LibDem Blogs - Archived!

The best reason to be pleased about Ming Campbell's proposed visit to Guatanamo Bay is that Guantanamo is a disgrace. A disgrace not just to the USA, but to the West as a whole. It is good to see Ming speaking up on this issue. The next reason is that it responds to Simon Isledon's call for Liberal Democrats to make more use of symbolism. Ming is not just speaking up - he is confronting the issue in person. And finally, in making this stand, Ming is forging a link with one of the most powerful moments in Liberal history ...

thegrauniad’s Weekend Magazine last Saturday carried a diverting interview with Mike Skinner, aka The Streets, probably this country’s most brilliantly acute lyricist-cum-rapper. His Mercury award-winning first album, 'original pirate material', declared war on pop pap: You say that everything sounds the same Then you go buy them! There's no excuses my friend Let's Push Things Forward. As a fan

I woke up this morning and sleepily grabbed the television controls to catch the end of the Angola vs. Portugal game. Nothing happened. I pushed the button again. Still nothing. And then I noticed that the clock in my room was flashing 12:10. I can't have overslept that badly, can I? Look out of the window, rain is blowing sideways against the glass and the wind is gusting at speeds above 60

Update: the Guantanamo suicides are now "a good PR move". A top US official has described the suicides of three detainees at the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a "good PR move to draw attention". Unaccustomed as I am to public relations, I know every US military comment on this so far has not been a good PR move. And shameful to speak in that way.

From BBC News: "Al-Qaeda in Iraq will launch "major attacks" to avenge the death of leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a web statement thought to be from the group has said."Now who would have thought that violence would lead to more violence. This is a genuinely unheard of... it's only happened in Israel/Palestine, Afghanistan and of course, in Iraq. In other news, the Pentagon have released a picture

Don't let England's performance against Paraguay get you down. We won the game and lead the group. The last 16 beckons. It could have been a lot worse. In 1966, as James Mossop remembers in Time Out's feature on the tournament, England drew their first game against Uruguay 0-0 and were booed off. And we know how that World Cup ended.

Andrew Rawnsley explored some of the themes Liberal Review has featured of late in his article in the Observer. To the concern of his circle, there are already signs that his novelty is wearing thin. His personal approval ratings are in steep decline. He has now been leader for long enough for the inconsistencies and contradictions to mount up. He has spoken about 'quality of life' being more important to people than 'quantity of money'. That's a promising theme, but not perhaps the speech to make the morning after attending the Beckhams' £500,000 party. He joined the chorus of scorn ...

When I was a lad Isaac Asimov was my favourite science fiction writer - he wrote great novels such as "The Gods Themselves" and "The Naked Sun". I used to read his non-fiction books as well, borrowing them from Rayleigh library. Asimov was so famous that he could sell his articles to the top-paying magazines, such as Penthouse! Now, he had an article published in the January 1971 edition of

Two very different, but equally stunning, theatrical experiences today. First, to Kingston College for the official opening of the Arthur Cotterell Theatre, which has the happy acronym ACT. Years ago, when I worked at the College, this space was a sports hall. They wisely brought in a theatre designer to turn it into an excellent studio theatre. It has been heavily used by...

Today's Observer has a review of Des Wilson's new book Swimming with the Devil Fish. It is a study on Britain's current obsession with poker. Young reader's voice: But who is Des Wilson? The reviewer, Anthony Holden, helpfully provides a summary of his career: Des Wilson is what is used to be called, appropriately, a card. After arriving in Britain from New Zealand in the Sixties, he founded Shelter before running Friends of the Earth and the campaigns for freedom of information and lead-free petrol. The election manager for Paddy Ashdown's Liberal Democrats, he also became a bigwig at ...

I listened to the beautiful "Epic of Gilgamesh" dramatisation tonight on Radio 3. Its almost certainly the oldest written story in the world (about 4500 years old) What really took me aback was how modern it seemed. Heroes, villians, gender sterotyping, love, sex, power and adventure. Even the mythology with its sky gods and fire breathing demons seemed familar to anyone that has seen Lord of the Rings. For all the debate about advancing social changes it was quite moving to recognise a full formed human identity from the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates millennia ago. It was ...

Sunday reading recommendations: Tim Worstall's Britblog Roundup 69; The First Post's review of the Sunday papers. I particularly like the story from the People in the latter's Red-Top World section: When a pet snake invaded a library in Brixham, Devon, staff looked it up in a book to see whether it was poisonous.

I've tweaked the background and style sheet to make the left column slightly wider, whilst taking the pixels from the right hand side. By doing this, it allows me to whore my blog to the advertising world with 468x60 pixel ads. I've made a script which rotates the order and changes the ads for each company on each reload. It also places an add at the bottom of the item page, and I'll work on getting the archive pages pimped. I also played about with the flickr badge, so I now show all my pictures instead of my Cullen photoset, ...

The curse of the Formula One commentator strikes again - the British Grand Prix is running at the moment and Jenson Button, the Tim Henman of F1, was steaming his way up through the field following a poor qualifying performance. One of the commentators announced "Jenson's on fire here" as he cruised up to the back of David Coulthard and began to look for a way past. Wise to the ways of F1, Beloved Other Half and I looked at each other and said "he shouldn't have said that..." No more than three laps later a great gout ...

