LibDem Blogs - Archived!

We have a good crop of raspberries this year. I love them. They are the best soft fruit to grow: very easy to care for and the fruit freezes well too. We were sitting on deckchairs in the shade of the raspberry canes this afternoon, when I saw a young blackbird eyeing me from the wall. After a couple of minutes he hopped off the wall and came hopping towards me. I pointed the bird out to Ian, saying that it seemed too young and stupid to know we were a threat. The next ...

It's good to have a laugh sometimes - early in the morning rushing to go out to help in a by-election just heard a shout - "quick come and see Brian Orrell (Cyber Lieutenant)". UK Gold are showing all the old Doctor Who series - today it was 'Attack of the Cybermen'. Trying to clean off my nail polish - in haste I almost dropped the open nail polish remover bottle but just had to see him for myself. Brian is the ex English candidates chair and the current London Region candidates chair - worlds away ...

There were many stories in the papers last week that have been forgotten after Thursday's events. One of the sillier ones was The Times' claim that "One schoolboy in 10 has carried some kind of gun in the last year". The story itself has disappeared behind the Times' firewall ("The undiscover'd country from whose bourn/No traveller returns"), but there is a neat dissection of it on The Law West of Ealing Broadway: The headline suggested that up to a million kids have gone about tooled up, and the reality is that a few hundred, or even a couple of thousand ...

Yesterday I criticised CNN's coverage of the London bombings but, where CNN was merely inept, the Murdoch-owned Fox News was positively callous. I wonder how most British subscribers to Murdoch's BSkyB, The Times or The Sun would react if they knew what Fox News has said? Thanks to Jonathan Calder for drawing my attention to the glee expressed by two Fox presenters. It turns out that these are

Sunday 10th July 2005 - Another glorious day in Cheadle and still plenty of work to be done with only four days to polling day to ensure Mark Hunter wins on Thursday. If ever anyone needed motivating to work in a by-election the latest examples of Tory dirty tricks are enough to make the laziest person want to work all day to get Mark elected!! They really have stooped to an all time low in

It is important that no chances are taken with people's lives. I have not tried to find out exactly what the intelligence was that led the police to evacuate the City Centre last night. I do, however, support their decision to do what they did. It meant that I missed the Steve Ajao Blues Jam session in Centenary Square - a slight inconvenience that does not matter. At least I have managed to

In 1805 Admiral Lord Nelson watched as his second in command Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood led the British fleet into the guns of the combined French and Spanish navies. ‘He sails as though the eyes of all England are on him,’ Nelson said. Nelson was not sending his number two into harm’s way to save his own skin. His plan for the Battle of Trafalgar had divided the British fleet into two

In a posting yesterday, Susanne Lamido reports, Islington's Lib Dem Mayor Jonathan Dearth has called on all 48 councillors to wear the white wristbands throughout July in support of the campaign 'Make Poverty History'.She adds, Good on Jonathan for taking the initiative.I couldn't disagree more and I would urge all Lib Dem councillors to ignore their mayor's silly advice. Don't get me wrong -

Yesterday was interesting. I went to the Neath Carnival and ended up in a cage. It was all in a good cause. Amnesty International were highlighting the plight of prisoners of conscience all over the world and had arranged for a number of people to spend 15 minutes each in a wooden cage. Apparently, I was following in the footsteps of the likes of Peter Hain. Gwenda Thomas and Brian Gibbons who have all been 'prisoners' at past fairs. The cage was the coolest place on the field and I could easily have stayed there much longer than the designated ...

Very good article on the Times website by Simon Jenkins about the linkage between the decision to bomb Iraq with the bombings in London. I often disagree with Jenkins about issues but he has been spot on on this issue. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2088-1688040,00.html I have found listening to a lot of the statements by Blair, Bush and co. quite staggering. It really doesn't seem to occur to them that the pain and suffereing caused to each British or US family killed by a bombing is exactly the same as the pain and suffering caused to so many more families in ...

A small piece in the Wales on Sunday reveals that the Secretary of State for Wales will tomorrow hail the National Assembly for its 'groundbreaking' introduction of student grants. This is despite the fact that Peter Hain was part of the UK Government which scrapped them. My money is on the fact that Mr. Hain does not mention that student grants were introduced by the Welsh Liberal Democrats-Labour Partnership Government, nor that they came about from a Rees Commission Report put into the Partnership Agreement by my party. I suspect he will not mention either that the policy was ...

award, but there is a new winner waiting to be unveiled. The last recipent of this award rang up in tears to have the award revoked, and they were a pretty big travel company. You know who you are, you are in Stoke on Trent, UK. You have until 5.00pm, BST, Tuesday. An apology, and where you got our details from will do. In the meantime, if you're interested in mounting a denial of service attack on a spammer (starting 1701 BST on Tuesday), or just posting them tins of opened spam (no stamp) do get in ...

With a Dell printer this is not necessarily as environmentally sound as it seems. I've just made two attempts to print a 50 page document on both sides of the paper and wasted 50 sheets of paper. Tomorrow I'll use another 50 sheets printing it out on one side only.

I read in Saturday's Guardian that MIRA is an acronym for an extremist Islamic group, which gave me a funny moment.