LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Thursday 7th December 2006

Coastal Concern Action Group - Saving Happisburgh and a coastline near you soon

It is good to see the Coastal Concern Action Group getting some of the credit it deserves HERE on the EDP website. I have been at meeting that Malcolm Kerby has run on the subject of Happisburgh, the offshore dredging and the dangers to the Norfolk coast and he is a passionate and incredibly well informed man. He has worked really closely with North Norfolk District Council and Norman Lamb and has got everyone in North Norfolk pulling together on this. They deserve praise and I wish them good luck in their endeavours. They also have a ...

Very Clever Dr Reid - NOT! More Kent Police Cuts.

We're currently reeling in Folkestone & Hythe from the fact that 35 Police Officers are due to be cut from East Kent. To add insult to injury it has now been announced by Kent Police and the Kent Police Authority that funding has been cut by the Home Office for Police Community Support Officers meaning that Kent and Medway will have only 274 extra PCSOs by 2008 instead of the orginally planned 473. What a novel way to tackle crime. Labour are delivering fewer police officers, fewer PSCOs and are increasing waiting list times for hospitals in ...

Local companies & local sport

It's hardly a new phenomenon, but it's always heartening to see large local employers supporting local sports clubs. I started thinking about this when I received a market research call from Norwich Union, a big local employer who have recently announced massive job cuts. They were interested in corporate social responsibility and seemed keen to emphasise their involvement in grass routes sports-...

Get in the mood for Christmas

This is an unashamed plug for Kingston Choral Society's Christmas Concert - glorious music from the Messiah in the first half, then carols for choir and audience in the second. It will be at Kingston Parish Church at 7.30pm on Saturday 16th December. Tickets can be booked online. Mince pies are promised....

Shopping at Lidl

I go shopping.... But first I had to open the shop! This is the new Lidl store in Wheatfield Way, opposite Argos. If you park in the Cattle Market you can see it directly across the main road. It is good to have a supermarket at this end of the shopping area and it should give a welcome boost to trade nearby. With me is the Organisations...

Ming loves ecoDepot!

We were lucky enough to be able to welcome Ming Campbell to open York's ecoDepot today. The ecoDepot is an initiative largely inspired by fellow York Lib Dem Councillor Christian Vassie. Two and a half years ago, Christian decided that he was going to drive through an environmentally sustainable new Council Depot. Under the previous Labour administration a replacement Neighbourhood...

A fair and foul day

The weather today was atrocious. Whilst driving back from Cardiff the whole of the M4 came to a halt as a rain squall reduced visibility to virtually zero. Earlier in the Education Lifelong Learning and Skills Committee I was having difficulty hearing evidence from witnesses due to the noise from the wind as it roared through the spaces in the flat roof of the Senedd. Suddenly, there was a large crash. Either something had fallen off the new building or it had been hit by a large rock. I never found out. Still this made a change ...

Day 2152: ROBIN HOOD: Tattoo, What Tattoo?

Saturday: Lord Blairimort is taking a leaf out of ROBBIN' HOODIE's book (and a FIVER out of his WALLET). He is ROBBING from the rich (i.e. the Labour councillors) to give to the poor (i.e. himself)! It is only FAIR; after all, even if they have NOTHING, he is TWENTY MILLION POUNDS poorer than nothing! Soon he will be hiding in a FOREST trying to evade the officers of the LAW! (That would be inspector Yates of the Yard with some questions about these 'ere peerages wot we did find cheap down Nottin'am market…) Meanwhile this week's ...

Building Regulations - by Kafka.

A small but pertinent example of the sort of mindless red tape that true liberals should be seeking to remove.

Mel Gives One to Dave (a smack in the chops, that is)

Melanie Phillips is nice to David Cameron. Not.

Newington Library debate

The most passionate part of Wednesday's Council meeting concerned a delegation and debate over the future of Newington Reference library. A campaign has been mounted opposing Council plans for the Library - Labour put in a motion about this. The Council scheme is to move the library to the ground floor of it's current building. It feels it is obliged to do this given the need for compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act and the prohibitive cost of installing a lift, estimated by Southwark Building Services at £400k. In the process free shelf access will be reduced, but ...

