Wednesday 11th July 2007

11:56 pm

Malcolm Bruce Takes Over

Gravatar There was a good turnout at the Liberal International British Group (LIBG) AGM in the House of Commons this evening. Tribute was paid to outgoing President (Lord) Tim Garden, who is sadly out of action at the moment through ill health, but who has done a lot to raise the profile of the organisation, as [...]
11:24 pm

Whilst Gordon Brown might be accused of inconsistency, you can't fault his political judgment

Gravatar Gordon Brown's decision to axe the Manchester Super Casino and plans for any others must be seen as a clever bit of politics, capturing the support of some of the right wing press (notably the Daily Scum= Daily Mail) and church groups, but also putting clear blue (with the emphasis perhaps on "blue" between him and Tony Blair. Critics can quite justifiably maintain that Brown is a hypocrite on this issue, he did, after all, support the Super Casino in the House of Commons, but Brown too can argue that he is listening to people's concerns, he has a ...
11:11 pm

Paddy: Brown was genuine in his offers to the LibDems, but hadn't thought it through

Gravatar At the recommendation of the Whiskey Priest, I have just watched Paddy Ashdown being interviewed by Iain Dale on 18 Doughty Street. It was a marvellously relaxed and thorough interview and is available to play here under "Last 7 days". The more Paddy talks about the "Project" he had with Blair (confirmed also in the Alastair Campbell Diaries programme) the more I wonder if Blair and Ashdown were
11:09 pm

New family member!

Gravatar We welcomed the newest member to the Mayer/Jardine-Brown clan tonight with the arrival of Sticklebrick an African Pygmy Hedgehog from deepest East Putney. He is adorable, bags of personality and curiosity, and so far he's only relieved himself on Helen.
10:55 pm

Abolish Sport England

Gravatar In my essay in Liberalism - Something to Shout About, published last year, I argued that putting more emphasis on organised sport was not the answer to rising childhood obesity. This posting gives a flavour of my arguments. In an article in today's Times Matthew Syed argues along similar lines. The whole article is worth reading, but here are three choice quotations: Will spending more public money on sport help to tackle obesity? No chance. Gerry Sutcliffe, the new Sports Minister, will soon discover one of Whitehall’s best-kept secrets: sporting participation has not budged since 1994 despite an ...
YouGov
10:55 pm

9 things I realised in the time I could have been blogging

Gravatar Right, I'm going to make an effort to get back to regular blogging. Just so very, very busy. What have I been up to in the last week or so? Well, to avoid boring everyone senseless, I'll just go for a quick list of things I have realised in the last week or so: 1. Audit Committee is not always that interesting (even if it is important) 2. The Tower of London is a great place for a gig and The Good The Bad And The Queen are awesome 3. I still prefer Blur 4. ...
10:44 pm

Album Review - The Enemy

Gravatar When I first started this blog I had intended to include sporadic music reviews. 2nd City Stumbler has inspired me to get this going again, so here we go… THE ENEMY - We’ll Live And Die In These Towns Ah, the Enemy. It seems surreal to see row after row of this, their debut album, sitting proudly [...]
10:38 pm

Sting the rich?

Gravatar In tonights ‘London Lite’, one of the free papers which litter the tube network, I see a report that the LibDems are to announce a new tax policy which reduces the base income tax rate (which is welcome, although its not being reduced to zero) and ’stinging taxes on the rich’. This sort of language and [...]
10:35 pm

The Alastair Campbell Diaries

Gravatar I caught only a few minutes of The Alastair Campbell Diaries on BBC1 this evening, but it was enough. The section I saw dealt with Labour's 1997 election victory and the footage of Tony Blair being greeted by adoring crowds as he entered Downing Street was shown again. Campbell did not say that they were all Labour Party workers who had been bussed in. There was no narrative voice to say so either. Earlier today Iain Dale wrote: The BBC, in its infinite wisdom, has paid a production company several hundred thousand of your licence fee payer pounds ...
10:28 pm

Campbell is boring

Gravatar I have just struggled through the first episode of the Alastair Campbell Diaries. It was mildly interesting to watch the clips about genesis of "New Labour". I was interested to hear about Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell having a fight. But the programme was, all in all, one of the most boring programmes I have ever watched. This was mainly because of Campbell's reading of his diaries, as
10:20 pm

