LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Thursday 9th August 2007

The Olympic threat to Regeneration

Libertarian think tank, the TaxPayers Alliance has done a useful piece of research into one of the hidden costs of the London Olympics. We already know the estimated cost of the Games themselves has shot up £2.4bn to £9.35bn (or at least that's the figure today), there is also a hidden £4bn of cost associated with construction inflation as resources are sucked into the Games, raising the cost of building across London and the South East. £1.3bn of that extra cost is estimated to impact public building works directly which has implications for regeneration schemes like the Elephant and Castle ...

The Pumpkin Eater

Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater, Had a wife and couldn't keep her.When I wrote about the Romance section of the Summer of British Film I looked forward to seeing The Pumpkin Eater. I have now watched it. Like a lot of intelligent films from the 1960s (The Servant. Bunny Lake is Missing) it lacks a rounded plot with a simple resolution. But there are many things to enjoy in it. Fine performances from Peter Finch and James Mason. Wonderful cameos from Maggie Smith and Yootha Joyce. Above all there is a marvellous central performance from Anne Bancroft. She carries the film, ...

Tory logo no-go

Liberal Democrat Voice shows that the tree has turned blue to please the backwoodsmen.

Cock up by UKIP ?

Perhaps given the fact that UKIP have arranged to have their conference this year at the same venue as a group of Fetishists, so the Tory West Brom blog tells us, the phrase "Cock Up" might not be appropriate. At least the UKIP'ers will have something to get hot under the collar about instead of the Pan-European conspiracy to make us all drink litres instead of pints !!!! P.S. Yes, before anyone asks, I did a "photoshop" job on the picture. I'd rather admit to that than have anyone suggest I photograph Nigel Farage dressed in leather, which Ii am ...

Another top 20 political blogs

Further to the various lists I wrote about yesterday, Liberal Burblings has posted its own favourite 20. Thanks for including me, Paul.

Tories on their Blue Tree - they're making it up as they go along

When they originally revealed their new "tree" logo, the Tories unveiled a Scottish and Welsh version, as well as an English version. There seemed to be strict rules on how the logo could be interpreted. I was rather surprised, therefore, to read on the BBC that the Conservatives had played down their latest "Blue sky" version of the tree by saying that it was intended all along that the tree

The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer

I arrived home late this evening to find that Amazon has sent me a DVD of this forgotten Peter Cook film from 1970. My joy was slightly tempered by the fact that I had actually ordered Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, but I think I shall keep it even so. Another package contained a review copy of Taking Liberties DVD. It's not a bad life.

The dumbing down of BBC4

I have never really got my poor pink head around quantum mechanics. The Grand Dame who taught me physics at school tried very hard, bless her, getting me to chase bones through a pair of slits she made in the classroom wall especially for the purpose. So I sat down with a nice juicy bone to watch BBC4's Atom program this evening. I was looking forward to find out quite what the Dirac equation is all about, but just as we got to it, the show put the equation up on screen and the presenter said: Don't try to understand ...

EXCLUSIVE: Have Conservative Party staff been lying to the BBC?

You may have noticed there’s been a bit of a fuss over whether the Conservative Party has done a bit of a u-turn over its logo. Their tree logo seemed to undergo a change of colour, dropping the use of green for a more traditional Conservative blue and adding in a splash of clouds. But today the BBC [...]

Job-ful

After six weeks of searching I finally have a summer job, and most excitingly of all, it's as a researcher with the political internet TV channel 18 Doughty Street.

Tragedy with Timing

More excellent illustrated laughing squares from Hoby. Trawling through hundreds of ‘campaign postcards’ is a frustrating experience for a caseworker. Twenty years ago a constituent would put together a detailed and articulate missive imploring the MP to use their role as a legislator in order to make enquiries regarding an issue about which the constituent felt passionately. Frequently, they would receive little response, aside perhaps from a curt postcard penned by a be-cardiganed secretary. Today, a constituent receives a postcard (along with piles of other bumph) from the RSPB, doesn’t read it, sticks their ready-made address label on it and ...

"LibDems 'biggest Facebook users' "

...So says a BBC online story. You have to give Steve Webb full marks for getting such a story up.

Stands the church clock at ten to three?

Someone at the BBC has probably had this story in a case marked "In the event of dire August story shortage break glass" but even so, it is fascinating. There are a large number of public clocks which are only right twice a day.

Rabbiting on

I called into a small hotel off the A49 for lunch today and was astounded to see wild rabbits playing freely on the front lawn. Sure enough, when I picked up the menu one of the first items was 'Cannon of rabbit, rosemary and black olive'. I had the beef.

My votes for the Top 100 UK Political Blogs

Don't forget that time is running out to vote for the Top 100 UK Political Blogs. All you have to do is to list your favourites by leaving a comment here, or click the button below to email your votes: My highly partisan and idiosyncratic Top 20 in alphabetical order is: Barcharters Anonymous Colin Ross Duncan Borrowman Hunting for Witches Hug a hoodie Liberty Alone Liberal England Liberal

What is your blog rating ?

Using the link HERE you can find out your own blog's "film rating" style score. Fortuantely mine scored as below. Hat tip to John's Labour Blog for the link.

Two new Facebook groups

Continuing this week’s Facebook theme here on Lib Dem Voice, some news about two new useful groups on the Facebook website for Lib Dems. Firstly, Mary Reid got a good idea scant minutes ago for setting up a group for Lib Dem councillors and people interested in local government. You’ll find that group here. Secondly, local [...]

The Rutland Water shark

Lord Bonkers writes exclusively for Liberal England: I am pleased to report that the supposed photograph of a great white shark in Rutland Water which has appeared in the newspapers in recent days has been revealed as a fake. The photographer admitted today that the brute was actually photographed in Staines Reservoir. You may therefore all come to Rutland for your summer holidays in perfect safety.

Is this Lord Lucan?

Probably not: Mr Woodgate ... pointed out he was five inches shorter than Lord Lucan and, at 62, is 10 years younger than the aristocrat would be now.

CCHQ Press Office Failing in 3Rs

According to a 'Conservative Party Spokeswoman'... "We are not changing it at all. When we launched the tree last year there were various colours on it. You can change the backdrop on it. You can change the colour of the tree to make it look like a winter tree and things like that." Not "a tree in winter".. not "a holly bush" ... not "a tree that's lost its leaves" ... not "a Christmas tree".... "a winter tree". And don't the Conservatives want to lock up people who finish sentences with "and things like that"?

Tornado hits Brooklyn

Posted by Chris: My Uncle, Arthur Wilde, who lives in Bayside, New York, sent me these picures of the aftermath of a storm on Wednesday. When it happens in the states it happens big style. Firemen clear storm debris. The National Weather Service said a tropical air mass caused the heavy rains. Source: AP Chris Pellen carries his son Roman across the Brooklyn Bridge. Gov. Eliot Spitzer asked transit authority engineers to report back within 30 days with suggestions about how to deal with the chronic flooding. Commuters attempt to board a bus in Lower Manhattan after the subways flooded. ...

Tory Tree replaced by dark cloud

The from the look of this photo, blatantly ripped off from the BBC website, the Tories have replaced their tree with a stormy cloud. Perhaps it is supposed to reflect the trouble David Cameron has had recently or is it simply to remind him than when his constituents are suffering from too many storms and the associated floods, he would do better to stay in his constituency ?

Lib Dems top of the list for MP's using Facebook

Apparently more Lib Dem MP's have a Facebook presence than any other party's MP's. Now if only we could find a use for Facebook that would be brilliant.

Has Blair Mislaid His Lavender List

It seems from a one line statement over at Downing Street Says earlier this week that Tony Blair has yet to issue his resignation honours list. Perhaps he has announced that he is not going to submit one, but if so, I must have missed it. As part of the fallout from the whole 'Cash for Peerages' affair, and in an attempt to avoid a repeat of the 'Lavender list' episode, it had been agreed that Blair's list would be vetted by the Lords Appointments Commission, ending the tradition that allows outgoing prime ministers to nominate peers without any checks ...

