I'm still in my armchair, slightly further from Skipton but still within the Skipton and Ripon constituency. Now that the excitement of the US election is done with, we have the prospect of the Brown bounce developing into a 2009 election. I'll still be posting on what's done to attract my vote to the LibDems or any other political party in either the Keighley (solid Labour) or Skipton/Ripon (solid Conservative) constituencies. Last time round, it was negligible.
Yet again, Colin Rosenstiel has put up all the internal Party election results in the full entirety of every single stage to satisfy even the nerdiest of geeks (and you can be sure there are plenty of those in our wonderful party), in super quick time. He does this every single year and I actually don't know where the Party would be without him. Thanks, Colin, for all the time and energy you put into this. Anyway, I'm thrilled that Ros Scott won the Party Presidency with 72% of the votes cast - that is no mean feat and is ...
While the presidential contest has been the focus of attention, the party held a series of other elections for important internal committees. You can find the results in full at Colin Rosenstiel's webpage.
Colin Rosenstiel has posted the results of the Lib Dem committee elections. You remember: the ones with 85 places to be filled and 161 candidates standing. Congratulations to all those elected. Doubtless you'll all gain many hours of fulfilment and pleasure in those meetings. As you wield all that power, don't forget us little people who put you there.
gets confusing sometimes. I wish people would stick to one meaning for words. I could probably add in anti-liberal liberal and given the meaning some ascribe to libertarianism an anti-libertarian libertarian...
Lembit Opik a great politician and a many of many talents and a massive portfolio in politics didn't make the job he wanted which was the president of the Liberal Democrats but the question is what is his future? Iain Tory Dale has said in a blog post that Lembit will quit politics and the only answer I have to that is, will he f***! Lembit might not have become president of the Liberal Democrats but he is still a Lib Dems MP and as far as I can see he will go onto getting elected at the next general ...
A few things about Obama and his presidency... His funding came from the same places Bush got his funding, the same places Clinton got his. These interests will want a return on their investment. Obama, and the Democrats will oblige. There is not going to be any real change, just a few changes around the edges. [...]
The Government's White Paper, Communities in Control was published over the summer and the subject in part of Hazel Blears' recent (and, er..., rather controversial) speech. As this extract shows, there's plenty to chew over in the proposals, despite Hazel Blears' diversion into swipes at a pair of bloggers: Among the voluntary organisations we want to [...]
After praising the election of Barack Obama earlier this week, it's now congratulations to Ros Scott, elected President of the Lib Dems. I was one of Ros' many supporters, and delighted that she has won. Having backed a woman for party President, I was slightly disconcerted however to get a text telling me that the winner [...]
The Essex branch of the European Movement held an event in the county seat, Chelmsford, this afternoon, to consider the implications of (a) the financial crisis and (b) the stalled Lisbon Treaty on the future of Europe, though in fact discussion ranged much wider. Bill Rammell, the Islington-born Labour MP for Harlow, was meant to [...]
On the day that my team of wonderfully-talented-yet-hopelessly-disorganised kids took three points from the evil ManUSA, I sadly read that a new ICM poll puts the LDs three points down. Not good, mes amis, not good. As explained here, ICM is the pollster that typically gives us the highest ratings and, in my opinion, is also the most reliable for LD levels (and maybe the most reliable overall, bar YouGov). One's mind is consumed with thoughts of impending Saturday night banana and apricot pancakes, and thus cannot expend too great an effort on conjuring up reasons for this sudden decline. ...
Last event for me yesterday was the consultation on Hornsey Hospital where the Primary Care Trust (PCT) has levered in Elizabeth Manero to work with the community and the Trust to try and get us all contributing and working together - replacing the scaremongering (some valid, some not) with positive moves forward. I first met Elizabeth when I was on the London Assembly and the Government were getting rid of Patient Link - which represented the people's voice in the health service. She didn't save it - but I have to say she was/is the most able and ferocious advocate ...
