I was wondering if I should do a farewell post, just in case the stopped clock principle has finally come good and the predictions that the end of the world would begin today are right. (via Jamie) Then I realised that even if they are right, there's very little chance that I, or any of my readers are likely to be taken bodily up to heaven, and so things will likely carry on as normal anyway. If I'm wrong about that, then feel free to forgive me on your way up.
Mon 21st
23:13
Bile, or 'paxman is a complete and utter dick for whom a chilli covered dildo is too good. discuss'
Wow, where has my blood pressure gone? I generally avoid Newsnight because Jeremy Paxman is a prat and his disdain for pretty much everyone because they simply aren't as intelligent as he is makes it a waste of electricity. Well, tonight he was interviewing Vince, who is as intelligent as anyone and who, for ability and political nous, makes the gimp behind the television desk look like George Bush with a pretzel stuck up his fundament. Paxman started his interview sneering and carried on in that vein. The subtext behind every question - included in his smirking introduction and brought ...
The cat is now well and truly out of the bag and it will be interesting to see how the blogosphere responds. Beyond the usual "OMG!!1! YOU'VE SOLD OUT TO ZaNuPFLieBore!?!11!" of course. I thought I'd add a few comments here in a vain attempt to clear a few things up and prebut some of the ...
Social Liberal Forum Secretary James Graham and Chair of Compass Neal Lawson have an article in Tuesday's Guardian calling for a "coalition of progressive ideas" between social liberals and liberal socialists within the Liberal Democrats, Labour and more widely. Progressives in all these parties are committed to greater equality and dealing with the challenge of climate change, but the binding value is pluralism. We recognise the value of difference, distinct histories and tradition but are using them to develop a shared project that is stronger because it is based on consensus-building. What we seek is not a big tent - ...
7.30 Keynote speech practise 9.15 Training aspiring candidates / 'Secrets of a winning campaign' 10.40 Attend debate 'Fresh Start' 13.00 'Trust in Politics' / Total Politics / fringe / speaking 14.20 Child Protection Debate / speaking / hopefully 18.00 'The Equality Bill: Will it deliver for Women?'/ Fawcett / Unison / fringe / speaking 20.30 Dinner
The row that has simmered all summer about the decision of the Assembly Commission to stop producing a fully bilingual record of proceedings of Plenary meetings has generated a lot of heat and very little light. No more so than today. The Assembly Commission met this afternoon and offered a compromise. Not only did we agree to reinstate the bilingual record, though on a 3 to 10 day basis rather than within 24 hours, so as to deliver a more cost-effective service, but we also extended the present service by agreeing that in future all committee records in which legislation ...
It's five days since I was sent a copy of Nick Clegg's new Demos pamphlet The Liberal Moment. High time that I started reviewing it. Chapter 1 A couple of passages interest me here. At the core of progressive thought is the idea that we are on a journey forward to a better, and especially more socially just, society; it's a political ideology that stems from a restless, optimistic ambition for change and transformation. At the core of conservative thought is a determination to preserve, protect and defend. Conservatives are primarily governed by caution about the unintended consequences of change, ...
Hear it as it is from the man who in 2003 asked the then Chancellor Gordon Brown: Is not the brutal truth that with investment, exports and manufacturing output stagnating or falling, the growth of the British economy is sustained by consumer spending pinned against record levels of personal debt, which is secured, if at all, ...
Some weeks ago, the charity that I work for, RNID (The Royal National Institute for Deaf People' offered me a place on the Great North Run, the worlds biggest half marathon on the North East of England. The course takes in the route from Newcastle to South Shields and is one of the toughest half ...
Last month I floated the idea that winners of the Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year award were stricken by a curse. That was because, at the time of writing, only one of the three blogs to win the award was still being written. It seems I was on to something. Yesterday evening Himmelgarten Cafe won the 2009 award. Earlier this evening its writer, Costigan Quist, announced that the blog was closing down. A day is a long time in Liberal Democrat blogging.
I have today called for Scottish Government to indicate as soon as possible its decision on possible inclusion of Harris Academy in its intended secondary schools improvements programme through the Scottish Futures Trust. My previous update on feedback I received from the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning can be viewed by clicking on the headline above and today's news release is below : West End Councillor hopes for prompt decision on Harris Funding Bid Dundee Liberal Democrat Councillor for the West End, Cllr Fraser Macpherson, today said he hoped that any decision from Scottish Government on the possible ...
