Today was a good day for democracy in Wales. Patrick Jones came to the Welsh Assembly to read from his controversial book of poems, 'Darkness Is Where The Stars Are', whilst 250 Christians sang and prayed outside. As one of the sponsors of this reading I felt that I had a moral duty to arrange it. Patrick Jones may have sought debate with Christian Voice and others over poems that they consider to be blasphemous and obscene but that does not justify them seeking to shout him down or forcing the cancellation of the launch of his book in Waterstones. ...
A very busy week thus far, starting with a day job meeting at Glasgow City Council on Monday, followed by council committees that evening. Apart from the Planning & Transport Committee I chair, there were a number of committee meetings that night. At the Education Committee, the SNP group came under fire for the failure of the Scottish Futures Trust to deliver capital projects (actually, anything really). Both the Education Convener and I reminded the SNP that Alex Salmond promised to match the previous administration's building programme "brick for brick" - I pointed out that the SNP Futures Trust has ...
A few months ago, I blogged about the proposal for the National Galleries of Scotland and the National Gallery in London to acquire Titian's exquisite painting of Diana and Actaeon from the Duke of Sutherland for the bargain price of £50m. I said at the time that I might well contribute to such an appeal, and indeed I did. And I'm glad to say that I'm not the only one who did. The good news this week, according to The Scotsman, is that the galleries have almost reached their target, requiring only another £2m before the end of the year. ...
Lembit Opik, the Daily Sport's new political columnist - and Lib Dem MP for Montgomeryshire - is the party's representative on tonight's BBC Question Time (BBC1 and online, 10.35 pm GMT). Lembit will be appearing alongside Labour's Schools Minister Jim Knight, Conservative MP 'Mad' Nadine Dorries, one-man polymath Will Self, and broadcaster (and Lembit's fellow reality TV stand-by) Esther Rantzen. And for those who are staying up extra late for BBC1's This Week, John Bird (the Big Issue one, I think, rather than John Fortune's pal) and Jenni Murray (from BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour) will be on hand to ...
The Advertiser reports that Wigan Community Action Party councillor Ed Houlton is off the hook for videos he posted on YouTube during the May election campaign this year. Cllr. Houlton, acting as agent for his brother Rick, made some pretty nasty comments about ex Labour councillor Jimmy Hunt (and former councillor Roger Jones). In the end [...]
I really need to stop living life as a mad dash from one event or office to the next. Tonight I was working on Parliamentary Campaigner - it is published this weekend - but also agreed to go out for dinner at 9.30pm in Crystal Palace. I left Cowley St at 8.35pm, having just sent the latest (incomplete) Campaigner by email for checking. That meant getting to Victoria Stn before 8.52pm to catch the
The other day, dusting of a favourite anecdote for possible seasonal use, I came across a posting where I repeated it. In that posting, after being tagged by Iain Dale, I gave my eight wishes for 2008. I thought it might be interesting to see how many of them have been fulfilled. Before I do, I must record my discovery that the Sir Oliver Franks who features in that anecdote is the same person as the Lord Franks who, 34 years later, wrote the report that exonerated Margaret Thatcher and her government from any blame for not anticipating the Argentine ...
Ethiopian troops are withdrawing from Somalia, well the small areas left they still control. This will end a bitter insurgency that has devastated Mogadishu and made hundreds of thousands homeless and hungry. However it will end the attempt of the Transitional Federal Government to gain power and will bring Central and Southern Somalia back into a time of control by Islamic extremists. This could create a new major battlefront in the war on terror, perhaps a new Afghanistan. If one dominant group rises and brings order like the ICU did, they may then establish terrorist camps and the extremists will ...
As disclosed by Sir Peter Viggers MP (Con., Gosport), who represents the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission: The Electoral Commission informs me that following the recent conclusion of criminal proceedings against Mr. Michael Brown, it has now resumed its investigation into the permissibility of donations made to the Liberal Democrat Party by Mr. Brown in 2005. The Commission further informs me that it will now aim to conclude the investigation as quickly as possible, but that its priority must be to ensure that the process is fair and thorough." Hat-tip to ConservativeHome, though they somehow omitted to quote the ...