I've just been to see Oliver Stone's W. on the big screen. I can't say that I would wholeheartedly recommend going out in the autumn cold to see the film. As entertainment, it was fairly mirthless stuff. I enjoyed the early years of Bush in his fratboy days and his Texan days. But the joy of the film ended, quite rightly, as the Iraq invasion went sour and, really, one was left with a sense of
Headed yesterday to the Youth Summit - except when I arrived they said it was the 'Schools Forum' not the 'Youth Summit'. Assuming (wrongly) that my diary had simply got the wrong title - I found I had missed the pleniary session and so selected one of six workshops to sidle into and listen. Sometimes you do have to think that fate steps in and plays her hand. I chose a session on school funding where a civil servant from the ministry was facilitating. Stephen Kingdom is, in fact, the Deputy Director in charge of School Funding and chairs the ...
{Lynne Featherstone with Lynne Tricia Ward and Gillian Gurner at the Employment Resource Centre} On Friday went to the Employment Resource Centre - which is a small charitable group in East Finchley that helps unemployed Jewish people to get themselves together to find a job. A wonderful, but small, band of dedicated and committed people use their professional skills voluntarily to do this work. They support and help those who find themselves for one reason or another out of the work - giving them training and mentoring. Funnily enough, when I rang on the door and it opened, the woman ...
I can't help feeling some pleasure at the Labour by-election win at Glenrothes. I didn't think I'd ever write anything like that. But, firstly, there are very few delights in life comparable to seeing Alex Salmond with the smug grin wiped off his face. Secondly, I believe that Gordon Brown deserves some credit for a relatively skilled handling of the economic crisis (note the word "relatively").
Many congratulations to Ros Scott on being elected President of the Liberal Democrats. Hers is a very well deserved win. It is very reassuring to have a real grass roots person at the helm of the party in the President's role.
Good week: Getting back home from our holiday/honeymoon in Barbados. Barack Obama winning the Presidency of the USA. Wedding congratulations from lots of family and friends. Seeing the smirk wiped from Alex Salmond's smug face as the Gnats got thrashed in Glenrothes. Having a house guest last night. Catherine's folks offering to host a party to celebrate our marriage (accepted!) Ros Scott winning an astonishing victory in the Lib Dem Federal Presidential race. Seeing our holiday/honeymoon photos properly (I got a bit carried away and took over 1000 shots in 12 days). Bad week: Drop in temperature from 31C in ...
Baroness Ros Scott has stormed to an astounding victory in the race to become Federal President of the Liberal Democrats and I'm delighted to have backed her from an early stage. The full result, which is all over the Lib Dem blogosphere, is: Chandila Fernando 1 799 - 6% Lembit Opik MP 6 247 - 22% Baroness Ros Scott 20 736 - 72% I supported Ros because I firmly believed that she was the candidate who would be the voice of the ordinary member and activist, was not an elected Parliamentarian, has experience in both Local Government and Lords, and ...
Lembit Opik, the runner-up in the Lib Dem presidential election, has issued this gracious response to the result and explained his plans for the future: I congratulate Ros for her clear victory. If Barack Obama had employed Ros Scott as his campaign manager, he'd have won by even more than he did! As a seasoned [...]
Ros Scott has won an overwhelming victory in the election for our next party president. This is a role which doesn't get a great deal of publicity outside the party but is important to members. There were 3 candidates, but Ros took over 70% of the vote, so a truly overwhelming victory. She takes over from Simon Hughes on January 1st. That news came through when I was in the middle of trying to
Ros Scott has been elected as the new President of the Liberal Democrats. The voting figures, announced at Cowley Street earlier this afternoon, were as follows: Ros Scott 20,736 votes (72%)Lembit Opik 6,247 votes (22%)Chandila Fernando 1,799 votes (6%)There were 49 spoilt ballots and the turnout was 47.8%, up +0.4% on last time.But before you get too excited about this, in the 2004 Presidential election 34,335 votes were cast, against only 28,782 this time, suggesting a significant decline in party membership.This is an overwhelming and deserved victory for Ros. As Costigan Quist says, it is a victory for Ros's hard ...
