LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Wednesday 21st February 2007

Midland Mainline.........Blackberries and Pancakes

Yesterday I got up very early (for me) because I had an early meeting at work and being an unreconstructed Mum, knowing I was unlikely to return home much before midnight, felt I ought to play my part in ensuring my son didn't eat junk food for the second night running...........So, before leaving to catch the 7.53 I prepared a curry sauce which my unreconstructed 18 year old had only to tip the prawns into and cook the rice to have a good healthy dinner. On the platform I met someone, who, for obvious reasons will sadly remain nameless. ...

face of fraud

At an Audit Committee training session today we had a really good discussion about fraud and how it effects the Council. Interestingly the profile of a fraudster is male, 30-40 years, educated to degree level. The two people in the room who fitted the profile was myself, chair of the audit committee, and one of the forensic auditors from PwC who was telling us about fraud...

More overwhelming madness

I just cannot let this go: I’ve become an obsessive freak spotter, currently I am obsessed by the ongoing madness at OverwhelmingEvidence.com, the cool site for teen scientists to discuss the exciting and important theory of Intelligent Design. The growing consensus is that this site is populated by approximately 50% trolls, 25% ID opponents leaving [...]

Bringing out the best and worst in people

Hello, silence, my old friend. It's been some time since I've dropped in on my own blog. I must say I'm glad to see that more accomplished bloggers than myself are feeling drained of inspiration at this time of year. I wonder whether that's despite or because it's been an eventful time in Oxford politics -- we have what can only loosely be called the delights of budget-setting. Those of youwho are aficionados of council meetings will need no telling that setting the budget provides the biggest bun-fight of them all. It's long, it's febrile and, by God, ...

Underneath Don Foster

The BBC reports: Miners from Wales are helping to save hundreds of homes from collapse in one of England's most picturesque cities. They cross the Severn Bridge each day to stabilise stone mines underneath Bath, amid fears for houses above its historic Combe Down mines. Miles of mining tunnels run beneath the city, some of them only about 2m (6ft) below the surface.

Road pricing - it's about trust, not transport

I've just had an email from the Prime Minister. This is because - and I don't mind admitting this - I'm one of the 1,800,597 people who have signed the petition against road pricing. This has been making waves in the media for the past few months, but on the off-chance that any of my fellow Lib Dems agree with me, it's too late to add your name. The petition's now closed. Considerably more of my yellow-feathered colleagues will be wondering if I've flipped my lid, and joined the gas-guzzling motorist lobby. The other signatories, they'll argue, are simply ...

The white heat of the technological revolution

At prime minister's questions today, the Tory Edward Garnier (who has the honour to be my MP) asked Tony Blair the following:In direct response to me during consideration of the Identity Cards Bill, the Minister for Policing, Security and Community Safety, the hon. Member for Harrow, East [Mr. McNulty] gave me and all of us on the Committee an undertaking that the police would not be permitted to trawl through the national identity register. Yesterday the Prime Minister ripped up that undertaking. Why?And Blair replied:I do not believe that we have gone back on any of the undertakings that we ...

If I could offer only one piece of advice, it would be..

...Never put Haribo Kiddie's Super Mix inside a rolled up pancake, to see how good it will taste. It just wan't worth the hassle. "Hmm," I thought, "that seems like a nice idea. Sweet Haribo to complement the batter mixture and sit alongside the chocolate sauce." Unfortunately, I hadn't reckoned on the heat, which melted the sweets into the consistency of pizza cheese, and rendered the pancake

Young & Williams blasts Post Office Consultation “sham”

Trust in Wales Ymddiried yng Nghymru WELSH LIBERAL DEMOCRATS DEMOCRATIAID RHYDDFRYDOL CYMRU Vale of Clwyd Assembly Candidate CLLR Mark Young & Mark Williams MP today criticised the Government for failing to consult with Wales’ Post Offices on plans to close 2,500 Post Offices nationwide. The consultation document was published in December, but with only two weeks to go before the consultation closes, Post Offices in Wales still haven’t received a copy of the document, despite being warned of the problem two weeks ago in a meeting by Welsh Liberal Democrats and Subpostmasters from Wales. In response ...

