Welcome to this month's selection of the best in Liberal blogging - or the best in North American Liberal blogging, to be precise. As this carnival's occasional token British host, every now and then I get an unrivalled opportunity to catch up with what is happening on the other side of the Atlantic. The rules have changed since the last time I did this. These days I have to choose the best 10 posts from those nominated and then list all the rest that have been nominated this month (apart from those from the lady who sent in 15 different ...
It's either a flash of genius, or it will make no difference at all, but I think I may have fixed the input page problem by the simple step of telling Flock Together not to display the right hand column on the 'add meeting' page. If you're logged in, you can create a meeting here and create a by-election here.
I've never been able to understand why Help! is critically regarded as one of the Beatles' weaker efforts. Yes, it's a slightly hazy album, due to it being the first since the Beatles discovered marijuana, and it accompanies a film that's usually regarded as not very good (though I think it's far better than people ...
Sat 28th
22:25
Hypocritical Tories - Zac Goldsmith admits to being a 'non-dom' and avoiding paying tax in UK
Another week and another Tory being a complete hypocrite shock, this week it is the turn of Zac Goldsmith who has finally admitted being a 'non-dom', short for non-domicile tax status, enabling him to avoid paying sums of tax on his estimated £200million personal fortune. David Cameron's green advisers disclosure further risks embarrassing the Conservative party, he confirmed that he is a "non-dom" who can legitimately escape paying tax on his inheritance from his late father, Sir James Goldsmith. Much of it is held offshore to The Sunday Times. Zac Goldsmith, who is the Tory candidate in Richmond Park has ...
Finally, oh finally the Scottish media are starting to criticise the SNP minority government just a little more as the gloss comes off, instead of standing scared on the sidelines of the SNP bullies. Now we see the SNP getting stroppy and threatening to take control of schools in a war of words between the SNP minority government and the councils over plummeting teacher numbers. For around twelve or so months Scottish councils have been starting to realise that the concordat was a con and that despite the First Minister and his ministerial team treating all the council leaders and ...
[IMG: derwentside-car-park-sign.jpg] Out and about today I spotted this sign which has clearly escaped the county's replacement team. As I still have the last of my three spare Owen Temple CDs available to give away (see "the other Owen Temple" link on the left of the page) I am offering it to the first sharp eyed reader of this website who can name the site on which the offending memento of our former district council can be found. The lucky winner will receive Owen's "Passing Through" CD, recorded on the El Paisano label in 1999. And if you know the ...
I am not the greatest fan of Lloyd Daniels on X Factor and assumed that he would be almost guaranteed to go out this week. To be fair, he was a whole lot better this week sort of summed up by the words : "Don't you know I'm still standing better than I ever did Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid I'm still standing after all this time" That said, not a patch on the 1983 Elton version. Stacey Solomon's first song was weak ...
Following on from my previous blog article, Councillor Owen and I stopped to inspect The Langworthy Hotel - this superb example of 19th century architecture is now destined for demolition by Salford Council, who purchased the property in 2000. After several failed attempts to secure investors and sell it to developers, the decision seems to have been made to level it. Rather strange, considering this page from Salford City Council's own website (which was recently updated) states "We believe that this building (and land), its location, architectural attributes and close ties to the local community provide the essential requirements to ...
This afternoon I took advantage of a break in the torrential rain to join the Liberal Democrat's parliamentary candidate for Salford & Eccles, Councillor Norman Owen and Weaste & Seedley Councillor John Deas for a few hours. We toured both Langworthy and Weaste & Seedley wards to examine some of the problems in our areas, but it was also great to talk to local residents and hear, first hand, what the main issues are. [IMG: Dodd Street potholes] Our first stop was Dodd Street where there are more potholes than actual flat road surface. As you can see from the ...
This afternoon, I had the pleasure of attending the official re-opening of St Peter's Free Church in St Peter Street. As Rev David Robertson, Minister at St Peter's, said : "We have developed the building so that it can be used as a conference and concert facility as well. We gave the architects a particular remit - to retain the historical whilst providing modern contemporary facilities." The councillors present at the re-opening today were invited to say a few words - and I made the point that, having last visited the church during the building works when the church was ...