Dear Friends We have just completed the election count for the next President of the Liberal Democrats and the result was: Ros Scott 20,736 votes (72%) Lembit Opik 6,247 votes (22%) Chandila Fernando 1,799 votes (6%) Turnout: 47.8% (+0.4% on last time) Ros Scott will take up office on 1st January, succeeding Simon Hughes. I look forward to working closely with Ros in the busy period ahead, which will include European and local elections, and of course a Westminster general election ! Over 50% of Liberal Democrat members voted. Their donations covered the cost of this important exercise in internal ...
'A British equivalent of Barack Obama would find it extremely difficult to become prime minister' - that's according to Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Is he right? Mr Phillips said: "If Barack Obama had lived here I would be very surprised if even somebody as brilliant as him would have been able to break through the institutional stranglehold that there is on power within the Labour Party." Not surprisingly we've seen the Labour machine wheel out their ethnic minority MPs and members to refute this claim, pointing out that they have many BME PPCs selected ...
I want to congratulate Ros for winning the Party Presidential elections with a convincing result. I know that Ros will continue to work as hard for the Party as she did in her campaign. Its also a Good Thing to have the second female Party President since I joined the Lib Dems 11 years ago. Commiserations to Lembit - who has contributed enormously to the Party over many years, and to relative newcomer- Chandila. I'm sure we'll be hearing more of him in the coming years.
That's the question after Ros Scott's landslide victory in the race to become party president. Lembit is, without doubt, one of the party's stars: he has charisma, a sense of humour, a strong liberal streak, and is a terrific speaker. And yet somehow all that talent, all that energy, seems to be channelled in an [...]
Iain Dale thinks he will....I hope he won't but will look at the vote; look at what people were saying with their votes and become a better politician for it. Meanwhile, Chandila Fernando has said on Liberal Democrat Voice basically that he was vindicated despite merely receiving 6% of the vote; "Internationally, this week we have seen a triumph of liberal democracy in America. "But here, barely, half of our own members voted in the election for Liberal Democrat Party President. And our membership is now the lowest it has been in any of our lifetimes. "In the early hours ...
Chandila Fernando, who came third in the contest for Lib Dem party president, attracting almost 1,800 votes (6%), issued the following response shortly after it was anounced that Baroness Ros Scott had won the all-member ballot: Congratulations to Ros on her victory. Internationally, this week we have seen a triumph of liberal democracy in America. [...]
Congratulations to Ros Scott, new president-elect of the Liberal Democrats with a surprisingly comfortable victory, securing well over two thirds of all votes cast and more than three times the number of her nearest rival. Congratulations to Lembit, too, as for the first time he avoided coming last in a presidential election. And in the spirit of brotherly love, congratulations to Chandila for standing and having something interesting to say, even if I don't agree with very much of it. This election certainly has some interesting lessons, some of which James Graham has touched on just before I shamelessly stole ...
General Laurent Nkunda leads the Tutsi rebels in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is always ready to invite the media to interview him and he presents himself very well. He presents himself as a Freedom fighter. He explains what he is doing and why. He says he is trying to protect the Tutsi minorities. This is not some ridiculous claim he is making. What was left of the Hutu extremist militias that fled Rwanda in 1994 still exists in the Kivu provinces today. The FDLR is a militia in North and South Kivu that commits ethnic ...
Well, I'm not going to pretend that the Lib Dem Voice members' surveys predicted the outcome of the party presidential race within a statistical margin of error. But it is interesting to see - in the first test of the surveys in an internal election - that they were reflective of how the wider membership [...]
Delighted at Ros Scott's victory today in the Liberal Democrat Presidential campaign. The votes were as follows : Ros Scott 20,736 votes (72%)Lembit Opik 6,247 votes (22%)Chandila Fernando 1,799 votes (6%) Ros takes over as Party President on 1st January 2009 and I've no doubt she'll be a super, dynamic President of the Party.
