LibDem Blogs - Archived!

If you live in the area you are very welcome to attend the next Neighbourhood Committee, next Wednesday at 7.30pm at Tolworth Girls School. You can contribute to the discussion about any of the items on the agenda, or can use Question Time to raise any other local issues. The previous Neighbourhood meeting - the gap was my seat which I left to take the photo. The agenda includes: * Road, traffic, parking and other improvements in Ashby/Gilders/Hemsby area, Gosbury Hill, Selby Close, Somerset Ave. * Planning consultation on the changes to Hook Youth Club to ...

Child-safety fears bar pupils from public buses says The Scotsman. But if you read the story beneath it is the public who are being banned from buses that some children use to get to school in Aberdeenshire. The local authority feels it has been forced into the move: "A number of parents indicated that they would not allow their children to travel on services which are open to the general public, despite there being no evidence of any problems on the services which have operated successfully in this way for 20 years." There has been one sane reaction to this ...

Terrorists who commit atrocities and survive without punishment have a lot of time on their hands to reflect on their actions. The press detail the dead, families and friends speak and society’s rage echoes through the digital world. Terrorists who get caught have even more to deal with. Locked away for their actions, their family can tell them publicly or privately what they think about the

First it was a rabbit bent on GBH and a goat and snails interfering with Her Majesty's mail. Now it's worse: Fire crews from Wellington and Shrewsbury were called to an address in Walton, near High Ercall, yesterday just after 4 p.m., following reports that a fire had broken out in a kitchen ... A spokesperson from Shropshire Fire and Rescue said today the blaze had been started after a dog had jumped up and turned on the cooker. "The dog basically jumped up and switched on the ignition," he said.

It is now four months and seven days since National No-Smoking day and despite the fact that the Assembly has voted overwhelmingly in favour of a ban on smoking in public places, its own building still maintains a smoking room. I reported on this issue on 10 March when I wrote: 'The smoking room in the Assembly building is situated next to the Fees Office and not only can the smoke be smelt in the corridor and by the lift, but it can also be smelt in the Fees Office itself. The effects of second hand tobacco smoke and the ...

I started the day at Sheldon Community Centre looking at plans for a children's play area, doing a bit of "tie dye" and making a "Fish Base" from which I made a traditional flapping bird that the children found quite entertaining. After my advice bureau I went to Birmingham's "Birmingham United" event in Chamberlain Square. The Evening Mail and Birmingham Post have been good in supporting

Well done Lembit Öpik for defending an unpopular minority: Biking MP Lembit Opik has accused the police of ‘a heavy-handed approach that simply alienates communities’ by shutting down a Worfield pub. The leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats has sent a hard-hitting letter to Home Office minister Hazel Blears. Magistrates allowed the Wheel Inn to re-open last week, under strict conditions, after the police temporarily closed it down after about 2,000 motorcyclists descended on it. Mr Opik, who rides a Suzuki GS 1000 and has vowed to visit the Wheel for a Wednesday night bikers’ gathering, said he had ...

Spiked has an article by Dominic Standish which shows how slow the British media were to report that the London bombings had caused fatal casualties. He writes: At 12.38 Italian time (11.38 UK time), Italy's leading news agency, ANSA, ran a story on its website reporting comments by the Italian interior minister, Giuseppe Pisanu, that at least 50 people had died in the London blasts. At the same time, I was watching TV news reports, mainly BBC World and Sky News, which reported possible deaths, especially following the explosion on the bus. Although BBC television news did briefly mention ...

Saturday 16th July 2005 - A petition in Knowsley against the Boundary Commission's proposals for the reorganisation of Parliamentary boundaries on Merseyside is growing daily. Both political parties on the Council have supported the objections to the plans to split our Borough with Halewood joining Garston while Whiston and parts of Prescot go to St Helens South. It is a barmy scheme which will