By Liberal First* One thing puzzling me about the recent debate in the media about the Tory’s grammar school woes is that their policy position is now not deeply dissimilar to our own, or that of the government, on the matter of selection. We also do not propose shutting down existing grammar schools but take the [...]
Just got back from the Westminster Hour. Ed Vaizey (Conservative MP), now clearly desperate to put me off my stride on our weekly Sunday tryst, has taken to wearing strange outfits. Tonight’s little number was a bright yellow phosphorescent jacket and shorts. That boy will try anything! So if I seemed distracted ... perhaps next time I should bring a camera! First up was the Opposition Day motion on an Iraq enquiry coming up this week in Parliament. The Scot Nats had a debate asking for an enquiry not that long ago - and whilst we Lib Dems voted ...
Last year, I, like many fellow bloggers, noted with a mixture of despair and anger the desperate attempts of an increasingly wretched government to draw a veil over the BAe affair. It doesn't get any better, but all that needs to be said is here...
Saturday's Guardian had an excellent pull-out by Mark Lynas: "Eight years and 32 actions to save the planet". The radical plan culminated in 2015 with the instruction: "We did it! Global emission dip for the first time as countries rush to go low-carbon. Enjoy a glass of locally produced organic champagne." Unless we all move to Reims, this is a rather restrictive celebatory entreaty. PS.
It comes to something when you can find out more about your own government from another country. But that seems to be the bizarre situation over the controversial al Yamamah arms deal. If the US Congress ends up investigating the issue, we could find out more about the issue from the other side of the Atlantic than over here. There is a website (and petition) calling for allegations of serious
So, the early signs are that Monsieur Sarkozy -- apologies, M. le President -- has swept the board. It's a remarkable achievement for the combative character who has turned from being a divisive, uncompromising candidate to the leader with a cross-party cabinet and with approval ratings which have left this orbit. How long can this last? If you detect in that question a certain lust for Schadenfreude -- you'd be right. Whatever my learned colleague may say, Sarkozy is not one of us. When he talks of being liberal, the image he has in mind is Mrs T not ...
A few weeks ago I suggested to colleagues that our children were all being over stressed, trained like dogs for exams to tick boxes, that this wasn't an education just a sausage machine and little else - and so we should look at how scrapping exams for under-16s and scrapping AS levels would work. Blow me - the national exams sat by under-16s in England's schools should be scrapped, a teaching standards watchdog has now urged: the General Teaching Council (GTC) believes the tests are failing to raise standards and placing "added stress" on pupils, teachers and parents. ...
In case you think this blog's been comparatively quiet of late, here are two of my recent Lib Dem Voice offerings: Top of the Blogs: the 'Golden Dozen' #16 A stench that starts at the very top As previously mentioned, I'm taking my foot off the throttle of this blog just now - though I doubt I'll be able to resist posting here from time to time.
I’m by no means an anti-intellectual, inverted-snob - still, I won’t pretend that I was wholly enthusiastic about popping to the cinema to watch a German-language film on a Saturday night. A subtitled political drama about censorship in pre-Wall East Germany sounded like a little too much hard work. Dummkopf. The Lives of Others (2006, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck) is a stupendously good
The last four months have gone so quickly… welcome to the 16th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (3rd - 9th June), together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed. (And my thanks, again, to my LDV and Oxford [...] 
Unusually for a Returning Officer, I see the role as an opportunity for mild entertainment, not something that candidates entirely appreciate, I admit, but fun nonetheless. In 1998, I missed all the hustings for South East's European selection due to a pre-existing commitment (alright, I was on holiday) and rather cunningly organised two hustings for the same evening. It seemed logical to have
I’ve often noticed during my political and professional peregrinations round London how a particular place will crop up several times repeatedly, only to be superceded by somewhere else. The current flavour of the month is Hornchurch, which is still within Great London, though firmly in Essex. On Thursday, I was out doing my Postman Pat imitation, [...]
