I recently had a few comments from a fellow Lib Dem, Rankersbo, on one of my blogs stating how: "Women get approved as candidates in roughly the proportion they stand for approval, faring no worse than men. Furthermore, if a woman candidate puts herself forward (or is encouraged to do so) for a seat, she ...
China's execution of Akmal Shaikh, 53 for drug smuggling was a disgraceful act. It not only exposed China's appalling human rights record but also it exposed the problems with the death penalty as a form of punishment. However, it also exposed a growing climate of open hostility between Western governments and the Chinese which was also ...
My fondness for the poetry of Muhammad Iqbal is well known, and today in Allahabad nigh on 80 years back he propounded his theory of the Two Nations which laid the eventual basis for the foundation of modern day Pakistan. Here are a couple of lines in which he praises Persian (the language) Garche Urdu dar uzūbat shakar ast Lék Pārsī-am ze Hindi shīrīntar ast (Even though in sweetness Urdu is sugar nevertheless my Persian is sweeter than Hindi) Here Urdu/Hindi are the same language albeit written in two different scripts.
I have had the great pleasure of meeting Peter Moore at a fair few events in London over the years and was actually introduced at one event by him - "My Lords, Ladies and gentlemen, I present Mr Andrew Reeves" a great honour. Peter unfortunately died in his sleep on the 20 December aged 70. Peter had been London's Town Crier for 31 years and the forthcoming New Years Day Parade in the City of London will be a sad affair without him, as he has appeared at every one of the New Year's Day parades and had already recorded ...
On Boxing Day I entertained the entire Bedford clan for lunch. I cooked three main courses, which I will detail over the next week or so: one meat, one chicken and one vegetarian. The first is the really simple and very tasty beef in port. Like all the best casseroles, the quantities are approximate, so ...
Today is Mr Gladstone's 200th birthday. Liberal Burblings marked the day by posting a recording of the Grand Old Man's voice. It claims to be "remastered" but I am not sure it is any clearer than the original, which I have on a CD somewhere. And Birkdale Focus reports the laying of a wreath at Gladstone's statue in St George's Hall, Liverpool. As ever, let us leave the last word to Lord Bonkers: The names of every great Liberal are to be found in the Visitors Book here at the Hall. As a boy I was dandled upon the knee ...
First, don't panic! Second, if you are in a target seat keep on working – if you're an agent in one do more soft con mailings mentioning policies. Third, if you're not in one of these sorts of seats then make it a New Years Resolution to get to one. If this is unfeasible do something locally. Fourth, ...
A lot to celebrate on the 200 years anniversary of Gladstone's birth. He lived in different times of course, but a great moral force and a great reformer the likes of which we hav not seen for a long time. The urge to appease the popular press and influence opinion polls does nothing to incur great radicalism. Also there is the cult of worshipping youth. However Gladstone was going at a great...
Congressional Republicans are already on the attack against the Obama administration's handling of the Detroit situation, however, contrary to their own beliefs, it turns out there's not much credibility to their own words. ABC News has the full story.. "Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents." American officials (under the direction of a REPUBLICAN White House administration) allowed the two men to move from Guantanamo ...
Following an exchange of emails yesterday, I've arranged to meet up with my fourth cousin who lives in Calgary. "Fourth cousin" immediately identifies me as a family historian, because who else would know? Our original contact with each other in 2006 contained two pleasing coincidental symmetries: that she got in touch with me in England, as part of her own family history research, just as I was about to emigrate to Alberta, and secondly that my cousin's ancestor (who was my great-grandfather's first cousin) had emigrated to Alberta almost exactly one hundred years before I did. I heard David Willett's ...
A certain LibDem MP was staying with a friend of mine over Christmas. Santa thought that the MP should not have to feel inferior to their Conservative colleagues and gave them a very special present.
Thanks to Anonymous for correctly stating that my last post was garbage (an odd Americanism for someone who knows British tax law). I moved to Canada in 2006, so in 2007 when the law changed I was busy grappling with IKEA flatpacks in Alberta. The question is what was Phil Hammond doing in 2007, since he seems to have missed the law change too?
That's Liberal England, at least among readers of Iain Dale's Diary.