MPs and Facebook

Just for a bit of light relief, I asked my friend Francis Churchill to have a look at Facebook for me to see how many MPs of different parties had got involved. This is how the BBC are running the results. I was encouraged to see that my nagging of my Lib Dem colleagues appears to be paying off - although one (who shall remain nameless) has already gone on and come off again because his Facebook profile generated too much traffic! If you're not already my "Facebook friend", why not join in here, especially if you live in the ...

Unity Day

I was very kindly asked to present the Annual Community Recognition Awards at Saturdays Hyde Park Unity Day. ( though this has now grown beyond the area and is a city wide event) As I stood on the main stage looking out across Woodhouse Moor and the crowd I did wonder if this was the best event yet. Its always been a popular event but in fairness has had managerial and financial problems. These have been addressed but so as the content. Its decent into a bohemian music festival delayed an hour or to and the community and children's activities ...

Leeds Pride 2007

Sunday saw the second Leeds pride march and festival starting off at Millennium Square and working its way to Briggate. It was bigger and better than last years and I think its hats off to Yorkshire MESMAC for taking this project on. Designing a socially inclusive but commercially viable Pride event seems to require alchemy but they seem to have done it. An honourable mention to my Council Colleague Cllr Terry Grayshon ( Morley South, Morley Borough Independent) who gave the starting speech from the steps of the Civic hall. he may have referred me to the standards board twice ...

Blackness Road graffiti tackled

If you click the headline above, you can read the story in tonight's Evening Telegraph about the unfortunate appearance of more graffiti locally - this time on Blackness Road. Following this matter being raised with me yesterday, I was in touch with the City Council Waste Management Department about it and I am pleased to say the graffiti has now been removed (earlier today) - I have also reported the matter to Tayside Police.

For Brown and Salmond, some unexpected plaudits

Today's newspapers provide an interesting studies of two ways to take on Labour.In the blue corner - back from its short-lived incarnation as the blue-green corner - stands David Cameron, and, not for the first time in recent weeks, the commentators are unimpressed. In the Telegraph, former Tory MP George Walden suggests that today's Conservatives regard opposition as "a bit of a wheeze", which is much more fun than all the dreary work that would follow an election victory ('The Conservatives don't want power, it seems'). Ironically, Walden is guest-writing for the Telegraph because "Boris Johnson is away". It's hard ...

Leeds United 0 Taxman 1 (og Football League)

Leeds United have published an initial response to the "perverse" outcome of today's meeting of Football league Clubs. Quote of the day: "Football Family seems to be driven by self interest."

Second tier football for the Addicks - I just hope it’s not a return to mediocrity

I have just been reading 442 magazine and its review of next season. Rather worryingly Charlton are favourites to win the Coca Cola Championship. I have been supporting Charlton since 1965 and I can’t remember us being favourites to win anything over all those years. Anyway the imminence of the start of the new season caused me to reflect once again on Charlton’s relegation from the Premiership. My emotions after the Spurs game which confirmed that relegation were of disappointment of course but gutted no. Relegation had been on the cards for most of the season after all. I think ...

Liberal Democrat MPs lead the way on Facebook

With Facebook apparently reaching into every corner of British life, I thought it was time to see how far MPs were catching on. So I’ve worked with a couple of colleagues to look up over 600 MPs from the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties (excluding the Speaker and Deputy Speakers) to see how many have Facebook profiles. It’s [...]

MOVING HOUSE IS A JOKE

I have just moved house, having spent nearly three years in the process of doing so. The entire moving process has been marred by problems inherent in the conveyancing system in this country: lawyers not talking to each other or to their clients, buyers and sellers pulling out or changing terms with very short notice before exchange of contracts, estate agents…being estate agents and general idiocy on all fronts. The fundamental conclusion which arises out of this whole sorry experience is a simple one: if you started with a blank sheet of paper and you had to design a system ...

Times letter about judges undermining rule of law

The link is to my letter about the judge failing to give a written judgment. The story appeared in the Sunday Telegraph on Sunday. I was in touch with one of the people who are due a missing judgment yesterday and it still had not arrived.

New poll: when do you think the general election will be?

Easier to ask than answer. But vote away - pick your option on the right.

