The Lib Dems in Nottingham launched their manifesto for the City Council on Monday this week, and the room we had booked for the event was the Large Hall at the International Community Centre on Nottingham’s Mansfield Road. It was a good meeting - just one member of the press there, despite a fairly wide invitation [...]
You see some funny things on Facebook, such as this recent gift to the Leader of the Liberal Democrats: If you squint your eyes, it looks just like a member of the Bullingdon Club. Clearly a Dyke-shaped poisoned chalice wasn’t on offer. Share This
As the East Anglian Daily Times Reports: YOU couldn't make it up if you tried. Just as the Conservative Party have the local elctions in the palm of their hand, a bright spark in Essex decides to clamp down on some of the most well known and best loved personalities in Tendring and cause a schism that will take years to heel. Who knows what advice Conservative Central Office has been listening
Not a new story but last week's PR Week, covered the revelation that the Labour-run "worst Borough in London" has hired a Labour party spin-doctor to improve the Council's public relations for what is believed to be around £70,000 of public money. One of the worst things that can happen to a spin-doctor is to become the story, so it's not a promising start. It is though not an untypical addition to the general narrative of incompetence blighting Steve Reed's administration, that has seen massed-protests at the town hall after they imposed stealth taxes on the elderly and vulnerable. ...
Having variously praised and declaimed the style of the Tory and Labour PEBs yesterday, it’s only right that I post a link to a strong PEB with actual substance: On a related note, some dangerous nonsense from Ofcom to get worried about. If it’s an on demand service, it isn’t broadcasting, it’s narrowcasting. I [...] 
No-one appears to have used that headline yet, which I’m frankly amazed by, so I thought I’d better get in quick. Overall, this latest incident does rather confirm some of the points I was making last week about the nature of the London Mayor and the GLA. These institutions lack any kind of civic culture, [...]
I’ve added another comment on my Lib Dem Voice article on citizen’s initiatives, petitioning and referendums. Feedback please! Share This
We all know that David Cameron has been trying to copy pages from the Blair text book, trying to pull his party to the centre in order to build a coalition of support wide enough to win power. A key part of that is getting endorsements from unlikely people who would previously have been expected to run a mile from the Tory embrace. That I assume can be the only logic behind the Conservatives approach to the LibDems to support Greg Dyke as an independent candidate for Mayor of London. The affair rasies serious questions about Cameron's judgement and indeed ...
The Council are proposing to create a "No Waiting At Any Time" zone on both sides of St Mary's Road by the entrance to the park. This will prevent people from parking there to use the park, rather than in the official car park. However, there is a risk that people will simply park higher up St Mary's Road instead, and on Branksome Avenue. I have written a letter to all residents in the vicinity,
I am currently slowly writing – or more accurately trying to write - a chapter for a book. My thesis is that we live our lives surrounded by the unattainable - the ‘must haves’ of how our lives should be, what we should do, think, eat, be and aspire too - all of which leaves us meandering along life’s path, whichever path we are on, feeling vaguely disappointed in our achievements or our lack of
Although the vast majority of my engagements are within the Borough, occasionally we get a chance to visit other parts of London. It's good when this can be combined with support for another Mayor's Charity. So on Tuesday I grasped the opportunity offered by an invitation from the Mayor of Merton for a charity tour of the home of tennis - the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club at...
You only have to click on my label cloud to know I greatly admire my former employer. He would make an excellent Liberal Democrat mayoral candidate. Just one small point, it was Anne Wood (later of Ragdoll productions Teletubbies and Brum fame) who introduced Roland Rat to TVam in a show called Shedvision, not Greg - though Greg upped the Rat's profile.
Perhaps we should have taken a stronger line on this after all. there are some tearful tories on the web tonight.
Oh good, Lembit and the Cheeky Girl have a double page spread in the Guardian G2 section. That should help!
Out in Muswell Hill today. Picked up a copy of the Muswell Hill Journal to read the headline "Multi-million deal to save Pally gets go-ahead". I find this story very worrying. As Neil William says: the question remains, at what cost to some of the precious heritage in the building? As a former BBC News employee (news was the last bit of the BBC left at Ally Pally - though it moved long before my
Nice to see Hutton and Compton opening the innings for Middlesex. That's Ben (grandson of Len) and Nick (grandson of Denis).