Why England are losing in Australia

Well, one reason anyway. Two-nil down, England must think about changing their team. Yet their next match is little better than a beer match - a two-day game in which an England Invitation XI will play another invitation team. And the England side will include three retired players: Alec Stewart, Robin Smith and Adam Hollioake. This is hardly a fixture calculated to give England's fringe players serious practice. And the picture was hardly better before the first test. It didn't used to be like this. I have in front of me Mike Brearley's book on his 1978-9 tour of Australia ...

The Sarah Jane Adventures

Over on the relaunched Outpost Gallifrey there is news on the spin off Sarah Jane Adventures: The new issue of Doctor Who Magazine, released in the UK today, has additional information on the forthcoming spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures, the one-hour debut special of which is broadcast on BBC One on January 1st at 4.50pm. The 10-part half-hour series to follow later in 2007 will

Susanne Lamido expelled from Liberal Democrats

Sources tell Liberal Democrat Voice that controversial Liberal Democrat blogger Susanne Lamido has been expelled from the party following internal hearings. She has one month to appeal if she wishes. Members should comment on this story in the discussion board area if they wish to. Party organisation

Labour's election strategy - threaten the voters

The Labour Party has come up with an interesting new strategy for the Scottish elections: threaten the voters. Labour and the Liberal Democrats are facing a drubbing from the Scottish National Party (SNP), due to a combination of high oil prices and anti-incumbency feeling. The Conservatives continue to carry no weight north of the border. The prospect of Gordon Brown taking over from Tony Blair just in time to see his party mauled in his home country and its new First Minister threatening a referendum on secession is causing panic in Labour ranks. The response from countless ...

Clegg hints at leadership ambitions in Internet TV interview

Home Affairs spokesperson Nick Clegg has hinted at a future leadership bid in an interview with Internet TV station 18 Doughty Street. In a wide ranging and thoughtful interview, Nick covered a wide range of subjects and the interview is well worth watching here (requires Windows Media Player). A short audio teaser is available below. nick clegg Party [...]

Another chapter in the incredible story of a school

More excitement in Bury Lawn School, the private school in Milton Keynes where the sixth head teacher in about two years has just resigned. Background to this sorry tale explained a year ago here and here. The latest wonderful events started at the beginning of this term when the now-just-resigned head went on four weeks special leave and in her absence the decision was announced not to offer year-12 to the current year-11 pupils. So goodbye A-levels. The Head of Senior School told the pupils this before the official notification was sent to parents, ensuring a traumatic and tear-stained evening ...

More Conservative candidate woes

Whilst writing up the troubles facing four Tory candidates, I missed the fifth story of woe - this time from Portsmouth. The selection of a Conservative candidate for Portsmouth South has had to be abandoned because not enough people were interested - perhaps they’ve been put off by all the troubles elsewhere? UPDATE: All these troubles [...]

The Guv'nor of the Governors

So I am now officially an alumnus of the Bury MBC Governor Training Unit, having completed the fourth and final module of the “Introduction to School Governorship” training course. Last night was about the Accountability role of the Governor – who we Governors are accountable to, and who we can hold to account as Governors. Sadly, I can't subpoena senior politicians or Royalty, but it wasn't all

Faint praise from The Economist

The Economist gave faint praise to the Liberal Democrats in its article on party funding this week. Describing the loans parties had taken out, it said "Labour owes £23.4m, a sum that exceeds... its spending... in last year's election campaign. The Conservatives have piled up even more debt, worth £35.3m... The Liberal Democrats are in the happier position of owing only £1.1m." Sadly, the dire state of the two main parties' funding suggests that the chances are growing of their using their power to oblige the taxpayer to provide them with cash directly. They will argue that to ...

Primary School league tables don't tell the whole story

Before people say I am biased against league tables because I am a teacher, I should make clear that this is, in part correct. However, I do not oppose them simply because I am a teacher but instead because being a teacher has shown me at first hand just why they are so ludicrous. Today the papers, and in partiuclar local papers, are full of who is best and who is worst in their areas, a completely demoralising day for people who work very hard in schools at the bottom of the lists, with much back slapping, no doubt ...

I’m a respectful experiencer

Another quiz. Etrigan’s an animated director. Ramtops is a Reserved Leader The quiz - “PersonalDNA” - uses all sorts of fancy sliders, “empty the bucket” and “place yourself on this graph” which is all very exciting. It says it takes half an hour, but I’m sure it didn’t take me that long. [...]

Letters - Labour style

So police warning letters are more effective than ASBOs, eh? The problem is, they don’t sound very sexy. Or tough. Got to be tough. I think John Reid should rebrand them as “Police Instruction Missive Actions” and set a “tough” target for all policy authorities to send out as many as possible. [...]

Do We Fear, Fear Itself?

Dorothy's mantra of "There's no place like home" never rang truer than how I felt yesterday after listening to my friend tell of her previous nights visit to a local fried chicken shop in South London...

Crime is not “Anti-social behaviour”

The BBC reported today (6 minutes and 10 seconds into the One O’clock News) that a 55% of offenders are ignoring their Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs), 35% repeatedly. Yet as the footage (6 minutes and 47 seconds) in the report demonstrates, the behaviour being exhibited may be anti-social, but it should not be being dealt with by using behaviour orders. Breaking into cars; smashing window; throwing rocks at vehicles and passers by; theft: this is not “Anti-social behaviour”, it is crime. Children committing these kind of offences should be arrested and prosecuted. It is not necessary to send them ...

Record breaking

I went on a shopping day trip to France and Belgium yesterday and on the way back we were discussing you could visit in one day, travelling by land or sea only, would be. (A quick Googling hasn’t found a record set in this, but if anyone can provide enlightenment, please do!) If you start from [...]

The cry of the wheway

It was good to see Rob Wheway quoted extensively in the Guardian yesterday on the decline of children's outdoor play and of community more generally: As we turn a corner into the road where he grew up with his parents, two brothers, two sisters and plenty of playmates, he recalls his childhood. "We knew all the neighbours and everybody looked out for one another," he says Most neighbourhoods are no longer like that, he admits, "which helps to explain why fear is spreading among adults about those children who are out on the streets, particularly the older ones. When I ...

Merry fuggin Christmas

A seasonal story: Harrods has sacked a Father Christmas who made "inappropriate" remarks to customers at its flagship store in Knightsbridge.

Visiting the pilot

I’ve just been watching, or I should say re-watching Jeremey Clarkson’s Invention’s that Changed the World series on UKTV Documentary and have just finished watching the Jet engine one. In this episode he explores what the jet engine has brought to the world since its invention. It starts with it’s use in war, goes through the [...]

Match Report: Prime Minister’s Questions, December 6th 2006

I never thought I’d say this, but after last week’s public gargling match, it was a relief to listen to Tony Blair again! This time, it was a close battle, with all three leaders managing to score major points off each other, and even a couple of upsets coming from the backbenchers. As usual (or rather, for the second week running since this blog started!), Hug A Hoodie brings you the full match writeup. The battles: Blair 1 : 2 Cameron During this first bout, Cameron started off in an open and neutral tone. It was a ...

St. Thomas Street Hurricane

A curious side-effect of tall-buildings is that on occasion they can create topology at ground level that acts like a funnel for the wind. We have such a curiosity in St. Thomas Street by London Bridge station. Cllr Jardine-Brown and a dozen or so other people were unfortunate enough to be walking through it today when a mini-storm descended. All of them found themselves clinging to the railings of St. Thomas's hospital for dear life while hats, coats, grit and ice crystals pummelled them. Several were trying to both hold-on and protect a baby in a pushchair that was ...

Tory arrogance in North Norfolk

The new Tory candidiate for North Norfolk may have been in place for less than a week, but his arrogance has already embarassed and upset local constituents. Trevor Ivory has promised that he "can't wait to get rid of that nasty Mr Lamb. Give me just one election to beat him." Who does he think he is? At this rate Norman Lamb's 10,606 majority will be rising on a daily baisis. Mr Ivory is no stranger to controvesy after being forced to apologise for his call for Tony Blair to commit suicide to raise Labour morale! What a ...

ITV and new media

I had an interesting discussion last night with people from ITV about New Media. The media market is changing with people moving towards getting information from the Net. The traditional broadcasters need to dip their toes into the activities involved in narrowcasting as well. Their audience is moving onto the net and if they are not there then they miss their audience. Strong content then

The tax-and-spend dead end

Having finally analyzed the Chancellors pre-budget report, it is hard to know whether to laugh or cry. As Philip Webster and Gary Duncan write in The Times today, Gordon Brown has simply repeated his habit of imposing extra taxes and increasing public borrowing. At a time of severe labour shortages in the construction sector, the timing of his announcement of further expenditure to refurbish schools could hardly be worse. Meanwhile his cocktail of "green taxes" looks weak and ineffective. Whereas, the Liberal Democrats would increase taxes on pollution and cut taxes elsewhere, the Labour government just increases taxes. The British ...

