In the recent reshuffle in the LibDem Shadow Cabinet, Norman Baker, MP for Lewes, was made Shadow Cabinet Office Minister and Shadow to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, which is a long-winded British parliamentary way of saying that he is there to delve and probe. As he declared at the time, ‘Ming has [...]
When the Tories chose Jeffrey Archer as their London Mayoral candidate in October 1999, I wrote in Liberal Democrat News: the London contest now promises to be another embarrassment to the Tories. If you want a guide to the controversies of the next few months, invest in a copy of Michael Crick's Jeffrey Archer: Stranger than Fiction (Penguin, £8.99).I don't expect Boris Johnson's campaign to self-destruct as quickly or spectacularly as Archer's did. But I will repeat my recommendation that you read a biography of the Tory candidate. This time it is Andrew Gimson's Boris: The Rise of Boris Johnson. ...
A South Norfolk Tory Councillor, Keith Tilcock, has been banned from driving for a year after being caught driving by police whilst in a drunken state. In a further shameful act, he was also observed urinating in the ground of the Norfolk and Norwich University hospital close to one of the wards. In the Eastern Daily Press (story not available online) the Tory Leader of the council is quoted as saying that Councillor Tilcock had been suspended from the Conservative Group but that "he expected to be able to welcome [him] back at a later date". This sounds ...
I went to help in the by-election at Ealing Southall today and found myself appointed as an official Liberal Democrat balloon carrier. First we had squeeze them into a train to take us to Ealing Broadway - here is a colleague trying to control his bunch. Once there, our job was to position the balloons beside the posters, as a backdrop to Ming Campbell, Paddy Ashdown and,...
Ealing bright and early - everyone seems very jolly this morning. Think that is probably the aftermath of the news that broke yesterday about the Tory Tony Lit (and Tory must be a loose description) who gave £4,800 to Labour just before he became Tory candidate. Then back to Parliament, where suddenly see on the annunciator (TV screens around Parliament that tell you what is happening in the Commons and Lords) that there is a statement to be made - an update from the Foreign Secretary on Litvinenko. I seize my opportunity, as I have been waiting for ...
This morning's Daily Telegraph reported: The rate at which British soldiers are being seriously injured or killed on the front line in Afghanistan is about to pass that suffered by our troops during the Second World War. The casualty rate in the most dangerous regions of the country is approaching 10 per cent. Senior officers fear it will ultimately pass the 11 per cent experienced by British soldiers at the height of the conflict 60 years ago.And how was this action presented to the British people? Let us remember the words of Dr John Reid in April of last ...
What a treat.............forget going to Southall to win by-elections, the highlight for me will be my cuddle with the inimitable Milly E! (Thanks Daddy Richard). Oh and the spectacle of Tony Lit Tory campaign convoy, 5 loudspeaker vans in convoy with only one spouting forth. Can someone tell me what on earth is the point of that???? ????
See if you can follow Boris’s tortuous logic in today’s online Oxford Mail: Boris Johnson claimed his decision to run for London Mayor could lead to him spending more time in Oxfordshire. The Henley MP, confirming he would seek the Conservative nomination for next year’s mayoral race, insisted he could serve his constituents at the [...]
MPs say that fortnightly rubbish collections are not right for every area. The Department for the Environment says it is disappointed with their report. I say that it is nothing to with either of them. If central government doesn't allow local councils to decide how they collect people's rubbish, what will it allow them to do? Looking at the Lib Dem blogs, Politically Restricted has a report headed MPs report on rubbish collections is backing for Southwark stance. But if the Lib Dems want the rubbish collected weekly in Southwark they should fight local elections on ...
Dave Howerski being unable to continue because of demands on his resources (we hope the parachute jump in Sweden went well, Dave), Richie has agreed to resume secretarial duties, with the unanimous approval of tonight's party meeting. - The Chairman 
Look, I don't know why, but everytime I see Tony Lit's name, I instantly translate it to "Tory Light"... And he is the Conservative candidate for Ealing Southall.
Today was the funeral of Lennard Woods, the Chair of Bromley & Chislehurst Liberal Democrats who was so tragically taken away from us on the 26th June. It was a sad but good occasion to remember the life of a great and persistent Liberal Democrat (he stood for election to Bromley Borough Council on numerous occasions and only missed by 50 votes in 1998), father, husband and friend. Michael Chuter gave a great eulogy which Len (what we called him behind his back) would have been proud of. Thanks Lennard for the memories and all your encouragement. ...
