LibDem Blogs - Archived!

by Peter There has been a mild outbreak of political correctness on the Tory leadership unreality show. Veteran heavyweight Ken Clarke has apparently promised to give up peddling nicotine, while David Cameron is "under pressure" to give up his lucrative directorship of a chain of late-night drinking dens. This is a far cry indeed from the glorious days of the party, when Tory governments were "washed in on a tide of beer", and a central plank of the party's strategy was to keep the working classes pissed. Meanwhile, David Davis has 'fessed up to the influence of a slightly batty-sounding ...

Lib Dem watch have been complaining that I have not written them a poem. I have not really got the time for that at the moment, but I heard these lyrics somewhere recently and wondered if they might suffice for the moment. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Captain Tobias Wilcock welcoming you aboard Coconut Airways flight 372 to Bridgetown Barbados We will be flying at an 'ight of 32000 feet and

Ned Kelly...er that's all the famous Australians I can think of...your boys took a hell of a beating! England lead Ashes after epic win 2-1, mate.

The sad thing about coverage of issues such as the Iraqi Constitution is that it is difficult to really find out what the issues are. I would assume that there are elements within Iraq that would reject any constitution written during the occupation. The irony, of course, is that the US has repeated the history of the 1920s. The key political issue then was foreign (RAF) bases. What I found

This article by Kirsty Buchanan in Saturday's Western Mail gets to the bottom of Labour's strategy with regards to extending the powers of the Welsh Assembly. Essentially, they are seeking to make it virtually impossible to trigger a referendum so as to keep the peace in Wales Labour. The result will be another compromised settlement between Cardiff and Westminster that will once more leave the Assembly without the powers it needs to do the job people expect of it.'Welsh Secretary Peter Hain argues this is an exercise in what is deliverable rather than desirable - in other words what the ...

Interesting article in the Indy and an apparent admission that Govt had not handled the issue of 24 hour drinking very well. Years ago, having spent some of my formative years living in Europe, I was convinced that a major realxation of the drinking laws would inevitably be a good thing. That was before the massive increase in levels of alcohol consumption and the development of the binge drinking

I have just returned from the Reading Rock Festival, hence the failure to post yesterday. There are a lot of stalls around the main field selling anything from fast food to body jewellery. A lot of vendors were peddling T-shirts containing a large range of slogans, mostly relating to the various groups who were playing over the weekend. One of them, however, simply said "A.S.B.O." It seems that youth culture has caught up with the Government's main weapon against anti-social behaviour and has incorporated it into their own mythology.

According to the Times politicians are to be first in line to receive bird flu pills. Not clear whether this is to be restricted to Cabinet Ministers or distributed more widely. Can't say that I agree with this at all and would far rather given to people with a greater need or in poorer general health

The black dagger was already circling the heart of the Catholic Church, and the Vatican have just given the force behind the final thrust. Ratzinger has sentenced his church to a slow and painful death.