That’s the verdict of the FT on David Cameron’s idea of asking the Liberal Democrats if he could stand a joint candidate with us for London Mayor. The Daily Mail is hardly nicer, calling it a “disaster for Cameron”. Ooops. Mind you, I guess it was a better idea than asking Jeffery Archer.
The Lib Dem blogosphere's favourite hound writes: Being on holiday, it means I've actually got time to read Alex "reassuringly extensive" Wilcock's blog postings in full. All this has given me an idea. I'm going to launch a new service on this blog - "The Reduced Wilcock". I'll read his full postings and boil them down to one paragraph and one sentence versions. I do the reading so you don't have to.
The BBC reports: Former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown is to head a review of parading in Northern Ireland, it has been announced.NI Secretary Peter Hain said Lord Ashdown would bring great "expertise and credibility" to the job.Lord Ashdown - a former international high representative for Bosnia - was raised in Northern Ireland.The government promised an independent review of parading in the St Andrews Agreement.Lord Ashdown and his review team will begin their work in May, with a view to reporting to the government in 2008.
A few interviews later we seem to have the answer. The Tories decided they had no one who was up to the task. So they asked a prominent, but recently arrived Lib Dem supporter if he was interested. It appears that some Lib Dems had been asking him if he would put his name forward too.
Wednesday: Guess what, Mr Frown won the no confidence vote. Gosh. Mr James has already pointed out how POOR the Labour television was – Mr Frown in the back of a taxi, grasping hands reaching forwards to seize the wheel; Lord Blairimort stuck in there with him, eyes desperately flickering around looking for a way out – and he also talked about Mr Frown's new book: "COURAGE: EIGHT PORTRAITS". However, something that Mr James did not mention was the PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING book by a Mr Senator John F Kennedy: "PROFILES IN COURAGE". What an ...
It was revealed today that Greg Dyke had been approached by the Tories to run as a candidate for London Mayor. He told the Conservatives that he would think about it, but only if he could stand as an independent with Tory and Lib Dem backing. the Tories apparently agreed to this, but the Lib Dems did not. The question is, what does this say about the Tories hopes of winning with a candidate of their own. To my mind this smacks of desperation when you are willing to withdraw your candidate in favour of an independent.It also ...
Wednesday 18th April 2007 - Nearly 100 individuals remaining in Guantánamo have been cleared for release. Tragically, the US government has concluded - and rightly so - that it cannot return them to their home countries, for fear they will be tortured. So, more than five years after they were first detained, they remain perpetual victims of Bush's gross mistake. Amongst them are 13 ethnic
Its the last two weeks of campaigning before we see the results of our efforts. Saturday was the worst day ever for leafleting .... far too hot ...... we're never satisfied ..... Due to my support to protect our local park from loosing space for a school development, I've had some angry school Mums on the doorstep when out canvassing. I don't blame them for wanting a nice leafy place for
When I get the bus to work it passes New Scotland Yard, headquarters of the Metropolitan Police. Outside is an electronic display board that has a new message every week about the numbers of pol...
Premiering right now on BBC Two in England is the party’s first election broadcast for the local elections. Starring environment spokesperson Chris Huhne, its theme is climate change and how Liberal Democrat councils are working to reduce their carbon footprint. It’s also showing at 6.25 on ITV1 and 6.55 on BBC One. The next English PEB [...]
Benedict Brogan reports that Sir Menzies Campbell told Cameron to get lost over any Lib-Tory pact dreampt up by Tory Central Office. Quite right too. It’ll be interesting to see how much Greg Dyke was involved in the Tories’ idea; you would have hoped he would have had better judgement than to be seduced by [...]
Glorious morning out in Speke today. Did a bit of leaflet delivery and then called on some people to follow up bits of casework. On the way home a little later got a text from a lady with a serious housing problem who wants to meet up to see if I can help. Made an appointment by text. Hopefully her problem will be solveable.