Pre-Queen's Speech speech

Gravatar Gordon Brown today broke with tradition and announced in advance what legislation will be appearing in the Queen's Speech on November 6th. The new Prime Minister's priorities are housing, health and education. Where have we heard that before? Now, if he'd said his priorities were unicycling, lapdancing and pancakes, the speech would have been worth listening to. A colleague also put the question to me: "Do you think the Queen will be really annoyed?". She doesn't get to do much exciting as our head of state (aside from all the taxpayer funded fun, of course), the Queen's Speech ...
10:16 pm

Sandwell BNP Councillor suspended

Gravatar Bob Piper beat me to it tonight blogging the story of the Sandwell BNP Councillor that has been suspended for three months. Perhaps Bob will congratulate the standards board on their decision, as I know he’s such a fan of them? But seriously, the BNP do seem to have lost momentum in Sandwell - [...]
10:00 pm

Essential Viewing

Gravatar Paddy Ashdown, former LibDem leader, being interviewed tonight on 18 Doughty Street on One to One (available for replay after the show ends tonight at 10pm... I'm guessing). Very interesting viewing and a good hour chat without Newsnight/Today Programme interruptions from the interviewer. PS. Yes, I know I'm becoming a bit of an 18 Doughty Street cheerleader, but it is good.
9:57 pm

Leaflet after leaflet

Gravatar And the show goes on. Despite the best efforts of the Labour bully boys, the Lib Dem campaign in Sedgefield continues to build up a head of steam. The quality and variety of our leaflets, newsletters, tabloids and glossies is superb. Here in Darlington we're delivering to Hurworth, Middleton St George and various odd spots around the south of the constituency. Yesterday I delivered in Aycliffe
9:40 pm

Opinion: Is diversity worth paying for?

Gravatar Ming Campbell hosted a reception on Tuesday night for female Westminster researchers, encouraging them to consider becoming approved candidates. This is surely welcome, but Ming’s moves in this area are all too rare for a leader who stated during his campaign for election that: “It is clear that a positive and dynamic campaign is needed [...]
8:59 pm

Casino Gamble fails to pay off.

Gravatar Brown today apparently launched a review into the super casino plans launched and much supported by Blair. This review is though popularly seen as the death of super casino plans as a means to redevelop some inner city areas. The whole debate over the super casinos always slightly confused me surely casinos are businesses like all others they both provide positive externalities and negative ones. The whole debate about the wrongs of casinos seems to begin with the assumption that potential users of casinos can’t really handle it. That once you enter a slippery road of addiction and ...
8:38 pm

R.I.P. Councillor Chris Gaster

Gravatar I've had more sad news this evening from my Bromley friends. Chris Gaster, Councillor for Crystal Palace Ward on Bromley Borough Council sadly passed away at lunchtime after a long battle with cancer. Chris was first elected to Bromley Borough Council in 1971 and I understand that he was originally a Labour Councillor before seeing the light and joining the SDP in the 1980s and then subsequently joining the Liberal Democrats. Like Lennard Woods, Chris will be sadly missed. Our thoughts are with his wife and daughters.
8:30 pm

Problems with Family Court processes in the USA

Gravatar Practicing family attorney Gregory Hession confirms child protective service agencies engage in abusive, deliberate and dirty tricks motivated by federal funding. Every year thousands of families are forcibly separated from their children based on unsubstantiated or outright false allegations of child abuse. Gregory Hession, a practicing constitutional and family law attorney in Mass., says that
8:27 pm

Respect on the tube

Gravatar It is not often I bump into people who have the remotest interest in politics outside the rarefied quarters of the LibDems. So it was with great interest that I just happened to overhear a group of about eight Respect activists talking on the tube today. They were going to Portcullis House to "grab some MPs - any MPs" to lobby them about something...they were talking excitedly about their rally
8:21 pm

What is it with Edgware Road Tube station?

Gravatar I only ask because whenever I have gone through Edgware Road station on the circle/district line, the train ALWAYS stops for more than the average stop. Often this is for five minutes, or longer, or as long as 30 minutes on one occasion. This only happens at Edgware road. Why? There must be some sort of technical reason for it, mustn't there? Is it where the "join" is in the Circle Line? I
8:06 pm

Lembit must resign!!!

Gravatar Seriously, although I am of course referring to his leadership of the party rather than is status as MP for Montgomeryshire. It’s nothing personal, but as I said last week, the Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats can’t be a separate post from the party’s Shadow Welsh Secretary in the Commons and the Leader [...]
8:03 pm

Haven't they got anything useful to do?

