LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Wednesday 15th August 2007

Corruption is corruption is corruption

When {Saudi Hawk fighters} I've talked before about corruption and the international arms trade - with the allegations around the Al Yamamah deal with Saudi Arabia particularly in mind - it's not been uncommon to get feedback about these sorts of crimes being - well - ok really, because everyone is at it, aren't they? Well - that's not my view! So I've done a piece, published earlier today on Liberal Democrat Voice which addresses the issue head on: Imagine you’ve been burgled and (by a small miracle!) someone is up in court, charged with the burglary. How impressed would ...

Time for coalition forces to withdraw from Iraq

Commenting on the killing of 200 Kurds in a series of bombings in Iraq, Liberal Democrat Leader Ming Campbell said: “The security situation in Iraq is deteriorating in spite of the policy of ‘surge’ followed by the United States. These barbaric attacks highlight the increasing level of violence in the country. “It is now time to create international support for Iraq so that coalition forces can withdraw.”

It took them how long??

There is only one ever recorded violent other throw of government in US history which was successful. It occurred in 1898 in Wilmington North Carolina. It was the days when Democrats were the racist party and the Republicans the nice ones. In North Carolina it would other throw the rights that the Black community had won in the Civil War, a mob of democrats marched into Wilmington forced the Republican mayor out of town along with Black and White officials, the mob also killed 20 black civilians and burnt down houses. Unfortunately I can’t say this surprised me when I ...

20 Years a Liberal - A Walk Down Memory Lane Part 1

Dear Reader, forgive me for the self-indulgence of this post but 20 years ago this evening I finally managed (after more than two months of trying!) to join the Shepway Liberal Association and wanted to reminisce a little. Signed up by the late Bernard Budd QC I had been prompted to join for three reasons: Belief in Liberal values; Receipt of a very funny, if dated, Liberal 18th Birthday card; Anger at the low Tory tactics used in the 1987 General Election. I'd also been very unimpressed with Michael Howard at a Ashford & Shepway Branch meeting of the National ...

The BBC goes Two point O

I may have missed this, but I’m sure it’s new. On an article about the CIA and Wikipedia we have this at the bottom: {BBB Web 2.0} Does the BBC really need more readers?

Britain's Favourite View

Inspired by the ITV series, here is mine. Magdalene M. Weale, in her seminal Through the Highlands of Shropshire on Horseback (1935), kindly described what you see from Brown Clee: Westward hills of all shapes and sizes: mighty piers jutting out into the sea; giant fists and breasts; mammoth heads, shoulders and buttocks; monstrous barrows, bivouacs and saddles; cones and pyramids, all in wild jostling profusion, with their crests of forest like the manes of flying steeds or elfin streamers in the wind, and in between the ranges elevated valleys like wave-troughs in the sea, waiting in everlasting suspense for ...

Surprise additions to the US list of terror organisations to be banned

Following today's news that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards are to be listed by the US as a terrorist organisation, a piece of paper retrieved from a bin (trash can) at the back of the White House has been found listing other groups that George W Bush wants to have banned too.

Norman Lamb’s fake Facebook profile: update

The Eastern Daily Press today has a fairly lengthy report of the story about the faking of a Norman Lamb profile on Facebook.

Racist or clown?

Just a bit of housekeeping from my appearance on 18DS’ Vox Politix on Monday (it’s still available to view at the moment), to follow up on an issue that has been bugging me. Caroline Hunt took great exception to my reference to the various attacks that have been made about Boris Johnson’s views on black people in recent weeks. To be clear, I didn’t call him a racist; that isn’t an argument I’m particularly interested in having (I note however, that it was an argument the Tories were jonesing for a few months ago). What I was trying to say ...

Caitlin Della Hill Is Lovely!

For my 250th post, I have fantastic news and, unusually, even pictures. While Richard and I were up north with our parents last week, we got to see my brand-new niece (then just a week old)! Congratulations to my sister Helen and her husband Jay, and little Caitlin is lovely. The evening we arrived, I walked over with Mum to see the new mum. I know it’s wrong of me, but I have to share with you that, while Mum criticised my awkward holding style, Caitlin stopped crying when her uncle rocked her delightedly but not when her granny did. ...

