LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Monday 28th May 2007

How a bank holiday weekend should be, for me

Just returned from Craigend (village near Perth) where I spent Friday through Monday with Catherine and her family. This weekend has been fun, relaxing and just damn fine - a mighty blow against the "Black Dog", either that or the new meds are working. No matter which, it was very, very good. On friday night we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and thoroughly enjoyed it. I know it's not a "great" film but it's fun and easily enjoyable entertainment and, a bit of a counterpoint to my current reading matter: 'Scottish Covenanter Stories - Tales From ...

Back in circulation

I have just returned home after spending the weekend at the Hay on Wye Festival. I went up there on Friday and, apart from a brief sojourn in Llandrindod Wells on Saturday for the Welsh Liberal Democrats Special Conference, spent the next three days enjoying talks and performances by number of artists and writers including Seth Lakeman, Ian Rankin, Marcus Brigstocke, Antonia Frasier and Nick Cohen. During that time I found myself completely out of contact with the outside world, no mobile phone signal and no access to the internet. It was actually quite pleasant. I ...

Teletubby Porn

Continuing today's theme of Eastern Europe's fight against sexual depravity comes news from Poland that the Teletubbies are to be investigated to determine whether they promote homosexuality. Apparently the Polish equivalent of the Children's Commissioner was taken aback by the sight of Tinky Winky holding a handbag. A few thoughts occur: 1) How do you a sex a Teletubby? Do we know that Tinky

Can you help me with my carbon offsets?

I confess. I'm about to go fly again. Bad dog. Very bad dog. I am trying to work out my carbon footprint so I can offset it. But all the websites seem to be designed for humans. I can't work out what a four-legged pink dog should do. Does having four legs mean my footprint is double a human's footprint? Or do I get a discount for being able to give shade to a good few square centimetres of the Earth under my ears?

The "stop and question" kite

What is really behind these proposals for the new "stop and question" powers? I have been puzzling. News of the proposals came from a leaked letter from the counter-terrorism minister, Tony McNulty, to Tony Blair and the media took up the story. The police were surprised and a little confused. Civil liberty groups were understandably outraged. Opposition politicians reacted and so did Labour

Campbell backs Sudan appeal

Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Menzies Campbell has joined other party leaders to back the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal for the people of Darfur and Chad. You can donate to the Darfur and Chad Crisis Appeal at www.dec.org.uk, by calling 0870 60 60 900 (national call rates), or at any post office or high street bank. [...]

Too much data - and not being used properly...

Whilst in the USA I had to my fingerprints scanned by the US customs, and an Iris scan. Disney also wanted my fingerprint scan - to stop fraud apparently.

Day 2336: Collision in Welsh Assembly

Friday: This idea for a RAINBOW collision coalition is increasingly looking more ZIPPY AND BUNGLE than DAVID BOWIE’s rainbow show, isn’t it?

Day 2335: Innocent Until Proven Guilty

Thursday: The parents of little lost Maddy McCann have spoken up for the first time and said that the suspect should be treated as innocent until proved otherwise. Good for them! The poor police in Portugal have faced a lot of very unfair criticism from the silly British Press because they are simply not allowed to give out information. Then as soon as they talk to some unlucky schmuck, the Press are all over him and printing his name and photo and the address of his mother’s house all over the place. And that’s just the BBC! ...

Day 2334: Out of Control; Out of Order

Wednesday: So, these three blokes have gone missing… It is not that the Home Office wants to introduce a police state by the back door… no, actually it IS that the Home Office wants to introduce a police state by the back door, but ALSO that they are totally incompetent to administer even this cack-handed, half-witted, numbskull way of getting around the whole inconvenient “innocent until proven guilty” thing. There ARE only 17 people on Control Orders anyway – does MI5 not have 170-odd people (or 170 odd-people) to keep them under surveillance? If they ARE ...

Day 2333: Freedom from Flip-Flops

Tuesday: Guess what! It turns out that MP’s voting for the Secrecy of Information Bill last week was about as popular as a BUCKET OF COLD SICK, and much is the OPPROBRIUM that has been heaped upon them for doing so. Well, being like a bucket of cold sick is NOT what Mr Balloon wants. Well, not since his Bullingdon daze days anyway. So he’s decided he wants to be against changing the Freedom of Information Act after all. As it happens, the author of this pathetically SELF-SERVING bit of legislation, Mr David MacLean’s-Toothpaste, has found ...

Day 2332: Cutty Spark

Monday: I had better get Daddy to do a rush through the week’s news to bring my diary up to date again. These are the stories that I WOULD have written about, if Daddy had not been chained to his new workstation-cum-treadmill for a week. We woke up on Monday to discover that a boat near where we live has burnt down. This made us SAD! My Daddies used to go to work in Greenwich and every day they would walk past the big boat on their way. We all went down to the river ...