Gravatar Sometimes I despair of MPs. Today, the Culture, Media and Sport select committee published a highly self-serving report accusing the Press Complaints Commission of failing to protect Kate Middleton (Prince William’s current/former girl-friend, M’Lud) from harassment by paprazzi photographers: The Press Complaints Commission took too long to act to protect Kate Middleton from clear and persistent
7:59 pm

Woodham Warriors - Sedgefield By-Election July 2007

Gravatar Another Sedgefield by-election video: Greg Stone and Tim Farron MP visit the Woodham Warriors American Football Team at Woodham College.
7:58 pm

Sedgefield By-election 6th-8th July 2007

Gravatar This is the latest video from the Sedgefield campaign. I have edited out the Labour hooligans from the clips of the launch. The rest was shot over the weekend.
7:20 pm

George Bush knows your credit card number

Gravatar In fact he also knows 33 other pieces of personal data about you, if you have taken a flight to the USA any time in the last few years. How? Well*, in the wake of 9/11 and as part of their attempt to prevent a repeat, US government agencies insisted on knowing a wide range [...]
7:19 pm

Nasin ante li pona tawa jan ante

Gravatar Different strokes for different folks - (different ways suite different people) a good Liberal sentiment expressed in Toki Pona. This language with a claimed total of 120 words was invented by Canadian linguist Sonja Elen Kissa. Looks quite fun. Imagine writing a FOCUS in this language - offical guidelines here.
7:05 pm

OFFICIAL: Gordon Brown names Ming Campbell Leader of the Opposition at PMQs

Gravatar If it’s in Hansard, then it must be true: Sir Menzies Campbell (North-East Fife) (LD): What is the Prime Minister’s assessment of the sums wasted by fraud, error and overpayment in the tax credit system he set up three years ago? The Prime Minister: It is very interesting that the leader of the Conservative party did not [...]
6:46 pm

Lib Dem councillor denies tactical vote slur

Gravatar The Lib Dem Voice posting on Monday, ‘Five Labour councillors switch to the Tories in Ealing’, provoked a large response - 54 comments at the last count. Four of these comments (Nos 16, 20, 23 and 24) purported to be from Cllr Abid Latif Chohan, a Lib Dem city councillor in Manchester, claiming he would [...]
6:29 pm

Cathy Lynn Henderson and Shaken Baby Syndrome

Gravatar My attention has just been drawn to the success of Cathy Lynn Henderson's appeal (through a writ of Habeas Corpus) in June. This was in the USA. It is a case where the evidence proving Non Accidental Head Injury has been accepted as to be unreliable. I have chased up the new Attorney General on this because it is very important to a number of families in the UK.
6:27 pm

Three interesting links

Gravatar On the offchance you have maybe just a little bit of free time over the coming days - but just not quite enough time to go to Ealing or Sedgefield or pick up a phone to do some telephone canvassing - here are some interesting links on the internet that have been doing the rounds [...]
DataFlame
5:02 pm

Kosovo Bound

Gravatar After a few weeks waiting for a decision from the European Agency for Reconstruction I am delighted to announce that I'm going to be going to the Mitrovica area in Kosovo to deliver some management training over the next couple of weeks. I'm really looking forward to it as it will my first trip to the former Yugoslavia since I delivered training in Bosnia-Herzegovina in October/November 1998. It's also another place I have never worked in before which is also good. Some fairly scary economic statistics there though. Off the top of my head I understand ...
4:19 pm

Ming Campbell - The new leader of Her Majesty's Opposition

Gravatar According to Iain Dale, Gordon Brown referred to Ming Campbell today as the Leader of the Opposition. Perhaps a sign that Sedgefield and Ealing Southall are going the way of the Liberal Democrats ?
4:12 pm

Southwark becomes a Fairtrade Borough

Gravatar Today, Southwark celebrates achieving Fairtrade status! This means Southwark has satisfied the five conditions set down by the Fairtrade Foundation. It’s the result of much hard work from politicians, council oficers and many  volunteers and campaigners all concerned that Southwark should do its bit to help make sure that producers  are paid a fair price for their [...]
4:00 pm