Sky news has just interviewed Greg Dyke about his standing for mayor, following Iain Dale's post following up on Andrew Neil's assertion this lunchtime that Greg Dyke has been approached by the Tories to be a joint Tory/Lib Dem candidate for London mayor. Which is kind of a bizarre story. My gut feeling is that this can't possibly have been a serious proposal, even from the Tory end of it (
Last time I posted re questions, I didn't manage to get through them all. So this is Chapter Two. Someone mentioned the need for a vision document of some sort for the area. We have had what I would call bits of this in the past. But the existing documents, and political leaflets, probably can't do this justice. For example, there is some material in the Citizen's Charter booklets - but its rather lost because the main focus is about street lighting and things like that. The work on the local area priorities ... 
Off to do the surgery in part of Garston yesterday - at the school on Holman Road. Back in 2004 I took the decision to cover more than one Garston venue for surgeries - in fact I do three. I actually managed to pick up more work after the surgery than during it. I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and deliver some leaflets nearby. No sooner had I started than I was stopped by a lady with a very complicated issue - I said I would need to go through the paperwork ...
Congratulations to Caroline Pidgeon, selected to fight Vauxhall at the next election. Thanks to Rob Blackie for the info.
Just read this article about the Welsh independents signing a joint declaration. Surely if a group of independents sign up to joint policies they are far from independent for long?
That is the story Iain Dale has come up with.
Would it be too opportunistic of me to offer myself? There are lots of dogs in London you know (and we have a much higher turnout rate that the city's cats; something to do with dogs finding it easier to sign their names on postal voting forms I think).
As bizarre as it may sound, Iain Dale is reporting that Greg Dyke is being approached by the Tories to stand as a joint Liberal Democrat - Conservative candidate in the London Mayoral elections. It seems incredible that anyone would seriously expect such an arrangement to be met, and I can only treat the news [...]
I knew I should have watched Daily Politics today - there’s news from Iain Dale that Greg Dyke might be a joint Liberal Democrat/Conservative candidate for Mayor of London. Until I hear more from my party colleagues at the other end of the A12, I’ll treat it with the requisite amount of salt, but it’d [...]
SIGN IT http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Somerset-Unitary/
Today's election news: The Papers in this final week of the French election are more interested with what's happening on the other side of the channel. The Independent looks at the latest poll and suggests Sarkozy should be worried about slippage in the last few days. ("Sarkozy's lead erodes in final straight") The FT highlights Sarkozy's volatile style in "Sarkozy not afraid to frighten the French" - a theme also picked up in The Today Programme this morning.Simon Heffer in The Telegraph also investigates the first round of the French presidential election and decides that only Sarkozy or Bayrou can ...
Lord Laidlaw is said to be the "richest man in Scotland". Except that he isn't in Scotland for tax purposes. He's in exile.
Being on holiday, it means I've actually got time to read Alex "reassuringly extensive" Wilcock's blog postings in full. All this has given me an idea. I'm going to launch a new service on this blog - "The Reduced Wilcock". I'll read his full postings and boil them down to one paragraph and one sentence versions. I do the reading so you don't have to. Shrunken, shrivelled but just as good as the original - that'll be The Reduced Wilcock. Exclusive to this blog. Here's the first one: You may have heard that Lord Laidlaw, a very ...
You may have heard about Lord Laidlaw, a Conservative peer and donor who’s said to be the second richest person in Scotland and – gasp! – a tax exile. The BBC reports that, three years after agreeing to become a UK resident to gain a peerage, he still hasn’t done it. The Lords’ Appointments Commission will “name and shame him in a forthcoming review” (so what’s this morning’s leak news?), but the Today Programme said they’re otherwise “powerless”. I know what you’d expect me to say: ‘Tory donor, filthy rich, tax exile, cash for honours, scandal, holds up shocked mittens’. ...
Some great news from UEFA that the 2012 European football championship finals will be held jointly in Ukraine and Poland. Kiev will host the final in the Olympic stadium. It will be an interesting tournament, as the travelling distances are huge (Lviv to Kiev is a sleeper train that travels twice a day, and is about 12hrs, while Donetsk is even further from Kiev).
An interesting Telegraph article by John Inverdale was passed around the Bude area last weekend. It is about Bude Chelsea fans. Although I don't live there any more, I am a (loose) Chelsea fan from Bude. I started 'supporting' them in 1968 while at Bude Primary school. I collected a sweet cigarette card which featured Chelsea's Alan Birchenall heading the ball in a very dramatic way. The photo on
It seems that football can still produce a shock result, even if it’s only at the administrative level, with the news that Poland and Ukraine have suprisingly beaten Italy in the race to host Euro 2012. Though it’s a bit worrying that Platini still seems to be going ahead with the plan to boost participation to [...]
