LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Friday 1st December 2006

Day 2140: How Can I Ever Catch Up?

Monday: Oh very fluffy dear. It USED to be the case that Daddy could post up a whole load of EMPTY diaries and then go back and fill them in LATER. Yes, we could CHEAT! This was very handy for when he was too busy doing his COUNTING job to do my diary, even if it does lead to REPETITIVE STRAIN INJURY (i.e. a SORE NOSE) for me when it comes to typing them all in. But NOW, all of my diaries are appearing on the LIB DEM BLOGREGATOR! Even worse, I have learned that there are people getting ...

Seasonal

Well, I know which advent calendar I’ll be using.

Mark Young - Prospective Welsh Liberal Democrat Candidate for the Vale of Clwyd

Local business & family man Cllr Mark Young has been selected as the Prospective Welsh Liberal Democrat Candidate for the Vale of Clwyd in next years May Assembly elections. Cllr Young said "Being selected for the constituency I live and work in is a great honour and privilege" North Wales Assembly Member-Eleanor Burnham AM said "Mark is a natural communicator and connects well with people and will make an excellent Assembly member For the Vale of Clwyd and we would make a great team." As the only growing party in the Vale, it ...

Bromley falling apart... the smoking gun

On 23 November I posted that a report was imminent showing how Bromley is falling apart... well the report didn't seem to exist when I waited for it on the Environment and Leisure Portfolio agenda. Then I discovered the same report had gone to the Environment and Leisure PDS on the same day, and the agenda can be found by searching for Highway Assett Working Group report Appendix 1 on the

The truth about airline security

Well ... it makes a point. From The Telegraph

Lib Dems get a Cameron of their own

I wonder if I am first to use that line.

What price for my seat?

Received an interesting email / thesis from a local resident about the sudden (but very much needed) £176 million injection for schools in Haringey. The resident was a school governor in Haringey during the eighties and nineties, who saw PFI being used to modernise the secondary schools. He says that they were told that this was the only way the works would be funded. Now his view is that the £176

Rather busy week

Janet and I have just returned to Chez Macpherson after two days away at my Institute's Scottish Benefits Conference at Crieff Hydro Hotel. Superb couple of days but we are both officially dead beat, really, really tired! And its the launch of the West End Christmas Week tomorrow morning, so this blog entry will be as much pictures as words, so I can get it finished before second Coronation Street of the evening, then zzzzzz ...... ! Below : Photo One - Western Cemetery - Chaired a very productive meeting of the steering group towards a "Friends of ...

From pig to man, and from man to pig

Today's House Points from Liberal Democrat News. Explosive questions Adam Ingram, the defence minister, had to defend British forces’ use of cluster bombs last week. Martin Caton, the Labour MP for Gower, used an adjournment debate to call on the government to support international moves to ban the weapons. You can see why. A cluster bomb contains anything up to 2000 bomblets, many of which fail to explode at the time and can maim and kill civilians years afterwards. People are still dying in Vietnam from bombs dropped by the Americans. In Kosovo unexploded bomblets have caused more ...

Full timetable for MEP selections announced

The full timetable for selecting candidates to run in the next European Parliament elections has been announced and can be found in our members-only discussion board. If you aren’t yet registered for the members-only area you can do so here. europe Party organisation selections

You're sure of a big surprise

There is no doubt about the story of the day in the Shropshire Star: Storm over ’swearing’ toy Bosses at a Shropshire toy-making factory have defended a talking teddy bear which a customer accused of swearing. Supermarket giant Tesco pulled the bears from the shelves at one of its Midland megastores after a customer complained. Tesco chiefs have been investigating the claim to ensure it was a one-off. But bosses at Telford-based Golden Bears are adamant the toy does not swear. Not that everything to do with teddy bears in Shropshire this is week is so amusing. ...

Lib Dems haven't heard the last of Michael Brown

Prison life can be lonely, and word reaches Lib Dem Voice that controversial former Lib Dem donor Michael Brown has taken to talking to the press from prison - we’re told he has been forcefully putting “his side of the story” More column inches still to come… michaelbrown The rumour mill

Road Charging : Will the whole report be read or j...

There has been something of a furore about today's report issed by Rod Eddington about road pricing. I have written on this blog before about making sure that alternatives are in place before road pricing schemes are introduced. it is, after all, not fair to tax someone more for driving somewhere if there are no alternative roads and no public transport options. The thing that worries me most though about the reports is not the road pricing option. It is that a future government will notice that the report supports road pricing but fails to acknowledge that Rod Eddingtons ...

Will Ian Lewis shortly be eating a hat?

Who is Ian Lewis you may well think. Well, before today I didn’t know him either - but his dietary habits have suddenly got my interest. And it’s all because of the infighting amongst Chester City Conservatives. As the local paper reports: CONSERVATIVE members of Chester City Council have branded their own party’s parliamentary candidate an embarrassment [...]

Threshers offer mistake. Ooops !

I was reading someone else's blog the other day when they were promoting an offer from Threshers for 40% off champagne and wines. (Apologies to who-ever's blog it is, please contact me and I'll give you a link). Now, it appears that Threshers have realised they have made a massive mistake as this offer was supposed to be strictly limited to certain groups, but not counting on the internet to see this information got around, has cost Threshers very dear. Someone at Threshers clearly does not understand viral marketing. Read the full story HERE. It appears also ...

Bury Ball Shirt Drama

I am off to the Mayor’s Civic Charity Ball this evening at the Longfield Suite in Prestwich. The great and the good of Bury will be there (as well as Tam and me) for a good cause. And it means that I don’t have to worry about what to have for tea. I opened up the suit protector containing my dinner suit and shirt this evening to discover that it hadn’t done its job at all. In between me putting

Jemima Hammett wins Christmas Card competition

It was off to St Mary's Junior School to present the winner of my Christmas Card competition with a certificate, some of the cards and some chocolates. The card I chose is absolutely lovely. I had set the title 'Christmas at Alexandra Palace' and Jemima Hammett (aged 10) had drawn the most beautiful representation of the Pally with Santa's sleigh flying above it in the sky. So that was a very

Norwich City payout to Nigel Worthington raises im...

When Norwich City were under pressure from fans to get rid of Nigel Worthington less than 12 months ago, Norwich City reacted angrily to suggestions that they were only keeping Worthington on because it would cost too much to get rid of him. At the time, Norwich declined to say how long his contract was (EDP report HERE from last November), but now it has been revealed that Wothington has received a £600,000 payout leaves me, as a season ticket holder, wondering just how long his contract was and when was it signed ? Read about the £600,000 payout ...

We'll all go together when we go!

So goes one of my favourite songs by Tom Lehrer. The lyrics are worth re-reading alongside the announcement of a LibDem conference motion on Trident. I am not entirely clear why we need to have warheads to fire off in the highly unlikely event that Iran and Korea fire them off at us, as opposed to the US. I suspect I will come round to Ming's way of thinking eventually, but in the meantime Mr

Cycle Advisory Group

Its been one of those weeks where I've either been at work, at council meetings or sleeping... The one evening I "had off" meant leaving the office at 8pm! Last night the first Cycle Advisory Group was held for nearly 6 months. Which meant there were about 6 months of questions and gripes to air. As the only councillor who has continued their membership of this group, and the only councillor who regularly uses his bike for commuting to work and for council, I was asked to chair the group. Which I happily accepted. Cycling in Birmingham is due an ...

Doctors ordered to break medical confidentiality i...

This is frankly disgusting. Her Majesty's Government, in its centralising, technocratic zeal wants to centralise all our medical records. This is unnecessary and will of course lead to medical records being leaked. There is a campaign which is giving people information on how they can opt-out (although the government seems to have done a U-turn and now says we cannot), which has attracted some

Home Office failings nearly get a woman the sack

This morning there was one of those cases that makes me so angry at surgery. A woman had come to see me. Her employers had her escorted off of work premises as she had been unable to produce documentation to show that it was legal for her to work. She had sought asylum in 2001 and been given exceptional leave to remain. She has worked all the time (i.e. not on benefits). She married a British

Nuclear independence and realities

By a happy coincidence an article by John Harris in The Guardian on the UK-USA Special Relationship comes out on the day the debate on the renewal of the Trident nuclear system surfaces properly with the announcement of the proposals for LibDem policy on Trident. The Guardian article has this section on UK Nuclear realities When it comes to nuclear weapons, visions of uncoupling Britain from the US ignore a few realities that our senior politicians never mention. As Dan Plesch, the London-based academic and author who has made it his business to shine light on these things, ...

Litvinenko: The plot thickens

Since we have established that the poison used to kill Alexander Litvinenko was Polonium -210, it has been clear that there was a direct connection with the Russian security services. The Polonium has also created its own trail- leaving traces in the plane that it came to Britain on, and cross contamination in several other planes. The investigation has already established that Alexander Litvinenko was murdered, that the poison came from a specific reactor in Russia and that the poison was brought to London on October 25th on a BA flight -around the time of the Arsenal-CSKA Moscow football match. ...

Presidential honours

25 years ago I was teaching at Tolworth Girls School. It has improved considerably since I left .... perhaps I had better rephrase that. In fact, I have been a Governor, and Chair of Governors at the school since those days, and have a very warm spot for the school which produces confident, articulate and ambitious young women (plus young men from the sixth form). This was very...