Fans of the Uncle books by the Revd J. P. Martin will be pleased to know that Uncle now has his own blog
The Scouting Jamboree is nearly with us. On 1st August I will be joining millions of Scouts worldwide renewing our promise at sunrise. But before then we have a make sure that Scouting hits number one. Now I know Scouting is already the number one youth movement in the country but the Jamboree song is trying to get into the pop charts. These tunes are usually catchy and although a bit 'cheesy',
The Guardian reports on today’s BBC World at One interviews with former Lib Dem campaign manager, Lord Tim Razzall, and former head of communications, Mark Littlewood, here. Both suggest Ming Campbell’s future would come under the spotlight if the party were to under-perform in the Ealing Southall and Sedgefield by-elections this Thursday. Here are the [...]
What do you think will happen this Thursday, 19th July, in the crunch by-elections in Ealing Southall and Sedgefield? Will Labour cling on in one, both or neither seats? And which of the two main opposition parties, the Lib Dems or the Tories, will fare best? The political blogosphere has been humming these past couple of [...]
I'm going be a tiny bit excited at about 7.30 on Wednesday night. We have the first ever meeting of our district's West Area Committee..... (For Rochford exiles like Trevor Powell, I should explain that we now have a cabinet system with 3 area committees to hopefully enhance local democracy. The 5 Lib Dems on Rochford DC all represent Rayleigh wards, so we are all on the West committee, with 11
We are in the car driving to Darlington with Nick Clegg and we have just suffered an incredible downpour. Roads are flooded and we have been driving through impromptu rivers. I guess a number of people out delivering tonight have got a bit soaked. But it was a successful visit by Nick, and also by Norman Lamb, Chris Huhne and Willie Rennie.We took Norman to the Newton Aycliffe health centre and
Boris seems to of chosen to run for mayor of the run to run for mayor of the one town in the UK that he hasn’t offended yet. He defiantly one of Cameron’s men though in Ealing we are given a man who can only lightly be called a Conservative considering how long he’s been a member and the donation. For London we’re given a Eton graduate with who hates to put his flag any where with one of the worst voting records in the House. Has anyone thought about what Boris’s nack for offending people will do to ...
I was very taken by Chris Black's posting entitled "Why this week won't change my view of Ming at all". Well said, Chris. If you think about it, in a week of two by-election campaigns what is the impact of the leadership on a party? On the one hand they can really mess things up - e.g forcing a candidate with an interesting recent history on the local party. On the other hand they can be 
I never really pay much attention to election betting. But Iain Dale made a big thing of showing two graphs on July 10th showing increased betting on the Tories, and decreased betting on the LibDems, at Ealing Southall. The graph was from Betfair. In fact, today Betfair show the LibDems on shorter odds than the Tories.
Further to my comments last week on Conservative proposals to repair the ‘broken society’, I am moved to take an opportunity to seek catharsis with regard to my own past. Those of you of a nervous disposition might wish to look away now… I’m a bit of a poster child for how not to get divorced, and in the week when the last remnants of the breakdown of my relationship with Rachelle are finally
Boris Johnson has launched his campaign to become the Conservative Candidate for Mayor of London. If he wins the nomination, he will become arguably the strongest challenger to Ken Livingstone's leadership since the role was created. Boris is worried by a group of approaching Liverpudlians bearing a message from Papua New Guinea There are a number of advantages to fielding Boris for Mayor:
Suddenly, Bob Dylan's lyrics have a new resonance. If anybody fancies taking the lyrics of an iconic sixties protest song and rewriting them to celebrate the survival of a treasured bullock please have a go in the comments.
From ConservativeHome - an update on those grassroots surveys of the social policy paper: Members divided on tax allowance for same sex couples: "Only 564 members answered this question compared to the 1,417 who answered the questions highlighted earlier today. The question was added to the survey a number of hours after the survey had gone live - following David Cameron's suggestion on Channel 4 News that any married couples' allowance would also benefit same sex couples who had entered civil partnerships. "37% of the respondents agreed with David Cameron that any allowance should benefit ...
There was a time when the news always seemed to be read by Richard Baker and consisted entirely of deaths in Northern Ireland, a negative balance of payments (remember what that was?) and the tit-for-tat expulsion of diplomats between Russia and Britain. So, it is somewhat of a throw-back to the Cold War to read that the UK has expelled four Russian diplomats after Moscow refused the extradite
A committee of MP's has said that fortnightly alternative collections are not suitable for some built up urban areas. So does this mean that the government will pay the cost for weekly collections ? When I sat on the sub-committee for North Norfolk District Council that looked at the waste contract in North Norfolk, we were given costings for what it would cost to have weekly instead of fortnightly collections. In layman's terms, and obviously it depended on which tender you looked at, but it could meant almost a doubling of the costs of the contract. There was no ...
I belatedly came across this interesting piece on UK Polling Report, which analyses the ‘boost’ that a party gets when a new leader takes over mid-term. I won’t repeat it all here, but it looks at past examples - such as Callaghan succeeding Wilson or Major succeeding Thatcher. In those, and other cases, the incumbent [...]
The UK only has itself to blame for the latest spat with Russia as the government has made error after error in its dealings with Russia over the last ten years. Don't for one moment think that I am excusing the death of Alexander Litvinenko and the Russian's complicity in it. I don't. however, with the UK government cow towing to the Russian's for years, they must have easily believed that the UK government would do nothing. Ever since Vladimir Putin took over in Russia, the signs have been clear for everyone to see that democracy has been ...
The excellent Marginal Revolution highlights this report in the New York Times. Essentially Johnson & Johnson have declared that they will sell their cancer drug Velcade to the NHS on the basis that if there is not a reduction in tumor size after a trial period they will refund the cost. Velcade doesn’t come cheap, it can [...]
The FT had a very interesting article on the death of Italian feminism. I share Adrian Michaels’ frustration with the explicitly sexual (and sexist) imagery dominating Italian television and publicity. However, in his comparison with Britain and the US, he seems to paint a too stark picture of Italy as ‘the land that feminism forgot’. After all, I remember a similar frustration and surprise at the relatively ordinary ‘nakedness’ of young women in Britain going out clubbing, when I first moved here nearly ten years ago. I'm afraid sexism is alive and well across the globe. The dire state of ...
This posting is an unashamed plug for a great event in aid of a great cause at the Great Western Inn, Coventry Road, Warwick. The GW Fest is an all day music festival featuring a wide range of some of the best acts from this area. I was incredibly impressed last year with the standard of organisation and quality of the acts. Last year the festival raised over £4000 for Myton Hospice a local charity that relies on fundraising and voluntary donation to continue its fantastic work.If you do come along, come over and say hello, I will be ...
Those who are still following the Birmingham Evening Mail's elected mayor campaign (yes, there aren't many of you left...) may well have missed a small revelation in an article on 6 July. Apparently there have been only 5000 signatures to their petition to date. (The Mail's whinge relates to the fact that they aren't allowed access to the electoral register to check the names, of course they could purchase it or go to their local library to inspect, but the law is quite clear on who can have access to the full version). But 3 months ago the editor claimed, ...
Always good to get one over on the old enemy Plymouth Argyle. Torquay United's 1-0 victory in a pre-season friendly has confirmed the optimism that has been rising throughout the past few months...
Cllr Lisa Rajan, Southwark Council’s Liberal Democrat Executive Member for Environment, has welcomed a report from a committee of MPs which backs weekly rubbish collection. The report backs Southwark’s decision to stick with weekly collections. “I am delighted that MPs have backed weekly rubbish collections,” said Cllr Lisa Rajan. “Weekly collections are what local residents want and we will continue to provide them until they say otherwise.” “MPs on the Commons Local Government Committee have found that fortnightly collections were not appropriate for inner cities and more research was needed into health risks of leaving rubbish in the street. They ...
An international crisis is brewing between the United Kingdom and the United States over the US Department of Justice’s continuing investigation into the BAE. Today’s Guardian reports that the US has formally requested documents relating to the BAE/Al Yamamah investigation. If British ministers defy the justice department, this could go on to endanger reciprocal cooperation and [...]
