LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Tuesday 28th August 2007

Petrol Prohibition

So I hanging out at Cowley Printing Works, minding my own business, when Capo Hunhe, 'The Carbonator', tap me on shoulder and say, "Liberali come with me, we're going to take a ride in the Batmobile." "You mean you sold your Toytown Prius and got hot new set of wheels?" I say excitedly. He freeze and give me acid look. "It maybe a humble Prius to you, Liberali, but I like to call it the Batmobile. Do you wish to imply my hybrid-electric dream-motor is in some way less miraculous and exciting than the fictional companion-chariot of the fabled Dark ...

MEP badly advised regards conference fringe

One Liberal Democrat MEP who I respect (and who, of course, I hope to join in the European Parliament in 2009) has booked to host fringe events in his own name at the fast appraoching Party Conference in Brighton. The person concerned is NOT a competitor of mine for the nomination in the South East. No other MEP or MP has booked fringe events in their own name. The usual practice is for fringe events to be hosted by party organisations or external think tanks, charities, etc. The topics of the meetings look extremely interesting (trade & cliamte change and abolishing the death penalty) ...

How do you pronounce the Polish word Rzeczpospolita?

I'm currently researching a Polish army from the period 1576-1631, which is known at the Rzeczpospolita, or "Commonwealth" in English. The idea is that I shall construct a wargames army of this ilk. however I feel that it would be a tad embarassing to have an army the name of which I can't pronounce, so would welcome pronunciation from any Polish speakers out there. Ta.

Sarkozy right about Security Council reform

President Sarkozy, in a wide-ranging speech to French diplomats, has called for changes to the UN Security Council, in particular for more countries to be made permanent members. He has suggested India, Japan, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa. He’s entirely right. Institutions tend to endure longer and enjoy great success if their constitutional arrangements appear fair. The current Permanent 5 (UK, US, France, China, Russia) arrangement is based on the balance of world power in 1945, which has long changed. Recognising new global powers is a way bind them into the UN process. Some people have called for Britain and France’s ...

You don't have to be a bleeding heart liberal to realise that sending Learco Chindamo back to Italy is madness

My ex-holiday feet have just touched the ground long enough to read this excellently argued piece from James Graham on Quaequam Blog entitled: "How society has failed Frances Lawrence". I think Iain Dale has introduced a red herring which even the Tory spokespeople/David Cameron haven't mentioned - the length of the original sentence. (He asks 'What about the human rights of Frances Lawrence

Your 100 best Lib Dem blog posts

It's anorak heaven over at Lib Dem Voice. Ryan Cullen has compiled a list of the 100 most popular Lib Dem blog posts from the last year, based on the number of click-throughs from his Aggregator. Introducing it, Stephen Tall writes: Five blogs are responsible for almost half the postings: Lib Dem Voice accounts for 16 of the top 100 postings (we thank you); James Graham’s Quaequam Blog! for 10; Nich Starling’s Norfolk Blogger for 9; Paul Walter’s Liberal Burblings for 7; and Jonathan Calder’s Liberal England for 6. It’s interesting, too, to note how many of the most popular ...

Funeral arrangements for Brian Hodgson

Brian's family has confirmed the funeral arrangements: 2pm Friday 7 September, 2007. Stonesfield Parish Church, near Witney, Oxford. (buses are available from Oxford Bus or Rail Station - see attached PDF ) Donations in lieu of flowers to: Adopt-A-Minefield Kensington Charity Centre 4th Floor Charles House 375 Kensington High Street London, W14 8QH telephone: 020.7471.5581 fax: 020.7471.5582 web: http://www.landmines.org.uk

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Ton

‘Tis the season for lists… Below are the top 100 posts by Lib Dem bloggers, in descending order of popularity, for the last year - August 2006 to July 2007, inclusive - according to click-throughs from the Aggregator. (Profuse thanks to techno-wizard and stat-monkey Ryan Cullen, who runs the Aggregator, for compiling this table.) Five blogs [...]

Weekend Nazis: Not much sign of any

The other night I watched John Sweeney failing to find neonazis. His documentary was billed as being about 'Weekend Nazis', a close look at people who dress up in German WWII military uniforms and re-enact bits of World War II at the weekend. Re-enactment as a hobby is in itself quite harmless. I know a couple who are Vikings at the weekend, and I doubt that they secretly pillage anywhere or want to return to the old days of raping nuns. Re-enacting World War II is in more dubious taste. The people Sweeney visited took bad taste to an extreme ...

