So the Hooper Report has been published. There are no great surprises. Royal Mail is in sharp decline. Doing nothing to address the problems would mean leaving Royal Mail to a lingering death. When I was involved with writing the policy proposals on Royal Mail for the Lib Dems 3 years ago, the problems then were very much the same. Declining business, antiquated equipment, a hiuge pension fund
Damian Green MP, who sparked a major debate in the House of Commons when he was arrested by the Metropolitan Police, has today been told that the case against him has been officially droped. I always thought that he would eventually be exonorated from all charges, mostly from the way the Police conducted their search of his parliamentary office. There was also the fact that Gordon Brown, when he was in opposition, used leaked information in his attacks against the then Conservative government. Having Damian Green charged for doing exactly the same thing would have been totally hypocritical. The Crown ...
Apologied for the lack of posts recently - I've been snowed under with a busy few weeks at work and Council in the run-up to Christmas. Just a quick note to say that it's my surgery this Saturday (20th) from 10am until 11am at the McEwan Centre on Leybridge Court. I'm expecting to be joined by a member of our local Police Safer Neighbourhood Team, so if you have any concerns you'd like to raise with me, or the police team, then do pop along.
Christmas may be found here.
I have had a hard time with internal elections in the party this Autumn. Not as hard as Lembit, or Jenny Randerson, I'll grant you, but it's been tough finding myself necessarily pitted against people I like and respect because I'm supporting a bid by someone else I respect and like. It's a big part of why I've been missing from the blog arena. I am a soft sod who likes everyone to be getting along, basically. And politics isn't always like that. In fact, it's much more often about backbiting and sniping - there's a reason why general workplace ...
Welcome to the 95th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (7th-13th December), together with a hand-picked quintet, mostly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. 'Tis the season of tradition, so let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down. 1. Why the green movement fails [ADDENDUM] on James Graham's Quaequam Blog! "The green movement has proven itself to be extremely good at winning battles, particularly battles that both the crusties and the nimbies can agree on, but it is losing ...
It's been a bad day for Northamptonshire football clubs. Yesterday afternoon Desborough Town's ground burnt down. According to the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph, "Police shut off Braybrooke Road and Harborough Road as fire crews worked to put out the blaze." Certainly, it was the only subject of conversation when I bought a coffee on Market Harborough railway station this morning. Now Mr Eugenides points us to a report from the Daily Telegraph: Kettering Town chairman Imraan Ladak is to return a business award given to him by Lloyds TSB after the bank terminated the banking facilities of the non-League club's shirt ...
The latest Guardian/ICM poll has Labour up three on 33%, the Lib Dems up 1 on 19% and the Tories down a whopping 7 percentage points on 38%. That's in line with other recent polls and certainly adds credence to the idea that Gordon might call a snap election. Because of the way the boundaries are set, remember, Labour can be a couple of points behind the Tories in votes and still come out with more seats. I'm far from convinced that Brown will want to ask Labour campaigners to get out on the streets in January, or that he'll ...
Adjusting for inflation, the Iraq war has already cost Uncle Sam more than the Vietnam war and every other war the USA has even fought except the Second World War.. Just think about that for a moment. The Vietnam War. All those soldiers, all that napalm, all that carpet bombing. It all cost more than the Iraq war. $900 Billion - in today's terms, so far - and counting. That is the legacy of
A couple of weeks ago there was a debate on tuition fees. Julian Astle said the Lib Dems should abandon their pledge to do away with tuition fees. Paul Holmes said we should keep it. I am on Paul Holmes's side and a brilliant article by Jeffrey J. Williams in the American Dissent Magazine has helped crystallise my views. He draws a parallel between the burden of debt that is placed upon students from modest backgrounds and the system of indentured labour that existed in colonial America. Read him: One of the goals of the planners of the modern U.S. ...
Linda Jack is back! Seriously, Linda, WELCOME BACK from under the duvet!
Tue 16th
20:25
'Toothache, diarrhoea, cut fingers and possible bee stings' - the injuries that Kingsnorth climate c...
