Today saw the launch of Webcameron. Next stop MySpace, I guess.* I'm not going to knock it - how can I? Some of us were doing it months ago... Whatever, it gives me all the excuse I need to wheel out the sublime Time Trumpet clip comparing those NewToryLabour icons, Mr Tony and Mr Dave. If you've seen it before, enjoy it again. * well, waddya know...
Tarzan lets slip the truth
A couple of years ago, Bob Woodward’s book, Plan of Attack, was listed as recommended reading on the Bush/Cheney04 campaign website. Perhaps not surprisingly, given that Amazon.com observed that it “demonstrates the tremendous conviction and dedication of the people who decided to carry [the invasion of Iraq] out”. Mr Woodward has now published a follow-up, State of Denial. It’s not merely an
Following the last, not wholly successful, attempt at a training video for Flock Together, here’s a new attempt using Flash. The (free) programme that let me do this is called Wink and it’s proved surprisingly easy to use, and has produced dramatically better results than my last attempt. Its only slight negative is a mild [...]
This week they outlawed Age Discrimination. Whilst announcing more Age Discrimination. Go figure.
The tide of public opinion in Scotland is turning slowly but remorselessly against the redneck tribalism of the Old Firm: REGULARS at a venue once described as "the best rangers supporters' pub in the world" have been banned from singing hate-filled sectarian songs, it emerged yesterday. Anyone breaking the rule on bigoted songs will be barred from the Louden Tavern in Glasgow's East End. The
As I've already mentioned ad nauseam, it was my 50th birthday on Thursday. The next day, I went to Goldsmith's College to help at the Lib Dem stall at the Freshers' Fair. It all went rather well. But I felt very old. In the evening, went to the AGM of the Lewisham Park Housing Association, which runs the Calabash and St Mauritus Centres mainly for Afro-Caribbean elders. Very impressed with the professionalism of the staff, and the joie de vivre of the clients. And I felt very young. So I guess age is ...
This week we’ve added mini-movies from Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne to, respectively, the party’s anti-DNA database campaigning website and our No to Nuclear campaign site. The DNA site also now links to an article from Lynne Featherstone giving the answer to “what does an innocent person have to fear from DNA databases?” - which is [...]
I think I might move to Prague. Looks like we get treated better there.
I {How Prague deals with dog mess} spent a few days this week in Prague. Having walked for hours and hours around this beautiful city thought I would just bring home one hot tip. We may have these dog bins and dog pooh bags somewhere here and I don't know - but I thought it a particularly neat way of supplying the necessary for pooper scooping and of reminding dog owners of their duties. I have seen the odd dog bin on Hampstead Heath - but to supply the bag and the bin - heaven! The one in the ...
My colleague Wayne Hoban (Alexandra ward councillor and our deputy group leader) has been ferreting away for some time over questions on how certain funds have been handled by Labour-run Haringey Council. Now the Audit Commission is concerned too ... interesting times!
Those wonderful signs and hopes of recovery which followed last weeks defeat of Birmingham has dissipated just as quickly as Leeds lost 4-2 this afternoon to West Brom. To add insult to injury West Brom were down to ten men after 32 minutes. Healy took the resulting penalty and missed and West Brom took advantage by taking the lead in the 40th minute. They then proceeded to bang in two more goals before Leeds fought back through a goal from Geoff Horsfield in the 82nd Minute with Stone adding a second in the 88th minute. West Brom added a fourth ...
The BNP clearly did think they were going to do much better in the Dunston and Teams by-election in Gateshead on Thursday. Take a deep breathe and follow this link to their bulletin board: http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?p=3460209 But there again, I thought they were going to do much better as well.
My latest {Voting at a Liberal Democrat conference} newspaper column is about the party conference season: In my experience, party conferences have a host of purposes - but I am not sure that the wider world actually sees them through anything other than a looking glass darkly, and that dark looking glass is either the media take or the party spin...You can read the rest of the piece on my website: Conference season
A hat tip to Mark Pack for getting Flock Together into the Guardian. 