London ... and Wimberley

Gravatar I have been away with the "day job" to London for the past few days - photo (left) is of part of my employers' Annual Reception at the very impressive Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand. Whilst I was away, the Evening Telegraph phoned me about residents' concerns at the state of the former Wimberley Student Halls of Residence - click on headline to view the story. I have been in touch with the Secretary to the University of Dundee about the situation and have been assured that the University is actively marketing the site. Clearly, residents rightly ...
3:39 pm

Know Your Enemy (part 2)

Gravatar The UK is getting ready to take the dispute with Russia to the next level. Watch this space- and hold on to your hat!
3:37 pm

New "safe countries" added to asylum list

Gravatar Here at Home Office Watch, we wanted to give Jacqui Smith a fair chance. OK, so she might be in favour of identity cards, but hey, nobody’s perfect, and in the spirit of fairness we’ve held off since her appointment. But this statutory instrument has brought us back into the fray. Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mauritius, Montenegro, Peru and Serbia [...]
3:35 pm

Who wants to be skilled up?

Gravatar Redcar and Cleveland Council is hoping young people will take the hotseat at the three-day Skill Up Tees Valley exhibition at the Riverside Stadium next week. The Council's Adult Learning Service is teaming up with Routes To Employment and E2E - Entry To Employment for post 16 provision provided by EOTAS, Education Other Than At School, with a version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, July 17-19. The Service's manager John Harris explained: "We are setting up patio tables and chairs around a large screen and are planning an interactive Who wants ...
3:31 pm

New Cobblers Shirt

Gravatar It’s that time of the year when I used to get really excited as a kid - the launch of the new Cobblers kit! With the fixtures out, new shirt launched and pre-season tour underway, suddenly the new season is upon us. Last season’s shirt was the best for years, strong and plain with no clever [...]
3:31 pm

Know your enemy (part 1)

Gravatar I some bigoted old fascist has marked Britain out for special treatment by terrorist murderers as the result of our giving a knighthood to Salman Rushdie. Good! We like to know where we stand. I have no particular brief for Rushdie, Midnights Children aside, I have always considered him a bit sub-par as an author. By the way Rushdie has been honoured by many countries- including France's Legion d'Honneur- if the news reaches you in your cave. When some Islamo-fascist suggests that the UK deserves to have more innocent people attacked because we protect free speech and honour ...
3:20 pm

Planning Application

Gravatar Ward: Combe Down App Ref: 07/02102/FUL Parish: N/A Registered: 2nd July 2007 ...
3:05 pm

Doing Something Right

Gravatar Something good has come out of Gordon Brown's new administration*: the Downing Street Podcast now includes PMQs. Geeky? Moi? * Aside from constitutional reform.
3:05 pm

Caring for Carers

Gravatar Welsh Liberal Democrats are leading a very important debate in the chamber this afternoon, calling for the statutory recognition of carers' rights. In particular we want the government to place a duty on the NHS to consider the welfare of carers, to give them the right to receive information and to give then the right to access respite care. Astonishingly there is not a single Plaid Cymru AM in the chamber. The ink is barely dry on the One Wales document and Labour are already being left alone to defend the Government's record. One Wales, but only as long ...
1:59 pm

Hither Green Supermarket application for 24 hour alcohol licence

Gravatar Hither Green Supermarket at 258-260 Hither Green Lane, London SE13 6TT has applied for a licence for 24 hour sale of alcohol . The current licence for the sale of alcohol is: 08.00 – 23.00 Monday to Saturday 10.00 – 22.30 Sunday Any objections would need to be on the grounds of: Prevention of Crime and Disorder. Protection of Children from Harm Public Safety Prevention of Public Nuisance Any representations need to reach Lewisham Council by 8th August 2007 to. Please write to ...
1:52 pm

Astro-Turfing

Gravatar I have been following the By Election coverage on varying blogs including Lib Dem Voice and Conservative Home. I fear things may be getting a little out of hand. I enjoyed today's post from Stephen Tall on http://www.oxfordliberal.blogspot.com/ about the tribalism that by elections bring out. I'm off to Sedgefield on Saturday and Ealing on Monday. I'm capable of answering the tribal war drums. I shouldn't admit it in public but I always find there's something a bit "Lord of the Flies" like about the intensity of by elections. It was 20 years ago last month that a 14 ...
1:38 pm

