LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Well, tomorrow's Times is anyway. The article also has a sympathetic account of Ming Campbell's performance at prime minister's questions.

Cats are a probable vector for spreading the H5N1 flu virus, according to this report. In brief: the virus can jump from infected bird to infect a human. Cats don't contract human flu. Cats can get H5N1 avian flu either by being around or eating infected birds, and become infectious virus shedders in turn. Birds are birds, and very distant relatives which can infect us with flu. Cats are

Last night by sheer good fortune I managed to catch the second episode of the TV dramatisation of Patrick Hamilton's 20,000 Streets Under the Sky. I watched the first episode when it was first broadcast last year. But a combination of council duties and inability to set a video machine in advance meant that I missed the other two. This is always happening to me. Hamilton is nowhere near as well-known a writer as he ought to be. His best novels portray a particular stratum of inter-war London society – seedy characters who are on the margins of respectable life. ...

A week ago I was told something in confidence about who was suspected to behind the leaks to the Media against Charles Kennedy. A bit shocked at the ruthlessness of it all but since then I've have been watching the leadership campaign with keen interest, quite confident investigative journalists would be digging in the background and eventually the true will be revealed or something else would erupt. With Mark Oaten's leadership campaign flagging behind in the polls, today's story in the Independent - Revealed: How Kennedy is supporting Oaten for leader is highly suspect. ...

When I heard Chris Huhne interviewed on Radio 4 last week announcing his candidature, I was put in mind of Queen Victoria's comment 'Mr Gladstone addresses me as though I were a public meeting'. These days of course you are even supposed to address a public meeting as though it were an intimate conversation, so that potentially counts against Huhne. I agreed with what Huhne was saying, but couldn't help feeling his style was overly didactic and academic, lacking in human warmth. My researches here in Watford suggest something of a gender divide, with women in particular not warming ...

Chapter 10: Pension reform: a new settlement for a new century by Paul Marshall This chapter is steeped in social liberalism, seeking as it does to solve the pensions crisis, rather than brushing it under the carpet as the current government seems to be trying to do. A few points are worth repeating. "The problem of intergenerational transfers did not take up too much of too much of Beveridge's

Three days is a long time in blogging. Having declared last Sunday I wouldn't be nailing my colours to the mast so early, I've changed my mind and made up my mind: Sir Ming Campbell will be getting my first preference vote in the Lib Dem leadership contest. Here are a few reasons: He is our most credible figure, well-known and well-respected within Parliament and with the public. As Andrew

With a week left before nominations in the LibDem leadership election close, I have decided which candidate I will be supporting. His launch speech, the best of the four candidates’, set out an exciting agenda for the party. Immediately he turned what looked to be a staid, predictable election into a policy-based, wide open contest. Then, at [...]

There is an extraordinary story on the Guardian website tonight: Mark Oaten's struggling campaign to lead the Liberal Democrats ran into trouble tonight after Charles Kennedy's office accused his team of leaking emails implying the former party leader was backing him. Mr Oaten, the party's home affairs spokesman, denied he or his team had been involved and called in the police and parliamentary authorities to investigate. But the author of one of the leaked emails, Mr Kennedy's head of office, Anna Werrin, told party chiefs that she believed "some bright spark on Mark's campaign thought it would boost his ...

At Christmas we purchased a fantastic little Espresso machine and have been knocking the black liquid in quick shots for a couple of weeks now. I don’t so much walk to the office anymore, as “fly” – I am high as a kite. I have been worried of late that I get more headaches than I used to… Am I poisoning myself with too much coffee? I also just read a blog from someone in Boston – home of the Mad Tea Party who is anxious he is consuming too much coffee and it got me thinking some more. There ...

Chris Young, at JABS, has drawn attention to this unhappy article. Most of the top candidates to carry Canada's flag in the opening ceremonies at the 2006 Turin Olympics — including cross-country skier Beckie Scott and speed skaters Clara Hughes and Cindy Klassen — declined to be nominated for the honour so they can focus on their events. If this attitude becomes widespread, it will see the end of the Olympics as a major event. Don't get me wrong, I think this would be a terrible thing. It is one of the joys of sport to see so ...

So of the 31 recommendations of the Bichard Report how well are the Governmenet doing? Or in other words what is the answer that Tony Blair should have given Sir Menzies Campbell earlier today. The Home Secretary Charles Clarkes seems to have been a little bit vague only last week on this matter. The first interim report of November 2004 and the second one of November 2005 make interesting

One of the first pieces I wrote here was a nice little rant about sub-fusc, the academic dress insisted on by Oxford when its students take exams. The Times is now reporting that University officials are prepared to consider dropping it. About bloody time (not that anything happens quickly in the university administration). There are arguments from a purely practical viewpoint - at exam time, it seems logical that students should feel as comfortable as possible. After all, there's little else done in the Oxford system to make exams a particularly pleasurable experience. The key one, though, is that of ...

by Peter After last week there has been a little too much attention focussed upon Prime minister's Questions today. This is how the Guardian reports it: 12.10pm Sir Menzies Campbell asks simply how many of Sir Michael Bichard's recommendations have been implemented since his report of over 18 months ago. Mr Blair admits he cannot say. The Lib Dem stand-in leader asks when the relevant police computers will be operational? Again Mr Blair cannot say exactly. A good double blow from Sir Menzies - rival candidate Chris Huhne is sat behind him, nodding furiously. UPDATE ...

