LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Saturday 28th July 2007

20 questions for Ken

Two great articles in The Guardian yesterday and today. Todays article which can be found here details how Ken Bates won back control of Leeds without offering the largest bid. Yesterdays article which can be found here details the impasse which the club now find itself in and poses 20 questions which need to be answered as follows : 1. Why did Leeds collapse into insolvency and administration in the first place, with debts of £35.5m, given that Ken Bates, and his solicitor and fellow Leeds United director Mark Taylor, had said during 2006-07 that the club would be in ...

Just a brief Ealing comment

Our final bar charts in Ealing, which reflected our weekend figures, weren't far off the result. However, there looked to be an upturn after the weekend. So what happened to it? My assessment, looking at geographic factors, we were too optimistic about how well we would do among the Sikh community. I suspect the degree of being polite to every canvasser, just as shops carried posters for all

The Summer of British Film: Thriller

You've already missed The Lady Vanishes and The 39 Steps, but there is plenty more to enjoy this week. I recommend Carol Reed's Odd Man Out. It stars James Mason as a dying IRA gunman and has all the expressionist camera angles you would expect in a film made in Reed's heyday. And it reassuring to see that in those days the IRA stopped for a cup of tea before going out on a mission. Of the films I have not seen before, Clash by Night, a 1964 release with Peter Sallis as the leading criminal ("Have you got the ...

Dean Friedman and Milton Friedman

There's been a lot of comment in the last few days over a certain Lib Dem councillor who works as a stripper. As a result three other Lib Dems have switched to being independents. They were quoted as saying: " We believe our integrity and principles will be compromised if we stay. Myrna just doesn't believe that she is the inheritor of Locke, Smith, Ricardo and the Mills. And we were shocked,

Back from holiday ...

We've been away on holiday the last couple of weeks (which explains lack of blog entries) and just back (seriously jet-lagged, having had two overnight flights on the way home!) Anyway, great holiday - a couple of photos from both locations (Hawaii and Las Vegas) below. For friends and family I've put a few more on my Myspace pages - www.myspace.com/frasermacpherson - and if you click the headline above, you can see my rather sad attempt at posting a video from Hawaii on http://www.myspacetv.com/! I have returned to find my e-mail server down so I don't have much of a ...

Back in Sheffield at last

At last, the end of my first full week back in Sheffield in over a month. So in the last month I have: Had a very relaxing week’s holiday in St. Merryn in Cornwall with friends, including food, drink, walks along the coast, trips to Padstow and Truro and a trip out on a boat from Trelissick to Falmouth and around Restronguet Point. Watched Sheffield under water on a TV in a pub in Cornwall. Been part of the campaign team at the Sedgefield by-election artworking literature, putting thousands of letters through a stuffing machine and endlessly ‘knocking-up’ the town ...

25 days after the floods David Cameron visits Hull

David Cameron visited Hull yesterday - 25 days after the floods came. The local press was thus suitably sniffy, his visit generating four lines on page 12 in the Hull Daily Mail. Earlier in the day my wife had seen David Davis in WH Smiths in Hull, presumably waiting for Dave to turn up. If it had been me that had seen him I would have asked him a question about the leadership. But then what answer could he possibly give? How he must regret that conference speech. I was sad to read about the death of Tom Steel. ...

More Duck Race Pictures

West Riding man wins North Riding Duck Race

Posted by Chris A crowd of around 200 people turned up to watch this year's North Riding Duck Race and we sold out of ducks. The race was won by duck No 65 bought by Saddleworth man Mr Roy Bardsley. Second place went to Ben and Zoe Fountain of Guisborough, with duck No 29 and Ashley Seaman of Redcar won third place with duck No 19. Roy Bardsley will receive the Colin Holt Cup and a Yorkshire breakfast pack and tea towel from Hilary Holt at the Saddleworth Yorkshire Day celebrations being held tomorrow (Sunday) in Uppermill. The best named ...