Whilst the LDV team is out tonight enjoying, in our various abstemious ways, the Liberal Drinks event at Bournemouth's Goat and Tricycle tonight, we thought we'd bring you the tape of last night's BOTY ceremony. Sadly the audio version can not to justice to the range of visual feasts the evening provided. Stephen's milliner will be most disappointed; the ice sculptors know their art is fleeting; and we have really only just rounded up all the flamingoes. [IMG: jgraham] But it was a striking evening for a number of reasons, as we hope the audio will show. Firstly the venue ...
I feel slightly sad at this conference. Not because of anything unhappy that's happened here, but for one simple reason. It's our last Federal Conference in Bournemouth for some years. Bournemouth is by a long way my favourite conference venue for many reasons – it's easy to find affordable accommodation just round the corner from ...
Day three at conference and the customers have been rolling through the photo ops. Today the queues were long for Simon Hughes with carbon footprints and the Guardian's 10:10 logo. The 2nd photo op today was with Tim Farron about fair trade and the lack of fair trade for British farmers from supermarket chains. That required an early morning trip to Tescos to buy some props for the event. Alas,
I left Birmingham for the conference after my advice bureau (as usual). It is good that we continue to concentrate on the issue of the tax threshold for people in work, but on low incomes.The government are in a financial mess. I have been trying to work out how they have been funding "quantative easing". Initially I thought it was funded directly, but it now looks like it is not funded. It
Just got back from a couple of days in Bournemouth. Over two days I have never had so many people approach me asking for money - also in the pubs I would be approached by someone who had clearly had a few. According to my taxi driver, this is a problem in Bournemouth. Advice is to avoid the area round the station and stick to crowded spots in the town. On a brighter note, the weather was good and lots of people enjoying themselves. Arcades have got a lot more bigger and modern since 1983 so I stick to what ...
Lord Ashcroft has managed to acquire a 57.5% stake in the ConservativeHome website. This is a huge shame. Although everyone realises that Con Home is very close to CCHQ it was, to all intents and purposes, independent and it felt comfortable in its role of questioning the official party line on events. I hope this doesn't change but I would not be surprised if the criticism of Cameron and Pickles on ConHome were to quiet down for a bit!
A review by Ferdinand Mount in the current London Review of Books (to be viewed by subscribers only, I am afraid) reveals that Arthur Ransome, when a boy, was taught to skate by the exiled Prince Kropotkin. More on Kropotkin at Birkdale Focus.
The World Motor Sport Council met this morning in Paris to decide the fate of the Renault F1 team after it as good as admitted that its former team principal, flamboyant Flavio Briatore, and his engineering director Pat Symonds, had left the team after ordering Nelson Piquet Jr to crash during last year's Singapore Grand Prix to give Fernando Alonso the advantage to win the race. The judgement came at lunchtime. Renault's culpability was deemed to merit being thrown out of the sport, but that this drastic sentence was suspended for two years, only to be enacted if they were ...
There are now many ways of getting your brain around Vince Cable's keynote speech. Read it on the party website. Hear our podcast below. See what ePolitix thinks – or the Guardian, for that matter. [IMG: vince-speech] There was much that was really important that jumped out at me from the speech – here are my favourite bits: We should not be taken in by the hysterical nonsense about the country being bankrupt. It isn't. The Tories are currently getting a free rein to slash budgets. Tories like cutting public expenditure, so the opportunity comes to them like manna from ...
[IMG: ed-fordham] This has been the highlight of my stay in Bournemouth so far - NO DOUBT. BACKGROUND : Victoria Derbyshire Show hosted a show from Bournemouth this morning with 200 guests from all walks of life and all political persuasions. So what happened? PART 1 : Nick Clegg arrives (around 41minutes into the programme on BBC iPlayer ). Victoria asks Nick to explain the new Lib Dem "Mansion Tax" policy and then takes questions from the audience.... "Mike" introduces himself as an unemployed local resident who lives in a house that is worth over £1million. He explains that he ...
The crowds are flooding through the doors. The good news is that they are leaving the hall ... because it's a sure sign of a party's financial state whether people are coming or going. Bad times: people come in. Good news: people leave. The vote: motion is overwhelmingly carried. Pete Dunphy summates on the motion: points out the increase is only a recommended one, and people can pay the same or less if they wish. However, it is important to raise funds for the general and local elections. Maureen de Beer: also opposes the increase, particularly in a time of ...
Conspiracy? Blackmail? The Curse of the BOTYs? Or just changing personal circumstances? I'm tempted, in the style of Derren Brown's lottery shenanigans, to write a massively long blog post explaining in great detail a possible conspiracy involving everyone from Vince Cable to Irfan Ahmed, Iain Dale to Mark Pack; before mentioning in the last sentence that, alternatively, I might just be too busy. For, having been placed third in the Total Politics poll of Lib Dem blogs and then winning Lib Dem Blog of the Year 2009, the Cafe is closing after just a year in business. I've swept the ...
