LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Friday 8th September 2006

Stop the world I want to get off

Have you nominated your choice - best Lib bem Blog - today is the last day. Almost forgot to send in my choice - a tel call from a libby buddie in the early hours of the morning jogged my memory. I found it really very hard to choose. There are a great varienty of blogs that attract different categories of readership. Many of the ones I really like haven't been up and running for a year yet so don't qualify. Rather taken to reading The Dissenter's Voice by Charles Anglin lately. Like his straight forward, clear cut ...

Labour welcome back bigot

Labour's slide into madness this week seems to be more root and branch than just the swivel-eyed Prime Minister and his grinning Chancellor. The Southwark Labour party are coming to terms with the news that their party has just readmitted local bigot Dr. Ola who disgraced himself in the local elections with a ranting attack on "the gay mafia" running Southwark. Labour leader Peter John rather unfortunately decided to welcome Dr. Ola's decision to go nuts on the record with the comment in Southwark News at the time that he was "very interested in what Dr. Ola had to ...

Our Lady Immaculate

The new altar at Our Lady Immaculate Church in Tolworth is a bold statement of the faith of the church. But its design grew out of a recognition of the power of art to express deep truths. The church is to be congratulated on its courage in commissioning what has turned out to be a deeply satisfying work. It is one of several new pieces that together make up the elements...

25 lines answers

I’ve posted the remaining answers to the opening lines quiz meme. I’ve impressed at quite how many were got, and not surprised that a not very successful Roxette single, a Bluetones B-side, a David Devant remix and tracks by the very obscure Midget and Elcka went unidentified. I am a little surprised that no-one recognised [...]

Boris is in hot water

Many, many apologies to Papua New Guinea (and Monkey Island)

Langlands Moss & Calderglen Country Park latest

To Calderglen Country Park last night, for the inaugural meeting of a new group being formed to protect Langlands Moss from South Lanarkshire Council. Langlands Moss is a Lowland Raised Bog, and South Lanarkshire's only Local Nature Reserve (LNR) managed in conjunction with Calderglen Country Park. As the moss is an LNR, South Lanarkshire Council have a statutory obligation to help set up and

120 houses without drinking water as E.coli strikes Tory MP's stately home

Once again, in the interests of sleeping at night, I find myself tending to make no comment on this story. The Newbury Weekly News reports, on the same issue: "Confusion reigns over Englefield contamination".

Portsmouth's Spinnaker Tower - one thing to do before you die

Lists of "Things to do before you die" seem to be legion these days. The BBC did one of the early ones of these. It culminated in swimming with dolphins in Florida. The rest of them were also pretty expensive. So if you did the whole lot of 25 things the "26th thing to do before you die" would be to pay off your overdraft or at least gently break the news of your accumulated debt to whoever is

I'm not allowed to speak to you, Mrs Tompkins

Schools are to be forbidden to interview parents when deciding which children to admit. It seems our favourite sources of news expect liberals to think this is good news. The BBC reports it under the headline: "Backdoor school selection curbed ." The Guardian reports it under the headline: "Admissions code aims to make selection fairer." But if schools are banned from interviewing parents, doesn't that mean parents are banned from interviewing schools too? How, in those circumstances, can they possibly decide whether a particular school will suit their child or not? This government move implies that children are ...

Fighting Prisons of the Mind

Just read a very interesting article on the BBC News website about phobias. They really are a major constraint on personal freedom if perhaps somewhat self-imposed ones in some ways. It seems that half of all adults have them and some people have such severe phobias that they are almost unable to function as a member of society at all. Do we really do enough to set people free from these "prisons of the mind" in the UK? I'm not sure we do and I wonder if we invest enough in mental health services in the ...

Tony Blair at Quintin Kynaston School

An anonymous commenter suggests I was wrong to accept Lenin's account of Tony Blair's visit to the school yesterday. But Vladimir Ilyich gets limited support from Simon Hoggart in this morning's Guardian: A deputy head wandered about, trying to persuade the children to go home. He had a walkie-talkie and a badge. In my day deputy heads had pipes and leather patches on their elbows. This guy looked like a bouncer. Later. Iain Dale has an interesting post on the subject.

Off on my holidays!

I am going on holiday tomorrow, to California for three weeks. So there’ll be no blogging until the 1st October, unfortunately. I have saved up lots of annual leave, and even more money, for what I hope will be a cracking holiday. We are going to visit a friend of mine who works at the University of California, Berkeley, doing something so scientific that it makes my head ache just to think about

Boris puts his foot in it (finds other foot already there)

As editor of The Spectator, Boris Johnson published an editorial accusing Liverpudlians of wallowing in their own victim status. He agreed to visit Liverpool to demonstrate his abject contrition. As a columnist for The Daily Torygraph, Boris Johnson wrote an article published yesterday linking Papua New Guinea to “orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing”. He has agreed to visit Papua New Guinea to demonstrate his abject contrition. My suggestion to Boris is quite simple. Next time you decide to really piss someone off, why not choose a Caribbean island? There are worse places to spend your time being contrite, y'know.