The myth of classical liberalism

My original post is currently up on lib dem voice where we have quite a few 'market liberals' arguing against me ‘To give is Liberality, In him that shuns two contraries; The one is prodigality, The other hateful avarice.’ Cervantes – Don Quixote, the 2nd part, 1614 I have been pondering a while over how to approach this subject. And although I have only just got back from hospital I feel that I am now ready to deal with this most troubling matter. I wish to discuss a phenomenon, one which used to relate only to America, that seems to ...

Cannabis: Time for some science

I've mentioned before that I like the cut of Ben Goldacre's jib. He is a medical doctor who writes the "Bad Science" column in the Guardian on Saturdays. He recently won the Royal Statistical Society's inaugural award for statistical excellence in journalism. He has a blog, also called "Bad Science". Last time I sang his praises, it was for debunking the President of The Gambia's claims to cure

West Midlands Moving Forward

Earlier today we held the second West Midlands Moving Forward training of the year. We focused on having a debrief from the local elections and what worked and what didn't work so well.

Griffin leading the BNP on 39% of party member support

I got the date of the BNP leadership vote wrong so only accidentally fell on the results any way here they are. Griffin: 3363 (91%) Jackson: 337 (9%) Turnout: 43% Jackson in a vote that was substantially rigged by Griffin against him managed to get his vote up by over 300% (100 people needed to launch the vote). The abstention rate of 57% is enormous and shows a real lack of support for Griffin, he’s leadership often seen as corrupt. The low turnout is also significant because it shows a lack of enthusiasm in BNP troops which effects much more. ...

Margaret Thatcher and me

I haven't blogged since Ealing Southall polling day. I had a few days off and then yesterday was my last day in Cowley Street after 9½ years! More on the trials and tribulations of Cameron and the Tories in a posting later tonight. But now for another Tory leader. Some time ago I blogged some TVam clips from Margaret Thatcher's 58th birthday at the Imperial Hotel Blackpool. The Moving Image

Just what the Middle East needs - An arms race

Well if you can't have one between the US and Russia, why not have one in the Middle East ?

Skewen councillors fight to save medical facility

Coedffranc Community Council is exercised (quite rightly, in our opinion) about the potential, and needless, loss of a medical facility in Skewen. It has until only recently been used as a maternity clinic. It has outlived its usefulness as such, but would seem to be ideal for provision of additional dental facilities, which the community badly needs. From a Neath Guardian article: "The land that the clinic is built on was originally sold for a nominal fee to the Parish council to provide maternity facilities for the Coedffranc area in 1938. "Until recently the site has served this purpose and ...

Belated review of Prom 13

First half: Boo! Second half: Yay!

BBQ fun in Rainsough

Today was the summer barbecue in Rainsough, organised by the Tenants and Residents Association (TRA). It was a fantstic event, with lots of local people there, and Cllr O'Hanlon and I turned out to meet local residents, show our support, and of course to take in some of the food! Thankfully the rain held off for the first time in a long while, allowing the dozens of local people who turned out

Eccentricities

Paul Flynn MP draws a delightful pen picture of some of the distinguishing features of two recent Secretaries of State for Wales: 'The eternal bachelor Paul Murphy led an elevated existence, slightly remote from the Hurley Burley of parliamentary drudgery. His desk shone unsullied with papers. His mornings were passed in his dressing gown listening to Beethoven in his elegant Chiswick flat. He impatiently awaited the call to ministerial office. Alun Michael was driven by a work obsession. Hugely productive, his day began at dawn with a marathon run and continued with ferocious industry until the early hours of the ...

A Tale of Two Cities — in Tower Hamlets

{rosie-clarke.jpg} I was out this morning with LibDem candidate Rosie Clarke, in the Shadwell by-election in Tower Hamlets. It’s a ward of extraordinary contrasts, demonstrating that it’s not just London that is ‘two cities’ (traditionally the affluent West End and the poor East End), but even a small local area like Shadwell. The north part of the ward, around Watney Market, off Commercial Road, houses large numbers of first and second generation Bengalis from Sylhet (Bangladesh) and some white working class, while in the south there are the million-pound docklands flats of City personnel, foreign investors and a few of the artistic ...

