The latest quarterly donation reports show relatively modest donations from the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust to the Liberal Democrats (£8,725 in the third quarter of 2008), but via their website comes news that more money is on its way: Grants made in 2008 October 2008 Quarter Liberal Democrats £1,230,000 towards campaigning costs in the lead up to the next General Election allocated as follows: * £150,000 to support campaigns in key seats with women, black and minority ethnic candidates; * £700,000 towards the cost of campaign staff and literature; * £200,000 for election related training; * £180,000 to support voter ...
As many developers halt projects and tell their workers to lay down their tools due to the recession, it isn't surprising to learn that campaigners for social housing such as the National Housing Federation are calling on the Government to take urgent action. Today they called for a temporary ban on tenants buying their own social houses - seen as an individual financial boost and escape from poverty by Thatcher and now Brown. Governments have in the past sold this dream with the lie that the houses will be replaced equally with more social housing. When this didn't happen the ...
The day after the local press described how one of our local hospitals had lost a mass of patient data Norman Lamb MP revealed the full extent of the problems in the NHS with data as a result of investigations he's been doing. "We already know from the Information Commissioner that the NHS is among the worst offenders for data loss, reporting as many incidents as the entire private sector." What
Ifran Ahmed asks this question; was it simply that Conservatives got confused about which lobby they should be in?? Or was it simply that they didn't want the vote to end the debate as a commenter on Ifran's blog suggests?? Am I being stupid or would it not have been the case that the lobby division came at the end of the debate?? Surely a vote would have meant a longer debate?? Bang goes that theory. I rather think it has something to do with the story I blogged a couple of days back; about some Conservative MP's wanting tax-cuts ...
A super turnout of around 300 residents for the West End "Lights On at Dundee West" Christmas Concert and Lights Switch On and Fireworks Display tonight - here's a few photos from tonight! Above : Fraser - fake police officer for the night - the organisers had to wear fluorescent jackets! Above : A large attendance at the concert! Above : Fireworks! Above : Mains of Fintry Pipe Band play at the concert! Above : Another photo of the Pipe Band!
Despite - or rather, come to think of it, because of - my love for the original series in the 1970s, I did not watch the new version of Survivors. But there is a very good thread about it on Crooked Timber. It takes in the sociological significance of that original series, 1990 (so I am not the only person who remembers it) and John Wyndham.
Over the last week, Lib Dem Voice has invited the members of our private forum (open to all Lib Dem members) inviting them to take part in a survey, conducted via Liberty Research, asking a number of questions about the party and the current state of British politics. Many thanks to the 200+ of you who completed it; we're publishing the results this week on LDV. This month saw the announcement of the result of the all-member ballot to elect the next President of the Liberal Democrats: Baroness Ros Scott won, with a resounding 72% of the vote, and will ...
An important speech is being given about now. It's being delivered as part of the Barnardo's lectures by the children's charity's CEO Martin Narey in the Duke of Wellington hall in Westminster, and this is what he's saying: It saddens me that the probability is that had Baby P survived, given his own deprivation, he might [...]
Imagine an inquiry into an aspect of government policy. Would you have any confidence in that inquiry if its chairman called on critics of the policy to "put up or shut up" and challenged them "to come out from the woodwork"? You would have very little confidence at all. You would probably conclude that the chairman was a Labour hack. You might even worry about what was going on in the darker recesses of his mind. Rats and cockroaches live in the woodwork, don't they? Except that the person speaking in Phil Willis, Lib Dem MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough ...
I am asking the same question after reading a post by John Hemming MP, because for some reason the Conservatives and Labour parties both voted against letting the Commons vote on the new proposals in the PBR and if they should be implemented or not! The Tories asked for a debate and they got it. This would mean that they opposed the document otherwise they wouldn't need a debate, so why not vote on it. Has Cameron and crew gone soft and realised they aren't gonna win the next general election? I think Cameron has become a member of Brown's ...
