LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Thursday 14th December 2006

A good day to bury bad news ?

Just a co-incidence or am I a cynic ? 1) Closing thousands of Post Offices announced. 2) Blair interviews by police. 3) Serious Fraud Office halt investigation in to Saudi trade deal. All these on the same day as the long awaited and announced publishing of the Stevens report in to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales and also with the news still full of announcement from Suffolk about the terrible goings on there. I cannot believe that 1, 2 and 3 were all co-incidental.

Wii share your pain

I read that a new blog has been set up called www.WiiHaveAProblem.com (pronounced "we have a problem", which looks at some of the bizarre and funny stories about people and their new Nintendo wii consoles. The problem for many is that they simply forget to keep hold of the wii-mote controller (the motion sensor device that controls the games, meaning that windows, TV's and heirlooms are broken by playing too violently. I can share some of the pain with fellow wii owners as I have pulled a muscle in my arm playing ten pin bowling on my own ...

Can't Labour stick to sex, drugs and rock n'roll like the rest of us?

It has come to a pretty pass when one yearns for signs that those who govern us can relate in any way to the people they claim to serve. I've always been fairly sympathetic of politicians who fall foul of sex, drugs or alcohol. After all, politicians are supposed to be like the rest of us, fallible. And now our glorious leaders have, in one day, demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that not

Carols

I love Christmas carols, which is a good thing given that I am being given nine opportunities to sing them over the next four days! Not all are Mayoral events, as I have been fitting in rehearsals for the Kingston Choral Society Concert on Saturday around everything else. Today I joined the Carol Service arranged by Kingston Association for the Blind at Surbiton Methodist Church. All...

Space Year 2164: The Dalek Invasion of Earth

Thursday: When the Daleks invade, their plan is to hollow out the Earth's core, insert a gigantic motor and fly the planet around the cosmos like a huge balloon with a hole in it. This is of course BONKERS, but at least they HAVE a plan! Which is a DAY-TIME TV link to the current invasion of Iraq. Apparently, things are not being as entirely won as might previously have been reported. At least, the Monkey-in-Chief's new nominee to replace Mr Donald Rumsfailed seems to think so. It seems that replacing the ever-upbeat Mr Rumsfailed has led to ...

On the March with the Gurkhas

I was very proud to join Gurkha veterans today on their march to Downing Street to hand in a letter to the Prime Minister asking the Home Office to speed up applications from former soldiers who had applied for citizenship. It seems that the Labour Government have been backsliding on their commitment (or perhaps it's yet another example showing that the Home Office is really not fit for purpose). Peter Carroll, my predecessor as Lib Dem PPC for Folkestone & Hythe has campaigned hard on behalf of the Gurkhas and deserves an enormous amount of credit for ...

Mohamed Al Fayed - Blind to the facts and the truth

In the wake of the pulblication of the Stevens report in to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, I listened to the press conference of Mohamed Al Fayed on the radio this afternoon it re-inforced to me that Mr Al Fayed is blinf to the facts and a stranger to the truth. His comments calling the Stevens enquiry a cover up were simply a case of a man who seeks to hide behind innuendo to deny his employee's involvement in Diana and Dodi's death. His constant insinuation that Diana's death was the responsibility of the Royal family ...

NEW POLL: sexiest female and male Lib Dems

Y’see it’s like this… Originally, I was going to upload a festive poll asking, ‘Who has been your politician of the year?’ But then I thought some more, and decided that was just too drearily worthy. So I tried to think of something Lib Dem-themed, and not tedious. (Tory/Labour-readers: insert your own punch-line here.) This is what I came up with… Two polls to find out who you think is the

I've got my first Christmas card

Language Lesson

Apparently a report published by Government troubleshooter Lord Dearing is suggesting schools teach “economically useful” languages like Mandarin. It will apparently also suggest that languages should be taught in Primary Schools as well and for classes in secondary schools to be ‘more engaging’ to persuade more pupuls to take part (following the fact that nobody [...]

Kashmir high on the agenda

Thursday 14th December 2006 - I have arrived safely in Islamabad and already I am amazed at how much people want to talk to me about the Kashmir report recently tabled by the Foreign Affairs committee. I have already drafted over 60 amendments but clearly this issue is going to be high on the agenda over the coming days. To keep in touch with what I am saying on this issue visit my web site at

Pakistan via London

Wednesday 13th December 2006 - I leave for Pakistan today as a member of European Parliament delegation for relations with the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and have managed to fit in a couple of meetings in London before my flight from Heathrow. Among others I was able to catch up with Party President Simon Hughes MP and had a very positive meeting with him in

Back to Strasbourg ........briefly!