Carnival Cancelled

A disappointing day as the Luton International Carnival, "the biggest one day carnival in Europe", was called off because of the bad weather. Very sad really as lots of people across the town, and beyond, put a lot of effort into making floats and costumes. I was hoping to see the work of the kids from the junior school where I am a governor who had made "Arabian Nights" themed costumes including

Conservatives criticise Channel Four Diana programme - have they seen it?

One wonders if Conservative Hugo Swire has actually seen the Channel Four documentary on Princess Diana's death. If not, his calls for Channel Four to cancel the show might be unkindly interpreted as pandering to Daily Express readers.

Conservative front-bencher "severely reprimanded" for Grammar school challenge

Iain Dale reports that Kevin Brady, Conservative front bench spokesman on Europe, has been "severely reprimanded" by the Conservative Chief Whip for contradicting the Cameron line on Grammar schools.

Bob Dylan relates the history of mattresses

I am immersing myself in Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour on BBC Radio Two. It is perfect for a rainy Bank Holiday Monday with the rest of the family gone to watch Pirates of the Carribean 3, which I would only sleep through. Dylan's theme tonight is sleep, coincidentally. Bob Dylan's introductions are weird. He has a particularly strange voice which sounds like someone Taking The Michael. He

The wonders of Modern Technology - using the TV as a TV

Finally the Wii has been linked to the wireless network. This means that my children can now watch Youtube vidoes of kittens on the TV. For the moment the TV has reverted to being used to watch TV. It does confuse the cats. To be fair it does show how well people have implemented Internet Protocols on different equipment. The ActiveX control used by YouTube manages to run on the Wii.

The Sons

Meant to mention this a while ago, just remembered as I'm heading out to see the Holloways soon. I randomly caught a live band in Derby the other week - popped into a place called Five Lamps for a drink and they had The Sons playing, launching a new album. You can see/hear The Sons on their MySpace page. They sounded pretty good - and Five Lamps was a good place to hang out, if you're ever in Derby...

Sea, Sea, Seasiders!

Day out to Wembley yesterday, few pics attached. The large one is the sea of orange shirts and flags across the Blackpool section. The top two small ones are the players celebrating reaching the Championship (the empty seats are where the Yeovil fans had started to leave). The bottom photo is one of my mates (Colin) standing outside the stadium after the match - yes, it was a pretty wet day. The stadium is, of course, impressive - you'll all have seen better photos than these. Blackpool totally dominated the match, especially the first half and ...

Rain stopped play

You can tell it’s a Bank Holiday… here’s the grim view from my flat today.

School vouchers revisited

An interesting idea courtesy Kenneth Baker in yesterday’s Torygraph: We should introduce an education credit equivalent to the amount the state pays for a primary education place, £3,150, and a secondary school place, £4,070, to those parents whose children attend a school that is designated by the Department for Education and Skills as failing, and who are dissatisfied with the education

ConHome sticks boot in Conway

Tory MP Derek Conway has faced a barrage of criticism for employing his undergraduate son as his parliamentary assistant at a cost to the taxpayer of £981 a month. What surprised me most, though, was where this incident was prominently displayed - as the lead headline on the Conservative Home website. Admittedly ConHome is fiercely independent of the official party, and is the self-styled voice

14 not out

The Golden Dozen outpourings from the Lib Dem blogosphere are available for your reading delight over at Lib Dem Voice.

In the Running

The local website we do in Rochford District, www.onlinefocus.org , is in the running for one of the New Statesman New Media awards. There's no distinction in being there , as anyone can nominate you and I certainly don't expect us to win. But it's just fun to be there, and to compare what we do with other councillors' blogs (not to mention some distinguished MPs and MEPs!) One of the useful

Going Cosmic

I was delighted to see Millenium Elephant writing about Olaf Stapledon, the philosopher who in the 1930s wrote science fiction on a cosmic scale. He's one of the writers who explores those great gulfs of space and time, and much of his work seems as fresh as anything written today. The Elephant sums up Stapledon's work with two words - "Scale" and "Tragedy". Those words could also be applied

Lib Dem Action Plan to Save the Post Office Network

We are the only party to have a costed a credible set of proposals to keep post offices open and, where necessary, to open others. Our opponents have no such policy. Our plan keeps the Post Office Ltd in the public sector and enables Royal Mail employees to get a share in their company through a radical employee share ownership Trust, similar to the John Lewis Partnership. Royal Mail will take a new ownership model, with the sale of some of its shares providing the investment needed by our post offices. The Liberal Democrat plan would ...

Now THIS makes me happy

Oi human, get your hands off...

It is certainly raining

Both our water butts are now nearly full (they were empty a week or so ago). As range of watering cans and buckets are also full. So it is fair to say it has been raining with gusto. The Met Office radar at the moment shows rain all over central, southern and eastern England. Peter Mc informed me that rain stopped play at Headingley. The BBC reports that play was meant to restart at 13:30 but

The very senior Labour figure from the 1980s who Blair called a "c word"?

