LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Saturday 24th February 2007

Oatenwatch lives

Mark Oaten has given an interview to the Portsmouth Evening News: Mark Oaten has turned down offers to appear on reality shows such as Big Brother a year after a tabloid scandal wrecked his life as a senior Lib Dem.The disgraced Winchester MP revealed that TV bosses wanted to sign him and wife Belinda for the celebrity version of the show. But the man who went into hiding after a Sunday paper revealed his affair with a rent boy, turned them down because he did not want to become a laughing stock.

The Queen is Dead

It was a beautiful dream while it lasted, but the BBC has announced that Morrissey will be playing no part in this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

Broadband Speeds

I’ve been checking my broadband speed after following a link from a BBC article to thinkbroadband.com. I’m getting 14 MBps down and 1.1 MBps up at the moment which is not bad for 20 GBP per month. You can see my results here.

Families............who'd 'av 'em!

I am just back from my Dad's 78th birthday lunch. Not everyone could make it, but it was very nice, even if we had to wait over an hour for our food! My Dad thought it was hilarious that he had spent most of the day believing it was his 77th birthday, I didn't think that was much of a problem, better 77 than 79! But, it hits home how that thief of time ultimately robs all of us of our health, our faculties et al. My Dad has always been the cleverest man I know ...

Burnham&Young-Government must tackle North Wales' gun crime rise

Trust in Wales Ymddiried yng Nghymru Today, as Tony Blair hosts a special London gun crime summit at No.10, the Welsh Liberal Democrats warned that the Government needs to get to grips with the growing level of gun crime in North Wales that has increased more than fourteen fold over the last 5 years. Commenting, Eleanor Burnham Am and Mark Young , N.Wales Liberal Democrats, said: “These figures are deeply worrying. Five years ago, North Wales had the lowest level of gun crime in Wales, one of the lowest in the UK. Since then, gun ...

Sulky Government must release full facts on nuclear power - Williams

Commenting on today’s DTI written statement accepting that the consultation process on nuclear power that preceded the publication of the Energy Review report was not adequate, Mark Williams, Welsh Liberal Democrat MP for Ceredigion, said: “The Government tried to swat aside the public and bulldoze through their decision to build new nuclear power stations. But they have been sharply and firmly slapped down. “Today we have seen a grumpy Government admit that information relating to nuclear power was held back last year and grudgingly accept the need to undertake a proper consultation exercise. And it serves them right. ...

Why Simon Hughes is Right Again! Oh.......and Ming!!!

I was delighted to hear Simon Hughes on Week in Westminster this morning talking about tackling gun and gang culture. I can't tell you everything he said, because of the one thing he said about the importance of detached youth work. OK, so I am a bit of an evangelist for youth work, having spent most of my adult life in the youth service, including many years representing Youth Workers at a national level for Unison. But, for me, the reality is, that good youth work works. Whatever Mr Cameron wants, not all families will stay together and ...

We would promote acceptable behaviour contracts.

Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Leader Michael German said: “People have a fundamental right to feel safe in their own community, and we will tackle anti-social behaviour through Acceptable Behaviour Contracts, as pioneered by Liberal Democrat-led councils. “Acceptable Behaviour Contracts are agreed between the individual, their family, the police, local authority and if relevant, the local housing association. The contracts spell our behaviour that individuals agree not to engage in. “Where individuals fail to co-operate, or breach an ABC, it can be used to apply an ASBO on an individual. In the most serious cases, breaches can result ...

The Central Lever

“The days of pulling the central lever are behind us” - Hazel Blears, quoted in The Guardian, 23 February 2007 Readers of a certain age will remember the levers. There was a row of them, colour-coded, black and pink and orange and cerise and yellow and golden and dun and red and lavender and green and [...]

I'm a bureaucrat, get me out of here!

Today I found myself wearing a badge. So far, not particularly unusual, as I go to quite a few conferences in the course of a year. However, this occasion was different in that my badge had the word 'trainer' printed on it. I like to think of myself as being quite versatile, but training is not one of my obvious talents. So why today? English Candidates Committee launched its new training

We have an allotment

Well, not quite a full allotment, but half a friend's. We had applied to the owners of the allotments in our village of Sunniside, Gateshead, earlier this year to take on a full allotment but they had none spare. However, our friend Glenys offered us half of hers. David went to see it this morning when I was down in our constituency office to sort some printing. So, to add to the home made

By election - less than a fortnight to go!

