LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Tuesday 5th September 2006

Support the Oneseat Campaign for the European Parliament

The Oneseat campaign led by Cecilia Malmstrom, a Swedish Liberal Party member of the European Parliament is getting close to the magical one million signatures mark. The campaign is to bring to an end the mad travelling circus which sees MEPs travelling between Strasbourg and Brussels each month wasting Euro 200 million of taxpayers money. Sign the petition, bring this wasteful nonsense to an end and help Cecilia force the European Commission to finally act.

Spare a Thought for Lou Ye - A Courageous Chinese Film Director

Please spare a thought for Lou Ye, a great Chinese film director in the making who is facing a five-year ban from making a film in China for daring to reference the Tiananmen protests in 1989 and other ridiculous acts of censorship on the part of the Chinese authorities. You can read about him .here. Sadly the dead hand of the Chinese government continues to pollute artistic and political expression there.

Stop all the clocks, cut off the Prime Minister

There was much talk last week of ‘tragic flaws’. So what are Mr Blair’s? (It seems about the right time to start the retrospectives - though, please God, tell me Labour’s self-indulgent soap opera isn’t going to run another 12 months?) Two exempla from this year: First, when the ‘cash for peerages’ row ignited following the arrests of government advisor Des Smith and New Labour fundraiser Lord

Blair's Departure Cannot Come a Moment Too Soon

I desperately want to crack open the champagne tonight but the news that we might have to wait until next May to see the back of Blair and his neo-authoritarian domestic policy and neo-conservative foreign policy curbs my enthusiasm somewhat. The only great news about him leaving it so long is that Labour will leech even more support and we are hopefully going to give them a good kicking in the local, Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elections next year. Yippee!!! Now THAT is something worth cracking open a nice bottle of claret for - IF ...

Craig Murray tour latest

The other day I blogged about Craig Murray's imminent speaking tour of Britain. His site now has an updated itinerary with many more dates.

Matthew... you're wrong

I have just returned from the a Scouting AGM, setting up the new merged district of 'Royal Forest'. Scouting, as maybe I have said before, is a strange movement. From it, you make friends/ aquantacies for life. This is more apparent when you have not seen these people for a long time. Tonight was no exception. Now Matthew argues that it is not in fact a small world as there are 5 billion

Life amongst the lead mines

News from my favourite part of Shropshire: Villagers near Shrewsbury were today warned not to eat their home-grown vegetables - because they could be poisonous. Gardens in part of Pontesbury have been poisoned. They have been contaminated from an old mine works.This is not the first time there have been such stories. Last time I was in the area someone told me that the problem is "incomers": local people have built up resistance to lead poisoning. A scientist writes: I am not sure about this.

Don’t Wait a Year, Go Now

Forced to speak up after seventeen backbenchers called for his resignation allies of the Prime Minister now tell us he’ll be gone within a year. I have a better idea, he should go now. Much nonsense is peddled by Blairite outriders when discussing the issue of Blair’s eventual departure from Downing Street. Their response is a [...]

Should he stay or should he go...?

There is quite a spat going on here and here about the ongoing press pantomime surrounding the leadership of Tony Blair. Polls today suggested that none of the likely successors would lift the Party much in terms of popularity, which may well be true, but does not obscure the serious problem that until Tony Blair finally does leave Downing Street every other issue, policy or manifesto launch by the Party is going to be overshadowed by this speculation. Unfortunately, this is as good a reason as any to change leader, as a Party can't allow the grand standing egotism of ...

Taxi for Blair's authority

Tom Watson - government minister, Labour MP and blogger - has called on Tony Blair to resign. So far Watson has not resigned, as Iain Dale suggests he should. Nor has he been sacked. It is easy to get too excited by speculation. But if Watson is not sacked, it will be a sure sign that the prime minister really is finished.

Latest Scottish Poll

The latest poll regarding voting intentions for the Scottish Parliament represents a blow for the SNP, who had been showing record figures very recently. It's published both here and there, with a link to fuller details here (warning .pdf file - might knacker your PC). Oddly enough, neither headline The Herald "SNP blow as poll shows Labour in eight-point lead"The Scotsman " Labour moves eight

Sinking ship

When Wayne David, Chris Bryant, Sion Simon, Tom Watson say that Blair must set a date for his departure then he really is in trouble. The Chair of the Rhondda Cynon Taf County Labour Party, Andrew Morgan said he would be very concerned if Mr Bryant were behind the letter, as the vast majority of his constituents in the Rhondda were not calling for Mr Blair to go. He said: "Rhondda is a rock-solid Labour area, and this sort of stuff is coming from an insignificant minority." If that is true then Rhondda ...