Ricky Gervais

Gravatar Fighting talk from Jim Shelley on the Guardian Arts blog: It's hard to say exactly when Ricky Gervais stopped being the endearing, ingenious wit behind The Office and became the tiresome embarrassment he is today. There were the endless, nauseatingly matey, appearances on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross; his mediocre episode of The Simpsons; his mutual appreciation society with overrated US comics Ben Stiller and Larry David. Fawning anecdotes in which he would call Extras' guest Robert De Niro "Bob" were another giveaway. His cameo in A Night At the Museum (with Stiller) was sub-sitcom standard and, like ...
1:32 pm

Smoke in Stoke

Gravatar The BBC reports: People are still lighting up in Stoke-on-Trent's pubs after a bureaucratic mistake over the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces. On-the-spot fines cannot yet be issued to smokers flouting the 1 July ban because of "late changes in technical bits of legislation", the council said. One publican in Hanley has now reportedly put cheeky "Welcome to Smoke-on-Trent" posters in his bar.
1:30 pm

A small gesture to relieve the affordable housing crisis...

Gravatar Gordon Brown has done away with centuries of tradition and announced his legislative programme for the coming year, rather than letting The Queen do it. And I applaud his decision to provide more affordable housing. For anyone interested in getting to the heart of the affordable housing crisis, please note that my own flat has been on the market for a while now at a more than reasonable price,
1:10 pm

Smoke-on-Trent

Gravatar It appears that it is still okay to smoke in pubs and other enclosed public places in Stoke-on-Trent after an administrative error. The ban will come into force on August 2.
12:58 pm

Al Gore says something sensible (for once)

Gravatar I’m no fan of Al Gore. He exemplifies much of what I dislike about the so-called liberals in the US. He’s an arrogant, wealthy, statist who wants to expand state power and remove power from individuals. He’s promoted the real threat of global warming with gross exaggeration and alarmism, in a manner which does not help [...]
12:37 pm

Campaign on the ropes - top staff out

Gravatar Not Ealing or Sedgefield this time Rather, it’s the news from the US where John McCain’s campaign is going from bad to worse: Sen. John McCain’s top political strategists stepped down Tuesday from their posts with the Arizona Republican’s presidential campaign that has come under fire for poor management and lackluster fundraising. CNN has more.
12:36 pm

Spinning the polls

Gravatar This morning's Western Mail takes on the role of cheerleader for the new Coalition Government with the publication of a poll that purports to show a sudden surge of support for the two governing parties. The poll asked people how they would vote if an Assembly election were taking place tomorrow. It put Labour on 45.2%, Plaid on 24.3%, the Conservatives on 12.6%, and the Liberal Democrats on 10.1%. The Green Party got 2.2% and Others 5.6%. According to the Western Mail this poll has given Plaid Cymru and Labour a huge boost. The paper says ...
11:43 am

Labour Rentamob hits Ealing

Gravatar A video from the Labour Thug POV: What genuinely confuses me is why Labour persist in thinking that these tactics of bullying and intimidation are good campaign techniques. Does anyone watch that video and think “Ha ha! They got Gideon Osbourne good and proper there!”? Share This
11:38 am

Liam Byrne says ID cards 'to be UK institution'

Gravatar Before he was shuffled by Gordon Brown, Birmingham Hodge Hill's Labour MP said that the identity card scheme will become a "great British institution" on a par with the railways in the 19th Century.
11:26 am

Campbell encourages women researchers to become MPs

Gravatar Liberal Democrat Leader Ming Campbell has encouraged women researchers working in Parliament to consider standing for Parliament themselves. He spoke last night at a reception designed to encourage female Liberal Democrat Parliamentary researchers and other staff to consider becoming MPs. The event, organised by Liberal Democrat group Campaign for Gender Balance, was also attended by other Liberal [...]
11:15 am

The McCain blues

Gravatar Last week we mentioned John McCain's struggling campaign.  Yesterday, his campaign was thrown into turmoil, as the majority of the top tier of his staff left the campaign.  The campaign director, Terry Nelson; the finance director, Mary Kate Johnson; and strategy chief John Weaver, along with their deputies.Whether they jumped or were pushed depends on who you talk to, but what is not in doubt is that this is another blow to a campaign teetering on the brink.  The political futures market - probably the most reliable indicator of a candidate's likelihood to win the nomination - now prices a contract which will pay $100 if ...
11:14 am

The Lab-Con Hokey Kokey

Gravatar You put your right leg in, your right leg out, in, out, in, out, shake it all about… There is a serious side to all this. The degree by which the Tory and Labour camps in Ealing Southall are attempting to manipulate the Sikh and other communities is truly breathtaking. More to the point, [...]
11:02 am

Neo-Conservatives

Gravatar Well, the Tories have finally put out a document that is not policy, but might- maybe- form a basis to, er, discuss policy ideas. Well its vague enough, but actually it does put forward a point of view- unsurprisingly it is a conservative document, in every sense- but also a rather surprising one. It is not the new Cameroon image of social inclusivity at all, but rather a strangely old fashioned document. It is paternalist, a bit patronising even. Let us start where Liberals will be happy to agree: the power of education. Beyond that, it is pretty hard ...
10:39 am

Slow on the uptake

Gravatar It seems likely that the misguided tactical approach taken by the Scottish party throughout the May 2007 electoral campaign, and the sullen refusal to contribute positively to negotiations after the result was known,  have severely damaged our future electoral prospects, in the short-term at least. I’ll confess I was harbouring thoughts about tearing up my membership [...]
9:21 am

Absurd argument

Gravatar Watching Walter Block and Boyd Blundell debate unions and the minimum wage Blundell made the most absurd argument: He accepted Block’s reasoning that demonstrated that the minimum wage causes unemployment, but then proceeded to argue that removing the minimum wage is a bad thing. Block made the point that removing the minimum wage means more money [...]
9:06 am

On Liberty, Online: A Marriage of Convenience

Gravatar Why £1,000 a year to get married? Is if "for the sake of the children"? I ask this question - especially to any Conservatives in the audience - because I have just read in Levitt & Dubner's excellent book Freakonomics that, once you control for other factors, your family structure has almost no effect on educational and social outcomes. That's right - according to their research, once you control for other factors it really doesn't matter whether you have a mum and a dad, one mum, one dad, or two mums or two dads. What does matter is ...
8:17 am

Island Discs not so deserted!

Gravatar Whenever Desert Island Discs has come on the radio, I’ve always got up to switch it off. I couldn’t bear Sue Lawley’s interviewing style. She always seemed to think she was Antony Clare and spent three quarters of an hour trying to get her interviewees to bare their inner psyche for us. And her approach [...]
7:41 am

Highlands Gardens - The waterfalls are flowing

Gravatar Hooray - the waterfalls are flowing.
7:14 am

The Cotton family - charged with annoying several generations of TV viewers

Gravatar The Norfolk Blogger highlighted that Fearne Cotton is related to Bill Cotton. Well, there are/have been two famous Bill Cottons. Wikipedia says of Billy Cotton senior (1899-1969): His son, Bill Cotton, later became BBC's head of variety. He is related to TV presenter Fearne Cotton, as his son Bill Cotton Jr. is a cousin of her grandfather. So, the full TV crime charge sheet for the Cotton
7:09 am

Travellers' Site relocation: update

Gravatar At the Overview and Scrutiny Business Panel yesterday (Tue), there was an agenda item on whether to call in the Mayor's decision on relocating the Thurston Road travellers to the old Watergate School site near Church Grove. This was put on the agenda following a request from 7 Lib Dem councillors, including Dave Edgerton and myself. Local residents made the detailed case for calling in the decision, and I spoke in favour of this too, arguing this was not the right (and not even a safe) site for the travellers. Unfortunately, the Panel voted along ...
7:07 am

Guardian nail Tory £20 a week marriage allowance

Gravatar The Guardian leader this morning has helpfully nailed the Tory £20 a week marriage allowance idea: Pupils called Arabella get better exam results than the average. That does not mean that being called Arabella makes a girl smarter, only that the name is more common among families that offer a favourable start in life. Marriage, too, is often a marker of a happy situation, rather than its
6:55 am

Is Conservative Councillor Tim Crowley faking online comments?