Match-funding for Welsh higher education

Welsh Liberal Democrat Education spokesperson Peter Black AM is to seek answers form Labour’s Jane Davidson over whether the Labour Assembly Government intends to follow England and match-fund donations to universities here. Under the scheme, details of which were announced last week, the UK government will give £1 for every £2 that English universities raise from private donors and former students up to £5 million per institution. “Clearly, anything that will encourage private giving to UK universities is to be welcomed, although we have a long way to go before getting to the levels of funds that are ...

Smoke and Mirrors

It thought that this was a rather clever article. Clever because it cunningly hid a series of assertions behind what are self evident truths. Take the first lines for example: 'There is an insuperable problem about introducing immigrants to British values. There are no British values. Nor are there any Serbian or Peruvian values. No nation has a monopoly on fairness and decency, justice and humanity.' Now who can seriously disagree with that? But what it's hiding is this: There are indeed no 'British' values, but there are systems and values like the rule of law, secular governance ...

Sense Triumphs Over Rhetoric (finally)

'Never fight a battle if you don't know how to win it' - Field Marshal Rommel

Houses people can afford to live in

Today at Prime Minister's Questions, Ming Campbell asked about the big growth in the numbers of people on the housing waiting list over the last decade. In reply, the PM said he wasn't sure about the figures but knew they were spending a lot more money (!). Ming pointed out that many families waiting for housing are living in quite unsuitable and substandard accommodation, including many hundreds of thousands of children. The PM said that not only have they spent more money already, they are going to spend even more in the future. ...

Another famous British brand being swallowed up

Following foreign take overs of Abbey National, BAA, O2 and a host of others, it has been revealed today that Whyte and Mackay, owners of a host of well known whiskey brands is to be take over by an Indian firm. With EMI also in talks to be taken over by an American competitor, it further emphasises that under Labour we have a giant "For Sale" sign over our businesses, with little protection. Why do we need protection ? Well when Vodafone announced recently that it wanted to take over an Indian mobile phone company, it was revealed ...

BBC Bias ?

Interesting little report, or so I thought, entitled "What makes young leafleters tick ?", at last, a nice story asking why young people get involved in helping political parties. Wrong ! In fact it is an advert about why young Tories get involved in helping the Conservative party. It includes no balance at all, no information on young Labour or Lib Dem activists, just goes on about David Cameron. I think the BBC is great, but this is crap, shoddy and lazy journalism at its worst.

Can you get a straight answer from Tony Blair ?

Apologies to anyone who has seen it before, but I found THIS interesting little game on the BBC Dead Ringers website. I found it very difficult to get Tony Blair to answer my questions, see how you do.

Labour using taxpayers' money for political campaigning

Having referred at the budget meeting to money being wasted on propaganda by Labour locally, interesting to see this post by Andy Mayer. It shows a very good example of Labour Mayor Ken Livingstone using taxpayers money to do his own political campaigning.

Drinking Smoothies

It has been an exceptionally busy day including a visit to the COSI cosmetics factory in Maesteg and the new Children's Centre in Clwyd School in Swansea. I have also spent an exceptionally large amount of time with Assembly technicians who, very efficiently refreshed all the hardware I have the use of whilst I remain an Assembly Member. In all of this rush I have not had much time to blog and really only have a few minutes now. Nevertheless, it would be remiss of me to let the day pass without commenting on Rhodri Morgan's attack on David ...

Lords Reform Day

It’s all go around here… Dear supporter, LORDS REFORM - THE BIG PUSH Lords Reform Day has been tentatively scheduled as 7 March 2007: this is the day that, following two days of debate, MPs will be given a free vote on composition of the House of Lords. Elect the Lords and Unlock Democracy have set up Lords Reform [...]

