So Joe Lieberman lost the Connecticut Democrat senatorial primary by a few percentage points - despite the best efforts of Fox News. There is a question over which of Lieberman and victor Ned Lamont is the more liberal as we would define the term over here - this was perhaps more akin to a Blairite [...]
Seems some Lib Dem birds are now singing openly in Islington following the downfall of Steve Hitchins - with it has ended his iron fist control and tyrannical reign over the council and the local party. Gossip is rife at the moment. Monday - trotted along to a PFI2 forum meeting expecting to hear the details of the agreement which is at long last about to be signed. It involves the building improvements internal and external to some 5000 street properties in Islington. It's been heavy going for the past couple of years and now there's light at the end ...
Today, the Liberal Democrat leader, Ming Campbell, called for everyone to switch to energy saving light bulbs. Just as Tony Blair did, a day before. When asked if he had done so, Ming replied he hadn't, unlike Tony Blair, but he did make sure the lights were switched off when no one was in the room. When his ordinary bulbs burn out he intends to replace them with energy saving light bulbs.
The Guardian reports: 'No plans' for Thatcher state funeral Lord Bonkers comments exclusively for Liberal England: Quite right too. Why, the old girl isn't even dead yet!
I couldn't believe the reports I read today. There is Ming Campbell telling people they need to do more for the environment and preening himself that he'd got rid of his Jag (mind you, only under pressure from the likes of Nick Clegg it should be said). Asked about whether he used energy saving bulbs he says that he hasn't got any. For the love of God man! They don't cost that much. You don't have to wait for your bulbs to blow to replace them. I certainly didn't. Could someone in Cowley St. get a ...
Sometimes I wonder why I bother. The BBC reports: Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell has urged people to make greater use of energy efficient light bulbs - even though he does not have any himself. He made the admission as he told BBC Radio One's Newsbeat that individuals had a responsibility to do their bit to save the environment. What did Ming and his advisers think he was going to achieve by going on Radio One? Bling Campbell, down with ver kids? It doesn't sound very likely. You are allowed to turn invitations down. Why didn't he have ...
Yesterday, attended the West End Community Council's re-visit to the 'proposed' Riverside Nature Park. I say 'proposed' because, as one member correctly says, it is only 'proposed' until SEPA and the Council allow it to be opened to the public, and I have no doubt the consensus is - the sooner the better. The views are, simply, totally tremendous; very few views are quite as stunning & the full opening of the site will become a real Dundee attraction. We had a walk round a couple of months back but time was short as a Community Council meeting was ...
Here's a touch of class: classical ringtones from Boosey & Hawkes. Me, I have the theme from Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra.
provide a home for 300 species of invertebrates. Spineless creatures, in other words.
Tuesday Today we are faced with the important question: what's on the telly? More importantly, why is there STILL nothing on ITV? After even lower lowest ever viewing figures and a month when the channel that almost very nearly but didn't quite bring you Celebrity Nail Coffin cancelled one show after… er… one show, we get the news that the man responsible has done the decent thing and accepted a huge payoff. It's almost time to cue up the SCHADENFREUDE song! But before I do that, I think I should say that "beating" ITV is beginning ...
As per the pledge set up by James Graham, here's my letter to Jack Straw regarding his complaining about TheyWorkForYou. Rt Hon Jack Straw MP 2 Carlton Gardens London SW1Y 5AA 9th August 2006 Dear Mr Straw, I'm writing to you in objection to the criticism you directed at the website www.TheyWorkForYou.com in the House of Commons on 20th July 2006. It may be true, as you say,
Let's get this right. Direct British involvement in invading Afghanistan and Iraq with the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent civilians did not overly trouble Jim Sheridan, a PPS to the Defence Ministry. However, when it comes to the British Government's rather tepid support for Israel after Hizbollah's unprovoked attack - well, it's a resigning matter. The man has clearly no sense of perspective.
For those Lib Dems who are interested in using email and video for engaging with residents, here's a bit about how I do things in Gateshead. I produce a monthly Video Focus newsletter. The link to the just-produced August edition is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYv-vfDq-Co or follow the link on the blog entry below. I started off producing videos that are about a minute in length and
The Western Mail continues its love affair with Assembly Presiding Officer, Dafydd Elis-Thomas, this morning with this report of an article written by his biographer, former Plaid Cymru Candidate Laura McAllister. The piece is guaranteed to set Ieuan Wyn Jones' teeth on edge, particularly as it identifies two aspects of Lord Elis-Thomas' political form that are lacking in the leadership of the Party of Wales and which could account for its decline - a vision and the ability to take risks. "Few other politicians of his generation are as intellectually interesting and politically challenging. Indeed, few of his contemporaries ...