Brian Paddick tops our online poll

The mouse clicks are in, the votes have been counted - and Brian Paddick has been the pick of Liberal Democrat Voice’s readers to be the party’s London Mayor candidate. The results were: 30% Brian Paddick 18% Lynne Featherstone MP 10% Greg Dyke 9% Lord Navnit Dholakia 8% Lembit Opik MP 8% Sarah Teather MP 3% Paul Burstow MP 3% Simon Hughes MP (the party’s [...]

So should he be dubbed Batty Brown or Daft Des ?

Two more British Servicemen have died in the last 24 hours in Iraq. That makes it four dead in the last week. We claim to have handed control of Basra to the Iraqi forces, indeed Gordon Brown was bragging about it last week to George W Bush and hailed it a success. The truth is, of course, very different. Whilst British Generals claim that we have succeeded in the South if Iraq, the US has a very different interpretation of our successes there. Indeed the US believe the UK to have failed in its mission and that we have essentially ...

Is Cameron Stuck in Reverse?

Regular readers of Iain Dale's blog may have noticed an advert inviting you to 'Join David Cameron for a day at the races'. Whilst this probably isn't going to get a lot of media coverage, it did strike me as odd because it is in a vein that seems completely opposite to Cameroon thinking so far. Until recently, as we all know, Cameron has done everything he can to distance himself from the old Tory image; he's hugged hoodies, ridden his bike a bit and listens to the Killers on his ipod. However, recently he seems to have been back ...

Blog changes

Partly inspired by this blog being ranked and rated I've today made a few changes to spruce things up a bit. I've added a new 'blogroll' section to highlight websites that are relevant to Luton. I've added labels to my posts so now you can browse through the archive by subject, if you so wish. I've also added links to two new blogs: The first is to a former Lib Dem councillor and work

Opinion: A Brighter Euro-Vision?

Next year all of Wales and much of England go to the polls for local elections. If there hasn’t already been one before then, there may well be a general election too. With all this electoral excitement ahead it would be easy, and in many people’s eyes, preferable, to not think about that looming cloud [...]

Down by the Riverside…

Last night the Bury Labour group took the words “summer recess” fully to heart and held an emergency council meeting on the subject of Radcliffe Riverside School. So I took off my beach wear and put my suit back on for the evening. The original plans for a 900 place school for secondary age pupils have been pondered by the new(ish) Conservative adminstration, who had an idea about perhaps reducing the numbers to 600 and giving the remaining space over to a primary school. This idea was mentioned publicly, and obviously panicked a lot of people. However, it appeared that the “idea” ...

League clubs kick United when they are down - so what's new?

Posted by Chris: So the league clubs have voted to back the spiteful decision of Football League Chairman Lord Mawhinny - well they would wouldn't they. How ironic that one of those able to vote was Peter Ridsdale, now at Cardiff, who was in charge at Leeds when we got into this mess in the first place. How did he vote I wonder? Why would Mawhinny not say exactly which rules Leeds had broken when he made his smug comments on Sky Sports News after the event? If it is true what he says and Leeds cannot pursue this most ...

Useful information on Street Parking.

The issue of parking in some streets in Warwick is a real issue as I explained in my previous post. I met with some residents yesterday for a photo shoot for the local paper and this morning a few of us were interviewed on BBC Coventry & Warwickshire. I have found some links to documents that residents might find helpful as they contain the guidelines that are used in planning street layouts. What has impressed me is how communities in Warwick are not just complaining to the council, they have been out measuring the roads and trying to come up ...

The Tories are no longer green

The Tories have ditched their green logo going back to blue. They claim that the logo was always going to be available in a variety of colours, but who has ever heard of a blue Oak tree?

Rubbish on Rutland Road

It’s good to see some updates from the Labour Councillors, putting some effort into sorting out the litter problem on Bearwood Road. One other problem area is Rutland Road. A couple of times a month a massive pile of black bags appears outside the bookmakers, often on a Saturday, and isn’t cleared for 48 hours, sometimes longer. I’m not sure where these come from, but I’ll make sure to take some snaps next time I see it and keep track of the time its there for. I suspect this is waste for an organised collection that is put out too ...

New Blog!

Regular readers will no doubt have noticed that the look of the blog has changed in recent days, and has been accompanied by a dramatic reduction in the number of postings (to nil, in fact). This is becasue I have moved across from Blogspot to Wordpress, and am now using a special type of blog developed by the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors (ALDC). Over the next few days I will be tinkering with it to make it look right, and find my way around the various things I can do. And then we’ll be back with the daily (ish) ...

By-election survey

I’ve just participated in an online questionnaire about the by-election campaigns. I found the Ealing Southall campaign a fascinating experience so was more than happy to share my views. One question bothered me a little though. Something along the lines of “What can we do to attract more helpers to the next by-election?” Let’s get one thing clear, it was a brilliant turnout at Ealing Southall, especially when you bear in mind there was another high-profile by-election going on at the same time. I made the decision to go and help because of unique circumstances - I had just left ...

Another government IT bill spirals out of control

We all know that the Labour Government doesn’t have the best track record of delivering IT projects on budget and on time (and we’re not even going to mention ID cards). So it’s with a heavy heart that I bring you news of another Whitehall computer-related farce, this time from the shiny new Ministry of Justice. The National Offender Management System was supposed to keep tabs on the country’s 300,000 prisoners and probationers. The budget for the system of £234 million has, according to The Guardian, “proved to be optimistic” - with the current estimate for the project reaching four ...

Kitsch piracy

Paul Walter blogs about the brief return of Radio Caroline, which was also discussed on the Today programme today. One thing that seems to have been forgotten about the pirate radio controversy in the 60s is that the Minister in charge of shutting them down was one Anthony Wedgewood Benn. These days, both Benn and Caroline are categorised under the same heading of “cuddly national treasure”. Still, it is a shame that the Today programme didn’t interview him about it. That of course would mean getting Tony Benn to defend government policy and remind us that, contrary to careful brand ...

Shock horror - another Labour minister who doesn't really get localism

Ros had returned to Suffolk, leaving me her copy of Prospect Magazine to read with the suggestion that I read an article by John Kay entitled “The failure of market failure”. Now, one of the things about being a bureaucrat is that ideas are something to be mildly suspicious of. However, I like to think of myself as being moderately informed so, this evening, I pulled the magazine out of my

Olympics are a chance for China to shape up

Ming Campbell has written an article for The Guardian’s Comment is Free site about China’s human rights record in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics. China would win no medals for human rights. But things are still fluid, and there are hopeful signs in a mixed picture. China has promised to be more open and to put in place greater safeguards over its use of the death penalty. It has promised to reform its use of “re-education through labour” camps, a process of administrative detention used on a massive scale. You can read the full article here.

HAIL THE PREDICTABLE TORIES

So here we go again. The Tories start to lose faith with their new, new leader as confidence in his attempts to ‘rebrand’ the party falter, as the government steals the initiative in a range of areas and experiences positive coverage and internal party critics and donors line up to criticise the current leadership style. Then the symbol of the party is changed (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6936763.stm), apparently for no other reason than that this was always intended. We are surely only days away from a statement on immigration/Europe and weeks away from the latest decapitation in a long and very worrying series ...

I’m cultured, like, innit?

{Me, Silvio and Cherie} Fair dos to the Backbencher for mocking an article I wrote at work this week; I can’t pretend I didn’t walk into it. But if Ros really wants to portray me as an snooty cultural elitist and, by implication, herself as a horny-handed daughter of toil, she’s going to have to explain to me what a ‘bresaola’ is. On a related note, Tom Watson thinks I should get a proper job. References to pots and kettles are little redundant, aren’t they? Share This

The Beijing Olympics and Glimmers of Hope

The Guardian's Jonathan Watts has once again produced some excellent articles related to the Beijing Games. Ai Wei Wei, son of Ai Qin, one of the greatest modern poets in China who was "purged" during the anti-Rightist campaign of the 1950s has made some outstanding comments. This is a gem: "If you read newspapers today you see the problems created by this structure and by the effort to maintain power. It is against everything that human society should be fighting for. I am just a normal person, but happily I have become a notable person. That means something to me ...

Johnnie Walker and the Emperor Rosko back on "Pirate" radio

Johnnie Walker is one of the former Pirate radio presenters who are broadcasting from off the Essex coast in a special week of broadcasts to mark the 40th anniversary of the Marine Offences Act. It's all being done courtesy of BBC Radio Essex, which is an irony. Dave Cash, Roger Day, Ed Stewart, Mike Ahern, Mark Wesley, Pete Brady and dear old Keith Skues are also among the deejays who are part

Cornish Jaws 2 - we can all breathe again!

