoms have been lost. It's a seductive narrative. ID cards. Detention without trial. Big government databases. Rules and regulations for everything. As the Nameless Libertarian poetically writes: The government is ...
Last month I reported that Vulcan, the long-lost Solo album by Traffic's Chris Wood, was about to be released. Now there is also a website devoted to his career: Chris was a founder and member of Traffic from 1967 until 1974. One of the most popular and respected groups of the rock era, Traffic's unique sound was the result of the distinctive talents and musical tastes of it's members, which originally included Chris, Jim Capaldi, Dave Mason and Steve Winwood.Although Traffic was an immensely popular band in its day, Chris Wood was then, and remains today, an enigmatic figure, even ...
I don't know why, or who is behind it, but I have a song from the Godsdamned Sound of Bloody Music stuck in my head. View Poll: I have a song stuck in my head This is my brain on musicals.
It's time for one of those "random news items from Shropshire (where he doesn't live)," the New Statesman referred to. From the Shropshire Star: Residents in south Shropshire and Bridgnorth felt the earth move after a minor earth tremor struck in Herefordshire.People sitting down for their Sunday dinner or settling in front of the TV reported feeling the tremor which happened at about 6pm yesterday.The British Geological Survey said the earthquake, which registered 3.6 on the Richter Scale, emanated from Bromyard, in Herefordshire.A note for aspiring journalists: a good quote lifts any story. In this case: Hayley Rollins, 22, who ...
Alaska Republican US Senator Ted Stevens has been convicted of seven charges of making false statements about free gifts from contractors. This means the Democrats now stand a very good chance of taking his Senate seat next week. As this video shows, Stevens is a close associate of Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin: In other news, American authorities have apparently uncovered an assassination plot against Barack Obama.
The Bank of England Act 1998 requires the Bank of England to "publish minutes of the [Monetary Policy Committee] meeting before the end of the period of 6 weeks beginning [...]
The BBC has apologised for two of its presenters calling up a 78-year old man, and boasting how one of them had 'f***ed your granddaughter!" The fact that one is the BBC's best paid presenter, reportedly earning £6 million a year, illustrates just how far the BBC has departed from its public broadcasting remit. Stories like this must make it harder for its supporters to defend the licence fee. Its news programmes pay little attention to reporting the facts. Its entertainment line up is ITV dumbed down. There is little innovation at the BBC any longer. The few programmes worthy ...
Here's what I care about. Myself - I have tried the alternative and it leads to depression, anguish and destruction. It is my duty to care about myself, because when I do not I am quite literally a useless human being. I will not apologise for this. My Friends - Some people do not need other people, and I thought I was one of those people, but I was wrong. It's something I've discovered over the last few years, which came... right after I started caring about myself. It's easy to make superficial friendships by pretending to like everyone you ...
My first House Points column of the new season appeared in Liberal Democrat News on Friday 17 October. In it I took aim at George Osborne: He still gives the overwhelming impression of being a clever schoolboy. It is hard to get the idea that he was once David Cameron's fag out of your head. He made "bloody good toast" and has now received his reward.So Osborne is not a figure who commands respect in a crisis. Already Conservative voices are suggesting Kenneth Clarke would make a more credible chancellor if the party came to power.Five days later Osborne was ...
A great blog post that I simply must link about the difference between real and fictional representations of societies that fall to absolute authoritarianism. The Road To Hell and all that...
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. I didn't realise that Republicans were in such short supply that McCain needed to hire Obama supporters to do his campaigning.
Vladimir Kramnik finally won a game today. He played g3 against Anand's Nimzo-Indian and made winning look surprisingly easy. See Chessdom for the moves. Anand now leads 6-4 with two games to play. As Kramnik's comeback shows, 12 games is too few for a world championship match.
My latest column is up on the New Statesman website. It contains my observations on the super-rich and their yachts: As George Osborne has been brought to understand, gossiping about what you hear in the cabins of the powerful is Simply Not Done.Being well brought up, you and I know this is just as true of what you hear on a narrow boat on the Shropshire Union. Good manners are good manners, whether you went to Eton, St Paul's or the Jack Straw Memorial Reform School, Dungeness.And on the origins of Shropshire folklore: There is a lot more local folklore, ...