Comptitive sport for children is still frowned upon

I have been known to argue that competitive sport has a limited party to play in tackling the problem of child obesity. But there is no doubt that it is great fun for the children who are good at it. Ministers now make speeches in favour of competition, but it is clear that anti-competitive attitudes are still deeply rooted in many parts of the education system. Mike Selvey described his daughter's experience of the Milton Keynes Primary Schools Athletics Championships in today's Guardian: At the close of her 800m race, Hannah was leading so far in front that the runner ...

Carbon Offsetting - Use your Heads...

An interesting piece in The Times argues that carbon offsetting isn't all it's cracked up to be. What it shows to me is how much of a grey and undeveloped area the 'green conscience' market really is. There can be an interesting similarity in opinion between the anti-green right wing and the hyper-green left. Whether you don't believe in climate change, or you believe that the only way out of climate change is to return to the life of a fifteenth-century peasant (just in an anarchist collective), you have a fundamental interest in making people think there is no way ...

More evidence Sure Start does not work

From today's Guardian: Children starting primary school are yet to show any signs of improved development despite Labour's introduction of measures designed to boost early years education, new research claims today.A study of 35,000 children in England between 2001 and 2006 suggested they were no further advanced now than they were before Labour's overhaul of education for pre-primary school youngsters. The initiatives, which included the Sure Start programme, free nursery education for all three-year-olds, the early childhood curriculum, the Children's Act 2002, and the Every Child Matters initiative, were introduced to improve life chances for disadvantaged children and educational standards ...

New poll shows Lembit Opik / Iain Dale dream ticket set to win Presidential election after leading rival defects to David Cameron's party

Oh Stephen Tall, what have you started? PS Did I say: E X C L U S I V E !!!!!!!!!!!! Woof woof.

Spiteful Labour to ditch Yorkshire

Posted by Chris: I have it on good authority that the controlling Labour Group (majority 1) have submitted a motion to delete Yorkshire from Redcar & Cleveland Council's postal address, at the meeting of Full Council to be held on Thursday 6th September. I will probably not get details of this spiteful action until the agenda is published on Friday but we know it is coming. We have just had our most successful Yorkshire Day raising £667 for Redcar lifeboat. More and more people have started to use Yorkshire as part of their postal address and the Council had only ...

Day 2329: A Time for Prayer

Sunday: Dearly beloved, let us prey on the children, er, I mean pray for the children… Mr Black Peter, the Prince of Wales, has opened a right old can of worms with his suggestion that the compulsory hum-a-long hour of "collective worship" in schools – usually interpreted as mandatory Church of England waffles for breakfast – should be updated to something more multi-cultural and multi-faith. As I am a MILITANT ATHEIST BABY ELEPHANT you can hardly be surprised that my immediate sympathies lie with the secularists who say: "why should we have a compulsory act of faith AT ALL?" Given ...

Day 2428: A Timely Reminder

Saturday: I am only A MONTH LATE with this story of SWIFT (calls for) ACTION from Mr Frown! What with all of the SCANDALS about TELEVISION this year (from phoney phone-ins to bogus Blue Peter viewers) you would think that no one had ever distrusted a TV Quiz before. Time then, for my Daddies to dust off their DVD of the 1994 movie "Quiz Show", which tells the story of all of the SCANDALS about TELEVISION in the year 1957. A mere half a century ago. Concentrating on the most famous Quiz, the show "Twenty-One", and how it was rigged ...

Rockingham Castle

A rival to Nevill Holt as the model for Bonkers Hall may have emerged. I spent the afternoon at Rockingham Castle - a Norman fortification that became a grand country house in the 16th century and has been occupied by the same family ever since. Charles Dickens was a friend of that family and Rockingham was the inspiration for Chesney Wold in Bleak House. More information on the Rockingham Castle website.

Ming is right again about the Iraq war

Well done to Ming Campbell for raising the issue of the Iraq withdrawal timetable, as previously blogged about. Polly Toynbee has described the Liberal Democrats as "right, right and right again about the Iraq war" As usual with Ming, his letter to Brown was measured and authoritative: We have a moral obligation to the young men and women of our armed forces who we ask to do dangerous and

Is this the worst band of the Eighties?

Seriously. The look. The lyrics. The sound. That dreadful, reedy, off pitch voice. Wendy James’ rather obvious appeal notwithstanding, can anyone name a worse band from the Eighties than Transvision Vamp? It’s even worse than I remembered! Share This

Excellent Huhne plan to phase out petrol

Well done to Chris Huhne for highlighting a sensible plan to phase-out petrol as a fuel by 2040. I was tempted to call this plan "ambitious" and "radical" but it would be wrong to describe it in either of those ways. It is simply right and realistic.