Yes the man who since leaving office has made an estimated £12 million pound has become a donor to the Labour party and given them £7,500 in September 2008. You can read more by following the link.
Alistair Darling quoted Guido Fawkes in the pre budget report, no not the blogger Guido but the Guido that wanted to blow up Parliament. You can read more by following the link.
John Hemming reports on his blog, Confusion reigned in The House as the Conservatives decided to vote with Labour to ensure that there wasn't a vote on the Pre Budget Report. Personally I think they didn't know what was going on and will regret this in the future. Some came into the aye lobby and wandered out again. Technically there was a vote to have a vote 30 seconds before the end of the debate against which Labour and the Tories voted.
People across Greater Manchester are taking part in a referendum on congestion charging, and will be receiving their ballot papers in the next day or two. My mother has just gleefully announced that her's has arrived already. Mine is probably lost somewhere amidst the plethora of taxpayer-funded pro-charge literature being plastered across every flat surface in the north of England, but I am sure it will arrive soon enough. There are plenty of reasons why I will be voting "no," and I hope to be able to go through a few of them here in the coming days. Today's choice ...
I was pleased to be at the launch of the Bath Broadcasting company on Saturday at their new headquarters at 15 Cheap Street. The company prospectus offers Televison broadcast from Bath for Bath. Want to know more about this exciting new company then visit their Web site at: http://www.bathbroadcastingcompany.com/
Bath MP Don Foster has said that the Chancellor's pre-budget report will not help people that are most in need of assistance. The report contains a temporary cut in VAT which will only help big spenders, and a National Insurance hike. Don said, "What people in Bath who are struggling to make ends meet wanted to hear was help for them now. Instead we have a VAT decrease which does...
The New York Times has an interesting article, comparing the transition periods experienced by the most recent Vice Presidents to that Joe Biden is currently going through. The message is that Biden doesn't seem to have a defined role, contrasting sharply with Al Gore in 1992, and to an extent with Dick Cheney, who was always seen as a key adviser to Bush. Campaign officials have been (understandably) playing down any thoughts of Biden having a similar role to Cheney, seeking to avoid any comparison with the unpopular incumbent, although Obama Staffer Valerie Jarrett is quick to emphasise that Biden ...
The Institute for Fiscal Studies, a respected independent financial think-tank, has looked at the small print of Alistair Darling's pre-budget thinking. It has detected built-in £37bn cuts in frontline public services. This puts in the shade the £20bn which Labour falsely accuses us of intending to cut. Given the increased borrowing and these cuts, you would have thought that he would have made good use of the money. The Liberal Democrat verdict on the Labour Chancellor's Crisis budget is: a missed opportunity. He could have made tax fairer for everyone by cutting income tax for low and middle income people, ...
I thought I should write a quick follow-up to my previous post, since the BBC are reporting on a National Audit Office study that essentially says that terminally ill people and their families are being let down by failings in end of life care, and that while most people wanted to die at home, the majority ended their days in hospital. Whilst my previous post was focussed on assisted suicide, and the much smaller numbers of people who wanted to end their life to ease their suffering, it appears that terminally ill patients, and others with degenerative illnesses are being ...
The Mayor of London has launched a new scheme today, which could see £400k given out to ten parks across London. The two shortlisted for Lambeth are Kennington Park and Spring Gardens, both of which are well known to many ward residents. Kennington Park is within Oval ward and Spring Gardens just the other side of Kennington Lane. The link for the vote is: http://www.london.gov.uk/parksvote/ Of course, we are encouraging as many people to support our local parks so hope both of them get as many votes as possible. Feel free to pass this link on to your friends! More ...
Posted by Councillors Rob Banks, Faye Gray and Andrew Sawdon on Oval News
If you were to look very carefully at the back of my shaven head you would see two scars. One of this happened when I was three as I slid down the step outside Woolworths in Bangor as my grandfather was looking after me and my baby (at the time) brother. Well today Woolworths and MFI (upon how desks and surrounded by whose bookcases I prepared for the 2005 General Election) have both gone into administration. There was talk earlier in the day that the Government would wade in to bail out Woolworths but like an unlucky cricketer the edifice ...
