LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Wednesday 5th September 2007

Do I amuse you?

A most puzzling day. I in Cowley Printworks and get summoned to see Signora Featherstone Capo of the Hornsey Green Liberali. A fratellanza who specialise in dropping broken paving slabs on our enemies and tying them between speed bumps. "Come in Signor Liberali" she say. Sitting with her are Hapless Cullen 'the Aggregator', Nogeek Howells, and 'Shorty' Tall. A dangerous group of hardened killers often used to sort out Family internal problems. The boys are staring at me pretty hard. Hapless is picking his fingernails with a stiletto and, Nogeek is frowning. Shorty is bouncing rubber ball off wall, with ...

Secrets of the House of Commons Library

Chris Pond, from the House of Commons Library, was the guest speaker at the Wednesday Circle lunch at the National Liberal Club today. About half of those present had been conducted round the library itself in the morning, but so graphic was the description in his talk — including the tale of his falling off a high ladder — that I could clearly visualise the whole thing. The current library, which replaced an earlier structure that burnt down, was designed by Sir Charles Berry and Augustus Pugin, and opened in 1852. Nearly two hundred people work there, supplying information and material ...

Remembering 1992

Remember 1992 ? The start of the Premier League was in the offing, a Prime Minister was in power who succeeded mid term, and there was an opposition who level pegged in the polls for months with general suspicion that as soon as the election would be called, they would stand a good chance of winning. Their slogan that year ? "A time for change ... a time for Labour" Now in 2007, the Tories have come up with a new slogan "Conservatives ... a time for change" Whatever next ? An election rally in Sheffield ?

EXCLUSIVE: Empress denies liaison with bureaucrat!

It always saddens me when the political equivalent of the tabloid press insist on creating non-stories. However, the media speculation linking me to young Mr Valladares needs to be quoshed for once and for all. I've known Mark for quite sometime, although I really can't recall how we came to meet. I do vaguely remember a seminar in Aarhus, Denmark, at a time when I was President of the Amaranth

City Council Meeting - 11 September 2007

The agenda for the City Council meeting on Tuesday 11 September has now been published. Items on the agenda include: the "State of the City" report by the Leader of the Council;the adoption of a new Code of Conduct for Councillors;a Liberal Democrat motion opposing the Government's Post Office closure programme; anda Scrutiny Report on Neighbourhood Offices from the Local Services & Community

Doh - Scientists in obvious statement shocker !!!

Scientists have discovered that global warming's worst effects will be felt in the Africa. So let's get this right, Africa, the hottest part of the world, will suffer most from the world getting hotter. Forgive me for not being surprised, but my class of eight year olds could have worked that out. Whatever next. Will they tell us that the areas that are lowest will suffer worst from rising sea levels ? Or perhaps an exclusive, bears DO shit in the woods !

A nice surprise !

Council meeting tonight. What a relief I am no longer Mayor and don't have to chair it anymore. As yesterday there was a massive amount of reading to do, and the whole meeting was over in 25 minutes. John had some searching questions on the Stockton Riverside Festival with disability and buses, whilst Julia made good points about any planned new hospital not having a phone number that cost...

Moving Sandwell forward

I’ve just spent the evening over at The Old Crown in West Bromwich having an informal chat with a group of local party members. It was a pleasant evening which went on longer than expected (don’t they always, well the ones in pubs anyway!) with a good mix of Councillors and activists. Colin Ross also paid a visit and it was useful to have a regional perspective on things. Plans were discussed and everyone seemed keen to move things forward. Hopefully we can keep the momentum going and keep spreading the Liberal Democrat message across Sandwell.

More combing and why's OR The post what I wrote

Earlier this week, I compiled the Top Lib Dem Media Tarts of the Year over at Lib Dem Voice. It doesn’t take that long to comb the Lexis-Nexis database on which it’s based, but, still, I need something to occupy my mind while I tally numbers. Fortunately, the BBC recently released this Morecambe and Wise dvd, keeping me happily occupied. Which is all the excuse I need to post this clip:

What do you think of your local buses?

