LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Wednesday 30th August 2006

My First Time

I received my electoral registration form yesterday. So being a good democrat I ticked the right boxes, signed the form (last year I forgot to sign and had to fill out another one) and sent the form home. I believe in the right to vote and I believe people should vote. I can understand that some people may feel that the main parties are not engaging with them. A perfect example of this is in Loughton where the BNP have won seats on the district council. I know some people are argue that the main parties ...

Knationalised knickers

Peter Black quotes Dr Molly Scott Cato, a senior lecturer in social policy at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff, who uses her difficulties in buying a decent pair of knickers as an argument against globalisation: "Nonclassical economics would suggest that there is a market opportunity here for somebody who produced a decent pair of underwear. I would certainly pay a premium price. But instead, all suppliers of these items are competing on price, outsourcing production to Vietnam or the Philippines, using only the cheapest materials, so that knickers are see-through and fall apart within months. This is the ...

Action update - Warehouse on Warwick St

A local resident has asked me what is to become of the warehouse on Warwick St now that the fire has put it permanently out of use. And I don't know the answer. The warehouse runs halfway down Warwick Street, which runs from Bury New ROad down to Greengate Lane off Prestwich Village. The warehouse backs onto the rear of some of the houses on Clifton Road, and it used to contain a gym amongst

Liberals and child obesity

What should the Liberal Democrats say and do about increasing levels of obesity? In recent days Iain Sharpe has posted a couple of times (here and here, to be precise) looking at the dilemma the issue poses for Liberals. Child obesity, at least, is an issue that we should take up. The trouble is that most of the policies that get debated miss the point. For a start, we are not eating more than we used to. The picture is not altogether clear, but the most authoritative research seems to be that by Prentice and Jebb who say: However, ...

Kim Jong-Il - What's He Up to in China?

Jonathan Watts has reported on Guardian On-line that Kim Jong-Il has gone to Beijing to explain himself. To my mind this raises a couple of questions. 1. Has Beijing summoned him and warned him that their patience is running out? 2. Has he possibly been deposed? The only place likely to take him would be China (and even then, they probably would want rid). There have been rumours doing the rounds that the Chinese Government were prepared to use the PLA to invade North Korea if necessary to prevent the Americans turning up again on the Yalu River ...

Banning violent pornography

I was all ready to write something about New Labour having found another thing to ban. But read further down this BBC report and what do you find? Others, such as Liberal Democrat MP and campaign supporter Sandra Gidley, say the government should have acted sooner. "It's absolutely the right decision. The scandal is it's taken so long to come to this decision. "You cannot look at this sort of material and not be affected."Other Liberal Democrats take a more sensible view. The Whiskey Priest, for instance.

Bob Dylan: Modern Times, Reviewed

One of the reasons why Bob Dylan is so important to so many people is his uncanny ability to strike chords with individual personal emotional experiences while providing a sound track for his generation, and in a way, for every generation. If 1997’s Time Out of Mind was the sound of Dylan coming to terms with his own mortality and the loss of youth (indeed, by that point the impending loss of middle age), then 2001’s Love and Theft was him slipping toward dotage playing sunny music for its own sake. Gone were the haunting Daniel ...

French Visa Disgrace

As my wife is a Chinese citizen albeit with indefinite leave to remain in the UK we have to go through the palava of applying for visas to just go to France. I've been trying to book an appointment through the French Consulate in London website and the damned thing doesn't work. The only alternative is to phone a premium rate telephone number to book an appointment but this is charged at over a pound a minute! We just wanted to go over there for ONE night and I am appalled that they are using such a ...

So we are talking about knickers now

It must be one of the most amusing posts I've ever read - Peter Black's Knickers - so unexpected. Couldn't stop laughing when I read it. It's not what he wrote but the person who wrote it. Peter's normally a serious writer - not a subject I'd ever have envisage him picking up on. Appreciated he's only reporting what's in the paper but just mentioning the word knickers immediately brings up all

Sadly..

Liz Longhurst and Violent Pornography

Via BBC News: "A mother whose daughter died at the hands of a man obsessed with violent internet porn has won her fight for a ban on possessing such images. Liz Longhurst surrounded by supporters (on the right is Martin Salter, MP for Reading West) The government has announced plans to make the possession of violent porn punishable by three years in jail. It follows a campaign by Berkshire

Text to park

{Pay and Park} Now I know this is already possible elsewhere but yesterday Lincoln launched it's new Park & Pay scheme. Instead of having to find loose change when parking in any of the council owned car parks you can either call or text. I've already pre-registered with the partner company Verrus, so now when I next park at Lucy Tower car park for 2 hours all I need to do is text 7852 2 to 07950 080201.

Day 2063: Is Perpetual Motion a Con?

Sunday Perpetual Motion is a scientific FANTASY, a dream like turning lead into gold*. To keep moving FOREVER, a machine that would have to produce AS MUCH as or MORE energy than it consumes. Forever. So that would be a LIMITLESS SUPPLY of FREE energy. Think of it this way, since matter IS energy (that's what EINSTEIN says, anyway) then you could create something out of literally (and I MEAN literally literally) nothing. Which is, unfortunately, IMPOSSIBLE. So, in order to find out how he creates something out of nothing, we asked the inventor… MR BALLOON! Mr Balloon explained: ...

Update with Norman

Tuesday 29th August 2006 - As well as the LDEPP group meeting in the diary today there is a debate on Lebanon during the Foreign Affairs session today, a hot topic right now and still a lot to be done. I am particularly keen to ensure that while the focus of the international community is rightly on Lebanon that we don't loose sight of the ongoing problems of Gaza. I also have a one to one

The world is reading... Kind of...

At the advice of Cllr Andrew Garner, I have listed this blog on Lib Dem Blogs, a site which brings together blogs from Lib Dems all over the place. I think this is a great idea, as it gives me the opportunity to read what other Lib Dems are doing and thinking, and it can do the same for them and you. Take a look at the site, and leave a comment somewhere if the mood takes you! I already have two

Back to Brussels

Monday 28th August 2006 - It may be a bank holiday in the UK but for the European Parliament its back to work today the summer recess already over! Spent most of the day getting up to speed with issues coming up during the week and preparing for my meetings and also signed up for the gym, decided to make a more conscious effort to get fit especially with all the media coverage of health and

Fascinating human drama but does it matter? - Boulton on Kennedy book

I take it all back. Adam Boulton is not mad. He has come back from his honeymoon beautifully refreshed. He has a very sane take on the "A Tragic Flaw" book: It's fascinating human drama but does any of this really matter? Certainly the voters have so far taken the Kennedy Affair pretty calmly. In spite of it, and the attacks on the allegedly "lacklustre" performance of Sir Menzies, the Lib Dems

Social Enterprise 101: More than profit

I have a particular bee on about Oxford City Council's Leisure Services. For as long as I can remember they've been more or less crap. I don't mean the staff, though there have been some problems there as well, I mean what they are given to work with - the leisure facilities. Crumbling roofs here, ivy growing through the walls there, and all, or nearly all, well beyond their designed lifespan. Seven years ago now I tried to get the ball rolling towards creating a structure that would take the leisure centres out from under the skirts ...

Another bloody meme

OK Simon and James at Inner West 1. Name one book that changed your life. The Captive Mind By Czeslaw Milosz - Made me see the real nature of Communism when I read it at 14. 2. One book you've read more than once. I re-read books quite regularly- I recently went back to The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula K. LeGuin- a slightly guilty pleasure, but fun nevertheless. 3. One book you'd want on a desert island. Encyclopedia Britannica - especially the beautifully written 1911 edition- at least I would learn a lot of practical stuff. 4. One ...

No newsprint is good newsprint

Stephen Tall, in his latest vidcast, ponders whether newspapers are dying a death, which has spurred me to finally recount the end of my long dalliance with theguardian. I used to buy theguardian every day. I started five or six years ago, if I recall, and the paper provided something to read at lunchtime when I [...]

Apologies to LibertyCat

For getting here first with this classic - an article by Naomi Klein complaining about people using natural disasters to make money. Fair enough, you say, but note the 'end of article tagline': Naomi Klein's book on disaster capitalism will be published in spring 2007 Boom... Boom...

Second Homes

In today's Guardian, Simon Jenkins makes an attempted defence of second homes which can be read here.I spent many years of my life growing up in the small market town of Llanidloes in mid Wales where this issue cuts close to the bone for many local people. From my perspective, there is a very viable defence of second home ownership that can be made, but not on the 'Human Rights/Freedom of Movement' grounds that Jenkins uses. It's widely asserted that second home ownership is an automatic detriment to rural populations whose wages become insufficient to purchase housing. ...

Drunk Politician Scandal

Shocking behaviour from .... a Tory councillor in Reading!

County Hall Island Block Pictures

Driving through London we passed the old County Hall Island Block currently being demolished to make way for even more apartments for high earners. The Island was built in 1974 and became vacant after GLC abolition in 1986. Despite the prestigious location it has sat empty and decaying longer than it was used and no real [...]

The role of public education and information

After my post on obesity, Bernie Hughes at Agentmusco made a post responding and hilighting the need for education. This set off one of my trains of thought (which occasionally emerge as blog posts) about the role the state has in education and information. I take it as granted that the state should ensure every child gets the best education possible (although I don't believe the current system

Knickers

The Western Mail identifies a new economic indicator for Wales, the quality of women's knickers. Dr Molly Scott Cato, a senior lecturer in social policy at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff, illustrates one of her main arguments against globalisation by talking of her experience buying knickers: "I have created a special underwear test. This involves holding your underwear up to a source of light to check the strength of the weave. You will be shocked by the result. We are living with knickers our grandmothers would have rejected as shoddy and worthy only of cleaning windows. "Nonclassical ...

Archive Hour

Stumbled upon what must rank as a web-relic of online political satire. It is a parody of the Conservative Party website as it was in 1997, hosted by what seems to be a defunct Scottish humour site. Doesn’t stack up compared to the likes of Tim Ireland today, but I’d imagine it was pretty cutting edge in its time.