I want toys

I’ve just finished watching James May’s Top Toys that I’d downloaded to my computer a while back and it was brilliant. In the documentary the Top Gear presenter looks back at the toys of his childhood. Some he remembers fondly, others he shoots at with a large gun or drops from a helicopter - but the [...]

Time to go metric?

Have just seen a trailer for Richard and Judy. They mentioned that a clothes shop is modelling their swimwear in size 12. Judy in mock shock said “What no size zero?”. And this is my big problem about the current debate over clothes sizes. TV shows and presenters seem to swap between UK sizes like [...]

I am unique!

And no rude comments! HowManyOfMe.comThere are: 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Number 10 Strikes Back

Via James Graham I see the Government has given an excellent (if slightly hand-washing) response to a petition calling for recognition of Jedi Knights as a religious group. The Government has no overarching role in regulating or recognising personal belief or faith. The UK has a long held commitment to freedom of worship and belief, and [...]

Written Parliamentary Questions: 21st February 2007

Foster Care: Safety Q:To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will review the guidance on how many babies each foster (a) carer and (b) household is permitted to look after with a view to making an assessment of whether the safety of such infants is at increased risk in foster households caring for multiple infants and babies. A:The Children Act 1989 does not allow a carer

Rejoice, Just Rejoice

..>..> ..> See you at Plainmoor on Saturday. From the Herald Express website. EXCLUSIVE: BREAKING NEWS - CHRIS ROBERTS QUITS ..Task #793 --Story Comments - START--> ..Task #793 --Story Comments -...

Planning Applications

Ward: Combe Down App Ref: 07/00195/FUL Parish: N/A Registered: 12th February 2007 ...

A thoughtful start to Lent

I see the Catholic bishops in Northern Ireland have joined the protests against the Sexual Orientation Regulations. I fully understand their concerns about the short consultation period, and the effect the Regulations might have on specific Catholic services such as adoption and marriage counselling. However, the article suggests that their concern might also be more general, i.e. that those in a civil partnership will be treated equally to those in a marriage. This got me thinking: the real importance of marriage from a Christian point of view is its religious significance, and it is thus far from ...

That referendum question

During the Prime Minister's statement about Iraq today I asked a question as to when he is holding a referendum as to whether the occupying troops would stay. The PM's response was that there was an elected government the view of which they were using. The fact is that only by holding a democratic referendum with a secret ballot would it be possible to determine the viewpoint of the Iraqi

Cider boom sees 42 jobs created

A friend just emailed me to tell me Bulmers, based in Hereford, have just created 42 jobs, he thinks it is all down to me...

FPC, Chatham House Rules and whether the Parliamentary Party are pulling a fast one on Trident.

Like Alex Wilcock I sat through the debate on Chatham House rules in FPC last night, caused by the naming of members in a recent article in Liberator. As a new kid on the block no one ever made it clear to me that we operated under the rules (which seem to be open to various interpretations anyway) and I only found out when I checked up. Whilst my elders and betters may think it is absolutely obvious that FPC operates in such a way, my personal view is that it is wrong to assume anything you haven't spelt out. ...

Exciting Gruel Recipe Quiz

The following recipe is an effective remedy for a common malady. All you have to do is to use your skill, judgment, and pulsating brain flashes to work out the malady. 1 Pint New Gruel, 1 gr. Tincture of Green Acorns, 1/2 gr. Hypo, 1/16 gr. Castor Sugar, 3 Clove Kernels, 1/2 lb. Coffee Essence, 3/4 [...]

What were you doing this morning, Prime Minister?

Just a curiosity - it’s probably nothing… Every week at PMQs the PM answers his first question “Mr Speaker sir, this morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in the house I will have further such meetings later today” Today, he tripped over the sentence and said “Mr Speaker sir… I had [...]

Flickr now emailing comments

Spotted this on the Flickr blog. Flickr will now email you when you get comments on your pictures. For someone like me who doesn’t upload that many pictures, and which aren’t that exciting, I tend to miss any new comments, so this should help me out.