When Boris Johnson got married in John Biffen's trousers

The death of John Biffen the other day reminded me of this passage in Andrew Gimson's biography of Boris Johnson: He also arrived for his own wedding without the right clothes. As Allegra said, after relating the story of the ring: "What's more, he was wearing John Biffen's trousers at the time ... Some weeks later I had to send the mo rtgagees our wedding certificate, but it was nowhere to be found. Naturally Bozzer showed not the slightest interest. Months later the Biffens were much amused to find the missing document in the pocket of the famous trousers."When Lady ...

Another sign of UK forces overstretch ?

The sad death of a UK contractor in Afghanistan highlights other issues aside from the security situation in Afghanistan, most notably why is the defence of UK government staff in the hands of a private security firm and not being organised by the UK military ? Contractors in places like Iraq and Afghanistan are often accused of working at the very edges of the law, indeed often going beyond it in their possession and use of weapons, and the UK ought to be leading by example here. I might be putting two and two together and getting 13, but isn't ...

Rumsfeld

It has been revealed today that former US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Reisgned the day before last years US mid term elections, which saw the republicans loose control of both houses of congress, for the first time in 12 years. His resignation letter is dated November 6th, and records from the White House show that the president saw the letter on the 6th, yet his resignation was not announced until November 8th (the day after the election) This has angered many republicans who feel that if Rumsfeld had announced his resignation before election day, then they may have held onto ...

Catch us if you can

The Financial Times reports that the Government’s Media Monitoring Unit (MMU) is to include blogs in its news summaries. In a previous job I used to receive the MMU summaries every day – I was a bit surprised at the time that they omitted to include stories from the top news-breaking political blogs, so this is actually a rather overdue step. Whilst there is an argument as to how much effort the state should be putting into media management, I do think the FT’s headline ('UK government agency to monitor blogs') is on this rare occasion, a little more alarming ...

Made in China

When I was a child if something broke someone always used to say "it was probably made in Taiwan or Hong Kong". Now these two territories are synonymous with high end electronics, and high build quality and, it appears, that China has taken over the mantle of cheap and nasty. In the last 36 hours we have seen news that Chinese made batteries are overheating in Nokia phones, poisonous paint has been used on Mattel toys and now parts fall off Asda products. Perhaps it is all part of China's sinister plot to take over the world. They mean to ...

Planning Applications

Ward: Combe Down App Ref: 07/02344/FUL Parish: N/A Registered: 8th August 2007 Expiry Date: 3rd October 2007 Location: 32 Southstoke Road Combe Down Bath BA2 5SN Grid Ref: (E)374776 - (N)162068 LB Grade: N/A Proposal: Erection of a single storey side extension and porch Officer: Tessa Hampden Applicant: Mr E Grubb Agent: LBC Planning Services Ltd 32 Southstoke Road Combe Down Bath BA2 5SN The Old Vicarage The Downs Clandown Radstock BA3 3DD Ward: Combe Down App Ref: 07/02347/FUL Parish: N/A Registered: 6th August 2007 Expiry Date: 1st October 2007 Location: Netherleigh Pioneer Avenue Combe Down Bath BA2 5QX Grid ...

Scottish Lib Dems don’t need Perfidious Albion butting in

Alex Salmond’s White Paper on the future governance of Scotland has brought forth another round of English Lib Dems (and supporters of other parties such as Pravdale) bemoaning the fact that the Scottish Liberal Democrats are ‘undemocratically’ not backing the SNP’s support for a referendum. As I’ve said in the comments on Lib Dem Voice, this is a ridiculous argument as the Scots both voted against independence in the last Scottish Parliament election by two-thirds and reject independence by the same proportion in opinion polls. But what annoys me most of all is that these people have ignored what the ...

Cowley Street’s Wikipedia habits EXPOSED! (in a moment of boredom. not much here.)