In between doing my normal stuff, I have been out campaigning in the by election. Last week we had some great mass canvassing sessions ( had to split the volunteers up there were so many helpers) . You get a great team spirit working on these campaigns with Lib Dems all pitching in. The canvassing was very interesting, and shows to me that we are doing well. Our candidate, Lynnie Williams, is exceptionally well known and really knows the patch. And people also know we have a record of doing work. There are six candidates ...

Local priorities

Thursday was what's called a "development" meeting of the neighbourhood committee. These are for councillors and officers (as well as advisory members) to get together for specific work. the last one was about allocating grants. This one was about local priorities for the work over the next few years. We are in the middle of sorting out local are agreements. Basically we will be getting together with the Gateacre neighbourhood to agree priorities and set up groups to get on with them. We'll be involving representatives from community organisations and other significant organisations in ...

Brisbane Man to replace Basildon Man?

Just spotted this article on BBC news. The Tories are on a mission to get millions of British expats to register to vote in the next General Election. Well, a bit of a mission, they're setting up some sort of website or something. I don't think we're going to see efforts like those of Democrats Abroad and Republicans Abroad, not just yet anyway. (It is always nice while queueing for Wimbledon to be asked by canvassers if you're American and would like to vote in their elections. But in an equivalent effort, I can't see Francis Maude mingling ...

The lesser mud splattered child

The Grauniad has commissioned a survey on the state of childhood in Britain today. The results are a bit of a 'dog bites man' story. You may not be surprised to discover that parents don't expect that their sunny faced little angel is going at it like a rabbit with occasional breaks for a spliff. LibertyCat's dissection of the UNICEF report found that 'behaviours and risks' (basically smoking,

LibDem Conference at Fanatasy Island?

Having read my Reports to Conference I noticed that we’ve yet to confirm that we’ll be going to Harrogate again in 2008. Then on the BBC Lincolnshire website I saw this story: Theme park to get concert venue and text of the story says Conduit Leisure said it will add a 6,000-seat indoor arena to the [...]

Letter On Stealth Taxes 4 Welsh Hospices

Trust in Wales Ymddiried yng Nghymru WELSH LIBERAL DEMOCRATS DEMOCRATIAID RHYDDFRYDOL CYMRU Dear Ed, This morning I read with disbelief a recommendation which is being made by the Welsh Secretary, Mr Peter Hain MP. He states that all City Firms should donate 2/3s of their bonus awards to Charities rather than give it to their employees. In principle, this sounds great. But as with all things in New Labour , if you scrape beneath the surface and see through the spin you see the real hypocrisy of this Government! In Daily Post, 6th Feb ...

English Reserve

Broc and Todd are trained guide dogs. Broc is three years old and works for Mandy who is registered blind. Todd used to work for Mandy until he was retired last year and we adopted him.&nb...

New football rule discovered

The referee at carrow road today, from where I am blogging, seems to have decided that handball for outfield is allowed, so long as they are wearing blue shirts. Seven clear handballs from Coventry, including in the note that led to their goal, and the ref is blind to it.

Celeb Face Meme

Prizes for anyone who knows who any of them are.

One place the star wars system cannot be based

This is Greenham Common that well known former military airbase and probably the most famous site for the US Cruise Missiles and the protests that were associated with them. According to the Guardian today the US is revamping and relaunching its Star Wars program designed to create a missile shield around the US (and possibly) its allies. Mr Blair in his wisdom is begging Mr Bush to allow the UK to be part of this scheme and to be allowed to station some of the missiles here. According to the Guardian "such a scheme would be controversial and raise the ...

Time to get fit again!

Well, I have been out delivering this morning - first break in the weather enabling me to do so! It has been really wet down here. My first walk was really interesting. During my by-election last year it was clear that this particular area was a very strong Tory area and canvassing there was depressing and in fact quite hostile. Since then there has been a big planning dispute over some housing at the end of their cul-de-sac which the residents were not happy about many aspects. Obviously, their first call was their Tory town councillor who, by all ...

Friday night and Sunday morning - the train crash

There’s nothing like a news story that has the potential to involve you. I travel on the Virgin West Coast line from Manchester - London at least once a week and also pretty regularly up to Carlisle/Preston/Scotland on the same line. So when the news came that my favourite Pendolino train had delrailed, [...]

And the winner is...

Back in 1987 the Mayor, Cllr Jenny Philpott, was so impressed by all the voluntary organisations that she had visited during her year that she instituted the Mayor's Community Awards. Since then the awards have been presented each year to a dozen or so individuals who have given much of their time, energy and skills to serving the community. Many of these express their community spirit by helping...

Tense moment during "God save the Queen" this afternoon

Duncan Borrowman engagingly describes the historic nature of the Ireland v England Rugby match at Croke Park, Dublin this afternoon. Singing "God Save the Queen" in Croke Park is controversial, to put it mildly. The place is an inner sanctum of Irish Republicanism, as well as the site of the 1920 "Bloody Sunday" killing of fourteen spectators by the British Black and Tans. Medals have been

Bob Crow is a twat

Watching News 24’s coverage of the Cumbria rail crash Bob Crow was on the speaking via his phone. He mentioned that blame was already been pointed towards his members, his reasoning for this was that police were questioning them. WTF of course the police should be questioning them. They should be questioning everybody who is involved [...]

Who the Hell is David Strettle?

The second in what is becoming a series of posts on Harlequins players who have been catapulted into the England six nations team seemingly from nowhere. As you may be aware David Strettle has been called up to replace the injured Jason Robinson in today's clash with Ireland, to the surprise of many in the rugby fraternity who would have expected the recall of the much more experienced Mark

The same but different

So what exactly is the relationship between these two speeches? In one Tony Blair tells the Wales Labour Conference: 'I think, over the past few years, when people talk about 'you've got New Labour in the UK and more traditional Labour in Wales', one of the benefits of devolution is you can take different paths to the same goal. 'When you strip away all the rhetoric and what goes in and out of the media 24 hours a day, what's left is something that unites us all in the Labour Party. 'It is a belief that we ...

Well at least in this one the dead people stay dead!

"Well at least in this one the dead people stay dead!" thus spake the girl on emerging from watching Hot Fuzz last night. There has been a theme running through the media reviews of Hot Fuzz that the 1st two thirds are great comedy, but the final third when the action kicks off drags. Personally I think they are talking rubbish and that the action sequences are the best bit of the film, but then

Day 2246: Sir Mr the Merciless in Naughty Anniversary Shock!

Saturday: I hope THAT got your attention! I've been writing my diary for one whole year now. I have learned many things. I've learned the definition of the words VACUOUS and BALLOON, and the words MENDACIOUS and BLAIRIMORT. And IRONY. And I've learned that the best way to get to the top of the Lib Dem Blogregator is to mention Sir Mr the Merciless AND/OR something smutty in your title. (Daddy says I should look up the word CUNNING!) Because what I REALLY want you to read is this: MILLENNIUM'S MANIFESTO ...

Climate Change and Chalk Face

It's been a long week - after four days of covering for poorly colleagues I had a supply teacher to help yesterday - what a difference it made! Thursday evening was our first opportunity to talk individually with students who have been offered places for next year. I really enjoy listening to the hopes and aspirations of youngsters who are trying to focus on their future as well as cope with

Nailing Jelly to a Wall

Although the research is not peer reviewed someone has now reported on attempts to nail jelly to a wall (see link). The results are as expected.

Blears - Just Say No

Apparently, Hazel Blears wants to be the new John Prescott. She also says... "it would be a mistake for the Labour party to distance itself from prime minister Tony Blair." This strikes me as a sort of Blairite Kamikaze line. Surely anyone with an ounce of sense realises the level of unpopularity that Blair has these days? The Labour Party has no choice but to distance itself from him, if only in a symbolic way. The centre ground is still the right place for Labour to be politically, but it has to be a centre ground devoid ...

Responsibility in the face of temptation

I've got something that a lot of people would quite like to see, i.e. the now fleshed out timetable for the European selections. I'd like to share it with you, gentle reader, but I can't... yet. Hopefully, agreement to publish the information will be obtained and you'll all know. There's nothing like an informed democracy, after all...

An open letter to Cllr Kim Humphreys...

Dear Kim (and friends), I've been asked to edit my blog to remove some quirky references to a Southwark resident (who shall remain nameless, obviously). Whilst under normal circumstances, I would almost certainly wait until you had the courtesy to approach me directly, rather than bitch to one of my colleagues in a rather lame attempt to obtain some leverage, I have decided to make a few

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Saturday 24th February 2007

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