Kudos to Lib Dem MP David Howarth for his role in forcing an apology from a Labour home office minister who had blamed protestors who attended the Kingsnorth climate camp for hurting 70 police officers. The Guardian has the story today: A minister apologised to parliament yesterday for telling MPs that 70 police officers were hurt during a climate change protest ... The apology followed a freedom of information request from the Liberal Democrats, which showed that no officers in the £5.9m police operation at Kingsnorth power station in Kent during August had been injured by protesters. Instead, police records ...
According to her Times obituary, the late Kathy Staff was born Minnie Higginbottom.
It has been a long-standing grump of mine how so many companies and - far worse - public bodies such as the NHS only publish rip-off phone numbers for their clients to talk to them on. These rip-off numbers include 087 numbers, 084, 080, and 07 numbers.084 is marketed as being low cost, limited to the same rate as a local call - it's often misleadingly called "local rate" or "lo-call". What rot! It's actually priced to be the same rate as a local call at BT's standard tariff. But how many people are on BT's standard tariff? Cheaper tariffs ...
I am a Yorkshireman, English, British, European, and an Earthling. Three of those have official anthems, and today, I present the most compelling version of the European one: (link here - via padawanpooh)
The Guardian has the story, courtesy of Lib Dem research published by the party's children and schools' spokesman David Laws: A million children living below the poverty line do not receive free school meals as a result of flaws in the funding system, figures released in parliament show. Half of pupils from families in poverty are not getting a free lunch because the income threshold to qualify is set lower than the current level used to define poverty. It means that a family of two adults and two children struggling to get by on £18,000 a year has to pay ...
One thing the recession has seen us return to is workers being scared to ask for what they have earned because they fear the sack. A good example today is something I heard from a colleague who has a member of her family who works for Debenhams. Apparently Debenhams are "encouraging" staff to work anything up to 12 hours a day repricing items for the sale, but without overtime pay, and with the implicit threat that has been made that "there may be redundancies in the new year". How daft a worker would they be to insist on overtime pay ...
Phew, at last I am feeling almost back to normal (OK James Graham et al I know you may consider that a contradiction in terms!). Being reminded that I am no spring chicken and unable to shake of bugs the way I used to (cue violins)........but I have managed a trip Belfast and back and have regained enough energy to return to throwing in my 10penneth on matters political once again. Not being arsed isn't something I am often prone to, but that would be an accurate description of how I have felt for the past three weeks. So, what ...
Can bloggers really call a general election, well Labour seem to think so! I personally think the whole speculation that bloggers from the Tories are wanting to call an early general election is a little bit of a joke and Labour need to stop being so paranoid. Bloggers can not call elections if they could I would have got rid of Brown by now.
Last Thursday I visited Reading Single Homeless Project, a pioneering charity based in central Reading, established over twenty years ago, providing shelter and opportunities for homeless people in Reading, with my housing spokesperson's hat on. I met and was given an extensive tour of the building by Ian Caren, the Project's ebullient Chief Executive and a number of staff who talked me through the range of help the Project is providing and some of the challenges that the charity faces. It was really interesting to hear about all the work RSHP is doing to help homeless people get the lives back in track - with ...
Looking at this blog's stats I was amused to note that libdemblogs traffic is down (I guess a lot of people have put me on mute by now, very sensible!) but traffic from Google is up. I get more hits from Google than I do that aggregator, and direct traffic is more than Google and libdemblogs put together. How did that happen? People hit my blog searching for stuff about a range of issues on taxes and libertarianism as you'd imagine, but never searching for Liberal Democrat stuff. Which is surprising. The Byrne Memo generated a load of hits but ...
The Statement on the Family Courts was made today. There are still a lot of questions as to exactly what this should mean. They are also proposing to re-gag children. I don't think they mean to do this, but the issue will continue on.
Bath MP Don Foster has today been assured that Post Office Ltd are treating the surprise closure of Twerton post office as a matter of urgency, and are committed to maintaining a service in the area. Don said, "I am delighted to have received a prompt reassurance from Post Office Ltd that they are committed to providing a service in Twerton, and are treating this situation as a...
