LibDem Blogs - Archived!

A young person I know received no offers at all from the six universities she applied to, probably because of the predicted grades that she had. She ended up with two A's and one B, but the universities that she could have got into with those grades had no spare places left by the time the results came out. The whole experience had been very negative and demoralising, and I'm full of admiration for the way she did achieve so well in spite of that. The current admissions system for Universities is very unsatisfactory. I'm not saying that ...

Continuity Announcement of the Week preceded Five’s new sketch show Swinging: And for any Doctor Who fans watching, that looks like Lynda-with-a-Y at the bar. And it was. Definitely a contender for best death scene of the last Doctor Who series.

Fellow Harborough Liberal Democrat Ian Ridley sends me a link to the campaigning website Keep Cricket Free! Its objectives are: The Sports Minister to initiate urgent talks between ECB and the broadcasters to ensure some test cricket is available free-to-air in 2006. The Culture Secretary to take urgent action to restore the main home test series to the A list of protected broadcasting events and in the meantime to apply the Smith-Maclaurin understanding. The DCMS Select Committee to launch an urgent enquiry into cricket broadcasting rights. Ofcom to publish the results of their review of the ECB/Sky ...

I could not resist stealing this delightful juxtaposition of caption and picture from Dave.

Some conservative bloggers and media in the USA (such as this ignoramus) have been criticising foreigners for not offering to help after Hurricane Katrina, and for failing to return past favours. Well, excuse me. I think they'll find the facts don't fit their prejudices. A more liberal American blogger debunks some myths here. Meanwhile, Euractiv.com reports that any reluctance to provide help

Q. Was Hurricane Katrina cause by global warming? A. Probably not. Global warming presents probably the greatest threat to the future welfare of mankind. People in the developed world must be persuaded to change their behaviour to avert a catastrophe and it sometimes seems that the only way to do this is by shocking people with dramatic events. But unsubstantiated claims don't help the

It is rapidy becoming clear that not only do the Office of National Statistics not seem to understand Wales and its politics but they get into trouble whenever they come near here. Firstly, there was the tick-box issue and now there is this. I am impressed by their persistence.

Having made the promise that my 15 year old daughter could see Opeth in London (with a friend based in London) whilst not remembering the scheduled date was during the school term, yesterday was planned around having to get her back in time for school. This involved seeing the House of Commons Car Park for the first time and sorting out the associated bureaucracy of that. It did mean time to

This early morning Guardian story caught my eye. Kennedy breaks ranks on terror to accuse Blair In his first newspaper interview since the July attacks, the Liberal Democrat leader told the Guardian that the government's response was being driven by "public spin". That's just plain speaking - can't argue with that.