Council issues warning to litter louts

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council has issued a warning for littering and dog fouling following the prosecution of over 100 people in the past 12 months. The most recent prosecutions, involving three women and four men, for littering and failing to remove dog faeces, received a total of £460 fines and £680 costs at Teesside Magistrates Court on Wednesday 14th February 2007. Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Community Protection, Councillor Joyce Benbow, said: “We are determined to prosecute anyone who doesn’t pay a fixed penalty notice issued to them. We do not forget and we ...

Surgeries

It's a while since I mentioned the Councillors' surgeries. Since Danny Hughes became unwell, and then resigned, I have been doing all the Lib Dem ones in the ward - and it gives you quite an overview of the sort of things people are facing. Obviously you tend to get a lot of individual problems rather than general stuff, but knitted together it helps identify where some of the major issues might be. At the last Garston one there were issues about anti social behaviour and about a particular building site which I am dealing with. ...

W.H. Auden’s birthday

Jonathan Calder has a nice piece about W.H. Auden’s birthday today. Andrew Motion was on Broadcasting House last weekend talking about Auden - just chat, but worth listening to again if only for Andrew Motion’s voice, which is… unique.

Well done Kirsty Williams

Have now seen all the short-listings categories for the Dods Women of the Year Awards and note that my Lib Dem colleague Kirsty Williams (Welsh Lib Dem AM) has been nominated too in the Welsh Assembly Member category. Congrats to Kirsty!

Mayor Ken abuses public money again

Ken Livingstone has clearly been spending too much time in the company of dodgy dictators in his recent foreign junkets at your expense. We've highlighted before how he abuses public money for his personal and Labour party campaigns, he's now getting more blatant. The article below for example is off the front cover of this month's Londoner 'newspaper', which is the 'information' sheet delivered to every door in the captial 12 times a year at a cost of £3.3m of your money to promote the activities of the Mayor. It looks innocent enough, 'Mayor Ken stands up ...

Moo!

I have just bought tickets for the Inspiral Carpets on 10 March at Shepherds Bush Empire. The tour promotes their new online album, Keep the Circle. Enjoy... >

Pancake Party

Yesterday was Shove Tuesday, as a result my friend Caroline hosted a Pancake Party. It was a really nice evening with quite a few Liberal Democrats from Shrewsbury and Shropshire there. I spent most of the night tosssing pancakes, didn't drop one but one was er very crispy!

18 Doughty Street - Politics for Kids?

I've not been quite sure what to make of new Conservative-affiliated internet broadcaster 18 Doughty Street. It's an interesting experiment in online politics and I'm sure a lot of people will be watching it closely for ideas. However I feel a bit let down by some of the content. I'm the sort of Lib Dem that reads the Economist. I like informed comment and analysis, even if I don't agree with the conclusion. I don't like cheap hits or bad reasoning even if I agree entirely with what's being said. So 18DS's "The World Without America" advert ...

Giving up the bottle for Lent

What is Lent? This is a question which has been on my mind for the last few days. I am glad of that, and I think it is healthy to ask this question as a prelude to the actual Lent period. I had to prepare a reading and commentary for a group of which I am part. As this took place on Shrove Tuesday, "doing" Lent seemed a no-brainer. The discussion went on to the subject of fasting. We (Christians

Tony Blairs E.Petition Responce

The below truly shows how out of touch Tony now is and after TEN years in power he now wants to sort out public transport! The idea of the online petition was good but you have to be brave enough to listern, or people will not bother. All politicians need to make sure people are heard and listern to those we wish to Serve. This responce is another failer for New Labour and proof of a need to change our Leaders ASP. Dear All, Thank you for taking the time to register your views about road pricing on ...