Transport for London (TfL) are consulting on possible changes to bus routes across Haringey. TfL do review bus routes regularly, but now is a good time for any local residents to feed in their views on frequency, bus stops, links to other bus routes, types of bus - any comments at all that you have about the buses you use (or reasons why you don't use them) would be useful. The routes that they are looking at are the 232, 73, N73, 76, N76, 144, 221, 259, 279, N279, 476, W3, NW3, 134, N134, 234, 123 and 444. My ward ...

The Regent Cinema's greatest night ever

Redcar's Regent Cinema hosted the regional premier of Atonement tonight and Glynis and I were first to walk down the red carpet with the cameras flashing. What a fabulous night for Redcar and for the Regent Cinema! The red carpet or is it pink? The champagne reception but no, that is not Charles Kennedy. Glynis with Dave Fitzpatrick and his girlfriend. Neil Bates who runs the Regent Cinema. Joe Wright, Director of Atonement, finds a spare minute from his hectic schedule today to organise his next blockbuster.

Canadian Liberals and YouTube

Its good to see a bit of fun in politics check out these YOUTUBES from the Canadian Young Liberals. On a serious note on Monday we held our celebration day for our Learning Difficulty Networks in Bath and NE Somerset. We have three newtorks based in Bath, Radstock and Keynsham and they are working hard to raise their concerns and issues and get their voice heard. As Chair of the...

The Way to the Stars

I have been diagnosed with John Mills poisoning, but I taped The Way to the Stars this afternoon and watched it this evening. It is an impressive film, dealing with the fortunes of an airfield through World War II. There are few scenes of flying, as the loves and lives of the aircrew and local civilians are placed centre stage. This is one of those films from late in the war where Anglo-American relations are a key theme. Here, though Bonar Colleano does his usual act, of the two tragic central figures it is the Englishman (Michael Redgrave) who is ...

Meetings, meetings, meetings

I did miss one though as the minutes of the last one didn't say where the meeting was, so I could finish off my reading on the way to the one after that sat by Stockton Riverside in the sunshine. What a nice place to sit. Some of the reading material I had ploughed through at the weekend was gone through in less than 15 minutes though! I am assured it will be coming back to the next...

Something happening for a change

After all of those polices and strategies that seem to have dominated recently is was such a pleasure to be at the monthly meeting of the Bishopsgarth Association of Residents. Julia and I have a ward surgery beforehand, and then there is the residents meeting that is open to all people on the estate. The local Police and Deputy Head of the school are usually there too. There was...

The return of Mark Oaten

Mark Oaten is about to publish a book on coalitions. As part of the publicity campaign for it he has an article in tomorrow's Times. He writes: Ming needs to come out now and state that, in the event of a hung Parliament, the Liberal Democrats will work with whichever party has the most MPs.The headline shows how this will be spun by those who do not wish us well: A Lib/Con pact? You shouldn’ t rule it outLiberal England is always in favour of free debate, but I doubt if Ming's inner circle will find this intervention helpful on ...

Planning committee gives Berkeley a good kicking

Local residents, wondering what Councillors actually do at 02:00 in the morning at the Town Hall, might be interested in this story on the London SE1 Community website in respect of a modest cross-party triumph against perennial local villains, Berkeley Homes. The Berk's plans to turn the old St. Olave's Grammar School into a boutique hotel have been delayed. My better half Councillor Jardine-Brown (who voted to reject the proposal) memorably described their architect's proposals for a big attached lift-tower as: "one of the nastiest things I have ever seen at a planning committee meeting" Others added a "opaque carbuncle" ...

Shortlisted

So there I was today, chatting with a reporter and asking him if he read my blog. (The answer is off the record ...) I hope he's reading this because I've just discovered to my astonishment that it has been shortlisted for the Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year awards! Now the winner of the Best Designed Lib Dem blog is chosen from votes on Liberal Democrat Voice, so this is a very...

Iraqi interpreters campaign latest

Dan Hardie reports that there is to be: a cross-party meeting, organised by the online campaign for Asylum rights for Iraqi employees. It will take place in Parliament in Committee Room 14 (St Stephen’s Entrance) from 7-9pm on Tuesday 9th October ...The main speaker will be a British soldier who hired a number of Iraqis and is in contact with many of them now, including many who have fled Iraq ahead of the death squads: he will give an up-to-date, detailed picture of events on the ground.There will also be speeches by Ed Vaizey (Conservative MP for Wantage, Spokesman for ...