Neil Clark reminded me of something I was going to blog about. In Shock! Horror! Politician listens to the people! he reminds us that the Kaczyinski twins- in common with 70% of Poles, want the death penalty brought back. How silly of them. Don't they know that 'democracy' in the EU means doing the exact opposite to what the people want? Poland is regarded as a staunchly Catholic country, no? Why even the last Pope was Polish, no? Poland has seen rather a lot of the death penalty in the last century, no? Why then can ...
My Lib Dem ward colleague in Fakenham, Cllr Nich Starling, was in trouble with his new wife just hours after their wedding on Saturday. During their wedding breakfast, Nich received and responded to a number of text messages updating him on progress during Norwich City's first game of the football season. Who was the cause of these disruptions throughout the reception? Wedding guest Norman Lamb, MP for North Norfolk.
Newcomen Terrace, Redcar will be closed to traffic and pedestrians from Saturday August, 12 to Sunday August, 27 as the area prepares to be turned into 1940s Dunkirk for the filming of the blockbuster movie 'Atonement'. The seafront road will be closed from the Regent Cinema to Arthur Street where bombed out buildings and a band stand can already be seen as work carries on to create the essential scenes for the movie. Diversion signs around the closure are already in place on Majuba Road, Lobster Road, Coatham Road, Millbank Terrace, West Dyke Road, Lord Street, Redcar Lane, Granville Terrace, ...
The fame of this blog continues to spread, so much so that apparently they have heard of its existence in the darker recesses of North Wales. Well, this letter in Monday's Daily Post seems to indicate that this is so: For several weeks I challenged Labour’s opponents to tell your readers whether a coalition was likely to try and replace Rhodri Morgan and Welsh Labour after May 2007. My questions were met with silence from Plaid Cymru. However, it seems that Peter Black of the Lib Dems is not so shy and he now offers an insight ...
Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council has received an apology from the Campaign to Protect Rural England after it was wrongly listed in a press release regarding building low density houses. The CPRE said that it received a message from the Department for Communities and Local Government, telling them that there is an error in some of its published figures, which were placed on its website in May. The analysis carried out by the CPRE was based on these figures relating to density. The CPRE continued "we are sorry that the Government has put incorrect figures in the public domain, and ...
Apparently a group of MPs is going to ask Jack Straw (leader of the house of commons) for a recall so that parliament can discuss the situation in the Middle East. With MPs off on recesss for more than 10 weeks, there needs to be some way of getting people back if there are urgent things to discuss. yet it seems that there is no mechanism for ordinary MPs to do this... the request will go to the speaker who will decide, based on the views of the government over whether its needed or not. Now you ...
After Sen. Lieberman's defeat in the Connecticut primary, Alex Wilcock offers a superb dissection of the result and how it might affect Tory party policy over here.
The tangled web of socialist intrigue continues to gather apace. More significantly perhaps, it looks like the tide has turned in terms of the way the SSP are discussed in the press. One of the more bizarre ingredients of political commentary in Scotland over the past few years has been the kidgloves approach to minor parties; the relative success of the SSP and Scottish Green Party at the 2003
Anyone who heard Ming Campbell on Radio 1 this morning will have either cringed or giggled, depending upon their political persuasion. How can this man who has in the past always been confident, assured and authoritative suddenly have lost his...
The success of Israeli arms and the prosperity of its economy over the last half century have subconciously lulled many Westerners and probably many Israelis into differing forms of over confidence over the long term security or even the existence of Israel. It has made, especially European, public opinion shift towards seeing Israel as an almost invunerable and bullying mini super power, and it has allowed certain sections of Israeli society to build up a dangerous head of arrogance in their relations with the Palestinians and other Arab states. A quick appraisal of the local geography shows how misguided both ...
Why keep a dog and bark yourself? Couldn't have put it better myself, Simon!
Shariah TV - on again tonight; recommmended viewing - is fascinating. On last night's show one question asked the Shariah law relating to the beating of women. This quotation below accurately reflects what the panellists agreeed was the teaching of the Qur'an: According to most interpretations of Sharia (Islamic law), authorization for the husband to physically beat disobedient wives is provided only under certain conditions. First, admonishment is verbal and secondly a period of refraining from intimate relations is observed. Finally, if the husband finds the situation very serious, he may hit her. But at any point, if wife thinks ...
