LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Thursday 24th August 2006

Ming: I should have been Ming

The latest in the Let Ming be Ming debate comes from the great man himself. The Guardian reports Sir Menzies Campbell's appearance at the Scottish parliament's "Festival of Politics": When asked why he had spent so much of the first six months of his leadership on the back foot, he explained: "I took too much advice from sympathetic people, people who thought they understood." By contrast, he claimed he was now listening to himself, saying: "When you are with lots of people with the best possible intentions who offer you advice, the skill is to realise the extent to which ...

Day 2052: What is Mr Balloon Hiding?

Wednesday More boring numbers today, I am afraid. The electoral commission has released the latest set of figures from the political parties about loans and donations in the months from April to June this year. They are a BIT CROSS because in spite of an agreement by all the major parties to declare ALL of their outstanding loan, one of the parties has decided not to. Who could it be? I will give you a clue: they begin with a "C" and rhyme with VONSERVATORIES! You are shocked, I know! As Lord Rennard says: "Public confidence in ...

Rewriting History - Who Saved Britain in World War 2?

I also see today that there is a dispute over who really saved Britain from invasion in 1940? In the light blue corner, the brave lads of Fighter Command of the Royal Airforce. The "Few". In the dark blue corner, the Royal Navy. My view from my reading of history is that BOTH played a major role in dissuading Hitler from invading. The Royal Air Force played a major role in preventing the Luftwaffe from gaining air superiority and the Royal Navy deterred a seaborne invasion by remaining a potent threat. To suggest that either ...

Tories Try to Pinch Paddy's Ideas from Over a Decade Ago!

In a complete act of total bloody cheek the Tory Works and Pensions Spokesman tries to pass off ideas that Paddy Ashdown outlined in his book Citizens' Britain OVER TEN YEARS AGO! I'm just reading the report on Guardian Online here . I mean, I know that the Tories have suddenly discovered a passion for recycling but this is a bit rich!

Ming's Advisers - It's All Their Fault?

An interesting and revealing report on Ming's speech today in Holyrood at the Guardian Online site. It seems that the reason for his iffy performance to date was because "I took too much advice from sympathetic people, people who thought they understood." Hmm.... Shouldn't a leader be his/her own man/woman a bit from the start? O.K. modern politics does require an element of "manufacturing" (look at both Blair and Cameron) but did he really totally ignore his instincts? I find that a bit unconvincing. To be fair to Ming though, I think that his performance on Lebanon, ...

Labour is Bad for Our Health

A smattering of Labour politicians have been complaining about the recent decision by NHS Lanarkshire to close the Accident E Unit in area with one of the worst health records in Scotland (which is saying something..) as a jolly good thing: NHS Lanarkshire welcomes the approval of a record level of investment to modernise Lanarkshire’s health services. The £300m investment programme will now be

The PR battle in the Middle East

I've just uploaded my latest article to my website - on the PR battle in the Middle East. If you'd like to receive my columns by email in future, I've got a dedicated email list. Members of this list only get emailed my columns and articles - usually around three a month. To join the list, just email lynnecolumn-request AT lists.libdems.org.uk

Flying to the Rescue

As has escaped practically nobody (if you are to believe the papers and a brief skim of the blog-o-sphere) the government* yesterday appointed Caroline Flint as "minister for fitness". Followers of this type of thing might remember her as the minister for drugs that admitted taking cannabis. Because she's worth it Leaving aside the fact she could start working the Cabinet room (John Prescott,

Increment boi increment

So, I’ve been enjoying the British Sea Power/Wurzels double A side - I am a cider drinker/Remember Me. It’s pretty glorious. Surprisingly, it is the Wurzels who make the best bash at a cover. The Betjeman-loving indie flinchers knock out a rather mournful version of the I am a cider drinker, but the Wurzels track is sublime. They even freestyle a little, with ad libs between the verses such as “oim so bloody stupid I can’t remember meself”. Only 1966 copies pressed and I’ve got number 1549, so hurry, hurry.

