Full-story on Benedict Brogan's blog...as he rightly concludes; "How will you pay for it is now the most important question." For more see below...
I will say not more today than share what I saw. Amongst all the wreaths laid at the Cenotaph at Stockton a small girl placed a little basket of poppies. Her daddy had been killed in Afghanistan last year. We remember. We give thanks. We must learn too.
Despite what I said below, Iain Dale is being a bit of an arse in his post about prisoners voting rights. Quite apart from the pointless mischaracterisation of Lib Dem policy (he seems to imply that the Lib Dems want the judges to force prisoner voting rights on the UK), he seems to be oblivious of the concept of how a democracy works. First - any democracy needs to have a judiciary whose role is to make sure that the constitution is complied with. In the US that job is much easier because there is a written constitution and a ...
I voted for Lembit in the Party Presidential Election. I thought he'd be a great guy to run the Party - enthusiastic, able, interesting. Sadly, Ros Scott won, and Lembit probably has to wait another few years for another go (if he wants one!) and I get a little depressed. I think, though, that it was more interesting about what Chandilla Fernando said in his loser's letter to Voice. He said: 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 ...
So much has been written about the US Presidential election, about the candidates and the challenges that the winner faces, that it seems futile to add anything. But... having just spent a week in Maryland, I feel I should recount my impressions of the campaign and what I saw. I will try and avoid what has already been written, although it will be difficult not to repeat what someone, somewhere has already said. I must give a word of warning. This is based on the experience of one person with his own take on life. My conclusions might be wrong ...
Dale is right that it is ridiculous to cheapen the concept of democracy by having celebrities sitting in our legislatures simply because of how many photos they have in Hello! (And Mark Pack is also right that it is stupid to give people lottery tickets for voting. We need to make voting something people actually want to do.)
I'm impressed by the enterprising chap at Liberty who spent his Sunday trawling the internet looking for posts against the Government's plans for 42 days' detention to plug this new Liberty site in which writers comment movingly on those plans. Do go and take a look at it and pass the message on. LibDig This!
Thanks to Simon Titley for alerting me to the fact that, according to Alexa, Liberal England is the third most popular Liberal Democrat website, behind only Lib Dem Voice and the official party website. I have no idea how Alexa calculates this, but I am not going to argue with them.
A correspondent has been looking at the internal party election results recorded on Colin Rosenstiel's website and working out what they tell us about changes in the Liberal Democrats' membership over the years. Party membership, based on the number of ballot papers issued in each leadership and presidential election, has been as follows: 2008 (presidential): 60,357 2007 (leadership): 64,713 2006 (leadership): 72,064 2004 (presidential): 72,868 1999 (leadership): 82,827 1994 (presidential): 101,091 1992 (presidential): 101,768 1990 (presidential): 82,455 1988 (presidential): 80,071 1988 (leadership): 80,104 Between 2006 and 2007, the loss was 10.2%. Between 2007 and 2008, the loss was 6.7%. And ...
After all my excitement from what Obama has been saying and how he has now won. The fear that he won't deliver our hopes came upon me. He's said some really radical things. In Berlin he spoke of making peace free of nuclear weapons and he spoke of paying attention to forgotten countries (Burma, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Darfur). He's spoken of increased spending in Healthcare and Education, which America so desperately needs. It is a great injustice that such a rich country should leave those without health insurance to die. He has of course spoken of a much better foreign policy. ...
David Cameron in the News of the World today had a pop at Brown/Darling and their international travel to discuss economic matters: People need help . . . and they need it fast. They want to know politicians are on their side—not the other side of the world. But on the very same day that David Cameron [...]
We've seen numerous examples of everything that Vince proposes being copied by the Government - a rapid example was the suspension of short selling introduced days after Vince suggested. This weekend the Government is flying the idea of delivering big tax cuts for those who are struggling. It took them a while to read Make it Happen, didn't it? Why doesn't Brown just sack Darling, offer Vince the chancellorship and cut out the middle man? While mentioning Vince, I'm pleased to plug his visit to Ealing to preside over our fundraising auction and answer our questions. Details are here. If ...