The Private Members' Bills ballot for the 2008-9 session took place today, and the Lib Dems did well. Two of our MPs are in the top 5 and four are in the top 20. David Heath came out of the hat (or how ever they do it) in second place, Evan Harris was fifth, Jeremy Browne 13th and and Charles Kennedy 17th. Thanks to Jennie Rigg.
I'm a strong believer in freedom of the press. It is essential in order to keep Governments, Authorities, Organisations and Companies transparent. Initially a bill passed by Kenya's Parliament sounds worrying. It gives the state the power to raid media houses and control content. Journalists accuse it of being intended to gag the press. It certainly sounds like it. However the case for justification is also great. The reason the Government have for introducing the bill is so they can stop ethnic hatred being spread by Media, such as on radio stations. The cases of ethnic cleansing after last years ...
Lembit Opik will represent the Liberal Democrats on the Question Time panel with the Conservatives putting Nadine Dorris the want to be blogger onto the Panel. It should be an interesting programme to watch! Lembit also today became the Political Columist for the Daily Sport, which is a different sort of job from President of the Liberal Democrats but I wish him the best of luck. Personally I think he should have set up a blog which he should have wrote about politics, that I think would have been more interesting!
{Lynne Featherstone with Ben at the Wood Green Royal Mail sorting office} Visited Wood Green Delivery Office to meet the postmen and women who bring us our post all through the year - and at Christmas when the post bag must be ginormous! There's an absolutely wonderful atmosphere there - banter and fun all the way. The one very serious issue that was drawn to my attention, however, was the increasing problem they are having with tradesman bell times. Before, generally blocks of flats had access through tradesmen's bells from say 7 - 10am. But the post office has changed ...
Every parliament they have a ballot, in which the 600-odd MPs vote for 20 out of their number who will get priority to present Private Members' Bills to parliament. Aside from the sneaky government-sponsored Private Members' Bills, the top five of these are generally the only ones with a cat in hell's chance of becoming law. The list came out today of who has won the ballot for this session. There are two good strong Lib Dems in the top five, and one of them is Evan Harris. EVAN HARRIS! YAY!!! Get rid of the Two Doctors rule, Evan! Go ...
The scale of the financial and economic crisis that we now face, across the globe, is exceptional. It not just the absolute numbers- which, in a growing economy increase anyway- but the relative numbers which now look eye-popping. The scale of capital destruction is now even beyond the levels of the 1930s. There is no measure that we can grasp that means anything. Many assets- like your house- are unsaleable at any reasonable price, possibly at any price at all. Meanwhile, Britain is choosing to take on the unlimited liabilities of the banking sector, and thus nearly doubling long term ...
Thu 11th
18:51
CommentIsLinked@LDV: Nick Clegg - 'Freedom is taking a battering under kneejerk New Labour'
Over at The Guardian's Comment Is Free blog yesterday, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg wrote about Jack Straw's attack on the Human Rights Act. (An issue which has also today provoked the ire of Lib Dem peer Lord Lester). Read it in full here, but here's an excerpt of Nick's trenchant critique: The justice secretary is picking a meaningless fight to generate a favourable headline, while conning opponents of the Human Rights Act into believing that he's saying something of greater significance. In short, it's sly populism of the worst kind. ... At a time of acute national economic crisis, ...
Cartoon from London Sketchbook!
Sometimes I really miss living up near Manchester. Deciding between which friends and family to live near, between seeing the Thames just outside or a distant Kinder Scout from the end of the road... And between a settled congestion charge and one that's the height of controversy. If I still lived up there, my instinct would be to vote 'Yes', unlike most Liberal Democrats (split across the area, but tilting no) and, I suspect, most residents: my hunch is there'll be a 'No' vote. Up there a fortnight ago, though, one 'No' argument angered me as a really stupid lie. ...
Sandwiched between the Darlington-Bishop Auckland railway line and Whessoe Road, and falling into North Road and Harrowgate Hill wards, is the old Corus (British Steel) site. Corus still operate from one building there, but most of the site has already been cleared. It remains an eyesore, with an ugly high wall running for much of its length. Today, St Modwen Properties PLC, "the UK's leading
This country faces a crisis of confidence in democracy just as profound as the crisis of confidence in the financial markets. Both are ultimately about trust - trust in the quality of what is being sold in the one case, trust in what political leaders say, and what their motives are, in the other. The series of scandals about party funding - from cash for honours to the Ashcroft affair - damage democracy deeply by sending the constant message that politics is not about values and ideas, but about buying power and access, and if you are not a rich ...