Garmin: one month on, nothing from customer service

It's a month now since I discovered my Garmin eTrex GPS was giving me incorrect positions. Which, to a professional yacht skipper responsible for the lives of other people's kids is a distinct disadvantage in a piece of expensive kit. Several unanswered phone calls and two emails to Garmin UK customer services later, still nothing. We have just bought a new fixed GPS for the boat, not a Garmin

Voting Labour makes you fat

An article in tonight's Evening Standard caught my eye. It highlighted alarming statistics that "One third of all UK adults could be obese by 2010". This if the enormous increases in weight, that have been going up year on year, during Labour's period in office, continue. We can see this from the Department of Health graph below that goes up to 2002. But back to the article. It lists the figures for obesity in London by Primary Care Trust using 2002 data. If you link that to the % of Councillors in each of the parties on the associated ...

From the heavy-handed to the frankly bizarre

Police are on high alert across the country. Councillors and police forces have wracked their brains for new ways of dealing with the annual threat to national security. No, not terrorists in this instance, but kids hanging around on street corners. The summer holidays are cue for a raft of measures to tackle youths’ bad behaviour. Police prepare for groups of young people out on the streets as if for a national emergency. This year, Home Office minister Tony McNulty announced £500,000 in grants for 10 local areas to crack down on teenage criminal damage. Discipline measures range from the ...

More on the Lib Dem blog awards

Mark and Niles kindly answered the questions I raised last night in the comments on that post. There is also a page about the awards on the Lib Dem website now. If you think I sounded cynical about them, see what Liberal Legend has to say. Anyway, good luck everyone. My money is on The Darbyshires.

The Death Penalty

I was watching Danny Wallace's 'How To Start Your Own Country' this afternoon. I am a big fan of Danny Wallace and his witty approach to his writing especially his books 'Join Me' and 'Yes Man' (OK I have to admit I did have to look up at my book shelves to remember the titles.) In this particular episode he was looking at introducing law and order in his new country. He traveled to America to

Lib Dem HQ

Attended a very productive meeting at Cowley Street, Ed Davey MP brought us up to date with some of the latest news from the Parliamentary Party including some very good developments for party members and campaigners.

Lib Dem buttons added

That was really easy and looks (I think) very professional. I have added the buttons to my site by inserting some simple code. If any other members or supporters wnat to do the same then just go here

Desperately seeking........

Help me out guys and gals! I need to know what attacks are being made on the Lib Dems on the ground by our opponents. This is not a sad obsession of mine but rather a determined effort to ensure you are all in a position to rebut attacks and opposition claims. Get in touch with me either in the Communications Unit at Cowley Street or by email: j.wallace@libdems.org.uk. Examples I have

Finally, an answer

We’ve finally been told why - or, rather, been given a reason why - hand luggage restrictions are in place. This comes not from a minister but from an unnamed source at the Department for Transport, via the BBC: [It is] far easier to detect possibly dangerous items in the type of smaller bag now being [...]

Lib Dem Blog of the Year

The Party has launched a Blog of the Year competition. Nominations can be made using the attached link. Vote early, vote often! (Especially if its for us ...) Hat Tip: Iain Dale

Our best ever GCSE results

Redcar and Cleveland's 11 secondary schools are celebrating the Borough's best-ever GCSE results this year, with more than half the 2,000-plus students achieving five or more A*-C grades. The Council's Cabinet Member for Education Councillor Steve Kay said: "We want to congratulate all our young people for their exam successes and the efforts they have made to ensure an excellent level of attainment across all our secondary schools. "As far as the national standards are concerned, covering five or more A*-C grades, this set of results represent the best-ever, reaching 50.6 per cent, two per cent up on ...

Green light for Bydales wind generator

Green energy will help power a new school and educate its pupils into the benefits of solar energy after Redcar and Cleveland Council approved the installation of two solar panels and a wind turbine. The headteacher at Bydales Specialist Technology College, Tony Hobbs, who will welcome the school's pupils into new buildings later this year, said: "We are delighted. This gives us the go-ahead to work with the Centre for Process Innovation and the Council. "We will be creating cutting-edge learning activities for pupils that relate to sustainable energy with particular emphasis on renewable energy, such as photo-voltaics ...

We should stop helping the terrorists

Another great article from Bruce Schneier. What do terrorists want? They want to cause terror, they want to disrupt our lives. Those who die as a result of their actions are colateral damage for the terrorists, the real targets are all of us, they want us to fear them, to concede to their demmands because we fear more attack. We need to stop helping terrorists. The politicians should stop using

POLL: next Lib Dem President

Right, it's uploaded and live, over at www.stephentall.org.uk. Simple question: Simon Hughes has served one full term as Lib Dem Party President. Would you like to see him re-elected, or would you support one of the other possible candidates listed below?Paddy Ashdown Lynne Featherstone Simon HughesSusan Kramer Lembit OpikJo Swinson Matthew Taylor Shirley Williams Jenny WillottThe choice is

Tories under fire for loans secrecy

The Times today reports on the dressing down the Electoral Commission has given the Tory Party for failing to declare £36 million of loans: In the three months to June, the Tories declared that they had taken out two bank loans totalling £2.8 million. But they made no mention of almost £16 million in outstanding loans to donors, plus a similar amount owed to banks. Nor did they mention the £4.5 million borrowed from Conservative associations and £200,000 from the Association of Conservative Clubs. A party spokesman said that details of all “outstanding loans” had been published, but five ...

Kinky website

Theo Butt Philip has pointed me to the marvellous Kinky Friedman for Governor of Texas website. Friedman’s manifesto is remarkably liberal and his site has some great examples of web campaigning, including

Lib Dem Blog Competition

I can't decide how to react to this. On the one hand it is good that the Party wants to encourage us all to blog with an incentive such as this. On the other hand my liberal instincts tell me that being "officially sanctioned" could lead you to allegations of "selling out!" if you are critical about the leadership, the current Party President and question whether the Parliamentary Party really gets out and about amongst the wider activist and membership base enough to find out about what we think about how things are going. Is the competition genuinely ...

A Contested Presidential Election?

I notice that my post regarding the Liberal Democrat Party Presidency caused a flurry of interest in my blog. Unfortunately some people still seem to be hung up on the idea that the Parliamentary Party should furnish any challenger which is disappointing but unsurprising. Surely the Liberal Democrats is a wider party then just 63+79=142 people? We have over 4000 councillors for starters. We also have several well-known celebrities associated with the Liberal Democrat cause. Surely there is somewhere out there who could bring a fresh perspective to the core of the Party? After all, isn't one ...

Free Chen Guangcheng

Chinese activist Chen Guangchen was jailed yesterday for 4 years and 3 months on trumped up "public order" offenses. During his "trial" his legal counsel was harrassed and eventually removed. Instead he was forced to be represented by State-appointed counsel. I totally agree with Amnesty International that he is highly unlikely to have received a fair trial. I shall be writing to Wen Jiaobao the Chinese Prime Minister asking him to intervene and seek the release of Chen whose only real crime was to expose illegal forced abortions and sterilisations embarrassing overzealous public officials in Linyi County, ...

Oh No / Hooray (Don’t Inhale As Applicable)!

Woe, woe! Lib Dems at 17%; let’s implode! Hooray, hooray! Lib Dems at 24%; let’s celebrate! Relief, relief! We’re now on 22% with the pollster who gave us 17; it proves they were wrong / we’ve made spectacular gains (delete to taste)! Yes, well. Liberal Democrats really shouldn’t inhale polls. They’re a very blunt instrument, and the only convincing one I’ve seen recently showed declining ID card support: the only one with a clear long-term trend instead of an hysterical margin-of-error blip. (Oh, by the way, I’ve updated the last Avengers review, if you want to take a peek.) ...