More h-tunes

Just listening to the latest h concert downlaoded from his nifty 'h-tunes' website. This gig was recorded in Liverpool's Cavern Club on 1st March this year. Just h and his piano singing a mix of his solo and marillion songs as well as a large selection of covers including beautiful vesrions of Wichita Lineman (his Dad's favourite song), Famous Blue Raincoat, Too Late and The Whole of the Moon. h is clearly enjoying himself and sounds delighted to be performing at the home of The Beatles. He also covers Beatles numbers Help, Yesterday and Eleanor Rigby. I never cease ...

Common sense on Trident

I am delighted to see this very sensible policy being put forward by Ming Campbell and the Trident Policy Working Group. Their proposal - to maintain Trident for the time being but cut the number of warheads - is a balanced approach to the current system and far more sensible than the Government's plan for an expensive replacement. The lib Dem position sends out exactly the right signal to the rest of the world - that we are prepared to reduce our nuclear arsenal in line with international non-proliferation policy as we ask others to do the same. The Government's ...

Operation Stack - How to Kill a Local Economy

Having got stuck on the M20 this week I have to wonder exactly what was going through the minds of the designers of Operation Stack, the Kent Police operation that swings into effect when French Cross-Channel Trades Unions decide to walk out on some pretext or other (probably flimsy). For two days lorries were stacked on the motorway and nothing could move towards the coast. Local roads were choked and deliveries of goods were either seriously delayed or even cancelled. I'm very angry at the negative impact Operation Stack has on local businesses and the local economy in ...

Fraud

On Tuesday I went to a Councillors training session on the Tower Hamlets Anti-Corruption and Fraud Strategy. Not quite as interesting as it sounds, it was led by the Internal Audit Team. An interesting statistic: 5% of people are dishonest, 5% of people are honest and 90% of people are opportunists! Worrying, if applied to Councillors, in spite of the Code of Conduct which we sign....

Cut nuclear weapons by half

Ahead of the publication of the Government’s White Paper, Liberal Democrat Leader Ming Campbell today launched the proposals of his party’s policy working group on the future of Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons system. The proposals, to be debated at the Liberal Democrat spring conference in Harrogate, include: Retaining the current Trident system but cutting Britain’s nuclear weapons [...]

The future of Trident

Just seen Sky News 2pm bulletin, with Ming Campbell's well argued announcement on the future of Trident. Excellent news that we are taking a strong line in cutting warheads, taking stock and making a real move towards disarmament and non-proliferation. The story has just appeared on the party website.

Let’s get expansionist

Noticed this the other day on the Voidstar politics blogs aggregator - the English Democrats (who boast that they’re ‘putting England first’) have announced the location of their conference next year: It is planned to hold the Spring 2007 AGM in Monmouthshire. This would be the Monmouthshire that’s in Wales, right?

Visiting our Members.

I have been spending some evenings over the past few weeks visiting some of our local Lib-Dem members as part of my PPC campaign. I have found this such a rewarding and at times humbling experience. Some of our members have done so much in standing up for Liberal Democracy over many decades and have really made a difference. I have been so encouraged by offers of help and support that it has made cruising around Warwick & Leamington in the dark trying to find various addresses worth while.

50,000

If you’ve been wondering why I haven’t been blogging much since I returned, one of the reasons is that for the last month I’ve been concentrating on writing, specifically taking part in National Novel Writing Month 2006 which challenges you to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. As you can see from the [...]

Lib Dem Transport Plan Praises our Railway

The Lib-Dem response to the Eddington report outlines a A 6-Point Plan for the Green Transport Switch which includes proposals for a bigger and better railway. The report praises our own excellent local Chiltern Railway which I use a lot when travelling to London or Birmingham. The report suggests that one reason why Chiltern is able to provide such a good service is down to its long franchise term which allows it to make the long term decisions required to run an effective railway. Other proposals include Improving Local Transport Services to include greater control at ...

World AIDS Day - Number of HIV+ case in Wolverhampton drop

Today is World AIDS Day, I hope none of us forget those with AIDS today in the UK or elsewhere in the world and also ensure we never forget the need for safe sex and safe use of needles. I fear since the big campaigns in the 1980's and early 1990's public awareness of the need for safe sex has actually reduced.

Smoke up Johnny

The Government has now set the date for the smoking ban in pubs as July the first, 2007. Anyone who knows me will be aware that I’m not enthusiastic about the ban. I will refrain from re-hashing all the arguments again, but I believe it undermines the principles of civil society, which I think we should cherish. I also tend to agree with the House of Lords Committee on Economic Affairs, that it

Dissing Venus

In Swansea last night Rhodri Morgan compared New Labour to the Venus de Milo - a soulless slab of marble, moulded by spin doctors and completly 'armless. If only! In actual fact he said that both were showing their age. So is Rhodri Morgan but I am not going to hold that against him. There are some who would suggest that the Venus de Milo has aged much better than new Labour and that it shows an element of grace and composure that has always been missing from Tony Blair's creation and is certainly absent from its ...

News Of The World

I like Rupert Murdoch's News of the World even less after the news this week that they were willing to pay for stories obtained from illegal phone tappers. My colleague Simon Hughes MP was one o...

Council by-elections: net gain of four seats

In addition to the excellent result in Newcastle, Liberal Democrats took four further council seats last night: two that had previously been held by independents and two from Labour. We lost one seat to the Tories, on Havant District Council, reflecting their win in the same ward in May. The gains from Labour were in Newcastle, [...]

When the oil starts to run out....

I posted earlier in the month about expecting to hear a presentation on the subject of Peak Oil i.e. what happens when oil production passes its peak. One expert thinks it could be as soon as 2008, and forecasts major, negative econmic impact. His presentation has been uploaded on to a page on the Chelmsford Lib Dem website.

Equidistance no more

Its the start of a new month, so time to check on the polls.Anthony King provides some interesting analysis of the Telegraph's latest poll. The headline figures show that the Conservatives are at 37% (-2) Labour are at 32 (no change) and the Lib Dems are on 16 (also no change).The main spin the Telegraph puts on it is Cameron marooned; must do better. This is certainly true if he is to have a hope of winning an overall majority. But King delves deeper into the figures and pulls out some worrying news for the Lib Dems."...the Tories' new concern ...

Boston SIDS research

The linked extract is to the research on babies that died of SIDS that demonstrates that (one probably major cause of) Sudden Infant (unexplained and unexpected) Death Syndrome is the way in which the brain responds to seratonin. This would explain why there appears to be some genetic link that predisposes to SIDS.

Shropshire - Liberal Democrats gain one, Conservatives gain one

Yesterday saw three by-elections in Shropshire, two County Council by-elections and one District Council by-election. The Liberal Democrats won one of the County by-elections from the Independents, the Conservatives held the other County by-election and gained the District Council by-election again from the Independents.

Kiss Me Kate

Last night Kate and I went to see Kiss Me Kate at the Grand Theatre. The production was put on by the Bilston Operatic Society and my friend Phil Drinkwater was one of the players. I has not seen it before and I am not really into musicals but certainly enjoyed it.

Teeside Tin Tin

I have rarely laughed as much as when I found these. I don't know who did the voice but he doesn't half sound like my brother after a few ales. WARNING: Contains lots of very bad language.

And there were times I’d take my pen, and feel obliged to start again

This Friday’s portion is Rip it Up by Orange Juice. Good or what!? Edwyn Collins was very unwell last year, but is now recovering.

Express Delivery

I was shocked to read the headline in the Daily Express yesterday, “Muslim Law Reaches Britain.” It is unusual for a tabloid headline to irritate me quite so much as this one did, but I think it’s pretty outrageous that so-called “journalists” can get away with this blatant religious prejudice and half-baked explanation of the facts. The article describes how Sharia law “allows people to be

1.5m barrels of oil energy per sq km!

Interesting piece from the Guardian about the vast quanitites of free energy available from the desert. Every year the sun pours down the equivalent of 1.5m barrels of oil of energy for every square kilometre!! The piece posits that covering just 0.5% of the world's hot deserts with a technology called concentrated solar power (CSP) would provide the world's entire electricity needs, with the technology also providing desalinated water to desert regions as a valuable byproduct, as well as air conditioning for nearby cities. Europe could build a new high-voltage direct current electricity grid to allow the easy, efficient transport ...

Trident - Oh dear, has the fence just jumped up an...

I just got my email from Ming telling me that "It would be unwise at this time for Britain to abandon its nuclear weapons altogether. But a deterrent of approximately half the current size, and extending the life of the current submarine system, would be sufficient to provide for Britain’s ultimate security until we have more certainty about proliferation..." Please tell me I am being a little naive here, but.......are we for 'em or agin 'em? Whilst I of course applaud the move towards disarmament outlined in this draft, why only half? If we believe nuclear ...

Newcastle: Labour lose seat to Lib Dems; Tories 4th

The Liberal Democrats have taken a seat off Labour in a by-election in Lemington ward. The result was: Lib Dem: 1180 (47%) Labour: 815 (32%) BNP: 383 (15%) Cons: 147 (6%) The Labour councillor whose death resulted in the by-election had been elected in 2004, when the result was: Labour: 1,595, 1,526, 1,421 (53%) Lib Dem: 661, 656, 639 (22%) Cons: 429, 420, 384 (14%) National [...]

Friday 1st December 2006

Previous days:

Archives

Search for...

Adverts

Buttons

LibDem Blog Box

Contributors

Campaigns

From the BBC...

Backlinks...

From the LibDems...

From the Independent...

From Politics.co.uk...

From the Guardian...

Adverts