Evening Standard blogger Paul Waugh has the story: Work and Pensions spokesman Steve Webb has indeed put his foot down to kill off Nick Clegg's suggestion (floated in the Guardian on Saturday) that the party could means-test child benefit. Webb made plain his feelings at a Fabian fringe event. Thanks to the NextLeft report of proceedings, we find out what Webb said: "We've been able to conduct the review speedily over the last 24 hours – and I am pleased to say that the policy won't be changing", "I read.....we were going to look at 'middle class child benefit'. I ...
Reader, it pains me to write this – especially as it means I'm partially agreeing with Iain Dale – but it needs saying. This is what Ed Davey, our shadow foreign secretary said yesterday in his speech to conference: ... it's time for tea with the Taleban – and tea with the multitude of local tribal Afghan insurgent leaders. When I first saw it reported that Ed had called for "tea with the Taleban", I assumed it was a paraphrase ad absurdum – a bit like David Cameron's 'hug a hoodie', a phrase he never actually uttered. But, no, I'm ...
Clegg and Cable are planning a tax on all homes whose value is over one million pounds. I see why the party would want to do this. It seems increasingly unfair that our tax system constantly seems to be skewed in favour of those who are better off. Although Sara Bedford makes a good point when she talks of our strong areas in the South that would be overtly affected by the change. Something that the party needs to bear in mind. Personally I think that this tax is a step in the right direction. Once again it shows that ...
A slightly more relaxed day on Sunday after a busy Saturday. Much time spent wandering about and catching up with folk, including people I haven't seen for a while from my days campaigning in Leicester and my time in youth and student politics. It has been a lovely few days weather wise and it has been nice to sit and chat. Much of the talk is about the big tax and spend decisins the party is facing and particularly about tuition fees. I did get along to the ALDC members' reception where we heard from both Vince and Nick. I ...
Savage and bold? Give me the bold and the beautiful anytime.
[IMG: libdems] Lot's more people in suits than I imagined. It seems the days of sandals and beards may well have passed. That or the Marriott hotel has a policy of preventing beardy sandal wearers entering the building. It's funny how many people look like Tories. If it wasn't for the lanyards, I really wouldn't have a clue. My intern is returning to derby now, so I'm sat in a bar with Liberal Visioner Sara Scarlett, who's every bit as feisty as you'd imagine, and sharp to boot and we're watching out for people we recognise. Have had a long ...
Just listened to a speech by deputy Leader Vince Cable, very inspirational, very thought out. He reminds me so much of Vincent de Paul who was also dedicated to serving the poor, and who is venerated as a saint. With him and Young Nick at the ...
Voted in lots of stuff yesterday, and went to the DELGA AGM, which was fab, but, of course, the main event was the Botties. Everyone who is anyone was there: Lynne Featherstone, Jo Swinson, Charlotte Gore, Helen Duffett... Oh yes, and some dodgy Tory guy who told me off for not booing loudly enough for him. I called every award right apart from non-Lib Dem blogger, which I thought would be Stuart Sharpe's, and the main one, which I was sure was Charlotte's, but in the end went to the lovely Mr Quist. I guess it's deserving, if somewhat predictable, ...
Tuesday morning sees the party's pre-manifesto document, A Fresh Start for Britain, up for debate. It's been a regular feature of recent Liberal Democrat conferences to have high-profile votes on tax and spend issues, and with the numerous announcements in the last few days, you might have expected the debate to feature another one. However, this time the tension between different policy outlooks in the party will not be resolved out in the open with a debate and vote. Instead, those who are keenest on protecting levels of public spending as far as possible have cleverly blocked in those who ...
Mark Littlewood is rated as the 47th most influential Liberal Democrat by Iain Dale in today's Telegraph - one place behind Daniel Radcliffe, the actor who plays kid wizard, Harry Potter!
Liberal Democrats put Freedom and Equality in the same setence. That is how we differ dramatically from both libertarians and liberal Conservatives (Cllr Robert-John Tasker please note) We don't believe in a completely free market, we don't believe that the self-interests of citizens will necessarily protect the vulnerable.So our commitment to individual liberties is always balanced by a concern for social justice. Vince Cable set his proposals for dealing with the economic problems well within this Liberal framework. No-one on the minimum wage should pay income tax. That would bring 4 million people out of the tax system. On the ...