Just to slip into a bit of local reporting for a second here; Total Politics has a feature on Leeds where the Liberal Democrats run the council in coalition with the Conservatives. At the end of this month the Liberal Democrat leader, Councillor Richard Brett hands over to his Conservative opposite number, Cllr Andrew Carter who will lead the council as part of the six-month rotation of the leadership. Carter says; "It works on a very cooperative basis. What the general public understand a lot better than national politicians is that local government people want to see sensible policies implemented ...
Three cheers for Hornsey firefighters! I had to call the fire brigade last night. Sitting in my lounge at about 10pm a terrible noise started. Difficult to describe - a bit like a pneumatic drill / burglar alarm - but worse. I went to open the front door to see where the noise was coming from and as the noise got louder - thought to myself it was in the street somewhere. Went back to the lounge and my younger daughter came down and I asked her if she could hear it. She could - and she went to front ...
Confusion reigned in The House as the Conservatives decided to vote with Labour to ensure that there wasn't a vote on the Pre Budget Report. Personally I think they didn't know what was going on and will regret this in the future. Some came into the aye lobby and wandered out again. Technically there was a vote to have a vote 30 seconds before the end of the debate against which Labour and
While we obsess over VATS VAT, over in Iraq their Parliament is shaping up to vote on the Status Of Forces Agreement. It is SOFA that gives the USA (and our own armed forces) legitimacy to operate in Iraq. The vote has now been postponed ( as at 26 Nov 2008) to Thursday 27th. And even if signed it now looks as if it is subject to confirmation by a national referendum in 2009. According to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki if Parliament does not ratify the agreement then there is no alternative plan on hold to permit US forces ...
Once upon a time, Wales was full of hope for the future. The narrowly won referendum on the creation of Assembly had ushered in a new period for Wales. The idea that 'never again' could an "English" Government wreak devastation across the country as they had in the eighties, provided the prospect of a bright future for Wales. Nearly ten years have now passed and Labour is approaching the half way point of its third term in office. The promised transformation of Welsh services and society has not yet come to pass. Wales is still the poorest nation of the ...
We have got into a whole heap of trouble by doing too much shopping funded by borrowing. So what is Brown & Co's plan to get us out of this hole? A marginal cut in the rate of VAT to encourage more shopping funded by more borrowing! You couldn't make it up. At least until now we as individuals have had the freedom to choose whether or not to live above our means. Monday's Pre-Budget Report nationalises this decision and removes our freedom to choose. It also proves beyond reasonable doubt that the government has little idea what's going on ...
A committee member of the Community Spirit recently mentioned to me his concerns about offensive graffiti daubed on the City Road boundary of the Friary. I reported this to the City Council's Waste Management Department and was pleased to learn today that the graffiti has been removed.
Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council is celebrating four more of its car parks receiving national awards for their safety, and offering motorists free parking after 2pm from Monday, December 1 till Christmas Eve at all long and short stay car parks across the Borough. The four receiving the Park Mark status are West Dyke Road, Redcar, Graffenburg Street, Redcar, Walkers Row, Guisborough and Dawson House, Redcar, bringing the total up to 13 for the Council. The Safer Parking Scheme is an initiative of the Associations of Chief Police Officers and the British Parking Association aimed at reducing crime and the ...
The latest figures from the Electoral Commission for donations to political parties and borrowing by parties are out today. It includes the claim that, "As at 30 September 2008, total borrowing stood at just over £31 million." As is now traditional, the Electoral Commission is in fact misreporting its own figures. As I wrote last time: You will find that this is actually the total figure for borrowing plus unused credit facilities. It's as if I had an unused credit card with a £500 limit that's never come out of the envelope and never been used, but you said, "Ah ...