My attention was drawn to an article today about edits made by Conservative Central Office to Wikipedia - always game for a laugh, I thought I’d punch in Cowley Street’s address and take a look at what the good men and women of the Liberal Democrat party’s central office have been up to. Someone in HQ came to the defence of Lynne Featherstone, who had had her entry vandalised by a disgruntled member of the wiki world - though I’m not sure deleting all mention of the controversial (and probably mis-reported) cleaner-hiring comments is entirely balanced. Party staff are keen ...

Banning Things Is Insane, Except When Not Banning Them Is Insane – BBC

There’s nothing better to wake up to in the morning than The Today Programme. Not because it’s any good, but because the exasperating rubbish they spout gets me properly awake and raring to have a go. This morning saw a particularly silly example of their usual editorial stance, where the programme adopts a tone that is either vociferously in favour or vociferously against something and implies that to hold any other opinion would be sheer insanity. Today, Today thought it was both entirely ludicrous and completely reasonable to ban things, without spotting the minor flaw in holding both positions simultaneously. ...

Scottish column inches

The Scots command the column inches today.Deboroah Orr writes entertainingly comparing and contrasting Brown and Salmond's first 100 days in power ("These two canny Scots, as they celebrate 100 days in power, have much in common")The Guardian leader praises Salmond for his first few months in power ("Nervous steps of a nation") before suggesting that things might not be so easy in the future.On the same pages, a former SNP advisor suggests that Salmond has the talents to weather the future well too ("Governing well is worth a hundred freedom slogans")Both he and Magnus Linklater in The Times pick up ...

Kettner’s Lunches

{peter-boizot.jpg} For literary types and aficianados of the 1890s, the name Kettner’s immediately conjures up the image of glamorous after-theatre suppers and of Oscar Wilde ‘feasting with panthers’. But for Liberals/Liberal Demcrats the West End eatery is best remembered for the convivial lunches hosted there by its one time owner (and head of Pizza Express), Peter Boizot. At a time when the Liberal Party’s fortunes were turbulent, these events – always graced with a speaker — rallied people living or working in Central London. When Peter (who managed a large portfolio of cultural, sporting and philanthropic interests) sold Kettner’s, the lunches moved to ...

OPINION: Corruption is Corruption is Corruption

Imagine you’ve been burgled and (by a small miracle!) someone is up in court, charged with the burglary. How impressed would you be if the accused said, “OK, I did do it - but you have to understand. I’m a poor student at the local university and all the French and US students there steal [...]

Update on Chessington World of Adventures

The initial results on the foot and mouth tests on the sheep at Chessington World of Adventures are negative accordingto the BBC. Big sigh of relief all round... It seems that the scare did not stop people from visiting the park today and the car park was full. It may seem odd that I get this very local information from the national news, but most of us try to avoid driving past at...

More sniping from the sidelines

Meanwhile, Labour MP Don Touhig has upset Plaid Cymru again with his claim that there is no appetite for the National Assembly to get more powers. And quite right too. Labour have signed up to Plaid's agenda. They will have to learn to live with it.

TV and the sleep of reason

A friend of mine sent me this recently. It says that watching TV costs you quite a bit (pay TV, games, DVDs, accessories etc.) and that if you did away with it you could save $1m over 45 years. Not sure about the maths here, but the cumulative cost of entertainment is not insignificant, although I don't believe that the best things in life are free as I love cinema, books and music. There are some costs although not necessarily borne out by the user/consumer (libraries come to mind). When I was a child a friend of mine told me ...

Opening Line of the Day

From my favourite classical music blog, On An Overgrown Path: I suspect that last night's Snape Prom was the first time that the music of Frank Zappa has been played at Aldeburgh.

Billions again

So Gordon ‘The Wallet’ Brown has committed 35 Thousand Million pounds extra to public expenditure since his accession to the Downing Street Throne. According to the Guardian that is, so my first reaction as an ancient Grauniad observer was to wonder about mis-prints. My second is to repeat my plea to abolish the term ‘Billion’ in spoken discourse as deaf and hard of hearing people find it almost impossible to hear or lip-read the difference between ‘Billion’ and ‘Million’. And yes I know that the UK has officially given up on its parochial insistence that a Billion should be a ...

News from Abbey Ward, Nuneaton

Nuneaton and North Warwickshire Liberal Democrats have announced Mish Whitmore as their candidate for the forthcoming by-election in Nuneaton's Abbey ward.

Sleep-walking to disaster?

Labour AM, Huw Lewis, has published an on-line pamphlet this morning in which he warns that his party it will “sleepwalk” to electoral disaster at the next Assembly election in 2011 without major changes. It can be read here. Huw argues that Wales Labour needs to be fully staffed and more effectively organised, in effect that it should be on a permanent 'war-footing' so as to connect better with the electorate. He also advocates the adoption of a 10-year policy programme by the party, saying, “The idea that we have to present surprise policy commitments a few weeks before an ...

Bad news

Radio Wales are reporting two animals at a Merthyr Tydfil processing plant are suspected of having foot and mouth. A cordon has been thrown around the plant and Welsh Assembly Government vets are on the way. Let us hope that it is a false alarm. The consequences of this being a positive diagnosis do not bear thinking about.

A Lib Dem/SNP coalition at Holyrood?

Nicol Stephen, the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, has issued a statement in response to the SNP-run Executive's white paper on independence. And a number of people are busy reading between the lines. On his Blether with Brian blog, the BBC's Scottish political editor Brian Taylor says the Lib Dems: remain leery of Mr Salmond and his SNP. But they argue that it is significant that the SNP are now canvassing constitutional options short of independence. They say further that this takes the SNP onto LibDem territory - strengthening devolution within the UK. They say all parties can talk ...

Chessington is not in Surrey

Am I the only person who is annoyed that the BBC keeps in referring to Chessington World of Adventures in Surrey? The news about the tests for foot and mouth disease appear on the Surrey page but not on the London one. For readers who don't know the area, Chessington is the most south-westerly portion of Greater London and lies within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames which is...

Excellent article by Willie Rennie on "bringing the troops home"

If anyone still believes we are playing some vital role in Iraq and that we are achieving more than allowing Iran a propaganda victory in the south of the country, then It would be worth reading Willie Rennie's excellent article on Comment Is Free.

Tragic death

Yesterday - was phoned by journalists for comments on the poor 17 month old boy who died in a north London hospital having being horrifically wounded. It looks as if Haringey may be in the frame as the child was thought to be on the 'at risk' register and the police have arrested his mother and her boyfriend. Of course, the first thing I (and everyone else) always think of when this sort of news hits the streets is Victoria Climbie. Having been a councillor at the time - and seen the catalogue of mistakes made by a number of ...

Home ?

Nothing makes me reexamine what I believe in more than the transition from Inner City Hyde Park back "home" to Cumbria. I'm enjoying a break back in Whitehaven on the west coast where my family still are. You can almost feel the social capital. Its clean, tidy and vandalism free. Its socially stable with the most amzing ecology of local self help groups. It looks after and respects its architectural inheritance. It has avoided the worst excesses of clone town Britain. It has park keepers I remember from school and shop keepers with shops where the "and Son" really means ...

Billionaire Donor says "I'll bankroll Labour campaign"

The Times reports this morning that a billionaire is prepared to give "as much as he can" to bankroll an early election should Gordon Brown call it. There has been a lot of talk recently of an early election, and if I were Brown I would certainly go for it as soon as possible given the volatility on the markets and the fear the inflation and interest rate will rise. Some have suggested the Brown cannot afford an early election, but The Times article makes clear that Labour have a swathe of other donors willing to donate and not having ...