Cameron on Crime: When is a knee-jerk not a knee-jerk?

David Cameron has called for broad, "generational" change to tackle the "lawlessness" in some UK areas. So far, so good. Then you look at the suggestions which appear to have come forth from the Camster so far (with my comments in italicised parenthe..er..brackets): -Curb violent video games (they already go through censorship and some have been banned) -Urge parents to be more responsible (

Can Cameron bounce back?

That is the question asked in this vue de l'horizon by Nick Assinder on the BBC news website.

Dear Gordon, Dear Ming

The exchange of letters between Ming Campbell and Gordon Brown over the Labour government’s disastrous Middle East foreign policy has been dominating the headlines all day: BBC Online; The Telegraph; The Independent; Politics.co.uk. Ming has responded to the Prime Minister’s reply over at his website - here - witheringly noting that it “simply rehearses the Government line and could [...]

Bonus points

Yet again the colossal scale of city bonuses is back in the news, with the Guardian reporting that this year they have reached a mind-boggling £14 billion ("City bonuses hit record high with £14bn payout"). Immediately George Monbiot is on the case ("How the neoliberals stiched up the wealth of nations for themselves"), claiming that such inequality is part of a broader capitalist agenda blamed for everything from mass homelessness to the breakup of the welfare state.In fact these issues may not be as related as Monbiot suggests. While huge bonuses do seem somewhat obscene, the media furore surrounding them obscures two more ...

Victory or defeat for equality?

The Black Solicitors Network have dropped their judicial review of the Carter Reforms. Carter is the Ministry of Justice’s new legal aid scheme coming in this autumn. It is probably going to be a disaster for anyone who cares and about either justice or the prudent use of public money. The heart of it is competitive tendering where legal aid work will go en bloc to solicitors firms who put in the lowest bid. Not only does this invite the worst bargain basement justice but what will happen is that a few firms will get the contracts, everyone else will go ...

Liverpool FC to play Everton anthem as tribute to Rhys Jones

Given the deep rivalry between the two teams, this is mind-blowing.

Habeus Corpus Precedents

Althouh we haven't had to use these yet we have now got some draft precedents for applying for Habeus Corpus. Whether they will result in a retrial is another issue. As an absolute minimum there should be a public pronouncement of the sentence. (see link)

Why I find this Tory crap abhorrent...

It's not because I am a liberal I find one particular aspect of this abhorrent: Convicted criminals to serve the full sentence given to them by the judge. ...but because I am a Christian, and I believe in expiation, repentance and the ability of people to change their lives for the better, and in ways a judge at the time of a trial could not anticipate. There's plenty of other stuff to get worried about as a liberal of course, but I would urge Christians not to fall for this particular piece of knee-jerk populist authoritarianism.

Vladimir Putin and the 1984 All Stars

I suppose it is just possible that Vladimir Putin's regime might have lost its marbles, or maybe they just think that foreigners are stupid, but the latest drivel from Moscow truly defies belief: The murder of Anna Politkovskaya was plotted by foreigners. Yeah, course it was Vlad, just like we are also responsible for the Kursk disaster, the Ostankino Fire, the fact that Russians drink themselves to death, and that the Rothschild's plotted the Russian Revolution in the first place (Oh no, wait a minute that is an American conspiracy theory). We have actually read 1984 you know Vlad- it ...

Wild Thing

A good person sent me this brilliant song. It’s a lampoon (a reasonably affectionate one I think) of Bobby Kennedy singing Wild Thing. I wonder what song Ming might sing? He liked Bob Dylan in his youth. A one off performance at at the Glee Club would be great. UPDATE: if you have trouble downloading the song from the link above go to http://www.angelfire.com/pa4/kennedy/speech.html and scroll down the list.

John Hemming challenges the Government to act now to save historic buildings in the West Midlands

John Hemming MP, Shadow Minister for the West Midlands, has written to challenge Liam Byrne to act to save historic buildings in the West Midlands before they are lost forever. An analysis performed by the Liberal Democrats based upon English Heritage's Register of Buildings at Risk has found 179 buildings with a Conservation Deficit of £65 Million Pounds in the West Midlands.