A senior Rwandan politician has been arrested in Germany in connection with the murder of President Habyarimana. That was the murder on 6th April 1994 which triggered the Rwandan Genocide. The politician has been arrested as a French judge issued an arrest warrant to several Rwandan politicians, including President Kagame. This is all very unreasonable. It cannot be fully known whether Hutu extremists shot the plane down to stop a peace deal and to have an excuse for a genocide. Or whether the RPF shot it down. There are even some sources that suggest it was the French, which I ...
Polina Andrejevna: Our time is passing. Arkadina: What can we do? -- ANTON CHEKHOV, THE SEAGULL After nine years in office, Helen Clark's Labour government has been defeated. The centre-right bloc, led by John Key of the National Party, won 65 seats in the 122 - member parliament. I have been feeling a bit sad about the result. That is more than a little surprising, given that I have not been involved with the NZ Labour Party for many, many years now and am seldom sentimental about it. Perhaps it's the old ties that bind. I went to my first ...
Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are
According to The Monty Python Alter-Ego Generator, I'm a lumberjack. What are you?
Political betting has got an interesting post about the odds on who will be the next mayor of London. They are many people who are in that list but they are some who have been given interesting odds. Of Course the current Mayor had to be given an odd which I think is reasonable at 5/6. An interesting set of odds is on Ken Livingston who is near enough retired from active politics now especially with the defeat he took against Boris Johnson and then his age. He is past retirement and I think he will pack it in and ...
The President-elect posted on the US left-leaning Daily Kos a few years ago. Tone, truth and the Democratic party gives an interesting insight into his approach.
This post is being typed up by my charming assistant who married me less than 14 days ago and ALREADY I'm in hospital. Seriously though - the medics are concerned that I may have a pulmonary embolisim and are keeping me in overnight for observation before tomorrow's tests. Back soon I hope. The wife types - he should have worn his socks!!!
Related to my previous post, I was a little disappointed by this article, which promised so much yet failed to deliver. The last time the Democrats controlled the White House and both houses of Congress, Gillian Anderson wore pants. There were two Star Trek series at once, which promoted women and minorities and looked at the dark side of the Federation. Cyberpunk reigned supreme. The future was a shiny place — but with dread lurking just beneath its polish. Now that the Democrats have finally scored another grand slam, are we going to see the return of sunny-but-questioning science fiction? ...
{Appearing on Radio 4's The Westminster Hour with Carolyn Quinn} I'm back on The Westminster Hour tonight (Sunday): Radio 4, 10pm. If you miss the show you'll be able to listen again on their website. If you want to get advanced notice of my media appearances like this one, you can use the media events service at Flock Together. You've got three choices: Using this feed: or By email: register at FlockTogether and pick "Media appearances" as one of the categories of events you want to be emailed about. (If you are an existing Flock Together user you can ...
I figured that Remembrance Sunday was an appropriate time for a Blackadder Goes Forth Marathon. And we just had the best line of the whole series:Edmund: I asked you if your clever boyfriend had been to one of the three great universities: Oxford, Cambridge, or Hull. You failed to spot that only two of those are great universities Melchett: Yes, that's right, Oxford's a complete hole!Hull is a world-beating university now, of course, but it wasn't founded until 1927. But that doesn't stop Hull students and alumni loving that line ;) Going to watch Goodbyee now. Might involve copious weeping ...
Yesterday I went to see the Molly Dineen Interview at Sheffield Doc/Fest. I've been a bit of a fan of her films ever since I saw The Heart of the Angel and The Lord's Tale and so this was a great chance to find out more about her other work, and about Molly Dineen herself [...]
This year, for the first time for a lot of years, a wreath was laid at Preston war memorial on behalf of the Borough and it was my privilege as a ward councillor to lay it. It was the first time I'd been to the service there as my more usual venue for remembrance is at Egglescliffe or representing the Liberal Democrat Group in Stockton centre. During the church service leading up to the Act of
It's been an odd week to be 1,750 kilometres from home. (I got that number from the taxi driver who drove me to the station to begin my trek home, so don't quote me on it). I watched the news of Obama's victory come through on BBC Mobile in a bunk on a sleeper train from Paris to Munich. I cried. It felt weird having no-one to share that joy with - until the opening reception at the conference, where one of the delegates was wearing an Obama T-shirt, and suddenly everyone seemed to be crowding round to congratulate her. ...