Tonight is the inaugural meeting of the Sherbourne Court and Warwick Street TRA, at the library in Prestwich. I'll be there to support this worthy cause, and hopefully when the new committee is appointed it will be the start of better things for the area. Also tonight it's the Bury Lib Dem exec meeting. All members are welcome, so please do pop along if you want. Get in touch for more details.
I have noticed a trend in restaurants in recent months, which annoys me. In the past, if service was average or better, social convention forced me to give a tip to the waiter/waitress, and I fulfilled my obligation, most of the time fairly willingly. But on Saturday night, for about the third or fourth time this year, my bill arrived with a service charge added to the bottom, and then a
Last week saw a more than welcome ICM poll putting us back up at a steady 19%. However, more importantly my Ming poll is putting him way ahead with visitors to my blog although participation has slowed down considerably since my regular updates on Friday. At the moment you've only got 3 days left to have a say in the definitive Ming poll! - Though i'm thinking of extending it until after the by-elections to make things a bit more interesting.
So I am back from campaigning in Ealing Southall. It was a fantastic sight to see the whole constituency festooned with posters from all parties, and the entire community seemingly caught up in the election buzz. If only people were so enthused by politics the rest of the time! It was like a street carnival with all the leafleters and stake-boards and posters everywhere. I met our candidate
This week's selection of top British blogging hangs from The Wardman Wire.
The annual report of the BBC's Audience Council for Wales contains all the usual stuff about the poor coverage of the National Assembly at a UK level. They are quite right of course but at the same time we do not want to appear too needy in our search for approval from our English neighbours. Where the lack of coverage does bite is in those areas in Wales who cannot or choose not to tune into Welsh Television stations. If we are to raise awareness of the Assembly then we must rely on network news to give us ...
I'm sitting in a waiting room at the start of my jury service. All just waiting so far, I see why one of my friends called it dreary service. Was just thinking about mayoral candidates for London next year. See, told you it was boring here. I am just hoping that the Tories *do* have Boris Johnson as their candidate. It will be hilarious to see Mayor Ken ripping him to shreds on any sort of policy debate. Boris is all well and good on Have I Got News For You. But the thought of him being ...
To acknowledge the decision of Boris Johnsons to take on Ken Leninspart for governership of The Great Wen, it's worth reading Harry Hutton’s 2005 correspondence with the Johnsons Office.
This morning's Western Mail contains overwhelming proof that our political perspective is determined by our own background and experiences, with an article detailing Sir Eric Howell's view that the Conservative Assembly Group are, on some issues, to the left of the Labour Party. He argues that Tory AMs have gone native and are more interested in maintaining their lucrative positions than in fighting for mainstream Conservative values. It may well be that Sir Eric's view of events have been coloured by his own expulsion from the Conservative Party for threatening to support an independent candidate in Carmarthen ...
Just finished a canvassing session with Norman Lamb who we have now dropped off at Darlington Station. We canvassed in Woodham. A good result.Next on our list is Willie Rennie MP.---Sent via BlackBerry
Iain Dale likes to portray himself as something a little bit different. He describes himself as a ‘right of centre political commentator’ and admits to being a former Tory candidate. But he’d love to be Nick Robinson or Andrew Marr - a respected pundit capable of teasing out the background to political arguments in an [...]
He's going to lose, theres no question about it. If Boris wins the election then I will personally eat my hat with a side order of old boots. Why you ask? (although I feel most people will be nodding in agreement with me). Well let me count the ways in which Boris is simply unqualified/incapable to be London Mayor. Number 1: His celebrity status is not a plus so much as a minus, people see Boris as a witty joke rather than as a serious politician capable of major statesmanship. Number 2: He's right wing. London's a city, a relatively ...
Ken Jones, head of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), has been arguing for an extension of the 28 day limit on detaining suspected criminals* without charge, possibly indefinitely. He's been attempting to backtrack on this (or, "clarify what he said") so here's what he said in full, from the original source: "We are now arguing for judicially supervised detention for as long as it
The BBC reports this morning: Boris Johnson is to enter the race to be the Conservative candidate for London mayor in next year's election. Mr Johnson, one of the best known MPs, told London's Evening Standard he wants to take on Labour's Ken Livingstone. He told the paper: "The opportunity is too great and the prize too wonderful to miss... the chance to represent London and speak for Londoners." Mr Johnson is likely to face a number of rivals to be Conservative candidate.