No Ming, Polls, Defections, Selections, Outrageous Confections, and Definitely No Iain Dale… Just a Bit of Radio

I’ve been busy with other things than blogging over the bank holiday, and if Stephen Tall’s spectacular return to the Interweb is true, I’ve just constructed the least interesting headline* possible for Lib Dem Blogs. Two of you still here? Good. My erratic performance on last Wednesday’s Simon Mayo Show will disappear from the BBC’s currently even more erratic Listen Again tomorrow, so you’ll have to listen sharpish to get in your own critique. Getting in before that deadline, I shan’t give as much depth as Millennium’s lovingly partial write-up, but I will say who I think came out best… ...

Norman Collier to deliver next Tory relaunch

Oh dear, it just goes from bad to worse for the Tories doesn't it. Perhaps given the problems with the microphones it might be better to get Norman Collier to do the next relaunch ? Collier's faulty microphone act has a bit more style. Denied the headline news story on the day of their big relaunch by stories about Iraq and Ming Campbell, then when they do their press conference to announce their new crime proposals, the problem with their sound system meant that Sky News went to a press conference involving disgraced footballer Lee Hughes at Oldham rather than ...

Right Off!

An interesting piece on the Guardian Arts Blog, concerning the rather desperate lengths that conservatives are forced to, in order to find anything resembling right-wing popsters. American conservatives demanded saturation airplay of the Clash’s Rock the Casbah in the aftermath of the Iraq invasion in 2003; but as an angry cry against the censorship, it can hardly be regarded as right-wing. Presumably they were also unaware that the album preceding Combat Rock was Sandinista! Whilst the Right remains bereft of decent tunes, all shades of the Left are seemingly catered for. Blacklist have been hailed as the skinny-tied Hitch-loving poster ...

The Challenge for Turkey’s New President

{abdullah-gul.jpg} Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Abdullah Gul, has been elected President of the Republic by a comfortable majority, in a third round of voting in the country’s parliament. In recent months, there have been massive street demonstrations against his candidature for the post, because of his Islamic roots, and the fact that his wife always wears a headscarf — not a burka or a niqab, mind you, but merely a headscarf — in public. That might seem pretty inoffensive to most Britons, but for some Turks it is a red rag to a bull, as they see it as a challenge to ...

I'll be there, will you?

Just a quick plug for the bloggers meet-up at conference ... I had a job finding the details so thought I'd just do my duty to help publicise it too. http://www.libdemvoice.org/libdemvoice-blog-meet-1227.html

Another generation...

I see that the former President of the European Commission and Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Gaston Thorn has died. A business minded Liberal, in many ways he represented many good things about the drive for European Integration. Doubtless the Anti-Europeans will describe him as precisely the kind of Euro-fanatic that seeks to destroy the nation states of Europe. However, as his obituary makes clear, he was a very proud patriot for his own country- fighting so strongly for the national idea of Luxembourg against the Nazis that he put his own life on the line, and indeed ended up in ...

My crime ... issuing a press release ...

Having noticed that I have been listed on LDV as an elected member's blog, I thought I should write a post that relates to that position - which I tend not to do due to not always knowing who reads this blog. However, I have to confess, I committed a cardinal sin (in the eyes of our opposition) in my first week as group leader on NCDC. What did I do, I hear you cry ... .... I issued a press release from our Lib Dem group following the successful proposal (although may now be challenged at full council) of ...

V Festival - the great clean up

Over a week after the V rock/pop festival in Hylands Park near Chelmsford and the park area is still recovering. The adjacent campsite was littered with abandoned tents - another symbol of the throwaway society, I guess. And other litter marked many of the routes to/from the park. Not to mention parked cars damaged by buses speeding past on their way to the park. Whereas 40,000 Scouts and

Could Britain be carbon neutral by 2050?

That’s the ambitious plan proposal launched by Ming Campbell today and set to be debated at the party’s autumn conference next month. Full details of the plan, along with the document to be debated at conference, are over on the Liberal Democrat website.

Ming Campbell launches plans for a carbon neutral Britain

Earlier today Ming Campbell launched the Liberal Democrats’ proposals to make Britain carbon neutral by 2050. He said: “With these policies the Liberal Democrats have become the first major British party to map out the route to a carbon neutral Britain. “And the first to plan the way towards a cleaner global environment too. “Pollution doesn’t respect national boundaries. Climate change is a global problem that requires an international solution. “Britain should not be a bit player in finding that solution; we should be leading the pack. “Under our proposals, the United Kingdom would set the green standard for others ...