Monday 11th December 2006 - Back to Strasbourg today and overnight to catch up on as much business as I can before I head home to pack my bags for the European Parliament delegation visit to Pakistan. The trip via Frankfurt is proving to be a bit of a pain, with a three hour drive between the airport and Strasbourg, another good reason to support the one seat campaign!!

Regional matters

Saturday 9th December 2006 - The last Regional Executive meeting for 2006 and its good to be back in Warrington where of course we now control the local Council. Last time I was here was to help with the by-election earlier this year which Sharon Wilson won with a terrific result. Today was more about the affairs of the Regional Party though and some interesting debate on membership recruitment

War rooms, babies and the Cowley St xmas party

I wrote the following blog entry on the train from London to Newcastle last night. When I got to my house at 1am this morning my blackberry buzzed to tell me I had a message. It turned out for some reason the post to the blog had bounced back. So here it is again. Pretend it's yesterday when you read it! In the office in which I work in Cowley Street, my end is occupied by the Political

A weekend off.....what's that!!

Friday 8th December 2006 - Another weekend and another busy diary, I must have a word with my staff!! I was delighted though to be able to join Blackpool Fylde Lib Dems for their Christmas dinner this evening, I always enjoy meeting members and finding out how they are doing in their area, what their plans are for the next elections and seeing how I can help out. Thankfully not too late home as

Croydon Conservatives "conflict of interest" - and by-election memories.

Croydon conservatives are under the spotlight.

Why I take no joy from Tony Blair's shame

So far Liberal Democrat bloggers appear to have been remarkably quiet about the announcement today that the Prime Minister has been interviewed by police over the "cash-for-honours" scandal. Perhaps this is wise. Until we know the outcome of the investigation, it is too early to crow. Actually, I doubt very much whether I will ever manage a sense of schadenfreude over this issue. The fact that a serving Prime Minister has been questioned by police fills me with a sense of great sadness and some degree of shame. Where even lesser-ranking Labour dignitaries to face trial, let alone be ...

Macmillan Cancer Support

Busy, busy week… Just a very quick post before I join colleagues at some Christmas drinks, where I will also be receiving delivery of our giant sardine suit – the photoshoot is on, so I will be on a train to Leeds very early in the morning. Main council work at the moment is the report of the CCTV scrutiny review I’ve been chairing – need to get the final draft circulated around the other members of the group on Monday. Also had our Lib Dem group meeting last night – and there is ongoing work on budget scrutiny ...

The danger of spell checkers

I have just come back from a Council meeting in which an entirely English medium report amending the Council's constitution was being considered. The report proposed to designate a person as the Chief Finance Office and gave the Welsh equivalent title.The only problem is that a spell checker had rendered Prif Swyddog Cyllid as 'prig seadog cylix'. The officer concerned may be known as 'old seadog' for some time to come.

Closing Profitable sub-post offices

So yet again 2,500 sub-post offices that are mainly profitable will be offered 28 months income to close. 24 months is the usual sale amount. This will pressurise more people into having benefits paid into bank accounts saving the government about £15 per year for each person on benefits. Whether it will pick up and prevent any benefit fraud is unclear. However, as far as offering a service

Lib Dem TV Guide

The Lib Dem DCMS team have clearly just had their Christmas Radio Times delivered, and they’re not impressed. Don Foster has campaigning against Christmas repeats for years. And this year it’s worse than ever! More than a third of all programmes shown between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day will be repeats. ITV is the only [...]

Iraq, the media and the war on terror

Matthew d’Ancona, editor of the Spectator, gave a speech yesterday at Policy Exchange at which he launched a pamphlet entitled Confessions of a Hawkish Hack – the media and the war on terror. He was also interviewed by the New Statesman’s Martin Bright. In what was a generally thoughtful and at times pessimistic discussion, perhaps the most interesting feature was that both the right-wing Mr. d’Ancona and the left-wing Mr. Bright admitted that that they might yet be proved wrong regarding their positions (respectively pro- and anti-) on the “War on Terror” and the Iraq War. Those of you ...

What I did next

As already reported on Duncan’s blog, I have produced some Blogger Beta sidebar widgets. If you’d like to try them out, go to the Liberal Democrats’ members only website.

Great news - Alliance win by-election

Great News from Northern Ireland - a by-election following the jailing of disgraced former DUP Coleraine mayor Dessie Stewart has been won by the Alliance Party. Alliance leader David Ford said Barney Fitzpatrick's election victory was "a vote for fairness and justice". Barney Fitzpatrick, who is a retired senior Police Officer said: "I would like to express my gratitude to the people of

Trident: what happens next?

