LibDem Blogs - Archived!

I have now set up a separate blog for my ward reports on http://newburyupdates.blogspot.com as well as my well-established web site on www.walter.org.uk . This will allow me to use this blog for my more wayward postings, unconnected with my councillor role. My first unashamed use of this enjoyable freedom is to highlight this utterly priceless photo of David Cameron. It is a classic! Like that

I remained utterly staggered by the sheer brilliance of John Terry's save off the line just a few minutes before the half-time whistle in the England v Trinidad and Tobago game. You can see it here. The speed at which it happened is breathtaking. The way in which he kicked the ball away was, it seems, based on pure instinct. It is almost a reflex action. It is just unbelievable. From the camera

By wedging the financial pages in the middle of its paper, the Guardian has subtly inveigled me, and I suspect many others, to read some of the financial news. I certainly never bothered when it was at the end of the paper. Today's finance pages offered a real treat. A photo from 1978 of those 11 Microsoft founders who are now worth $73 billion, together with details of what they are doing (or in

The sweet lined little wooden boat I rhapsodized about last night repaid my lengthy (and, truth to tell, probably mildly sunstroked) panygeric by blowing an engine seal, filling its innards with seawater then bleeding the resulting slurry into the bilges. (Not long ago I mused what a model of family life John Prescott was and days later he was found to have been bending one into the help.

I was gobsmacked by Martin Kettle's article in the Guardian today, titled "America's problem is again a usurping king called George". In essence, when an American President signs a law, he then quietly signs a document, called a "signing statement" saying how he interprets the law. With this particular President, the mind boggles. For example, after signing the much-heralded bill outlawing

Conservative Home lists the four A-listers that have now been selected as PPCs for the Conservatives. Fascinatingly, all of them have been selected in new seats created by the Boundary Commissioners, according to Wikipedia: Central Devon, Mid-Derbyshire, Chippenham and Northamptonshire South. This leads me to wonder if there is something about the selection structures used for new constituencies

There are many issues that are clearly political, but not actually party political. One of these is secrecy in the Family Courts. From the answer given here: Last year something like 200 people were sent to prison by the family courts, which happens in complete privacy and secrecy. The idea that people are sent to prison without any reports of the proceedings makes even more important the work

Looking through the films on television next week, one stands out. Suddenly is a moody thriller from 1954 starring Frank Sinatra as the leader of a gang plotting to assassinate the President. The film is on BBC at 0035, so really it is on Saturday morning. The story goes that Lee Harvey Oswald watched this film a few days before he shot President Kennedy. When Sinatra learned of this, he had the film withdrawn to protect his reputation. Reader's voice: But Oswald didn't shoot Kennedy. House Points replies: Go away and take your silly conspiracy theories ...

Today's Scotsman raises an interesting point by suggestion that the current World Cup could could intensify pressure on the devolution settlement. Since Tam Dalyell asked the West Lothian Question it has gone unaswered and after 7 years of devolved power in Scotland it has raised its head above the parapets of Westminster to save Tony Blair's hide on a number of occasions. The question that is

When MPs were plotting to get rid of Margaret Thatcher, she always had the knowledge that whatever her Parliamentary Party thought, the vast majority of Conservative members and activists backed her to the hilt. Alas, in Tony Blair's case, the Labour Party do not seem to want or appreciate him either. A poll has found that two-thirds of Labour's remaining members want Tony Blair to stand down by the autumn conference next year, and believe he does not trust the party sufficiently to involve members in policy making. Half of Labour's membership also feel policy is exclusively made ...

Plaid Cymru's South Wales West regional list number one, Bethan Jenkins, has not recovered from her embarrassment at confusing Swansea City's opponents in the play-off finals, even though she claimed to be there. Wiser heads in her party might have advised her to let it go and move on, but if they did then she clearly ignored them. She has written to tonight's Evening Post to apologise: I Would like to apologise for stating that I was in the Burnley match as opposed to the Barnsley match against the Swans (Post, June 10)! I was drowning my sorrows ...

The last time Sweden faced Scotland on 17 November 2004 the land of Abba and Sven Goran Eriksson celebrated a 4-1 win. However, Sweden have yet to qualify for the second round of the World Cup, they need a single point to go through. Following Argentina's 6-0 win yesterday against Serbia and Montenegro England need to impress to be taken seriously by the other serious contenders, Portugal,

Thanks to Rich from OllieB for the following mention in his blog (http://howtogetlost.wordpress.com/): But for the mean time here's the fascinating news that my young, hip and uber-cool local Lib Dem councillor keeps a blog! Keep checking back with him for the latest exciting news from the Winchester hanging basket controversy and so on! Isn't local politics just riviting! I've been called many

Hillcroft College deserves to be better known. It is based in a beautiful house, tucked away behind Surbiton Station, and is one of only four residential further education colleges in the country. Hillcroft caters exclusively for women, and at the student graduation event this week we heard about its real value in changing the lives of its students. Each told...

Welcome to Lautoka, here in north-western Fiji. Finally, relaxation has been forced upon me but I thought that I should take time out to report in. Fiji is warm, friendly and, above all else, slow. Very slow. Slow enough to be vaguely irritating if you let it. On the other hand, if like me you are desperately in need of rest and relaxation, this is an excellent place to be. This is my fourth day

it's just become unfashionable and like most science it makes the media's brains ache. Aw. Well, while they've been raging, ranting and reviewing round the land, H5N1 has tossed up a few more suprises. It continues to simmer in Indonesia, where new cases continue to emerge and kill. We're not facing a human pandemic but news from China suggests that the virus has hardened up its act: New China case suggests H5N1 now more infectious. In few: you normally get flu in winter, some H5N1 has mutated and developed the ability to survive and infect ...