Indirectly, Iain Dale poses an interesting question on his blog. Namely, what should the relationship between bloggers and political parties actually be?? He rightly lambasts Labour blogs for intimating that Tory blogs are 'in the pay' of CCHQ. Simply put I don't think political parties of any stripe would pay individual bloggers who can be a bit 'loose cannonish'. Blogs are spaces for individuals and should remain so; we all carry disclaimers making it quite clear that they are as such and long may it remain so! Iain has something to say when it comes to our blogsphere: "Interestingly the ...
Now that the new recycling and waste service has started to settle down, the question I am asked most is "What should I do with my old bin?" A couple of weeks ago, the Informer devoted a double page spread to letters from readers with suggestions. But if you really don't need a new compost bin, vegetable tub or water butt, then you can simply leave yours out for collection...
Seems like a flurry of media activity from Nick Clegg unsurprisingly; "It's now twelve months since I became leader of the Liberal Democrats. More than ever it's clear to me that people in Britain desperately want something different. They are looking for hope, and for change. It's no real surprise. Households across the country are facing a tight Christmas and a difficult New Year. It looks like 200 families are going to lose their homes every day in 2009, and a million could lose their jobs. But the Government still isn't listening. Labour is forcing us deeper into their downturn, ...
The Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, and his deputy Vince Cable, are the subjects of two interview features well worth a read: Nick Clegg was interviewed for EurActive.com, answering questions on numerous matters, including the Lisbon Treaty: What I do know from my own personal experience, having been a MEP and watched, from Brussels and Strasbourg, the debate about Europe deteriorate and degenerate in the UK, is that this is one of the reasons I went into British politics. I wanted to be in a position to engage with people directly rather than commenting on the debates from afar, and ...
How cool is this? Hamish has signed up as lead in the new Stargate series. Guess it might be a plan to catch up with Atlantis then, only seen the first series on DVD.
Is true - i tried turning her off and on but to no avail you can't TURN her off - was only one for travelling - will have to pop down the shops and buy a substitute!
From the London Cycling Campaign: The hundreds of cyclists who ride around central London during the impromptu Critical Mass cycle rides do not have to give advance notice to the police, the Law Lords have ruled. The rides, which start on the South Bank by the National Theatre on the last Friday of the month, celebrate safe cycling. The Lords judgement overturns an earlier Court of Appeal ruling that demanded the police should be notified. The police claimed the event was unlawful as it contravened Section 11 of the Public Order Act 1986 whereby the organisers of a 'procession' must ...
I love climate change protestors. I genuinely believe that climate change is an issue but I also believe that standing in a field eating lentils and wearing flip flops won't solve much. Whenever I hear about another one of these demos I ask myself several questions. 1. How many of these good people drove to the protest? 2. How many of them use electricity of the kind generated at the Kingsnorth power station? 3. How many of them will have a lovely bath when they get home from being 'eco-warriors'? 4. How many of them buy plastic products of the ...
Never let it be said that I am not a steel-toothed harpy who likes to tear chunks out of journos and indeed the whole concept of the mainstream meedja. This being the case, praise where it's due, there is a truly incisive and thoughtful leader in the Times this morning covering Nick Clegg's "Why I am a liberal" speech. It's by no means entirely favourable, and in some ways it invokes pessimism. But I think it's spot on, whether we like it or not. First, the favourable side of the analysis, and It's the Policy, Stupid: Striking a more coherent ...
'Dave' seems a might confused. Writing in The Daily Mail on December 8th he said: "Work gives life shape. It gives people esteem and responsibility. It powers our economy. So we're going to end the something-for-nothing culture. If you don't take a reasonable offer of a job, you will lose benefits. No ifs, no buts." But speaking earlier he said that it was 'not right' for the government to expect the mothers of pre-school children to be forced into work. That sounds like quite a big 'but' to me. Of course the more important point is that forcing single mothers ...
Barnet Liberal Democrats will keep up the pressure on the Conservatives Administration over the Icelandic banks deposits. In a series of written questions Cllr Jeremy Davies and Cllr Wayne Casey are asking the Leader of The Council for answers about how the loss of 27million Pounds and the steep reduction in interest rates will affect Council Tax Payers. In a separate motion Cllr Davies will demand to know how the Council will comply with accounting rules so that the true state of the Councils finances is revealed in the budget. Cllr Monroe Palmer will add his experience to the debate ...