Went to lay a wreath at Wood Green this morning. It never, never fails to make me cry. That's the point - to remember - forever.
I've been meaning to write a post about the upcoming Watchmen film and comic book films for ages. Having just read the first chapter of Dave Gibbons' memoir of his experiences drawing the comic, Watching the Watchmen, I've finally decided to put finger to keyboard. For a lot of us avid comic book fans, especially those of us who were weaned on Alan Moore's work in the 80s, this is an extremely anxious period for us. We have experienced the utter awfulness of From Hell and League of Gentlemen. Then we had V for Vendetta, a film that was actually ...
Running up to the next election, Labour are going to lay a number of charges against us, some of which will attempt to paint our Party as being 'soft' on issues of safety and security. They have consistently tried to push this and at the forefront of their strategy will be the charge that our Party has no coherent strategy to tackle radicalisation and extremism. Having had the opportunity to work on PREVENT programmes with various Government departments, I know the vast amounts of work that are being undertaken on this agenda and with new and innovative thinking playing a ...
... to all the clubs they are now beating. Man City are the latest victims (though it sounds like they were the architects of their own undoing).
HBOS staff and customers are bound to be outraged by this display of corporate opulence reported in today's News of the World. Basically HBOS organised an event for its "star performers" which involved using three of the nicest hotels in Edinburgh for a weekend of revelling. Comedian Patrick Kielty was on hand to provide entertainment, as if the good food and free booze wasn't enough, which often involved poking fun at those who are facing losing their homes. The cost for his act was quoted as £20,000. This is a PR disaster for HBOS at and shows how little the ...
Odd - I tried to use SMS to LJ to post that I was on my way to Budapest, but it seems it didn't work. Ah well. I guess I didn't worry anyone too badly with my absence or I'd have a text or an e-mail from them. So, Budapest: I was there for the Public Interest Law Institute's second annual pro bono conference. It was well worth it for the insight it brought into the different cultures of legal aid and pro bono across Europe (and they differ more than you might think). The highlight for me was dinner ...
Now that all the elections are over, there's now time to report on some of the dafter stories in today's newspapers. I was particularly amused by this one which tells how a University academic has been given £5000 to determine the benefits of computer games to children. Apparently some kids will be split into groups and some will be given exercises from the Wii while others will go about their normal lunchtime activities. Allow me to hazard a guess as to the conclusions of this research: If "normal lunchtime activities" involve stuffing their faces with chips and reading the Beano, ...
This is what Iain Dale has said about Sayeeda Warsi: She's becoming an increasingly impressive speaker and media performer. She's not afraid to call a spade a spade and isn't afraid to make a mistake. That might sound an odd thing to say but too often our politicians play safe for fear of upsetting anyone. Those who do that cannot hope to make any sort of real difference to the lives of the people they represent. I get so sick of politicians who think blogging is a risky business. They are the same sort of people who will go on ...
I laid the wreath on behalf of the Mayor at this morning's Remembrance Day service in Chessington. This event is organised every year by the local British Legion. The two minute's silence is observed around the memorial on the wall of the British Legion Club in Church Lane in the presence of ex-servicemen, current serving members of the armed forces, police and uniformed youth...
A group of Conservative and Labour bloggers are attacking each other on their blogs and this is going to lead towards a blog war in which they will be attacking each other on the blog sphere and it is over one issue that does need to be raised. A blog by the name of Tory Party is operating on the Internet but despite the name it is actually slandering the Conservative party and people like Dizzy are pointing the finger at Labour members. It is all well and good that he has according to what he says found out but ...
For the next few weeks, South Glos Council's Street Cleansing Team are suspending their routine sweeping programme to concentrate on clearing leaf fall. If you are concerned about an area with high levels of leaf fall please contact the Streetcare help desk - email streetcare@southglos.gov.uk or phone 01454 868000.