Hornsey Central Hospital

Steve Webb, LibDem Shadow Health Secretary came to Hornsey & Wood Green yesterday to meet with myself, Lib Dem colleagues and three local residents who are all massively concerned and upset about Hornsey Central Hospital - or more accurately, the lack of anything tangible in its place since it was closed nearly six years ago. There is a bid being worked up to apply for some government funding

Race and the Guardian

There were two strange articles in the Guardian on Monday - or rather one silly one and one sad one. The silly one was by the playwright Mark Ravenhill. Here he is writing about the BBC drama series Life on Mars: Isn't a great deal of the action created because the central character, a 1970s cop thrown into the modern world, needs to be educated out of his sexist, homophobic ways? The show is about the reform of the white, working-class male - still the most dangerous breed in the mind of the liberal urbanite. He probably loved Maggie. Could ...

Don't believe everything you read in the papers

Is anyone else sick of Tony Blair? I don’t mean sick of Tony Blair being Prime Minister, but sick of Tony Blair’s future being at the top of every news programme and on the front page of every newspaper! Sick of the disrespect some quarters are showing a man who has served the country for 9 years as Prime Minister (and the people have re-elected his government twice) . And sick of superficial

Don’t get me started

Just watched an excellent little documentary on five (yes, really, on Channel Five) presented by Stewart Lee. In Don’t Get Me Started: What’s Wrong With Blasphemy? he discussed attempts by religious groups to censor public debate and their apparent belief in the right not to be offended, taking in faith schools and religious education along [...]

No news is good news. Apparently.

There comes a point in every man’s life where he has to admit defeat. “Write a blog!” they said. “It’s easy!” “Yes! That’s just the ticket! The ward and the world can find out about my life of excitement and non-stop community action!” I replied, teeth twinkling in the moonlight, looking skywards with a glance of hope. And yet, today, I have absolutely nothing of substance to report whatsoever. And I apologise. Not for that, but for typing this message anyway, and wasting your valuable time. I could write about work, and the meetings and emails that I was faced ...

Mandy drops by to say hi!!

Tuesday 5th September 2006 - Another packed day of business starting with a speech to Parliament during the debate on the Doha Development Round (details here http://www.sajjadkarim.org.uk/speeches/26.html). After lunch Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson met with the LDEPP group to talk through a variety of issues, as always a good opportunity to raise some topical matters with Mr Mandelson. It

Too slow to duck and the village gossip

gets me. After a brief but trenchant critique of my neighbour's tomatoes, she points out a half built, long-unfinished garage nearby. 'I don't like to gossip, but 'e (the builder) keeps knockin' off and goin' to Thailand. I reckon 'e likes them ladyboys. And all.' Her idea of international travel is a bus ride to Whitby.

anyone want 3 piece suite?

A slightly unusual request on behalf of a constituent in Hither Green Lane whose offering a free 3 piece suite to anyone who can collect it. I've seen it: it's yellow and in good condition. The problem is that it doesn't have a fire certificate, which is why charities say they won't collect it.

All systems go for first ever UK political Skypecast…

It’s now all systems go for tomorrow. We’ve had a few calls in with questions on 07747 867259. Ming’s Skypecast has been made the lead feature (apparently globally!) on the Skype website. You can download Skype from http://www.skype.com/download/ - and if all you want to do is listen to the call, you don’t even need a microphone. To log-in [...]

Steve Irwin's improbable death.

Given his fondness for getting close to the most venomous of critters, it was always possible that one day Steve Irwin's luck would run out. Sadly ironic that he becomes only the 17th recorded person (crikey!) to die of a Stingray strike. All you need to know about stingray 'envenomation' here. The piece states: "Contrary to popular 'nature documentaries,' it is extremely hazardous to swim directly over, or in close proximity to, a stingray. A flick of the tail is apt to pierce a person's body, and a serious, even potentially fatal, situation is in ...

Liberal drinks

There will be an informal meeting upstairs at the Salutation Inn in Nottingham city on 14th September. 7.30pm There will be a buffet at 8pm. All welcome. See Nottingham Lib Dems for details. The starting point for the discussion will be the Brighton Federal Conference Agenda, so please bring yours with you if you have [...]

Mercury still shines brightly

As far as I'm concerned Freddie Mercury (or Sir Frederick of Mercury as Smash Hits used to call him) is the greatest rock star of all time. Not necessarily the best singer, or the best writer, but definitely the best combination of singing, showmanship and generally 'have a good time, all the time' (as Spinal Tap would say) ever to have graced the planet. Had he lived it would have been his 60th birthday today. If you would like to join the stars in celebrating Freddie's life you can do so by sponsoring a star in one of two virtual ...

Lewisham Council Network shutdown 14-18 September

All Lewisham Council systems will be offline from 4pm on Thursday 14 September until 8am on Monday 18 September. It's likely that there will be no access to emails, Sharepoint or the internet from Council premises or ICT equipment during this time. This is to allow for SunGard taking over as the Council's ICT provider from Fujitsu from1 October. So if you'd like to contact me by e-mail, best to use my andrew.milton@btinternet.com address rather than cllr_andrew.milton@lewisham.gov.uk. Libraries staff will be informing the public that they will not be able to use Lewisham Council facilities to access ...

25 lines clues

10 of the 25 opening lyrics remain in my 25 lines quiz. Here are some clues (most info sourced from Wikipedia) as some of them are pretty obscure. 11, 17 and 20 are possibly too hard, but 14 and 18 in particular are gettable. 2. “I pick up the phone, I’m dialing your number while I [...]

Glee club "Charlie is pissed again" song in Guardian

John Hemming follows a few days after Femme de Resistance in highlighting the classic song "Over the sea to Skye" from the Liberator Songbook which ends "Charlie is pissed again". The words were written by Stuart Callison. As John comments, this song is a very effective rebuttal against the accusation that the party covered up Charlie's drinking. It first featured in the songbook, after all, soon

Betting on Blair's exit

{Logo_large} I saw this morning for the first time that Betfair have a market on when Blair will finally quit as PM. Most of us have an interest in this, so before deciding where to stick my £5, I thought I'd look at the available options in detail. July - Sep 2006. Odds: 39/1. Unlikely to say the least. Unless the "letter" is signed by more MPs that we imagine, he's unlikely to quit this month. Oct - Dec 2006. Odds: 4/1. This would require an announcement at the Party conference, which we've been warned won't be ...

Where were we?

Well, I had all sorts of plans for last week, scuppered by a cold that left me without the energy for blogging (all that typing, it’s hard). I caught an episode of Commander in Chief on one of my days off - oh dear, oh dear. It’s not exactly The West Wing, is it? Or, [...]

Effective Partnership

I have just got back to the office after spending a morning with my local Trading Standards inspecting a local supermarket. It was a fascinating experience. In conversation with the owner afterwards I could see why small businesspeople complain about the amount of red tape they have to wade through. And yet, the procedures that the Council Officer was asking her to comply with regarding the correct disposal of waste, using the right weights in baking bread, having clear written procedures for the training of staff and setting aside properly marked areas in the cold storage area for out-of-date ...

Airline Security 2006 (imitation grenade imported by air)

This imitation grenade was imported into the UK last week. It is a cigarette lighter. That is, therefore, entirely lawful. However, you would have expected someone to have checked whether or not it was a real grenade. What happened is that on this particular flight in the departing airport the security guards were quite busy searching some people of Asian origin. However, they just waved

Blair’s Impotence Laid Bare

This morning started with rumours of letters from backbenchers calling for Tony Blair to go, David Milliband speculated he’d be gone in 12 months and then an internal Downing Street memo containing the blueprint for Blair’s departure was leaked. The story of the day was meant to be the Prime Minister’s speech to the Rowntree Foundation [...]

More A-List Absurdity

Those of you who enjoy laughing at the madness that is the A-List will enjoy this. The Tories have added Rehman Chishti to the list of golden boys & girls in the latest top-up. Nothing special in that you might think, except this is the same Rehman Chishti who stood for Labour against Tory Chairman Francis Maude at the last election. {_41441924_rehman203} He's been a Tory for about 5 minutes, and they've elevated him above thousands of local activists straight onto the elite list, no doubt to be dropped into a seat so safe a ...

Oliver's Battery Conservation & Butterflies

I had a really interesting afternoon on Sunday. It was the official opening of the Oliver's Battery Conservation Area, followed by a guided walk to the butterfly reserve on top of Yew Hill. The work done by the Oliver's Battery Countryside Group (http://www.bfobrca.com/OBPC/activities/countryside.htm) and the Parish Council in setting up the Conservation Area is truly impressive and, over the next

Sub-continental websick blues

I’m totally going to blow chunks after inspecting the comments on Dave Cameron’s profoundly crap Indian holiday diary. Every sycophantic Tory blogger in Britain is taking the opportunity to see how mindlessly obsequious they can be. Typical comments are along the lines of: “Hey Dave!!! Loving the blog – it’s amazing!!! It’s a real breath of fresh air to see a politician connecting so brilliantly with the British people. Have a great time in India mate – have a kingfisher and a lamb passanda for me mate!! Bye mate!!?!” Keep it up guys and you’ll give us all ...

Who wins more awards

Doctor Who has picked up three more gongs, this time at the TV Quick/TV Choice Awards: Cult BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who won best-loved drama award, with its stars David Tennant and Billie Piper taking best actor and actress. Hurrah.