I spent most of yesterday chairing a seminar on social inclusion, and in particular how approaches might change during the growing recession. Planned for some time, it turned out to be particularly appropriate on the day that the Government announced its new welfare reform programme. It caused a problem for me though, as the first speaker was from the Department for Work and Pensions and withdrew from the programme leaving me with a fairly large gap to fill. The rest of the day ran smoothly, and was really fascinating, due to having an interesting mix of people from academia and ...
There have been a few issues that have been jostling for position in respect of comment this week. There was the wrongful arrest of a Conservative MP, and the announcement in the Queen's Speech that lie detector tests will be used for benefit claimants. But there is one thing to be mentioned above all - well [...]
When someone made this phrase on Question Time before the USA election it got me thinking, Can this really happened and then I went onto believing it when Barack Obama got elected! Now the Conservatives in Southall have put up a very experienced Sikh candidate for the Ealing Southall seat. Gurcharan Singh is just an example of someone who might make the statement true. He might get elected as MP, but will he actually become Prime Minister?
Considering that the 'Wand of Office' of our party President is a copy of Milton's Areopagitica, it is slightly sad that we have not as a party made something more of the 400th anniversary of Milton's birth. This neglect alas is general across the country. Milton even got left out (as far as I could see) from the "Devil's Whore" TV quasi-history drama even though the Areopagitica was specifically written to support John Lillburn, a central character in history as in the drama.. Lots of good stuff in all that classical and biblical argument, and burningly relevant today: Lords and ...
A Petition has been set up by residents of Lancashire after Lancashire County Council failed to grit the area when we had bad conditions due to snow and ice last week. Personally I was appalled at the fact that County Hall could just let something like this slip away and allow people to fill up A&E with injuries due to the lack of grit! To sign the petition click HERE.
I suppose that when you try to set up a 'government of all talents' and bring members of other parties into your team of advisors you are always going to run the risk of one or two of them jumping ship and dishing the dirt. In this case however, the criticism is particularly trenchant and damaging: Lord Lester, a Liberal Democrat and distinguished human rights lawyer, quit as the prime minister's adviser on constitutional reform a month ago. In a scathing attack yesterday, he revealed for the first time how he felt tethered by the government, describing its record on ...
Tory run Preston Council has banned swearing in the streets. Firstly they is already laws against using abusive language in the street so what is the need of this silly policy. If you swear in Preston and get caught you will get fined £80 David Davis was quick to resign on the grounds of civil liberties earlier this year, maybe he needs to do it again. The people of Preston will probably take the Tory council to the rubbish bins at the next local election because of this silly policy. I accept people should not be allowed to abuse others, ...
File under 'You couldn't make it up' - the Guardian reports: Former Cheeky Girl beau and Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik is to rejoin the Daily Sport as its political columnist this week. Opik, who alongside his regular TV appearances represents Welsh constituency Montgomeryshire, will pen a weekly Friday column for the paper.
According to today's press, Royal Mail uses something called "Pegasus Europe Geo-route" to assess the optimum post load that postal workers can deliver in a given period of time. This is in the news because of the allegation that Royal Mail want their delivery staff to walk at 4mph rather than a much more achievable [...]
Lib Dem shadow foreign secretary Ed Davey has renewed the party's call for an immediate public inquiry into British involvement in the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the role played by UK troops in Iraq since 2003. Ed put the question direct to Foreign Secretary David Miliband in the Commons yesterday, following strong hints from the Ministry of Defence that it expected the 4,100 British troops left in Basra to be withdrawn from Basra during the course of 2009. Mr. Edward Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD): Given that both the Foreign Secretary and the Prime Minister have said that there ...
A month after Lord (Anthony) Lester quit his role as unpaid adviser to Gordon Brown on constitutional affairs, he's broken his silence on the reasons for his resignation. In fact, 'broken his silence' doesn't really do justice to his excoriation of Labour's "dismal" failure to provide political leadership on human rights, branding Justice secretary Jack Straw as "lamentable". Lord Lester's interview with The Guardian was published today to mark the 60th anniversary of the UN's declaration of human rights. It's well worth reading in full, but here's an extract: [Lord Lester] singled out the justice secretary, Jack Straw, for failing ...
I've been enjoying the issues of Total Politics magazine that I am being regularly sent. It is good to read a publication that takes a positive approach to politics, that understands that it something done by real people and mostly for good reasons, and is concerned to write intelligently about it. Some of the highlights of the latest issue (Issue 6) for me have been learning about Nick Clegg's
Lee Griffin, in today's netcast, makes clear that he doesn't think enough people are condemning the current raft of benefit proposals put forward by our supposedly progressive government. I don't have time to do a full write-up on this, as I have to set off for work in ten minutes, so I shall, instead, just do what Chicky Yog did, and link to Matthew Norman's excellent article in the Indy. Apparently Chris Dillow has a good article on this as well, although I don't read him personally.
The membership of the Speakers conference that been set up to sort out the inequalities of representation in the House of Commons of anybody who isn't a white, able bodied man is out: Name, Constituency, Party Miss Anne Begg (Vice-Chairman), Aberdeen South, Labour Ms Diane Abbott, Hackney North & Stoke Newington, Labour John Bercow, Buckingham, Conservative Mr David Blunkett, Sheffield, Brightside, Labour Angela Browning, Tiverton & Honiton, Conservative Mr Ronnie Campbell, Blyth Valley, Labour Mrs Ann Cryer, Keighley, Labour Mr Parmjit Dhanda, Gloucester, Labour Andrew George, St Ives, Liberal Democrat Miss Julie Kirkbride, Bromsgrove, Conservative Dr William McCrea, South Antrim, ...
Today and tomorrow I am running the press office at a conference held at the Congress Centre - part of the TUC headquarters in London. The room overlooks the building's central courtyard and this sculpture by Jacob Epstein. Ornamental Passions will tell you more about it.
Work is continuing apace on the new Yate health centre. In the foreground of this view from Kennedy Way there is an excellent mural by the pupils of the Ridge Junior School.
Police are appealing for information after a man was assaulted in Yate. The 19 year old victim was outside Riley's in Yate on Saturday November 22nd when he was assaulted at around 1.30am. He was left unconscious and lost a number of teeth. Police would now like to speak to a man who they believe may have vital information that may help investigations. He is described as white, aged 19-20 years old, around 5 feet 7 inches tall, and of medium build with brown/blonde spiked hair. He was wearing a grey McKenzie hooded top, blue jeans and white trainers. He ...
Bath & North East Somerset Council have extended the Park & Ride Hours over the Christmas Period. If you need to come into Bath for your shopping can I suggest using the Park & Ride Sites that are located on the edge of the City. By using the Park & Ride you will avoid many of the traffic hold ups that can occur at this busy time of year. Please follow this link for the time...
Don't miss out on what could be the last big training event for volunteer activists before major elections of 2009 and 2010. ALDC's Kickstart Weekend takes place in Birmingham 28-30 November 2008. The next two years see three key electoral tests for Liberal Democrats: · 2009 County, Unitary and Euro Elections · 2010 London, Met and local elections · ???? General Election All three elections will be a tough challenge for Liberal Democrats, but a real opportunity to make a liberal difference in town and county halls, and in Parliament. ALDC's Kickstart Weekend is a 48 hour programme of training ...
I am experimenting with a blog at work. The software is taking a little getting used to, but you may be interested in having a look at the Division of Clinical Psychology Blog.
Congratulations to our new Party President (Baroness) Ros Scott. Ros was elected earlier in the week with a stunning 72% of the vote of Party members. Ros has been an excellent friend of Liberal Democrats in local government. Not only was Ros a Councillor herself in Suffolk for many years, but more recently she spoke for the Party on Communities and Local Government in the House of Lords. {Baroness Ros Scott} Ros Scott speaking at the ALDC/LGA Group Local Government Conference in 2008. Well done Ros, all of us at ALDC look forward to working with you.
Just be careful kissing under the mistletoe this year... Big black hole confirmed in centre of our galaxy (so that's why the galaxy spins!!!...) Frankie the cat burglar steals the show...
The link is to the minutes of the European Committee C on Higher Oil Prices. A rare moment of almost sense on the issue of Peak Oil from government Minister Mike O Brien This is from columns 11 and 12. Steve Webb: As this is a helpful forum in which to have a measured question and answer session, rather than the frustrating soundbites that we get during questions in the Chamber, it is good to
At the end of Clayton Road, just before you get to the bridge over the A3, here is a large area known collectively as Five Acre Farm. The fields that made up the original farm have now been broken down into several properties. Some of these have been developed unlawfully. Look at the what's going on next to the A3 in this Google photo. The whole area beyond Oaklands Close...
I recently visited mental health charity Tulip recently to congratulate them on becoming The Mall's charity of the year - and helping over 400 local people with mental health problems to live fulfilling lives. They are based in Wood Green, providing dedicated, personalised support. That is such a worthy cause and they fully deserve to be congratulated on a fantastic year. I'm especially delighted that Tulip is The Mall's charity of the year. I really hope the New Year's cheque from the Mall will help this amazing charity continue its successful work for many, many years to come.
Last week the Evening Standard published a guide to the favourite restaurants of Westminster politicos: Another favourite Indian venue is the Top Curry Centre in Pimlico, which is popular with all politicians who live in the vicinity.But it is more specifically a favourite of the Lib-Dems, including Lembit Opik - who holds an informal weekly curry night there with his party colleagues.
It was National Volunteering last week - so went to the Hornsey Trust for Children with Cerebral Palsy where they do the most wonderful work. They did a performance of the Christmas Show they are doing for parents. These children have such joy in themselves - as you can see from the photos (and that's why I held off blogging until now - the photos really tell the story!): {Lynne Featherstone with children and staff from the Hornsey Trust} {Lynne Featherstone with children and staff from the Hornsey Trust} Given the level of disability - it is extraordinary and my ...
This morning's Today programme reports that the German Christian Democrat (conservative) finance minister has criticised the British government's recession strategy, in particular the VAT cut. The Prime Minister's reponse is to say that more countries' governments agree with him than with the German finance minister, which is consistent with the government's general strategy when aspects of [...]
{readingbook} The Liberal Democrat Voice Annual 2008 The Tangerine Book is now available for purchase through the Lulu.com self-publishing site. Click here or use the button below {Support independent publishing: buy this book on Lulu.} The 153-page paperback features nearly 80 articles taken from Lib Dem Voice from last December to this November. The book costs £5.99 and Lulu want another £6.30 P&P. LibDemVoice make a small profit on each book which contributes towards our running costs. We think that the book will make an excellent Christmas gift for the Lib Dem activist or policy in your life, but Lulu ...
Being a Chicago Cubs fan (that's a baseball team for those of you who don't follow the sport), the arrest of Illinois Governer Blagojevich* has more importance than the petty political consequences. It appears that he used his influence to attmempt to get critical journalists on the Tribune sacked by offering help to the temporary [...]
Closer European political integration has been put on hold, since the failure of the EU constitution, and the Irish 'No' to the Lisbon treaty. Diplomacy and foreign policy is still conducted primarily by member states, who prefer a 'politically neutral' EU when it comes to foreign affairs. Nevertheless, the EU has had a High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy since 1999, and member states have trumpeted the Union's soft power: seeing it as a leader in disseminating the values of good governance and human rights. This limited foreign policy co-ordination is likely to continue even if the ...
Any left libertarians (including geolibertarians. agorists, market anarchists, individualist anarchists, volunatrists, voluntary socialists, liberal anarchists, mutualists, dialectical libertarians and others) get in touch please... If you consider yourself to be a left wing individualist and are in the UK then please drop me a line. Leave a comment or email me at leftlib at this domain [...]
Did everyone see Prime Minister's Question Time today? I haven't read my f-list yet, but I suspect much merriment will have been made at the expense of dear old Gordon's Freudian slip today, in which he talked about saving the world when he meant to say saving the banks. This is example number one of the length of the very long string which connects Westminster to reality. Gordon Brown really does honestly think that his actions in the last couple of months have saved the world; he genuinely doesn't get that all he's done is keep his surfboard flat enough ...
There is to be a Wilcox Road consultation event on 13th December 2008, 3-6pm. Lambeth Council is holding a consultation and a "festive gathering" on Wilcox Road on Saturday 13th December, where refreshments will be on offer. Come along and get involved and tell the council what you think could improve the appearance of both Wilcox Road and Wilcox Close. They will be presenting some initial designs which they will ask you to comment on. The designs have been based on the feedback already received from the local businesses and resident associations of the area. The feedback from this will ...
