LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Wednesday 18th October 2006

Charles Kennedy: "Some problems with the script"

Sad news from This is London: There were fresh fears about Charles Kennedy's health today after he pulled out of hosting an awards ceremony. Mr Kennedy, who resigned as Liberal Democrat leader after admitting a drink problem, had to be replaced by the BBC's Jeremy Vine just an hour before the event began. He reportedly stumbled over his lines and struggled to read the autocue. One eyewitness said he was slurring his words and "did not look in a good way."As Guido Fawkes says, the explanation by a Kennedy spokesman - "I spoke to Charles about the event and I ...

Sarah Teather opposes school fingerprinting

No, she has not come out against messy methods in art classes. It is far more serious than that. The Register reports: Shadow ministers for the Libdems (sic.) and Conservatives have condemned schools that fingerprint children. Liberal Democrat shadow education secretary Sarah Tether (sic.) and Conservative shadow minister for schools Nick Gibb spoke out on Teachers TV. The issue is coming to a head because parents are preparing a case against schools that have installed fingerprinting systems over the summer and started fingerprinting children without their parents' consent. "They should not be doing this," Gibb said of fingerprinting schools. "They ...

Climate Change night response - Am I talking a load of hot air?

Tonight was the “Combat Climate Change” event at Prestwich Arts College. It was great to see a large turnout of over 50 people in the hall. There was a short performance from some of the pupils, and then a panel of speakers including Cllr Vic D’Albert, Cllr Jill Campbell (Sedgley Labour), and representatives from Respect, the Green Party and the Campaign Against Climate Change. We had a stall,

Down with Kaftans

Initially I thought that Jack Straw's thoughts on the veil were a personal view. I certainly hoped so. I do not believe that any government should have a position on what people should wear! Where do you stop? "Sorry, wearing a kaftan marks you out as a dangerous, pot smoking radical, we will pass a law forbidding the wearing of kaftans". Er... Shouldn't you be fighting the dangerous behaviour, and not the supposed symbol of the behaviour? After all Mr. Straws crimes were only against fashion and not usually the law, apparently. I have problems with veils- I wonder whether ...

Could Mid Norfolk Tories have had so many things g...

Almost unbelievably, given the furore and fuss caused already by the Mid Norfolk Tory candidate slection , two more candidates have dropped out of the selection meaning tow more who didn't make the shortlist now have ! It's all outlined very well in the EDP, but it does highlight a clear difference between the recent selections made by the Liberal Democrats in Norwich South and Broadland and the way the Tories select candidates. Lib Dem seats appear more willing to select and shortlist local people committed to their local areas, and not just career politicians. I'm not saying ...

We have arrived

We have been in Istanbul for about three hours now though we have seen nothing of the city as yet as we arrived after sunset. The ship is moored here til Friday evening.Just had dinner in the main dining room. We are seriously young compared to the other passengers but at our table tonight we got onto the subject of politics. It started because someone asked me what I do for a living. After all

Oops, now they have gone and done it.

The premature publication of the Tory Tax Reform Commission report has put David Cameron on a direct collision course with his party. The report proposes cuts in personal and business taxes - including reducing basic income tax to 20% and a £21 billion bill for any incoming Tory Government to meet without any idea of where that money will come from. It could well lead to massive cuts in public

Video: Ming Campbell on Iraq - “change the strategy, or get out”

It’s like Webcameron, but: It tackles an issue of vital importance It isn’t completely fake More on Ming’s blog

Second eviction

The second person evicted from 'I'm a councillor, get me out of here' is Cllr Frances Moseley, leaving Cllrs Paul Johnston and Sheila Griffin to battle it out head to head. Who will win? It's your choice - well, it is if you have already been registered to vote through one of our schools. If not, then you will have to just watch on the Big Vote site. Log in as a guest - it...

Brit Blog no 87

Belatedly (I have been away) I see that we made the Brit Blog list. Lots of good stuff there.

Jeremy Irons’s ancestor

Wednesday night is family history night, so I’m currently watching Who Do You Think You Are?, featuring Jeremy Irons. They’ve just shown the marriage certificate of his great-great-grandfather, Thomas Irons. He was a Chartist, and prior to that was a London policeman living at 10 Cowley Street, Westminster - a few doors away from the [...]

New rumours surround Charles Kennedy

London free-sheet London Lite and other tabloid rags are publishing new rumours surrounding Charles Kennedy. Charles was apparently due to host the Marketing Week Effectiveness awards last night, but had to be replaced by Jeremy Vine with only an hour to go. Quoting from London Lite (stripping out the bits that aren’t of direct interest): He reportedly stumbled [...]

Are Labour playing party politics with hospital closures?

The London Times had a story the other day about how the Government's hospital closure programme (only 24 hours to save the NHS etc...) is targeting hospitals in Tory or Lib Dem held seats. I'm not convinced that there is a conspiracy in the way The Times suggests, most Community Hospitals tend to be in rural areas which tend to have Tory or Lib Dem MPs. The bigger issue for me is whether the policy of closing or cutting community hospitals, and reducing the services available at district hospitals, is actually what people want. I am sure this policy makes ...

The thin end of the veil

I have refrained from commenting on the 'debate' about whether Muslim women should wear the veil or not as a) many others have done and b) I have genuinely mixed feelings on the issue. Having now heard from Phil Woolarse and honest Tony on the issue my initial reaction that Straw's comments had a rather insidious whiff about them has been confirmed. There is a genuine issue about whether the wearing of the full veil is helpful or appropriate, but of much greater concern is the tone of Blair and his various Minister's comments about the Muslim community. Woolarse's comments ...

Farm subsidies do more damage

The other day I wrote about the way in which subsides paid to farmers have cut the funding that goes to Britain's canal system. There was an article by Peter Hetherington in the Guardian today showing that the way Defra spends its money does more damage than that. Coastal defence, research grants and much else are being cut so that money can go to agriculture: For Neil Ward, a government adviser and director of Newcastle University's centre for rural economy, the financial crisis underlines the continuing dominance of agriculture in a department that is meant to focus on the wider ...

Special Relationship my a**e

I continue to be astounded by our Government's failure to secure the release of British residents still being held at Guantanamo Bay. Large numbers of people, including some brits, have already been released. Most were incarcerated for years and ultimately let go with no charges being made against them or, as far as I can tell, any actual evidence that they ever did anything wrong. If Iran or Syria were to kidnap hundreds of people of other nationalities, lock them up without charge, restrict their access to lawyers, torture them and propose to try them outside their normal legal system ...

Where's the evidence?

I see that gentle John and honest Tony have been berating the opposition parties for their opposition to Labour's authoritarian proposals on terror suspects. The point they still haven't answered is why, if there is hard evidence that the individuals concerened have been involved in terrorist activity, they haven't been charged with any offence? Either there is evidence that these people are terrorists, in which case they should be charged, or there is no evidence, in which case they should be free. If it is the case that sufficient evidence does exist for their freedom to be restricted, gentle John ...

Quote of the Day: Adrian Sanders

Adrian Sanders, Lib Dem MP for Torbay, complains that his office did not receive credit for its help with this story in today's Daily Telegraph: An inquiry was demanded last night into how British tourism chiefs were spending £10 million on an internet accommodation service which produced just over 400 hotel bookings this summer.Never mind, Adrian. At least you have won an award for this quotation: It would have been cheaper for the Government to pay for the 428 holidays!

Pulling up the ladder

Neil Woollcott has written about the opportunity to go to University he was given by the grants system and the wider opportunity this has given him in life. Like him I was lucky to benefit from the grants system. From memory I received about 75% of the full grant with my parents topping up the rest. I was the first person in my family to go to University, and only able to do so because of the grants system and the change in attitudes that happened as a result of the expansion of the Universities post-war. Both my parents ...

Health news from the Welsh Border

I am afraid this story comes from yesterday's Shropshire Star. But the approach to hospital management it reveals is so novel that it is still worth passing on: Concerned patients in the Powys area have been assured that they remain a key priority to hospital bosses.

The real Iain Dale, positive thoughts from an old ...

Some regular readers of this blog will remember that I started off blogging just a few weeks ago with something of a bee in my bonnet about Iain Dale. I first crossed swords with Iain about three years ago in a by-election in Happisburgh (North Norfolk). I was annoyed by his leaflets, a bit fed up with his bravado, but in greater part, I was annoyed that he had decided to challenge us (the Lib Dems) in North Norfolk and he failed to give proper credit to brilliant local MP Norman Lamb, who I knew many people in ...

The latter is the correct answer

This is really rather brilliant... (Hat-tip: Guido Fawkes.)

Supersign not enough?

If you’re one of those people who get the Lib Dems to put 5′ correx boards outside your house at election time, you may be interested in a new product from Weathervane.uk.com Lib Dem logo weather vane (Thanks to Woking councillor Philip Goldenberg, whose wife spotted this first.)

Ming Campbell statement on Iraq (video)

Ming Campbell discusses the developing situation in Iraq, the Government’s policy failure there, and the need for the Prime Minister to face up to the stark choice that has presented itself: change the strategy in Iraq - or get out.

Protecting Vulnerable Groups Bill

The Protecting Vulnerable Groups Bill is set to be debated and approved on Monday. Liberals have spoken up for some controversial issues lately - but is anyone else going to question the way in which we are regulating out of existance adult/child relationships?The FreeThink discussion is awaiting comment here.

Return of the redhead

Bob Piper is right, redheads will soon be hitting back. However, whilst we are waiting how about a nice cup of tea and a ginger person?

The minefield of buying fish and chips

I have started to do my bit in trying to eat fish from sustainable sources only. So the other day, when I was offered fish and chips, I asked for "anything other than cod or haddock" (as I understood that these species are at risk). I was brought a delicious meal of battered Skate and chips. My hunger and conscience were satisfied in one fell swoop...until I happened to surf onto the Marine

The President is coming....I'm washing my hair

The Guardian reports of a remarkable trend in the US. Old Bushy is raising lots of money for Republican Congressional candidates. But they will run a mile (or indeed fly thousands of miles) to avoid him if he visits their area to raise that money. Tom Kean, standing for the Senate in New Jersey, turned up to a fundraiser which Bush attended, but not until Bush had actually left. Thelma Drake,

Top Marks

Top marks to Mr M. Dome, the cuddly elephant from the Isle of Dogs, for his wonderful post bringing together a whole host of daft Government spouting over the last few days, in The Only Opus Dei in the Village. As always, Millennium has some wonderful turns of phrase What [Mrs Ruth Kelly] wants is for people [...]

Would I have gone to university?

It is news, and sadly a lot of people (especially the Lib Dems)predicted it, that there has been a drop in the number of people applying to go to university this year. This coincides with the introduction of top up fees. Now I often wonder if top up fees would have deterred me from going to university. Now I was lucky I was the last year to benefit from maintenance grants and because my parents

O Tempura! O Island!

A sad decison by Iceland to resume commercial whaling. Something I have to oppose in principle despite my great feelings of moral indebtedness to Iceland. Years ago, when Lithuania was struggling to re-establish its indepedence from the Soviet Union Iceland became the first -and for years the only- nation to recognise Lithuanian independence. It got massive grief from the USSR including economic sanctions that hurt. I recall at the time hoping to help repay Iceland someday and helped arrange support for an budding Icelandic historian ( Gudni Thorlacius Johannesson) to write a thesis on Iceland's support for the Baltics. ...

Nice one Graham..

A bit slow but: Open EDM: SCIENCE EDUCATION 11.10.2006 Stringer, Graham That this House shares the concerns of the British Centre for Science Education that the literature being sent to every school in the United Kingdom by the creationist religious group Truth in Science is full of scientific mistakes and fails to disclose the group's creationist beliefs and objectives; and urges all schools

Some Stats

We seem to be having another house price debate. Check out some quite interesting historical housing stats here courtesy of the Nationwide Building Society, and if you want to see roughly how much your income would have equated to over the past century or so, have a look here or here.

Wolverhampton South West Conservatives and the Midlands Industrial Council - A Conservative writes...

Dr. Jonathan Scott, the former Chair and Treasurer of Wolverhampton South West Conservatives has contacted me as a result of my postings on the Wolverhampton South West Conservatives and the Midlands Industrial Council. I have checked that he is happy to have his comments placed on this site and they are below:

Burgers at dawn

When is a burger van not a burger van? When it is in Bedwas apparently. At least that was the point that got members very heated in yesterday's Welsh Liberal Democrat debate on the quality of food: Jonathan Morgan: I am grateful to Mike German for giving way. Mike, you are one of the Members representing the South Wales East region, which includes the Caerphilly constituency. Do you share my

Caption competition

I never thought of Lembit as a mad scientist before. This photograph is meant to illustrate a press release in which he is promoting technologies such as geothermal, wind, tidal, hydrogen and solar power. In actual fact it looks like he is auditioning for a part in the Rocky Horror Show. Let me have your suggestions for captions in the comments.

Recess Monkey on 'The Knives are Out'

Does he want to be any more NuLabour? 'We must do something about terrorism'. 'Control orders are a result of not being allowed detention without trial' as if that's to blame for the failure. 'ID Cards will help with terrorism' 'ID Cards are about benefit fraud' He really seems to be out for a parliamentary career, he's so slimy... At least Guido isn't intent on brown nosing the establishment

Budget Shenanigans

Rhodri Morgan has set his Government on a collision course with the opposition over the budget. Despite holding talks with the other leaders he has failed to take on board any of their suggestions and seems content to play politics with the Assembly's finances. His attitude means that we will be forced to table amendments so as to try and get extra money for schools, ambulances and Higher

Religion and Politics: overlapping magisteria?

Excerpt: Stephen J Gould famously argued that science is not in conflict with religion because it answers a different kind of question. The two are non-overlapping magisteria. Science says nothing about the Trinity, and religion says nothing about the photoelectric effect. This view is not universal: Richard Dawkins argues in The God Delusion and elsewhere that science does speak about religious claims and says that they are false.

There will be trouble ahead

The Presiding Officer commemorates his 60th birthday today with an interview with the Western Mail in which he calls on the Westminster Government to ease the transfer of powers to Cardiff Bay by allowing Orders in Council to go through on the nod. Rather predictably, Peter Hain is in no mood to roll over and play ball. His response indicates that requests for additional powers could meet

Would You Credit It?

There is a great story on page 12 of today's Daily Telegraph headed 'Inquiry call over £10m internet flop'. In short VisitBritain, a tax payer funded agency, spent the money developing a new int...

Student Numbers Up and Down

From the BBC: The statistics show 389,505 applicants were accepted on full-time courses starting in 2006, compared with 404,668 in 2005 and 375,530 in 2004. This is a fall of 3.7% on last year's figures. Is this the effect of top-up fees? Well, one way to check is to examine what happened in Scotland where there are no fees. The number of applications from students from Scotland accepted to UK full-time higher education courses declined 3.5% to 26,666 from 27,646. Good grief! The overall national decline in student numbers is nearly identical to the one in Scotland ...

Iraq: Change the strategy or else get out

At Prime Minster’s Questions today, Ming Campbell MP pressed Mr Blair on his strategy on Iraq. The United Nations calculates that there are 3,000 Iraqi civilians being killed every month. In those circumstances, how can the Prime Minister maintain that our presence is not exacerbating the present security situation? The Government’s strategy has failed. And in [...]

Wallace voting for Turkey

Well, here I am in the queue at Gatwick for the security checks. Having experienced the chaos of getting through the laughable and incompetent security at the Tory conference two weeks ago (when attending as an observer) this seems positively professional and highly efficient.We are off for a cruise on the Black Sea, flying out today to Istanbul where we board our ship, Voyage of Discovery, a

Gendered brains & the accountant gene

Now that feminism and critical theory are gone, biological determinism with its gender bias makes its return. What is fascinating is that, notwithstanding the lack of systematic hard data, notwithstanding the significance of all the other aspects of life that have an impact on human behaviour (culture, upbringing, society, and also one’s own experiences), there’s always a bunch of eejits who make

Is Oath a Barrier Too Far?

Yesterday's cancellation of talks between Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams is down to the ability of one man to say an oath. Martin McGuinness is widely tipped as Sinn Féin's chosen candidate to become Deputy First Minister is power sharing can be agreed. However, he is a former commander in the IRA and their is a doubt over his ability to swear an oath in support of the police and rule of law should

Moray MSP Caught in Green Lie

The SNP at their recent conference moved into the green arena and echoed Liberal Democrat calls for micro-generation of renewable energy. However, the MSP for Moray decided he would back up these calls with action. He invited the press to his home in Forres to witness solar panels being installed on his home. He claimed in his press notice that he was the first MSP to install micro-renewable

Easier on benefits than low paid working?

Just watched the 18 Doughty Street show nominally on the minimum wage. (found here) The consensus was its easier to live on benefits than to work. The left wing, trade unionist's response was to rack up the minimum wage and increase union powers. He dismissed the economics of the minimum wage and why it harms the lowest paid workers. Unfortunately the right wing commentator didn't tackle this,

Islamaphobia and Homophobia - What are the Labour Party playing at?

Are the Labour Party trying to woo the BNP vote or are they just becoming even more intolerant and authoritarian (if possible!). There is an increasing move to legal Islamaphobia and Homophobia - the Government could well be guilty of inciting racial hatred with some of the recent outbursts.

A Family visit

Cicero is visiting the Baltic States again this week. It is a good week to be going- as H.M. The Queen has been showing. Her speech to the Lithuanian Seimas had just the right balance- and reminded both Lithuanians and Brits how much we have in common. Like many people in Britain I have slightly mixed feelings about the idea of monarchy. However when I see the wonderful response of the peoples of the Baltic to Queen Elizabeth I find it hard not to be moved. The Queen represents a bloodline traceable to Kenneth MacAlpin of Scotland and Cerdic the ...

Mulholland: Charles should cancel Pakistan visit

Prince Charles has been urged to cancel a visit to Pakistan which will coincide with the scheduled execution of a Leeds man on death row. Mirza Tahir Hussain, 36, is due to be executed on 1 November for murdering a taxi driver in 1998. Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall are due to visit the country [...]

Michael Brown and that donation

Whilst The Times almost single handedly thinks the Michael Brown donation is a legitimate line of attack, I heard recently that the Special Branch gave him a clean bill of health when he made the donation. Whilst some feel the need with the advantage of hindsight to question the donation, and whilst the guy at the time simply seemed to be a rich eccentric, it seems to me that he checked out at the

1000 video viewings in a week

I checked my YouTube channel this morning. There have been 1000 viewings of the various videos on it in the past week. The biggest increases usefully have come with my local news stories which for once beat the various clips of Rio de Janiero, Egypt, Cuba and so on. The reason for the increased viewings of the local material is down to the email news letters I have sent out in the past week or so

Two depressing books

Collapse by Jared Diamond and The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery. Collapse links environmental damage to the failure of societies: well established, seemingly stable socities. Use all the timber, the rains fail, the veg wither and the cows die. Suddenly your society is starving to death or sloping off to live somewhere else. Diamond mostly deals with historical societies but contemporary Australia (salinization of water, drought) and Montana (drought) get the black spot too. The Weather Makers is not a doomy book unless you are pessimistic about humans' ability to read the runes and act ...