Paul Linford speculates as to which "very senior Labour figure from the 1980s" it was, according to Andrew Rawnsley's write-up of Alastair Campbell's new book, Blair called a "c-word". When I read Rawnsley's article yesterday I thought it sounded like Roy Hattersley. Paul Linford confirms Hattersley as the odds-on favourite.

Future of Lib Dem Voice

Over the last couple of months I’ve been advertising for someone to take over the running of Lib Dem Voice, as unfortunately I’m unable to continue for various reasons - not least of which the amount of time running a site of this nature takes up (Iain Dale may well pop up now and tell [...]

Liberal & Proud

British police could get powers to stop and question anyone in the UK under proposed tough new anti-terror laws. Anyone who refused to give their name or explain what they were doing could be ch...

Hither Green School Fete: Friday 6 July

Just need to declare an interest as a governor of Hither Green Primary School. We're having our School Fete on the afternoon of Friday 6 July. If you have any unwanted items suitable for tombola or raffle prizes or to sell on the nearly=new and bric-a-brac stalls, could you bring them into the school on Beacon Road.

Planning Application: 371-373 Lewisham High Street

Just to let people know that a planning application has been submitted for the demolition of the existing garages and workshops at the rear of 371-373 Lewisham High Street and the construction of three storey building comprising a commercial unit on the ground floor and 2, two bedroom flats above. if you'd like to know more and perhaps submit comments, please contact Lewisham Council planning department at planning@lewisham.gov.uk. The reference number is CD/07/65402 and the officer dealing with it Kemi Erifevieme, tel 02083149271.

Another reason to not visit Russia

The Girl has expended a significant amount of effort trying to persuade me to take her to St Petersburg in Russia. I've resisted, partly because I'm not sure there is even a word for vegetarian in Russian, but mainly because I baulk at supporting (even indirectly) a regime that seems to be sliding towards authoritarianism. I can now add to my list of reasons the fact that it seems to be

Encouraging Sustainable Development

For some months, I've been writing a policy report for the Local Government Association on Sustainable Development. In particular, I've been looking at how councils can use the planning system to ensure that developments are as environmentally sustainable as possible. And what "best practice" developments exist out there for us to learn from? I've now finished my report, which will be formally published by the LGA shortly. It makes 13 main recommendations, for example: * Improve the energy efficiency of existing housing stock by linking the granting of planning permission to a householder’s agreement ...

Friends of Mountsfield Park

Just to let people know that the next meeting of the Friends of Mountsfield Park will be at 7pm on Monday 2 July at Hither Green Baptist Church, Radford Road. All local residents are welcome to attend.

Cameron challenged by front bencher on Grammar schools

The Times reports this morning: David Cameron is facing a fresh challenge to his authority with a member of his frontbench team producing new evidence showing that grammar schools dramatically improve the exam results of a whole neighbourhood. Graham Brady, the Shadow Europe Minister and a former grammar school pupil, has passed data to The Times showing that GCSE results are significantly

Why is Cameron calling for "more of the same" ?

David Cameron is, according to the Telegraph, demanding that secondary schools should split children in to ability groups and that streaming should become a normal part of school for children over the age of eleven years old. Perhaps David Cameron hasn't visited many secondary schools recently, after all, his Eton experience is hardly typical of a child in the UK, but the vast majority of secondary schools do split children in to streamed ability groups anyway. In my dealings with high schools in Norwich discussing the transfer of years seven pupils to them, they have all asked what ...

The Pabstus Tack Trilogy

What better way to spend a wet Bank Holiday afternoon than to curl up in front of the television to watch a trilogy of films by one of the great unsung auteurs of the silent screen? The cable channel UK Golden Pap is to be congratulated for screening the masterworks of the great – and [...]

Commons job for Conservative MP's son highlights expenses row

Conservative MP Derek Conway has been employing his 21-year-old student son as a researcher. There is nothing wrong with this. But, as the Guardian points out this morning, it does add extra backing to those arguing that the Freedom of Information act parliamentary exemption amendment is aimed at quietly covering up details of MP's expenses: Public embarrassment over MPs' use of official

Questioning recycling

Tim Worstall has a challenge to all advocates of recycling in this morning's Times: Recycling is based on the near-religious belief that everything has value, everything is worth saving, except your time. He quotes a study in Seattle which showed a household spending an average of 44 minutes a week to sort rubbish. He then projects this to estimate the cost for the UK: The Worstall

Freeview (or lack of) in the West End

The Courier has this morning featured an article about my letter to the Under-Secretary of State for Media and Tourism, Shaun Woodward MP, regarding the continued lack of Freeview services for many people in the West End - and in other parts of Dundee. If you click on the headline above you can read the full story on the Dundee LibDem website. He's my e-mail to Mr Woodward : Dear Mr Woodward I write to express concerns about the lack of Freeview TV services for many of my constituents in the West End of Dundee, a situation ...

Republic launches Action Page

Republic has launched a new Action Page on the website [www.republic.org.uk/action]

Monday 28th May 2007

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