The Restaurant - A quality reality TV show

Let's face it, reality TV has a bad press these days. Big Brother and the plethora of cheap copycat derivatives on ITV of various BBC shows has given the genre something of a bad name. So it is very refreshing to watch The Restaurant on BBC2 . It seems to have the same high production values of The Apprentice, an Apprentice like catchphrase, with "your fired" being replaced by "I'm closing your restaurant down", some really irritating contestants as well as some you instantly take to and its own soundtrack and unique quirky incidental music. In general The Restaurant has ...

How do you tackle patriarchal attitudes?

Many thanks to The Free Think Blog for picking up on this item of interest to at least 52% of the population, if not the Lib Dem Blogosphere. Well, the pay gap between men and women far from slowly improving is has widened for the first time in 10 years. Yes, I agree with the feelings of Free Think: 'Such inequality is depressing, and reveals how deep-rooted discrimination is in the workplace,

I wonder what Labour MPs think of Brown's adoration of Mrs T

A statue of Margaret Thatcher has been erected in the members' lobby in Parliament. It sparked this Early Day Motion in February: "That this House recalls the cruel and divisive reign of Margaret Thatcher and demands that the statue be removed from the Members' Lobby until such time as its erection has been approved by a vote in the House." (EDM 981, 2 Feb 2007) Given that Gordon Brown has just

Not afraid of flying but.....

I'm not entirely sure this would fill me with confidence.... Airline sacrifices goats to appease sky god Officials at Nepal's state-run airline have sacrificed two goats to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god, following technical problems with one of its Boeing 757 aircraft, the carrier said Tuesday. Nepal Airlines, which has two Boeing aircraft, has had to suspend some services in recent weeks due the problem. The goats were sacrificed in front of the troublesome aircraft Sunday at Nepal's only international airport in Kathmandu in accordance with Hindu traditions, an official said. "The snag in the plane has now ...

And The Nominees Are.........

Good heavens I've been short listed for one of the Lib Dem blogging Oscars to be announced during our annual conference in Brighton later this month.In the highly unlikely event that I might win I hop...

The Tories always scream the word "bias" at the BBC

The Tories are obsessed with labelling the BBC as "a bunch of lefties" or "institutionally biased against the Tories". Just check out any number of Tory blogs and they will come up with this Tory at least once a week. So what about when it is biased in their favour ? The story on the BBC website yesterday about the TV debate that Gordon Brown has refused to do has as its opening paragraph "Conservative leader David Cameron has written to Gordon Brown to ask him to "re-consider" his decision not to take part in a televised debate. " Of ...

Don't panic ! DON'T PANIC !

It's good to know that the American's did not lose five nuclear missiles. No, instead of losing them they armed them and put them on to a B52 bomber which was flying a mission. Apparently this was just "a mistake". As I said, Don't panic.

Day 2437: Dinosaur Stops Tube

Tuesday: No, this is not about Dr Who and the Invasion of the Wobbly Rubber Monsters. Large, Placid & Stupid {Posted by Picasa} This is the Tube strike by the RMT or Really Mean Transport Union. The fault – unsurprisingly – can be traced back to the Prime Monster. Yes, it was Mr Frown who insisted on flogging off the Tube to one of his CRAZY off-balance-sheet PPP schemes, against the wishes of Londoners who had elected Mr Mayor Ken to OPPOSE the government (yes, look how well THAT worked out). Back in 2003, nine of the twelve London Underground ...

BBC backs down over environment show

The other day we talked about the BBC's planned "Planet Aid" telethon. But now it's been cancelled. Sounds like it was too controversial. According to the BBC's website ""The BBC says it cut the special because audiences prefer factual output on climate change" There are suggestions that it would have left the BBC open to accusations of bias. And they refused our request to show "An Inconvenient Truth". We wonder who twisted their arms?

REVEALED: Bob Monkhouse's love child is presenting the weather on BBC TV

The slick hand movements. The comedic, chummy mid-Atlantic delivery. The clever little lines. The physical features. It's all there. The little pointy hand gesture at the end is the clincher. Dan Corbett "Dad"?