Or is the cartoon illustrating the article on Islamic finance on p.34 of this week's The Lawyer [PDF] really rather inappropriate?
City MP Don Foster and Liberal Democrats in Bath have backed plans to help small businesses survive the looming recession. "Small businesses are the lifeblood of the economy here in Bath. We are lucky to have a number of small, independent retailers, and they add to the unique flavour of Bath," said Don. "It is vital that we give them a fighting chance to get through the...
Yesterday we reached 52.........but taking on board the criticism that my blogs are too long........I will dish up the rest to you in bite size pieces ;-) 53 In 2003 Lembit marched through London with 2 million other citizens in opposition to the impending Iraq War. 54 Lembit's favourite political structure in the UK from an aesthetic perspective is the Stormont Assembly Building in Belfast. 55 Lembit's predecessors in his Montgomeryshire constituency include Alex Carlile, Emlyn Hooson and former Party leader Clement Davies. 56 Lembit has never appeared on Celebrity Big Brother. 57 Lembit has attended over 165 meetings of ...
Mon 27th
17:48
The Australian points based immigration system and why we should be watching their moves
Both Labour and the Tories, who both posture to be "tough" on immigration, support an Australian points based system for immigration in the UK. As Roy Hattersley aptly explained, when replacing Phil "hard on the foreign" Woolas on Question Time, this only applies to 15% of UK immigration as the rest is from the EU, over which we have no control. This means that we should closely follow Australian policy as there is a high chance it will be implimented on that unlucky 15% in the near future. The Australian immigration minister, like Woolas, has stated that in an economic ...
Cllr Bob Kilmister, a former Lib Dem councillor on Pembrokeshire county council, reassures his residents via his blog that he continues to work and act as a Liberal Democrat despite having decided to resign from the Lib Dem group: I did this so Tony Brinsden my colleague could retain his seat on the National Park. The [...]
Hey, don't take The Voice's word for it - the research is courtesy of liberal free-market think-tank Reform: Labour is lagging in the league table of mathematical prowess, according to the results of the 2008 Reform maths challenge, released today. The independent think tank posed the taxing test to delegates at all three Party conferences this [...]
Apparently Richard Dawkins thinks that Harry Potter damages children. Except he doesn't. Dawkins' views on Harry Potter remain to be seen. Personally, I think the politics of Potter are slightly iffy (being a paean to meritocracy in which the bad old elitists get their comeuppances while the good new elitists get to inherit the earth and lord it over the "undeserving" muggles), but fail to see how anyone could describe it as damaging (that's the role of religious nutjobs anyway). However, it does take me back to my undergrad dissertation in which I commented on Dawkins' 1997 Reith Lecture (which, ...
Oh Nick. I joined your party the moment you were elected. I thought you were sensible and thoroughly liberal, with an ability to explain liberalism and enunciate policy to a wide audience. But first we had that idiotic (and you must have known it was idiotic) "energy independence" stuff. Now we're being told to be "proud" to buy British and local. This pride is apparently vital as we are heading into/ in an economic downturn and "economic recovery starts at home". This is utter crap for three reasons: 1. Those who've read a little history of the Great Depression will ...
Watch BHO's two minute plan for America advert below. I think its really good (not that I agree with a lot of what he says). He looks straight into the camera for two minutes and spells out policies (well their slogans to be honest). This is the stuff that makes him look highly credible to the swing voter, the potential Obamacon. Watch it and let me know what you think.
On Saturday night, I was on a Northern Line train heading back to north London. At Charing Cross, a group of Asian youths got on the carriage, five girls and three boys. The girls were all wearing headscarves and trousers, but had full makeup on. The boys were manhandling the girls in a way reminiscent of, well, most horny teenage boys - and were hardly being put off. I mention this because one of the girls - and manhandlees - was wearing a tshirt that identified her as a warden of the Global Peace and Unity Conference which I happened ...
Merton, Sutton & Surrey Joint Health Scrutiny Committee The sole focus of this evening's meeting was to receive an update on the Better Healthcare Closer to Home programme. After some years of floundering at the 'good idea' stage with few fully worked up plans for practical implementation the programme has made rapid progress in the last few [...]
No: No e-voting for next year's elections Yes: Edinburgh Council by-election to use electronic voting
We have been helping Ashmole Estate residents with getting local repairs sorted out. We've got the council to repair the drop kerb on Carroun Road opposite the Fentiman Arms pub, and re-site an old bollard that had been knocked over further up on Cottingham Road. At the moment, due to the cutbacks by the administration at the Town Hall, there is no money for the tree pruning that residents wanted on the estate, but we will continue to chase this to see what can be done.
I am often provoked to making grumpy comments about rail travel in the UK. You can pick and mix the issues for any journey from the expense, the overcrowding, the ticket machines etc. In order to avoid the expense problem I decided to be smart and book ahead for a journey next week. I tried this first with the Qjump site that I've used before. I put in all the details and then got to the last bit when they asked me for 50p to collect my ticket from a machine at the station. Now what's this all about? I ...
Tonight is an emergency meeting of Bury Council, to discuss the issue of Job Evaluation and the pay review that come about as a result of it. It was called after the Leader of the Council failed to attend meeting with Unions, staff and Members to discuss the issues, despite being invited. Staff remain in the dark, confused and suspicious of a lot that's going on, and of course are still trying to make sense of a proposal which will see almost half of them lose a portion of their salary in the name of "equal pay." Your Lib Dem ...
Note to self: when the point comes when you are generating more heat than light, step away from the computer. I have taken the dogs for a walk and calmed down significantly now: my apologies to endless_psych who was the focus of my ire. The crux of the disagreement is his view that statistics are inherently value-neutral, and anyone picking up an implication of value judgements from statistics is misguided at best. The problem with that approach is that although statistics in and of themselves may be value neutral (and I don't actually believe it is possible to have an ...
Last week I posted about how Scottish Gas were upping my standing order disproportionately to any logical usage I could work out. Well it seems I'm not alone, but I'm somewhat better off than Mr Quist. I imagine it happening thus: Edmund Blackadder enters the office of this boss George Prince. Prince, George: Ah Blackadder. What news? Blackadder: Not good sir. The price of gas is going down again. Prince, George: But surely that is a good thing Blackadder? The customers have been complaining about the fuel prices all year. Blackadder: While that is true sir, what about the shareholders? ...
I received today the following letter from the office of Sharon Bowles MEP. Sharon has joined local Lib Dems and other campaigners in calling for Test Valley Borough Council to reconsider their short sighted decision to let the lower Guildhall to a pizza restaurant. "It is often a problem to balance commercial interests, and associated jobs, with cultural and other community concerns. As a member of the European Parliament's Economic Committee I often have to adopt a 'hard headed' approach. However, as a member of that committee wrestling with the current financial crisis, it does seem that local communities and ...
From the BBC website: George Osborne has acknowledged that he made a "mistake" in becoming involved in a discussion about a possible donation to the Tory Party from Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska. Well what daya know - George Osborne was on the same yacht as Feldman a Tory fundraiser and he made out that it was [...]
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers, For he today who for security reasons, Is surrounded by SAS guards, and only, Pilots his copter, outside of the holiday and ski season, Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition. And gentlemen in England now abed Shall wonder why we pay taxes so this minor scion, Can play the soldier when ancestors named Harry too Did not hold their manhoods cheap, but fought Side by side, Prince or Pauper, upon Saint Crispin's day.
Following residents' requests to get the Friendly Bus sheltered shopping service to visit the sheltered housing in Logie, I had this response from Stagecoach Strathtay today: "... spoke to the driver he said that he will be at the corner of Lime Street and Logie Avenue at 10:10 on Thursdays. He will approach from the Scott Street entrance into Lime Street." I am sure this will be welcomed by local residents.
I confess regularly to a strong antipathy to the USA so it is always refreshing to see programmes such as the current one in which Stephen Fry is travelling around all 50 states to get a taste of that country. What is impressive is how pleasantly ordinary it all is and how natural and warm most Americans are - a million miles away from the TV image of the country which tends to be centred on LA or New York. However, the programme is continually disappointing because Fry's stops are so brief. He never gets to chat to people at ...
I expected some comment about this piece this morning when professional pleb John Prescott was asked about Mandelson's visit to Oleg Deripaska on his yacht. Prescott had been asked to talk about his forthcoming TV programme on class and he laid into the interviewer (I think it was Evan Davies) about how the Today programme was always looking for controversy and seeing a half empty glass instead of a half full one. Prescott was clearly ducking the question but he made a good point, which is that the Today programme is pants and it provides so little 'light' that if ...
George Osborne "has done nothing wrong"- or so the leadership of the Conservatives is trying to tell us. How then, to explain the news that Mr. Osborne will no longer be taking an active role in fund raising for the Conservative party. If he is not a fit an proper person to be concerned in the finances of his own party, how then, can he continue to pretend that he would be a credible Chancellor of the Exchequer? I mean, it is not as if Mr. Osborne's entire brief is to look at finance and regulate financial probity or anything. ...
Yesterday when I left our HQ in Glenrothes, I forgot to log out of my e-mail. Another colleague came in this morning, fired up the e-mail site and just assumed it was his that was logged in. He then started sending out e-mails to people, and responding to messages that had been sent to me by people we both know. Neither of us would have been any the wiser if I hadn't noticed that e-mails from me were appearing in my Outlook inbox at home. For the first couple, I actually did wonder if I was going mad because these ...
The nice people at British Gas sent me a letter just to let me know that my gas bill is being increased by a touch over 300%. According to the letter this is because "no-one likes getter bigger bills than expected". No shit! You might think the Quist family must have run up a huge debt with far-too-low monthly direct debit payments but, no, we're actually just about in credit. After a polite chat with one of their phone people, I think I understand how it works. British Gas, who made a profit of £571 million on their domestic arm ...
{Not this Springfield} The residents of Springfield are furious that developers of the planned supermarket to the East of Linlithgow looks set to double in size. The news comes as plans to include a nursing home on the triangular parcel of land on the Blackness road were dropped in correspondence to West Lothian Council. Considering the area was originally zoned for office development in the Council's area plan the nursing home, hotel and retail complex was already meeting opposition from the Linlithgow Against Springfield Development Group. The council have asked the developers Kensington & Edinburgh Estates to carry out an ...
.....is a topic insufficiently explored. So says Stuart Jeffries, here, in a long interview with Vince Cable in the Guardian. That phrase actually makes sense when you read it, but it is a true classic. LibDig This!
One thing that annoyed me over the weekend was the ridiculous news coverage of the Original Mountain Marathon, up in the Lakes. You might have seen the original doom and gloom reports that thousands of people were missing. They made it sound as if we were talking about a bunch of kids on a fun run, dressed just in shorts and t-shirts and wearing trainers. What we were talking about was a bunch of experienced walkers and runners, well-used to bad weather conditions and difficult terrain. You only have to look at the website of the Original Mountain Marathon to ...
A while ago I posted about the launch of the 4 new online television stations from the EU. It is disappointing, but not surprising, that the EU has managed to make a complete dogs dinner of it. First, there seems to be only sporadic updating of the site, and almost none on some of the channels. Most annoyingly, the videos all have French audio, with other languages only provided in subtitles. The combination of these two things makes the whole site annoying to use. There was a certain inevitability about the fact that someone is already doing it better. www.europarl.tv ...
I think really, that what my posts over the last couple of days boil down to is this: condemning other people because they are different from you, whatever direction that difference might be in, is wrong. If they are hurting you? That's different. If they are hurting someone else? Condemn away. If all they are doing is doing things differently from you, and nobody is being harmed? Back that truck the fuck up and stop being a judgemental arsehole. Now, I admit that there are legitimate debates to be had on the subject of what constitutes harm, and issues of ...
As the annual Armistice Day approaches I try and keep abreast with local services and tributes. For me it's something that really matters - it's not just history and tradition but incredibly current. This is the memorial at Jack Straw's Castle, Hampstead and it's a pic. I took two years ago I think (November 2006). I have also posted a couple of other memorials that I'm aware of...