Having shouted the loudest over the summer for someone (not me, you understand) to set up something like Lib Dig, it is inevitable that Lib Dem Voice would ask me to write a round up of the weekly digs. So here is my first attempt. For those who don't know, Lib Dig is a "social bookmarking" tool which allows Lib Dem members to share with other members (and the world) items on the internet that they feel deserve to get wider exposure. Each week I will highlight the best of the non-Lib Dem related interwebs out there, as voted by ...
Okay so, say I switched sides and decided I wanted to bring about Socialism in the UK. I'd say that doing it through democratic politics is probably a waste of time - people won't vote for it. What I'd do instead would be start an organisation that gives training to people in positions of power in the Government, the Public Sector and the Private Sector. Mainly people in non elected positions. Tell them that 'modern' leadership is about interdependence and working together - collectivism, basically. Have them agree to help other people who've been 'trained', thus putting together an organisation ...
On Sunday night I have a choice: spend a relaxing evening at home with a glass or two of a mellow red while catching up with a few tv programmes I've recorded - or go down to my business and spend the whole night re-calculating my prices and re-ticketing thousands of individual items, so that the Government can save the economy by allowing my customers to spend £5.18 instead of £5.29 on a bottle
Claire Rayner, the veteran agony aunt and LibDem supporter, has a letter in today's Guardian arguing that what Britain needs at this time of economic woe is Vince Cable as Prime Minister — now! This is, of course, something one hears increasingly regularly from ordinary voters who believe it is time to 'Move over, Darling' and [...]
Got the chance yesterday to ask a question in Parliament of the Government about equality impact assessments: Lynne Featherstone: I am keen for equality impact assessments to be effective, but I fear that in some cases they have been more about going through the motions. Can the Minister tell me what work is being done to assess the value and change that result from such assessments, and what extra resource she will provide under the new legislation to ensure that there is effectiveness, not just a tick-box approach? Vera Baird (Solicitor General, Law Officers' Department): We have been examining, in ...
Darling has carried on the trend of being Dooh Nibor a reverse Robin Hood that his predecessor had at the Treasury. Darling had made much that the poorest pay a greater percent of their income in VAT that the wealthiest. While this is true a bigger proportion of that is taken up by the VAT on fuel which at the 7.5% rate is already under the 15% VAT level, giving no benefit. An even greater proportion of their income also goes on zero rated necessities such as food again giving a negligible effect. The Financial Times is reporting that Robert ...
In the last of my posts relating to the economy and the Pre Budget Report I would like to see us reform the whole Tax and Benefits system - we don't often get a chance to do this - a global credit crunch/recession is the best opportunity we have had in a while.
A BNP leaflet was delivered in parts of Hook last weekend. I have been trying to decide whether to ignore it or to comment on it. I now think that by speaking out we may do something to stop its influence here before it takes hold. The problem is that the BNP is a legal political party, in spite of its origins in the National Front and other neo-Nazi movements. It is now, very...
Clegg's main question today to Brown was simple and broad: a Labour government had the opportunity in the Pre-Budget Report to make the tax system fairer. The Chancellor mentioned fairness eight times during his speech - why did they blow it? Brown replied in the usual vein, citing increases in the various hand-outs - child benefit, child tax credit, pensions etc - which Clegg then rightly identified as a "list rather than an answer". He also directly contradicted Clegg on the latter's assertion that the VAT cut would help big spenders rather than hard-pressed "families" (I can't bring myself to ...
Scrutiny Overview Committee The main topic of interest at this meeting was the review of the Council's Treasury arrangements in the light of the £5.5 million currently frozen in Heritable Bank plc - a UK subsidiary of the Icelandic bank Landsbanki. A review of the council's treasury arrangements had been carried out by Paul Rigg, an independent [...]
My not-quite favourite purveyor of customer non-support, Symantec (of Norton Anti-Virus etc.) has been sending out dodgy statistics in their latest press release. Naughty, naughty Symantec! Grrr, snarl.