Since Mat has a new laptop and I have a login on it, I thought it was about time for on of my periodical lists of what Firefox extensions I have installed. All of these are current and working. ( click here to be nosey ) Hope some of you find that useful :D
After Foreign Secretary David Miliband hailed the "great courage" of Iranians who staged opposition protests on Sunday, Iran's Foreign Minister issued a "slap in the mouth" threat to the UK Government if it continued to meddle in "internal affairs". What was the UK response?! "The UK will react in a robust way to these attitudes". All acts of aggression against the UK, through diplomatic means or otherwise, should be met with a proportional response, and the UK shouldn't shy away from saying that!
Part 1 was posted yesterday. We continue with... July I helpfully explained why parents cheat over school admissions and marked the death of John Ryan, creator of Captain Pugwash. (Those stories about rude names are not true, you know.) Noel Symington, Market Harborough's Mosleyite soup magnate, turned out to be Whipplesnaith, the night climber of Cambridge. And I recalled getting lost on Frog Island. August A full month. Much to my readers' delight I took up what proved to be the lost cause of saving Leicester's Bowstring Bridge. I also discovered that there is curse attached to Lib Dem Voice's ...
The death penalty belongs to another age, an age when people took the Old Testament literally, when trial by drowning was an acceptable method of dealing with witchcraft. It is not something that should have a place in a modern society.
Of course you probably wouldn't be a Lib Dem blogger, or a regular reader of Lib Dem blogs and escaped the news of David Cameron's love bomb New Year Message. We there is an interesting possible proviso of what may lie ahead in Iain Dale's blog. In his ten predictions for 2010 he predicts that: "VAT will go up to 20% at some point this year" Now that is an interesting statement for someone who has recently looked at becoming a Conservative candidate. There are only three possible occasions that VAT could be raised next year, after it goes up ...
[IMG: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2] Today being the 200th Annivesary of William Ewart Gladstone's birth here is a series of articles I wrote back in 2002 for H2G2: Part one looking at his early life and election campaigns. Part two looking at this time in Government both a Chancellor and Prime Minister. Part three wrapping up a number of subjects, his relationship with the Queen, his speeches and campaigns, he personal life, writtings and reforms. Looking at these again I may well have to do a little rewrite on these or a few more in depth articles on certain aspects. The picture is ...
The Launceston Road Safety Partnership has launched a bid for four new crossings in town. In a letter to the Council and to local councillors, the Partnership gives the details: Over 400 responses have been received and the democratic view of the people is that pedestrian crossings should be provided as a priority in the following locations 1 Western Road - between the turning for Meadowside and East Cornwall Garage with a pelican being the preferred option 2 Newport traffic lights. - the drop kerbs and stipples are in place but crossing here remains perilous as there is no pelican ...
I'm finally back from the land of dial-up and lost luggage, a week behind schedule on everything I'm meant to be doing, and exhausted. Proper posts resume tomorrow, and PEP! will be out some time early next week, but in the meantime, here's a brief list of things that are officially Good right now: The site ...
Tue 29th
18:56
Who will defend the Chinese government and at the same time attack the Labour Party ? Step forward t...
You can always rely on the dictators friend, the Daily Mail to seek to blame the ills of the world on either the BBC, Europe, Immigrants or "liberals". Today, when dealing with the sad events concerning the execution of Akmal Sheikh, Leo McKinstry in the Daily Scum has managed seemingly to me have a dig at liberals, the government and an immigrants lack of links to the UK all at the same time. In a ludicrous article where he ignores China's history of murdering tens of thousands of its own population, forgets the murders of journalists and those dissidents who ...
There has been a big rumpus in political circles over the decision by many councils to hold the counts for the general election on the Friday rather than the Thursday night. Cornwall is set to become one of those councils. Indeed, it is likely that the Cornish results will be the last in mainland UK to be declared. And, what is more, it seems that we will not have a count in each constituency but instead have two major count centres with each hosting the count for three contests. The count centres look likely to be Carn Brea Leisure Centre ...
A Happy New Year to all readers, especially those from other parties. This is a time of year when we traditionally put away all division and concentrate upon those things that unite us. I have made many friends "across the floor" and I know that we will still be friends after the election. God bless to you all. I'm looking forward to the campaign, when we can all put forward our ideas to take our country into the next decade of this century, but for now I'm content to spend the next few days looking back over a momentous 10 ...
We know how poor Darlington Council's response to the snow has been, with minimal and ineffective gritting and no snow, ice and slush clearance for five days after the first snowfall in the town centre.Following my recent blog posts the Council's performance improved in the town centre, though most residential streets remain treacherous. Thankfully, it hasn't snowed for a few days, though more is
Having said on Boxing Day that normal blogging would resume the following day, it didn't! IT problems I'm afraid, but now resolved. Janet bought me a wireless network audio system for Christmas, a jolly good piece of kit, but getting it to recognise my laptop proved to be a significant challenge. I'll not bore you with the technical details, but the bottom line was that Vista had to be reinstalled on my laptop, together with all programs. All worked out in the end and the audio system is now happily playing my downloaded music from Napster, but oh, what an ...
My fellow co-editor of Liberal Democrat Voice, Stephen Tall, has recorded this invitation for nominations: You can read more and make your nomination here.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy would have this to say about the Labour Party's attitude to by elections in their gift, had the editor on Alpha Centurii ever got around to amending the entry on Earth from 'Mostly Harmless' to something with a little more flesh. The approach that Labour have to on of their members dying is confusing, no confusing that that. Think of the difficulties the male of the various species have had in pleasuring Eccentrica Gallumbits the triple breasted whore of Eroticon Six. Then, as rumour has it, the only person to give her the biggest ...
I got bought this film for Christmas after one of my friends recommended it for me. The story is quite simple really. An aspiring young Labour candidate in a solidly Conservative is asked to stand again as the local Tory MP dies in a hunting accident (quite ironic now!). The story concentrates on the conflicts of the candidate with his own political idealism but also his desire to win. His idealism is represented by his principled, socialist wife and his desire to win at any cost is represented by his seasoned and extremely cynical political agent (by far my favourite ...
My views on the smoking ban finally broke free of this blog (and the party conference fringe) today. The Hull Daily Mail has written up a story regarding my views on open air smoking. For a little context they finally got this story when Conservative leader John Fareham asked me some questions regarding the council's relationship with the PCT and smoking bans. I must admit that the reaction of taking liberties (Carl Minns: voice of a true liberal) is a little embarrassing - lets face it, in my job I am not used to a lot of praise! Now I ...
Good to hear Nick's interview about China on R4's PM prog. It just shows how much keeping up the pressure on the BBC works to give us our FAIR SHARE of airtime. Remember – it is our right to have this airtime and the right of the electorate to hear our voice in equal parity ...
This is a funny week. If you're not a shopaholic or one of those forced to work - from NHS to retail, from gritters to bank staff - the period between Christmas and New Year is quite a long holiday, but with the sort of weather which explains the mass pre-Christmas migration to the sun. For an obsessive like me there's nothing to get your teeth into politically either - all my county emails today were about winter weather and the county's responses to it. So I resorted to doing something, anything, rather than sit at home twiddling my thumbs. ...
We have yet to hear Gordon Brown's new year message but have now had David Cameron's and Nick Clegg's. What caught the media's attention about Cameron's was his continuing 'love bombing' of Lib Dem voters. The response from the Lib Dems has been dismissive. Layla Moran thinks the party has nothing to worry about while Stephen Tall says the Tories have nothing in common with the Liberal Democrat platform. Cameron talked about our broken politics, creating a more equal society and a greener economy. Clegg talked about our broken politics, a fairer society and green jobs. Clearly the two have ...
I don't think it takes an enormous amount of intelligence to know the difference between a good reason and a bad reason to phone 999. The answer for people like THIS who phoned up 999 over Christmas because her cat was overly playful and was "doing her head in", is simply to send a police car round, arrest her for wasting police time, and then see how many other people think that the emergency services should be phoned for such trivial matters. Sadly, the police release stories like this every few months, but until firm action is taken, it will ...
A year ago, Lib Dem Voice posed 10 questions, the answers to which we believed might shape the Lib Dem year - time to revisit them, wethinks. 1. Will there be a general election in 2009? (If yes, many of the rest of the questions will have very different answers). No, there wasn't: with Labour recording their lowest poll ratings ever, and with threats to Gordon Brown's leadership never quite either disappearing nor materialising, this was an easy one to rule out early in the year. But, of course, 12 months ago, it looked – potentially – a little different. ...
The best obituary of David Taylor in today's newspapers is the one by Tam Dalyell in the Independent: In 2006, in my capacity as Father of the House of Commons, I was invited by the England Central Woodlands Project to open one of their new forest developments, part of which was in the North-West Leicestershire constituency. David Taylor met me on site, and it immediately became apparent that he had an excellent rapport with both his constituents and the local and national forestry community. Quite simply, he was not only respected, but loved - yes it is possible for a ...
So, why am I here, exactly? Well, it became my goal to visit more countries than I had birthdays, and I finally caught up in 2007. Ros, having done the arithmetic, worked out that, as my combined birthday and Christmas present, she could give me country number 50 - Monaco, the second smallest country in the world. It is, undoubtedly, an unusual place. Covering less than a square mile (according to the guidebook), it is served by the five routes operated by the national bus company, covered by buildings seemingly stacked on top of each other, and is, of course, ...
[IMG: library2.JPG] One of the main successes of my year was getting Chorlton Library to open on Sundays. From September, it opened its doors from 12noon to 4pm. Visitor numbers have steadily risen over this period. It started around 150, but is now nearer to 500. I had always been a bit jealous of Longsight Library having Sunday opening, so I asked the questions of Town Hall bosses, more in hope than expectation. It resulted in three more Libraries opening on Sundays, including Chorlton & Withington. The report from officers had identified Didsbury rather than Withington and I have been ...
I know it's a quiet news day today, but it seems impossible to move for Government ministers expressing their disquiet at the judicial execution of Akmal Shaikh in China. Now I oppose and abhor the death penalty, anywhere, by any method and for any crime. But whilst accepting that this seems to have been a particularly ...
It's official! From the Optimal Life Fitness blog: We've moved into 4000sqft of warehouse space in Hither Green, London, which is just 8minutes by train from London Bridge. This means: we have a new office- yes; we have warehouse space so we never run out of our stock of bells- yes; but more importantly we have ...
There has been quite a lot of blogging from Lib Dems on the continued Love Bombing of the Lib Dems by David Cameron. David Cameron New Year message can be read here on Iain Dales Blog. Cameron has been using the same words as Nick Clegg such as progressive politics, fairness and change. Using these words of course does not mean that the Conservative party is any of these things especially when compared to the Liberal Democrats. I really see the Lib Dems 10k tax threshold for Income Tax and National Insurance for example as a fairer tax policy then ...
Russ Bryant Number 10 Petition which asks the 'Prime Minister to Intervene in the Underhanded Closure of Heatherwood Hospital' can be signed here http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/ascothospital/ The deadline to sign up by is by 12th January 2010. The Petition currently has 2,424 Signatures. Please do sign this petition so that Russ can reach his target of 2,500 Signatures.
2010 is going to be a fascinating and exciting year. There's a World Cup, there's my wedding (which is probably more exciting for me than most of the people reading, but is still worth a mention), and there's a general election. Here is the New year's Message from Nick Clegg, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats: "I have a confession to make: 2009 tested my belief in politics to breaking point. I remember once looking round the House of Commons during another Punch and Judy session of Prime Ministers Questions. In the real world, youth unemployment had just reached its ...
It is Gladstone's birthday and certainly in this part of the world it is being well marked. Gladstone was born in Liverpool-indeed in the next street to where I am sitting now. He went on to try to be an MP for South Lancashire which included Southport and Birkdale. You can read more about that on our website where you can access an online copy of Micheal Brahams's excellent history of the 'First 100 years of Southport Liberals'The BBC did an excellent Radio Four programme direct from St Deniol's Library- Gladstone's residential memorial library. I have visited St Deniol's several ...
A goodly crowd gathered in the garden's of St George's Hall Liverpool to see the deputy Lord Mayor lay a wreath at the statue of Gladstone to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth in the city. Lib Dem cabinet member Gary Millar was master of ceremonies. He is pictured above with a bust of Gladstone which is part of the new exhibition in the Gladstone Gallery in the Hall which is there for the next 3 months The event was organised with St Deniol's library and they have learnt material for the new exhibition. Three talks followed the wreath ...
I'd sort of let this blog go to sleep, but Cornishcassandra has put it on his links, with the last time I blogged glaring out at me. 6 months ago. Election results. There were a number of reasons for stopping. Partly it just becomes a list of things a Councillor has done, as the Village Idiot pointed out last week, although happily he was talking about someone else! and partly because it's only read by people who are involved in politics and, for some reason, a large following I was developing in Inverness! The best way to talk to local ...
There have been reports today that the Labour Party has reacted with outrage to the discussions that are taking place about the potential timing of a by-election trigerred by the untimely and unexpected death of Leicestershire North West MP David Taylor on Boxing Day. Labour have been quoted as saying that it is "completely inappropriate" to be talking about an election so soon after his death. The source also said "Our thoughts are completely with David's family. So should everybody else's be." I am very sorry for the loss that Mr Taylor's family have suffered. However I disagree that the ...
I thought the day would never come.. but here we are. The Daily Mail is commending a socialist regime: Yet for all this orchestrated wailing, is it not possible that China is right to put Shaikh to death? No, no it isn't... Indeed, I would argue that Britain's enfeebled, self-destructive approach to narcotics has been graphically highlighted by China's ruthlessness in tackling drug pushers. In contrast to New Labour's policy of appeasement and surrender, the Chinese Government acts vigorously to defend its people from the misery caused by the drugs trade. My regret is not over tough action by Beijing, ...
I've just read a tweet from Cllr. John Warmisham where he accuses Lib Dem Steve Middleton of using racist language for utilising the phrase 'pot calling the kettle black' ( http://twitter.com/Cllrjwarmisham ). He advises Steve to check the meanings of old sayings. Such irony. Clearly Cllr. Warmisham has not checked the phrase's origins himself if ...
Liberal Conspiracy has the story from the Daily Mail about North East Somerset Conservatie, Jacob Rees-Mogg: A Tory parliamentary candidate has been caught using a member of staff to pose as a constituent - in an election leaflet calling for honesty... The woman would have had to make a 260-mile round trip from London to participate in the photo opportunity... In March he was forced to apologise after plagiarising an editorial from a national newspaper for an election leaflet. And in May he was caught using staff to write an attack on Gordon Brown which he claimed to be his ...
Mike Smithson thinks he has found evidence supporting the argument that 'class war' issues do not poll well. He says; Thus if Hindal's assertion that "most class war issues are deeply popular" was correct then they would figure higher than the 7% for inequality and the 3% for "low pay/fair wages" that were recorded in the ...
Nick Clegg has today released his New Year message. You can read it in full over at Lib Dem Voice, but here's probably my favourite line: Some people say, what's the point of voting when the same old parties always win? I say: vote for what you believe in. If you like what the Liberal Democrats ...
There has been a minor uproar about comments made by the Lib Dems Newcastle PPC Greg Stone during webchats on Guido Fawkes' website. Whilst I sympathise with the views of Jane Watkinson that Clegg should take action to remove Greg Stone as a PPC, I don't agree that such action should be taken. My view would be completely different had the comments been made officially by him but they were not. They were anonymous comments spoken during a chat room debate. I think it is up to his local party to decide whether these comments now mean that he can't ...
Even in the season of goodwill to all men, one can reliably trust the Daily Mail to come out with the very worst in knee-jerk racist faux outrage, and this article by their new signing from the Express Leo McKinstry on the subject of the cold-blooded execution of poor, deluded Akmal Shaikh by the Chinese occupying authorities in East Turkestan is a prime example. One wonders what the reaction of the tabloids and how half-hearted the efforts of HMG to save his life would have been had his name been something like "Alan Smith"; compare and contrast, for instance, the ...
Good news! I just received a letter from Lewisham Planning telling me that the planning application for a housing development on the Timber Yard site of Springbank Road that I had opposed has been refused. You can read details of this development and the reasons of my objection here. Tagged: Hither Green, Lewisham, Planning, Springbank Road ...
I was tickled by this wonderful tweet from Stephen Fry on Boxing Day: @jesmmifs Oi! Are you not aware that clay pigeons are NOT REAL BIRDS!!!!!!!! They are little discs made of clay! Intrigued, I took the trouble to thread back to the original comments on this which were, from @stephenfry: http://twitpic.com/vbrg1 – Went clay pigeon shooting today. Such larks. F-f-f-freezing though. The linked picture on Twitpic is worth looking at, by the way – quite beautiful. And then @jsemmifs responded: @stephenfry pigeon shooting? That's not cool! ...Which then elicited the gorgeous reply from the Great Fryster at the top ...
Many people have had problems getting their bins emptied over the last week, due to the ice and snow. Bin lorries and the people working with them have not found it easy getting to everyone. With this in mind, I asked last week if the Council would suspend the prohibition of additional black bags for collection. The original plan was for the Council not to collect black bags, in an effort to try to minimise post-Christmas waste. Now though, after my request, they have agreed to allow extra black bag collections this week. So if you are due to have ...
"I have a confession to make: 2009 tested my belief in politics to breaking point. [IMG: Liberal Democrats now carry the torch of progress.] Liberal Democrats offer Real Change. I remember once looking round the House of Commons during another Punch and Judy session of Prime Ministers Questions. In the real world, youth unemployment had just reached its highest level ever, our brave soldiers were facing extraordinary dangers in Afghanistan, the bankers were still gorging themselves on bonuses, and the economy was in the middle of the worst recession in generations. And what were the politicians doing? Yelling and guffawing ...
Here's the video message I've recorded encouraging readers of Lib Dem Voice to nominate the non-Lib Dem individual, group or organisation they believe has had the biggest impact on promoting liberal values in the past 12 months for our Liberal Voice of the Year 2009 award:
Tue 29th
12:40
Nick Clegg's New Year message: "2010 must be the year we press the political reset button"
In his New Year message, Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal Democrats has laid down a challenge to other party leaders to tell people what they really believe in, rather than what they think people want to hear. Here's the full text of Nick's message: I have a confession to make: 2009 tested my belief in politics to breaking point. I remember once looking round the House of Commons during another Punch and Judy session of Prime Ministers Questions. In the real world, youth unemployment had just reached its highest level ever, our brave soldiers were facing extraordinary dangers in ...
Lib Dem Voice is currently counting down the most read Opinion pieces of 2009... and the seventh most popular piece this year was MINE! I don't usually like to brag about these things but since you asked ; -)
I don't quite know what to make of this: "You may follow Compass as well by clicking on the "follow" button on their profile. <<– I'd rather not...
When somebody said that Twitter would take over your life they may well have been joking, however if this advert is anything to go by then it has certainly entered the job market place: While the eye-grabbing headline is asking for a "Twitter Genius" in Greenwich Village, the actual role is an "expert" social media marketer for some sort of e-commerce startup. "I need someone who tweets in their sleep and updates their fb status before calling their mom on Mother's Day," the description reads. And it gets better. Background, education, references? Nah, these people don't care about that stuff. ...
If the Times is right and Ministers really are imposing new rules on NHS charities requiring all donations — including those to specialist children and cancer units, local fundraising campaigns, teaching hospitals and local community trusts — to be listed on a hospital's balance sheet then we are on a slippery slope. I have never been entirely comfortable with the publicly funded National Health Service being topped up by charitable donations, but I recognise that it is an important source of funding, that it engages communities and gives them a stake in their local hospitals and it enables adminstrators to ...
The "worm" is an instant poll tracker which wriggles across people's TV screens, showing the net negative or positive reaction of a small group of the public to what is happening on screen. Running a worm across a politician's speech or a debate between politicians has become a not uncommon feature of political coverage across many democracies. The worm has even occasionally surfaced in the UK – so will it surface again for our TV party leader debates at the general election? And will worms offer a chance for Channel 4 to repeat an Australian trick and put one over ...
Andy Burnham MP is definitely making waves as the new Health Secretary and today is no exception with two NHS stories making the news, hospital parking charges and NHS charity donations. I may well comment on car parking charges later today, but for now I want to comment on the fact that the government now want to help themselves to any NHS charity donations. Last year over £330million was donated to over 300 NHS charities in the period June 2007 to June 2008, cancer and children's charities were among the beneficiaries. Institutions such as Great Ormond Street Hospital and The ...
Throughout the festive season, LDV is offering our readers another chance to read the 12 most popular opinion articles which have appeared on the blog since 1st January, 2009. The third most-read LDV op-ed of 2009 was by LDV co-editor Stephen Tall, and originally appeared on 25th July ... Norwich North: what to make of all that, then? Let's get the obvious out of the way first: if you fight a by-election in which both your total number of votes, and your percentage of votes cast, declines since the previous general election then the result is disappointing. There, I've said ...
Last year the Blogosphere made their nine predictions for 2009 so (I was going to post this on New Year's Eve but mixed up my 2 and 3 in postdating it) as Iain Dale is doing his today (according to Facebook at 23:30 on Monday) here are my pick of ten happenings for 2010. 1. Britain will take their best return ever in the Winter Olympics with 5 medals. We'll start with the local pair Sinead and John Kerr who will win their first Olympic medal. Zoe Gillings will snowboard her way to the podium and not to be outdone ...
This morning's Times reports that the House of Commons Commission and the Leader of the House, Harriet Harman have carried out a u-turn over the MPs' communications allowance: Last month Harriet Harman told the Commons that from the new year the allowance, a fund for sitting MPs to publicise their constituency work through leaflets and websites, would be scrapped. Limits on spending by political parties come into force on January 1, until the general election. Public money for political purposes is more tightly controlled during this period. "The proposal is that the use of the communications allowance should end on ...
Tue 29th
11:18
Could Akmal Shaikh's Execution have been avoided - 2 questions for the Goverment to answer
Like many others I went to sleep last night fearful that there was little hope that 53 year old mentally ill British citizen Akmal Shaikh would avoid the executioner in China this morning and, sadly, my fears were confirmed when I woke up this morning. I don't think the use of the death penalty is ever justified. Murder carried out by the state is still murder. No exceptions. Having said that, murder carried out by the state of someone who is mentally ill takes brutality to a whole new level. The charities Amnesty International and Reprieve should be commended for ...
We went to Newbury's new Vue cinema for the second time yesterday. It was great to see the lobby full to bursting as people queued up to get into (I think) Avatar and Sherlock Holmes. We saw Sherlock Holmes amongst a full house for that screen. It's a great film. Beautiful to look at, some superb music, action packed, fast moving, with the usual Holmes intrigue and a very exciting ending. Robert Downey Junior is superb (and even his English accent seems convincing) and it's great to see a shedload of brilliant performances from British actors such as Jude Law ...
It seems that the leaders debates are to finally go ahead. There will be three ninety minute debates on ITV, Sky and the BBC with all three leaders present at each one. The accepted wisdom seems to be that Clegg has the most to gain from the debates which, it seems to me is proabaly true. Clegg being seen on the same stage as Brown and Cameron alone will do him no harm. I also believe he will hold his own during the debate. He may or may not win but this isn't the chief concern. The more important aspect ...
Each day this week I'm giving a tip related to computers and campaigning. The exact details of how you follow each tip will vary depending on your own situation, so if you're not quite sure what to do by all means pop up a question in the comments. Today's tip: use a feed reader. Feed readers (also known as RSS readers or news readers) are a massive time saver. Rather than having to slog round different websites to see if they've got any new stories or blog posts on them, you subscribe to them via the feed reader. The feed ...
"Only the Liberal Democrats are prepared to stand up for students from all backgrounds," said the Liberal Democrat Shadow Universities Secretary. Commenting on Government plans to cut university funding by more than £500m, Stephen Williams said: "The Government failed to live up to its commitment to fund extra university places and now it seems to be punishing the universities that went out of their way to help the pupils that had been let down. "Mandelson has already been laying the groundwork for a massive hike in tuition fees that will leave students with tens of thousands of pounds of debt ...
A Guardian article discusses a real weakness of how artists portray finance and its consequences
Tue 29th
09:39
Can we also learn from this poor man's death by confronting our national ignorance of serious mental...
While Akmal Shaikh's execution by the Chinese authorities was vicious, barbaric and medieval in nature, we do need to confront the failures in our own country that allowed this tragedy to happen. I am not fully up to date with the extent of education on mental illness in schools or the level of support teachers and other professionals in contact with young people have so that they might intervene in the course of someone's mental illness. I do however know that 12 years ago when my brother was behaving strangely, my family was absolutely failed by the education system (my ...
Well, it would have been if he'd lived. He was the Grand Old Man of Liberalism and many of his sayings are as true today as they were 150 years ago. Most are at least thought provoking. In the light of David Cameron's appeal to Lib Dem voters this week I picked this out of all the sayings of Gladstone circulating round the blogosphere this morning:"Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by
Copenhagen was no Christmas present to our children or to the planet. The so-called "Copenhagen Accord" negotiated by the US, China, India, South Africa and Brazil is a fudged, inadequate, non-binding deal, which the UN Conference on Climate Change did not agree and which has weakened the structures of international decision-making. The "Accord" speaks of the need to keep global warming below 2ºC but does nothing to achieve that goal. Indeed the cuts currently on the table take us past 3ºC and into runaway climate change territory. It is a voluntary agreement that nobody need observe; a stitch-up by those ...
In honour of the 200th Anniversary of the birth of the Grand Old Man, William Ewart Gladstone, who served 4 terms as Prime Minister when losing a vote was a matter of honour that called for a General Election here are some of his sayings. "Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear." "Be happy with what you have and are, be generous with both, and you won't have to hunt for happiness." "Justice delayed is justice denied." "No man ever became great or good except through many and great ...
Don't get me wrong. I'm no fan of the Daily Mail. But you have to react to their story on Harold Shipman with a combination of indignation and laughter. It seems that Dr Shipman, believed to be responsible for the death of anything up to 250 people, was a "keen member" of prison classes to help those coping with bereavement. He even won praise for his contribution to the Living With Loss sessions. His tutor said: "He had experienced a number of deaths in life and was able to speak from deep personal experience."Somewhere here there is a profound truth ...
May I be the first to wish you, "Happy That Bit Between Christmas and New Year." Whether you're at work, at home, working from home, or none of the above, here's your Daily View for Tuesday: Today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of William Ewart Gladstone, Liberal statesman and four-times Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. (By the way, remember to nominate your Liberal Voice of 2009 here.) It's also 34 years since the Sex Discrimination and Equal Pay Acts came into force, legislation which now faces overdue modernisation and streamlining by the Equality Bill. 2 Must-Read Blog ...
If you're going to take militaristic action and fire on those that oppose you the least you could do is allow the families of the dead to take away the corpse for burial. Not however in Iran, and not if you've just killed the nephew of the man who only 6 months before came close to bringing the change that the demonstrators wanted. It is often a sign that the regime in charge has lost the plot when they know that they have created a martyr and don't want the funeral to become another outpouring of opposition against their actions. ...
The Conservative claim that 4 million people are liable to inheritance tax at a threshold of £325,000, assumes none of them have access to a solicitor. Here's why: Terry and June, who have two children called Jack and Jill, own a house worth £500,000. If they do nothing, then when Terry dies, June will own the house on her own. No inheritance tax will be due at that stage, but when June dies, Jack and Jill have to pay inheritance tax on the full amount. However, if Terry and June go to a solicitor, she can do something called "splitting ...
London Mayor Boris Johnson has blown a giant raspberry at the campaign for one-hour bus tickets, spearheaded by the LibDem GLA transport chair, Caroline Pidgeon — which only goes to show how far out of touch he is with the lives of ordinary Londoners, including those based in the suburbs. Under the scheme, bus passengers ...
Note from Herts Highways: Stonecross Junction is to be widened as part of Hertfordshire Highway's programme for maintenance of the strategic road network in Mid April this year. The works will commence on the 15th January 2010 and will last for approximately 7 Days. However, it is possible the works could be delayed if the weather is poor during this time. The work will involve the relocation of service provider communications cable, re-aligning the road edge line and re-surfacing of the widened road, and new Signposts to be installed., repairing and replacing damaged kerbing/tactile paving, and renewing the existing road ...
In this technological age in which you can find out the news from across the world at the click of a button I was reassured yesterday that there are basic pleasures achieved from much simpler forms of communication. I went to see the local pantomime and it was wonderful to see the faces of the children (and adults) when the heroes failed to see the dangerous villain. As it turned out the villain was behind them all the time! I am sure that Father Christmas was asked for lots of computer games but social activity is alive and well in ...
Nothing that is morally wrong can be politically right. Today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of William Gladstone, arguably the best peacetime Prime Minister this country has ever had. Here he is on YouTube:
