LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Sunday 12th August 2007

A new football season, but on Match Of The Day somethings never change

I wrote yesterday of the excitement of a new football season, and in terms of results I am very pleased. Everton won, and injury plagued Norwich team drew away and Luton, who my brother supports and who I have a soft spot for also won, so no complaints there. However, when it comes to Match of the Day, it's the same old story. I write not about the commentary, which is excellent, or the analysis which is informative and authoritative. I write of the fact that yet again, Everton are the last match to be shown. Okay, I thought, it's ...

Balls to the Bilderberg Group

Leafing through the virtual Sunday Telegraph I discover the following: Cabinet minister Ed Balls spent thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money attending a private meeting of one of the world's most powerful and secretive organisations. Mr Balls, widely regarded as Gordon Brown's closest adviser, travelled to Canada for the four-day conference of the shadowy Bilderberg Group of businessmen and politicians when he was Economic Secretary to the Treasury. The cost of the trip, in air fares, hotel bills and expenses is estimated at up to £5,000. The group's rules insist that "all participants attend in a private and not an ...

Catch a falling star

If only I could. I've never managed to catch sight of the Perseid meteor shower that Earth passes through around 11th/12th August each year. Not that I haven't tried, but the light pollution round here makes it very difficult, and sometimes I am on holiday and just, well, forget. Tonight is the best night to see them in several years. There is a new moon so the light from...

Metrolink line repairs at night - despite what we want

Residents who live alongside the Metrolink line need to be aware that the contractors currently working on renewing the track have informed the Council that some limited work may be needed during the night. Your local councillors have protested against this proposal, and we have received assurances that no heavy cutting or noisy work will take place. However, despite local Lib Dems asking for no work to take place at night, and for the contractors to do as they promised all along, it seems as though we’ve been ignored. Residents should only have to endure some noise for one night ...

Copious consumption

I have just returned from the Bury Lib Dem summer BBQ, where the rain held-off for long enough for the assembled to enjoy lots of nice food and banter. I think I may suffer serious intestinal failure later on due to an almost incessant refilling of my plate throughout the afternoon. The stages of my gluttony went as follows: 1) “I have eaten just enough to stave off hunger” 2) “I have eaten about enough to make it difficult to get out of my chair without groaning.” 3) “I have eaten so much that people are actually beginning to mutter things ...

EUYO Prom

I'm basking in the memory of a luminous Prom last night. I try to get along to some of them each year, and for several years we have had the added joy of watching our nieces perform. They are both violinists and have each in turn gone through the National Children's Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra. And - even more amazing - thay have each in turn been leader of both...

Brown tells Labour - get all PPCs in place by conference

Gordon Brown has ordered all Labour constituency parties to have PPCs in place by the time of the Labour conference in the autumn. I am beginning to start to believe this snap autumn election malarkey. However, if it is likely, despite Labour needing something north of £20million , perhaps even £40 million, to fund it, why do they keep dropping hints about it? Surely a "snap" election loses a

Airbrush makes Tony Blair a new man

Tony Blair is a new man, now that the cares of office have been lifted from him. A bit of airbrushing also helps.

Fearne Cotton: I'd have gone for Prince William if I was single

That'll wind up the Norfolk Blogger.

No wonder farmers are "growing rich" on blueberries

Farmers are growing rich on a blueberry sales boom, due those berries being touted as "super food". Crikey. The last time I seriously considered buying some, I worked out that they cost more than one pence per berry. I will stick with humble English apples.

Guantanamo: (Slightly) Less of a Black Hole?

The US authorities have claimed that five Guantanamo detainees whose release Gordon Brown recently demanded have strong limks to Al Qaeda. In a perverse sort of way, this is a positive development. The American government have finally been pressured into at least some form of real justification for the detention of such "suspects". For too long, they have been given free reign to act as the world's policeman by world leaders too frightened of terrorism and US isolationism to ask meaningful questions about detention in this repugnant legal black hole. Of course, it is not yet clear that the authorities' ...

The source of all freedoms?

Anyone who has read more than one post of my blog will realize that I am a passionate supporter of Land Value Tax. In other forums, when the subject comes up, people sometimes feel, and say, that I pursue the issue too zealously. Even those that support some LVT are sometimes embarrassed at the "hard core Georgists" like myself shrilly calling for more. I know plenty who regard the claims from some of us as to the myriad benefits Land Value Tax could bring as just plain rubbish - "nothing could be that good and not have been tried". None ...

Abuse Investigations should be taken away from Childrens Social Services - Hemming

Writing to Minister Kevin Brennan, John Hemming MP, chairman of Justice for Families, has called for the responsiblity for investigating allegations of Child Abuse to be removed from Childrens Social Services. "With the sad death recently in 'Climbie' council Haringey of a 17 month old child in early August 2007, following the convictions for the murder of Leticia Wright in Huddersfield, it is

Sunday Trivia

Wales on Sunday tells us that fire chiefs have defended a decision to send three crews and a rescue boat to save a duck trapped in a drain. The duck's owner dialled 999 when the bird was unable to escape from a drainage tunnel it had been washed into during flooding in Earlswood Lakes, near Solihull. One place that ducks may well be able to find a home is the giant eco-City being mooted by the Tories, to be built on reclaimed land along the Thames estuary between Docklands and the Medway towns so as to alleviate overcrowding in London. ...

Another sad death from child abuse in Haringey

The link is to yet another story. I am trying to put together some record as to deaths of children from maltreatment in the past two years. This one I think was very early August 2007. I am aware of some issues about Haringey that I am not at liberty to reveal at the moment. However, it seems quite clear that the system is massively dysfunctional. I have argued that the system intervenes

Communism's Ugly Face

Regular readers of this blog will probably realise that I'm not exactly the biggest fan of Communism. This report from the BBC of the uncovered lies, hypocricy and desire to murder with impunity surrounding the East German regime's "shoot to kill" policy on those fleeing to freedom should remind anyone who is even remotely tempted to think it is a good idea what an appallingly wasteful, unsustainable and destructive system Communism is. Sustainable only by the use of brute force, Communism crushes the human spirit. Make Communism history.

YouTube poll: cast your vote

I thought I'd follow up my previous blog posting about the call from some teachers for YouTube to be closed with an online poll! The wording is from the motion that was passed at the recent teaching union conference, though any wording doesn't quite capture the nuances of all possible views - so please do also use the comments if you want to add a "but..." to your yes/no vote. (If the voting buttons don't appear it means you - or someone else using your computer! - has already voted).

A lack of proportion

A jokey blog post of mine on Friday about a dog with two noses, questioning whether it counted as “intelligent design” resulted in the furious response “Are you planning to purge the Lib Dems of Christians?” This rather extreme reaction is remarkably common. An article posted on the Guardian’s Comment is Free website yesterday by one Gordon Lynch makes some unflattering comparisons between Richard Dawkins and a TV evangelist on the rather tenuous grounds that he uses the medium of TV to promote his agenda. I’m not convinced his argument holds up to much scrutiny. Dawkins is promoting ideas; other ...

Haddock and Chips with salt and brown vinegar

Posted by Chris: I love fish and chips. I prefer haddock to cod and here on the north east coast of Yorkshire the fish and chip shops sell mainly cod. Most do haddock as well but you have to wait for them to cook it and many of them leave the skin on for some reason. Glynis, originally from Whitby, prefers cod. It is therefore a highlight of our fishing trips to the Thirsk area, visit to parents in Harrogate or to the Yorkshire Ridings Society meetings in York, that I get a portion of my favourite haddock and chips. ...

Knocking on doors...

I was out canvassing this morning. I was knocking on doors in Bushfields and Cherston Road. If I stood for the 'out' party I would surely gain the most votes, but then again it is a nice day and holiday session so I don't blame people being out and about rather than waiting for some 'stranger' to knock on their door and ask them their voting intention. The residents who did answer their doors

Religion - what is it all about?

There seem to be people out there attempting to counterbalance anti-religious polemic unfolding on bookstores and newpapers in (mainly) the UK and the US by providing sociological and anthropological interpretations. In ‘The sacred and the human’ in Prospect Magazine, Roger Scruton gives us the anthropological interpretation of religion, while Peter Thompson goes the Ernst Bloch way in the Guardian's Face to Faith. It takes all sorts! For Thompson, religious belief is the response to humanity's existential sense of loss and need for 'home'. Citing Bloch, Thompson states that "what drives us forward is the paradoxical desire to find our way ...

Why does Netto sell stale sliced bread?

The opening of Netto in Roseberry Shopping centre at Redcar has been a great success. The first day, a couple of weeks ago, was marked by the number of people queuing around the corner to get in. The queues were there all day long and I am told there were people outside in the early hours to make sure that they got the bargains that were on offer. The car park, even on a wet Sunday afternoon, is always packed with cars. It was hardly used when we had the shabby and now demolished Roseberry Square. I have not had ...

Haw Haw, Very Funny

As a liberal, I’m not generally in favour of marching journalists into the middle of the street and brutally executing them, but Neil Clark could persuade me. What a twat!

Romney wins Iowa Straw Poll

With 15 months until polling day, and the actual primaries strating in roughly 6 months the republicans have held a poll within the state of Iowa, which traditionally is one of the first states to hold their primaries. The full result of the poll can be seen here The event itself, held at Iowa Sate university, was also attended by the National Rifle Association, and anti abortion groups (probably to remind the poeple there, and maybe a few of the candidates that this was a Republican party event) What was surprising about the poll was, actually there were 2 things. ...

Pipeline work drags on

Work started on crossing the Tawe valley with the Milford-terminated gas pipeline last November. Nine months later, the valley is still disfigured, favourite walks are still blocked and people attending acoustic sessions at the Pontardawe Festival this coming weekend are liable to have their enjoyment ruined by the sound of heavy plant.

