LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Actually you must have me confused with Christopher Baus. I think DRM is the most boneheaded and harmful idea to have come to the whacky world of online-media (and this is the industry that gave us Boo.com and the dot-com bubble). DRM stands for “Digital Rights Management”, a collection of computing technologies that restrict what [...]

Those readers who access a number of blog sites may have noticed a bit of a theme today as a number of us have committed to making some comment on the reform of the House of Lords. I can't understand why this is so controversial. The Labour party made an early commitment to dealing with this issue but ended up dealing with the problem in a half hearted way by reducing the number of hereditary

Normally I would yield to no-one among the Liberal Democrats in my support for European ideals. But this time the EU has gone too far. (With thanks to Guido Fawkes).

... To love Penny Arcade. PS. No, they aren't paying me.

94 years ago today, Westminster voted to reconstitute the House of Lords on 'a popular instead of hereditary basis' in the Parliament Act 1911 - but it still hasn't been enacted. In fact, the last time the House of Commons voted on this a few years ago, the majority were in favour of a mostly or wholly elected Second Chamber. But in the end differences between them over the exact structure led to a split vote and no progress. Let's make sure it happens soon. Check out the Elect the Lords Campaign. ...

Tonight at 8.30pm, Lost starts on Channel 4.I've already seen the entire series (guess how), and believe me, it's worth one hour of your time each week. If you don't catch it tonight, you're going to regret that decision for the next few months, as your friends gossip about the latest twists and turns of this compelling drama series about a group of plane crash survivors.And don't think the series finale will be anything like the resolution you are hoping for, the programme has already been commissioned for a second series and filming started at the end of July.

Rafael at the Observer blog has come up with a lovely turn of phrase to describe Big Brother contestant and erstwhile Labour council candidate Eugene Sully: He is geekier than the IT support team at a Trainspotters v Star Trek fans maths olympiad. Naturally, this blog is backing Eugene to win. You can help by texting the [...]

This deserves a wider audience. Thanks to Sandra Gidley.

I signed up to this PledgeBank pledge to blog about reform of the House of Lords and it is time to carry out my promise. I have a fairly simple understanding of democracy which is that those who have overall responsibility for making decisions affecting our lives should be chosen by the people in free and [...]

Thanks to Simon for this.

One of my favourite blogs is The Law West of Ealing Broadway - I’m always pleased when new entries pop up in Bloglines. It’s a wonderfully informative blog written by a West London magistrate, mostly reporting on cases over which he has presided (with details changed to protect those involved). If, like me, you’ve never [...]

For those who argued that the Welsh Assembly's decision to not charge top-up fees was a subsidy for the middle classes this article in the Western Mail offers food for thought. A survey by NatWest Bank has found that the introduction of increased tuition fees in England could put off A-level students next year. They also estimate that Welsh students about to start their first term of university this autumn will expect to spend £30,241 during a three-year degree course, including tuition fees. On average they expect to graduate with debts totalling £13,950.The key finding for us ...

In case you're one of those Liberal Democrats dithering over which of Charles Clarke's new anti-terrorism laws to support, Armando Iannucci, writing in the Daily Telegraph, has a few useful suggestions. (Link via the excellent David Blunkett is an arse).

Clearly I have one foot in the grave. I was aware that my son (12) liked to have jeans which were torn so much that one of the first things he did was to tear them. However, what I was not aware of was that the free market had operated to provide pre-torn jeans with small strategically placed rips. When I was a lad ... we did have pre-faded jeans. However, it strikes me as odd that people

Ninety-four years ago, the Parliament Act 1911 received Royal Assent. The Act was intended to begin the process of replacing the hereditary House of Lords with a democratic second chamber. Nearly a century later, the only elected members of the House of Lords are those hereditary peers elected by and from a small group of [...]

Could this be the immense duck-pond that Dobson wrote about in his celebrated (but sadly out of print) “Immense Duck-Pond Pamphlet“? More information can be found on Frank Key’s Hooting Yard website.

I remember when SourceForge was new, it was revolutionary. Sourceforge gave poor developers the means to host an open source project in public. SourceForge did for free what might be otherwise costly to set up. It gave users a version control system, a bug-tracker, a forum and a home page all as a turnkey solution. [...]

I was alarmed yesterday to read this headline in a magazine: Cylinder liners fitted to Sir Archibald SinclairWas it not sufficient ignominy to be the last Liberal Party leader to lose his seat at a general election, without the world learning that "... further work on the lubrication pipework is being done" ? Fortunately, this story appeared not in any political journal but in the new September

Today marks 94 years since the 1911 Parliament which included the following pledge. “it is intended to substitute for the House of Lords as it at present exists a Second Chamber constituted on a popular instead of hereditary basis, but such substitution cannot be immediately brought into operation.” 94 years and we still have a Prime Minister who thinks an appointed upper chamber is not bad