As usual I took photos of the parade from the VIP stand. This really is not such a good location to take photos. There may be other photos on the web later. Previous years: 2005 2006 2007 The parade is gathered. Then the wreath layers come out of the Rep. The Colour bearers gather outside the Hall of Remembrance The service is run from the Hall of Remembrance A volley of shots is
Another in my mini-series (see here and here) of snippets from the Communities in Control White Paper that haven't had the attention and debate that perhaps they should have had. This time, directly-elected Mayors: We want to make it easier for people to demand that their local leaders move to establishing a directly-elected mayor through a [...]
I have finally woke up a bit and have updated www.colin-ross.org.uk with some news from the states, I hope to add photos in the next couple of days but can only do so when I get back to Wolverhampton.
With Obama's electoral victory earlier this week, he now has to begin to think about his new administration, which will take office in approximately 70days, or to be precise at 12.00 Eastern Standard Time, on 20th January 2009. Now unlike the Westminster system where the cabinet members start when they are appointed America's presidential system requires that all cabinet members are confirmed by the Senate. Now obviously this shouldn't be too much of a problem come January but it still means that President Obama will be Cabinet less for quite some time. There are currently 16 Cabinet Secretaries, and although ...
Lisa Pontecorvo's memorial service will be held next Friday, 14 November. Notice details as follows: An event to celebrate the life and work of Lisa Pontecorvo An enthusiastic member of the community who worked tirelessly to develop Edward Square. This event will commemorate the work that Lisa did. Friday 14 November Edward Square From 2pm onwards Come along and listen to some of [...]
Joe Calzaghe's victory last night was well-deserved and a source of pride for Wales. It has been really heartening to see Welsh Sportsmen and women do so well this year. However, I am not so sure about Calzaghe's next venture. According to the Sunday Mirror, the 37 year old Welsh boxing champion is joining with the Stereophonics to record a track in the hope of making it to the Christmas number one in the pop charts. Joe will have competition though. Mancunian Ricky "The Hitman" Hatton has joined with Oasis brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher to help him claim the ...
This morning I attended the Remembrance Sunday service at Prestwich Congregational Church, and then joined the parade to the war memorial. At 11am we stood for two minutes of silence, and then I joined other local Councillors, representatives of the Police, Royal British Legion, community groups, and cadets in laying a wreath. Mine was from Cllr Donal O'Hanlon, Cllr Mary D'Albert and me on behalf of the people of St Mary's Ward, to remember the incredible sacrifices that have been made, and continued to be made, by those seeking to defend our country. There are two things about today that ...
The Conservatives are all at sea on the economy (a sensation no doubt familiar to George Osborne); while the central problem with our message is that it isn't getting through the Conservatives is that they don't have a coherent one. Conservative Home reported last night that the Conservatives grass-roots, noticeably annoyed with Osborne, want the party to offer a tax cutting package; "68% of members want lower taxes. 57% want tax cuts funded by tighter spending control (also to be used to reduce borrowing) and 11% are content for lower taxes to be financed by higher borrowing." However, we can ...
Sun 9th
12:20
Never mind about Parliament, Hazel: what about actually giving real power to real people?
Forget Hazel Blears' ill-considered assault on 'nihilistic' blogging, in her speech to the Hansard Society this week: let's consider instead her attack on politicians who live on 'Planet Politics': ... there is a trend towards politics being seen as a career move rather than call to public service. Increasingly we have seen a 'transmission belt' from [...]
Much less important than the Lib Dem President Elect's new kitteh, but still newsworthy, is the fact that the newly-elected president in waiting over the water appears to be uniting the entire world in a multiracial joyfest. Because of his rich and diverse heritage, Obama is an embodied unification, not just of American ancestries, but of ethnicities across the world. F'r'instance, there's a town in Japan called Obama which is unfeasibly excited at his election. Nobody, however, is going to beat the joy of the Irish: I'm not going to mention that this was a joke done by Bruce Forsyth ...
