LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Monday 4th September 2006

Prison works

Just watching a Newsnight piece on the Danish Prison System. It's liberal, focused on rehabilitation and brings some quite amazing results, with a reoffending rate half ours. It's not all sweetness and light of course, but there are some real lessons for the bang-em-up brigade. As well as rambling on here I'm also a dictrict councillor in Hucknall, a hard working Nottinghamshire town. We have crime, for example at the moment I'm helping a church that is vandalised almost every night. It is so easy to feel anger for the people that do these things, and then ...

Lifting the Veil on Marxism

I've just been reading an article in The Liberal which should be of interest to both sides in the SSP dispute; John Thorne, writing from the Greek island of Patmos makes the comparison between the Book of Revelation (or Apocalypse) and the works of one K.Marx esq.: The economist who parallels Revelation most closely is Karl Marx, whose theory of history contains all the main features of John's

Pictures at an exhibition

I really must get a Flickr account. Now that the Czech Republic-Wales game is behind us I feel safer in publishing some of the more unusual photographs from my recent holiday in Prague. The photo on the left was taken in Wenceslas Square and is typical of the art installations featured there. Obviously, the fall of communism gave some artists a feeling of indestructability. Some of the art was more bizarre than others, including a tree featuring a toilet on the end of each branch. I do have a photograph but that can wait for another day. As this is ...

When satire becomes reality... or does it?

Last month, in one of my vitriolic moments, I wrote a piece suggesting some of the things that Cameron's shiny new Conservative party could apologise for. I was only joking... at least, I thought so until I read my Guardian this morning and found this article.. As a piece of politics, it's actually pretty clever. In 1997, a significant number of civil servants were enthused by Labour's promises

Splitting (Red) Hairs

The main political story in The Herald today is the weekend's launch of Solidarity. Douglas Fraser, Political Editor, says: Socialists like little more than a cracking good schism, and this weekend's revolutionary crowds showed the current one on Scotland's far left is good revolutionary box office. Box office it may be, but politics it certainly isn't. Attacks on Tommy's ex-party, the soon to be

Answers on a postcard

Whilst I wish the couple all the best of luck, why is Keating widower weds weather girl being reported as news?

Ming Skypecast on Taking Power

After a relatively successful trial of Skypecasting this evening, we’ll be going for it this coming Wednesday at 10.30 a.m. Hopefully a few people will be able to join. Skypecasting means people can listen live and ask questions at the end. You might still be able to spot details of the event on the Skypecasting home [...]

Row trundles on

The political row between Dafydd Elis-Thomas and his deputy continued today with the Presiding Officer denying that he tried to force the Assembly Clerk to quit. In an interview with BBC Wales he states: "I don't need to plot with anyone. "I have had a number of private discussions with Dr John Marek about these matters over the past six months. "I regret the fact that we have been unable to come to an agreement and that he has chosen to pursue his disagreement publicly." He added it was "possibly ...

Healthy eating at school - unhealthy eating outside?

Today Breakfast on the BBC had one big story which was the new regulations with regards to School Dinners, they had every kind of commentator, and the BBC website have collection of articles about the issue. {McDonalds / Echo Poster} So I was rather shocked when driving to work today to see this poster against one of the newsagents around the corner. Our local paper The Lincolnshire Echo seems to be giving away free McDonalds all week long. Unfortunately we only get the Echo on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at the moment so I can't read the small print, ...

A guide to secondhand bookshops

I have just discovered The Bookshop Guide, which claims to be "the UK's secondhand and antiquarian bookshops". As far as I can see it is comprehensive, and readers can add and review shops themselves. There is a lot of other good stuff on the site, notably a tribute to Drif, who produced printed guides to bookshops back in the 1980s. It quotes some of the acronyms he used in his entries: ETGOW - Easy to get on with;FARTS - Follows you around recommending the stock;NETGOW - Not easy to get on with;WAD - Worth a detour;WAP - Worth a ...

The Lib Dem Cover-up

There are still a few stories about claiming that the Lib Dems concealed the fact that Charles Kennedy was not always sober. This is the song on Page 10 of the current Liberator Songbook. Speed bonnie boat, Like a hack on the make; Back to his seat on Skye. Carry the lad that was born to be King, Back to the seat on Skye. Where is the man? Down in the bar, Loudly the Whips pro clai-aim. Out on

Tinkering

I’ve spent today writing a 1,000-word article; while most people would work up to that number, obviously I tapped in 8,000 of notes, then started chipping away in a manner almost completely unlike that of Michelangelo. Taking a break, and as it’s three hours ‘til Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, it’s been time to potter on the internet; some fabulous things about comics, Tony Benn agreeing with Lib Dem bloggers, a splendid anti-Labour song, Rob Fenwick on fibbing… Then I fell asleep on the keyboard and, while getting qwertyface, dreamt someone was mad enough to propose me for Lib Dem President. ...