Interesting speech yesterday from Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg to the Daycare Trust about the importance of male role models for children: I remember well when I first arrived at Westminster the strange looks I would get when I would miss a drink in the Commons bar so that I could put the kids to bed. For men wanting to actually work in the field, the social disapproval, even hostility, that they often feel is a huge deterrent ... Of those who have done it, some say the only way they were accepted was by being seen as 'honorary women', ...
I was so sad to hear yesterday about Neil Trafford dying in a car crash. Aside from being a Manchester Councillor, Neil was one of our regional organisers. We knew him well in Liverpool but he also helped right across the North West - and was actually very good at chivvying us up to do things. Neil will be really missed.
I expected PMQ's to be economy focused today and I wasn't disappointed. David Cameron unsurprisingly asked if there were plans to raise VAT to 18.5% in light of the Treasury gaffe. Brown retorted by trying to challenge Cameron on whether the Conservatives supported a cut in VAT, presumably trying to capitalise on potential divisions within the Tories. Ironically, Cameron didn't answer this question at all which proves both leaders can avoid questions they don't like. Cameron did not offer much in reply to Brown's challenge other than repeating his call for a freeze in council tax. He did say that ...
From the Mirror: Olympics minister Tessa Jowell has spent over £40,000 of taxpayers' cash refurbishing a second office. The Mirror revealed weeks ago how she has earned herself the nickname of Two Desks because she works from two different bases. But the full cost of her extravagance has now been revealed in a written Parliamentary answer... It is the fifth time in six years that Ms Jowell has had an office decorated. Lib Dem Don Foster said: "Tessa Jowell's fondness for office design has been widely documented and the huge amount of public money being wasted here demonstrates how profligate ...
This week Liberal Democrat Voice is running a series of articles from Tim Leunig about the economy - how we got here and what we should do next. So far the series has covered bank bailouts and bank lending. Fiscal policy Much has been written about the need for a fiscal boost. The debate has been poor, with politicians and the media muddling up underfunded tax cuts, tax cuts funded by spending cuts, and tax cuts funded by rises in other taxes. The last two have no impact in this context, and will not be considered. Underfunded tax cuts, or ...
Another day, another History lesson. The subject was Macmillan's Housing policies. We watched a video for most of the lesson from the nineties, celebrating 50 years of the Welfare State. We'd already got everything we needed from the first 20 minutes of the video, but we kept watching, as the grim story of the 60s and 70s, with the social collapse of many inner city communities unfolded as quickly as the shoddy tower blocks went up. This area of Britain's social history was a farce, as pretty much everybody agrees. In the last 30 years, this process has been reversed ...
I learned last night that Manchester councillor Neil Trafford died in a motorway crash on Sunday. Neil was a massive part of the North West regional team, as well as being a truly lovely bloke. I was, and continue to be saddened and shaken by the news and will miss him greatly. There are a [...]
Last night saw the embarrassing revelation that right up until the last minute the government was considering ramping-up VAT to 18.5%. Today The Independent is carrying news that the governments pledge not to cut funding for front-line public services is also looking shaky. It reports on a study by the Institute of Fiscal Studies which it says is 'withering' about Alistair Darlings Pre-Budget Report. It dismisses the new top rate of tax as being able to raise 'virtually nothing' and says that; "the Treasury is "strictly correct" to say no one earning less than £40,000 will be worse off as ...
The new idea of save now pay later which the government is going under may well be about to face a stealthy VAT increase. Hat tip to Guido via Peter Black. Whilst the press release with the pre-budget report stated that the level would return to 17.5% from 1 January 2010. Their website had the additional line: "and subsequently increase to 18.5% in 2011-12" Now putting on my ex civil servant hat I would expect that despite denials that this was ever part of the plan it had to have been there in the original proposals and someone forgot to ...