Many congratulations to all those elected to the various LibDem party committees. In particular well done Linda Jack for being re-elected to the Federal Policy Committee. Well done David Rendel for being top of the poll for the Federal Executive and Gerald Vernon-Jackson for being second.
Workmen dismantling the Corkscrew rollercoaster rides at Alton Towers found a lost false leg. And a false ear.
Andrew Marr suggested this morning that the US/UK relationship under Barack Obama would not be "special" because Obama has "no links" to the UK like other US Presidents. What utter and complete twaddle! Obama's half sister, Auma, works for Wokingham Borough Council. His father and a big chunk of his family come from Kenya, which was, until 1963, British.
Many bloggers, myself included, have commented positively on the election of Ros Scott to party president-in-waiting. Apparently there is speculation that Lembit might leave politics over the result. I think this would be a shame, but I also think it's pretty unlikely, especially given his gracious concession. However, there are more important matters to consider. What should the presidential kitten be called? Clearly some reference to awesome female presidents is appropriate; I therefore humbly suggest that kitteh be named after the most awesome female president of all: Laura Roslin. AMIRITE, Y/Y?
It's not often a Democrat presidential candidate can say they won a electoral college vote in Nebraska. The state is deep red. Bill Clinton famously left it until the very end of his eight year Presidential tenure before he visited it. Maine and Nebraska are the only two US states that apportion their electoral college votes dependent on the proportion of votes cast for the candidates in each
Yesterday I joined a group of Liberal Democrats taking up the Nick Clegg Million Door Challenge in Wootton and Stewartby in Bedfordshire.
For Remembrance Sunday. Mstislav Rostropovich conducts the "Requiem aeternam" from Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, in a performance recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in 1993. The Britten-Pears Foundation website describes the genesis of the work: On the night of 14 November 1940 the burnt offering was Coventry Cathedral, victim of the Luftwaffe bombs.The circumstances of its destruction dictated that the festival in 1962 to mark the consecration of its successor would always have a distinct soberness in comparison to the celebratory atmosphere surrounding the completion of the new cathedral at Guildford the previous year.When Britten was asked to write a ...
Once again at this time of the year, my thoughts turn in particular to remembering my uncle, Alan Walter. He was just 18 when his ship, SS Tregarthen, was torpedoed on 6th June 1941. He was killed along with all other "hands". The ship was in convoy OB329 which consisted of 41 ships and left Liverpool Saturday 31st May 1941, the convoy dispersed Thursday 5th June and the "Tregarthen" was sunk
Dizzy Thinks has the story and evidence: I can reveal that this site has indeed been set-up by someone heavily linked with Derek Draper. Adrian McMenamin, a former Downing Street advisor and the man that headed up Labour's rapid rebuttal Excalibur system prior to 1997 appears to be behind the site. What's more, his attempts to [...]
I've discovered another reason the perennially unpopular Hazel Blears is rarely seen in Salford. It seems, that when she's not complaining that those outside the cabinet are allowed to have opinions, she's busy ignoring local people and their elected representatives in other towns and cities. Apparently Hazel would like other cities to adopt the [...]
I was at Cowley Street yesterday, reporting the Presidential Election result for Lib Dem Voice. It took a roomful of volunteers several hours to count the thousands of ballot papers. While it was clear from early on that Ros Scott's pile was the biggest, even Ros seemed surprised and was definitely moved when she saw just how large her vote had been. But there was one surprise still to come. In Ros's acceptance speech, she thanked her campaign team, paid tribute to Chandila Fernando, Lembit Öpik and Simon Hughes, before addressing her husband, Mark Valladares: "I started this campaign two ...
As I touched on in a previous post, there is much to debate in the Government's Communities in Control White Paper published over the summer, even if Hazel Blears' recent speech on the topic seemed to rather miss the opportunity. Here's another morsel: We will give local authorities the power to provide incentives for voting in local [...]
This morning I filled in and sent off my postal vote in the by-election in the Mile End East ward of Tower Hamlets where I live. I remember a time when it was almost impossible to get a postal vote unless you could prove that your work was taking you away. Making postal voting more generally available has [...]