The West End Christmas Week ended earlier today with the Blackness Primary School Christmas Fair and West End Shoppers' Day. As the photo (right) shows, the fair was very well attended and the school very kindly distributed West End Shoppers' Day flyers that Clem Broumley-Young had produced to advertise the many numerous offers that local shops in the West End were promoting today. Thanks again to all who made West End Christmas Week 2009 such a great success!
Slow but steady progress is all I can report. I'm slightly puzzled to get a circular letter from the local authority saying they will make an appointment for me to see one of their physiotherapists will contact me within four weeks to make an assessment of my needs, because if I need anything apart from the exercises the hospital prescribed, it would surely be a good idea to get on with it. I'm still doing the same exercises, going out for short walks, and moving about the house, and I suppose that five weeks after the accident the bone must ...
What is without doubt the best national bookshop in the UK, Borders, has been placed in administration. If you click on the Borders UK website, you will be seeing the following message: Philip Duffy, Geoff Bouchier and David Whitehouse of MCR have been appointed joint administrators of Borders (UK) Limited ("the Company"). Borders (UK) Limited has 45 ...
An hilarious clip from the David Letterman Show, featuring Robin Williams on Sarah Palin.
The need to reform the Electoral System was underlined by a number of us on the Liberal Democrat benches in the House of Lords.The possibility of it being included in the Queen's Speech was always minimal but we dared to hope.. We are still living in an age with a system that goes back 200 years. We are trying to run a modern democracy on a dinosaur of a system. In 1832, the Great Reform Act just doubled the electorate from half a million to 1 million. In 1867, the electorate was increased to 2.5 million. In 1884, agricultural workers ...
Liberator subscribers have already received the latest edition of Liberator magazine (issue no.336 - November 2009). For those of you not yet subscribing, here's a summary of the contents: • The editorial column Commentary predicts that the Liberal Democrats will soon have to clarify whether they believe Britain should pull out of Afghanistan. • The insider gossip column Radical Bulletin analyses the context of the 'mansion tax' debacle. • Our lead article 'Happier, healthier... Why equality matters' is written by Richard Wilkinson (emeritus professor of social epidemiology at the University of Nottingham Medical School). He summarises the arguments in his latest book, written ...
The full details of the 2008 Annual Opinion Survey of Birmingham residents was published last month. It was undertaken by BMG Research on behalf of Be Birmingham. I'm not sure why its taken so long to get the full report published (the fieldwork took place between September and November 2008) but it is a huge document, with lots of interesting details. Around 250 residents in each of Birmingham's 10 constituencies took part in the Survey through a face to face interview. Overall satisfaction of respondents with their local area as a place to live rose to 86% from 79% in ...
When I was reminded that today is the anniversary of Margaret Thatcher's resignation as Prime Minister, my first thought was "How do we celebrate?" And I will be raising a glass tonight in memory of having finally got rid of her as PM. But overall I think it's occasion for a more sober and reflective reaction. Because although we got rid of her, we didn't get rid of her legacy. We didn't then and we still haven't now. She did some good things - freeing up the economy in general was a good thing. She went too far in this. ...
Then join the new LibDem Media Watch ACT group. Liberal England has already encouraged people to join and I want to add to that call. I think this is the single most important (low-impact) thing activists of the armchair* or non-armchair variety can do. Currently there are 5o members, every single member of ACT (currently >1000) should be on it. Our media coverage/treatment is, in my opinion, the last big barrier for us (the final frontier), we have the right principles, policies and people (again in my opinion) but it's just getting our message across. Yes, it might not make ...
Met with UpRise (London United Against Racism Festival) a group formed to reinstate the Rise Festival that Boris scrapped as one of his first acts to bring London together and spread the love. This was an annual anti-racist, free, music festival in Finsbury Park each summer. It was indeed supported by that spawn of the devil (as far as Boris is concerned) ex-Mayor Ken - which may be the reason that Boris pulled the plug on it. However, at the risk of extending the 'plug' analogy - it plugged a good message - and it is a shame that Boris ...
I have made the point in previous posts that the US revolution was substantially a Whig revolution. In a recent speech Dan Hannon, Conservative MEP, described the same event as a conservative revolution. In an article I have just discovered by Tim Baldwin there is plenty of evidence to suggest it was the triumph of Whig philosophy and not conservatism. As Baldwin points out, it all comes down to how you define your labels but worth a read even if one doesn't agree with everything he says.