Incidentally, sorry for the light blogging today people but I was at Leeds Central AGM which was a very productive meeting (you can always tell the ones that are because they run up against time). In any case, your's truly was elected to serve in the role of Membership Development so we will see if Oranjepan was right and a 'spark' such as myself can be useful... To the business of this post; the latest ICM poll for the Sunday Telegraph caught my eye. It wasn't so much the headline figures but this that was eye-catching; "In another boost for ...
Although I supported Ros Scott for President, I did not foresee a result such as the one that was announced half an hour ago. In fact when I was asked by a journalist yesterday I said I had no idea how things were going but had the feeling that Lembit might just sneak it. How wrong can you be: The result is as follows: Ros Scott: 20,736 votes (72%) Lembit Opik: 6247 votes (22%) Chandila Fernando 1799 votes (6%)
What is interesting about STV elections is that you find out voters subsequent preferences. The full result for Forth is here The Scottish Socialist Party vote went a third green and only 3 votes to Solidarity whereas Solidarity went independent. The Lib Dem votes went first non-transferable, then tory then Labour then SNP. The tory votes went mainly-non transferable, but more than half
I was rather irritated this morning to read this article on the Guardian website which, apart from ignoring whole aspects of the internet campaigning (about which I may blog later, but may not), included this sentence: A more colourful Lib Dem, Lembit Opik, has been using Facebook in his bid for the party leadership. Even leaving aside the fact that Lembit was standing for president, not leader, to even think of writing that sentence exposes you as a hack journalist who doesn't really know what he is talking about. Because in this election, as with the Obama triumph, Facebook was ...
Congratulations to Ros Scott on her Landslide victory to becoming Party President. She won 72% of the vote against Lembit's 22% and Fernando's 6%. I think it's a victory well deserved. Ros Scott has been working incredibly hard towards this. She's shown understanding of members and has shown how she has what we need for Party President. She is a very motivating and friendly person and my hope is that she will be able to motivate members across the country. I did struggle at first with my decision between Lembit Opik and Ros Scott. I think Ros benefited from beginning ...
Thanks to Duncan on Twiiter and Helen on LDV, the results of the party presidential election are known:Ros Scott: 20,736 votes (72%) Lembit Opik: 6247 votes (22%) Chandila Fernando 1799 votes (6%)72%? Seventy Two Percent! Holy Cthulhu that's a mandate and a half! What a great result! YAY!!! And lo, there was squee in the House of SB. Congrats to El Presidente, and to all involved in the campaign. And commiserations to Lembit and Chandila.
Ros Scott, I would like to congratulate her on winning the position. She had an excellent campaign and she I think deserves to win. I was backing Lembit Opik but in life you cant get everything you want so I wish Ros Scott the best in her work as party president and look forward to hearing from her work as the president and to meeting her in the coming two years. The results were as followed: Ros Scott 20,736 votes (72%) Lembit Opik 6,247 votes (22%) Chandila Fernando 1,799 votes (6%) Turnout: 47.8% (+0.4% on last time)
I am finally at liberty to reveal that friend and colleague Richard Wilson, Lib Dem councillor for Stroud Green, now has a website about his work as a local councillor. Richard is deputy leader of our council group, and his very smart new site can be found here....
Wow! I wasn't expecting it to be that overwhelming. Ros Scott has been elected as Lib Dem President with a highly impressive 72% of the vote, with Lembit Opik getting just 22% and Chandila Fernando 6%. Full figures are: Ros Scott: 20,736 votes (72%) Lembit Opik: 6247 votes (22%) Chandila Fernando 1799 votes (6%). This is a stunning result for Ros and is thoroughly deserved following an excellent and positive campaign. Like President-elect Obama, Ros had a very impressive grassroots campaign and I think people really warmed to her over the past year or so. It was thought that the ...
The result is over here at Liberal Democrat Voice. Ros won an overwhelming majority (72%) of the vote and this is the totally correct decision in the eyes of this author so congratulations to the Liberal Democrat's in making the right choice...