I caught the Ming interview with Andrew Marr on BBC Sunday AM. He looked and sounded assured, confident and energetic. Full marks to him for highlighting the shortage of housing as a major issue. Ming also talked at length about the BAE/Saudi controversy. It seems traditional on the Sunday morning BBC1 programme for the most difficult question to be lobbed in casually at the end of the interview
We had a wonderful confirmation service this morning. Our Bishop, Rt Revd Stephen Cottrell, was fresh from media "exposure" for going up to commuters at Reading railway station asking them to accept the gift of time and handing them an egg-timer. It received some excellent media coverage, not least because Bishop Cottrell is a deeply sincere man. The Church Times reported: WORLDWIDE interest was
I wasn't invited. Sniff. 
One neighbour starts doing their garden and the afternoon peace is lost .... then another starts and another .... Yesterday was great - St Hilda's Church Fair where we bought plants, cakes and catch up with residents, followed by sunny leafleting. Luckily Park View's fair was in the afternoon so we had a great food stop .... Today has been leafleting and case work - Next week is action packed
Adverts have been appearing across the Internet in the last few days to supplement the party’s campaigning against the attempts by Conservative and Labour MPs to exempt Parliament from the Freedom of Information Act. If you want to add the advert to your own site, just download the above graphic and link it through to www.ourcampaign.org.uk/foi There’s [...]
I have just produced my update for this Tuesday's Community Council meeting - you can read it by clicking on the headline above.
This is the last set of pics.
This set includes one of me. People weren't going to let me get away without my appearing in at least one!
Gordon Brown's statement that the Church of England will be allowed to pick their own Bishops and Archbishops has got to be a good thing. The power of patronage that a Prime Minister holds over the Church of England is bizarre and quite at odds with modern society. By this I don't mean that the Church has no place in society, far from it. But why should a Prime Minister, of any given religion or none have the power to appoint the most important people in the church of England ? I am pleased Gordon Brown thinks the current ...
Shortly after the research called protocol 85.02 it was noticed that an unusually large number of children at Doncaster Hospital were brain damaged. A written question was asked in the House. 17th December 1991 Baby Deaths (Doncaster) Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the results of the epidemiological survey into the causes of brain damage to babies at Doncaster royal
In recent months, I’ve noticed a marked increase in media stories about intergenerational equity, pointing out that young people today are up to their eyeballs in debt and struggling to get onto the housing ladder. I suspected there would be a backlash against this, and it would appear that the Observer has started a [...]
Have you heard of the Two Tunnels project? Its all about opening Combe Down and Devonshire tunnels that used to take the old Somerset and Dorset Railway out of Bath to the south coast until it closed in 1966. The tunnels will be open to cyclists, walkers and joggers and will provide a spectacular way to enter the city. Combe Down tunnel goes under Firs Field at 200 feet down, much lower than the Stone Mines. The Two Tunnels project has been selected to move to the Sustrans shortlist of 79 Connect2 projects bidding for Big ...
Last week the G8 leaders met in Germany. Despite all the spin they tried to put on it, the content of their agreement for the third world seems to have been that they are not even going to deliver on everything that they have promised previously. Whilst they were deciding that, about 20,000 people will have died of hunger in the countries most affected by their decision. This is a disgrace. Two years ago I was in Edinburgh for the Make Poverty History March. The strength of world feeling was very visibly demonstrated by that, and the G8 leaders ...
Election Petitions 2007 For the interests of the psephological political junkies I have obtained copies of all 8 election petitions that have been issued in England and Wales for the local elections in May 2007 and will give a summary of each of them. I have put my comments as to how I think the cases are likely to progress. Terry Judkins Conservative of Portsmouth has issued a petition
England Under 21's have an important tournament next week. They are in the finals of the Under 21 Championships in the Netherlands. You would imagine that any footballer would jump at the chance to represent their country at any level. However, for David Bentley and Gabby Agbonlahor, this appears not to be the case. In the case of Gabby Agbonlahor, he apparently failed to respond to any phone calls from the England Under 21 manager. So he is not in the squad. In the case of David Bentley, he withdrew himself from the England squad. He said "I think ...
A quite bonkers situation is highlighted today: Migrant cap 'will hit fruit crop': Thousands of pounds worth of strawberries could be lost Much of this year's strawberry crop will not be harvested because of a cap on seasonal workers entering the UK, the National Farmers' Union has warned. The NFU says the cap, which limits the number of non-EU citizens entering the country, is causing a shortage of fruit-pickers. read more
Four {Destroyed health post in Darfur} million deaths - that's the shocking figure for how many people would have died in the UK if we'd suffered the same proportion of our population being killed as has been killed in Darfur. It makes 'just' asking another question or speaking at another rally seem rather inadequate in the face of this monstrous brutality. Which is why - I'm setting up a local group to help take more action. It's the subject of my latest newspaper column (for the Ham & High this time): Two and a half years ago, Tony ...
I've wrestled my conscience about getting involved in the recent discussion about Cardinal O'Brien's outburst about politicians supporting abortion. As a liberally minded Catholic I do think I can shed some light on the issue that has caused much consternation and not a little intemperate language amongst fellow party members. But I always hesitate to talk about abortion for, unlike His Eminence, I do think that it is unwise for a single man never likely to sire children, to pontificate on the issue. But today's Observer ups the ante a little with this: MPs to ...
Wales on Sunday columnist, Matt Withers, and I are Facebook friends. As part of the ritual involved in such a pairing you are requested to state how you met. In this section Matt has written: "Matt routinely steals stories from Peter's blog and attempts to pass it off as his own work." I am now going to return the compliment. In his column today Matt notes that Peter Hain spent most of the Assembly Election campaign warning of the dangers of letting the Tories into government if people didn’t vote Labour: He told his ...
On 17th May, Labour ministers announced they are to press ahead with 2500 Post Office closures, despite the concerns about the impact that were raised during their so-called consultation. The new closures come on top of the 4,000 that have already closed under Labour since they came to power in 1997 and 3,500 that were axed by the previous Conservative government.
A campaign has been launched by Sarah Carr Herefordshire Liberal Democrat Youth and Students (LDYS) for Hereford city to go plastic bag free. Plastic bags have been in the news lately following the decision of the town of Modbury in Devon to ban them after local residents and traders became aware of the terrible impact of plastic bags on wildlife.
The linked story is to The Sunday Times' take on the same story reported previously. Clearly a proportion of newborn babies taken into care are from mothers who are addicted to drugs. One of the saddest cases I met, however, was a mother in an assessment centre who had cleaned up, but the system was still trying to remove her child. There is also the question as to whether or not it is the
The General Teaching Council, widely regarded as some sort of chocolate teapot that does nothing at all for teachers, has got of its backside and produced a report that says that the SAT's tests for under 16's should be scrapped and replaced by ongoing assessment from teachers. For one, I am in completely in agreement with the GTC on this. Government tests at age 7 are informal assessment by the teacher based on a number of pieces of work. Why this isn't the case of children aged 11, I don't know. I have a boy in my class who ...
Spotted this at the Adam Smith Institute blog: The future of rubbish: read more
I never thought I'd become famous through blogging, and it is true that national stardom is still eluding me. However, if Bexley happens to be your neck of the woods, I am almost an A-list (not a Tory candidate) celebrity. After my previous success in being brought to the attention of the press in Bexley through my musical tastes, my blog now seems to be in the news again. Yes, a range of merchandise will be available soon. P.S. My thanks must go to Duncan Borrowman for e-mail me about this.
Hard on the heels of Margaret Hodge, now Hazel Blears is using the dog whistle on immigration: "We have got areas in Salford where private landlords are letting properties with 10 and 12 people in there. Now the community doesn't object to the people, they object to the exploitation and the fact that that leads to people being on the street drinking, anti-social behaviour. They don't object to
According to the Sunday Telegraph, Gordon Brown is preparing to end the power of the Prime Minister to choose the Archbishop of Canterbury and other Churches of England clerics. From what I can make out, this would effectively mean the end, or nearly the end, of the position of the Churches of England as the "Established Churches". Her Majesty the Queen would, presumably, remain the titular
Paris Hilton is back in jail. I'm in the country that invented Schadenfreude.
I read this... Blair says sorry to Cameron over terror plans: Tory leader's anger as the phone tap initiative he outlined in private is adopted by Brown. read more
The Observer reports that, following an acrimonious meeting last week, the Daily Mirror and David Cameron are at daggers drawn: If he is to be the next Prime Minister, David Cameron needs friends in the media. The editor of the Daily Mirror is unlikely ever to be one of them, but relations between the Labour-supporting paper and the Tory leader have sunk to an all-time low following a fiery | < | June 2007 | > | ||||
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