Now this is a curious story. The Western Mail tells us that yesterday's CBI breakfast hustings in Cardiff was attended by two representatives from Labour, Plaid and the Liberal Democrats, but Conservative AM David Melding was "called away at short notice", leaving the Tories unrepresented. Rather predictably this has led to a claim by Labour's Leighton Andrews, that the Conservatives are snubbing Welsh business. I was at the Swansea CBI event this morning in which two Plaid Cymru and two Welsh Liberal Democrats were joined on the top table by one Tory and the Labour Enterprise Minister. Both ...
Well normally only one, but I had an whole fire-engine-full turn up at my home to help publicise their Free Fire Safety Check service. They did a thorough job and gave us lots of helpful advice about fire escape routes, use of multi-point plugs and, of course, smoke alarms - which they will fit for free if you need one. You can ask for a Fire Safety Check of...
Care-ful Mobility is a local company that provides mobility aids, and on Monday they ran a Mobility Awareness Day in Eden Walk. So here I am trying out one of their electric scooters with Max Kislingbury, the Managing Director, and his staff. My mother-in-law had one of these and it transformed her life - they are great for getting down to the shops and other local...
Truro has grown enormously over the last ten years and the changes I have seen in the city have been immense. I remember when Lemon Quay was a busy car park and the whole area was congested ... of course now it is a lovely Piazza with M&S, Debenhams sitting opposite the historic Pannier Market. (Read this link for those of you not in Cornwall!) As I was in Truro yesterday I went and spoke with local business who I have long had links with. It was both interesting and worrying. Truro has always been known for it's independent ...
The Guardian website reports the latest news on the NHS IT upgrade - and guess what folks, it’s still a disaster. In the real world of IT, any programme of that size (£12.4bn) would be hauled up way before it was TWO YEARS behind schedule. It would be stopped, or sent back to the drawing board. [...]
Hot on the heels of the Welsh Liberal Democrats’ PEB comes the Scottish Liberal Democrats’ new election broadcast, focusing in particular on Scottish party leader Nicol Stephen. It will air this evening but you can watch it here on Liberal Democrat Voice right now:
In typical Faceless Bureaucrat style, I have left far too much to the last moment. As a result, it's about 4.15 in the morning, my plane leaves in less than six hours, and I'm still putting the final touches to my packing. I've got beach wear, weather for autumn, bright shirts, gifts, guide books and my laptop (and bits), a camera and I think everything else that I need. I've finally finished
Not to rest between canvassing and town council meetings I decided to revise my Cameron’s “Don’t count your chickens” game. I have swopped the bunny for a flying pig.
Tuesday: Apparently, the Conservatory Shadow Chancellor and Minister for the Tuck Shop, Mr Boy George Oboe, is to call for a vote of no-confidence in Mr Frown. On the scale of STUPIDITY this lies somewhere between a JADE GOODY and a DARWIN AWARD WINNER. Liberal Democrats would be well advised to have nothing at all to do with it. FIRST, the COMPLETELY OBVIOUS reply that Mr Frown should make is to start his response by saying: "Clearly, this motion should be one of no confidence in the SHADOW CHANCELLOR, Mr Boy George Oboe, who ...
… but not with a bump, fortunately. My flight from Hong Kong touched down at 5.30 am (BST) on Monday morning. By 9.00 am, I was seated and (just about) in a right frame of mind for the Executive Board meeting of Oxford City Council. Devotion to duty, or sheer bloody madness? You decide. For the record, the rest of the day was spent in a zombie-like state of semi-sleep. I am now human again. I
Jonathan Calder’s Liberal England blog recalls the peerless definition* of liberalism propounded by that last-but-three Liberal Prime Minister, Henry Campbell-Bannerman. A good friend of mine, to whom I eulogised about this quote, sent me this antidote, an extract from Edward Rogers’ and Edmund J. Moyle’s deliciously titled, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman: His Career and Capers (London: G. Mitton
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