If the Sunday Times is right then beleaguered students may have some good news next year. The paper reports on a speech by David Eastwood, the chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England in which he urges universities to dampen their expectations with regards to the current £3,145 cap on University Tuition Fees. Mr. Eastwood told HEFCE's annual general meeting in London, that it is "inconceivable that the cap will rise significantly before 2013." Because raising the cap would require students to take out bigger student loans, this could result in a considerable extra cost to the ...
I have today launched my November update to West End Community Council. Subjects covered include : • Riverside Avenue/Drive Roundabout • Union Place • Hogweed • Invergowrie Drive • Dog Bin : Seymour Street • Further Bus Service Concerns • Pavement adoption • West End Parking Update • West End Christmas Week 2008 • Airport Noise Complaints The Community Council meeting takes place this Tuesday at 7pm at Logie St John's (Cross) Church Hall. You can download a copy of the update by clicking on the headline above.
As the fairy dust settles on Obama's amazing victory, there is a parallel question of whether we could have a black (albeit Obama is mixed race) Prime Minister in Britain. I am sure we could - if someone of Obama's brilliance were to become a politician. I have no doubt s/he would have a chance of being in the frame for the top job. Problem we have is there are no black and ethnic minority members of Parliament that are a touch on Obama - nor are there any white ones either! He is exceptional.
The link is to the commissioner report about Birmingham Children's Hospital. A lot of the criticisms relate to short cuts by not having evening and weekend services and not having specialist teams. A few years ago concerns were raised about the tariff paid to childrens' hospitals. The consequences of these changes now seem clear.
I'm still feeling stunned. It's well over two years since I first "took soundings" about whether to run for Party President, and I've been campaigning pretty much constantly ever since. After coming off the front bench in May, I've worked full time on the campaign, and so its hard to get my head round the fact that it has finally reached a conclusion. Yesterday was, as you can imagine, quite a day. Despite the predictions of Lib Dem Voice, our own canvass data and the numbers of supporters on the website, I refused to believe that a win on that ...
Controversial plans for a 39 storey tower block at Old Street have been approved by Secretary of State Hazel Blears despite being turned down by Islington Council. As local Lib Dem councillor Ruth Polling says "the concerns of local people have been completely dismissed by the Labour minister, and now this 39-storey corporate identikit monstrosity [...]
We Shall Remember Them
ALDC's office will be closed on Friday 12 September, and Monday - Wednesday 15-17 September 2008 as staff will be at the Party Federal Conference in Bournemouth. We hope to see many members in Bournemouth. Our full programme of training, fringe events, advice and information is contained in the Local Government Directory here. Don't miss our Annual General Meeting on Sunday evening 20.00-21.15 in the Mayrick Suite of the BIC. Julia Goldsworthy is our guest speaker, and we're launching the new publciation the Theory and Practice of Community Economics. Members are also urged to join us at the Members Reception ...
I shall be in our great capital for a function on Wednesday the 19th inst; I have been offered a place to stay the night and will be travelling back to Yorkshire on the afternoon of Thursday the 20th. Anyone fancy doing a good old-fashioned pub lunch on the Thursday? I was considering the Marlborough Head, but apparently they've done it up and turned it into a gastropub and got rid of all the stuff that made it interesting, so all suggestions for a pub with good food and proper beer gratefully received. The Viaduct Tavern is very cool, but ...
Others may say it was the internet, or the hard work But I, sort of, disagree with both. I was never formally part of "Team Ros", though have nailed my colours firmly to the mast from the beginning. But today Grace and I were asked to be 2 of the 5 Ros counting agents overseeing the count on behalf of Ros. Given the margin of win it was not an onerous a task. This was the first, and only, role
Ummm... gosh... I'll admit to a degree of surprise at the result, which was way beyond my very conservative hopes. That said, I believe that it demonstrates what can happen if you combine a genuinely credible candidate with a great campaign team, a believable manifesto and a clear long-term strategy executed precisely and consistently. It doesn't always result in victory - life isn't fair like