First Wordpress Plug-In

My first Wordpress plug-in: Decurlify RSS. This deals with the hugely irritating feature that Wordpress has of putting curly quotes into titles of RSS feeds. These then can appear as question marks when aggregated elsewhere (for example using the Magpie RSS feed reader). Just install this plug-in and all these annoying curly quotes should be [...]

Not leading by example...

I received a phone call from a resident today complaining about a blight on the local landscape – my own back garden! And I must admit, she was right. I rent a house on Clifton Road, and the back garden and back fence, which back onto Warwick Street, have got into a bit of a state, especially since they were damaged in the fire at the warehouse a few months ago. I don’t like it either, but I

Meeting the Youth Offending Team

I had a meeting today with some members of Oldham’s Youth Offending Team (YOT), which was both inspiring and depressing at the same time! I was there due to my job – finding out how the Council is performing in the areas relevant to Comprehensive Performance Assessment – and now the work of the YOT will form part of the assessment. So I got to learn all about how the service is performing and what

Who should replace Simon Hughes?

Today is the day that nominations open for the Presidency of the Liberal Democrats. Stephen Tall has stimulated some debate on whether change is required (for example on politicalbetting). Should Hughes stand again? I failed to stimulate any debate when posting this quote from Hughes on Pigeon Post After congratulating new Councillors on their election, Simon Hughes* wrote "I also hope those elected who were previously party officers will now stand down from party office so that others can take their place. Only party members who are not elected to public office can hold those of us who are effectively ...

Jewellery Quarter Discovery Day - Saturday 9 September 2006

On Saturday 9th September 2006, to tie in with ArtsFest and National Heritage Day, the Jewellery Quarter is having a 'Discovery Day'. There will be a free half hour service from Centenary Square (Broad Street) on an old 1950s bus to the Jewellery Quarter Clock. The event is from 10am - 4pm and events include: Craft and Flea markets Open Days at Key Hill Cemetery and JW Evans (historic

A few words from lunartalks

and your world could go bonkers. All part of the service.

Immoral Earnings

Apparently MTV has been going around issuing writs to anyone who uses the term “Pimp My…”, including one of my favourite websites Pimp MyThat Snack. Further comment would be superfluous.

At last the Paviours have arrived

It been like living in bedlam this past few weeks as they have been progressing along the road relaying the pavements. Can't complain, I pushed to get it done - Flash back to my postings Islington: For once really exciting news & Islington: Brecknock Road is the news, but sensible souls know to avoid the noise of the drills, when to leave the house and when it's safe to return. They're actually doing a wonderful job. All the paving is level and clean. They stopped last week just before our gate. This morning there is no ...

Active Travel Day - Sunday 24 September 2006

As part of TravelWise Week (18-24 September 2006), an Active Travel Day event has been organised in Victoria Square in Birmingham on Sunday 24 September 2006 from 10am to 4pm. This will be a free day for the family. Attractions will include the Company of Cyclists - with the chance to have a go on all kinds of weird and wonderful bikes - and free health checks, including a bicycle MOT.

Dividing up the pie

Madsen Pirrie on the Adam Smith institute blog makes an interesting point about why the Conservatives are making a fundamental mistake when they talk about economics. It is a mistake that many Lib Dems make too- the idea that the economy is a fixed pie, so that any tax cut must be paid for either by spending cuts or by higher taxes elsewhere. Although I often find the ASI's commitment to tax cuts above all else to be impractical politics, it is worth pointing out that sometimes tax cuts can lead to an increase in overall tax revenue. This is ...

OFT confirm receipt of reference re Gas Market

Not surprising, but a formal acknowledgement of receipt has been received from the OFT Energy Market Principal Caseworker.

What goes around, comes around

Yes I am back. That sad feeling of having to set the alarm clock on a Sunday evening, waking up on Monday and having to go into work. Well I am back. Got through half a day and already the work has started to pile up. Oh well my own fault for bragging a couple of weeks back about not having to set my alarm clock. Well as they say... what goes around... comes around.