A couple of posts ago I wrote about how the latest Mori poll suggested a 3% lead for the Conservative, now another well known pollster You Gov has released a poll that gives the Conservatives a 4% lead. So now this is showing that the Chancellor on Monday did win over the people. The results are below: CONSERVATIVES 40% LABOUR 36% LIB DEMS 14% Cameron and Osborne will now do everything today in the debate that they have been granted to try and weaken the government, but I am afraid to say to the Tory camp that all their hard ...
I am on the BBC programme AM/PM today (BBC2 Wales 11am to 1pm if you are interested) discussing a whole range of issues including Welsh Questions in the House of Commons and Prime Ministers Questions. No doubt the credit crunch and the pre-budget report will feature in our deliberations. One of the features myself and Plaid AM, Helen Mary Jones, will be asked to comment on is an evaluation of who in Welsh politics is having a good week and who is not. Well after the report of the Assembly's Finance Committee was published today my nomination for a bad ...
Guido broke the story and now the dead tree press are taking it up. The Treasury was last night forced to deny that Alistair Darling was drawing up secret plans to raise VAT to 18.5% in the next parliament in an attempt to fill the black hole in the government's finances after a document outlining an intention to raise VAT to a record rate was put on a website. Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson, Vince Cable was quick to make the obvious point: "At a time of economic emergency we need a clear-headed Government with a sound economic strategy; instead we ...
Whatever thoughts crossed my mind that weren't worth a whole post. 00:31 is hoping he feels better in the morning. Because if he's worse he ain't getting out of bed. # 00:33 is also very pleased to seethat The Independent has dumped crappy TypePad and gone for a decent blogging community platform. Go LJ! #Microblogging using LoudTwitter and Twitter. matgb_twitter is there if you're mad enough.
... and you can too, if you like. Simply click here, and add the ones you want to read. Any LJ-registered person can comment, too, which means that you guys reading this have got a head-start on the plebs. This are meaning that the first comment on Shopping Bag is rather amusing... Now, I'm wondering... I assume that since I have friended (for example) John Rentoul, he can see all my lovely F-locked posts. You reckon that rhodri will have explained to the other IndyJourno's what the f-lock means and how to respect it? Or do I have to create ...
It would be nice to have confidence in the people in charge, but the Brown/Darling pledge to mortgage my future to the hilt to combat the present banking crisis, makes that impossible. Instead, it turns out that the people in charge are a load of blooming amateurs! Not one of them saw this coming. But Vince Cable did. And now they don't know what will happen next, and they don't know what to do. As for the official opposition, they seem no fitter to govern. Inherited wealth proves nothing. George Osborne as Chancellor? Don't make me laugh. At least, it ...
Earlier this Obama Girl (aka Amber Lee Ettinger) appeared on the Bill O'Reilly Show and said that even though the election is over Obama Girl would go on making videos.
At last, the Doctor is free, so every story in 1973 is back to travels in time and space: alien worlds, medieval England and even the series' own past as William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton return for The Three Doctors. Then UNIT goes somewhere excitingly new for The Green Death... Wales! At the very end of the year, The Time Warrior introduces Sarah Jane Smith and the Sontarans, but before then Doctor Who climbs inside the TV itself: Carnival of Monsters "One has no wish to be devoured by alien monstrosities, Kalik - even in the cause of political progress." ...
Sunday*: The striking thing about Doctor Who's thirtieth season is that it's really worth a second view. After the series ended, I was somehow left with the impression that it had rather gone off the boil somewhere; distant memory said there was a terrific opening that just trailed away. Watching it again, all in a row, I discovered not just that that terrific opening really was amazingly terrific, but that the concluding stories build towards a (potentially) amazing climax. The only possible conclusion from this is that "Journey's End" wasn't as bad as I thought it was... it was worse: ...
It seems that FeedBurner sometimes presents old RSS feeds to LibDemBlogs. If your blog post is missing and you use FeedBurner this will be the reason.
I recommend that you revert back to your old RSS feed as this is affecting other services like Yahoo News Reader.
The views on this aggregator are a collections of views from various people's blogs.
LibDemBlogs and the Liberal Democrats accept no responsibility for the posts made.