Mum's the word

A new survey reveals that the pay gap between men and women increased for the first time in a decade this year ("Pay gap is growing between men and women", The Telegraph). Such inequality is depressing, and reveals how deep-rooted discrimination is in the workplace, with simple anti-discrimination legislation failing to tackle tacit patriarchal attitudes. The problem is two-fold: not only are women being paid less for the same job, but they are aspiring to lesser jobs, often due to the responsibilities of family life. With affirmative action (rightly or wrongly) off the political agenda, it seems that the only ...

Conservative Press Office gets it wrong, again

If your political party launches its first entirely online advertising campaign several years after another party first did the same, do you: a. Claim you are first anyway and hope no-one notices?, or b. Something else If your answer is (a), congratulations - you work for the Conservative Party. And well done on finally catching up with what [...]

Tory Party Unveils Its Soul: Children and Small Animals Flee

Gosh. I’m delighted to have been nominated in the Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year Awards category that I was secretly wishing for, and also in the big one… Where I’d anticipated four of the shortlist, but definitely not me! I reckon I was a rather better (or at least more frequent) blogger last year, so I’m very happily surprised. Thank you very much, those of you who nominated me, and I’ll take it as a punt up the posterior to propel me into more persistent punditry. So while I work on some serious number-crunching, here’s a Michael Ancram moment… ...

Frenchay - the first good news in a long time!

Just a couple of days after my last post on this topic, at last a glimmer of hope. This morning's meeting of the South Glos. Council health scrutiny committee was to be asked simply to 'note' that Alan Johnson had responded negatively to the Council's concerns about the Bristol Health Services Plan. But my colleague Councillor Sue Hope tabled an amendment saying that the Committee should make a fresh referral of the whole thing to the new Secretary of State. The significance of this is that this committee has a statutory power to do that in a way that I ...

Nominated

Ooh, how exciting - I’ve been nominated for an award. {nominated-most-humorous.png} It’s clearly a sop to make me make up my mind in favour of going to conference! You can see the people I’m up against in the shortlist announcement. I’m not being falsely modest when I say I don’t expect to win. I’m in august company, including Millennium Elephant, who was in the running for Blog of the Year last year, and Don Liberali, who has… ways… of… influencing outcomes. There’s public voting for “best design” category, but my category will be decided by an eminent panel of judges. ...

Blog shortlisted for Lib Dem Blog Of The Year Award

This blog has been shortlisted in the category of “Best Blog from a Liberal Democrat Elected to Public Office” in the Lib Dem Blog of the Year Awards. Which is wildy exciting, and just about the biggest boost to my ego since it became apparent that, for some women, the thought of being near a local councillor is actually a turn on. The nomination does not mean that I am automatically caught up in the whirlwind of glitz and glamour that comes with, say, an Oscar nomination. In fact, I was informed of the nomination in a text message from my ...

More of the Midas touch

Following-up the news that local band Midas were disqualified from the singles chart for selling pre-loaded SIM cards at their gigs, the New Music Strategies blog features an excellent interview with their manager.

George Bush's priorities after office: Money and teaching people to repeat his mistakes

The New York Times reviews Robert Draper's book "Dead Certain", about George W Bush. It gives some fascinating glimpses into the priorities of the great man. Take his plans after leaving office. He wants to make lots of money and establish a "Freedom Institute" to tell young people how to mess up countries - like he did in Iraq: Mr. Draper quotes him saying that he plans to build a 'Freedom

Mystery of the split open letters to Redcar Lib Dems

Posted by Chris: It seems that almost all the letters sent out to Redcar Lib Dems members giving notice of the September General meeting have landed on the doorstep with the envelopes spit open and the papers loose. Many members have received only the face part of the envelope, whilst Joyce Benbow has received a Royal Mail packet (also burst open) with umpteen sets of the papers in them. I spoke to our friendly Postman this morning and he was well aware of it. It had apparently been a talking point at the Sorting Office but they have no idea ...

General Election news

No, I'm afraid I don't have any inside knowledge about Brown's intentions. But elsewhere in the world, it seems that Jamaica's first female Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller, and her People's National Party, have lost the General Election to the Jamaican Labour Party. The preliminary count gave the JLP 31 out of 60 seats, and this moved to 32-28 in a recount yesterday. With a handful of close...