I am on my third day of Lib Dem conference and am still really enjoying myself. Here are a few highlights from the last couple of days: Very good fringe session on "Moats, Mortgages and Mayhem" yesterday lunch time which included Guido Fawkes and Greg Dyke (former DG of the BBC). I also spent some time afterwards having a few drinks with Guido, Mark Littlewood, Nick Cohen of the Observer, Lynne Featherstone and various other Lib Dem bloggers. I certainly learnt a few things I didn't know before... Excellent training course on "How to build your personal brand". It sounds ...
Just received some risible Bradford Urban Regeneration Company blurbo about something called a "World Mile Festival" this weekend which sadly does not involve middle-distance running, but rather the usual community-based "entertainment" wrapped up with a rather more confusing name than before. Turns out the "World Mile" is what nobody except Bradford Regen's publicity department calls Quite Scabby Road, an area better known for hookers, smack, and radical Islam than for vibrant multicultural activity, and no amount of fancy rebranding is going to turn it into a northern equivalent of Brick Lane or even Leicester's "golden mile" along Belgrave Road in ...
When all the NW MEPs took up their seats in the European Parliament the BBC NW & National news chose to feature Nick Griffin & no one else. I complained & got the BBC party line about having to be impartial. Now we have Griffin on Question Time & I complained as follows "Once again we get the same old excuse about obligation to be even handed to a legitimate political party. Fair enough but does the BBC have to be in such a hurry to give Griffin air time? Chris Davies, Liberal Democrat MEP for NW England, has just ...
It does seem this year that the hashtag has landed this year. Hundreds of people are using twitter from conference. Hundreds of them are using the hashtag so that their thoughts can be shared with other similar users. But it's wider than that. People from other organisations are trying to use the hashtag to influence us, either from the voluntary orgs with stands at conference or from other parties trying to bait us into engaging with their views. Here are some examples from the conference. RNID are using twitter to entice delegates to their stands – but once the delegates ...
I've been hearing really great things about the Liberal Youth presence in Bournemouth. Apparently they are all over the place! On the radio everyday, on the BBC, making speechs on motions, making their voices heard at fringe events and pushing forward Liberal Youth policies on conference floor. This is a huge credit to an organisation that has come on leaps and bounds over the last year or two. We really need a radical youth movement to change the stale politics of the present. The one criticism I do have is the obvious disregard in which the leadership seem to hold ...
Reaffirming Mark Littlewood's stance, that it's David Cameron's soft and shallow support that we should be targeting, Alex Massie over at the Spectator notes that a truly liberal party would be one worth voting for - truly classical liberal that is!! Could you vote for the Liberal Democrats. Sometimes, you know, I wish I could. Then the Liberal Democrats come along to remind one how difficult it is to support them. But, in theory, could one vote for a truly liberal party? Of course one could. And would, if only one were so available. In Massie's Better Ordered Political Landscape ...
Following some attempted spam-trolling while I was at the weekend, it seems that it's time for me to state my comments policy here. IIRC, I've never had to do this before, but it only takes one person to spoil the fun. So here are the commenting rules: Don't be an arsehole. That's it. The definition of 'being an arsehole' is obviously up to me, but if you find yourself asking the question 'am I being an arsehole?' then you probably are. We now return you to your regular blogging, or stay for a bit of comedy if you prefer: Sweet ...
Polly Toynbee is quite right to say that the Lib Dems "need to shout a louder green message... to recapture the green vote" (The Guardian 19 Sep 2009). That's partly the fault of Nick Clegg, who hasn't done enough to lead from the front on the single biggest issue facing the human race. It wasn't one of his priorities when he became leader and it isn't enough of a priority now. It's also because the Lib Dems have struggled to find an environmental spokesman to put the message across loudly enough. The current incumbent, Simon Hughes, is a heavyweight politician ...
Vince Cable's speech to the conference was awesome. Go and watch it. In particular, his suggestion of a government sponsered investment fund to ensure that people get good returns on their savings and that renewable energy businesses get the investment they need really took me off guard, and in a good way! We are clearly now the ...
Welsh Liberal Democrats have today launched a radical set of policy proposals to reinvent the Welsh transport system. During the Lib Dem UK Conference in Bournemouth, the party's Shadow Minister for Transport, Jenny Randerson AM launched the proposals, which will be debated by the party's Welsh Conference in October. The document: The Road to Rail - Getting Wales on the right track includes proposals for a major shift in resources towards the Welsh rail network from the current ballooning roads budget. Other proposals include scrapping the expensive regional rail consortia in favour of Joint Transport Authorities owned and operated by ...