The debate in Plenary yesterday on the Government of Wales Bill was a very lively affair. This would not have been so bad if it was not for the fact that I was in the chair for some of the more controversial moments. Labour started off trying to pin down the Tories on whether their call for a referendum means that they continue to be anti-devolution or not. Anne Jones started off with an effective intervention on Nick Bourne on this issue and she was followed shortly afterwards by Leighton Andrews, who highlighted the absurdity of a referendum on whether ...

by Peter In the comments to this post MatGB issued a challenge. Lib Dem bloggers have 6 days to persuade him (a)to rejoin the party and (b) to vote first choice for Ming and second choice for Chris (actually other combinations are possible, but why make it harder than it need be?). Here are a few clues on the sort of thing he's looking for: Isn't joining a waste of my money?If I do join, who should I give my first and 2nd preferences forAnd "he's such a really nice guy" is likely to dissuade me from ...

Well done Ming on two well-judged questions this afternoon. It is astonishing that Blair did so poorly in answering them, which says a lot about his own political priorities. He was clearly not briefed on this issue at all, despite it being on the front pages for the best part of the last [...]

by Peter Simon Mollan is highlighting the merits of some good new lib dem blogs. And a belated welcome for the Liberal Review. Let's hope this project grows and prospers! Rob's latest thoughts on where it might be heading are worth reading.

From Jenkin’s most recent bulletin of appeasement: Iran is the regional superstate. If ever there were a realpolitik demanding to be "hugged close" it is this one, however distasteful its leader and his centrifuges. If you cannot stop a man buying a gun, the next best bet is to make him your friend, not your enemy. Imagine it is 1937. Substitute the word ‘Germany’ for ‘Iran’.

Well today he clearly wasn’t expecting to have to answer questions about sex offenders, or maybe he just doesn't care. Strange as Ruth Kelly has been in the news over that issue all week. Sir Menzies Campbell came out strong and avoided a repeat of the faux pas of last week's debut, as temporary head of the Liberal Democrats, to ask two questions about sex offenders. Firstly the Prime Minster

On 18th January 1943 Jewish Prisoners in the Warsaw ghetto made the first organized resistance to their treatment by the Nazi occupiers of Poland. Armed civilians fought against the second expulsion of Jews to the camps. Already the Nazis had created Treblinka, Auschwitz, Majdanek and Sobibor. The previous concentration of over 380,000 Jews into the cramped confines of the walled ghetto had already weakened and killed many through disease. The four day resistance, though it surprised the Germans considerably and delayed the expulsion, did not ultimately prevent the dreadful ovens at Treblinka from receiving their victims. The heroism in the ...

Amazing! I post a comment complaining about the lack of contact and get five comments, one from a member of a candidate's campaign team! It all makes me wonder who else is reading this blog... The input regarding the difficulties in obtaining contacts is entirely valid, and I can't help feeling that we should enable all of the teams to have sufficient data to be able to contact as many members as

PFI has been TINA (There is No Alternative) for some time. There are a lot of games played with PFI. The first one is that it is basically very expensive compared to traditional procurement. However, if the traditional method is found to be cheaper then PFI cannot be used. Because there is no funding for the traditional method it means that people "make assumptions" [fiddle the figures] to

SInce 1993, the CSA has become synonymous with all that is worst about the way our country is being governed. First the Tory goverment set up a scheme so draconian in nature that absent fathers (it is usually the fathers) were hit with bills so high that some were driven to suicide. The clear aim of the original CSA seemed to be to reduce the benefits bill for single mothers. Every penny claimed through the CSA was to be deducted from benefits, and the mother was forced to point the finger at the father. One father who had a take ...

The elephant that must not be mentioned stirred in the interview of Chris Huhne on Westminster Hour. He was asked in effect if we had underperformed in terms of seats last time out and said not really. Well.. I can see why he is cautious about this because a contrary position otherwise invites tricky judgements on the performance of the immediate past and some continuing senior leadership and on that road might be more heat than light on why we have an election at all at this stage. We can expect more probing on this over the next few ...

As I reported earlier not all Scottish support is going the way of the Scottish candidate in the leadership election. This morning I noticed the names of Mike Rumbles and Robert Brown, two MSPs, being listed as supporters on Simon Hughes site. Must be the most high profile occasion I have agreed with Mike Rumbles in the last couple of years. Another MSP Euan Robson is backing Chris Huhne. If

Going through the mail this morning I found an invitation to an event at the St. David's Hotel in Cardiff from Hugh James Exchange entitled "The Quangos are going: what next?". The event is to be addressed by Economic Development Minister, Andrew Davies and the registration fee is £20. The sales pitch tells us to "forget the long speeches...this event promises to be interactive in every sense of the word. The format is a brief thought provoking presentation from key note speaker, Andrew Davies, followed by a question and answer session encouraging guests to stimulate debate and put questions ...

The Surrey Comet makes a front page story today out of the delay in opening the Rose of Kingston theatre. This was never the secret that the paper claims it was. The theatre has always said that it would take a year to fit out the building, and it is obvious to anyone walking past the site that work has not yet begun. Last summer the Council put together a financial package to enable...

I'll admit to following Celebrity Big Brother. Not watching it, but scanning the Channel 4 website to see what George Galloway has been up to since his infamous cat incident. I was wondering what his wife thought to him licking Rula, but vaguely recalled that she had decided to divorce him. I'm unsure if they've been reconciled or not. Anyway, that led me to this and the following line caught my

This is a bit spooky ... ... until you work out how they do it!

Today is my nan's funeral so no news for the site, I put this on automatically (on Tuesday) and hope to post again on Thursday if I am feeling up to it.