Fisk this: Widdy goes beserk

Crikey. Just when you thought it was safe to go out, Ann Widdecombe explodes all over the place splattering bits of old wig everywhere. I wonder what senior economist and single mother, Stephanie Flanders (of Newsnight) will think of this: People are terrified of being judgmental. But we should be judgmental. Being judgmental does not mean abandoning people. Take, for example, the issue of

Good news for Muswell Hill parking

Hurrah! A victory for local people in Muswell Hill and their campaigning Lib Dem councillor - Martin Newton. After Martin exposed the hideous mess that parking signage is in Muswell Hilll following the introduction of the Council's Stop & Shop scheme's - Labour Haringey has finally caved in and are doing (or appear to be beginning to do) the right thing. At least Cllr Brian Haley (Labour's parking supremo) had the sense to respond to our pressure and come and see for himself. And having seen - he clearly had to act. Well done Martin! As Martin puts it, "We ...

Tesco recycling success

I have just had a call to say that, following the complaint I raised at the beginning of the week, there will now be two new paper recycling bins at Tesco. They are due to be delivered on Friday. This is great news, and shows that, when they pull their finger out, the Council can make sure that the right thing happens. However, this is just a stop-gap solution. What we really need (and what I actually asked for) is more collections. The new bins will probably be filled just with the excess paper that’s been dumped outside the old ...

Who is the best blogger of them all?

I am one of the judges at this year's Lib Dem Blogger Awards. After Stephen Tall's tremendous win last year (this year he's a judge) Lib Dem blogs have now exploded to mega proportions - and a veritable army posts on a regular basis. We now have the short lists (which I am judging as well - so I'm not allowed to enter! - along with three others) and there is a category for you to take part - judging the Best Designed Blog. So if you go to Liberal Democrat Voice you can put your oar in!

Not quite Yellow, Red or Green politically !

Recent posts by Tristan Mills and myself asking if we are, respectively, too right / left wing for the Lib Dems has set me thinking some more. My influences cut across all three shades of progressive political thinking, thereby pleasing few people, other than myself ! My thoughts can be summarised as such : I'm hopeful that you have all ascertained that my views cut across yellow/green/red [but never blue] thinking. I share the commitment of many ordinary Labour members in seeing that greater equality of **outcomes** is essential for a fairer and more harmonious society - one that we ...

Expand the DNA database? $%&*£$^£!

Is it me or is the need to preserve the privacy of our identity getting more urgent by the week? Take the comments today from Lord Justice Sedley that the only option is to expand the DNA database to cover the whole population AND those just visiting the UK. His reasoning? “It means where there is ethnic profiling going on disproportionate numbers of ethnic minorities get onto the database.” Looking at the stats (according to the BBC), “almost 40% of black men have their DNA profile on the database. That compares with 13% of Asian men and 9% of white ...

Is this the Best New Liberal Democrat Blog?

Well, Lib Dem Voice seem to think it might be. While it is very nice to be nominated, the judging panel are clearly naive fools, easily swayed by my secret mind-control satellites. Here are some rather better new (on the same definition - less than 1 year old) Lib Dem blogs. Kop Lop Pob a Job Shark Attack UK Liberty Alone Barcharters Anonymous Happy reading!

Tuesday night fun and games

What a night at Barfly. We reached capacity for the first time since I started and the place was jumping from the moment we opened the doors. The back room took ages to get going but for the second week running had a decent amount of people filtering through - we’re finally getting there! This despite all manner of problems in room 2. Barfly techie and sound guru Adam worked his socks off trying to fix a rogue sound system before we opened. We ended up with a patched up system running in mono but it lasted the whole night ...

Lib Dem Blog of the Year Award 2007

The shortlists for this year's awards have been published over at Liberal Democrat Voice. This year six awards are being made, including one (for the best designed blog) where you can vote in an online poll. The shortlist for Blog of the Year is: Liberal BurblingsLiberal EnglandLove and LibertyQuaequam Blog!The Very Fluffy Diary of Millennium Dome, Elephant,Many thanks to everyone who nominated this blog. Last year's shortlist can be found here.

A bad day to be a goat

In Hull a chef who denied having sex with a nanny goat was trapped after police discovered some of its hairs in his underpants.In Nepal the state-run airline has confirmed that it sacrificed two goats to appease a Hindu god, following technical problems with one of its aircraft.A nervous goat adds: They say these things go in threes...

Let there be light… