Sorry not to have posted this before, but having been more successful in the Local Elections than the National ones, anyone who knows Local Government will know that I've been busy... During my campaign, I've been contacted by over 100 different people. A lot of them were simply lobbying for my support, but a significant number of new people offered help. That is on top of assistance in innumerable ways from people who were there before. It would be invidious or embarrassing to name them, but there has to be one exception, Judith Brooksbank, my agent. Named or mostly not, ...
Save our 6/7 Buses Petition
A visit to the excellent Alberto at Camberwell Green this morning for a haircut [IMG: Posted by Picasa]
Lib Dem Voice has been conducting a survey of party members registered on our members' forum asking them for their views of the coalition government agreement between the Lib Dems and the Conservatives. Over 600 have responded, and here's what you told us ... LDV asked: If you were able to vote, would you choose to support the motion proposing the Lib Dems enter into a coalition government with the Conservatives? 91% – Yes, I would support the motion 9% – No, I would not support the motion (excluding Don't knows, 4%) Our survey suggests there will be an overwhelming ...
Sunday's special conference in Birmingham will debate nine amendments to the motion about the party's coalition agreement with the Conservatives (full text of motion here). The amendments range over why talks with Labour failed, how the party's policy process will now work, inequality, tuition fees, the Digital Economy Act, the Human Rights Act, lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans equality, PR for local government and PR for the Commons. You can read them in full in the Conference Extra (pdf file).
To Oxford, starting with Underground to Stanmore where Lyulph picked me up in his car. In the morning, I chaired the Maurice Lubbock Memorial Fund at Balliol, then after lunch to the Department of Engineering Science for their Open Day - an exhibition of projects undertaken by students, followed by two excellent half-hour lectures: Dr Constantin Coussios on Killing tumors with sound: engineering the next generation of cancer therapies, and Dr Ian Reid on Robust visual tracking for visual survellance. Then tea, followed at 16.45 by the 36th Maurice Lubbock Memorial Lecture by Professor David Mackay, the Chief Scientist at ...
Mark Pack has blogged here on LDV the 14 Lib Dems appointed to ministerial poisitions in the Lib Dem / Conservative coalition government, in addition to the five cabinet members, including Nick Clegg as Deputy Prime Minister. So who does that leave from the Lib Dem shadow cabinet who has yet to find a position within ministerial ranks? Well, by my reckoning there are 11 Lib Dem MPs who might have some cause to be disappointed, including two of our women MPs, Jenny Willott and Lorely Burt: Previously in Lib Dem shadow cabinet, so far without position (11): Simon Hughes ...
This is grown-up politics; less tribal, more pragmatic, about sensible decision-making.
The Social Liberal Forum made clear earlier this week that we favoured a progressive alliance between the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties as the basis for a government. We very much regret that due to the intransigence of some individuals within the Labour Party that opportunity was not taken. The alternative deal that our MPs had placed in front of them contained a series of important progressive policy commitments secured in the negotiations with the Tories. It was a hard-won deal for the Liberal Democrats and will lead to far more progressive outcomes for Britain than a Conservative minority administration. ...
So Ed has announced he's going to stand against his brother David in the Labour leadership contest. Aside from making Sunday dinner awkward -'Will you pass the gravy please David?' 'Only if you stop pandering to the Unions you little upstart' - I also think that Ed has actually helped David's chances of winning the contest at the end. One of the most important factors that divides Ed and Dave is that the former is more fancied by the Unions and the left leaning members of the party, whilst the latter is widely viewed by the right of the party ...
This morning we attended a demonstration run by local residents opposing cuts to the number 6 and 7 Bus Services, we managed to speak to the Operations Manager at First who is willing to meet with us, with the Managing Director and Operations Director from First Bus. Our very own local campaigner Lisa Brett who lives on the London Road alerted us to the demonstration and I do hope that we can find a positive way forward. Lisa said, "I am glad that our local councillor, David Dixon has been able to secure a way forward with First, a demonstration ...
I think the Miliband brothers should form a coalition, it's so this season!Jokes aside, I'm generally in favour of coalitions because they temper excesses and offer stability. 'Strong governments' only turn into an 'elected dictatorship'. This is because Parliament stops being a check on the executive as soon as the executive can rely on the party's majority to get everything through. The courts
It has been posted in Twitter, that Philippa Stroud has been appointed by IDS as one of his special advisors. If this is true, we are seeing that the supposedly gay friendly Tory party is reverting to its true roots. One steeped in the memory of s28 and homophobia.
This blog has long taken an interest in Nick Clegg's Russian ancestors. We introduced you to his great great aunt Moura Budberg (writing about her got me a New Statesman column for a while and whom Nick remembers meeting) and recently revealed that Nick is a kinsman of the Canadian Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. But there is more. At the height of Cleggmania during the election campaign, the Guardian wrote about Nick's great great grandfather Ignaty Zakrevsky, a former attorney general in the imperial Russian senate. The newspaper described how Zakrevsky lived on a large estate in what is now ...
One of the advantages (or disadvantages) of not being able to drive is the time spent travelling on trains. One of the advantages of that is the scenery. As well as the beautiful countryside, with winding streams and rivers, the distant hills and the animals in Spring are the buildings and towns. Carlisle - a walled City, not unlike York looks a great historic place for a visit when I'm not en route elsewhere. Lancaster - another city with battlements. Although the thing that most struck me was the disused and derelict mills as you come over the river and ...
This is what Nick Clegg says about Coalition Government: Nick Clegg in the Guardian And this is what I say: in what way could anyone think that propping up a Labour government that caused the deaths of thousands of Iraqis and hundreds of British service personnel would have been progressive? (Unless you count the "going to hell in a handcart" kind of progress.)
It is interesting to look back now at the last six weeks. A hard-fought campaign during which I felt that the Liberal Democrats by and large put our best foot forward. The innovation of the TV debates certainly turned things on their head for a while and Nick Cleggs great performances meant that the Liberal Democrats ...
Allow me to indulge the personal for a moment. I was brought up in Eccles, a solidly Labour-voting suburb of Manchester (the seat hasn't changed hands in the post-war era), by Labour-voting parents, and even gave my first vote to the Labour party, although I stopped short of ever becoming a party member. I say this because I want the reader to appreciate that I come to the Liberal Democrats firmly from the left of the political spectrum, which may make what follows a little remarkable. In recent days I've read so many diatribes against a perceived betrayal from those ...
Today saw the start of the final voyage of the US Space Shuttle Atlantis. I was very young during the moon shots. Space and astronauts holds a special place in my imagination. Every boy in my Primary one class got a space suit for Christmas that year! Three years ago Edinburgh hosted the annual Interplanetary Explorers gathering. I was privileged to shake three hands that had been in space. The first belonged to a Czech who was the first non American, Non Russian in space. The second belonged to a man that had been up in Challenger just before the ...
To Millennium Square in Leeds this lunchtime, with about 150 other hardy souls, to wear purple alongside some others with red hats that didn't go and didn't suit them. Over the years, I've been on a lot of demonstrations, but never one as genteel and civilised as this; not so much a march as a good-natured shamble. A few familiar names in there, mainly LibDems but a few Labourites and Greens (not a Tory in sight!), though the whole atmosphere lent itself more to picknicking in the park with a bottle of Pimm's rather than hot-blooded political fervour. It must ...
at the NEC Birmingham. The NEC is brash and utterly without soul - the architectural equivalent of Tony Blair. I am happy we are going to get to vote on the coalition, but rather flummoxed that the debate is to be in closed session - I should have thought this historic decision needed a damn good airing. Liberal Democrats having secret policy debates? As I observed a few days ago, somebody needs to explain the meaning of the words in the party title to the party hierarchy. It's been a horrible couple of days, making up three years of formal ...
Advocate General for Scotland – Lord (Jim) Wallace Department for Business, Innovation and Skills – Ed Davey Department for Communities and Local Government – Andrew Stunell Department for Education - Sarah Teather Department for Transport – Norman Baker Department for Work & Pensions - Steve Webb Department of Health - Paul Burstow Deputy Chief Whip (Commons) – Alistair Carmichael Deputy Chief Whip (Lords) – Lord (David) Shutt Deputy Leader of the House of Commons – David Heath Foreign & Commonwealth Office - Jeremy Browne Home Office - Lynne Featherstone Ministry of Defence - Nick Harvey Ministry of Justice - Lord ...
I'm blogging this in an apartment on the bank of the Vltava river in the Czech Republic. Since 4th May I've been following events by occasional visits to internet cafés, from which I understand that there is rumoured to be rank and file dissent with the coalition. Well, this rank and file member is far from dissenting, in fact I'm mildly ecstatic about it. It helps that I am not opposed to nuclear power, since I recognise that it is necessary to combat global warming and provide fuel security for the UK. This was the one big issue that troubled ...
I recently received this concern from a West End resident : "A concern I have is that the family planning clinic at Ryehill Health Centre has now moved to ninewells. It was very convinient for local residents to have a clinic nearby. It was also needed as now the only family planning clinic for Dundee is at Ninewells." I therefore wrote to NHS Tayside about this and have received the following reply from Sandy Watson, NHS Tayside Chair : "Dear Cllr Macpherson I refer to your email addressed to both myself and Tony Wells regarding the concerns of one of ...
As I write, I am sucking a very small piece, bitten from a quite small square, of Lindt 90% dark chocolate. Luxuriously smooth, says the packet, and deliciously intense. Well, it certainly isn't for the faint hearted. It looks dark and matt, and not nearly as inviting as its 70% sibling but I think that its keeping its deep, dark pleasures well hidden. It feels grainier and the flavour as it melts goes from bitter to sweet and back to a bitter and intensely chocolatey aftertaste that stays with you for a while. You really can't eat more than one ...
Well done, Dundee United!
We're thrilled to be having such a busy day here at LDV with a lot of opinion articles scheduled from a wide spectrum of writers. In all that, there's a good chance we might lose sight of our early morning post proposing a Tweetup / Liberal Drinks meeting at the end of the special conference on Sunday. Full details are here: http://ldv.org.uk/19520 To keep our discussion tidy, comments on this post are closed. Please comment on the first blog post from this morning.
Well done David Goodwillie, who scored Dundee United's opening goal in the Scottish Cup Final.
Today I joined a team from three Garston Churches, plus New Heys school and the Friends of Garston Park for a litter picking session in part of our area. The annual event is organised by people from Long Lane Church, All Souls and the Bridge Chapel. It started at Long Lane with breakfast. We then did some litter picking along Long Lane and into Garston Park before teams made their way up towards Bridge Chapel (with lunch as a reward) I couldn't stay the whole time but it was great to take part and meet some of the people. And ...
Policy, relationships, practicalities, even thinking about a little bit of governance and leadership – these will all undoubtedly all pre-occupying the minds of many senior LibDems (and no doubt Conservatives). But right from day one of this coalition, the LibDems, probably more than any other party, will need to keep two things clear in their consciousness - those of identify and narrative. The LibDems for generations have enjoyed an easy identity - the third party, centre-left, progressive even maverick - even though it didn't feature strongly on the radar of the general public. Well it does now – with many ...
Last Saturday, just after we started to negotiate with the Tories, I asked on these pages: Is their a grand gesture to Reform which will make a deal with the Tories acceptable? I concluded by saying that, while Mr Cameron would not give way on Fair Votes for the Commons, it was just possible that, if his back was against the wall, he might be induced to yield ground on Reform of the upper House. His MP's own seats would thus, for the time being at least, remain 'safe' enough for them to be dragged into line to accept proportionality ...
WestFest Ceilidh and Supper Friday 21st May, 7pm - midnight West Park Centre Perth Road (opposite Harris Academy) Tickets £12.50; (£8.50 under 12s) Dancing to John Stuart Scottish Dance Band
On Thursday night we saw the dynamics of the New Politics unfold. For the first time, advocates of the Lib-Con pact came face to face with opponents and the general public in a very public forum. On Question Time, Simon Hughes MP and Lord Heseltine defended the new government against a tirade of abuse from Lord Falconer, Mehdi Hasan and Melanie Phillips, while the audience expressed exasperation and dismay. Get used to it. This is the New Politics, and if Cameron and Clegg are to be believed, this is what we have to look forward to for the next five ...
That's Stockton market. On Wednesday the present Bishop of Durham made a flying visit to take part in celebrations of the signing of the market charter 700 years ago this month by his predecessor, Bishop Bek. As Bishop Tom pointed out, the bishops in medieval times had far more temporal power than now, but it was seen as an extension of their duty of care to the flock - making sure that the
A couple of hundred of us turned up in Leeds for the Take Back Parliament protest, and I'm going home with purple balloons. It was good to see Kate Sweeny the greeny again, and James Blanchard was there, and a few of the usual suspects from lj and twitter. After the protest, Tez ( [IMG: [personal profile] ] burkesworks) and Jim and I went to Mr Foley's for a very nice pint. Now I have to walk the dogs and get ready for an 8 hour shift at work before Special Conference tomorrow. Busy busy busy...
Seven blogs have recently joined Ryan's Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator, continuing the recent spurt in both new bloggers and new contributors to this site. There was a previous burst at the start of the election campaign with this second one following the election result. It's a welcome sign which compliments the news of rising party membership every day since the election; people are more interested in the party and wanting to take part and discuss politics. Here are the new additions to the aggregator: Alan Pomroy - http://borispomroy.wordpress.com/ Alistair Rae - http://meanderingmammal.wordpress.com/ James Thompson-Stewart - http://latteliberaluk.wordpress.com/ Josh Hadley - http://brontides.com/ ...
In the last parliament, there was one person in the Lib Dems above anyone else who was really promoting the case of cross party co-operation on key areas of policy. Lib Dem health spokesman Norman Lamb championed the idea of parties working together to come up with a proper response to the issues of personal care for the elderly in a way which would remove party political point scoring and instead focus on solving problems. So what has Norman Lamb's reward been for championing working with other parties ? Nothing. No ministerial post, not at any level of government. So ...
Wendy Jones was one of the first Conservative Councillors to get the 'Black Spot' from the Porter Parry leadership. She always maintained to anyone who would listen that her deselection was due to her assertion that Debbie Jones was not parliamentary material. Well for the second time running the voters in what is now Sefton Central seem to agree with Wendy. I honestly believed that the Tories would win that seat. I've had a tip off that the curse of Wendy may strike again. You know what they say about vengence-well I'm sure Wendy does.
Interesting thoughts from Peter Kellner: During election week, YouGov asked people where they placed themselves on the Left, centre or Right. We offered three variations of Left and Right: "very", "fairly" and "slightly". At first sight, Labour and Lib Dem supporters look fairly similar, and very different from Conservative supporters. Labour supporters divide: 54% Left, 23% centre and 5% Right, while Lib Dem voters divide: 43%-29%-9%. Contrast those figures with the Tories: 5%-21%-57%. If that were the only evidence we had, then the conclusion would be irresistible: most British voters belong to one of the two tribes on the left ...
Nick may just be carried away slightly in some of his recent statements. I am thinking in particular of this: "So, given that the people told us, explicitly, that they didn't want just one party in charge, we had a duty to find a way for more than one party to govern effectively." Perhaps we should take deep breath. Our position on the current electoral system is that it grinds through a lottery to produce a result. People have made a number of judgements in this last election and the lottery result has given us the position we have. We ...
Any of our new ministers in need of some extra bedtime reading (and indeed anyone involved in politics who wants to keep hold of their critical facilities) should have a look at the book 'Irrationality' by Stuart Sutherland. Especially the chapters "In-Groups and out-Groups" and "Overconfidence". In fact read them before the special conference on Sunday. Having a better understanding of how ordinary people like us have got into tangles and walked into disasters in predictable ways will help us sort out our inevitable mistakes over the next few years. There will be mistakes however good our beginning and intentions. ...
Lib Dem Voice has been conducting a survey today of party members registered on our members' forum asking them for their views of the coalition government agreement betwen the Lib Dems and the Conservatives. Well over 550 have responded, and here's part one of what you've told us ... LDV asked: How do you rate the perfomance of the Lib Dem negotiating team in reaching the agreement with the Conservatives? 59% – Very effective 36% – Effective 2% – Ineffective 1% – Very ineffective 2% – Don't know A whopping 95% of party members who responded to the survey, therefore, ...
Browsing some websites this morning I can across this announcement from the returning officer of the London Borough of Waltham Forest.It appears that someone from the National Office of Statistics has looked at the election results and seen some error in the results for the High Street ward. When the returning officer looked at the results it could be that the Labour block vote was written down
We're thrilled to be having such a busy day here at LDV with a lot of opinion articles scheduled from a wide spectrum of writers. In all that, there's a good chance we might lose sight of our early morning post proposing a Tweetup / Liberal Drinks meeting at the end of the special conference on Sunday. Full details are here: http://ldv.org.uk/19520 To keep our discussion tidy, comments on this post are closed. Please comment on the first blog post from this morning.
The expected backlash against the coalition government is clearly much delayed. Latest reports from Liberal Democrat Federal Headquarters in Cowley Street is that fewer than 100 people had left since the coalition was announced four days ago, while more than 400 had joined. The party gained more than 1500 members over the election campaign.
The election may be over but the influx of new readers continues apace, with well in excess of 100,000 individual readers so far this month. Welcome to you all. A few tips and pieces of housekeeping that may be useful: You can sign up to receive a daily breakfast e-mail listing our posts from the previous day, with individual links through to each of them. It's the perfect way to catch up with all the content on Lib Dem Voice. See the sign-up form here. Lib Dem party members are welcome to join our private discussion forum, which now numbers ...
I have blogged many times on the threats to our civil liberties and privacy posed by Government and consequently I am delighted that the new Coalition Government is pledged to end the ID card scheme and the National ID database that goes with it. However, as this article reveals it is not just government that poses these sorts of threats. The companies who provide the on-line services we use every day can be just as culpable. The New York Times reports that Google has admitted that for more than three years it had inadvertently collected snippets of private information that ...
It is pleasing to see that later on today Ed Miliband will join the Labour leadership race. I'm pleased not just because it means we'll actually have a contest to look forward to, but also because it means my prediction on January 1 that he will be the next Labour leader might well come to ...
Peter Serafinowicz, a celebrated British writer/producer/director/actor/musician/comedian/voice model talks about why he downloads movies and tv shows, even the ones he is in. In the meantime, I'll be suing myself for pirating my own show. And I'm pretty scared, because I have an amazing lawyer.
In one sense I'm disappointed the election is over. Returning from my own self imposed wilderness at the dismalness of the political scene to the local fold in New Forest East has been a revelation to me to see how social media networks can re energise the election process, and importantly how it has engaged more of our local membership helpers during campaigns - and not just the under 35s. The more active are definitely the silver surfers who have taken to the new technology like a duck to water. So much so, that a regular evening briefing session during ...