Redwood is deadwood and Blair is in the air

An interesting contrast on the radio this morning. At 7.35 John Redwood is talking about crunchy economics. He made some valid points, but his manner was hectoring and abusive- talking all over the interviewer, whose primary point was that Redwood was strongly disagreeing with his leader. Redwood was rude and ugly- no charm, no social graces. Yet several of the points he made about economic policy were right on the money. Twenty minutes later up popped David Cameron. His points were waffly- "sharing the proceeds of growth" "moderate choices"- intellectually it was drivel, but delivered with the easy charm of ...

Sleazy, Corrupt, Humiliated

In the latest edition of the LRB, Ross McKibbin develops two principle lines of inquiry into the causes of the terminal decline of the present government. He takes as his starting point a position acceptable to all but the most self-deluding of Labour apparatchiks: There is general agreement that the government is in a mess: sleazy, corrupt, humiliated and, probably even more than the

City Council Meeting - 12 September 2006

The agenda for the City Council Meeting on Tuesday 12 September 2006 has now been published and can be found here. Items on the agenda include: the "State of the City" debate, following a report by the Leader of the Council;a Liberal Democrat motion asking the Council to lobby the Government to introduce tax incentives for householders who wish to supply carbon free energy to their homes by the

Guerilla paper wars

It’s tricky. Before there was Standard Lite, which was moderately bad, then they re-branded it as London Lite, which is excruciatingly bad. In competition we now have thelondonpaper, which looks markedly better, but which is a part of the murky and insidious Murdoch agenda. Its all so difficult, its like picking fruit in the supermarket in the 1980s, implicitly political. Add to which, these rags are being shifted by competing legions of saps outside our capital’s tube stations – dressed in gaudy colour-coded outfits. Its in danger of becoming annoying. I can’t help but feel slight pity for E’ning Sta’nd ...

A poem for the end of the summer

From an anthology which we had to use at sixth form, and which I was at the time rather sniffy about, as teenage boys are want to be. It is Days and Nights by Carol Rumens. It’s a summer day very nearly like any other. The pollen count rises in the afternoon.An Iranian child steals a lemon in Selfridges. The discontent of the unions rumbles dullylike a pit disaster many miles away,while in a murmuring classroom,a young teacher is telling her six-year-oldsabout the miracle of the loaves and the fishes.The first Royal Garden Party is held,and afterwards ...

Stories of the Morning - 05/09

Labour heading for local poll wipeout - According to the Indie, Labour may well get a good kicking in next May's local elections unless Blair steps down soon. The first bit is correct, the second is irrelavent. Blair to go out "with the crowds wanting more" - The Guardian, amongst others, reports on a leaked Memo from the Blair Bunker. Apparently, a "wave of euphoria" will be generated, allowing Blair to go out on a high. The emporers new clothes are looking lovely today. The web overflows with tributes to Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter. - People I know ...

Hornsey Hospital - watch my film

The future of the Hornsey Central Hospital site has been a long-running campaign of mine. I've just released a little online film about the campaign which you can watch: It also features Wayne Hoban, who is the Deputy Leader of the Lib Dems in Haringey and our resident expert in many health matters. Thanks to Sheila Rainger (Muswell Hill councillor) for putting it together.

Alternative work experience scheme - suggestions wanted

I did like this post from Peter Black about government ministers going out into the community and doing real jobs to re-engage with real working people. This got me thinking as to what jobs we could send various ministers to do so as to best deploy their talents or so as to help educate them about the realities of life. Perhaps Margaret Becket could become a Caravan Salesperson or Tessa Jowell could spend some time as a Tax Inspector If anyone has some other suggestions do please post them here.

Day 2070: Beautiful Things! Beautiful Things!

Sunday I have been making my Daddies watch CIVILISATION, the famous television series about ART and ARCHITECTURE. It was written and presented by Lord Clarke, or K for Kenneth Clarke, who was the daddy of famous Conservatory LOON Alan Clarke who was famous because of his DIARIES, which were NOT very like mine AT ALL! Lord K is a STRANGE old stick: like a piece of British stereotype who has gotten lost and wandered off with a camera crew in tow. He potters his way through Europe, showing us paintings and buildings and putting a lot of ...

Australia mourns their crocodile hunter

A man whose uniqueness transcended politics - News flashed around the world yesterday, Steve Irwin - The world's most well know Australian is dead. Australia is mourning a man who has done a lot to promote Australia to the rest of the world. Public grief: Zoo becomes shrine to Aussie star Grief ... Hundreds of people have left floral tributes and mementos at the entrance to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo in Queensland. His crazy antics with crocs and snakes sent a shiver down my spine but Australians loved him - kids the world over were ...

Tuesday 5th September 2006

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