Gravatar There has been a series of three comments in the last few days on Lib Dem Voice under the username “timcrowley” (see this thread and this thread). They have all been from the same IP address, all give the same email address and it’s clear that the comments are either from Sutton Conservative Councillor Tim [...]
6:54 am

The Times highlights Shappsgate

Gravatar Hugo Rifkind (a Rifkind! - the unkindest cut of all?) puts Shappsgate into print in the Old Thunderer this morning: Not a good day for Grant Shapps, MP (Welwyn Hatfield, C). Shapps, presently helping the Tory effort in the Ealing Southall by-election, appeared to have logged on to the Liberal Democrats’ local YouTube page and pretended to be one of them, commiserating on their impending defeat,
4:52 am

Before Introducing New Terror Laws, Try Using the Ones we Have

Gravatar A recent interview with the Secretary General of Interpol gives Britain poor marks on counter terrorism, even failing to use information freely available to it.
3:59 am

Bite the bullet, ban the booze

Gravatar Just a week into the ban on smoking in enclosed "public" places, there has been much coverage of Conservative plans to increase the tax on alcohol to discourage "binge drinkers" - an idea which, if memory serves, was mooted late last year by the government itself anyway. I like to think that it was such a crazy idea then that it contributed to Ms Hewitt's removal from the health brief. But on both issues, on health grounds at least for the participants (if not the passive smokers and people beaten up by drunks), surely the best answer is ...
1:07 am

How I hacked Iain Dale's blog

Gravatar It's time to come clean. I admit it. I discovered that Iain Dale's password was 1234, and I then logged into his blog and forged this post about Grant Shapps in order to undermine Iain's credibility. After all, it's not as if top political commentator Iain would really write that, is it? I am a naughty dog. A very naughty dog. Sorry. I won't let that long ago incident involving me and Iain's dog colour my judgement again. Promise. PS But I do hope you like my irony in doing that just after his real post ...
12:21 am

Rumour, rumour, rumour

Gravatar Well deadline day has come and gone. Bids had to be in by 5pm in Monday and supposedly there should have been an announcement on Tuesday. KPMG have delayed and rumours abound. Ken Bates has a bid on the table. That is the one thing that is a racing certainty. Rumour has that there were two or three other bids. However it is not clear whether or not this is bids or bidders. Redbus plus Morris could be two bidders with one bid or two bidders with two bids. Pearson and Wilkinson ...
12:15 am

The dirty politics of religious politics

Gravatar I know of few serious politicians who believe that people voting on religious lines is a good part of this country's history or should make up any part of this country's democratic future. yet, it appears that religious politics is alive and well in the UK. The mass defection of several Labour councillors in ealing to the Tories appears to an outside to me to be based on religion, not policy or electoral issues, and this is to be regretted in modern Britain. As recently as the 1950's the Orange Order and it's political tentacles still controlled the ...
12:13 am

Fenwickian week of culture

Gravatar And so tonight to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (as opposed to the Royal Opera House Basingstoke), for Tosca. The Royal Opera House is where relatively middle class people like me go to be surrounded by obscenely wealthy corporate types who aren’t particular sure what the fat woman on stage is singing about, but they [...]
12:12 am

What sort of internet guru has the password 1234 ?

Gravatar Apparently Grant Shapps does, by all accounts. If anyone genuinely believes Iain Dale's story, sorry, I meant explanation, as to how the Tories internet campaigning guru Grant Shapps planted (or had planted by a hacker) a Youtube clip claiming the Lib Dems cannot win in one of the by-elections, then they must be feeling very generous or very drunk. Oh dear !
12:10 am

The growing storm

Gravatar The turf war in Little Ealing hot up plenty in last days. It seem some Labouristi not take too kindly to Signor Sharma new appointment as acting Capo, and breakaway to form alliance with Don Cameron. "We are music-loving men of honour" they say in statement left nailed to the corpse of rat with red rose stuffed up bum. "We admire Don Cameron's attempts to bring sunshine, laughter and Sunday afternoon Variety-Acts to Little Ealing." "We no like Signor Sharma and his demands for chanting praise to Kali whenever he enter room. It bit freaky frankly. And we ...
12:01 am

Day 2380: Millennium at the By-Election

Gravatar Sunday: My daddies have taken me to my first Liberal Democrat By-election, in Ealing Southall. Vote Elephant! {Posted by Picasa} We met lots of famous Liberal Democrats – Mr Theo, Lord Rennard, Ms Linda, Mr Power Cable, Mr Theo – and I was a BIG HIT! I even got to shake the hand of a VERY SPECIAL person... Mr Nigel, the NEXT MP for Ealing! This is SURE to get me on the list for the elected House of Lords Club, so I have checked out my ...

Previous days:

Tuesday 10th July 2007, Monday 9th July 2007, Sunday 8th July 2007, Saturday 7th July 2007, Friday 6th July 2007, Thursday 5th July 2007