Everyone's playing with this one - Tom Harris and Duncan Borrowman to name but two. Thought I'd get in on the act....... It's apparently not partisan - I haven't seen a McCain version yet though.......... LibDig This!
Oh no! Say it ain't so! I mean, it's not as if I am a human!
You know how China censors the internet, and this is a bad thing, and everyone condemned Google for colluding with the Chinese government about it? How do we all feel about the Australian government doing the same? If you're an Aussie, if you know any Aussies, let them know that their government is planning to implement mandatory censorship of the internet across the entire country. They might like to know. Stuart Jeffries has done a profile of Vince in the Graun (big smooches for the very sexy alex_wilcock for sending me the link). At the bottom is a link to ...
I attended the debate at St Mary in the Castle on Thursday by kind invitation of my Conservative counterpart. It was an interesting debate but the attendance was disappointing. I think the message to us politicians is that we must do more, and more effective outreach work. People are just so disillusioned with the political process. Interesting to [...]
I've blogged several times about how YouGov's poll ratings for the Liberal Democrats are consistently lower than those from other pollsters (in part, it looks, because YouGov consistently gives the Conservatives higher support amongst female voters than other pollsters), but what about ICM, which consistently has some of the highest ratings for the Liberal Democrats? Last [...]
I've been following the progress of the campaign by the Chagos Islanders to be allowed to return home to their islands having been thrown off them by the British Government 40 years ago. They had won a legal ruling from the High Court in 2000 that they could return to the islands, although not to Diego Garcia the site of the US military base. The Government then in 2004 used royal prerogative to
Answer these questions, without using a calculator. 1. What is the angle between the hands of Big Ben at 9.15?2. Nick and Gordon each receive presents shaped like cuboids (or "boxes"). Each is tied with three loops of string - one in each of the three possible directions. Nick's package has loops of lengths 40cm, 60cm, 60cm, while Gordon's package has loops of lengths 40cm, 60cm, 80cm....
I like to think I'm a reasonably community-spirited chap, but behind the wheel I exhibit remarkably Jekyll and Hyde-like tendencies. When I'm relaxed with lots of time to spare, I'm the model driver (apart from being a bit crap at the actual driving bit). I follow the rules, politely let people out and generally drive considerately, thinking of others. As a result I get that warm glow of smug self-satisfaction that comes with being a good citizen. When I feel under pressure, stressed and in a rush, I'm far more likely to be a selfish git, breaking the rules of ...
My favourite US election advert of the year comes from Alaska via YouTube: Amazingly, she didn't win.
So says The Guardian.
The self-described "nasty party" have not gone away. In Dover, an Independent councillor has stepped down. In the resulting by-election, the Conservative candidate, Mandie Shembi, has said "he gave up and moved to Maidstone. Mandie will never give up". She didn't mention that the poor man is seriously ill and moved to be [...]
{snapshot-2008-10-21-08-01-4.jpg} Late last year Bury Council commissioned the consultants URBED and AGDR to draw up a vision, and strategy for the centre of Prestwich. This was after many years of campaigning by your local Prestwich Liberal Democrat Focus Team to get Bury to take our town centre seriously. Local people are now being asked to have our say on the proposals in the consultation period which is 13 October - 24 November 2008. Every household in Prestwich is being sent a consultation newsletter which includes a survey to send in your views. The newsletter is here, the full report is ...
Jack Straw is in the news today for a speech he's going to give calling for a tougher line to be taken against criminals and prisoners. Fancy that - a Labour minister calling for tough action! I think he's got the key issue wrong. Yes, we do need to make sure that victims are respected in the criminal system and their views have appropriate weight, but so often things are out of kilter when it comes to the past versus the future. Punishing criminals is about taking action over what they've done. Proper rehabilitation is about stopping them committing more ...
The Sunday Times had the story this weekend, though it's safe to say that Labour don't really like this idea: The SNP is facing accusations that its flagship local income tax policy (LIT) is in chaos after it opened the door to Scotland's 32 councils setting different rates... In a dramatic U-turn on the policy, the Nationalist [...]