My friend Brilliant Pongo from my time at the University of Wolverhampton is the centre piece of the BBC News story 'I have hope for Zimbabwe's future' and therefore I thought I would post a link to this story.
I'm at Cowley Street, at the election count for the next President of the Liberal Democrats. The count has just been completed and the result is as follows: Ros Scott: 20,736 votes (72%) Lembit Opik: 6247 votes (22%) Chandila Fernando 1799 votes (6%) Commenting, the new Liberal Democrat Party President, Ros Scott said: I'm really proud to belong to a Party [...]
A Labour councillor, Isidoros Diakides (Tottenham Green), has resigned from the NDC board that is pushing for the hugely controversial development at Wards Corner in Tottenham. For more information, the local campaign to save the site from a totally inappropriate development has a website here. Cllr Diakides has written a lengthy letter of resignation, which contained some very damning criticism of the NDC: "I feel very strongly that the organisation has seriously mishandled the particular issue of the Wards Corner redevelopment and, for an organisation that had begun its life as "resident-led", it has treated with indifference, if not outright ...
The BNP have delivered a third leaflet in the North Road by-election: two more than either Labour or the Conservatives. This one gives me a mention. Apparently, "Mike Barker, the Lib Dem Councillor for North Road, said he is against BNP policies." What I actually said to the BNP guys who struck up a conversation with me when we were both out delivering last week was, "I think BNP policies are
Al-Qaeda have issued a relatively mild statement, but their supporters think he will be little different to his predeccessors: Very few online al-Qaeda sympathisers have expressed any optimism that US policies will change under the future President Obama. "We are not interested in who's won because they all follow the same strategy which is a war against Islam and Muslims," says one. "Muslims in Waziristan, Pakistan and Afghanistan must brace themselves," says another. "Obama's dogs will be preparing to fight you even harder soon." Maybe so, but at least they'll be hypo-allergenic.
OK, it's not quite as epic a victory as his election as President, but he topped my poll to find out people's views of the best US Presidential election campaign. And in many ways it's a deserved victory. In fundraising, organisation and grassroots involvement, Obama's campaign was head and shoulders above anything else in recent US history. I'm slightly surprised that nobody voted for JFK in 1960, as he seems to have created the same sort of excitement that Obama has this year. He also had to battle prejudice as well, with many people not wanting to vote for him ...
One of my last duties as Chair of the Executive Committee of Epping Forest Liberal Democrats was to chair the Annual General Meeting last night. After the branch meetings Peter Welch, number 4 on the East of England Lib Dem list, spoke to our members about what we can learn from the Obama campaign. Peter's message was clear. If we don't learn from these campaign techniques and the Conservatives
Spent the morning in the town centre with Hilary (our local PPC) Janet (Lib Dem Council group leader) Jim (chair of our newly-formed local branch) and Mat, getting people to sign our petition and fill in our questionnaire about local issues. We also had a bit of a moment of suppressed glee when we realised that the Brighouse war memorial service was taking place at the other side of the square (why was it not at the war memorial in the grounds of the library? And why was it not tomorrow? No idea) and all the local "dignitaries", Tories to ...
I think I have discovered the authentic voice of backbench Conservatism in the shape of the Member for Rugby and Kenilworth. The other day Wright appeared to be favouring a compulsory national DNA database. Here he is speaking in the Commons on Thursday: I agree with the Minister that one of the best ways of dealing with crime is to intervene early, before any unlawful behaviour has even been thought about.I think he was speaking up for voluntary work with young people, but Jeremy Wright is clearly one to watch.
Presidential Election count Originally uploaded by duncanborrowmanHere is a photo from inside the Liberal Democrat Presidential Election count. Watch my Twitter feed on this blog or my Facebook profile at 3pm for the result.
{Andrew Smith, Caroline Macaulay, Delilah Macaulay-Smith and Lynne Featherstone} Hurrah! Bureaucracy at Haringey Council triumphed over - for one local family. The Macaulays had to move into temporary accommodation in Finchley after a coach crash demolished large parts of their home. They wanted to apply to send their child to a local school but no, said Haringey, you're not living locally. After months of correspondence, Haringey Council finally saw sense - and agreed that yes, if you have been forced out of your home to live somewhere else whilst it is rebuilt, then you can still apply for a local ...
Forget Barack Obama: he only has two wars and a global economic crisis to contend with. Think of Martin Taylor-Smith: he has just got himself elected to Britain's most dysfunctional local authority.
Mayor Boris Johnson's new transport strategy has been unveiled. As expected it has measures to support cycling and clear street clutter, both approaches long advocated by Liberal Democrats. I've been lobbying TfL to clear the clutter from their routes in Islington for years. But it's not all good news: and the strategy is attracting more controversy [...]
I can go further with this metaphor. In the real world, what you have is 2 'brands of washing powder' that have subtly different amounts of 'Chemical A' and 'Chemical B' - Chemical B protects the fabrics but fails to clean and, of course, tends to turn everything a slightly manky grey colour after a while. 'Chemical A' cleans very well, but it is harsh and abrasive, destroying the fabrics while leaving the colours intact. No-one's really happy with the choice they have. Whether you pick brand a or brand b, your clothes, in the end, lose their colour and ...
{(James Glossop/The Times)} (James Glossop/The Times) There is something about Alex Salmond I could never tire of slapping, if only he were within arm's reach. During 2007, this blog would frequently scandalise nationalists by mocking Salmond's habit of waving claymores over his head to commemorate this or that historical defeat of Scotland in battle. But this photo (right) just takes the biscuit. It isn't simply that, under the circumstances, "no they couldn't," it is the sheer gall of a narrow nationalist attempting to borrow the fairy dust off a post-racial candidate whose key call to arms was about unity, not ...
So imagine there's two brands of washing powder. One uses chemical A, which gets great results but destroys clothing made from weaker, more delicate material. The other brand uses chemical B, which washes clothes safely, even the most delicate fabrics, but it doesn't get things very clean. Not a brilliant choice really. There's clearly a market for a washing power that washes things well without damaging clothing. So a third brand appears. It uses Chemical B, but adds a tiny bit of Chemical A so that it gets slightly better results, but also damages slightly more clothes. The people who ...
Trevor Phillips thinks it is: The public in this country would, he believes, embrace a black leader but the system would prevent it happening. "Here, the problem is not the electorate, the problem is the machine." It was no coincidence that there were only 15 ethnic-minority MPs, he said. "The parties and the unions and the think-tanks are all very happy to sign up to the general idea of advancing the cause of minorities but in practice they would like somebody else to do the business. It's institutional racism." I actually disagree with Trevor Phillips in as much as I ...
The results of the election for president of the Lib Dems will be announced today, at c.3pm, and Lib Dem Voice's Helen Duffett will be reporting back live from the count. A reminder, as if you needed one, of the three candidates standing for the post: >> Chandila Fernando >> Lembit Opik >> Ros Scott If you're interested in [...]
Thanks to the diligence of the Daily Telegraph (Barack Obama: the 50 facts you might not know) we are aware that the President-Elect (1) has visited the UK at least once. Specifically "He visited Wokingham, Berks, in 1996 for the stag party of his half-sister's fiancé, but left when a stripper arrived". Would his candidacy have survived a YouTube moment of that event if he hadn't in fact left? We can only wonder at his forward campaign planning. And yes I did notice Obama is left-handed. So I believe is Senator McCain, or so I surmised from seeing how they ...
Reading the percentage of exclusions and suspensions that were due to SEN or behavioural difficulties in primary school children led me to investigate the problem further. As current SEN Governor and child protection Governor from next year I hope to further understand the complex issues that prevent some children from achieving in the classroom. According to the BBC there were ten suspensions of five year olds for bullying, 20 for sexual misconduct and 1,000 suspensions of under fives for persistent disruptive behaviour. Whether this shocking behaviour was investigated by social services following their suspension remains a mystery. Another way of ...
Lib Dem Voice has mentioned before the distinct lack of liberal commentary in the mainstream media; but we do of course have many Lib Dems who contribute with varying degrees of regularity to national newspapers and magazines. Whenever these appear, LDV is delighted to link to them: simply drop us a line at voice - [...]
So what is really going on with the One Wales agreement? Is it in trouble as Martin Shipton surmises today or are Plaid Cymru just turning the screw a bit harder so as to get Labour to play ball? I wrote earlier this week about the tensions that currently exist within the coalition government and amongst the governing parties, now that dialogue has spilt out into the dead tree press. The Western Mail tells us that concern is mounting within the National Assembly's junior partner of government that Labour is not keeping to the spirit of the agreement in two ...
Was interested in the latest blog by Liberal England Was out last night with a few other gayers - the usual monthly restaurant outing with other 30/40 somethings. The discussion came to the state of the nations finances and I have to say it totally depresses me how we have come to the point where people [...]
In the November edition of the Total Politics magazine the Conservative and Liberal Democrats websites are commented on but the grades that are given I don't think are satisfactory. The Tory website is given a C- yet clearly crap like that should be ungraded, maybe it does look swanky but it isn't easily laid out and it is basically like a rubbish bin tipped over. The Lib Dems site is given a D and clearly not because I am a Lib Dem but otherwise people would prefer to use the Lib Dem site then the Conservative one. The Lib Dem ...
In these `dead duck days` of the dying Bush presidency one thing that the UK can push for with the new Government is for the scaling down of the `Department of Homeland Security`. The `welcome` one receives at US airports is pretty dire and hardly an incentive to return. The one thing that can be done [...]
The Lib Dem presidential results are going to be announce today and it is looking very interesting. But we wait and see who becomes the president, I will try and get the results as soon as possible but the place that will get them first will be LibDemVoice most likely!
Local MP Lynne Featherstone was in one of our primary schools in Highgate this week - Highgate Primary on North Hill. It's her old school, no less. She went to a painting class, where the children are working up their entries for her Christmas card competition (see pic). Having a competition to design her Christmas card is something Lynne does every year with local schools. Lynne used to have her own design business, so I think she loves it:. "This year the theme is 'I'm dreaming of a green Christmas' as pupils are giving their interpretation of recycling at Christmas. ...
The Cult of Cable just continues to grow. Writing in the Spectator, Lesley Beresford describes public reaction to the recession: We regressed to childhood, and became incapable of accepting responsibility for our actions. We looked to parliament, in loco parentis, to clear up our mess (and to the likes of Vince Cable who, in his role as the voice of reason, became in our national, collective transference the kindly uncle who looks out for you).
In last week's House Points I wrote about home office questions. One thing I did not have space to write about was a question from Jeremy Wright, the Tory MP for Rugby and Kenilworth: Does the Minister agree that if there is a good argument for the retention of DNA samples in the circumstances that we are describing, it would be far better for the Government to make the argument for a comprehensive DNA database straightforwardly to the House and the wider public, so that we could debate the merits of the proposal?Last year I wrote that "'Calling for a ...
I am fully supporting Bath MP Don Foster who has joined calls for local authorities to use the powers given to them be the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 to address fly-tipping and punish those responsible for it. A major campaign has been launched by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and its President Bill Bryson. Don said, "Fly-tipping blights the whole...
With Polls closed in the Liberal Democrat Presidential Election, the opinion poll on www.colin-ross.org.uk predicts that Baroness Ros Scott will win. The results are below.
After a busy day of London engagements yesterday, I was able to board a much-delayed Oxford Tube bus for this year's Philip Geddes Memorial function at my old college, St Edmund Hall, Oxford. The speaker at the lecture on 'Whither journalism? The future of the press and new media' was Lionel Barber, Editor of the Financial [...]
