LibDem Blogs - Archived!

So what if we can't get Freeview in Market Harborough but still have to pay for those patronising Penelope Keith advertisements? The BBC has kindly added my posting about the 1894 London suicide bomber to its weekly review of blogs. It quotes from the posting extensively and links to it. That's what I call value for the licence fee.

The other day I quoted the blurb for Frank Furedi's new book: The terms "left" and "right" pervade all our discussions of politics. But do they mean anything any more? And is it really satisfactory to reduce all our political debate to these two terms?After reading Saturday's Guardian I think I see what he is getting at. A number of people were asked their views on the government's latest batch of proposed anti-terror legislation. One of them wrote as follows: It seems to me to be dangerous because I don't know how you can draft these proposals so ...

Here's a question that comedian Ross Noble raised on TV last Friday night: Have you ever wondered why it is that the Mr Universe contest is always won by humans?And in Saturday's Guardian, a reader's letter reported a sign in a local theatre, which asks, If all the world's a stage, where does the audience sit?

A very disturbing news report from my home in another life.Mentally sick man beheads 5 year old brotherBamaina in Jigawa State, Nigeria, is the home base of the Lamido family (ruling family). Most of the villagers are intermarried so are relations of one another. Another news reportMohammed used to come to my office in Kano - some 3 hours drive by road and as part of the extended family, I gave him money to survive and his guardian money for his medication. He used to tell people he was going to see the angel because of my blonde hair. My ...

I was very sad to hear of the death of Robin Cook. He was one of an increasingly rare species a Labour MP with some some ethics. He was also widely reported to be a friendly, approachable person (even before he died, so it's not just people being nice to the dead). One demonstration of him [...]

I don’t know where to start when it comes to critiquing the Government’s response to the London bombings, a mixture of excessive authoritarianism and shutting the stable door once the milk has been spilt. Can I really be agreeing with Peter Hitchens? Fortunately, there was a good piece from Mary Riddell in yesterday’s Observer that expressed [...]

I get annoyed with the terrestrial channels for showing the same old movies again and again. However, good movies become old friends that you meet again. I watched 'Born on the Fourth of July' again last night. Normally, I don't enjoy the all-American boy-type that Tom Cruise plays so well, but I like it when he plays against this type. In this film, he travels from the all-American boy to politicised Vietnam veteran, devastated by the destruction he has helped to wreak on a far away country. Though it is easier to blank out what ...

Blogging will be light this week as I am in Dublin, however I could not resist referring to the article in the Wales on Sunday yesterday, which reported that whereas Tony Blair spends thousands of pounds of public money each year on make-up to prepare him for his TV appearances, the First Minister spends not a single penny. The Welsh Assembly Government spokesperson took a positive pride in this announcement. Somehow this news does not surprise me, nor does the fact that a journalist asked the question in the first place. It is summer after all.

I love to eat at Le Bistro. It’s a fantastic place on Priory Road, just five minutes walk from my home. This restaurant has plenty of atmosphere even when it’s quiet. The food is excellent and the service is prompt and friendly. The manager and staff make a point of getting to know all their [...]

by Peter The Apollo Project is not made up of a singleminded group of like-thinking Liberals, doing nothing but exchange views on SVT and STV, on flat taxes and proportional reporesentation. In between such exchanges you'll find us talking of rugby, cricket and rowing, and even the (elusive) pleasures of long-distance running and football. Nor does our commitment to finding Liberal ideas for the twenty-first century preclude us looking into the past. Some problems have been around for a long time. The old solutions may not always contine to work - but they're worth considering. Take schools, for example. ...

by Stephen TallYou get home from a hard day’s work, switch on the television, and settle back for an evening’s perfect viewing. What would your ideal schedule look like? Here’s a few shows I’d choose: Brideshead Revisited, Inspector Morse, GBH, The World At War, Dispatches, 7Up, Jeeves & Wooster and Brass Eye.The sharp-eyed will have observed a unifying theme: all those programmes were the product of commercial television. They were not chosen for the purposes of engaging in sterile debate about which channel is best (of course I could have found paragons from the BBC’s back catalogue) but to highlight ...

Sunday 7th August 2005 - The 7th Knowsley Flower Show was held at the National Wildflower Centre in glorious weather and with huge crowds flocking to see the wealth of horticultural talent on show from gardeners around the local area. The show continues to grow and grow ( no pun intended!!) and has become one of the most popular events in the local calender.

Tim Worstall suggests on his blog that we should all make greater use of trackbacks. I hereby announce my support for this idea! Trackbacks are an excellent way to follow discussions across multiple blogs and I'm surprised that greater use isn't made of them. Whilst they can appear a little fiddly at first, I find that they are often very worthwhile.