Sea Bass, Schemes and City

Well, the Great Sea Bass Experiment of 2007 passed without major incident. I cooked dinner for Tamsin using hitherto untried ingredients without the need for a meeting of the government’s emergency COBRA committee in response. Rob Newman and Steve McQueen were not required to reprise their roles in The Towering Inferno, and there were no light aircraft emptying tons of water over a mile-square area of flaming Prestwich. Whether or not the incident passed off without food-poisoning will become clear in the coming days. This afternoon I am attending a Council meeting about ”I’m a Councillor, get me out of here!” ...

Missing Blogs

What has happened to "A View from the Glen", "Inside Swansea" and "Swansea Phoenix"?

Cheers

The comments of the Chief Constable following the death in Warrington have been attracting a lot of comment. I recently had a 10 minute rule bill slot and used it to moot the idea of an Alcohol(Harm Reduction) Bill. My motivation was the increase in alcohol related antisocial behaviour - combined with concerns about some of the stats on liver disease and alcohol related admissions to A nd E. My

Prisons set for new crisis

Bad news in today’s Telegraph: the prisons crisis is upon us again, despite a major early-release programme introduced in July. Ministers are facing a new prison population crisis despite ordering the early release of thousands of inmates. Campaigners say they expect the population to climb back to a new record high within days. Sorry to sound like a stuck record, but when will they accept it’s time for a whole new approach to prison, with a focus on rehabilitation instead of mass incarceration? Or do they actually like spending more on crime and punishment than anyone in the OECD? (see ...

More on Wood Green's Waterstone's

I should have really mentioned in my earlier post about Waterstone's plans to close their Wood Green branch the blog posting that seems to have started off the campaign - so here is the link now to the Me and My Big Mouth blog.

New figures show top-up fees causing student debt problems

Two new surveys on student debt levels point towards top-up fees increasing student debts: Another survey of 2,000 for Push.co.uk predicts those who began courses last year will owe nearly £17,500 by the time they graduate, up 24% on 2006. It says this year’s freshers will owe up to £21,500 when they graduate, with some of them [...]

Robbie Coltrane's take on Britain's backwaters

The answer to the Pub Quiz question was: A and B road designations were created in 1920. I can't find a web reference for that fact, but it must be true because it was on the Chris Moyle's show a couple of weeks back. All this leads up to what promises to be an excellent programme starting on ITV tonight: Robbie Coltrane: B-road Britain. It's a shame he chose a Jag to go round in. I would

Another sad death from child abuse in London

The link is to a story about Barking and Dagenham. This story fits in with the thesis as to what sort of interventions are avoided. Note that in the changes document I am suggesting that where there are clear mental health issues that risk is a key determinant. (That doesn't mean just someone saying a bit of therapy is needed). There is a further important point relevant to this case. If

London needs a Liberty Angel

Nannyism and surveillance is utterly ingrained in Londoners lives. We really should be getting fed up by now. Let’s begin with a ride on the tube. A decade ago, when you shoved your ticket into the barrier machine on the way to work, it was your own business. Nobody but you knew where you travelled from, where you were going to, and at what time. Today, few of us can afford to waste money on paper tickets, and so are forced to use our individually numbered Oyster Cards. These track our movements, and record information which is stored by Transport ...

Scottish Lib Dems attitude to SNP’s independence initiative

You can read Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Nicol Stephen’s views over on the Scottish Liberal Democrats website.

Food Waste to the Heathrow Climate Camp - a Day in the Life of Camden's Eco Champion

At the breakfast table in Belsize Park the outlook was distinctly overcast. The weather outside was awful which meant the Climate Change Camp at Heathrow would be a swamp. The newspapers were unhappy about only being allowed on the site under escort. "Shambolic Camp Plots Protest" was the headline in one tabloid. And my partner told me I was wasting my time and that she would be in no hurry to release me from jail if I was arrested. Sometimes you have to stand up and be counted, I said, and walked out of the door. But first I had ...

Pub quiz question for today

What in the UK were divided up into A and B in 1920? Answer in two hours' time.

Stupidest headline of the day

From the BBC Website, "Iraqi growth unexpectedly low" No way, really ? A country with about three simultaneous civil wars going on, racked by terrorism, occupied by foreign powers and interfered with by its neighbours has low growth ! Surely not.