It turns out that the Sun story "Cornish JAWS2" was 'a hoax' after all. You would only have been in danger if you had swum all the way from Cornwall to Cape Town, where the video, which caused the panic, had been shot. And there was me re-planning my holiday because I was so scared.

£25 million new school to close after two years?

A school closing just two years after it was built at a cost of £25 million? That was the cornflake-spitting moment on Today this morning. It referred to Bishops Park College in West Clacton, Essex. However, a little more reading suggests that the buildings will still be used by a proposed amalgamated school on the site. So, we should all wipe up those cornflakes from the table and breathe

Jedburgh Road

Residents have complained to me about the state of the road surface here. I have now had the following feedback from the City Council : Area supervisor has visited site and will make arrangements for potholes to be repaired.

Thank you Amazon!

I have just discovered the ‘Wish List’ feature on Amazon and I think it’s great! All those books you think you’d like to read but will certainly forget or write on a piece of paper that you’ll then lose - and now someone else offers to remember them for you! Now I just need them to offer to remember all the ones that I’ve already bought but haven’t managed to read yet!

Sugar plum fairy beats Clarkson

For the past two weeks, site statistics-wise, I have been submerged under people googling "Top Gear North Pole" for which I am third search find, for some strange reason. Yesterday was the first day for quite a while that a page unrelated to Top Gear beat "Top Gear North Pole race - sheer quality". That humble page was Hitler and his Sugar Plum Fairy, thanks to James on Quaequam Blog.

Guido vs Dale - And the winner is.....

Guido Fawkes and Iain Dale have long been duking it out over who is the bigger beast of the British blogosphere. Well now, I reckon I can exclusively settle the matter for all time ..... (or at least until one or other of them learns of this, whichever comes first) And the winner is..... At least based on the valuations according to this site which values domains, well, alright their domain names... (probably using some bizarre algorithm involving pi and something in base 32 and the population of Papua New Guinea.... to come up with a figure that bears virtually ...

Will the Lib Dems have a Second Life presence ?

Jeremy Hargreaves wrote an interesting piece on his great blog (which I have to apologise to him for because it was not on the list of blogs I was sent to judge), which highlights the German Green Party now having some presence on the online Role Playing Game "Second Life". With Ming Campbell said to be ahead of the game on Facebook and the Lib Dems having a growing presence on YouTube and the web as a whole, is Second Life where we will pick up the few votes needed to win over some of the marginals next time ? ...

The democrats are pussies, no offense to pussies

Taken from the NY Times 'Under pressure from President Bush, Democratic leaders in Congress are scrambling to pass legislation this week to expand the government’s electronic wiretapping powers.Democratic leaders have expressed a new willingness to work with the White House to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to make it easier for the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on some purely foreign telephone calls and e-mail. Such a step now requires court approval.[...]In the past few days, Mr. Bush and Mike McConnell, director of national intelligence, have publicly called on Congress to make the change before its August recess, which ...

Brown's hidden pension timebomb

When commentators feel minded to praise Gordon Brown for his economic record, they would do well to remember that most of the downside of that record is hidden. PFI and PPP deals for example, like the recently collapsed Metronet deal on the London Underground, keep public debt off the government books, even though, in this case the taxpayer are actually liable for up to 95% of that debt. It's not so very different from the Enron accounting fraud. Another good example of these accounting tricks was highlighted yesterday by Liberal Democrat Work and Pensions spokesperson Danny Alexander. Danny points out ...

Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council, Abbey ward by-election

The Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council, Abbey ward by-election will be held on Thursday, September 20, 2007, the by-election has been called due to the death of Pete Ashby passed away earlier this year.

<	August 2007					>
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31

Thursday 9th August 2007

Previous days:

Archives

Search for...

Adverts

Buttons

LibDem Blog Box

Contributors

Campaigns

From the BBC...

Backlinks...

From the LibDems...

From the Independent...

From Politics.co.uk...

From the Guardian...

Adverts