Seems that our beloved Leader has gone down a storm in Lebanon. Perhaps finally he will realise that unconditional backing for Israel wasn't such a great idea after all. No, on the other hand his head is so stuck up his own arse that he probably thinks that it's the Lebanese who have the attitude problem and not him. Don't get me wrong. I support the right of Israel to exist and to take
has resulted in 'appropriations' of $430 billlion in the US, according to Nick Cosgrove on Radio 5 Live this evening. Four hundred and thirty billion.
No, not Simon Hughes' possible woes at facing a potential challenge for the Party Presidency but President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) our Liberal International sister party over there. Chen has been having a very rough ride recently with protests on the streets led by Shi Mingte who is a former Chairman of the DPP, a dissident with a distinguished history
I'm delighted to hear that Simon Hughes is highly likely to be challenged for the Party Presidency if the rumours doing the rounds on the blogs are true. I'm a bit concerned though that it is likely to be a member of the Parliamentary Party doing the challenging and so I am only able to raise two cheers. As most of the people who bother to read my mutterings on the subject know, I have been
It's not often that I take photos during a speech - especially when I'm the one giving the speech! But that's just what I did here. These are some of the members of the Rotary Club of New Malden who welcomed me, with due ceremony, as an Honorary Member for the year. We are fortunate in having three Rotary Clubs in the borough, all of whom do a...
I keep discovering wonderful albums from the sixties that I knew nothing about. A few years ago it was Ogden's Nut Gone Flake by the Small Faces - which features the wonderful Stanley Unwin. Deep joy. Then it was The Village Green Preservation Society by The Kinks. And now it is Odessey and Oracle by The Zombies. Incidentally, I discovered the latter two albums via a CD given away free with Uncut magazine in 2004: The Roots of Tommy.
Sunday: On this day… Anakin Skywalker was still an annoying moppet. The Matrix was still cool. The Lord of the Rings was still only a trailer. Enron was still a sound investment. Mr Peter Mandelson was still an MP: a fighter and not a quitter. Mr Paul McGann was still the new Dr Who (again). Computers were still run with Pentium 4's. The Queen Mother was still the nation's favourite granny. Judge Roy Moore's two-and-a-half tonne monument to the Ten Commandments was still obstructing the central rotunda of the Alabama ...
Here are a couple of photos to show you how the Devon Way Centre is progressing. From a rather rundown youth facility, with many areas that were barely servicable, is now emerging a suite of a dozen or so rooms that will be used both as an activity centre for over 55s and as a youth centre. The building is light and airy, and will have...
With a hat-tip to Dizzy Thinks, the vomit-inducing pro-Blair site keepingthefaith.org.uk (the real one, not the spoof) was registered by David Taylor MP. Guess what other domain name he recently registered: johnson4leader.org.uk! So, is Johnson now being groomed as Blair’s successor? (If you know how to use ‘WHOIS’, check it out for yourself). No wonder Gordon’s [...]
I never knew my friend Paul's birthday was today. I first discovered 5 years ago, so I will never forget it. Happy Birthday Paul. As well as being overcome with the horror of the events of 9/11 - thinking of the families which were torn apart by the events, I remember being gripped by fear of what George W would do to avenge the attacks. The subsequent actions of Bush and Blair have hardly made the world safer, and in fact the bloodshed caused by their failure to sort out Israel and Palestine has worsened the international situation. We ...
Came across this phrase here will reading on the bus today. It looks to me like the perfect response to Jack McConnell's recent announcement that he wants to introduce more testing to Scottish schools. We had more of the same rubbish from an obscure pressure group calling itself CBI Scotland last week: CBI Scotland claimed the performance of teachers, schools and councils varied across the
From that: To this:
A fascinating investigation into the ways Labour apparatchiks attempt to abuse open media channels is being conducted here by Bloggerheads. It helps make sense of my own encounter with similar tactics a while back. (Hat tip to Peter Black) Latest from Dizzy Thinks.
LibDem blogger Rob Fenwick has launched Liberal Democrat Voice designed to provide a place for activists and party members to have a conversation.