Scottish Spring Conference

In due course I'll post a full account of last weekend's Scottish Spring Conference in Aviemore but not the gory details of the late night relaxation in the bar of the Cairngorm Hotel (Don't worry Caron - your secrets are safe with me!). I simply have not had a spare minute since getting back on Sunday night. The one comment I shall allow myself for now is that I feel that this has been the biggest and best Scottish Conference which I've attended, and that everyone who I've spoken with feels, like me, that we are greatly uplifted by ...

Road Useage Pricing

I shall forgo any commentary :)

Liberals Surge in Polls

I don’t usually set much store by opinion polls, but last night’s meeting of the Liberal Democrats’ Federal Policy Committee had news of such an extraordinary improvement in the opinion polls for the Liberals, which prompted a few little cheers (we were that excited) that I felt I just had to share it with you. Of course, under the Chatham House Rule*, I can’t reveal which member of the FPC revealed this detail to us, nor the name of the party leader who was cock-a-hoop about their sudden surge (apparently reflected in recent months across several polls, to be fair). ...

Selection news: Maidenhead

Congratulations to Tony Hill, selected to fight Maidenhead at the next General Election. Thanks to Mark Valladares for letting me know!

President Bush is a repressed Homosexual?

According to Ariel Sharon (when he was still with us) President Bush's response to the question of what he would do to Osama Bin Laden if caught was "I will screw him in the ass!" (Hat Tip political wire) Well it would explain all the prancing around in tight jeans and cowboy boots...

Hoey opposes home improvements for tenants say Labour colleagues

Lambeth Labour have always had the reputation of being one of the most tribal Labour groups in the country. According to a story in Tuesday's South London Press it seems that they are at war with one of their Lambeth MPs, Kate Hoey, over their decision to transfer management of 40,000 homes to an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO), following a public meeting hosted by Defend Council Housing on Saturday. Hoey, who opposes the scheme branded it as less accountable than the Borough's housing department on the basis that "If you do not like what your councillors do you ...

Day 2241: He was for Rumsfeld before he was against him

Monday: Senator John Oven-Chip (Replutocrat, Arid-zone-a) has come out strongly in favour of things that that the American electorate LIKE and stated his firm opposition to whatever it is they DON'T LIKE. This is BOUND to win him the Presidency in 2008! Unfortunately, it turns out that Mr Oven-Chip's BEST MATE, the Monkey-in-Chief, is TOP of the list of things that the American people DO NOT LIKE. Still, that's no problem for an operator as SKILFUL as Mr Oven-Chip, oh no! Just because he said that sacked Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfailed was due RESPECT ...

How should we react?

The opinion poll in yesterdays Guardian puts the Tories on 40%, Labour on 31% and the Lib Dems on 19%. Even more interestingly they then go on to examine the state of the polls if the name specific leaders and give figures of 42% for the Tories under Cameron, 29% for Labour under Brown and 17% for the Lib Dems under Campbell. So does this mean anything and should we be worried? 42% is heading towards the sort of figure that the Tories were getting in General elections during the eighties and early nineties when they were polling around ...

Father Hopkins, SJ

I have been accused of relentlessly alluding to a single extract from the Journals of Gerard Manley Hopkins - the entry where he describes mesmerising a duck - so here is another, equally fascinating, quote: “Tuncks is a good name. Gerard Manley Tuncks. Pook Tuncks.”

The Westminster Arctic challenge slideshow

I rather liked the The Westminster Arctic challenge slideshow on the Guardian website which I came across a few days ago. Includes a nice picture of Jenny Willott MP, not that you can really tell it is her.

Happy birthday W. H. Auden

Wystan Hugh Auden was born on 21 February 1907. I am inclined to name him as the greatest English poet of the twentieth century; certainly, as Edward Mendelson wrote in his introduction to Auden's Selected Poems: Auden was the first poet writing in English who felt at home in the twentieth century. He welcomed into his poetry all the disordered conditions of his time, all its variety of language and event. In this, as in almost everything else, he differed from his modernists predecessors such as Yeats, Lawrence, Eliot or Pound, who had turned nostalgically away from a flawed present ...

Wednesday 21st February 2007

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