PETER SCOTT'S BIRD SANCTUARYYour browser does not support iframes. Back in the summer I visited Peter Scott's old home in the East lighthouse at the mouth of the River Nene near Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire. Click on the photograph above and you will go to newsreel footage of Scott, his home and the wildfowl he conserved there.
As some of my readers will know, I work at RNID (The Royal National Institute for Deaf People) in London as a Project Manager in the Design Studio. One of the biggest (if not THE biggest) project that we work on in the year is the annual impact report where we tell the world all ...
'Generation Kill' has just been shown on Channel 4. It was created by those behind 'The Wire' and is as intense and challenging as that superb piece of television. The show follows the marines of first recon as they make their way through Iraq. The characterisation and scripts are brilliant. But one would expect nothing less from David Simon and Ed Burns. What makes the show so worth watching is its non-judgemental view of what it is like for a group of young American marines to invade a country. Along the way, we witness some awful tragedies and very dubious ...
The fool, Sir Liam Donaldson, who regularly every Thursday magnifies his stupidity by either stating the bleeding obvious about flu or contradicts something he said a few weeks before, further underlined just how poor our government have been in dealing with what is a very mild flu, by announcing that in the last month, just one million people have been vaccinated. In simple terms, we have had around 5 million doses delivered to the UK, but have only managed to inject 20% of them. And if we keep up with the current rate, it will take 60 months to vaccinate ...
You know the sort of thing – it happens all the time. After a happy holiday at home with your family, you feel like a breather at 2.25am and get into your car and drive out of your property. Then, all of a sudden, you find that someone has very inconveniently built a pavement and a fire hydrant, and planted a tree on the side of the road just outside your pad.....like about thirty years ago. So, naturally enough, you drive into them. Easily done. Fortunately help is at hand. Your ever-faithful wife had the forethought to follow you out ...
So, the Chilcott Iraq War Inquiry begins? Are we in anyway to expect anything different from any other inquiries that have gone before it? I don't think we will. You see, this government of ours has a frightful habit of stifling the truth in any way when it looks as though anything damming will be ...
That's the contention of Helen Rumbelow in Friday's Times: ... although Vince has been popping up in the news all week — as the Liberal Democrat's Shadow chancellor has for most weeks of the year — soon his duties will take him to the North Pole. The children's gain is our loss. For in our turbulent times, Vince brings comfort. We put our collective faith in Vince. I see it everywhere. In worrisome debates on the credit crunch TV presenters get tetchy with bankers, party leaders and financial gurus. But as soon as the bald grandpa with the twinkly current ...
The Liberal Democrats have launched ACT. Is is networking site for party members and those sympathetic to the party and liberalism. After the success of the Obama campaign during the US presidential election, it was clear that all three UK parties were going to create social media sites. The Conservatives and Labour have already done so. Membership of all three parties has been on the decline for a number of years, so setting up a tool that allows people to get involved with a party without joining makes a lot of sense. That is the first thing I would judge ...
When my husband and I met and fell in love 22 years ago, there was little doubt that we would eventually get married. It actually happened a lot sooner than we thought, just over a year later, and the only barrier that ever really got in the way of us establishing that legal and social partnership was my mother losing her lip gloss and me nearly being late for the ceremony. Thankfully, it miraculously appeared, order, and lip shine were restored and Bob and I were able to plight our troth. Actually, thinking about it, it took an age to ...
Cartoon by Marian Kamensky.
From the BBC website: John Demjanjuk is due to stand trial in Germany accused of helping to murder more than 27,000 Jews at the Nazi death camp of Sobibor in occupied Poland. The BBC's Steve Rosenberg returns to the site of the camp with one man who survived its horrors. Holocaust Survivor's Testimony
This week has been a good week for further breaking down the taboo of depression as an illness. Fern Britton is in the news for admitting (although it seems she originally did so years ago) taking anti-depressants. And there was a fantastically good programme on BBC1 called Mind Games: Depression in Sport. I recommend watching it on iPlayer if you haven't seen it. The list of sports people mentioned in the programme, as having suffered from depression, was long and star-studded: Frank Bruno, Serena Williams, Stan Collymore, Kelly Holmes, Paul Gascoigne, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Marcus Trescothick... Add to that list the ...