Maybe the international community is fed up with Gordon Brown lecturing them on what to do in the financial crisis (part or wholly nationalise the banks having spent 6 months resisting such moves for Northern Rock) but the non-appearance of Brown at the emergency international meeting in China over the weekend was very obvious. I was beginning to think that no one from the UK was present until I
Mon 27th
08:22
Are you a socialist, human rights activist, communist, vegetarian, anarchist, religious person, athe...
If so, heed the words of the US Army and get yourself on to Twitter.
Wolverhampton, Bilston & District Trades Union Council emailed me at the weekend regarding the news story "The decline of the BNP".
I am on the way to Newcastle, having just left Sunniside and soaring over us is a flight of geese in V formation. Must have been up to 30 birds in the flight. Ages since I have seen anything like that around here.---Sent via BlackBerry
Presented by A Very British Dude.
John Swinney the SNP Finance Minister has finally announced plans for a Local Income Tax, letting the local authorities set their rates rather than controlling it all from his Edinburgh office. After my ranting on Friday about the Nats not respecting local authorities, this is welcome news. Some are accusing Swinney of making a U-Turn but he is merely realising the problems he created for himself by lifting the core of the Lib Dem idea without many of the more thoroughly worked out difficulties and subtleties. He is also considering sensible options to exempt students from paying LIT and to ...
I don't often make Lib Dem Voice's Weekly Golden Dozen, probably because most of my readership aren't Lib Dems and rarely click through from the Lib Dem blogs aggregator. so therefore I have to rely on well written pieces that get picked up for the 5 positions not gained through through traffic. Well my little piece on the DUP, 42 days detention without trail and the abortion amendments for Northern Ireland being pole axed last week makes the cut this week. Makes this Northern Irish born liberal proud.
A trio of Independent Views kickstarted our week last Monday: Phil Booth from No2ID on credit freezes, Anne Furedi from BPAS about the human fertility bill and Dale Bassett from Reform about the IPOD generation. Our Independent View slot is open to almost anyone who wants to talk to Lib Dems whilst stressing their [...]
...thought it was incredibly positive about the guy. It makes him sound sweet. Or maybe that's just me.
Norman Fowler, a former chairman of the Conservative Party, writes for the Financial Times: Public money already goes to the parties at Westminster but the prospect of increased state funding is guaranteed to provoke objections. Why should the taxpayer be forced to make a contribution to a party he or she hates? It is a powerful [...]
I've just spent a fantastic weekend in the hallowed halls of the National Liberal Club at the annual Libertarian Alliance conference. If, like me, you see yourself as more of a theoretical policy wonk doing the background stuff of coming up with ideas, rather than the rather more practical work of debating actual proposals and then selling them on the doorstep, this was the perfect sort of a conference. A little like spending an entire party conference in the various fringe events where hand picked speakers with great ideas to sell challenge the little gray cells rather than in the ...
...and find a set of blue lights chasing you up the motorway, at least they could do it in style, Italian style: {Lambo-460_1015094c.jpg}
I'm a bit late to Charlotte Gore's party, here, but we've been watching Yes, Prime Minister tonight and was reminded of wanting to post this. I see little that has changed in the last thirty years, except that there are less smokers, and yet they are paying more money into the treasury, and pretty much all of the regulation mooted in this episode has since come to pass. You want to watch from 4.01 minutes into this clip: Yes, but smokers pay for a third of the cost of the national health service! We're saving many more lives than we ...
Osama bin Laden is apparently embarking on a great project. A book about al Qaeda, its history and struggles is what consumes Osama, according to alleged "al Qaeda" sources. The book will be translated into English, so you don't have to run out and get Rossetta Stone Arabic. Personally, I think the book will be a fascinating insight, much like "His Own Words - a translation of the words of Ayman Zawahiri", which I've read. The propaganda war never dies.
The Wyre Forest Liberal Democrats will be hosting a Euro (not European Union) Quiz night on Friday 7th November at The Oaks Community Centre in Kidderminster.