Rhodri Morgan has been in Northern Ireland extolling the virtues of devolution to NI Assembly Members. Next week he will be selling coal in Newcastle and the week afterwards he will be exporting sand to Saudi Arabia. 
There are few more telling signs of a failing political career than an attempt at a "Relaunch". Nevertheless I'm having one. I'm reminded of the West Wing episode where CJ asks Toby wether he ever wonders that if they are the ones running the country, then perhaps the country is in a Hell of a lot of trouble? he replies "Yes, until I meet the other guys." In this spirit I leave the summer months behind and am trying to re enage with life as a City Councillor. I'm going down to 4 days a week at work from October ...
The Labour Party has announced the winner of its contest to find an official blogger for its Conference later this month: Jonathan Roberts from Sowerby, Thirsk in North Yorkshire has won the competition to blog at this year's Labour Party conference. Jonathan's (sic) is a Labour Party conference virgin and will bring a fresh and insightful eye to the proceedings. Jonathan blogs for this (sic) local Labour Party and his blog can be read at www.thirskandmalton.blogspot.com.Fellow Labourite Kerron Cross is not impressed. Nor is Iain Dale: As you know I have been ranking all the different party-affiliated blogs for ...
1 Guido: Guido reveals that Cameron has stolen his analysis from Francis Fukuyama's After the Neo-Cons but concludes Interestingly although the arguments, phrasing and structure are the same, the conclusion is different. Fukuyama concluded the occupation of Iraq to be a mistake, Cameron has not followed the logic of the argument to that end. Not so much a dodgy dossier, more a dodgy conclusion... 2 Sky: Well I didn't actually hear this but I was in a bar and saw a television with subtitles for the hard of hearing: "a speech his opponents will attack as another flipflop," it said. ...
The Liberal Democrats have a new place to talk, LibDem Voice. The site has been created by Rob Fenwick to: "ensure that people who don’t subscribe to CIX*, or Lib Dem News, have an idea of what's going on in the party, and can talk about it."There's an interesting poll up at the moment showing that fellow blogger Lynne Featherstone MP might have enough support to run for the party Presidency...
Everyone remembers where they were on September 11th, 5 years ago. The era of 24 hour televised news means that many, myself included, saw the second impact live. That was the moment you knew that the world had changed forever, because before that, it still might have been an awful accident. Instead, my blood ran [...]
We have now collected over 1,000 signatures in our petition to make the crossing at Brick Lane / Bethnal Green Road / Redchurch Street safer. Special mention must go to Mark at Kung Fu Cuts on Brick Lane who handed me a pile of sheets tonight. Several other local stores & cafes close to the junction have taken the petition to heart & gone all out to collect signatures. Two years...
I have just waded through David Cameron's foreign policy speech, delivered earlier today. For the most part, it is an elegant exercise in assinine platitudes. He says there should be more "humility and patience" in foreign policy. A statement of such solidity that you could make marshmallows out of it. He wants a "new multilateralism" and says "democracy cannot quickly be imposed from
As I write this Andy Farrell is supposedly about to make his long awaited debut in Rugby Union. Farrell was, and is, a great player and I'm sure he'll do just fine in Union. But the really bad news for Rugby League is the potential loss of Karl Pryce. Now, you have never heard of Karl - and that is because he is only 20 and has only been a Bradford Bulls first team regular for about a year. Karl is a stand-off (a fly half for Union-ists) or centre. He can pass, and well. He is 6 feet 6 ...
Five years after Jo Moore was hounded out of her job for suggesting the terror attacks on the twin towers would be a "good day to bury bad news", Labour Mayor Ken Livingstone's press team are at it again by trying to announce 33% rises in bus and tube cash prices on the day of the five-year anniversary. In January it will cost £4 to travel one stop in zone 1. Their hope was that the media attention paid to reflections on the murder of over 3,000 people and the aftermath of two related wars and further atrocities would ...
Regular readers will know that I take the "War on Terror" personally. No question that the vile and depraved acts perpetrated on September 11th 2001 needed an answer. Have we answered it in the right way? For I fear that the way that the West has conducted itself since then has been blind and foolish. I fear for the future of democracy. The incredible number of regulations imposed in the name of the War on Terror in the USA- from the so- called Patriot Act to the Department of Homeland Security all have been giant steps backward for the liberty ...
James at Inner West has argued that: Fresh evidence straight from the 'Horse's mouth' that the window of consent from the civil populous open to us after the initial deployment to Helmand has now firmly shut in the Taleban's favour. I am open to the possibility that this is the case. However, I am suspicious of evidence supplied by Captain Docherty, who in the words of the article that James links to: became so disillusioned that he quit the army last month. Hardly impartial. Docherty's beef: The military is just one side of the triangle. Where were the Department for ...
I look forward to reading the text of David Cameron's speech on foreign policy. The spin so far released contains the normal 100% Cameron mush. He says there is a need for greater "humility and patience" in foreign policy-making. Of course. Like he wants people to be happier as well. Mush, mush. Put your wellies on. Squidge. Squidge. I hope the full speech contains things like: "invading Iraq was wrong", "imprisoning detainees at Guantanemo was wrong", "Israel's use of disproportionate force on Lebanon was wrong" etc etc I won't hold my breath. Ming Campbell has been saying these sorts of ...
The sight of octogenarian Walter Wolfgang being pulled out of his chair (for a bit of very light heckling) by two huge bouncers at the last Labour autumn conference was unbelievable. It is unbelievable that Labour employs professional "bouncers" as stewards for its conference. The idea of LibDem stewards (all party members) manhandling someone out of conference for a bit of light heckling is not something I would dream of happening. But as if that Wolfgang-bashing wasn't enough, this year the Labour party is screening applicants who want to attend their conference. John Crace in the Guardian says that have ...
Latest research from the boffins in Bristol suggest that passing vehicles are further from a cyclist when they have long flowing locks, and no hair.Should I invest in extensions, and ditch the helmet? Probably not: having had my life saved by a helmet when a car hit me I rarely go out without it. I doubt that a wig would have had the same ability to absorb the impact of hitting tarmac at 25mph.
I see that the nanny state has now proposed that all bikes must have a bell fitted.What evidence is there that this will help prevent the annual average 2.4 deaths of pedestrians caused by cyclists?My normal reaction when avoiding a pedestrian, who has wandered into the road without looking, is to shout at them while I brake and/or steer away from them. Trying to fumble with a cycle bell while steering and braking is an accident waiting to happen!If this comes to be, will it apply to all cyclists using our highways, such as the Tour de France in July ...
The least said about Sundays 1-0 defeat to Wolves the better really - I would have thought that a draw would have been a fair result but yet again a late goal conceded has cost us dearly. On a brighter note is this piece from BBC Online stating that Leeds may be debt free (well almost debt free) by the end of the season. From a club that owed well over £100 million only just over two years ago that is no mean achievement. Whatever people think of Mr Bates they should take their hat off to him on this ...
5 years ago, a gang of religious fanatics bent on mass murder hijacked four scheduled flights. 2 of the aeroplanes were flown into the 110-storey twin towers of the World Trade Centre, a third was flown into the Pentagon, and a fourth was brought down in a field in Pennsylvania by the heroic action of the passengers, preventing a second attack on Washington D.C. Let us remember the victims of
I represented the borough at two church services yesterday. The first was at Kingston United Reformed Church in the centre of the town. With New Malden United Reformed Church they have jointly appointed Suk In Lee as an associate minister, acting as a bridge with the Korean community. Suk In has been on training placements with the churches for a while so they know him well. Yesterday...
In my absence from the blogosphere, it would appear there has been fevered discussion about who should be the next Lib Dem President, with most people appearing to favour pretty much anyone but Simon Hughes. See Alex Wilcock and Liberal Review. One name I haven’t seen mentioned much is David Rendel, yet he would appear [...]
Alex Cole-Hamilton recently topped the mid Scotland and Fife regional list for next year’s Scottish Parliament elections - giving him a very good chance of being a Lib Dem MSP from next May. For Lib Dem Voice he tells us how he reached the top of the list, and what the future looks like for the [...]
according to this report. Consultation, simulation, blah, feedback, yak, yak. No that's pejorative, let's hear it from the horse's ass. Sorry, mouth: "Science Horizons is based on the premise that progress has historically come from technological development rather than social wants and needs. In nationwide events, people will be asked to comment on simulations of how technologies such gene therapy might contribute to future life. Their reactions will be fed into a government study on public attitudes." That'll be the public one third of whom believes in fairly stories of creationism or ...
Tommygate continues to bemuse. Is Watson the first minister to resign in order to spend more time with the Chancellor’s family? The “cover story” - that Watson was merely visiting to give Brown’s baby a present - is so laugh-out-loud unlikely that it could actually be true - who would make up an alibi like [...]
Remembering September 11th There are a lot of tribute videos around at the moment made in memory of the victims of the dreadful terrorist attacks on 9/11. I have not had time to view them all, but I quite liked this one so I have posted it on my blog. Most people remember where they were when the aeroplanes first hit the World Trade Centre. I was in the Welsh Liberal Democrat Campaign
'What are you doing behind there?' The Village Gossip asks.'Weeding,' I reply, lying face down behind the front garden wall and lying through my teeth. I'd hurled myself to ground to avoid her. 'Them visitors,' she says, nodding across the road to my cousin's holiday let, 'came 'ome late last night. Drunk. And 'im with a guide dog, too.' Her warty face gurns into a Significant Look. How long, it says, before God's Fiery Balls destroy this Sodom-on-Esk?
It seems somehow trivial on the fifth anniversary of 9/11 to be talking about the erection of a smoking shelter at the National Assembly for Wales, but the issue has been raised in this morning's Western Mail so I felt that it was appropriate that I addressed it, especially as I was one of those who was instrumental in getting this shelter built. Dr Richard Lewis, Welsh secretary of the BMA,
What a fantastic, community weekend! Congratulations to Mark and the rest of the team who put together the events of the last few days. The Jubilee Fete had good weather and good attendance from an enthusiastic crowd. The Barn Dance was a sell-out and my legs still ache!
I despair of the attitude of some of the people employed at taxpayers expense sometimes. In the first instance it appears some Southwark Council Officers are abusing their 'A-Badge' parking permits that allow them to park on usually disabled-only spaces. These are supposed to be used when on "official Council duties". It seems clear in Wansey Street at least that a minority of slackers are taking the piss to the detriment of local residents. In the second instance it's the parking attendants who are not following through with penalty notices when they notice an A-badge vehicle has been there ...
OK I´m a bit slow on this, but the message does not seem to have got out much. The MORI poll carried out for yesterday´s Sunday Times shows that Ming Campbell is - by some margin - Britain´s most trusted party leader. The figures were Blair -31% Brown* +3% Cameron +7% Campbell +15% All this is exactly as it should be (gap should be wider but leaders probably come in the right order). Expect to see this in bar-chart format very soon. * leader in waiting (currently trying on the crown and looking at himself in ...
The bitter legacy of 9/11 as published here in todays Independent just about sums it up. I make no apologies for repeating it in full below - makes you think doesn't it? 2,973 Total number of people killed (excluding the 19 hijackers) in the September 11, 2001 attacks 72,000 Estimated number of civilians killed worldwide since September 11, 2001 as a result of the war on terror 2 Number of years since US intelligence had any credible lead to Osama bin Laden's whereabouts 2,932 Total number of US servicemen and women killed in Afghanistan and Iraq since ...
Harry’s Place directs me to Martin Amis’ essay in yesterday’s Observer , in which he reflects at some length on Sayyid Qutb and the rise of political Islam. It’s a really interesting piece, but it made me think there remains an unresolved issue with the language we use in discussing political Islam and the Middle East. The visceral anti-Israel left can, and do, constantly explain that they are not anti-semites, they are 'anti-zionists'. Some of the time that’s true, though sometimes it patently isn’t. As an aside, I’m never actually quite sure what is meant by this anyway, because I’ve ...
Modesty Forbids, but I see that Robert Harris is finally after me. The first in a trilogy of fictionalised biography of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Imperium, has just been published.