The Bracknell political blogosphere has been expanding lately. New bloggers Andrew Best at blogpolitica which is an independent blog from the Sixth Form question time organiser Andrew Best. Lib Dem ChinoChick who blogs at Theuglytruthandthebeautifullies ChinoChick is Bracknells Consistencies first female political blogger. Bracknells new blogger Bracknells other bloggers; The media darling and Lib dem commentator Mark Thompson at Mark Reckons Steve Gabb Green Party blogger at greengabbles Alvin Finch Bracknell Conservative Borough Councillor who blogs at Alvins stuff And our new Conservative MP Dr Phillip Lee I'm very pleased to be part of a growing blogging community and pleased ...
I am willing to accept that I am remarkably unobservant. I am perfectly capable of being so absorbed in my own little fairytale dream world that I could quite possibly not see Michael Schumacher or Tom Baker, both long term idols of mine, if I walked past them in the street. I find it hard to believe that even I could have missed a series of pro democracy riots in the late 1990s inspired by the Labour Party, angry at the provisions for ending a Holyrood Parliament possible only by a 2/3 majority of the Chamber. Surely they must have ...
The Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors has reported back on last week's council election results: Just as the General Election produced a mixed bag of results, so did this year's council elections. Although overall we had a net loss of 135 seats and control of a number of councils, the outcome was far more complex. The results in metropolitan and London councils saw a net loss of 52 and 77 seats respectively losing overall control of Richmond upon Thames, Liverpool, Rochdale and Sheffield in the process. However, in unitary councils and the English districts we lost just 5 and 1 ...
A glance at the make-up of the new cabinet does not make great reading for equality campaigners. 86% male, 97% white, 59% privately educated and 69% oxbridge educated – hardly a great advert for our diverse and multicultural society, or indeed a state education. In their defence the Lib-Dems and Tories can point to Labour's final years in office which shows a broadly similar pattern, with the exception of eductional background, in which there has been a definite backward step. Nick Clegg and David Cameron yesterday talking about aspiring to a new way of doing politics – a noble statement ...
Lord Bonkers is better informed even when he is hidden away in Rutland than many who have been looking out for a list of Lib Dem Ministers. This morning he publishes a full list. I'll leave the jokes to the noble lord.
Over the last 48 hours quite a few otherwise decent political journalists have made a hash of things, confusing a vote of no confidence in a government with a vote to force an early general election under a system of fixed-term Parliaments. The principled difference between these two types of votes is pretty basic and clear and is far from novel - it's a part of fixed term Parliament systems used elsewhere. So far, so normal - journalists get some bits of a story wrong. But you know what's depressing about it all? The political journalists clearly haven't been paying ...
Sat 15th
09:07
Pope Benedict condemns same sex marriage as a "dangerous and insidious" challenge to society
Once again the Pope opens his mouth and utter tripe spouts out. My apologies to any Catholic readers of my blog, but the Pope really does need to engage his brain before putting his mouth in gear (a saying my Mum used to say to me a lot). At the end of his four day visit to Portugal Pope Benedict XVI addressed the Catholic faithful during the traditional 13th May annual mass at Fatima's Sanctuary. Addressing the huge crowd at the shrine of Fatima, Pope Benedict said that same sex marriage and abortion were among the "most insidious and dangerous ...
The establishment of fixed-term Parliaments is a very very serious constitutional amendment for the UK. It is right that this be tested out as vigorously as possible before legislation is introduced. It will remove some of the most serious political powers supposedly still vested in the Royal Prerogative and hand them over to the elected representatives of the people of the UK. In a real sense it is a step towards a kind of Republic (with a Monarch as ceremonial head even more divorced from politics than now).. The so-called prerogatives are, under the present constitutional understandings, actually manipulated by ...
Ones I've spotted so far: Department for Education – Sarah Teather Department for Work & Pensions – Steve Webb Department of Health – Paul Burstow Foreign & Commonwealth Office – Jeremy Browne Home Office – Lynne Featherstone Ministry of Defence – Nick Harvey Ministry of Justice – Lord (Tom) McNally (who, having worked in 10 Downing Street until 1979, must win some sort of longest gap between appearances in government prize)
Hooray! Dan and Dan (of Daily Mail Song fame) have announced their new coalition agreement: Video also available on YouTube.