Camera, lights action!

Thursday 7th September 2006 - After an early start and a trip to the gym it is time to literally fly back to the UK and head to London to take part in the filming of a future Party Political Broadcast. I had very clear instructions on what I could and could not wear for the filming and had washed a white shirt last night especially but fear it is still damp as I arrive at the location for the

'Comment is free'...but lawyers are expensive

I am starting to assemble a gallery of ludicrous opening sentences in Guardian "Comment is free" blogs. There was Iain Dale starting his article with a completely invented word - "condundra". Then there was Ed Vaizey talking about Blair's "gradual defenestration" in his first clause. I am still trying to imagine someone being chucked out of a window gradually. But Christopher Hitchens today

The Hitch is caught with his Pantsdown

Christopher Hitchens is a fantastic polemicist. Today his polemic is just fantasy. The first sentence of his Comment Is Free article for thegrauniad today, Losing the faith , tells us: In early 1999, Paddy Ashdown, then the leader of Britain's Liberal Democratic party (and since then, as Lord Ashdown, Europe's envoy in Bosnia), was found with a woman not his wife and forced to resign his post. Initially, I thought this was satire, that Hitch was hinting at an 'affair' between Paddy and Tony Blair. But no. Turns out neither he nor ...

Liberal Drinks grows

New Liberal Drinks have been set up in Nottingham, Winchester and, as a one-off, at Brighton Conference. Meanwhile, thanks to Martin Tod for sending in this picture of Andover’s event last Friday: Finally, Duncan Hames suggests a film night - specifically to see Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth next Friday. Sounds like a good idea, what do [...]

I went to the Toilet

Paul Stafford, an artist from Kingston University, had the quirky idea of converting a former public convenience in Clarence Street into an art gallery. Invitations to events at the Toilet Gallery are printed on scratchy toilet paper, and the building still has a (non-functional) cubicle in place. All the jokes have been done over and over again - but if you feel moved to...

Inconvenient Truth

Former US VP, Al Gore, is over in the Uk promoting his film and book - Inconvenient Truth. Its about climate change. He's found some excellent ways to illustrate the problem.. a picture of Mr Kilimanjaro 30 years ago - lots of snow on the top. And a picture today - virtually none. That the sort of graphic illustration we need. We're obviously all going to have to make more changes in the way we live. I've been to several meetings about this recently where most of the people there had driven there on their own. They were really concerned ...

Did you know?

The first President of the National Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty) was EM Forster.

A glimpse of Blair the socialist

In its ‘Backward glance’ section the New Statesman rather amusingly reprints an article from 1980 by one Anthony Blair, which is an impassioned attack on Jim Prior’s trade union reforms. There will be some liberals who regard the earlier, union-backing incarnation of Blair with rather more sympathy than they do the union-bashing prime minister who ‘sold out’ to Thatcherism. But not me! Through the 1960s and 1970s trade unions were an essentially destructive force, promoting sectional interests rather than the common good. Whoever was in office in the 1980s would have had to take on the unions if they were ...

Options for your personal RSS feed on Flock Together

In response to requests, I’ve added some options for personal Flock Together RSS feeds. The basic feed remains, as before: http://www.flocktogether.org.uk/userrss.php?id=yourusername If you want to publish your feed, it may make sense only to show only meetings that you’ve ‘registered’ on Flock Together. To do this add the following onto your URL: &registeredonly=yes To sort the meetings in order of [...]

The Friday anti-hymn.

"Long ago a man named Lot/ Had a wife he thought was hot/ But she could not stop her black and sinful ways/ You know it was her own damn fault/ When God turned that bitch to salt/ That's the way he used to work back in those days..." Full song here. Strong language. Headphones or an empty room advised. Thanks to Pharyngula .

Another Jock idea inches to fruition

In the Oxford Times today Reg Little write of demands from district councils in the county to Build Compost Plant "Oxfordshire could build itself a giant modern 'in vessel' composter similar to this one in SomersetA food recycling centre is being proposed to help Oxfordshire deal with its mounting waste crisis. "District councils say weekly household collections of food and kitchen waste could help usher in a new era of recycling in the county. "They are pressing Oxfordshire County Council to invest £1m to build a modern 'in vessel' recycling plant which could turn waste food into ...

Liberal Democrats would charge an average motorist an extra 700 quid a year to drive an ordinary car....

...and more than 1300 quid a year if you have a people carrier. Liberal Democrats only talk about charging people who drives "SUVs" and "Chelsea tractors". What they don't say is that an ordinary Mondeo driver faces an extra cost of more than 50 quid a month. They say they want to help working families. Well look out if you need to get three kids in the back of the car. They are going to make you pay. They say that it will help fight global warming.But they know it will have no impact whatsoever. ...................................... A bit rough ...

