LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Rather a LibDem weekend over the past couple of days with Saturday spent at a party regional policy roadshow in Perth and much of Sunday campaigning across the West End. The Saturday event was really well attended and I don't think anyone doubts the good heart the party is in. The 2007 elections at both parliamentary and local council level look really promising although today has reminded me that

Richard Huzzey has just returned from the Green Liberal Democrats Conference and has posted about the case against a cull of badgers to control bovine TB. He points us to the side of the Badger Trust, and their powerful campaign on the subject. It also tells us that yesterday was National Badger Day, which explains all those parties in the woods - though I expect there were none in Southend.

Can Labour deliver its 1999 pledge to halve child poverty by 2010-11? That's the question The Economist posed this week, noting that - though the number has fallen by an impressive 700,000 since then - the Government missed both its 2004-05 targets: In 2004-05 there were 2.4m poor children, 100,000 above the goal of 2.3m when measured before housing costs, and 3.4m poor children after housing

Tim Worstall is busy this weekend, so you can find the latest Britblog Roundup in the Devil's Kitchen. The First Post has put together its usual roundup of the Sunday papers. The most striking story is this one from the Telegraph: British students could struggle to win places at university because of competition from European applicants who have "better English", the head of a leading college has claimed.

If you've quite finished laughing at France snatching a draw from the jaws of victory, flick over to the BBC's Politics Show website, which is runing a poll to find out the biggest political own goal this season (ie, since September 2005). When last I voted, the top 3 were: Walter Wolfgang being ejected from Labour conference = 23.30% George Galloway in the Big Brother house = 17.27% Patricia

Just back from a weekend up North, at the Green Liberal Democract conference in Trafford. Excellent weekend with a number of good speakers and friendly delegates. However, the presentation which impressed me the most was one on badgers and the bovine TB cull currently supported by the government (and "reluctantly", the Lib Dems). The cull seems clearly to be the triumph of superstition over convincing science. The slow eradication of bovine TB was undertaken in the 1950s, after its incidence skyrocketed in the war years. Why? Because the process of testing and destroying cattle with bovine TB was suspended during ...

Sunday 17 June - Widcombe Rising Widcombe Rising - a great street party in Widcombe High Street. The road was closed off for the day and the traffic rerouted. Cllrs O'Flaherty and Metcalfe would like to make the High Street permanently closed to traffic so this event provided a good opportunity to monitor the effect on traffic flow. The local resident association - The Widcombe...

The act of embracing sport as a means to political progress is rapidly becoming a regular Plaid Cymru ploy. We have already seen their number one list candidate in South Wales West struggle to identify Swansea City's opponents in a crucial game, now her boss, Leanne Wood, has used an apparent gaffe by the Labour MP for Rhondda to beat him over the head. Plaid Cymru were outraged at the Rhondda MP's remarks in Parliament on Wednesday in an address about digital television service in his constituency. In his address, Bryant said: "Everybody wants to go digital in ...

Earlier this week a lady turned up at the Council offices wanting to find someone to help her. her councillor wasn;t there - so I said I would have a go. It turned out that the Department of Work and Pensions had stuffed up big time and this lady was left with literally no money. Now she'd been told she would be getting the funds.. and should already have received them. But some sort of admin mess up meant this hadn't happened. All she was askingn for was for the money she was entitled ...

Amidst all the controversy about the flag of St.George being flown around Wales, these remarks in the House of Commons appear to have been overlooked: Mr. Hain: I thought, Madam Deputy Speaker, that you were going to remind all Members that there is a World cup match coming up; but to respond specifically to the hon. Lady’s rather graceless jibe, I will, of course, be supporting England with enthusiasm. I am flying an England flag, not out of my house in Wales, but out of my flat in London. Of course several Chelsea ...

{Cameron with Bromley voter} The Mail on Sunday has an interesting reflective piece on David Cameron by Peter Dobbie. Part of the interest comes from the hint that there is something in the closet - but I'll leave that to you. The deeper part looks at the way Cameron is being successful by breaking the rules - doing the things we normally hate to see in a politician. Cameron can say just about anything at the moment and it is greeted with awe. I have seen him once in recent weeks, when he was addressing ...

Campaigning in Bromley today, second time I've been down. The first was the opening week where we were finishing off thank-you leaflets for the local elections, a fairly quiet time. Now though the by-election is in full swing, with 2 weeks to go, and the contrast is notable. The team have a floor of an office building near Bromley South station buzzing with people stuffing target letters, sorting bundles and other infrastructure tasks. Downstairs teams of deliverers and canvassers are being directed by the front-of-house team while Chris Rennard and the candidate, Ben Abbotts can be seen rushing around ...

St Peter's Church in Norbiton has had a complete facelift. The former rather dingy interior is now light and welcoming. The pews have been replaced by comfortable seating, and the choir area has been transformed into an open flexible space. A baptism pool has been installed near the font, which has been moved to a prominent place. I was very struck by the use of colour,...

Some good news: after a long time waiting its turn, Windyridge Road is set to be the next road resurfaced by the council. The work will begin on 10th July, and take a week or so. This is a good result for the local area, since the potholes were getting quite extreme. In addition, both Manor Road and Wymans Lane have just been added to the list of roads to be resurfaced, so will in due course be dealt with as well.

A Home Secretary of a western democratic government changes the sentencing system for criminals. A new Home Secretary is then appointed. A Judge then applies the changes as required by the law that the previous Home Secretary had laid down. The new Home Secretary then attacks the Judge in the national press for being too lenient on criminals and is backed by the Prime Minister and a junior

Henry Porter had, as usual, an interesting column in today's Observer. One of the few UK journalists who gives civil liberty issues their full importance, he takes the Labour government to task for their further erosion of civil liberties - in this case, people's rights to safety and privacy in their own homes. What few understand is that, under Blair's continued campaign against the people's rights, forced entry is going to become a lot more common in Britain, although not perhaps with the overwhelming force of Forest Gate. Running in parallel with legislation that invades our privacy - the ...

The BBC's Devon pages report an interview with Charles Kennedy by Chris Rogers, their South West Political Editor. Kennedy met him when he was in Newton Abbot to open new Lib Dem offices. The most interesting part runs as follow: "I haven't written any memoirs, but looking back there was an assumption that maybe we should have a change of leader without having a leadership election," he said. "In an area like the South West, with such a big membership and with one member, one vote, I think that would have been very demoralising. "The penultimate decision I ...

Which just goes to show that in this by-election, the Conservatives can’t take the support even of the staunchly pro-Tory local papers for granted. Another paper, the Bromley Times also reports that: A tanned and relaxed Mr Cameron, who arrived by train only to be driven back down the High Street to Bromley South station, was [...]

It's with Congressman Lynn A. Westmoreland Colbert: You have not introduced a single piece of legislation since you entered Congress. Westmoreland: That's correct. Colbert: This has been called a do nothing Congress. Is it safe to say you're the do nothingest? Westmoreland: I, I, ..Well there's one other do nothiner. I don't know who that is, but they're a Democrat. Crooks and Liars has the

Thank you so much to Matthew Walker of the Kent Messenger for this image, and thanks also Paul Walter's excellent blog for alerting me to it, but the biggest thanks must go to Mrs Joyce Earl, aged 75 of Bromley, for making it possible.

Reading some of Andy Darley's Mingter rants, noticed a section from The Mingterview (part 2) "From the politics of motoring I moved to the politics of race and international relations with a question from my good friend, and successor as Hounslow Lib Dem chair, Harjinder Singh ...

A well-informed eaily digestible round up by a physicist here. If you want to know how a civil nuclear power station can be used to provide the ingredients for fission warheads this is a good primer (!). Main points: it makes economic sense for Iran to have nuclear power stations: its a big country with a young population and growing demand: they less oil they burn for their selfish selves the

The electorate size of Sedgefield, Tony Blair's constituency, is 66666.

Why do newspapers run on-line polls and surveys? They are often unrepresentative, easily manipulated and open to abuse, even by the newspaper themselves. They can give a quick and easy headline but who really believes their outcome other than the gullible? A good example of the absurdity of these polls is the one currently running on the icwales website. They are asking people who will win Blaenau Gwent. So far the voting is: Independent Trish Law 10.47%New Labour 6.40%The Tories 74.81%The Lib-Dems 6.59%Plaid Cymru 1.36%Someone else 0.39% I voted of course, but if the result ends up ...

Have been doing some thinking, as follows:At the end of last year:I was going to the gym regularly and getting fitter, stronger and healthierI was developing an idea for a business that looked extremely promisingI had written a quarter of a novelI had no involvement in politicsI was happy with my lifewhereas now:I have been to the gym three times since March, have put all the weight back on, and have seen my fitness plummetMy business idea has stalledI haven't written a word of the novel since before ChristmasThe Lib Dem leadership election and the council elections have left me ...

Blimey! I just looked at my referrer stats and discovered that the Wikipedia page for Halo Jones quotes from, and links to, here! How cool is that?

I travelled home from work on Thursday on the Tube and on South West Trains during the second half of the England v Trinidad & Tobago match and it was brilliant - the quietest I can remember the public transport system ever being at any time, let alone at rush hour. I noticed a young woman on a Northern Line train who was reading, and looked deathly tired. She had dark shadows under each eye, slanting down towards her cheekbones, and they were perfectly mirrored in tone and angle and size by her eyebrows. It made her look as ...