LibDem Blogs - Archived!

A petition has been launched calling upon Ben Ramm to resign as editor of The Liberal. It also urges the magazine "to conduct a wide-ranging, open and rigorous debate about its future". Thanks to Ian Ridley for the tip.

by Peter Below are a selection of our postings from 2005. I think all contributers (Phil Grant, Chrisco, Alex Sweet, James Chard, Paul Lloyd, Stephen Tall, Tabman and myself) are represented. Use the comments to request more from them and fewer from me! 1. Repairing the Liberal Schism 2. The Stupid Question 3. The Supergeek speaks out 4. Heritage and Urban Liberals 5. Axe the Tax! 6. Food for thought from Blue2win... 7. Impossible things before breakfast 8. An ethical dilemma 9. Blackpool blues 10. Mr Duff's complaint 11. Why was Blair doing it? 12. Utopia 13. Dystopia. UPDATE ...

Political Betting has pointed out an article in the anti-Kennedy Times stating that SIR Menzies Campbell is being lined up by senior Liberal Democrats to replace Charles Kennedy as leader of the party in a new year putsch. With Kennedy under unrelenting pressure to resign, Lib Dem MPs are preparing to present him with a list of signatures calling on him to fall on his sword in favour of Campbell,

There is always room for legitimate debate about any party's leadership and direction. But the anonymous briefings against Charles Kennedy before Christmas have now been followed by an absurd and ill-conceived petition over the New Year. The petition is run by an independent magazine called The Liberal but is being portrayed by the organisers as a groundswell movement of Lib Dem members and

Ken at the Militant Moderate is greatly exercised because, according to The Times , child smokers as young as 12 are to be given nicotine patches on the NHS. He is concerned that this is being funded whilst diabetics have are denied the best treatment: Diabetics don't have a choice as to whether they have their disease or not. It's a genetic condition that afflicts them for the rest of their lives, and gives them pretty serious potential problems. It's just flat-out wrong that those who choose to break the law get funded to treat the problems caused by ...

My new year has started with a bang - Some weird and wonderful comments have appeared on my blog the last couple of days. Not a clue who they are - sounds like they are 'two sheets to the wind'. Can't imagine sitting up reading blogs in the early hours of the morning but obviously somebody is. Another night owl - Received a New Year text from Parmjit Gill (former MP Leceister South) at 3 am, wonder what made him think of me at that time in the morning. Received a surprise gift of luxury Indian sweets (yum yum) by ...

And some more photos of our trip.

The new year was celebrated by a v.pleasant gathering of friends at no 46 Regent St. THis meant that I had to tidy for the previous 2 days to ensure there was room for people, and no council papers for people to slip over on!Part of the preparations were "paid" for by stripping with Colin. Several friends have said I need a cleaner, but actually what I need is for the Council to stop sending endless bits of paper, much of which is pointless for members, and that multiple items get sent by first class post! Failing that a secretary ...

Here are some of the photos we took whilst in New York as well as at our friend Gina's Wedding in Boston.

Martin is the third Lib Dem Councillor in Birmingham to run a daily blog. Dave Radcliffe one of the three Lib Dem Councillors for Selly Oak was the second. With three Lib Dem Councillors and one Labour Councillor now running Birmingham Blogs that must give us the chance at a record in terms of numbers of blogs for one authority.

Can anyone tell me where I can get a copy of the famous, but very kitsch, Ambassador's Party TV ad for Ferrero Rocher? My cousin recently took up the post of British High Commissioner (equivalent to ambassador in Commonwealth countries) to Jamaica and Bahamas. Of course, everyone has been giving him boxes of Ferrero Rocher, and I have to admit to this highly unoriginal idea myself when...

After several days of enforced offline life, I've now solved my broadband problems. For some reason wanadoo have altered the login usernames, but failed to tell us users. It took a short bit of browsing to find the right bit of help on their web, but i haven't had to phone their 24/7 national rate help line.So despite concerns over the health of my wireless router, all it took was a username change. Now have a spare adsl wireless router...

Jonathan Calder has promised to make Liberal England more controversial in 2006 and he set the ball rolling with this debate

here. Well written, accessible, intelligent, entertaining and worth bookmarking.

Questions about yourself 1. Name? Adam Nazir Ahmed Teladia 2. Nicknames? Adi 3. Date of Birth? 20th July 1983 4. Hair colour? Black with white in places 5. Piercings? Never 6. Hometown? Birmingham, UK 7. Town you live in? Birmingham, UK 8. Pets? Can’t stand animals 9. Ambition for the year ahead? To survive 10. Bedtime? Anytime 11. Been in a car accident? Thank god, No 12. Been toilet papering? No 13. Best thing about life? Learning 14. Disney or Warner Bros? Disney ...

Judging by David Cameron's latest about-turn he has forgotten which party it is that he is leading. It is almost as if he really wants to be leading New Labour. Certainly, the tone he is now adopting would not be out-of-place in No.10: Mr Cameron announced over the weekend in an advertisement that he wanted to “improve [the NHS] for everyone, not help a few to opt out”. He has told colleagues that he wants the party to focus on raising standards through competition and choice. This comes as the Tory leader warned members of his ...

is the latest news. According to this BBC report. Sad news for the family but a sigh of relief for the rest of us. That's another thing Pangloss forgot to mention in the everything is Bloody Marvellous column: the unanimous view among diseaseologists (you read it here first) that a human flu pandemic is way overdue and inevitable. Read some of the predictions of what might happen if it turns out to be a corker: it's the temporary breakdown of civil society. Looting, violence, food and fuel shortages, the health service in a ...

Liberal England: The great debate The first interesting debate of 2006 is happening on Jonathan Calder's site...

but this may be truly important: Turkish 'bird flu test' boy dies. I did spend a few seconds of the first day of the new year wondering where bird flu had gone, and here it is back with an ominous but muted bang. Interesting that educationalists spent a few moments at the end of the 2005 getting upset about the 'Hitlerisation' of history: too many recent wars being taught, they vapoured. Disease, plague, pestilence, worms, viruses and bacteria have had as much, if not a greater influence on human history as war. Still, pathology, aetiology and epidemiology ...

I noticed that the BBC website reports that "Controversial images of Queen Elizabeth II, George W Bush and Jacques Chirac apparently having sex have been removed from billboards in Austria... ...Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel was not able to ban the posters but had appealed to the independent artists' group running the project to withdraw some of them." Meanwhile Newspaperindex.com reports on twelve caricatures of the prophet Muhammad published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten last September. Apparently the newspaper commissioned these deawings just to check and see if religious fundamentalism was affecting the freedom of the press in Denmark. ...