LibDem Blogs - Archived!

A quick update on what I've been up to over the last week or so.Area ForaOn Tuesday 26 July, took part in a meeting of the Quality Public Services Committee. We had an interesting discussion of Area Fora (I'm sorry, I can't bring myself to throw away years of Latin grammar). None of the councillors present seemed to like the existing format: one big meeting with the statutory Powerpoint presentation which the public had to sit through whether they liked it or not, and then us councillors sat up on the Praesidium for a question and answer ...

David Davis, the guy who's expected to be Tory leader from September 2005 till the day after the next General Election, has seemingly suggested that if our non-British civilians were more "British", then our problems with terrorism will be solved. According to the BBC news website, he also put the responsibility onto the Muslim community to do more than just distance themselves from these suicide bombers - they must confront them. Surely this is Davis subtly hinting that there is a direct link between Muslims and suicide bombers? Could it be true that he's blaming the religion, of ...

I must admit I am not a big fan of the Old Firm, either Rangers or Celtic: probably has something to do with my upbringing. However, knowing that Liverpool were reasonably safe I found myself glued BB2 not ITV2 last night. In first half Celtic started apalingly but they picked up going in 2-0 at half time, three more for extra time, four for the outright win. Was is possible? They wer elively

The first person has been charged in relation to the July 21 bombings. He is not one of the three suspected bombers held in the UK, nor the other suspect detained in Italy. The charge read out in court is having information that he knew or believed might be of material assistance in securing the apprehension, prosecution or conviction of another person in the UK for an offence involving the

I have been working recently to develop a collaborative research system to allow a number of people to work on collating information on various subject matters. Today the system went live, but is only currently available to people to whom I provide access. I hope to give read only access to anyone who is interested at a later stage. This will add to the information on the blog and allow more

by Alex Sweet John Major wanted to rid society of it. Tony Blair prefers not to mention it. Social class is the topic that all politicians are happy to ignore. Yet if classes are simply "groups with shared market situation", then an understanding of class is crucial to understanding how our society works. First, a quick primer. We are interested in a very limited view of class ( Neo-Weberian in the academic jargon). People in Britain today may not think of themselves in terms of class; class identities may have declined; and there's certainly no evidence of any collective class ...

Yeah, I've started this. But don't worry fans... well... fan*, this site goes on too. * Me

At last, the first high-profile player to have tested positive for steroids in baseball has been caught. Rafael Palmeiro, who less than a month ago was receiving the plaudits for becoming the latest member of the elite 3,000-hits club, is now banned and labelled, officially, as a drug cheat. Hopefully this will have an effect on whether he gets voted into the Hall of Fame; then again, given that countless other players have most likely been injecting themselves with cocktails of steroids for years with impunity, it probably seems a little harsh.Palmeiro has, however, been undeniably stupid. He's at the ...

I don’t usually post tests like this but it’s too good an opportunity to promote The Smoking Room to pass up. (Via.)

I have commented a number of times already about the ban on protestors outside the House of Commons. In discussions about the future of the Prime Minister on Radio Wales this morning it was suggested that Tony Blair is living in a bubble, divorced from the outside world. Therefore if he is no longer going to see protestors outside his main place of work, the House of Commons, then it is unlikely that he will come across them anywhere else. Convenient as this may be for him it does not give the rest of us any confidence that he is ...

I've already blogged about how concerned I am about British actions regarding the latest IRA statements. As far as I am aware, we still haven't seen a single shred of evidence that any more arms have been decommissioned since the announcement of an end to the "armed campaign" last week. Yet we're in the process of dismantling watchtowers and announcing the phasing out of Army regiments in the area already. I bet there are a large number of IRA members who are laughing at the British government right now for their willingness to accede to all these demands. As a ...