Lembit gets serious (and announces next Presidency bid)

Lembit Öpik, Lib Dem shadow secretary of state for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, has used an interview in the Financial Times to lay out his thinking on his new portfolio - and to confirm he will stand for the presidency of the party when current incumbent Simon Hughes’s term ends next year. Full story here; [...]

Landing slots, air taxes and BAA monopoly

ConservativeHome today covers the latest vapourware announcement in the Tories' slow progress towards finding a policy. This time it's the "Green Tories" (who, you would have thought, might have given up when their tree was repainted - presumably with lead based paint to boot - the other week) and their ideas for Green taxes. Now of course, many of the tax proposals would have been easy to lift from our Tax Commission work a whole year ago, but I guess what with imitation and flattery and so on we ought to be pleased. But there's a couple of opportunities hinted ...

Yahoo! Is Sued For Collaboration in Chinese Human Rights Abuses

I personally welcome the news that Yahoo! is being sued by the World Organisation for Human Rights on behalf of the families of Wang Xiaoning and Shi Tao. Report from the Guardian here. I genuinely hope that their "not our problem" attitude is duly punished. They collaborated by turning over information to the Chinese authorities which they knew would have resulted in the persecution of particular individuals. I await the results of this suit with interest. Should bring a whole new meaning to Corporate Social Responsibility inside Yahoo! I hope WOHR wins and Yahoo! are made to pay a stiff ...

How we are

This bank holiday has been spent in Watford, London, Wolverhampton and Birmingham... On Saturday a well planned trip was taken to finish off the "How we are: photographing britain" exhibition at Tate Britain (which closes on 2nd Sept!). We'd had an interupted visit a couple of months ago by a fire alarm 30 mins before closing time, so wanted to return to complete the last 2 rooms of the exhibition. I found it hugely interesting - it captures a large amount of social history, as well as photographic technology changes overtime. The first stop though was to the South Bank, ...

Why is Michael Ashcroft considered an election winning expert?

Lord Ashcroft, the controverisal former Conservative Treasurer and now Deputy Chairman, is back in the news again. Over the weekend, the Daily Mail ran a piece about internal Conservative disagrements over his role and there’s been plenty of criticism of him on Conservative Home, some of which made The Guardian. Defenders of Ashcroft essentially say: he knows [...]

Clever ploy by Ming derails Tory relaunch

Tory plans to take control of the news agenda today with the relaunch (or re-hash) of their crime policies have been dealt a clever blow by Ming Campbell's decision to take on Gordon Brown over troop withdrawals from Iraq. In what should have been a low news day, the Tories might have expected unobstructed top of the news headlines coverage all day with "Dave" doing his tour of the studios. Instead the main news story and the lead on the radio news has been "Gordon Brown rejects Lib Dem calls for immediate troop withdrawals from Iraq". Ming and his team ...

On europe the tories really should shut up

David Cameron accuses Gordon Brown of ‘shameful arrogance’ for not calling for a referendum on the new European treaty (after all, let’s call a spade a spade). Is this the same type of ‘shameful arrogance’ which Edward Heath displayed when he signed the original accession treaties to the European Communities, as they were then, way back in 1972? Whatever the Tories’ weasel words on this matter, the accession of the UK to Europe in 1973 was the biggest change to our constitution in our history as it was the first time that the British government accepted a higher authority. That ...

Paying for education

There's been a little talk about what is expected to be the next quasi-policy announcement from the Conservatives on education - that parents should be allowed to set up their own schools with state funding. Liberal Leslie worries that this is vouchers by the back door, complete with top-ups and selection, whilst Jonathan Calder suggests that as liberals we should embrace such diversity of provision. Little surprise that I should tend to agree more with Jonathan than with Leslie. And it just so happened that I was already writing a tome on education in response to a couple of stories ...

A weekend away, and a return to the real world

Ros and I were in need of a break, and she wanted to take me to see a part of the country that is close to her heart, so we set off on Saturday morning for Shropshire, and a cosy little bed and breakfast. I must admit to having spent time in Shropshire only to get somewhere else, and bearing in mind the frequent references to the county in the works of Jonathan Calder, was more than a little

West Midlands Safari Park summer 07 update

Invar Mapping Surveys have recently been undertaking our regular update survey for the West Midlands Safari and Leisure Park. We have been surveying this site for a number of years - usually in the off-season. This year we have also been undertaking mapping work whilst the park has been open to the public. A quick shot [...]