Oh come on

Oh come on The Liberal Democrats aren’t really rocking at all at the news of three councillors lost in Bideford. What’s created the sudden loss of these three; it is there, “integrity and principal.” The trio left after they found out one of their own worked as a stripper. Stripper isn’t exactly the most respectable job out their, but there’s a lot worse. But to leave the party in disgust is perhaps the clearest sign that they weren’t really liberals in the first place. The Lib Dems do have a bit of a problem in attracting people who aren’t exactly ...

Opinion: The myth of classical liberalism

‘To give is Liberality, In him that shuns two contraries; The one is prodigality, The other hateful avarice.’ Cervantes – Don Quixote, the 2nd part, 1614 I have been pondering a while over how to approach this subject. And, although I have only just got back from hospital, I feel [...]

The Faintest Glimmer Of Hope....

OK, so my 'dirty little secret' is that I'm a lifelong Leeds Utd fan..... (well, since 1970) And it has certainly been a miserable summer for LUFC fans... But just two weeks from the start of the new League 1 season, could there finally be some genuine hope that we might actually be around to play in it? LEAGUE STATEMENT A statement from the Football League... LEAGUE BOARD RE-CONVENES TO DISCUSS LEEDS SITUATION The Board of The Football League met today to consider the current situation regarding Leeds United. At the meeting, the Board were informed by their legal representatives ...

Do we need to see the moment an Alzheimer's sufferer dies?

Andrew Pierce in the Telegraph raises some searching questions about ITV's decision to broadcast the last moments of the husband of a lady called Barbara Pointon. Like all these things, it depends how it is treated in the context of the broadcast programme. If it is done in such a way as to highlight the tragedy of Alzheimer's Disease, helping to raise funds for research into it, then it may

Bush House - attempted suicide?

Yesterday, as our boat went past Bush House, on the embankment in London, I momentarily thought I saw someone attempting suicide on the top of the vast BBC World Service building. That Anthony Gormley gets everywhere these days.

The sun's shining

This morning the sun shines on Darlington, but we're in the middle of the traditional "factory fortnight", which is usually the quietest time of the year at work, and so it is this year. There just aren't the shoppers around. Wandering around town, I spoke to retailers who have units on the front of the Covered Market, facing onto West Row. And here comes the sort of dilemma which someone is

Polly, meet the Internet, Internet, meet Polly!

Leafleting in Horsforth

There is much to criticise about the "Focus" culture of the Lib Dems of which more in a minute. Nevertheless its the anchor of the party in local communities and my solidarity trip to Horsforth on Thursday showed why. If you spend a lot of time walking up and down the area you represent you can't help but (a) meet a lot of people (b) get a very good picture of what state an area is in. A walk in the evening sunshine is as much exercises as I ever get and far from unpleasant. I had a good nose ...

£1389 million later the 'Millennium Dome' is a great venue

Yesterday we went to see the Andrews Sisters at O2, the venue formerly known as the Millennium Dome. Well, that's what I mischievously wished my wife had told her 83 year-old father. Sadly, she simply told him that we were going to the see the Scissor Sisters. They were mind-blowingly stunning. The O2, as I think we now have to call it, has been turned into a superb venue. There are masses of

Brown and Bush: Watch the walk

If and when Bush and Brown walk up to the cameras after their Camp David meeting, I, for one, will be focussing on small things. Will Brown adopt that cowboy walk to mimic Bush, which Blair pathetically adopted? Will Brown go for a leather bomber jacket? The opportunities for a PTSA moment are endless. But have a feeling that Brown will not embarrass himself as Blair, upon reflection, did. *

Snap election? - Forget it, unless someone gives Brown £40 million

The Independent repeats something I have read in several places recently. Although there is much talk of an early general election, it is estimated that Labour will not have enough cash to fight one until 2008, probably autumn of that year at that. Labour spent £17.9 million on their 2005 general election campaign. They are currently around £20 million+ in the red. (It was £25 million at the end

Two birds, one stone

The sun is shining and 800 leaflets and an overgrown garden beckon, so for now I will leave you with two telling quotes from this morning's Western Mail. First up is Tomos Livingstone on the embattled Tory leader: Every time Mr Cameron has tried to do policy, it’s collapsed around his ears. The grammar school debacle is one example: one Tory MP told me the press had actually underestimated the damage that volte face had done, an analysis that suggests some serious discontent. And one popular idea suggested – a tax break for married couples – has no guaranteed place ...

The Knightsbridge of the North

While walking down Briggate yesterday I had to smile. Strolling along was a woman with a full Burka. Not an unusual sight you might ask in Central Leeds? The smile came from the fact she was burdened down not by the yoke of Patriarchal Islamic oppression but 6 Harvey Nichols bags. One of the reasons I remain a long term optimist about integration in Britain is this. What ever anybody says underneath we are all more or less the same.

Happy Birthday to us - sort of

Today is the 19th anniversary of the election of Paddy Ashdown as the first leader of what was then called the Social and Liberal Democrat party. 19 years? It seems a long time since we were changing the name of the party, seemingly, every few months. ...And a very long time since when, at the 1989 European elections, we got 4% of the vote and came fourth behind the Greens. But I think we can

Have US televised police car chases gone too far?

Two TV helicopters have collided in Arizona, USA, while covering a police chase. It was a very tragic accident that involved the deaths of four people. I don't wish to make light of it. But is there a lesson here? Five helicopters were videoing one pick-up truck which was being chased by police. ...All for the entertainment of television viewers, some of whom pay to be paged whenever a pursuit

Londonistan by Melanie Phillips

I have read this book so you don't have to. I imagine I will get little sympathy from progressives for having paid out hard cash for a Phillips book. As it turns out I deserve none as its a 300 page Daily Mail article. The writing is superb, the internal logic is unhinged. My defence is I do try to do some counter intuitive reading now and again and had heard good reviews. Also perhaps the liberal left needs to pause and think a bit more about the Multi Cultural project when indigenous citizens start blowing us up. I remain ...

The Revenge of Gaia by James Lovelock

This is a deeply unsettling book. Chilling in that its not a standard call to arms over Climate Change. Lovelocks argument is that its already to late. Climate cooling feedback mechanisms have already "tipped" into reverse and will add up to 8 degrees to global temperature ending Civilisation as we know it. Chilling in that it makes you think. Lovelock takes aim at a number of sacred "Green Cows". He is pro nuclear power, anti renewable energy, scathing about organic food and queries whether Urban lifestyles can ever be made "sustainable". Chilling in terms of his prose. His passages evoking ...

Lib Dems attack Tories on gay rights record

So says the headline over at PinkNews.co.uk. 80% of the Tory shadow cabinet have voted against gay rights legislation in the last ten years. Liberal Democrat Equality Spokesperson Jo Swinson MP said: “That 80% the of the current shadow cabinet, appointed by David Cameron, have voted against significant LGBT rights legislation shows that his commitment to equality is [...]

Returning from Kosovo in Triumph!

I'm delighted to report that my Management Development Programme was a great success with 10 very happy punters if the daily evaluation forms were to be believed. Very encouraging and it was fantastic to do what I love doing AND getting paid for it! It seems that someone was listening to my concerns on Tuesday and I'm pleased to say that the Serbian delegation joined for the remaining two days of the programme. It was good to see the Albanians and Serbs cooperating together and it filled me with some optimism that a shared future of mutual coexistence might just ...

Saturday 28th July 2007

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