The US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State has described the suicides of the three detainees at Guantanamo as a "a good PR move to draw attention". This begs the question: What use is good PR to you when you are dead? The Camp commander has described the suicides as "an act of war" against the US. Is he mental or what? Perhaps he should be the one locked up. How can a suicide be an "act of war"

Hat tip, though I hate to say it, to Yellow Peril for this story: LibDems soften on axing council tax - [Sunday Herald]: LibDems soften on axing council tax By Paul Hutcheon, Scottish Political Editor SCOTTISH Liberal Democrats are backtracking on plans to replace the council tax with an income-based alternative, the Sunday Herald can reveal.Nicol Stephen’s party is softening its support for abolishing the successor to the poll tax because it does not want to jeopardise a third coalition deal with Labour. Senior LibDems believe the policy, which could increase the bills of middle-class Scots, is not ...

The British Grand Prix at Silverstone was its usual well organised triumph. Alonso again drove a perfect race and there were lots of jubilant Spaniards wandering around afterwards. Schumacher showed how brilliant team work can win a race. His crucial pit stop was 3-4 seconds shorter than Raikkonen's at the same time, and as a result, he overtook the Finn. Poor old Jenson Button! His engine started emitting flames right in front of our grandstand. But he got a huge cheer as he walked back to the pits. My photo below shows his car being craned away. ...

One of the more interesting results in the local elections was in East Walworth ward. East Walworth is the area one side of East Street going up to the Old Kent Road and Elephant and Castle. It includes the Heygate estate, one of Labour's 1960s Eastern European-style housing experiments in concrete, that's due for long-overdue decant and demolition in the next 4 years. In the vote Labour won two seats with Jane Salmon the Liberal Democrat survivor and Cathy Bowman narrowly missing out by 22 votes out of about 1,400. With a 1:2 split it seems likely both ...

Sometimes it only takes the back of an envelope to verify rough tax calculations. Clearly e-Tory Iain Dale doesn't keep real envelopes any longer when he says that in his interview with Andrew Marr this morning Ming Came Clean on Tax Hikes: Well if you're a lobby journalist scratching your head about what to write tomorrow, Ming Campbell's just given you your story. On the Andrew Marr programme he readily admitted that the cost of his so-called "Tax Cuts" would see "the rich" (which he couldn't define) paying £40-£50,000 a year more EACH in tax, as a ...

Many would argue that football is more important than politics, they may even be right! England has gone football mad, including me - I have seen four of the five games so far (the one I missed was due to being in a work meeting). The next match features the Serbia and Montenegro team, which brings me back to politics - the country no longer exists but the team does - fortunately the winners of the World Cup no longer qualify as right (not that I thought Serbia and Montenegro would win).

According to yesterdays Yorkshire Evening Post it seems that Leeds City Council has been banning England flags. To add insult to injury it has also banned its staff from looking at football related sites on the Councils internet service. At the moment surely there can be no greater PR disaster to befall a local political party than to be running a Council that is banning England flags just in time for the first match? Its the wrong thing to say but I did have a chuckle when I saw the YEP front page yesterday. Its a classic case of ...

According to Atticus in the Sunday Times, the Welsh have been getting up Tony Blair's nose again: A “save our seats” delegation asked Blair for the merest hint about when he would be walking into the electoral sunset. Amid rising concern about Labour prospects in the assembly elections next May, MPs Albert Owen and Paul Flynn urged Blair to set out a clear timetable. “The thrust of it was that he needs to clarify,” says an MP who was present at the private meeting. “Two MPs said this very openly.” But Blair sent them away disappointed, ...

This time in Torbay where they may have to consider removing their Palm Trees as they may constitute a safety hazard! I was really disappointed with the Liberal Democrat comment in the piece in yesterdays Guardian. Someone please tell me he was completely misquoted. This sort of mad nanny state stuff is the sort of thing we should be opposing. Yes we have responsibilities to protect people but we also have responsibilities as Liberals to fight against this sort of nonsense. Torbay is a beautiful area and as I write number one son is there imbibing a few small beers ...

We return to find our hero still in conversation with the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Menzies Campbell, following the Mingster's keynote speech last Thursday. Will he ask a difficult question or will he roll over and have his tummy tickled? Read on to find out... So far, the three bloggers interviewing Ming had covered the leadership, Prime Minister's Questions, conviction politics vs management, the aspirant middle classes, the non-voting socially disadvantaged, the political sea-changes of 1979 and 1997, and the likelihood of a general election in Autumn 2007 if Gordon Brown gets an opinion poll bounce when ...

Three inmates at Guantanamo Bay have killed themselves. Call me over-emotional, but isn't this a bit cold hearted: Rear Adm Harris said he did not believe the men had killed themselves out of despair. "They are smart. They are creative, they are committed," he said, quoted by Reuters. "They have no regard for life, either ours or their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us."

The Observer reports that Lib Dems' leader to visit Guantanamo: Ned Temko, chief political correspondentSunday June 11, 2006 Sir Menzies Campbell plans to become the first British politician to visit Guantanamo Bay. Nice one!... ...or maybe he's hoping to get a bit of work.