Today I am attending two conferences, the first will be the Fabian society "next Left" conference which is discussing the post election future for Labour, and the second the passion world tour in London. I'm quite excited that Ed Milliband is speaking at the Next Left Conference and there are strong suspicions that this might ... Read more
Over at Comment is Free, Nick Clegg explains the shared aims of the Lib-Con coalition: The third runway at Heathrow has been cancelled. ID cards have been scrapped. There will be no more child detention. And reform is now under way to make taxes fair for millions of ordinary people. These are some of the early achievements of a government that had its first cabinet meeting just two days ago. A new government but, more important, a new kind of government: plural, diverse; a Liberal Democrat-Conservative coalition that defies the rules of old politics. I know the birth of this ...
Apologies. I haven't posted in a few days – I like most of you who are reading this was glued to the TV listening to the cabinet and ministerial appointments and just generally trying to get my head, and heart, around our 'new way of doing politics'. I still don't have answers on that front, ...
Plans are emerging for a Liberal Drink / Tweetup at tomorrow's special conference. It's been a long old while since I was at the NEC (we had a fab time at a printing exhibition ten years ago when we were replacing a folding machine. Going to a conference that included machines that could turn trees into decks of playing cards was a little OTT for a standard folding machine) However, a bit of a look at the NEC website suggests there is a Wetherspoons on site – and it's not terribly far from Hall 3 where the special conference takes ...
I do share His Lordship's and Paul's excitement at the plethora of Liberal Democrats in high office ready to do stuff, really I do. It's fabulous. However, my excitement is a little tempered by the fact that so far we only seem to have appointed 2 women to any sort of ministerial office. I know that the West Wing has given us all great entertainment and has no doubt coloured our aspirations over the last decade, and there weren't very many women in senior positions in that but there are times when life is allowed to be better than art. ...
The 55% rule, needed to ensure a fixed term Parliament under our dodgy uncodified constitution, is causing a lot of confusion (thanks mainly to the media) and upset (thanks mainly to conservative members of the Tory and Labour parties). What to actually know what it means? Here's a serious explanation and here's a fun one. I think the boo-ha-ha from the old guard, on this issue alone, illustrates how hard the fight for reform is going to be. If they get upset about fixed term Parliaments, how will they feel over an elected House of Lords?? Time to get down ...
The most worrying thing about our combined coalition is our education policy. Our parties' opposition to tuition fees and to the privatisation of the school system is highly important and must be pushed as our highest priority.
I can't claim credit for the word "de-Labourfication"; it was in a post on the Libertarian Alliance email forum the other day. But it describes pretty accurately something I've been contemplating over the past few days: that this new government might just mark Labour's high point as a political force in this country and that we may yet see its ultimate demise. That the sort of state socialism that many of its supporters espouse (and too many part time and not a... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] ...
I may be slightly tipsy, so I shal try to keep this brief. Tonight was our local party's thank you party for all the people who helped with the election. I met people off t'intarwebs, and I saw lots of people who I have come to regard as family (♥ Hilary and Nader and John BM and Ruth and Pauline and Hywel and Jim and the Most Awesome Lord Shutt) and there was beer and food and it was great. The weekend is going to be busy. Tomorrow is a community action group thing in Bailiff Bridge, then the take ...
It could be argued that an alliance with Labour would have been the moral thing to do, after all, Liberal Democrats have more in common with Labour. I would argue that the opposite is the case. Labour were widely seen as a failed government, their leader seen as a failed leader and alienated even within his own party. People might disagree about whether Nick Clegg or David Cameron won each of the debates, but I think there can be little doubt that Gordon Brown lost all three. If the Liberal Democrats had backed Labour, they would have been seen as ...