A story about my jam making enterprise has broken in Lib Dem News. Actually I wrote the original piece 3 weeks ago but it got put back due to the need to cover some more serious issues! Nevertheless, there are times when I turn my house into a mock WI kitchen with vast amounts of jam being made. And it's all in a good cause. At £2 a jar, we are hoping to make a modest sum for party funds. And so at the Blaydon constituency meeting this morning, jam sales have made local funds ...
Have started getting a delivery of organic fruit and veg via a shop in Liverpool. You really can taste the difference (although the veg takes a lot more cleaning than the stuff in the supermarket). I used to get a delivery like this when I lived in London.. and sometimes the veg was stuff I had never seen before.. like the jerusalem artichokes that arrived one week. I ended up putting one in my pocket and asking various people what on earth it was! The good thing though is that the food is always seasonal and ...
sometimes i sit here thinking.. is anyone reading this. Well the answer is clearly yes (hooray). I put something on the blog the other day about the Al Gore campaign to promote the messages in his film - inconvenient truth. As a result I have been contacted by someone from the merseyside youth association and will shortly be meeting a group of young people to talk about climate change and what we can all do to help. (in fact if MYA are reading this post too - hello there!) It sounds a really exciting ...
Children went back to school at Moor Lane Junior School and straight into a festival of art and poetry on themes drawn from nature. This flock (is that the right word?) of penguins was one of the results. Each corridor was decorated with paintings, drawings, collages, scrolls, models and posters. In Assembly some children were awarded with the coveted Amazing Artist or...
The number of Lib Dem Local Parties taking part in the Green Tax Switch Action Week is growing fast. If your Local Party hasn't joined in yet please get them to do so. Then when your children ask you 'What did you do to try and stop Climate Change Daddy?' you'll have a convincing answer.
The BBC reports on the annual military reshuffle in Thailand here. It appears that officers who were believed to be allies of the former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra have been sidelined. Meanwhile a new Prime Minister has yet to be appointed although there is a strong hint that it will be a former army chief. Probably not the best to move to reassure people that there will be a swift return to democracy.
Today's is an old favourite that has been given new impetus from an article by Simon Carr in The Independent which has formed the basis of a discussion in the Liberal Review. The article satirised a conference speech given by Sarah Teather on education, but picking on her as specific example is rather unfair I feel since her speech is just one instance of a much more widely observable phenomenon - nicknamed 'Duck Speak' by Orwell in his essay on Politics and the English Language as long ago a the 1940's. I re-read the essay last night, and as so ...
In response to this story: (click for large version)
We returned yesterday from Amsterdam having had a great week. The weather was brilliant and I had no real need for the coat I took with me. Here are some photos of Amsterdam showing Anne Franks house. Herengracht bridge, The Rijksmuseum and a canal view © Pictures of Amsterdam courtesy of Amsterdam.info
Via Paul Walter comes news of the arrival of WebCameron. Initially like a party political broadcast - but with the twist no-one thought of before… add a screaming kid in to the mix. It’s all very Conservative Party meets “web 2.0″ - embedded video, gradient graphics… and not a hint of blue or a tree in [...]
The latest fall in Cameron's approval ratings suggest that the Labour-Tory convergence is turning the public away
Just deciding whether to weed the garden and cut the grass or find the energy to type up the minutes of our new local Friends of the Earth Group. Busy week of work and meetings, just back in from looking at a playground for a new football group - but its too small and messy block of flats that needs a tidy-up. Went to take over some furniture the other evening, for one of my students who hasn't
Friday: "A Gravy Boat: it's like a gravy train but bigger and slower with lots more gravy." – Sir Humphrey Appleby (probably) You can have Mr Balloon for DINNER if you want! It will cost you, though. Ten THOUSAND pounds for a CHEAP seat (or up to FIFTY THOUSAND for a good one – one near the door, probably!) Still, it would be a great opportunity to hear the THOUGHT of the great man himself – he could tell you all about how he wants to CLEAN UP POLITICS while he is counting your stack of ...
My ears are still ringing from attending an excellent gig by prog rockers Porcupine Tree at the Astoria last night. The first half of the set was new material which they plan to record as part of their new album at the end of the year, the second half being better known material - mostly from the two most recent albums. Porcupine Tree are one of a batch of bands producing a modern take on prog rock and remind me a lot of classic bands like Pink Floyd as well as being influenced by more recent bands such as Marillion ...