The Dawkins Debate

Liberal Leslie has posted on the marvellous Dawkins programme last night, to which I wrote a slightly lengthy response. I would urge people to add their own comments, as I would be interested to see other people's thoughts on the questions raised. While I'm at it, a quick link also to Charlie Brooker's thoughts on the programme - facetious, yes, but also funny. All of which has prompted me to

Day 2413: Air Marshal Tim

Friday: We are all very sad to hear that Lord Tim Garden has passed away. Remember him.

Day 2412: Sister Species

Thursday: New fossil evidence has been dug up that suggests a change to our understanding of the human evolutionary family tree. Until recently we thought that you monkey-people were descended from one species called Homo Erectus (or Upright People) who were in turn descended from another species called Homo Habilis (or People who shop at Habitat, er…) But now archaeologists have found some new bones that suggest that both these species existed at the same time, and so one was NOT descended from the other. Instead they may have been distant cousins, like you humans were to the Neanderthals. This ...

Day 2411: Foreign Debt

Wednesday: Sir Mr the Merciless has written to me to ask me to get behind his campaign to make the Government do the DECENT THING and rescue the Iraqis who have been helping our brave soldiers by translating all of the things that the people of Basra have been shouting at them. Without their help, who would have known what the Iraqi was for: "Please depart like swift angels, you kind and gentle foreign barbarians for we are filled to overflowing with gratitude for your despoiling of this hellhole that was once our prosperous and peaceful land"? Or indeed how ...

Day 2410: Camp X-Ray

Tuesday: Mr Millipede is to call on his US counterpart, Ms Condescending Rice, to release five men who are residents of the United Kingdom. Or at least they WOULD be residents of the United Kingdom if they were not currently residents of the United States' current version of Devil's Island at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. The lovely Liberal Democrat Sarah Teather , Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Guantánamo Bay, responded saying: "This decision should have been taken years ago. Abandoning British residents to indefinite imprisonment in obscene conditions was a gross dereliction of duty by the Government." ...

Day 2409: Camp Airport

Monday: If you do not believe that Heathrow Airport is CAMP then you need to see the EXCITING [R: he's only six, he can't tell the difference] new DVD from the BBC of Dr Who's adventure on board the "Time-Flight"! However the people who own and allegedly run the airport, BAA – who are either the former British Airports Authority or a SHOUTING SHEEP – are having trouble with an entirely other sort of camp, a bunch of harmless protestors who want to save the Earth by reminding people that flying is BAAD. The Shouty Sheep People have apparently been ...

Day 2408: Ruby Slippers

Sunday Congratulations to Daddy Richard's Mummy and Daddy who have been married for FORTY YEARS!

Day 2407: Apocalypse Cow

Saturday: You would be forgiven for thinking that it was the DIVINE RETRIBUTION of Shambo the Sacred Bullock, given the HYSTERICAL coverage that the BBC – and all other news broadcasters – felt it was appropriate to give over to what has, so far, proved to be a relatively SMALL and CONTAINED outbreak of "Foot in Mouth" disease. Almost EVERYONE has already done the gag about Mr Balloon suffering "Foot in Mouth" disease, and that the BOVINE Conservatory leader has cancelled his next holiday in order that he can be humanely put out of his misery for the good of ...

Department for Nations, Regions and Communities

Dear Mr Khalid Mahmood MP,

Day 2406: Let's Get this Green Revolution Moving

Friday: I have been on HOLIDAY but I am BAAAAACK! And now, here are some stories I may have missed… Don't you think that it is a bit STRANGE that oftentimes travelling by railway can be MORE expensive that travelling by car? Or, even more bizarrely, that it can be more expensive than travelling by AEROPLANE? This CANNOT be very good for the planet! Just this week, the House of Commons Joint Committee on Climate Change said that the government's targets for cutting carbon emissions should be tougher. But here we are, actually giving people an incentive to use the ...

Wednesday 15th August 2007

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