...Just sighing upon taking a break from a mammoth task I have set myself: to put 450 digital photos in albums of the physical old-fashioned type. The other day I looked through a few of our old fashioned photo albums from before the days of digital photography. It made me realise how important it is to assemble family photos in a physical album, how it makes it so easy and enjoyable to look at them years later. Otherwise, they are rather inaccessible and, potentially, lost on the computer. However many slide show gizmoes are created (and we have quite a ...
Despite promises to do so leading Tories have failed to find funding for a replacement bandstand for Andover. Assurances given at successive Andover forums were forgotten as the council's cabinet voted to allocate cabinet funds to other projects including last minute additions to the budget program for projects in Romsey. I raised this at Thursday's full council meeting when I was told that the bid would be reconsidered next year and that no attempt had been made to find private funding to help replace the demolished building. . [IMG: bandstand-comes-down.jpg] Romsey's successful bandstand was built with private funding topped up ...
Test Valley Borough Council have finally given in and approved plans which will lead to a town council for Andover Andover's Lib Dem councillors have been calling for this since 1988. The change of heart came after two successive yes votes in consultations carried out across the town. I welcome the decision which puts local decision-making back where it belongs - with local people. I and my Lib Dem colleagues all voted yes for the proposals which were opposed by just two councillors. We had two clear yes votes and must respect the voters views. Andover has a great future ...
Seasonal affective disorder...winter blues? It's that time of year when the hedgehogs hibernate and some of us feel like snuggling under the duvet. What I didn't realise is that so many are effected - and women more so. Back to the serotonin and melatonin. Those pesky bodies of ours. Light lamps, walks at lunchtime walks and smiles - I'm sure they have their part to play. Time to put the christmas decs out - will that do for now?!
The Cheadle Area Committee meets on Tuesday 1st December, 6pm at the Ladybridge Residents Club, Edenbridge Road, Cheadle Hulme. All welcome to come along. There's one planning application up for consideration: DC043046, the erection of 5 no. three-storey mews houses at 176 Kingsway (this is on the Kingsway service road, South Park Road Estate). Other issues on the agenda include amending the parking restrictions on Chapel Street, Cheadle and discussion about parking on pavements. You can view and download the agenda here (PDF, 2.2MB) .
Away from the furore about Christmas lights, there is another lighting issue which needs our attention here in Redlands. A message from a female student this morning reminded me that our campaign for better street-lighting in the streets on the edge of Reading University campus needs to be revived. She was complaining that street-lighting around campus was very poor and was there anything that could be done about it... I launched this campaign two years ago almost to the day calling for the out-dated (and inefficient) 'orange-glow' lighting to be replaced. This was one of the first campaigns my friend ...
The Welsh Assembly Commission has once more set the pace on reforming allowances for elected politicians by launching a consultation on legislation that will take control of pay and allowances out of our hands and give it to an independent remuneration body instead. The measure, which will go before an Assembly Committee for scrutiny shortly proposes: The establishment of a five-member remuneration board; The transfer of responsibility for AMs' salaries, allowances and pensions from the National Assembly for Wales to the board; The selection of potential board members by the clerk of the Assembly, with appointments made by the Assembly ...
Just in case you are thinking of voting Tory at the next election, then reflect on this. They intend to put control of all of London's policing into the hands of Boris Johnson. I feel safer already!
As of Friday 27 November 2009 The next stage of the swine flu vaccination programme has now been confirmed by the Chief Medical Officer. Once patients in the initial priority groups have been vaccinated, GPs will be writing to parents of children between 6 months and 5 years inviting them to attend a clinic for their child to receive a vaccination. We are told that the under 5s are particularly prone to catching flu and other similar viruses and so it is important that parents take up the opportunity to have their child vaccinated when it is offered. More information ...
There's no prize at stake - just the opportunity to prove you're wittier than any other LDV reader ... [IMG: nick and vince] Here's the Lib Dem leadership duumvirate of Nick Clegg and Vince Cable - what do you think they might be saying to each other, or thinking about each other? The winner of last week's caption competition, Nick Clegg's microscope, (according to The Voice's judging panel of one) - was Alex Foster, with a highly commended placing to Joe Taylor Condliffe.
This morning's Western Mail reports on complaints from Liberal Democrat MPs that the UK Border Agency (UKBA) is treating Assembly Members as "second class" politicians last night for refusing to take representations from Cardiff Bay. The UKBA, which enforces immigration and customs regulations, will only deal directly with MPs and Members of the Scottish Parliament. This is despite the fact that all other UK Government agencies open up their MP's hotlines to members of the devolved bodies in recognition of the fact that we receive a diverse range of casework from people often reluctant to go to an MP or ...