As I wrote on Saturday, Liberal Democrat Voice is helping two academics do a survey of the readers of political blogs. If you've not yet done the survey, it would be great if you could spare a few minutes to complete it. Thank you!
To anyone looking to criticise Nickers, Vince and the gang over our developing policies in advance of the General Election can I just refer you to the high profile coverage on the Today programme this morning, to the fact that my newspaper had a LD story on the front page and to the fact that the radio opiate of the middle class masses, Classic FM, has led its news bulletins throughout today with a report on Vince's speech to the conference today. It's time to can all the policy debate and step lithely behind the leader as we walk slowly ...
John Harris is all over the Guardian website giving the world his - largely unflattering - view of the Liberal Democrat Conference. It's time to remind ourselves that Harris is not a rock journalist with a silly haircut who has turned his attention to politics later in life. For, in a piece on Hazel Blears that he published in the Guardian in May, Harris wrote:I first encountered Hazel Blears in 1985, when she was a 29-year-old solicitor and Labour councillor with frizzed-up hair and Ben Elton glasses, and I was a Thatcher-hating 15-year-old. We initially met in the Cheshire town ...
Today's BBC2 Daily Politics is touting a highly misleading poll by ComRes feigning to know which of the other two main parties – Labour or the Tories – Lib Dem members would wish to shack up with in the event of a hung Parliament where the party holds the balance of power. The Guardian reports it here: Liberal Democrat activists would overwhelmingly prefer their party to enter a coalition government with Labour rather than the Tories, according to a poll published today. Fewer than one in five said that they would want to see Nick Clegg team up with the ...
Should we be a party that is hellbent on living out our days in obscurity, or should we be a party that can actually be taken seriously by the electorate? I'm certainly for the latter, but quite clearly there are a great deal of people within the party afraid of making the bold decisions necessary to enable this party to progress to a position where we can actually make a difference for the very people we're fighting for. I want to make explicitly clear at this point that I believe education is the single most important tool that the government ...
The BBC reports that democrats have made gains in Macau's legislative elections. As someone who believes strongly that allowing people to rule themselves is one of the cornerstones of human development, I'm happy about this small but significant gain. It does raise some questions though. Will this gain for the democracy movement be translated into a hunger for democracy among Macau's people? Until that hunger is there and until there is a desire to constantly review and assess the way in which they are governed, then democracy cannot effectively exist. If there is one lesson we have learned from the ...
Tim Hames' hilarious speech to Lib Dems in PR about mess-ups at The Times brought back happy memories of when I edited 4-Tel, Channel 4's teletext. My favourite mistake was putting up the wrong Lottery numbers on 4-Tel, so that someone might well have thought that they had become a millionaire when actually they'd won nothing. My next favourite was when I wrote "Some old waffle here" on a page that was intended to be filled by a colleague, and she put it up unexpurgated on 4-Tel's main contents page. My colleagues on an ITV teletext service achieved another classic. ...
So, I must still be at conference because my feet are killing me and my head's splitting. I don't know what these things are usually like. I got up at 5am and began the epic journey down to Bournemouth, stopping about half way to pick up my intern for the day, Stuart Sharpe (nominated for Best Non-Lib Dem blog at the BOTYS). I was going to show him the ropes and pretend that the life of a blogger is both glamorous and exciting. Well, so we arrived, got parked then found ourselves running up a very steep hill trying to ...
The Daily Mail has the story. More worryingly, why are people paying £6,000 for a pet!
For twenty five years we've had redundant nuclear submarines in Rosyth Dockyard. Yet despite endless promises about future disposal they are still with us and look set to remain there for many years to come if the latest news is of significance. Two top advisers have been sacked in what seems to be a deep dispute in the team taking forward the planned disposal programme. I've taken up the matter with the MOD and want answers. Above all else what's vital is that we put an end to this endless deliberation of the options. One sub has already developed three ...
What a bizarre experience it is to find oneself in the middle of the LD conference and to actually hear about it in the meejah. I was hosing myself down this morning and I switched on the Today programme for the valedictory and normally pointless argument at the end. To my surprise I found Steve Richards and Matthew Parris discussing the LDs in a mature way. Well, up to a point: they were discussing the conference and Steve Richards was making some very sound comments while Matthew Parris spouted Conservative Central Office's line that there is no difference between us ...
No time for a proper entry on this – dashing between meetings – but the news that Ed Balls plans to cut £2b from schools funding has left me incensed. It's almost hard to say this – but Blair was right when he stressed how important education was, is, and will be – and ...