Five songs you should have heard by the time you are thirty

1. Diamonds and Rust, Joan Baez2. Polly, Gene Clarke3. Wild is the Wind, David Bowie4. Jolene, Dolly Parton5. Looking Glass, The La’s

Newsnight’s Daniel Pearl is a fibber, and it transpires he will soon no longer be of Newsnight…

Long time readers may recall this ill-informed post attacking bloggers for daring to be open about what they think, from Daniel Pearl, deputy editor of Newsnight which ended: So, what do you think? Stick it on your blog and I’ll respond. You’ll recall the Blogosphere told him exactly what they thought, and he didn’t respond. In fact he didn’t [...]

Graffiti removed .. and Fyffe Street roadway

Further to the story last month about outstanding issues at Seabraes (click on headline above to read), pleased to say resident advises this morning that the graffiti on the pillars (right) has now been removed. On a less positive note, a resident has contacted me about the really poor road surface in parts of Fyffe Street (see below) - I've taken this up with the Planning & Transportation Department - condition of roadway round the corner in Benvie Road similarly poor.

Conservative Chums

US Republicans now prefer not to talk about staying the course, but about "Adapting to Win", parodied here: Now take a look at the flash animation on the Conservative website, captured here: Are the two now working more closely to put forward a joint message to separate electorates, or has one been copying the other*? * Or is it just a massive coincidence.

Campaign 2007 Starts Here - A week of training in Birmingham

Later today will see the start of the week-long Campaign 2007 training in Birmingham. Each night this week there is a different training module which together will make up a package of training that will hopefully be rolled out to the Counties that make up the West Midlands.

Faking it

It was reported on the radio this morning that Labour Cabinet Ministers are to go out into the community and do some real jobs so as to re-engage with working people. Peter Hain for example, told listeners that he intends to get his hands dirty at TRW, a car component manufacturer in his Neath constituency. The results of this little PR exercise will be filmed and shown to the Labour Conference in Manchester, presumably supported by suitably inspiring music and soft lighting. It does rather remind me of the old Communist propaganda films of workers happily labouring away so ...

I am reddish

Sunday drifted by gently as I grew mellow on cider and lager at the National Village Cricket final at Lords. Houghton Main from Yorkshire were taking on Somerset’s Timsbury. It turned out to be a very close match, with Houghton Main emerging victorious. The Yorkshire fans were pretty boisterous, with various chants about tractors and cider aimed at Timsbury, whose fans rallied and responded with “does your whippet know you’re out?” Genius. So I have now got sunburnt arms. I note that David Cameron is taking a sojourn to the sub-continent. My dad goes to India quite often, ...

I want these mother* dinosaurs out the mother* newspaper!

Via the Britblog roundup, I found a feminist group blog and was surfing some of the links. I've always been uncomfortable with the 'dark' side of feminist discussion, the strand of feminism that views typical women's issues like abortion as being purely about women (the guy's just the doofus sperm donor), that high heels are patriarchial (ok, those shoes are silly and that blog's a spoof... I

Elected Mayors may be scrapped by voters

The fact that there are campaigns in 4 out of the 11 local authorities that have directly elected mayors may get the government to recognise that this is not the solution of all problems of local government. The reason why directly elected mayors are less sensitive to lobbying by ordinary votesr is that most things they hear are filtered by advisors. Whereas it is relatively straightforward to

Knight in shining armour

A very old picture from The Super Rally 2003 which was held in the southern Czech town of Ceske Budejovice on the old military airfield. This guy was amazing bombing around the airfield in a full suit of armour!! It was the first rally we went to and I came across the photos and thought that some of them would be worth putting up here. Admittedly we cheated as the Fatboy went on a van but we did have an excuse as were taking a whole load of stuff for my step son and his wife (who happens to ...

Day 2069: Hit that Perfect Beet

Saturday Okay, okay… I am SORRY for what I said about Polish cuisine. There is NOTHING wrong with being a PINK animal, vegetable or mineral. Root of all evil? PS: I apologise for the PRODUCT PLACEMENT; I am not Mr Balloon, you know!

<	September 2006					>
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30

Monday 4th September 2006

Previous days:

Archives

Search for...

Adverts

Buttons

LibDem Blog Box

Contributors

Campaigns

From the BBC...

Backlinks...

From the LibDems...

From the Independent...

From Politics.co.uk...

From the Guardian...

Adverts