I took a walk down the Sandy Lonnen a few days ago. It is now just an old track between Whickham and Sunniside but is part of a longer medieval road. The purpose of the walk was to pick some wild berries. What I found in addition to them was not a welcome sight. People had dumped their garden waste and rubble from building extensions. You have to wonder about the scumbags who do this sort of
Welcome to the latest LDVideo instalment, featuring three of the most memorable video clips doing the rounds on the blogosphere. First up, is a rather catchy little email ditty in honour of Lord Mandelson's implausible-but-deadly-serious Digital Econmy Bill, courtesy of Dan Bull: As Dan would wish me to add: If you disapprove of the Bill, sign the petition, or write your own message to Lord Mandelson. Second up, here's Nick Clegg's second question from this week's PMQs – and it's a real barnstormer, which has earned Nick deserved acclaim from across the political spectrum: And finally, for today, Beau Bo ...
Over on Liberal Democrat Voice, the launch of the new Liberal Democrat social network ACT has been covered in some detail. I think the early signs are very promising and the plans for further technical developments looks good. But the key to success is nicely summed up by the American Democratic 'blogfather' , Jerome Armstrong, who said of the Howard Dean campaign and its successful pioneering use of the internet: It wasn't the technology, it was the investment of people in the campaign. It's the people, not the technology, that matters the most. Enthusiasm triumphs over bad technology. Good technology ...
Psephologists worldwide are always excited when it's a US election year. The main reason is that nobody does elections quite like the States. Big spending, big personalities, big media agendas, vast levels of polling data, unbelieveable detail in demographic targeting. And certain races catch the eye to become real battles getting the Hollywood treatment. So next ...
Caron of our parish set up a group calling for Jo Swinson to be reinstated on QT. The group, on the new Lib Dem ACT site, could potentially be the catalyst not only to moan about our media coverage but also to start campaigns about where we've been unfairly treated. Perhaps even to try and overturn ...
Thursday It is true what they say: Britain lacks enterprise these days. Perhaps you saw my recent appearance in the 'Dragons' Den'? I offered the assembled moguls the chance of investing in a distinctly promising chimney-sweeping business (the labour costs were extremely low); not only did I not get a bean, but they threatened to call the police! If I had taken such an attitude back in the 1980s, Rutland would not today be at the forefront of the personal computer industry. Looking back on those days, the machines we sold seem terribly primitive. The first of them was large ...
At the time of the furore over Nick Griffin's appearance on Question Time, I made it clear that I believed that no platform was not a solution to the BNP and other fascist parties. I was surprised how many people, particularly members of the Labour party, believed that free speech should be denied to legal ...
So the wheels of change are slowly turning in the Department of Education. First there was the end of the end of Key Stage Two science test. Now there is the decision to report Teacher Assessment alongside the test results in league tables, attempting to give them equal waiting.Why do we need 2 sets of data that will tell a similar result? Abolish the tests and let's put our faith back into
[IMG: War with the newts by Karel Capek: front cover] In some ways buying Christmas presents for friends interested in politics is easy. Each season there's a host of enjoyable, illuminating or funny political DVDs and books available. But it's all too easy to end up getting something that has also occurred to someone else - or that your friend already has. Straying a little of the beaten track is therefore often desirable, in addition to adding a pleasant little element of surprise and novelty to your gift. So that's why I'd recommend getting Karel Capek's War with the Newts. ...
[IMG: Star Inn, Cheadle] The Star Inn on Cheadle High Street is the latest to join our Community Toilet scheme. Cheadle now has three community toilets: the Star Inn, Cheadle Library and Jackson's Fish Bar on Ashfield Road. You can use these as public toilets. The Community Toilet scheme replaces the old public toilet in Massie Street car park. Instead of a single cold, often dirty and vandalised toilet, we now have three.
According to Jonathan Fryer - http://jonathanfryer.wordpress.com/ - European Liberal Democrats, meeting at the annual congress of the ELDR in Barcelona, this morning passed a resolution (which I proposed) stating clearly our support for Turkish accession to the European Union, providing Ankara fulfils all of the so-called Copenhagen criteria for membership. This is in sharp contrast to the negative comments about Turkey´s EU vocation made recently by conservative leaders such as President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, as well as the newly appointed President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy.
Welcome to part eight of our "Introduction to blogging" guide for Liberal Democrat bloggers or would-be bloggers. It's appearing each Saturday between now and Christmas, with all the posts available via this page. The series will then be revised and collated into an e-book, so please do post up your comments as the series progresses. Today it's the turn of Kingston councillor Mary Reid. [IMG: Young woman, blogging by window] You probably already know that 7% of Liberal Democrat councillors have a website/blog, compared with 2% of Tory councillors and only 1% of Labour councillors. So there is plenty of ...
Last night I accompanied Dad along the red carpet at the very first Spirit of London Awards. The event held at Alexandra Palace was set up the Damilola Taylor Trust to celebrate the good work that the young in London is doing all year around.We often are so quick to criminalise or demonise our young, we forget that there are many young people, and adults out there supporting the young people, who
The Public Finance website reports the comments of Stephen Greenhalgh, Tory leader of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and head of the Conservative councils' innovation unit, at a debate two days ago: 'My mates are all in the shadow Cabinet, waiting to get those [ministerial] boxes, being terribly excited. I went to university with them, they haven't run a piss-up in a brewery,' he said. 'They're going to get a department of state, in one case running the finances of the nation.' Greenhalgh pointed to other countries, such as France and the US, where members of the government ...
Not long after I was selected here in Hampstead and Kilburn my mother let it slip that she has wanted to attend Kilburn School of Needlework, but my grandparents could not afford the fees, and I've often wondered where that was. I was more recently reading a history of an educational establishment and reflecting on my own experience of higher and further education and wondered if in fact whatever Kilburn School of Needlework was, whether it has been over the years federated into what is now the College of North West London. Any clues out there? Now of course this ...
In the run up to Christmas, car parking in Cheadle will be free in Council Pay & Display car parks in Cheadle on: Saturday 28th November Saturday 5th December Saturday 12th December Saturday 19th December Christmas Day Monday 28th December New Years Day This is not just in Cheadle but all the district centres: Romiley, Heaton Moor, Bramhall, Hazel Grove, Cheadle Hulme, Marple, Marple Bridge and Edgeley (excluding Armoury Street). Gatley, of course, has free parking all the time anyway - just not enough spaces! There will also be free parking in Stockport Town Centre in the run up to ...
The Isle of Wight County Press Online has the story: CALLS for a Lib Dem councillor to be expelled from the party have been made this week after it was confirmed 37-year-old Adrian Whittaker was alleged to have assaulted a police officer. The calls were led by Island party vice-president and long-serving executive member Morris Barton. He said: "It is the party's AGM tomorrow (Friday) and I am sure Cllr Whittaker's expulsion from the party will be on the agenda. If Cllr Whittaker is subsequently convicted we will be seeking the Isle of Wight Council leader Cllr David Pugh's support ...
I was watching HIGNFY earlier tonight and the was an item about Mrs. T visiting No. 10 to unveil a new portrait of herself commissioned by the Prime Minister. It struck me as a bizarre thing to do. Namely, to voluntarily, without pressure or coercion, of one's own free will to invite THAT WOMAN back to Downing Street, and to have a picture of her hanging in the study that Mr Brown uses for meetings with foreign dignitaries. Curiouser, and curiouser. It was on this day in 1990 that she finally ceased being Prime Minister, and Britain started on the ...
You may have noticed an item in this week's local press about Councillor's expenses. The South London Press tells us that: "Proposals made at a Lewisham Council committee meeting could see all councillors' claims made public in full". and also tells us that: "Councillors' expenses claims over the last year were also published in the report" At reading this ...
Like many Liberal Democrats, I was deeply fond of Conrad Russell (1937-2004). When his slightly shambolic figure, dressed in a grubby overcoat and carrying his papers in a plastic carrier bag, hove into view, one knew that one was in for an intellectual feast as soon as he opened his mouth. The Chamber of the House of ...
There is continued news about the Iraq Inquiry so I will follow on from yesterday's blog. Sir Jeremy Greenstock, who at that time was the UK's ambassador to the UN, was questioned about whether we were right to go to war. He said the war was of "questionable legitimacy". I take this to mean that he doesn't know whether the war was legal. Slightly confusingly, he went on to say that the US and the UK had established its legitimacy and this had never been challenged in the courts. I think this means that we think the war was legal ...