MP's picture bust up

Talking to a friend yesterday who had been approached in the street by someone saying that he'd seen them on a leaflet with local Labour MP Hugh Bayley. This particular individual- who shall remain nameless- was rather bemused: they're not party political in any sense as far as I can tell, and certainly not a fan, I understand, of our local Labour MP. It turns out that the individual...

Rupert Murdoch's point man and the paradox of Gordon Brown and David Cameron

Twice before I have observed that a careful reading of Irwin Stelzer can be a barometer of how the world's premier media baron views the state of British politics (Stelzer is an adviser to Murdoch). In today's Guardian, Stelzer offers us a few more runes to read. But before we comment, let's deal with a few myths. The first is that the Murdoch press and media interests are wholly bad. During the years of Conservative Government it was popular to bemoan the influence of papers such as The Sun and The Times and Murdoch himself was demonised. But the decision ...

Another Social Services Error Corrected

The linked story is to another situation where a medical opinion and rather strange analysis resulted in a family being separated for two years. I haven't seen the detailed judgement, but at least they have managed to resolve the underlying issue. However, the damage that will have been done by state intervention will be difficult to handle.

Mourinho determined to disgrace Chelsea

If it wasn't enough to virtually accuse someone of attempting to kill his player (see Hunt innocent but what about Mourinho) without any supporting evidence Jose Mourinho has blundered again with factually inaccurate statements about the time it took for an ambulance to arrive to treat his player. According to the BBC Mourinho claims that "My goalkeeper was in the dressing room for 30 minutes waiting for an ambulance." and went on to say "He left 30 minutes after my doctor called for an urgent ambulance." The only problem with his accusations are that they do not marry up at ...

Common sense on the north south divide

I saw a great piece on the long running and thorny issue of the North / South divide here in Mondays Guardian As anyone who has lived in the south and the south east in particular can tell you there has been a problem for many years and over the years these problems have only got worse. Local authorities are constantly being given housing allocations which they have to make provision for in their local plans even though they know that the infrastructure in their area can barely cope as it is. Water and sewage systems are creaking and ...

Day 2112: The Only Opus Dei in the Village

Sunday: Mrs Ruth Kelly, Minister for Enforcement of Religious Indoctrination, has a problem: government policy is SUPPOSED to be in favour of EQUAL TREATMENT for gay daddies (and mommies) but she does not BELIEVE in this. So obviously she has a CHOICE – stick to her principles and RESIGN from the government or agree that religious based bigotry is NOT a central part of her faith and go along with government policy. Of course, Mrs Kelly is not PRO-CHOICE either, so she has decided to ignore those options and get Lord Blairimort to give her SPECIAL TREATMENT instead. This ...

New vidcast: behind the ferns at Doughty Street

As promised, here's my behind-the-scenes peek into 18 Doughty Street filmed before and after my guest appearance on Iain Dale's Vox Politix. (Which, ahem, you can watch again here.) Enjoy the high-quality production, well-lit intro, and seamless editing. PS: or you can watch it on YouTube here.

Oh no, Mark Oaten is at it again... confessing tha...

Just when the shame was almost gone, Mark Oaten is at it again. The confessions of an MP who does a rent-boy has now reached Women’s Hour as the honourable member for Winchester and his wife confess all (again) to the media. This time the story takes on love, marriage and forgiveness in their first joint interview. But whilst journalist Martha Stewart wonders how to pick up a marriage and carry on after such a bombshell, I am left pondering how does a political party pick itself up after such a carry-on? There is something very Catholic ...

Present: One Small Blog For Me, One Giant Blog With Everyone Else

It’s coming to the end of October 17th, and I’ve drawn my diary entry together. What’ll they make of it in a hundred years? Written mostly in free flow… After seeing the ‘History Matters: Pass it on’ mass blog mentioned by Welsh Assembly Member Peter Black this morning, I’ve been looking for historical connections all over the place. Well, I say all over; I didn’t get out much today, so most of

Wednesday 18th October 2006

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