Britain's leading anti-Cameron daily gleefully reports that Labour have caught back up in the latest YouGov poll. More worryingly for the Tory leader are some of the detailed findings of the poll which show that his lack of substance is starting to show. 60% agree with the statement 'David Cameron talks a good line but it is hard to know whether there is any substance behind the words'. I'm not surprised by this, as, having met David a few times myself, I thought it would become obvious to people at some point that, while he is a genuinly nice ...
I know Mark Pack has done this already, but I like this headline from the Telegraph so much that I felt like repeating it - twice: Blow for Cameron as poll lead is slashed That feels better!
While it is good to see David Cameron using the internet, I would advise having a paperbag at the ready if you go to Webcameron. Does he think we were born yesterday? If you were going to do a videcast would you do it while you were doing the washing up? I bet he's got a dishwasher anyway - so I suspect the whole dishwashing thing was a sham. And would you conveniently have someone in your
Lib Dem campaign against homophobic bullying starts to take off
Since Conference life has been manic, first I am still trying to shake off the 'flu. Straight after Conference Kate visited, she is looking for a job up in the West Midlands and using my home as a base - good luck in the search! She went Wednesday and last night my parents arrived for a long weekend, its good to see them but I am not sure when my FOCUS leaflets will get delivered now!
Britain's biggest selling music magazine - KERRANG! - has joined the noble fight against the force oif darkness that is The Daily Mail. The cause of this battle was a ridiculous article in the Mail recently which warned parents of 'the cult of EMO'. Emo - for those of you that don't already know - is a genre of heavy rock/metal music which emphasises 'emotional' content in its lyrics. My main criticism of it is that, like many musical trends, there is often more style than substance. But the Mail's take on it far more sinister. ...
Both the Western Mail and the BBC have used my press release revealing details of a behind-closed doors workshop within Swansea NHS Trust that discussed the closure of Singleton Hospital and its relocation to Morriston, which would then become the single-site hospital for the area. The minutes made it clear that building a brand new hospital at Felindre was not the Trust's main option. These proposals are dismissed as having "planning risks". They go on to speculate that Singleton Hospital will lose A&E, diagnostics and the intensive care unit, effectively turning it into a primary care resource centre. Cancer ...
This allergy-plagued man went a long way to cure his asthma and hayfever. Cameroon, in fact to deliberately infect himself with hookworm. It's a remarkable read, not too science-heavy but not for consumption around meals and it'll make you itch. Hookworm is an intestinal parasite which (in common with other parasitic diseases) causes a lot of disease and misery in developing countries, but
“Almost every trend relating to the Tory party is either static or downwards. As the figures in the chart show, the proportion of voters thinking Mr Cameron “is proving a good leader” has fallen from 46 per cent in February, when he had been party leader for only a few weeks and was still relatively [...]
As many regular readers of my blog will tell you. Ok, lets start this again as I am the only regular reader of my blog, I will tell you that I have not been a great cheer leader for Simon Hughes. I was hoping someone would challenged him. Sadly no one did. So after Simon's outburst last week about Ming's speech I was surprised to read his statement on his successful re-election saying he hopes
The BBC reports of the Conservative conference: ...there will even be regular votes on the conference floor, which is a novel idea for a Tory conference, on a series of "hot topics". Subjects to be tackled include "should marketing to children be banned?" and "alcohol does more harm than drugs". Votes will be cast, X Factor-style, with electronic handsets, although what happens to the results
Please ignore me, I'm just a test post
Since May in Gateshead we have been running the petition against the axing of the Post Office Card Account. So far we have collected over 3000 signatures. The technique we use is one I recommend to all campaigners. We deliver the petition form in the morning dated for that day, and explain on the form that we will return at a specific time on the same day to collect them from letter boxes. Last year we collected 16,000 signatures on a petition against an opencast proposal in Blaydon constituency. 6000 were collected by the technique described ...
In response to the debate going on at LibDem Voice about our Party logo here's a picture of a young fan of the bird. | < | 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 |