Today’s big news from the USA is the ‘shock defeat’ of Joe Lieberman in the Senate Democratic primary in Connecticut by an unknown multi-millionaire, Ned Lamont. Yes, I know; America, the country where any underdog multi-millionaire can spend vast amounts of money to represent ordinary people, but the Lib Dem blogosphere can only look on in awe at the power of US bloggers, credited with starting
An Ipsos Mori poll of the Professional Rugby Players' Association has reported that: 60% of players said the season was too long...50% felt the 11-week close season was right This means that 10% think that the season is too long but the length of the close season is "right". Oh dear. Well, they are Rugby Union players after all...
I’m not sure what’s worse. The idea of a bunch of trots politicising an obscure cricket match (Peter Hain, you have a lot to answer for), or the thought of Scotsmen attempting to play cricket. Won’t the lack of holes and flags confuse them?
Having established that B-list Tory candidates are to be allowed to pretend to call themselves A-listers, it looks like the Tory slide into mediocrity is set to continue. State funerals are normally reserved for Kings and Queens and, on rare occasions, former Prime Ministers who saved the country in its darkest moments. Now they are [...]
I guess four points from six at the start of the season is not to be sniffed at especially given the disrupted pre-season and late signings at the back end of last week. Some poor defending allowed QPR to snatch a point. Oh well early days I guess
Joseph Lieberman - Al Gore's Vice-Presidential Candidate in 2000 (when of course they won) has lost his Connecticut Senate Primary to a relatively unknown anti-war candidate. Ned Lamont received 52% of the vote against Lieberman's 48%
There's probably a long winded joke in there (10 people on the executive to delegate it to the 12 on the policy committee, before the conference committee decides that the motion can go forward to the 1000+ federal conference delegates).Or just the one: Our leader. Which reminds me that I too should get a stock of energy efficient light bulbs ready to replace ones that fail.
I am a supporter of the Recall of Parliament although I have not been contacted in relation to the linked story about MPs calling for Parliament to be recalled. There is an interesting technical point that the House of Commons can only be recalled at the request of government ministers. On the other hand the government's permission is not required for the recall of the House of Lords. Jack
Yesterday we posted on the new Tory logo. One of the hits on this piece came from the Guardian, and this article appears today. This sentence seems to owe something to Liberal Review: Strikingly, the trunk of the new Tory tree appears to be blue, which may upset some naturalists, although others may be more troubled by the party's commitment to expand house building in the countryside, which cannot be good news for old oaks of the genuine variety. A couple of people have e-mailed to ask when the Tories announced this policy. The answer is here (I know he ...
Monday Lord Blairimort has made every effort to break the fourth wall this week. First while travelling to America to suck up to Australian Media Tycoon, Roger Stavro Mordick, he announces that "political cross-dressing is rife". Then he goes on to dress himself as a "green" while auditioning for a role in The Terminator Four (Destroy All Public Services). Presumably, he intends his incarnation of the killer cyborg to be some kind of TRANSFORMER! After Megatron and Unicron, meet POODLE-NEO-CON ! The dog that doesn't bark in the night! Poodle-neo-con comes with a CHOICE of accessories: ...
If you saw my post yesterday about 'What Muslims Want', Jon Snow's Dispatches program and want to read more discussion there are some interesting posts at Pickled Politics, Under Progress, aNaRcHo AkBaR and Rolled-up Trousers. Special note of Picked Politics coining of the word 'Chavlims' with reference to two exceptionally inarticulate chaps featured on Dispatches. Further note that George Bush
I spent the weekend in the Estonian countryside. Firstly on the islands of Muhu and Saaremaa and then in the family summer house of some friends on the mainland. During the inevitable saun party I start to chat with the rest of the family (even the youngest speaks English that is more than respectable for a seven year old). The teenager of the family, despite an unhealthy obsession with the thriller film genre, turns out to have a nicely subversive sense of humour. We discuss the extraordinary pace of technological change in Estonia. I remark that I was in the ...
I've got to be nice to Jon Snow - he's my university Chancellor for a start and I always enjoy his annual lectures here. He often speaks about what one might call opinions below the political radar. On Monday night he presented a heavily trailed documentary about "What Muslims Want" - drawing on recent research and opinion polls amongst British Muslims about their attitudes to British society and their world view. I was left not quite clear about whether it was intended to show how different some Muslims' attitudes are, or how similar, to the "rest of us". ...
Two weeks ago, I found myself entangled in a debate about how we should select our candidates for the London Assembly. I had taken the viewpoint that we should seek to engage our list candidates more effectively, not, on the face of it, a terribly unreasonable concept. The proposal has been somewhat controversial, as I indicated a fortnight ago. There has been some enthusiastic lobbying from | < | August 2006 | > | ||||
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