LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Spent most of the day in London. For once, during recess, a number of London engagements had coincided so it was a worthwhile day. Latter part of the day was spent doing TV interviews in Victoria Gardens, opposite the Millbank studios. Latter interview was constantly interrupted by mini convoys of police minibuses, sirens blaring heading off down the embankment. That's the sort of thing that

Jonathan Wolff writes in The Guardian - sorry, theguardian - complaining about the increasing role of students' parents. He is not the first academic to comment on this trend. On 29 July this year Frank Furedi wrote in the Times Higher Education Supplement: In 1997, I completed my book The Culture of Fear. Most of the comments my copy editor made about the manuscript were routine questions about grammar, incoherent formulations and inconsistencies. But one of the comments stood out as an explicit challenge to the authenticity of the text. The contentious passage informed the reader of a relatively ...

The new structure of Special Schools in Kingston is beginning to take shape. Last week the School Organisation Committee agreed formally to changes in the intake at the three schools. This will increase the number of places in Kingston for local pupils with special needs and eventually reduce the numbers who are placed in distant independent schools, often as boarders. (Picture shows me on a recent visit to Dysart School) The new sixth form at St Philips has already been running for a year in temporary accommodation. Now that its future is assured the new building ...

Went well. The planned march from the Fenwick Hospital to Boltons Bench had to be limited in numbe to 200. This was because of the constraints of the historic town of Lyndhurst - narrow streets and a fiendish one way system to boot. Romsey League of Friends had pulled out of officially taking part in the march. This was because of the plan to carry five coffins - representing the death of the

by Jabez CleggSimon Titley gave a sympathetic hearing to Chris Davies on the conference motion on EU Finance. Now Liberal Democrat News carries a heartfelt article from Andrew Duff MEP. Duff writes that "...conference will be asked to support maintaining a cap of 1% of GNI on EU spending, regardless of poltical purpose. Embarassingly, today's ceiling stands at 1.24%, and a cut of such savagery as the party's establishment proposes would mean the certain end of all EU social policy, regional development and R&D financing in the UK". It is worth subjecting all this to scrutiny.The cap/ceiling refered to ...

It’s hard to stand to God Save Queen when you’re republican and want Elizabeth and her dysfunctional brood sent packing. Devolution has given the Scots and Welsh their parliaments and anthems, but at sporting events England’s football and rugby teams sing (or mime) God Save The Queen, the frankly uninspiring anthem of the United Kingdom. The winning England cricket team seem to have changed all

Everybody's talking about the new Berliner format of the Guardian, so I may as well join in. I bought my first edition yesterday in Brussels. Although the 'international edition' of the Guardian is printed on the continent rather than air-freighted from England, any reader purchasing this edition in the Eurozone must pay 2.80 euros (about £1.90), rising to a whopping 3.50 euros (£2.35) on

Mev Brown who stood in Edinburgh East for the Conservatives in May has announced he is to stand as an independent in the Livingston by election. Interesting Election Factoid 4: Mev Brown stood against the 2001 Lib Dem Candidate for Livingston, Gordon McKenzie, in Edinburgh West in May. Interesting Election Factoid 5: The last time Gordon Lindhurst stood for a Parliamentay seat, the 2003

The best thing about commuting is having time to read the paper. The worst thing about commuting is commuting. Tags: commuting

Found courtesy of the Western Mail. This glow-in-the-dark Ant Farm is not my idea of a suitable household or office accessory. If you disagree then you can acquire one here.

Apparently, Alan Rusbridger would like us to “email” theguardian with opinions on its new Berliner format. Get with the programme daddy-o! No-one emails anymore. Don’tcha know it’s the blogs where it’s @ now? <cough> All in all, I think the new Guardian is pretty good. Yes, and pretty. (I was a mite touched that Saturday’s paper concluded [...]

The Western Mail reports on the National Assembly's response to the Devolution White Paper with the headline "White Paper? It's more like the Grey Paper". I am sure that it sounded good when the sub-editor thought of it but I could not tell you what it means.The article itself is much clearer. The sub-committee, which drew up the Assembly's response, makes it clear that there are many unanswered questions about how the proposed new legislative system will work:Looking at the mechanics of how the new system might operate, the committee fears that too much power may lie with Assembly ...

Tuesday 13th September 2005 - The impact of Hurricane Katrina is starting to be felt in Halewood and across the UK as threats of more fuel blockades leads to petrol rationing and soaring prices. I visited my local garage Sunday to be told I could only have £10 worth of fuel as other local garages closed their doors. It is a sensible precaution to take to make sure everyone can at least get some

Plaid Cymru have brought their most successful leader back into the limelight by making him an honorary Party President. Rumours continue to proliferate, of course, that Dafydd Wigley is looking for a way to be re-elected to the National Assembly for Wales. As a result it is widely considered that his new position has been put in place to give him a platform from which to pursue those ambitions. This will also enable Plaid to capitalise on his popularity. One commentator on Radio Wales this morning said that the Party was looking to the past for its future. On this ...

My blog is finally back up after moving server! Unfortunately my blog was one of the last things to get set up on the new server, so I have quite a bit of lost time to make up for over the next few days.