The Liberal Democrat Voice team have produced a 'book of the year' containing a selection of articles from the last twelve months,including a trio of pieces from myself. A good present for anyone politically interested who you know! You can buy it from Lulu or see more details on Lib Dem Voice.
Back in the spring, I blogged about suspicious goings on with proxy votes in Whiteley ward, Winchester which resulted in Conservative activist John Hall being charged by the police. His trial has started yesterday and you can watch the BBC report here.
Since the closure of Cleveland Terrace and other Post Offices around Darlington, queues at the main Post Office on Crown Street have grown to gargantuan proportions. No business that cared about its customers would require them to stand for over half an hour, just to post a parcel. It's absolutely appalling and yet they seem totally oblivious to the cost of their inadequacies in terms of stress
For those who saw Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe a few weeks ago, this Amazon review for a print of Paul Ross should delight: I can't recommend this picture of entertainer Paul Ross enough. I, like you, am an ardent fan of his effortless presenting style - the way he reads the autocue like a poet reading Wordsworth; [...]
Every creature (and plant) on the face of the earth is pitched in a desperate struggle for its own survival. The average day revolves around finding the necessary food and trying to avoid being eaten by something else. Since the marvellous concept of specialisation of labour, we humans have been fortunate that we can provide for our needs with a limited amount of work that may have nothing whatsoever to do with finding food. Our work has value, food has value - we trade one for the other, indirectly, using money. We have decided, as a culture, that when there's ...
The rain screen cladding applied to the Chalcots is being well tested this winter with below freezing temperatures having been reached, residents are reporting improvements to energy consumption reductions and improved heating to rooms with exposed corner flanking walls. The cladding to these exterior walls has increased the thermal efficiency of the building as a whole, although only to just above what is now considered the building standards, it is a "vast" improvement on what residents living in the 1968 design buildings had experienced for the past 40 years. Reported by Stephen Kennett in Building Sustainability "Chalcot estate: Altered towers, ...
Tue 16th
12:37
Lib Dems reveal police injuries at Kingsnorth protest were insect bites and heat exhaustion
Well done to Lib Dem Justice spokesman David Howarth for showing the extent of police misinformation during this summer's week-long Climate Camp protest against Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent.When protesters descended on the site of the Kingsnorth power station the scale of the police operation to cope with them was enormous. I was among the protesters and I reported at the time that I'd never seen anything like it since my times as a BBC correspondent working in Eastern Europe. (More on my experience at the Kingsnorth Climate Camp.) Norman Baker, the Lib Dem MP for Lewes, who was ...
Kingsnorth in Kent is the site of one of the most controversial decisions that the Government will have to make in this Parliament. Eon want to replace an existing coal-fired power station with a new one. Eventually the CO2 emissions from that station might be 'captured', but the company want to be able to run the station 'unabated' in the meantime. This could be catastrophic for Britain's leadership on the climate change issue. At the time of the 'climate camp' protest earlier in the year there was some dispute about the way the protesters were handled, but the Government said ...
It is hoped as the £150M PFI "Chalcots" project enters the Christmas shutdown period that any emergencies such as lift breakdowns; etc will be dealt with the urgency that is required of buildings housing 161 properties. Last year an emergency contact number was published and circulated that had a "out of service" number advising all callers "this line does not receive in-coming calls". And on the Christmas Eve 2007, site lights for one of the buildings failed! So lets hope that this Christmas will be uneventful and all emergency protocols are in place.
Today's Western Mail suggests that an attempt was made by the Welsh Conservative Chief Whip to secure a 'gentleman's agreement' aimed at silencing criticism of AMs' expense claims: Last night an AM, who preferred not to be named, told the Western Mail: "William Graham [the Tories' Chief Whip at the National Assembly] was very keen to bury the expenses issue, knowing it was very damaging to the Conservative group. He wanted a gentleman's agreement under which AMs of all parties would agree not to criticise others over their expense claims. "I certainly would not have been prepared to go along ...
Politics Home reports the below.... "Mr Cameron said that proposals in the Government's white paper on welfare reform regarding mothers with pre-school children were "shameful" and that his party would be press the government to change this aspect. This is a shameful proposal it is vital that in this recession that we at the very least don't do anything that makes our broken society worse. "We need to help families, not make life harder for them," he said. "Of course when children are fully into primary school that's the right moment to encourage people back into the workplace." "Trying to ...
It is the question that has been on everybody's lips for the last 16 months, when will the Welsh Language Legislative Competence Order be published? It is not just the opposition who have been frustrated by the lack of news, Plaid Cymru Ministers have also struggled with this process and have been positively outraged at the hurdles they have had to jump to meet the One Wales Government commitment to deliver on this piece of legislation. The nearest we have come to a date was during the debate on the Queen's Speech last week when the Secretary of State for ...
It would be a terrible mistake to imagine that increasing capacity on Heathrow's two existing runways would be somehow less damaging to the environment than building a new third runway. For BAA it would be a dream solution as winning permission to operate each runway almost as a separate airport would deliver almost a third increase in capacity without any of the construction cost of an additional runway. For communities on both sides of the airport the result would be a non-stop stream of planes overhead throughout the day with no respite at 3pm when they would normally switch runways ...
I tell you what really annoys me; so much so that if anything is likely to get me to give up smoking it is this; the actions of my "fellow" {FagAsh.jpg} smokers. I'm sick to the back teeth of having to wade through piles of fag butts on my way into work, or almost any building on campus. Even when there's a bin right there they can't be arsed to do anything other than flick their fag on the floor. Some, one person I just watched doing it in fact, can't even be arsed to stamp on it to be ...
Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire: Last week, Orange launched their report "The Future of Politics". In the words of the accompanying news release, the reports shows "how British politicians can learn from Barack Obama and embrace technology to bring public involvement back into UK democracy." The launch press release picked out five main themes from the report: A challenge to UK politicians to keep up with a new generation of 'digital natives' who expect MPs to get up to date with 21st century technology so they can have two-way meaningful conversations with the public and not just a one way ...
A question springs to my mind in the wake of news that the Arctic has apparently gone past 'the point of no return' [too much science fiction reading among scientists, methinks...] in warming and that an ice-free future is foreseen any time now. Now, I buy into all this so I'm not ridiculing it but I also have faith that a practical solution will be found. I am an inveterate optimist and I think that all the doomsayers really should push off to France to be miserable there. They do philosophical depression so well, after all. However, the problem remains, ...
Another rant about language. We have to say what things mean. Diverted giving actually means anti-begging boxes Let's not disguise it with a doomed attempt at pc language. About 16 years ago, I was commuting to London. Begging was not uncommon then (and might it become less uncommon now). I remember passing a poster in Waterloo Station which said "There are professional beggars operating in
Hat tip to Darrell G for raising an interesting question on Clegg's thinking. Darrell believes that Clegg's speech doesn't add up as on the one hand Clegg trumpets the power of the individual, of localism and non-conformity whilst on the other hand he sees a strong role for the State and EU to provide leadership and top-down action. Darrell's hit on a serious issue for liberal thinking, but I disagree with his analysis. The European problem It's the EU that most clearly shows the challenge. The Lib Dems favour local power and also favour a strong European Union. No problem ...
In an otherwise serviceable article I tested out a theory that is becoming increasingly meme-like in the Liberal Democrat firmament - that most people get their news (or rather take the news that they think about) away from the BBC. After a bit of testing I can say this is really only half-true. On the LGBT [...]
I'm really delighted that Camden has decided to fill every cavity wall - social and private - in the borough. £1.15m has been allocated to be spent on private sector insulation by 2010/11. This will be targeted at the 7,160 properties in Camden that would benefit from cavity wall insulation and the 7,960 properties that would benefit from loft insulation. The aim is to reduce CO2 emissions produced by private sector housing and to work towards reducing the number of households living in fuel poverty in the borough. The new insulation fund will complement the Council's existing private sector Warmth ...
Check out the forecast for south east here... And the odds on it here..
There will be a advice surgery held at St Luke's Church Hall, Erleigh Road from 10:00am until 12 noon, on 20 December 2008. No need to book: you're more than welcome to just drop in and see us. We are in the back room so from the door walk down the corridor to the right and keep going to the end. This is your chance to access your councillors directly and discus any concerns or idea. Myself, Kirsten and Daisy really look forward to seeing you. Just look for the Advice Surgery sign shown below: {LDI 305} Future surgery dates ...