Unitary Council enters critical phase of development

As the process of establishing the new Unitary Authority commences, it is vitally important that any joint board setup to thrash out the final shape of the new council: Includes all of the District in the discussions about its future shape - irrespective of party politics. They all need to be representing to properly represent the interests of each District [...]

Violent Offender Orders

It looks like proposed Violent Offender Orders will cause yet another split between government and the judges. The Guardian reports: Senior judges have warned ministers they risk a re-run of their clash with the courts over control orders by introducing new proposals that will place “massive restrictions” on certain convicted violent offenders after they have left prison. The problems are not only those of proportionality and practicality raised by the judges. If those who breach orders face a five-year prison sentence, there’s bound to be a knock-on effect on prison numbers, already at record highs. Probation officers are already massively ...

AMT gone!

I have frequently sung the praises of AMT coffee here. So imagine my surprise when instead of this view this morning at Charing Cross there was nothing there! The story is here. Standby for a fair trade v free trade battle in the comments!

New Business

Things have not rested whilst I’ve been away, and continue to carry on now that I’m back. Cllr O’Hanlon did a grand job of looking after my ward work whilst I was on holiday, and I thank him for that. Since I have come back, a number of things have happened. Here are just a couple - I have arranged a meeting with residents of Webster Grove this week to talk about various housing and anti-social behaviour problems and see if we can move forward there. I have also started to arrange a meeting with Cllr Connor from Salford City ...

Never mind ... conference soon!

Well, there you go, I had two big projects on this year and neither has succeeded. Big Lottery have not awarded us our grant - frustratingly, due to a lack of funds rather than a fault with our application. The rumours had been circulating the grant team's corridors that the Olympics have been sucking finances out of Lottery funding ... obviously they didn't say that in their letter! In many ways it is a little bit of a relief. Although the £0.5mill would have secured us for the next five years, our creativity would have been somewhat stifled due to ...

Prime Minister's Iraq letter could have been written by predecessor

Commenting in response to correspondence received from Gordon Brown on Iraq and Afghanistan in reply to a letter from himself, Liberal Democrat Leader Menzies Campbell said: “The Prime Minister’s letter simply rehearses the Government line and could have been written by his predecessor. But the reality on the ground and the views of senior military figures undermine Mr Brown’s analysis. “The debate on this issue will not go away, particularly as the American presidential elections will put Iraq at the centre of American politics. “It should now be put to the top of Britain’s agenda.”

Back in the groove

{lighthouse.jpg} I am back from holiday. I spent five glorious days on the Isle of Mull, off the west coast of Scotland. It is a land so staggeringly beautiful that it is the single most compelling argument against air-travel that I yet to come across. Environmental campaigners take note. There’s no need to live in a tent by the M4 for a week. Just convince every would-be flyer to head to the Hebrides for a few days, and nobody would ever go abroad ever again. It is rare these days that I find myself in a place so remote and ...

Climate Change as entertainment?

After Dodington Parish Council showed Al Gore's climate change film "An Inconvenient Truth" locally, we asked Steve Webb to try to get it shown on network television. He's received a reply from the BBC's Deputy Director-General as follows: "While I am sorry to disappoint Councillor Hulbert and his colleagues on the Council, I must report that at the moment the BBC has no plans to broadcast this film. I understand however that it is considered likely that it will indeed receive an airing on national television in due course" We suspect this means that someone like Channel 4 got in ...

Beech Hill Farm tipping application

View Larger Map Beech Hill Farm - blue line shows tipping boundary, pointer shows access from Westerleigh Road This is the property on the right as you go from the Shire Way mini-roundabout, under the bridge towards Westerleigh – the place where they periodically sell fireworks and the like. The land behind the buildings is just across the track from the Westerleigh Rd railway embankment, so the neighbours are Chedworth and Rodborough. Over the years there has been a history of failed planning applications and enforcement notices. Many years ago the land was tipped, but according to the planning application ...

Common sense on immigration as well? it mist be silly season!

The latest LD announcement (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6965250.stm) of an amnesty for illegal immigrants who can demonstrate a commitment to the country is so utterly sensible that it will inevitably be damned by the Tories and decried as unworkable by Whitehall. What a great country we live in! How dare we allow people to remain in this country who do many of the jobs British citizens would rather not do, who often pay higher taxes and whose children are more often than not higher achievers at school because their parents want them to work hard to succeed?! Terrible idea, isn't it? Still it’s ...