This morning Nick and Vince visited a foundry in Poole. Fabulous photos.
The Con Trick (as Nick Clegg named it) by Cameron and Pickles trying to position the Tories as the Progressive Party reminds me of Johnny Washy's Old Sloshy. Johnny Walker's whisky company takes great care to crack down on people trying to pass of duff products as the real think with misleading labelling, and their museum of counterfeits has exhibits of many of these. By some weird process, this caught up an obscure brand of shampoo called Johnny Washy's and so on, which apparently had an understandably brief career as an after-dinner drink trading on a misleading label design.. It ...
Mon 21st
11:21
Stunning royal jewels discovered and saved for the North East thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund
Stunning royal jewels discovered and saved for the North East thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund The Heritage Lottery Fund has today awarded £274,400 to help Redcar and Cleveland Council showcase the life and death of a royal Saxon princess,whose grave was uncovered in an East Cleveland farmer's field. A collection of rare Anglo- Saxon jewellery that was found at the grave in Streethouse, Loftus will now be kept and displayed at the Kirkleatham Museum. Some of the pieces from the collection are associated with a rare Anglo-Saxon 'bed burial' in which a female body is laid out on a ...
Never let it be said that I can't 'do' technology. And so, without further ado, my first video. Apologies for any camera shake - I was sober... I admit to being surprised that Mark didn't win the award for best posting, having probably written the most successful 'weather making' posting I can recall. But then, winning any of the awards is an increasingly impressive achievement in any event...
I have just spoken at Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth on the issue of MP expenses. Here is what I said: Most people don't have an expense account, never have, never will. Those relatively few that do are used to proper checking and monitoring as a matter of course. I ran large teams at director level in both the public and private sectors, I used to stress to my teams that every taxi journey, every fancy meal, every overnight was made on the back of some poor person up a telegraph pole or down a hole, driving a truck or ...
For once, the media reporting of what party activists at conference are discussing is accurate – Nick Clegg's decision to question the affordability of the Lib Dems' long-held policy of abolishiong university tuition fees, and his talk of the need for the party to be "quite bold, or even savage, on current spending" is the talk of the town. The Financial Times today quotes some high-level criticism of Nick's approach: One MP said Mr Clegg sounded "nastier than the Tories" and that he was "salivating" over the chance to cut the state. Others complained that Mr Clegg and Vince Cable, ...
The Daily Telegraph is publishing its list of the top 50 most influential Liberal Democrats, starting today with numbers 50-26. Congratulations are due to Mark Pack, of the LDV parish, for his appearance at No. 42, happily sandwiched between Watford Mayor Dorothy Thornhill (43) and Blog of the Year winner Jo Swinson (41): 42 (-6) Mark Pack Former head of innovations, LibDem HQ Mark Pack is a key player in the Lib Dem blogosphere and one of the main contributers to the successful Liberal Democrat Voice blog, on which he plays the part of attack dog, with a constant stream ...
Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman (or Shadow Foreign Secretary, as he is termed in keeping with the party's rather grandiose way of refering to its frontbench team) gave by far his best speech to an autumn conference yesterday, with a tour d'horizon of prime foreign affairs issues. Most noteworthy was his signalling ...
A round-up of more media coverage from conference here in Bournemouth: Nick Clegg faces backlash over weakened pledge on university fees Richard Dawkins condemns British libel laws Lib Dems are a 'radical party of power' says Nick Nick Clegg tries to talk his way out of trouble after call for 'savage' cuts David Laws: You Ask The Questions And finally, something to file in the "It makes you proud to have media like that in our country" corner. The Times runs a serious piece in education in this country and what we might be able to learn from Sweden. And ...
Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council is currently undertaking Statutory Consultation on its Building Schools for the Future plans. The consultation which runs until Sunday 25th October, focuses on the following proposals: *to discontinue Gillbrook College and expand Eston Park School *to discontinue St Peter's Catholic College of Maths and Computing, South Bank and expand Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Voluntary Aided School - A Specialist Science College, Redcar *to discontinue Freebrough Specialist Engineering College. An Academy at Freebrough is planned. This will be subject to a proposal by the Secretary of State. This will not affect the day to day operation ...
Trying to find out a bit more about how to get parking permits for local residents today.
Welcome to the start of this week's LDV Daily Views, coming to you today, live, from a hotel room somewhere in Bournemouth ... 2 Must-Read Stories Lib Dem plan for £1m-property tax As LDV's Alix Mortimer hinted last night, today will see Lib Dem shadow chancellor Vince Cable announce plans to the party conference for a tax on owners of £1m-plus homes, using the proceeds to help low-paid workers. Here's the BBC report: Treasury spokesman Vince Cable will announce plans for a 0.5% annual levy on the most expensive homes, raising £1bn, at the party conference later. He told the ...
Sometimes Parliament turns its mind to predicting the bovine future, as happened in March 1973: I have never seen a purple cow, but we may yet see it. Thank you, Norman Buchan. Liked this story? Find other gems from Hansard on my archive page for this series of posts. Related posts:Hansard gems: Roundabout safety The government never sleeps, or so it would seem from...Hansard gems: What's the shortest sentence someone has served for murder? It's December 1993 and Labour is looking for ways to...Hansard gems: Is the horse an agricultural animal? I may think I know the answer to this ...
A quick reminder that I am on Victoria Derbyshire's show on BBC Radio 5 Live today to be part of a panel at the Lib Dem Conference. I think the format is that they will keep coming back to us asking us questions every now and then during the programme. I am scheduled to be there from 10:00am until about 11:30am. Please do tune in if you get the chance or you can listen to it on the iPlayer after it has been broadcast. UPDATE: It turned out that apart from the MPs/PPCs the other invitees were closer to the ...
Redcar and Cleveland Council is ready to start maintenance work on stretches of four major roads across the Borough, including grass cutting, gully cleaning, sign maintenance, street lighting maintenance, litter picking and road repairs. The timetable for the weekend working, which will involve lane closures, but no road closures, is: A171 Swans Corner Roundabout to Guisborough Road Roundabout: Saturday, October 3 - fast lanes, Sunday, October 4 - slow lanes. A1085 ICI West Gate to Kirkleatham Lane: Saturday, October 10 - slow lanes, Sunday, October 11 - fast lanes. A174 Greystones Roundabout to Redcar Lane Roundabout: Saturday, October 17 - ...
Congratulations to: Best new Liberal Democrat Blog (started since 1st September 2008) Mark Reckons by Mark ThompsonBest blog from a Liberal Democrat holding public office (The Tim Garden Award) Lee Green Councillor by Brian RobsonBest use of blogging/social networking/e-campaigning by a Liberal Democrat Jo Swinson MP for her live-tweeting from Parliament, plus engaging with the public through Facebook and websiteBest posting on a Liberal Democrat blog (since 1st September 2008) Parliament, The Telegraph and Jo Swinson by James GrahamBest non-Liberal Democrat politics blog Slugger O'TooleLiberal Democrat Blog of the Year Himmelgarten Cafe by Costigan Quist.More at Liberal Democrat Voice.
Today's Independent bears the news that Nick Clegg is 'turning his fire on the super-rich', with a proposed extra tax on homes worth over £1 million. Now my local authority Three Rivers has the 7th highest proportion of Band H homes in the country (only Kensington & Chelsea, Westminster, South Bucks, Chiltern, Elmbridge and Camden ...
Just a quickie to note that BBC Breakfast ran a story this morning about the demise of local newspapers. The bare-faced cheek of the BBC to run the whole story with out mentioning its own role in it is simply staggering. The BBC would have us believe that local papers are going out of business because of ..... (wait for it....) the increasing number of independent websites competing for local attention. How on earth they found a spokesperson for local newspapers that did not point the finger at the BBC is beyond me. But hey -thats the BBC for you. ...
Last weekend, Roald Dahl Day was celebrated for the first time in the USA. A bigger event maybe for some Americans was the 9-12 Tea Party. Or was it? As usual with demonstrations, the organisers talk up the crowds, the police talk them down and most news channels get a good guess from informal sources. Most ...
Well it was good whilst it lasted but now I have to get onto the road, leave Liberal Democrat Conference behind, and get back to Cardiff Bay where I have an Assembly Commission meeting this afternoon discussing, amongst other things, the future of the bi-lingual record of proceedings for Plenary meetings. The Presiding Officer has already trailled that there may be a compromise on this issue and Betsan Powys has had a stab at guessing what it may be. I am not in a position to comment until after the meeting especially as decisions have not yet been taken. I ...
As usual Welsh Liberal Democrats are playing an active part in Conference both in the main hall and on the fringe. This first video is of Kirsty summing up on the debate on devolution yesterday morning: Later in the day Mike German summed up the motion that made the Liberal Democrats the only party to have official policy on a way forward in respect of the Severn barrage: In the evening Lembit Opik MP went onto the fringe to call for the renationalisation of the railways, which is apparently already Welsh Liberal Democrat policy. The Federal Party debates a motion ...