Something cheery for Monday morning, please go and check out this rather schmaltzy Portuguese Eurovision entry from 1974. “Why?” you may ask, baffled at this break from the usual musical gold I offer up. Because, in the history of pop and politics, few songs can have had the direct impact that Paulo de Carvalho’s E depois do adeus did. Although it is quite clearly crap, and in fact came second from last on the night, its airing during the contest was used as a signal by the instigators of Revolução dos Cravos, the Carnation Revolution which peacefully swept away ...
The Labour Government could soon be faced with a stark choice: to co-operate with the US department of justice’s investigations into the BAE bribery allegations, or risk reciprocal co-operation and intelligence-sharing with the US. Those who’ve been following the biggest scandal of Labour’s time in office - and, if you haven’t, why not [...]
Quoting from Page 44 (which is the Local Government Association response) Clause 1 Family Support and balance of rights Clause 1 (4) (a) refers to having regard to the wishes and feelings of the child. Children should have the right to consent to adoption and to be made a party to the proceedings. The value of contingency, concurrent and parallel planning should be recognised in the Bill and in
The call by Ken Jones, head of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), for the police to be given the powers to hold terror suspects indefinitely without charge has been condemned by Lib Dem shadow home secretary, Nick Clegg. In a round of media interviews, Mr Jones has stated: “We are arguing for judicially supervised [...]
A group of us from Liverpool were in London yesterday helping out in the by election campaign in Ealing Southall. A very efficient operation - no sooner had we arrived in front of the campaign headquarters than we were given some delivering to do. In the afternoon we delivered newspapers in an estate which was a mix of two storey deck access flats, and tower blocks. I can understand why people feel let down or neglected. At least two of the blocks had broken lifts.. and we are talking 12 floors. Imagine being stuck near the top of ...
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
In terms of visits, today will be our busiest day. We have Norman Lamb, Willie Rennie, Chris Huhne and Nick Clegg. So there will be plenty more video and photos by the end of today.I'm on the train to Darlington now. Will be there shortly.A comedy version of the Battle of Trimdon Green video got an exclusive viewing from the team last night. However, I won't be putting it on YouTube! Friends can
Have just noticed that my face has appeared on one of the party's new buttons to promote Thursday's by-elections in Ealing Southall and Sedgefield. So that's why a cackling Mark Pack ushered me into a mysterious yellow room yesterday, whereupon I was planted in front a of a mysterious machine operated by a creature known only as Will Howells - that was the Lib Dem Button Machine! Obviously I can't reveal anything about the device itself - it is of course a closely guarded trade secret. The last thing we want is Tony Lit telling everyone on the ...
Only a few days to go He is clearly not trying hard enough!
Mid-July is usually the time when the political silly season starts in Britain. But not this year. We have not just one but two parliamentary by-elections looming on Thursday, and some of the things going on in Ealing Southall are tragedy posing as farce — for both the Conservatives and Labour. I’ve no idea what [...]
A Norfolk shop keeper is having to deal with regular vandalism and damage being done to his shop because of the fact that a previous owner of the shop had been found guilty of abusing young boys. Much like the case a few years ago where a paediatrician's car was vandalised in Wales and the word "paedo" written on it, the government are correct in wanting to prevent any form of what the News of the World call "Sarah's Law", which as "Megan's Law" in the US means that paedophiles details are made available to all and sundry. ...
ConservativeHome has done some polling on IDS's recommendations in his social justice report. In it there's a stark hypocrisy - while 75% agree with the idea of a stricter classification of cannabis, 59%, no doubt out of self interest, disagree with the idea of putting extra money on booze taxes to pay for addiction treatments. Let's get this right, the drug which creates the most dependency in Britain bar none is alcohol. Apart from tobacco the drug that causes the most deaths in Britain is alcohol. Cannabis, despite so many regular users, does not ...
Everybody is talking about the £4,800 table charge for Tony Lit's presence at the Labour fundraiser. But there is also the question of the £4,000 Sunrise bid that won an auction to a Hillary Clinton fundraiser in Atlanta, on top of the £4,800. Now everybody knows my position on the US presdidential race, I want a Democrat president. My preferrered candidate in terms of agenda of those in the race | < | July 2007 | > | ||||
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