Secret Imprisonment

There is a case in Cambridge today where it is proposed that a certain woman be imprisoned. She will be requesting an open hearing. It would be wrong for her to be locked up in secret. I am going to visit a Law Library this afternoon to find the precedents for an application for a writ of Habeas Corpus so that we can get her released if she is imprisoned unlawfully (in secret).

NFL season drawing near

American Football has always been my passion ahead of other team sports - I guess that is down to the way I was ‘taught’ PE at school. {In order I follow American Football (Philadelphia Eagles, Shropshire Revolution ), Cricket (England & Lancashire), Rugby Union (England & Leicester) and Football (predominantly England - as a kid I followed Liverpool [...]

Iain Dale and ‘free markets’

Iain Dale asserts that supermarkets don’t operate in a free market and that the poor little farmer suffers because of it (its a familiar argument). Taking a step back and looking at this, the argument is not one of free trade, its one of sentiment and so-called fairness. The charge is that the supermarkets use their buying [...]

Common sense on youth crime - surely not!

The current media focus on youth crime and shootings was put starkly into focus in Saturday’s Independent in a well written front page piece by Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder of Kids Company, an organisation which helps young people in London with various problems. She set out to demolish the spurious claims of almost every commentator that the answers to youth crime are simple, i.e. the lack of family support (no, Dave, it's not that simple), the music young people listen to, the fact that they don’t eat enough greens etc etc. What she argued instead was that there can be a ...

Newlyn

Down in Newlyn last night for the tail end of the Fish Fair. Couple of pints in the Dolphin, enjoying the party atmosphere. But as today's http://www.guardian.co.uk/ relates, there's an air of despair settling on this great Cornish fishing port. There are not many places like Newlyn left now, it's still a working port and people live and work there. Most people were drunk last night, but there was no trouble, you can't start a fight in the pub that your Dad and Grandad drink in, and if you do, it's soon sorted. But the Government is grinding on with ...

Uses for bottles of coke

I spotted a news article a couple of days ago on News 24 about the impending problems that will occur when the cost of tourist visas for non EU citizens travelling to Lithuania rises from somewhere in the region of 7 Euros to ten times the price. The biggest impact will be on neighbouring Belorus, a country most people have not heard of, despite its being in Europe. (I once went into a map shop

Autumn Workshops at the Wighton

Latest news from Friends of Wighton with thanks to Sheena Wellington (click on headline above for more information) : The autumn season at the Wighton Heritage Centre, Central Library starts with a free Come’nTry day on Saturday 1st September, 11am – 3pm. Members of the public will get a chance to try out whistle, fiddle and medieval harp under the expert guidance of Helen Forbes, Karen Hannah read and Simon Chadwick. Regular classes start on Saturday 8th September, fees for each session being £4/£2.50 concessions. For those interested in traditional song there is a regular Tuesday afternoon workshop, tutored by ...

My wedding draws near

I will be getting married to Julie on the 7th September, so nearly all of my LibDem activities have been curtailed for now. All of our plans have so far clicked into place, with only a few minor hick-ups. I will be posting some pictures after the wedding.

Jam today

A large part of our allotment is yet to be developed. At the moment it is covered in brambles which are however producing a good crop of blackberries. On Saturday, David wanted a handful to make a pudding so I went down to the allotment to pick some. I came back with a carrier bag full, far more than he needed. So yesterday I made blackberry jam. That means my work colleagues will be kept happy!

What would you do if…

… you see worldwide financial and economic problems triggered by a poorly regulated sector of the US economy? a) Propose to scrap all the regulations in the same sector of the UK economy? b) Do something else? If your answer was (a), congratulations - you too are John Redwood. Yes, I’ve been reading once more the Conservative Party policy [...]

What the Welsh Liberal Democrats are for

I have chosen today to publish my-on-line pamphlet 'What the Liberal Democrats are for' largely because I have just finished it, but also in the hope that it will provoke a debate within the party in the run up to the Federal Conference in a few weeks time and the Welsh Liberal Democrat Conference in Aberystwyth in October. In the pamphlet I have tried to map out the party's key policies and philosophy and have argued that taken as whole this amounts to a unique Welsh Liberal Democrat vision that will enable the party to build support. Although the Welsh ...

New arrival

{Noah Maxfield} Many many thanks from myself, Dani and Noah for all the good wishes we have received since Noah arrived on Sunday. For those who dont yet know he weighs 2.85kg (6lb 5oz), is 48 cm long and will have to suffer his entire life from having Croydon as his place of birth on his birth certificate {:-)} Dani and Noah are doing fine (I’m an emotional wreck but that doesnt really matter). Noah has a Facebook group (thanks Duncan) but in case you are resisting the tide and not joining Facebook, here’s a photo.