I haven't seen the details of what is proposed for the Royal Mail but if what I have seen of the broad thrust is accurate (it was reported on GMTV so let's see) then it has an uncanny resemblence to what the Lib Dems proposed 3 years ago. And since I was very closely involved in writing the policy of part privatisation, then we are looking at something we could support. Whether or not the Labour
Labour Home Office minister Vernon Coaker claimed in September that 70 police officers had been injured during the Climate Camp protests and used this to justify the police response, which virtually everyone outside the Labour Government seems to think was excessive, to put it mildly. Now it turns out that in fact only 12 injuries were reported, none of them from direct contact with protesters. They included a wasp sting, heat stroke and a back injury from an officer using their leg to open their car door. So did the Government intentionally give us the wrong impression? Or were they ...
The Tangerine Book. 153 pages of Liberal Democrat goodness. You can buy it online right now at Lulu.com. Remember - only by buying direct can you guarantee yourself that rarest of political book versions - the unautographed one. Just in case you need more reasons: Lulu.com have extended their Christmas deadlines. If you don't need it for Christmas, you can economise by going to economy shipping, and pay only £3 for P+P. And, exclusively, I can now attach a copy of the entire index for your perusal. Please buy a copy, even if you're not actually in the book. I ...
Iain Dale takes a look at Nick Clegg's speech and points out that it would sound reasonable if "Liberal Democrat" were replaced with "Conservative" throughout. His conclusion: the Lib Dems are struggling to carve out our own political space. Up to a point, Lord Copper. British political parties are overlapping broad churches. There are certainly people in both the Conservative and Labour parties who would genuinely buy into the liberal ethos Nick spoke about, just as there are social democrat Lib Dems who wouldn't. And all parties are struggling to find their political space, not least the Conservatives. They've lost ...
Earlier I Tweeted about Sathnam Sanghera's article in the Time's 2 Section this morning about Tweeting and Facebook. On reading it I though woo hoo here is a MSM journo who Tweets with impunity. That was until I visited his Twitter profile to find he's protected his updates is only following 21 people and has only posted 8 updates. Reckon he logged on yesterday merely to write his article at the behest of his editor. What a Twit? Both he and his editor if that is the case.
Andy McSmith has written a substantial profile of everyone's favourite Lib Dem for the Independent: His explanation of his success is simple and humble - what else would you expect from Cable? "I think it's partly luck. I happen to have built up a fairly good reputation in economic matters at a time when this became the big issue of the day. Most of that time, people weren't very interested in economic policy, quite frankly."The other thing that has worked is that I did anticipate a lot of the problems we are now facing. I was involved in the campaign ...
The Blood Transfusion Service has announced plans to extend existing donors ability to give blood beyond their 70th birthday. It is a move seen as increasing the available pool as blood by about 15,000 donation per annum (of course with the addition of my Y Chromosome the odds of me getting that far based on familial precedent are slim). It will not apply to new donors who must start before their 65th birthday as at present and donations must be within 2 years of the last donation made to continue this extension. The service said that: "given the steady improvement ...
Misery memoirs sell, especially first-hand accounts of child abuse, which is why, I suppose, the Irish publishers Maverick House (who also publish in Thailand) have put a picture of a tiny boy holding his head in his hands on the cover of Chai Pinit's Bangkok Boy, as well as giving it the subtitle 'The story of [...]
Well, it made me chuckle. Hat tip: Registan, which is an ace central asia blog.
Whatever thoughts crossed my mind that weren't worth a whole post. 10:13 laughing at isbriancolemanatediouscock.co.uk/ #Microblogging using LoudTwitter and Twitter. matgb_twitter is there if you're mad enough.
Nick Clegg used his first anniversary as leader to make a widely trailed speech to the think-tank Demos and was widely trailed throughout the media. Liberal Democrat Voice carries a much fuller report here. Iain Dale had some fun with this by playing a little word substitution game and he concluded that it showed that the fundamental problem for the Liberal Democrats was that we are struggling to create our own political space. To me however it shows that the problem is the confused and contested nature of that space, Clegg speaks thus on the difference between liberalism and socialism; ...