At the start of this month, the proposals from the Liberal Democrats’ Trident policy group were published - just ahead of Tony Blair announcing his own proposals. The Liberal Democrats’ Federal Policy Committee (FPC) will meet on 11th January for a substantive discussion about the proposals and - assuming the FPC decides to go ahead with [...]

Latest Planning Applications in Combe Down

Ward: Combe Down App Ref: 06/04162/FULParish:Registered: 05/12/2006 Expiry Date: 30/01/2007Location: Barclays Bank Plc 2 North Road Combe Down Bath BA2 5DQGrid Reference: 375635 162407 Listed building Grade:Proposal: Installation of ATM to front elevationCase Lewis CookApplicant: Barclays Bank Plc Agent Name: Stride Treglown LtdApplicant Address: One Churchill Place Agent Address: Promenade HouseCanary Wharf The PromenadeLondon CliftonE14 5HP BristolBS8 3NEWard: Combe Down App Ref: 06/04190/LBAParish:Registered: 05/12/2006 Expiry Date: 30/01/2007Location: 73 Church Road Combe Down Bath BA2 5JQGrid Reference: 375902 162316 Listed building Grade: IIProposal: Erection of single storey rear extension and provision of rooflight to front roof slopeCase Caroline WaldronApplicant: Mr And ...

Will's widgets

As most of you who come here from Lib Dem blogging will know, Will Howells became an Innovator earlier in the week (as a member of the Campaigns Dept is a Campaigner, a member of the Innovations Dept must be an Innovator...) As Will says on No Geek is an Island he has been a camera operator for the first time... but more importantly for those like me who are Lib Dem Bloggers using Blogger Beta

Feeling Flat

Yesterday I became a home-owner. I put the deposit down on a flat “off plan” in 2004, and it finally made the transition from plan to reality yesterday. And so, after some “Will they? Won’t they?” shenanigans involving the release of the keys, casued by ineptitude on the part of banks and solicitors from far and wide, we officially became the owners at around teatime. They say that buying a

"He did so as party leader in respect of the peerages reserved for party supporters" - updated.

Excerpt: According to the Guardian this is the case for the defence in Blair's "cash for peerages" scandal: "The prime minister explained why he nominated each of the individuals and he did so as party leader in respect of the peerages reserved for party supporters as other party leaders do.

Not a good day to be a press officer for the Metropolitan police

First your former Commissioner announces the result of the Diana enquiry, then a couple of hours later your colleagues announce they’ve been knocking on the PM’s door. And all over lunch time too. It’s just not cricket. And all this on the day the government announces the likely closure of 2500 Post Offices. While the latter [...]

Is this why Paul is off to WSPA?

World's tallest man saves dolphins. The world's tallest man has saved two dolphins in China, as reported by the BBC, and his size is relevant. Paul Rainger is about to head off to his new job at the World Society for the Protection of Animals. As many readers will know Paul is tall, so maybe this is why WSPA is taking him on, and I believe he is off to China with his new job in the New Year.

Liberalising the drug debate

Reform of the drug laws is in the air - or at least in the papers. Many liberals instinctively feel that radical reform of the drug prohibition would be a good thing.More authoritarian people tend to suppose that this is because liberals believe that the individual should be able to do whatever s/he likes, no matter how harmful, as long as it doesn't effect others. This argument they find flawed as there are clearly people in society less able to look after themselves and make sensible choices than others.However, whilst certainly a factor in liberal thinking, it is far from ...

PPC News: Edinburgh West & Bexhill and Battle

Congratulations to John Barrett MP, re-selected to fight the seat next time round, and also to Mary Varrall who has been selected to take another shot at Bexhill and Battle. PPC news selections

Written Parliamentary Question: 14th December 2006

Litigants in PersonTo ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs pursuant to her answer of 29 November 2006, Official Report, column 764W, on litigants in person, what reasons the Civil Procedure Rule Committee gave for keeping the rate at which litigants in person can claim costs at its 1995 level.(John Hemming) A:There is no record in the minutes of the Committee of the

A democratic take on Christmas

As Dell Boy says: 'Mange Tout, Mange Tout'

I have just seen this article on the BBC news website. Lord Dearing wants studying language compulsory. Now I don't know where Dearing has been living by the government has already said that all primary schools should be offering a modern foreign language (MFL) by 2010. At Leverton we have been teaching French for all pupils since September 2005. We have a committed and enthusiastic teacher

Sustainable Communities Bill

Good to see my colleague, Julia Goldsworthy, speaking out on this - supporting local communities is a very important issue!

Green Christmas

Sir David Attenborough made a striking statement in his evidence to the Parliamentary committee. "Wasting Energy", he said, "is morally wrong". He has a point. Even Lapland has no snow this year and it is now thought that 2006 was the warmest year on record. The evidence for a significant warming of the planet taking place is now substantial. There is also increasing evidence that global warming is a man made phenomenon. In nature, it is very rare to find waste- there are niches for life virtually everywhere on the planet. Therefore, the dumping of excess waste heat is bound ...

Guardian Advent 14th December

Todays link takes you here. This takes you to Ontario Farm Grown Christmas Trees and everything you could possibly want to know about Christmas Trees including the history of Christmas trees and some great educational stuff about how the Christmas Tree Farm operates.

RCPCH issues child protection companion

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Heath has issued its Child Protection Companion. It is a big file that is available on their website. It is a helpful step forwards as it works towards some certainty as to what particular symptoms mean. There remains a failure to recognise the problems that arise from false allegations. I think there is a need to distinguish between situations which

Visiting Royal Mail

When I looked at my diary yesterday and discovered I had a 6.30am visit to Hornsey N8 Royal Mail delivery office I did ponder for a moment as to whether this was just cruelty or revenge by my diary secretary. However, having done the event, it was well worth it. I conducted a huge survey of postal services in the constituency during the year. It had a huge response and whilst many people did say

How NuLab works

If you want to see how New Labour runs the country then switch on your telly now. As the media focuses on the unfolding tragedy in Ipswich and flashes back to the death of Princess Di they have chosen today to slip out a whole bunch of news. 2,500 post offices will face the axe.There will be a third runway at Heathrow (doubtless the "very last" such development...).The Serious Fraud Office probe in to British Aerospace's questionable sales relationship with the Saudi Royal family when they purchased Eurofighters will be closed down. (According to the BBC the SFO ...

Party funding revisited

Sir Hayden Phillips draft report on party funding has suggested a cap on donations of Â£50,000. Which funnily enough is what I suggested as a maximum when I put up my poll a couple of weeks ago. You can still vote in my poll, it is on the main page and gives you various options - right now the top choice is "A mixture of individuals, companies and trade unions - with a cap on how much" though not by much.

What powers for the Welsh Assembly?

It'd be nice to know exactly what powers the Assembly, or better the Welsh Executive, will have from next May. There are the Orders in Council that, once gone through Westminster, will enable the Assembly and the Welsh Executive to make measures in the fields prescribed in the Government of Wales Act. However, Bills keep on coming through giving powers to the Assembly in such as way that it seems

The price of collaboration

I see that Plaid Cymru Leader, Ieuan Wyn Jones has earned a new respect amongst Labour AMs.

Fighting for Post Offices

The UK Government will help to define one of the big issues for the 2007 Welsh Assembly elections today when it announces the imminent closure of 3,000 Post Offices across the UK. Many of these closures will be in Wales. The Western Mail considers that the decision to postpone the outcome of the consultation on these closures until after the May elections will assist the Labour Party. I am not so sure. The uncertainty will enable the opposition to campaign to save every Post Office, whilst also highlighting the impact of the loss of the Post ...

An unhealthy pursuit

Fascinating report in today's Guardian about the latest innovation in computer gaming. They tell us that the Wii video games console is leaving a trail of destruction in its wake: But the excitement of using the remote like a virtual tennis racket or boxing glove has gone to the heads of many players, who are now reporting a stream of injuries caused by mistakenly throwing the gizmos across the living room. Several have documented their damage on YouTube, and websites have sprung up to track the wounds - dubbed "Wiinjuries" by online wags. "I decided to ...

Day 2163: Gordon Goes Green (that's Envy not Environmentalism)

Wednesday: Mr Frown has made his pre-budget statement and in it he has raised taxes on fuel and flying. A bit. And he plans to invest in new green programmes like, er, building more schools and, er, the War in Iraq. Unlike the Liberal Democrats "Green Tax Switch", Mr Frown is just skimming a little more cash off the top of everyone's wallet in order to pay for some more of his pet projects and some more of Lord Blairimort's insane adventure. The aim of a PROPER green budget should be to give people BACK money that they EARN ...

Languages to be taught to younger pupils ?

A report by Sir Ron Dearing is expected to advise the government that languages should be taight from a much earlier age. Read the report HERE. I used to be one of those who used to say "Well everyone speaks English anyway", but I now teach French at school and the kids really enjoy it. The problem is, however, that languages are only taught from year seven, age eleven, which is ironically exactly the age at which a child starts to find it harder to pick up a new language. Children up to the age of ten are much ...

Out with the old, in with the new...

The last meeting of the Regional Executive for 2006 took place on Tuesday evening, generating so much to do. Typing up the minutes and distributing them to the Executive is only the beginning... As Secretary, I maintain our e-group (another of those simple but invaluable technological advances that makes my life so much easier). With the year over, I needed to remove the outgoing Executive

Thursday 14th December 2006

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