400 Norwich Union IT jobs to go

Norwich Union are set to announce today up to 400 job losses amongst IT staff in Norwich. Aside from the devastating blow this will have on the local economy, it is yet another sign that Norwich is, for Norwich Union, just a brand to put on their logo and any sense of having an interest in the economic well being of the city is long gone. On the bright side, this will no doubt be good news for India, as every set of job losses in the UK sees more and more jobs transferred to India just as other companies ...

We'd have enough prison places if we worked out who the real criminals are

A poll published in Tuesday's Guardian apparently shows that most people feel that we have enough prison places and don't need to build more, and should find other ways of punishing people: More prisons are not the answer to punishing criminals, says poll | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited: A Guardian/ICM poll published today overturns the assumption that the public think tough prison sentences are the best way to tackle crime. It shows that a majority of voters think the government should scrap its prison building programme and find other ways to punish criminals. Politicians in all parties routinely assume ...

Incentives to form mixed status neighbourhoods

Michael Meadowcroft has a letter in today's Guardian about how middle class folk tend not to live in the "rough areas" where gang culture finds it all too easy to get established. He says: Gangs grow out of our divided society | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics: How many teachers, solicitors, social workers, politicians and police officers live in such neighbourhoods even when their work closely involves them there? All too often they commute from the suburbs and reinforce the picture of success meaning a chance to get out. Unless there are financial and housing incentives to live and ...

My mum always said "don't stick you tongue out ... it makes you look stupid"

Presumably this is not advice that they give out in Argentina, at least not to Carlos Tevez anyway.

Edinburgh Reviews #5: Tony Lee

Tony Lee: XXX Aggressive Comedy Hypnosis Company: Tony Lee Venue: Udderbelly – Pasture Date: 21 Aug '07 Eew. This was frankly enough to make a liberal feel quite prudish. I don’t want to sound condescending, but here is a sample of Lee’s “aggressive comedy”: “Now, when I clap my hands, you will believe the woman next to you has just done the smelliest, nastiest punany fart.” I really did feel

Edinburgh Reviews #4: Marc Maron & Kirk Fox

Marc Maron & Kirk Fox Company: Gilded Balloon Productions Venue: Gilded Balloon – Wine Bar Date: 21 Aug '07 To be honest, I can’t review these two in the same review. I thought it was a bizarre decision to put them on a double bill in the first place; the standard length of a stand-up slot in Edinburgh is an hour, abnormally short to start with. To close that down to half an hour seems

Oh Polly, how right you are!

In today's Guardian: Politics is an art not a science because most of us spend as much time inside our imaginations as in the real world, wrapped in memory and imaginary futures, swayed by deep beliefs only tangentially touched by reason or numbers. I presume you speak only for yourself, dear!

Edinburgh Reviews #3: Lucy Porter's Love-in

Lucy Porter’s Love-in Company: Lucy Porter Venue: Pleasance – One Date: 21 Aug '07 As the title of the show suggests, Porter’s show this year was all about love, and in particular the idea that love is some sort of mental illness. It is a good concept for a show, and was nicely used to introduce some audience participation into the show: the format was essentially several stories which were

Edinburgh Reviews #2: Norman Lovett's Slideshow

Norman Lovett’s Slide Show Company: Norman Lovett Venue: Pleasance – Above Date: 21 Aug '07 This show is exactly what it sounds like; Lovett has taken his camera around with him in his everyday life for about a year, taking pictures of things he found notable, or (often) annoying. The result is two carousels of 35mm slides, and an hour long chat through them. His material centres on quite an “

El Orfanato

After hastily booking tickets last night, Grace and I set off to Leicester Square tonight to see El Orfanato - The Orphanage - the last film in the Film 4 FrightFest festival. This wasn't just any old showing, it was the first public screening in the world of the film, previously only shown at Cannes, due for release in Spain on 11 October and elsewhere on 28 December After an introduction by

Edinburgh Reviews #1: The Early Edition

The Early Edition Company: Marcus Brigstocke, A Venue: Udderbelly – Pasture Date: 21 Aug '07 Brigstocke was Brigstocke-y, by which I mean pretty good. His one-liners were funny (“The Daily Mail – for those who aren’t familiar, just think of a version of the Metro with the nerve to charge”), and when occasionally he slipped into tirades against things that annoy him, he made good enough points

Tuesday 28th 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