Tory candidate wars hit the national press.

The civil war in a series of conservative constituency associations is getting more attention.

Propagande.. c'est quoi?

The corrupt and incompetent M. Jacques Chirac does it again. Since the free world does not find the French world view... commercial, the government of France has decided to set up its version of Al Jazeera. Despite a budget less than 10% of CNN it is still tens of millions of Euros out of the pocket of the French tax payer. Un elephant blanc, peut-etre?

Lobbyists

Newport MP, Paul Flynn is renowned for speaking his mind, but even those who know him best may be surprised by his description of Labour's unsuccessful Blaenau Gwent by-election candidate Owen Smith as a "drug pusher". As the Western Mail points out, Mr Smith is a top lobbyist with the pharmaceutical firm Pfizer. Mr Flynn said, "The lobbyists are a curse, a cancer in the system. It's insidious. One of my main interests in politics is areas in which lobbyists used their wicked wiles to get access to government. One example is the pharmaceutical industry, who are the most ...

Meeting Dean

Interesting to read about Hazel Blears meeting Howard Dean to discuss use of the internet. When we met him back in May, he made it clear that he didn't have much time for Labour due to their slavish support for George Bush and the war in Iraq. I wonder if he told them as much as he [...]

North West success

Wednesday 6th December 2006 - After finalising the amendments to the Kashmir report I flew back to the UK for an evening of celebration with Party Leader Ming Campbell. I was pleased we had organised an event to celebrate not only the success of the North West over the last three years but also the diversity of this multi cultural region and that we had arranged a traditional Asian welcome for

Thou art Elijah… now lets slay the prophets of Baal and get out of here

Last night was the Parliament Choir’s performance of Elijah in Westminster Cathedral. With its pitch-black roof the Cathedral is a very moody space, so just the right place to take all the prophets of Baal and let not one of them escape us… Thomas Allen, as Elijah, was almost certainly magnificent - though as we [...]

Day 2151: Getting Cross

Friday: By now, I am getting a bit tired of hearing how OPPRESSED the Christians are. Boo hoo – you think YOU had it bad from the LIONS: try being an ELEPHANT! At the moment, their whining stems from this FUSS caused by the British Airways who have suspended one of their workers because she wouldn’t stop wearing her CROSS. It is not THAT harsh – she was not suspended FROM AN AEROPLANE! Obviously, the British Airways have gotten themselves into a whole lot of nonsense over this jobsworth insistence on sticking to their DRESS CODE. It seems ...

Guardian Advent 7th December

Todays link is here. This takes you to the website of the Cairngorm Reindeer Centre and tells you all about Britains only herd of Reindeer. You can even adopt one if you so wish. The one above is called Crann.

Kashmir report

Wednesday 6th December 2006 - After spending two days in meetings and pouring over the text of the Foreign Affairs committee's draft Kashmir report we eventually finalise over 60 amendments. As the Chair of the European Parliament Friends of Pakistan Group and the Parliament's Rapporteur on EU-India Trade and Economic relations, I am a "friend" of both India and Pakistan. Ultimately, however,

Sean's birthday at Cafe Soya

Last night to celebrate my friend Sean's birthday a dozen of us went to Cafe Soya at Cathay Street by the Arcadian Centre in Birmingham. I haven;t been to Cafe Soya since it moved to its larger premises. Previously it was in a very small shop but did excellent food, the move has not affected the food - if anything the portions are even better and indeed bigger.

Building Websites - How to Get Started

A question I get asked often is ‘how did you learn to build websites?’ In the early days of the web there seemed to be little formal instruction and companies like Compuserve and AOL gave away free site builders. One day I realised you could open the site files in a text editor and started examining [...]

Labour ally with extreme-left in Housing Debate

The Extraordinary Council Meeting tonight that Labour had billed as being a massive showdown between unhappy residents and the Council Executive turned out to be a source of deep embarrassment for them. They'd built up so much spin before the meeting that a special room had been set aside downstairs for protesters and there was much expectation of a public protest. However in reality most people who came to the Council meeting tonight, did so for the three delegations that spoke before the Extraordinary Housing motions. There was a small (about 15 person) protest by Unison outside the ...

Thursday 7th December 2006

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