A lot has already been written about the Labour Party Leadership crisis, and a lot more will. The whole thing is as fast moving I do not wish to write much, what I thought I would do is put some lyrics on here as some kind of motivation message for depressed Labour supporters (of which I know some read this web site). This used to be a favourite song of mine until about 1997 - I hope it works for you guys. Also I have a poll on the website now as to when Blair should go, please feel free ...
This is William Stone - unbelievably he will be 106 years old later this month! He served in both the First and Second World Wars and has become something of a celebrity recently. In fact, he cheerfully talks about the proposal to give him a State Funeral as the longest survivor of service in WW1. I was enormously privileged to meet him on Sunday and he was excellent company....
One thing that really annoys me about a lot of LibDems and policy is the obsession with economic inequality. I cannot stress strongly enough how dangerous direct attempts to create economic equality risk freedom and lead to coercion. Of course I want to see an end to poverty, but not the relative poverty that we talk about, but the absolute poverty. The inability to afford food and shelter. The
Good friends from university, Adam and Steve came down to London for the weekend. Adam has just finished a protracted period of trav-linn around the globe. In steamy Buenos Aeries he seems to have developed a taste for speaking Spanish and having Yanqui girlfriends. So he’s now going to the US to see his cherie amour and then off to Barcelona to learn Spanish. What a jammy bastard, eh? Or as our latin friends would say: “¿eh?”. We went and had tapas and paella in Cardinal Place, it was pretty hot. Unfortunately we were held up a little in our ... 
With a certain visible degree of social and physical homogeneity between the Liberal Democrat Leader and his Deputy, pressure is coming for a change in the Party President quite apart from Simon Hughes’ record in the job. Many want our next President to be a woman, and this isn’t just a platitude that evaporates when asked to name a choice; thanks to a particularly strong set of new women MPs, both online polls currently show a majority of those endorsing a potential candidate have picked a female one. There’s also a Conference debate next week on diversity in Parliamentary candidates. ...
One of the automated voices used to make announcements on the London Underground is either that of the star of TV’s Protect and Survive films, Patrick Allen (as sampled by Frankie Goes to Hollywood - "When you hear the air attack warning, you and your family must take cover"), or a soundalike of him. To some this might be alarming. Even though the disembodied voice is only telling us that the escalators at Kings Cross don’t work, or something equally innocuous; for the first half-second some commuters of an older generation than my own must surely fear they will be ...
The link is to a story from Australia where the Child Protection team got upset that a foster carer took a child to the doctor without their permission. Generally it is accepted that the interests of the child are "paramount". What that means is that the child comes first. The big question is what that means in practise. The various professionals argue the case that they are acting in the
No. This Autumn there seem two big topics of conversation among Liberal Democrat bloggers on our party’s direction: the slightly random choice of ‘a 50p tax rate or not’, and the Party Presidency. Simon Hughes was elected two years ago, and for the first time in fourteen years, it appears the incumbent President will be challenged when nominations close on September 27th. It’s a major test for Simon, and also perhaps for the Lib Dem blogosphere, where Simon appears to have minuscule support in polls and not a single public backer. How much does blogging reflect the wider party? ...
Apparently we are urging people to think red and vote yellow according to this piece in The Times - but are we really sending the correct message? According to this piece Sir Menzies ensured that the policy review was refocused to make tackling poverty and unfairness core policy themes. An aim which I would entirely support. However, at the same time we have proposals from the tax commission going to the annual conference which drop the commitment to a 50p rate of tax. I understand the argument that there are better and fairer ways technically of making the wealthier pay ...
Just produced my September 2006 update to the West End Community Council - click on the headline above to read it! The Community Council meets on Tuesday (12th September) at 7pm at Logie St John's Cross Church Hall, off Blackness Avenue.
It seems to be have been an extraordinary week for the Camberwell and Peckham Labour party. Having first accidently readmitted former Labour Councillor Dr. "gay mafia" Ola into their ranks, they've now managed to boot him out again after what must be one of the shortest memberships in Labour party history. This is welcome, no serious mainstream party these days should be entertaining bigots in their midst. Labour Leader Peter John's explanation of the events of this week do though test credibility. In his hurried statement on the matter, pulled together on Sunday, he implies Ola's membership rejection was done ... | < | September 2006 | > | ||||
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