It would seem an opportune moment, just before the conference season fully gets underway, to make sure our Monster's Poll is bang up to date. The sad thing is that the pace of polling is so poor at the moment that our calculations are still being skewed by some seriously old polls. But, there has been ...
We are all at the Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth. It's pretty hectic. So far, I've only been able to make quick notes on the issues and events that I have myself attended, which is why my bloggings are all here, on Freethinking Economist.
[IMG: libdem-conference-delegates] A ComRes poll released today by the BBC's Daily Politics show, asked LibDem councillors two questions - who would they favour us supporting in the event of a hung Parliament and do they think the expenses scandal has harmed LibDem chances? On the expenses scandal, 12% thought their LibDem MP/PPC had been damaged and 78% didn't. On the question of which party we should support in government if we held the balance of power in a hung Parliament, 31% said Labour and 16% said the Tories (a "neither" option was not on offer, so the rest are in ...
Last night saw the annual Lib Dem Blog of the Year awards. The Welsh had a number of nominations and confidently expected not to win a single one. We were proved right, there was some spectacular competition – especially in the form of the winner of best new Liberal Democrat Mark Reckons and blog of the year, Costigan Quist. A really big thank you to those people who nominated us (Lib Dem and otherwise) and to the team at Lib Dem Voice for organising it. Though I echo James Graham's call for a new venue and add that we need ...
Liberal Vision's Angela Harbutt is on Radio 5 from 10am to 1pm today - live from the Bournemouth conference.
When I was selected to be the Liberal Democrats' prospective parliamentary candidate (ppc) for Plymouth Moor View last month, I promised to publish a pledge on openness. Well, it's just been released, and here it is: I would publish full details of my expenses every year on my website. As my constituency would be outside London, I would need accommodation near the House of Commons to do my job effectively. I would not make a personal profit from this accommodation, and I would only claim the expenses that any normal businessperson would claim when staying away from home on business. I ...
Sunday: ...and it WAS! Just kidding! [IMG: Posted by Picasa] No, the cloaked figure of Wicked Uncle Costigan has just dropped by to collect our congratulations and his embossed glass ashtray before slipping away into the night, leaving only a set of treasury projections and a guide to British Bee Keeping to show he was ever even here. Yes, we have been at the Liberal Democrat Blogger of the Year awards, sponsored by the Local Government Association for not-enough-money-to-pay-the-bar-tab, presented by Mr Former Lord Deputy Mayor Stephen, in the presence of Dale Winton, for "Come As Someone You're Not, Night!" ...
It is often easier to get a perspective on what is going on at a conference if you are viewing it from outside. My colleague Simon Shaw emails me from Birkdale observing that it is hardly surprising that Vince Cable is one of the stars in Bournemouth this week. He is reminded of a very interesting article in last Wednesday's Times, headlined "Voters tip their hats to trusty Mr Cable". It reported that Vince Cable is the politician most trusted by the general public in a recent 1500-strong opinion poll conducted by Populus. To quote: "By contrast Vince Cable, the ...
...lots of leaflets! Yes, because to win an election one must also deliver an awful lot of leaflets, that's an unadorned truth of local politics and reason of this appeal directed at everyone who thinks that Lewisham Council needs a change. Yes, you too. Don't leave it to someone else. The Labour Party receives fat checks from ...
As promised last night, a thicker vegetable soup. This one is ideal when you come back from an autumnal walk or fireworks display, and freezes particularly well. 30g butter 1 medium onion, peeled and chopped 1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped 1 medium potato peeled and cut into chunks 500g vegetables (e.g. carrot, leek, parsnip, celeriac), prepared and roughly chopped 1 bouquet ...
And I'm dead chuffed to find out (via a text from Will ) that I've won the Tim Garden Award for the Best Blog by a Lib Dem Holding Public Office. I just got back from Burlington today, and haven't made it to Bournemouth yet so couldn't pick up the award in person - though Will tells me he made an erudite speech on my behalf... James has made me feel old by pointing out it's nine years almost to the day since he recruited me to the Lib Dems at a freshers' fair in Leeds. He won best blog ...
George Osborne, the Tories' shadow chancellor, is in hot water because he claimed that Labour has secret plans, revealed in leaked treasury documents, to raise another £50 billion in income tax by 2013/2014. In fact, the supposedly confidential figures were actually published in last spring's budget. This shows how clever the Labour party has been. They did publish their plans, but in a place nobody would ever think of looking at. Who in their right mind would think of looking in a budget for spending plans? George Osborne made one other mistake. He assumed that, because Labour plan to raise ...