I vote for Pluto to be a planet

That may mean we end up with 12 planets rather than 8, but Pluto does deserve to be described as a planet even though it wanders in and out of Neptune's orbit.

Friends of Charles Darwin

has had a website relaunch. Check it out here and if you haven't already, sign up.

Where do you want to go today?

As others have done this, I thought I'd give it a go as well. I've also been to the states, but I've just shown the European map. create your personalized map of europe

The worrying thing is...

I don't think this is a piss-take. Kit your kids out in God's Armor pajamas. " !" (Speechless)

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Just had a look at this website (http://www.leavethemkidsalone.com/latest.htm) and was amused and concerned to see that the British Government is using the company VeriCool to fingerprint children as young as six. These kids are not young hoodies so beloved of 'Dave' or the anti-social menace that scares Blair. These are just school children being fingerprinted in schools. VeriCool is part of the same Defence Contractor group as Anteon. Anteon also help train intergators for the US. Why does Blair want the fingerprints of six year old children? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes - Indeed.

Ealing Comedies are back!

Ealing Comedies are back! This time they star that great Parliamentary wit Steven Pound, who is a Labour backbencher and MP for Ealing. I'm not sure whether the article below was written by the Labour Press Office on a good day or the Pinewood Studios Comedy Writers Team on a bad day. (And yes it is genuine!) Watch out for a Labour attack coming soon claiming Lib Dem calls to save the planet

Connections

During the 1970s the BBC produced some of the most interesting and challenging series. Jacob Bronowski's Ascent of Man, David Attenborough's Life on Earth and Kenneth Clark's Civilization were all thoughtful televisual essays and many of them continue to have a resonance to this day. In the same mould was a series that focused on complexity theory in history. James Burke, the BBC's science correspondent created a series called Connections . To a great degree, Burke, by talking about the random walk of historical progress underlined the fact that few, if any, could truly understand the path ...

Lib Dem Blogger of the year

The Liberal Democrats are awarding a 'Blogger of the year' prize at the Autumn Conference. There are a number of Liberal Democrats blogging, most of them contribute to www.libdemblogs.co.uk which acts as an aggregate site and has 90 blogs or website connected to it - why not have a look and think about nominating your favourite site. You can nominate by following the link below.

A clean fight?

Martin Eaglestone actually covered this story yesterday, when he quite reasonably pointed out that Plaid Cymru's commitment to only using money from Wales showed a lack of understanding of the way in which many parties are part of a bigger whole, and strength is drawn from the inter relationships of the many parts. Plaid have recently received a large legacy which, Martin Eaglestone believes,

Blogging Tony

I think that Recess Monkey doesn't actually believe that this Tony Blair MP blog is the real thing. Now if it had been John Prescott........

Liberal Democrat blog of the year

The first Liberal Democrat 'Blog of the Year' award will be announced at the autumn conference in Brighton next month. In a two hour fringe meeting the award will be given to the blog that has done the most to promote liberalism in the last year. Whether or not this blog should be nominated depends rather on whether the judges are looking for somebody who promotes liberalism or a blogger who is

Immigration nonsense

The Home Office have released figures showing 447,000 eastern Europeans have officially come to Britain looking for work over the past two years. Their original estimate was 26,000! So how come there were so far apart, and is this immigration a problem?

Day 2051: Introducing… the PLUTONS!

Tuesday Pluto is a planet – and so is its wife! (Also, Xena and the once-a-planet then-an-asteroid now-a-planet-again Ceres.) Here is a map of the NEW LOOK Solar System in order to help you find your way around. You are here! Although there are now twelve planets, there may soon be EVEN MORE. Another twelve possible contenders are already on the list for consideration, including three in the asteroid belt and another nine in the Kuiper Belt region beyond Neptune where Pluto and Charon and Xena already are. Suddenly it all feels very ...

Thursday 24th August 2006

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