LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Sunday 17th September 2006

Day 2084: IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN MEEEEEEEEE!

Sunday: Boo hoo! Boo hoo! I did not win the LIBERAL DEMOCRAT BLOG OF THE YEAR contest. On the other fluffy foot, Mr Councillor Stephen Tall did win like I said he should and I have shaken his hand to show that there is no hard feelings. The winner (and friend) The award was presented, in the presence of Mr Dale Winton, by the Queen of Bloggers – no, NOT daddy, Ms Lynne Featherweight. Then Daddy Alex made a big speech which got lots of laughs (I have a suspicion ...

Gobsmacked to be in at number 20!!

I have been away for a couple of days and just got back to discover that Iain Dale has done a list of the top 100 Lib Dem Bloggers and I am in at number 20!. The piece on his blog can be found here. I am extremely flattered especially as my blog frequently consists of ranting about football or drooling over motorbikes with occasional forays into politics in Thailand and other sundry issues. This is part of his production of a guide to Political Blogging in the UK which will contain details of 400 political ...

Pope says he's sorry

The Pope has issued an apology for any offence taken at his recent speech, unde considerable pressure both from the media and from Muslim groups. I find myself in the bizarre position of taking the Pope's side; it seems a bit unreasonable to assume that because you quote someone that you neccesarily believe their statement true. In any case, even if the Pope did agree verbatim with Byzantine

Even quieter

I had hoped to have the Liberal Democrat blogosphere to myself these next few days (well, not really, but while everyone else is away discussion new things I was going to put the boot into existing policy...:) But, I have I believe fallen victim to a really nasty piece of software by a large and normally respected manufacturer of graphics and designs software. It's put a nasty file in some unicode file name format that has caused my Mac hard disk severe corruption and it looks like I am going to have to wipe and reinstall OS X from ...

And the winner is

Stephen Tall

Tolworth Organic Gardening Club

It was a warm afternoon, so the prospect of a BBQ was very pleasant. We just had to find the white hut in the middle of Tolworth Allotments. The gardening club made us very welcome. Under the leadership of Joe Xavier, they encourage as many people as possible to try out organic gardening methods. By linking with local Scouts and with Age Concern they have drawn in both...

A friend of a friend of a friend

One day the Mayor of Lyme Regis was out and about on the beach (where else?) and he bumped into the Deputy Mayoress of a neighbouring town, whom he knew. Deputy Mayoress : "Meet my friends. They come from Kingston upon Thames". Mayor: "What a coincidence! I was just trying to contact the Mayor of Kingston to ask for permission to wear my chains at the Great River...

Grid Lock Sunday

One of the more pleasent sides of slipping off south this week is avoiding Freshers Week. Yes, I am a miserable old misanthrope and yes, I did go to University myself. However the plain fact is my ward will see it's population more than double in the next 48 hours and it can all be a bit of a culture shock after the quiet months of summer. Last year I went onto the battle front of Central Headingley and armed with my mobile phone tried to get some sort of Council response to the chaos. and promptly failed miserabley. Every ...

One MP, eight beaks and 273 boats

Susan Kramer (right), MP for Richmond Park, is a very plucky woman. Although a novice oarswoman she took part in the Great River Race 2006 yesterday - and finished in a very creditable time of 3 hours 21 minutes. This was even more impressive when you know that the race is over 22 miles, from Ham to the Isle of Dogs. All the boats - and nearly 300 entered this year - must carry a cox...

My Conference Routine

I have a very set way of dealing with Lib Dem Party conference. I book the time off work then systematically fail over several months to register, book travel or accomodation. I then have a panic the weekend before and end up not going. For once I seem to have at least partially broken my duck and am currently just off Trafalgar Square enjoying an evening in London and will arrive in Brighton tomorrow. My main aim is to get as much of the training under my belt as possible. Oh and enjoy the sea as I have a real ...

Conference Blog: Old Man Steptoe

In the 1970's a Prime Minister stopped the country going to the polls on the same night as Steptoe and Son was on the TV. Such was the popularity of the show that he thought that the Labour voters would stay at home and cost him his re-election. The power of the media is well documented but who could have thought that we would have suddenly be thrown back 30 odd years... Astute and savy as ever our leader has picked up on the popularity of said show, deciding to appeal to the 70's generation by taking ...

Come on the Lebanon! Rugby League and national pride

I was delighted to see that The Cedars as the Lebanese national Rugby League team are known are to play their qualifiers for the 2008 Rugby League World Cup. Rugby League in Lebanon has an interesting history, beginning when a group of Lebanese Australians entered a team for the 2000 Rugby League World Cup. As I recall, this came as a surprise to the Lebanese state who were not aware that Lebanon

The Taliban can be beaten

As this story shows. Now it is imperative that NATO countries put troops on the ground to help the British in Helmand. This is not a forlorn struggle.

Another Lib Dem voice?

Guido Fawkes (who tends to be pretty accurate about this sort of thing) suggests that another would-be Lib Dem home on the net is about to be launched. Could this be connected with the rather brusque, anonymous e-mail some of us received a while ago?

Blogging the press

One of the options available to the blogger of the year short-listees is to attend Conference Press Briefings. These are generally panel sessions where leading figures present the events and themes of the day and are then set upon by the velociraptors of Her Majesty’s Press. From my perspective then they’re more interesting for the behaviour and approach of the journalists, than the content of the announcements, most of which are trailed in advance. On this occasion for example the theme that captured most interest was Party proposals to improve the diversity of our Parliamentary Candidates (more women ...

Taking Power policy consultation (podcast)

Ming Campbell addressed the Liberal Democrats’ Taking Power consultation at the Liberal Democrat Conference in Brighton as follows: Download audio file (MingAtConference-TakingPower.mp3)

Blair, Brown: What's the difference?

Why on earth are the joint architects of New Labour at each other's throats? Is it that they simply can't stand each other? Are there huge ideological differences? Is it simply about power? Or is it all been blown out of all proportion by the media? Without knowing either of them it is very hard to understand what on earth has been going on between these two men. There has been much that

Predictions for 2007

Everyone in the Westminster village is obsessed with when Blair will stand down and are attempting to predict the date. Well here are some other predictions: Whoever becomes Prime Minister, the UK will have a snap election in October 2007. Whoever is leader of the Labour party, the Labour manifesto will contain a commitment to some form of electoral reform for Westminster. It won't be STV and

Who said painting is dead?

In the art world there is a rather dull debate between the New Brits, or whatever they are called, and the Stuckists. The Stuckists favour paintings and don't like the conceptual art while the Stuckists believe conceptual art isn't art. When the debate is discussed by those in the know (in the art world) they normally say that painting as an art form is dead. All the while we have graffiti

Green taxes

The central plank of Chris Huhne's bid for the leadership of the Liberal Democrats was to bring in a policy of green taxes to make the polluter pay. Several people told me they liked Chris but couldn't support him because they disagreed with his tax policy. They argued his polices were unworkable and unfair. Instead they were voting for Ming. The Lib Dem conference will debate on Tuesday a new

Voice Podcast: the green green grass of Green Lib Dems

Alex recorded this Podcast yesterday, on the train on the way to Brighton. Alex Foster and Chris Le Breton discuss the green agenda, and how our party’s already green credentials can be given a boost. The challenge of the Greens has been on the minds of campaigners at conference this year - in too many council [...]

First day and a half at Brighton

Arrived in Brighton for conference on Saturday and rushed for briefing by Ming. Then walk out to seafront on Ming's right arm to greet the media. The media are interested in tax - are we giving up our much loved 50p policy? – and Charles – how will his speech on Tuesday go? Ming gave a good answer - 'there will be no clapometer' and he robustly defended parties having real debates on substantive

Blogging in Brighton

Well, I've managed to find some internet, and so able to blog from the bowels of the Brighton conference centre. Not only that, but I'm in the company of Liberal England blogger, Jonathan Calder, and the party's internet wizz, Mark Pack, who's been blogging to LibDemVoice.Hopefully I'll get some photos up here later when things really get going.

Good news from Shropshire

This comes, not from the Shropshire Star, but from Colin Ross's blog. On Thursday the Liberal Democrats held the Ludlow St Peter's ward of South Shropshire District Council with a swing away from the Conservatives. Colin gives the full result and writes: I believe the swing would be enough for Matthew Green and the Liberal Democrats to regain the Parliamentary Seat at the next General Election if repeated across the seat.He is talking about the Ludlow constituency, which we held between 2001 and 2005.

The good, the bad and the ugly

Planning is one of the most important functions of district councils like Winchester City Council. Although I'm not a member of the Planning Development Control Committee, I take a great interest in their work and, consequently, found myself on Friday on the annual planning tour. This is a coach trip around the district looking at development sites, a real chance to form our own opinions on what

Harriet Smith remembered

The Liberal Democrat Conference has just opened with Duncan Brack paying tribute to Harriet Smith, who died recently. He quoted the closing passage of George Eliot's Middlemarch: Her finely touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive, for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts, and that things ...

NO2ID?

One of the unfortunate side-effects of the government's 'War on Freedom' is security at political events has increased incrementally over the years to a level that makes Labour's wildest wet dreams of a police-state look distinctly weedy. I'm not particularly aware of any major terrorist threats to the Liberal Democrat party, not since we had a White Witch get up on stage and denounce an evil force she had detected hovering over a member of the Shadow Cabinet. However, we have to assume that there are interest groups out there who find our blend of being nice to people ...

Houston, we have a problem ...

I wonder if Iain Dale placed Apollo 13th in his blog list deliberately?

Leslie Hore-Belisha at last

On 18 August I claimed that my review of Ian Grimwood's biography of Leslie Hore-Belisha was in that day's issue of Liberal Democrat News. It wasn't. I am assured that it was in the 15 September issue. You can also find it at the bottom of this page on Lord Bonkers' site. A Hore-Belisha enthusiast writes: Hurrah!

ID Cards, Iain Dale and Barcelona

Following on from Iain Dale's Top 100 Lib Dem Blogs (PDF), he has released his Guide to Political Blogging in the UK and it's available for free here. I've put up a presentation I had to do on ID cards for a solicitors recruitment day on my other site, I'm sure someone will find it of interest. Anyway, I'm off to Barcelona tomorrow, so all those going to the LibDem conference, enjoy it. And to

Hugh Walters' science fiction stories

My mention of Lord Bonkers' belief that Raymond Baxter was the first Englishman in space has made me think of the book that inspired that idea: Blast Off at Woomera by Hugh Walters. Walters produced a long series of science fiction novels. The first of them really did begin with an Englishman - or rather an English boy - becoming the first human in space: Mysterious domes have been sighted in a crater on the Moon. Suspecting that they may be the work of Communists, the British Government must launch a man into space in order to photograph ...

Another guide to political blogs

I have made it to the Brighton Centre and am coming to you live from the Liberal Democrat News broom cupboard deep in its bowels. The people at Channel 4 have got in on the act and produced their own guide to "Twenty political blogs you should read". It begins here, and the Lib Dem ones can be found here. They write of this blog: Lib Dem activist and one time councillor Jonathan Calder has one keen eye on the blogosphere, another on the press, and a third on the plight of Shropshire's champion marrow growers. Like most ...

Conference webcasts have started

Conference seems to have started very calmly and efficiently this weekend - no long queues at registration this year! - but we’ve already started our conference webcasts. First up is Lynne Featherstone, who will be presenting the Lib Dem blog of the year award this evening. Latter today Ming Campbell and conference committee chair Duncan [...]

How to become more popular than Lynne Featherstone

At one point yesterday I was more popular than Lynne Featherstone. Well lets get this straight from the start. The link to my blog was more popular than the link to Lynne's blog. So what made it more popular or what made people want to read my blog? Well I think a couple of things. 1) A catchy headline 2) A controversial issue 3) The timing (Sat mornings are very slow in Lib Dem blogging

Voice Podcast: Alex’s top tips for first timers

Alex’s Podcast, recorded yesterday, uploaded today (sorry, getting ahold of wi-fi Internet access before the conference centre opens is a bit tough). Enjoy this one, because pretty soon we get to the Podcast where Alex has gone out and recorded the Salvation Army. Download Alex's top tips for first timers

Nobody is infallible

Pope Benedict XVI is a theologian, not a politician and puts his theology first regardless of the political context in which we live. In catholic theology the Pope might represent God on earth, but in practise he represents the 1.1 billion catholics world-wide and the catholic hierarchy in front of the world. Hopefully he will now look for sound political assistants to make sure he’s ‘on message’.

Yay! Ming IS being Ming...

Okay, so I know I’m biased. Not only am I a Lib Dem, but I’m one of the (relatively few) bloggers who supported Ming Campbell for the leadership. But I was by no means uncritical. And one of the chief concerns I had was how Ming could deal with the demands of front-line leadership in the 'telly age'. I remember in particular on interview he gave to BBC1's On The Record during the leadership

No Liberal is an island

Well there’s surreal for you… Grazing on Lib Dem Blogs yesterday evening, I noticed Will Howells had posted that he was “sitting on the beach, reading some blogs and taking in the sea air. Lovely.” Which sounded appealing, so I logged out of my computer in the Brighton Centre, and strolled over the road. Where I bumped into the charming Will… who’d just read my first conference blog posting…

Top Five

Those of my readers who have doubts about Iain Dale's political judgement will have had that confirmed by his ranking of this blog as fifth in the Top 100 Liberal Democrat Blogs. It seems that in the overall scheme of things I am rated as the 39th top political blog in the UK. Iain writes that I am a 'Welsh LibDem AM who tries to toe the party line but thankfully often fails.' Cheeky! Update: I have been placed in Channel 4's list of the top twenty political blogs. Now this is getting scary.

Brighton conference - first video diary

Here's my first video diary from the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton: Running time: 58 seconds

Hither Green Hospital Clocktower

It's Sunday morning and I've just come back from visiting the Clocktower on the site of the former Hither Green Hospital, now part of the Meridian South housing development. It was open to the public as part of the Open House weekend. It was, for me especially, a hard climb to the top of the tower, especially the last bit up a vertical ladder. But the views of SE London were spectacular, despite the hazy horizon. You could see the usual landmarks: Canary Wharf, the top of the Millenium Dome, the Gherkin and Crystal Palace. ...

When does a debate become a row?

BBC News 24 was reporting this morning that there will be a row over tax at this conference, and that Ming Campbell has denied the vote would of confidence in the leadership. He is right. Much as this week is a nice holiday by the sea, we come down to debate real policy issues. The complaint [...]

Living the Fast Life in Brighton

Our Liberal Democrat Conference stay in Brighton has started well; already this morning I’ve had a smashing breakfast and an interview, alongside Gareth Epps. This was with Shaun Ley for The World This Weekend, so tune in to Radio 4 at One O’Clock to see if any of it’s broadcast. On top of that, Richard has already declared this trip to be our “Best holiday ever!” He’s fallen in love again, though (if you’re wondering why I’m not sobbing into the keyboard) it’s with our hotel’s super-fast wi-fi Internet connection, which makes our home dial-up seem powered by a crank-handle. ...

Voice Podcast: Conference diary day 2

Given how late I went to sleep, I can’t quite believe I’m a) awake b) have recorded a Podcast c) Have walked somewhere with wi-fi to upload it d) awake e) apparently sober Here is the first of today’s Podcasts, from me (looking back at yesterday and ahead to today), with a few more, from Alex, to follow later today. One quick [...]

Connections

Yesterday's Western Mail reports a moment of embarrasment for Welsh Language pressure group Cymuned. They are currently distributing car stickers promoting the website CaruCymru.com. The paper tells us that the Welsh-language version of the CaruCymru website notes how Cymuned's members love Wales' "language, culture, history and people" before warning of the dangers of Welsh culture increasingly becoming "uniform" and "Anglo-American". The only problem is that the stickers are printed in America. Correct me if I am wrong but doesn't the suffux 'com' mean that the website is hosted in the US as well? Meanwhile, today's Wales on Sunday ...

Big toys

Helen's job and both of our backgrounds in design & marketing mean we occasionally get to do some unusual fun stuff around conference. This year it's been helping to pick the colour scheme for the conference backdrop. The team have various projectors and some zippy LED light gizmos that shoot various shades of everything up canvass boards, so we spent some time yesterday cycling through various hues of oranges, greens, blues and reds before hitting the shade that created the most impact. You can create some quite horrible effects with this stuff. North Korea would be proud of ...

Liberal England is no. 30

Not only is this the 4th best Lib Dem blog: it is the 30th best political blog in the whole of the UK. At least that is what Iain Dale thinks.

By the sea

Here I am again on the seafront, waiting this morning for the conference centre to open so I can, erm, go on teh internets. (And having written this on the seafront I have time travelled forward through the magic of waiting and am now editing it in the conference centre.) Have just stuffed my face with [...]

Bloggers at press conferences

The Liberal Democrats have invited the six people on the shortlist for the Lib Dem blog award to attend the press conferences at Brighton. They are to be congratulated on this as a first step towards involving bloggers more in the conference, though it happens that I already have a press pass from Liberal Democrat News, darling. Getting the relationship right will be difficult. Will the bloggers feel under pressure to write helpful things about the party? Will the party get bitter and twisted if they write unhelpful things? But at least the authorities are making moves in the right ...

Promotion!

The BBC rolled up to a senior staff and Shadow Cabinet meeting on Saturday for their launch of conference footage which has resulted in this fun shot of Cllr Jardine-Brown with Menzies and company currently on the BBC website.

Liberal Democrat Conference - weekend report

Yesterday Conference saw three consultative sessions take place at Liberal Democrat Conference. The sessions were on - Climate Change, Crime, the European Union. I also attended the English Council Executive on behalf of the Regional Chair and a briefing for the Party's key seats at the next General Election which was very useful. The evening was finished off with going to the Liberal Democrat Youth and Students Race Night, sadly my horse didn't win this year.

Clare Short and "the third party"

The Birmingham Post has been speculating that Clare Short may be about to join the Liberal Democrats. I don't believe it. Not least because, as one Lib Dem blogger pointed out (I can't find the posting now), she could not bring herself even to mention the party in her piece in the Indpendent: Cabinet government has gone, the House of Commons - with guillotines on all business - is weak and ineffective, and the rise of the third party means our electoral system is ever-more distorted.No doubt the Liberal Democrats will continue to attract recruits from other parties, and ...

Liberal Democrat Conference 2006

I am writing this in Brighton. Well, in an internet cafe in Hove, actually. In case my impressionistic jottings about the event do not build into an authoritative account of proceedings, let me point you to the Conference news page on the party's website.

Conference Blog: Sleepy Sunday Morning

It's Sunday morning & Brighton is just waking up. Yesterday was a funny day, with very few people here and the conference not really starting. We did however, have a good chat to Ed Davey MP (top bloke). Ed is overseeing the party's national campaigns strategy, and I shall do my best to be at his presentation tomorrow. Alex Foster is podcasting from conference and asked me yesterday if I had any amusing Risograph stories. As Alex more or less helped me lose my Riso virginity only a month ago, I don't, so his search goes on. More ...

Off to Brighton

I should be packing now instead of typing - but depending on the queues to use the computers at the Lib Dem Conference in Brighton, this could be my last blog for a few days - I have just watched Ming Campbell's interview with Andrew Marr and it was one of his best performances for a while and earlier this morning Julia Goldsworthy MP gave an excellent interview as well. This is one of the few

High noon

As I am at the Liberal Democrat Conference then I suppose that I should write about it. This is not to say that there are more interesting subjects out there, obviously there are not, it is just that I hate doing what is predictable. I have already been asked to contribute to the New Statesman Conference blog and will be sending my 600 words on Monday night before I head back to Cardiff for the new Welsh Assembly term. My highlight therefore will be the Liberal Democrat blogger of the year awards tonight where I fully expect Jonathan Calder or ...

Radical housing

A couple of years ago I was, albeit not very assiduously, on the Liberal Democrat Federal Housing Policy Working Party. We produced a very good policy paper in my opinion. From my perspective it was good in particular because it included Community Land Trusts that I had already been working on for a couple of years before that. At the time I suspected that the working party, or perhaps the wider party, did not fully understand the model, despite having heard it directly from the horse's mouth, so to speak, in the form of David Rodgers, ...

Contextinople:

Anyone who liked Wolf Creek should read up on Byzantium (Constantinople, as it was called after the Emperor Constantine moved the HQ of the Roman Empire there). It's a lesson as to what happens when religion and the state are conflated, a warning against those who would see it happen and a handbook on slasher-flick methodology that any aspiring film maker would do well to consult for new and

Thoughts on the Presidency

I am apparently fairly alone in thinking Simon should continue as President. He is very popular with rank and file members as President (though not as a potential leader apparently!). The move to find someone else may be a blogging thing. In the leadership campaign, it was quite rare to find many bloggers for Ming. Bloggers [...]

Bruma to Be Referred to the UN Security Council At Last!

Am delighted to see that despite strong opposition from China and Russia, Myanmar (Burma) is going to be scrutinised by the UN Security Council. The situation there has been utterly ridiculous with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi having spent 11 of the last 17 years in detention of one kind or other. It is a stain on the page of humanity that that appalling dictatorship still holds sway. China appears once again to be dragging it's feet with Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya saying it was ``preposterous'' to put a country on the council's agenda because of issues like ...

Brighton here we come

Every year it's the same. The large bundle of conference papers arrive sometime in August. I promise myself I'll make time to read them properly before conference. But other, more pressing matters always present themselves and I end up scanning crucial policy documents before or during debates. So I haven't pondered much the tax question. I am reduced to feeling that since the people I normally agree with tend to be supporting the tax commission's proposals, and those I frequently disagree with are opposing them, I should probably support it. There are other reasons too. I am confident that the ...

Sunday 17th September 2006

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