Spin doctors unlimited

Just as Rhodri Morgan's Government appoints a new spin doctor in chief, it emerges the appointee is part of a growing trend in Britain. This morning's Telegraph reveals that Government spending on spin has trebled under Labour and taxpayers are now supporting an army of more than 3,200 press officers: A total of 1,815 press officers and other public relations staff works in Whitehall departments. John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, has three press officers, despite no longer having a department. A further 1,444 are employed by a bewildering array of more than 200 quangos and ...

Deselection

The last thing that any political party needs is a grassroots revolt against their elected members in the run-up to an election. In Labour's case the MPs are able to indulge themselves because they do not have to face the electorate again for three years or so. The Scottish Conservatives have no such excuse. I originally missed this story as I was away on holiday, but luckily Conservativehome.com are not shy in recording their party's problems. According to The Scotsman Tory activists north of the border have called for all of the party's 17 MSPs to be de-selected in ...

Park Ward Crime Survey

We have just launched a Crime Survey in Park Ward, in Wolverhampton, to find out local residents views of Crime in the area. The last few weeks have seen an increase in crime and violence in Wolverhampton, according to the rather sensationalist local newspaper - the Express and Star - we even had 24 hours of violence the other weekend! See Monday's post about the Conservative Club.

would chuck chuck, would

So it looks like Greg Hurst’s book about Charles Kennedy (or ‘chucky bumface’ as our constituency organiser used to affectionately call him) A Fatal Flaw, is going to prove passingly embarrassing, to him at least. Some of the more lurid details, as well as the benefit of hindsight, will show that those party activists and supporters who did call for Kennedy to go in January, were right. There was certainly a bitterness among a lot of the membership, which is understandable because a lot of the parliamentary party didn’t appear to conduct themselves well, and I’m sure this book will ...

Splitter!

A couple of things to say about Tommy Sheriden’s new party, Solidarity - the Scottish Socialist Movement. Solidarity from a splitter? He he he, at least he hasn’t lost his sense of humour. How long will it be before its name gets contracted to SM - one of the few things that Sheriden hasn’t been accused [...]

Over the sea to Skye...

In response to the Times leader accompanying the serialisation of Greg Hurst's biography of Kennedy where they claim: The disclosures will make difficult reading for Liberal Democrats. They are entitled to feel queasy that they were being led through at least one general election, the Iraq war and other pivotal events by a figure whose, largely secret, drinking made him

Another couple of bikes

One nice and one well lets say "different but not to my taste". Thats what makes these machines such fun. Every Harley is different and each one makes a unique statement. You never see a Harley which has been kept as it was when brand new.

Postcode lottery - or a new localism?

Let me make one thing clear - I share the view that infertility is a terrible thing, blighting lives and denying people the opportunity to do something many take for granted, i.e. raising a family. Unfortunately, the debate today, whereby women are encouraged to complain about the lack of access to IVF treatment in their area, raises a question, the answer to which is going to be unpopular,

Fear itself

What is the very worst that the people so far questioned in the UK could have inflicted against us? OK, let us assume that they could have seized control of ten aeroplanes- say Jumbos- carrying about 450 passengers. Let us further assume that each mission was "successful"- so they kill a maximum of 4,500 people over the Atlantic. Horrific. I think we should view this in context: last year the death toll on British roads was 3221. In the USA the death toll from road accidents in 2005 was 43,443. Now, according to New Republic, the USA regards the UK ...

I Nominate......

I nominate Iain Dale for the OBN* for his blog claiming that David Cameron has "star quality" in "What do Segolene Royal & David Cameron Have in Common?". Oh pleeaaaaseeeee! Cameron is a wannabe star at best. Ex-Big Brother Jade would be a better comparison. Come on Iain do get a grip please. I enjoy reading your blog even if I disagree with much of it. For you to start trying to brown nose "Dave" just makes me want to have a technicoloured yawn. I fully expect your blog on this subject to appear ...

What's black and white but not read all over?

Yes, time for a new vidcast - this one asking, "Are newspapers really dead?" (And please note the (relative) smartness of my attire this time. Back To School.)

Doing a Lieberman - How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

It's notable that after his loss in a Primary former Vice-Presidential Candidate Joe Lieberman has really made himself popular by slagging off the Democratic Party, accusing it of "losing it's values". Perhaps Joe should have a look at himself and wonder who has really lost their values. As one of the cheerleaders for the Iraq War the question really does have to be asked as to who has changed? It is even more telling when sympathetic Democrats start dropping you like a brick. It's rather telling when Republicans start rallying to your candidacy. Do you think ...

The BBC News and Sports Sites Remain Banned in China

I should also remind everyone that the paranoid Chinese Government consider the BBC to be a propaganda tool of the British Government and have continued to ban access to the news site. So, unfortunately it is impossible for British ex-pats to find out what is going on back home through the BBC, follow the cricket scores etc. I had an incredibly frustrating time living in China as you can probably imagine, especially as it meant I was not able to get the results of various elections. The Chinese Government have invested huge efforts in controlling the internet and ...

Wednesday 30th August 2006

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