Garage site redevelopment

I see another article in today's Oxford Mail demanding action over some of the council owned garage sites around Oxford. In Action Demand Over Garages local resident Tony Greenfield suggests that "No-one in the council, it seems, has the business acumen, or real interest, to turn this around. It is a disgraceful waste of our money." Mr Greenfield and others might be interested to know that since I was ward councillor for his area some four years ago now I've continued to try to get something done about these garages. With my Community ...

King Herod tackles child poverty

A Conservative Party think-tank called the Social Justice Policy Group has produced a study claiming that: Some 32% of unmarried parents split up before their child is three, a study of 15,000 people [showed] So what? According to Bristol-based pro-family campaigner Harry Benson: Any government that wants to reduce poverty and inequality for both children and adults alike has to address the issue

Public rights of way on Coatham Enclosure

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council has given permission to surveyors to mark out a number of routes on land at the Coatham Enclosure and surrounding area in Redcar, intended to be used as public rights of way. The Council is responsible for the maintainance and promotion of public rights of way and recognises the importance of maintaining public access throughout the Borough. Surveyors and contractors have made a start marking those routes which will be completed next week. More information on public rights of way are available on the Council's website at www.redcar-cleveland.gov.uk

Working 9 to 5

Via The Times: "Businesses were ordered yesterday to ensure that their staff took minimum rest periods, after existing guidelines were dismissed as “meaningless” by the European Court of Justice. Judges in the ECJ The ruling means that employers must ensure that staff take off at least 11 hours between working days, and have a minimum of 1 day off a week, as well as a 20-minute rest after every 6 hours of work."Can't see anything wrong with that - if anything the concentration of workers must wane after 6 hours, lowering productivity. It's also good for the ...

Bush admits to secret CIA prisons

President Bush has this week admitted the existence of a secret CIA prison network. He further said that he has ordered the transfer of 14 al-Qaida suspects from secret CIA jails to Guantánamo as a step to putting the men on trial.

Computer failure and government responsibility

I missed this whilst away sampling the delights of the US ER room: "A new computer system used to process benefits payments has been scrapped at a cost to the taxpayer of (UK) 141M pounds, the BBC has learned. The IT project, key to streamlining payments by the UK Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), was quietly axed at an internal meeting last month. ... It is the latest in a long series

Un-Sen-Sational

David Cameron made a speech in Mumbai on Wednesday, which the BBC reported as Cameron criticises globalisation, which he did. I was interested to see how the Globalisation Institute (not generally shy of criticising politicians) would respond to the points he raised on the potential impacts of globalisation, especially in regard to unemployment in the developed world and the erosion of local culture in the developing world. Sadly, they couldn’t spare any bandwidth, and ran with the curiously bland Cameron suggests EU-India free trade agreement, which omits his most newsworthy comments and provides no analysis of this major speech. Interesting. ...

Keeping the faith

I have heard about obscure fanatical religious sects but this takes the biscuit. It is the website of 'Labour members and supporters who are backing Prime Minister Tony Blair against a minority of MPs who want to bring him down': Just over a year ago, Tony Blair was re-elected with a strong mandate to serve a full third term in office as Prime Minister. A small number of Labour MPs are now trying to force the Prime Minister to break his pledge to the electorate and stand down less than half way through his term in office. ...

To boldly go?

For those who believe that fact is stranger than fiction I have had my attention drawn to this item in The Register so as to disabuse you. They report that William Shatner has turned down a free trip into space because it's "not my idea of a good time." Richard Branson offered the 75-year-old a £114,000 ticket for Virgin Galactic’s first passenger flight in 2008. Shatner, however, declared: "I'm interested in man's march into the unknown but to vomit in space is not my idea of a good time. Neither is a fiery crash with the vomit hovering over ...

Main square in Ceske Budejovice during the Super Rally 2003

This is the main square which was packed with bikes during the weekend of the rally.

Brown Has All The Mandate He Needs

Over the past few days several commentators and opposition MPs have been suggesting that Gordon Brown should call an early General Election if he finally gets to be Labour leader and Prime Minister. This call is based on a claimed lack of mandate for anyone taking over a party - and therefore the country - midway [...]

Day 2074: If this is Success I should hate to see Failure

Thursday As if Lord Blairimort wasn't BORING enough already, his acolytes are clearly attempting some sort of WORLD TEDIUM RECORD by their constant repetition of the phrase: "the most successful Labour Prime Minister in history". Even that baldy mate of Mr Balloon, Nick Robinson is doing it now! (It must be on a press release!) This is such a TOTALLY subjective and self-serving definition of "SUCCESS" that I am going to have to protest! Lord Blairimort has certainly been in power the LONGEST (20% longer than even wily Mr Wilson who dominated the 1960's and 1970's) and he ...

I’ll show you my conference if you show me yours

I’ve added the main fringe meetings I plan to be going to onto flock together and added my personal feed from that website onto my sidebar. If you’re a Lib Dem blogger, why not do the same? Personally, aside from the day job I’ll be busy promoting my chapter on intergenerational equity in Graham Watson/Liberator’s [...]

Friday 8th September 2006

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