Guerrilla gardening

George Orwell once said that some things are true even though they are in the Daily Telegraph. Similarly, some people are in the right even though their cases are taken up by the Daily Mail. On Friday the Mail reported the case of June Turnbull, a 79-year-old lady who has been voluntarily tending a public flowerbed in the Wiltshire village of Urchfont for eight years. Now she has been told by the county council that she needs three warning signs, a second person to act as lookout and a fluorescent safety jacket. As the Adam Smith Institute blog says, "stopping ...

Who said the Polish couldn’t be trusted.

Apparently Polish Agency workers in Liverpool refused to cross the picket line of striking Post workers, instead they went to the pub. Very British. Source www.libcom.org

Why am I so continually mocked from above?

There is something exceptionally disheartening about going into Tesco to buy 30 hot dog rolls and 30 burger buns for the BBQ today, and then exiting the building to discover a deluge of water pelting down from above that suggested that I’d have been better off buying an ark than a super-size tube of American-style mustard. Rick

I have email

Ina effort to invlove more of my readership in this blog and encourage good liberal things like dialogue and debate Ive set up a email liberalleslie@googlemail.com Please feel free to email me any blogs you think i might like to post. (In your name of course) I want to leave the basic party bashing to my own posts but i would really welcome Philosophical/policy type posts again to encourage debate etc a liberal perspective is not neccessary indeed the more challenging your ideas the better, that said i get the final say on posts. I am also attempting to launch ...

Huddersfield Death a new issue

The link is to a story that has not been widely told relaing to Leticia Wright with an extract below. Zaheer Hussain, the biological father of four-year-old Leticia Wright, right, said he was last with his daughter around two months before she died. He told the jury that the girl's mother Sharon Wright, 23, formerly from Hartlepool, then stopped contact between him and his little girl. Mr

Don’t care didn’t care, don’t care was done, don’t care had toxic waste dump, dumped on his doorstep.

Was out surveying village x yesterday. The set up was pretty normal knock knock here’s a survey fill it in leave it in the letterbox over the next half hour or freepost it. Most people were out, of those were in most when the realised it was a survey on LOCAL issues were fine, the fact that we wouldn’t knock on the door was probably the clincher. What was shocking though was the amount of people who weren’t interested, though in a extreme minority you would say we ask for your opinions on your street etc and they would still ...

The best excuse ever for growing cannabis

This story from the Daily Record brought a tear to my eye. I can only imagine the pain this man is going through. The fact the story was headed up "Scratch and Spliff", makes light of this man's serious medical problem.

Labour run scared of Welsh vandals

The Labour Party is always urging people to take a stand against vandals, to stand up and be counted and ensure that ordinary decent folk are heard. So in this vein, Welsh Labour have declined to have a stand at the National Eisteddfod this year because they say that last year their stall was damaged by Welsh Nationalist vandals. Yes, that's Labour leading by example. The first sight of problems and they run for the hills (or valleys). It's nice to see that Labour's call to be "Tough on crime. Tough on the causes of crime" and their use of ...

Lib Dem email service breaks the four million barrier

The party’s email list server continues to go from strength to strength, with the year ending 31st July seeing the total number of emails sent through it break the four million total for the first time. Any party member can register and start creating email lists (for party use!) for free, so if you’ve not yet [...]

An interesting new site or a Conservative front?

Courtesy of Dizzy Thinks, I’ve just come across Political Hearsay, a new site that isn’t quite finished yet but will allow people to rate different politicians. Is it a welcome new idea, or is it an attempt to pass off Conservative propaganda as neutral information, using online voting to suck in a large audience? Certainly at [...]

Mike Dixon's 50th Birthday Party

Last night I went to Mike Dixon's 50th birthday party in Kidderminster, I won't embarrass him by telling any stories from it...

London: A Latin American City?

{carnaval-del-pueblo.jpg} London is recognised as being the most cosmopolitan city on earth, but some of its communities are more visible than others. In Tower Hamlets, where I live, the Bangla presence is obvious, as are the Arabs along the Edgware Road. But I doubt whether many Londoners realise just how many Latin Americans there are around, even though one increasingly hears Spanish and Portuguese being spoken in the streets. Estimates vary on actual numbers, because of the sizeable number of over-stayers and illegal immigrants. But the Brazilian Embassy in London believes that there are up to 300,000 Brazilians in the country (the ...

Cameron caves into right wing again - Are the Tories insane?

John Redwood has been granted his tax cut policy which he has been dreaming of. A deregulation package, to be announced by the Tories next Friday, would give businesses a £14 billion saving, which Redwood says "would be a tax cut by any other name". Interesting isn't it? When the Liberal Democrats propose tax cuts it is to relieve the plight of the less well-off. When the Tories propose "tax

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Sunday 12th August 2007

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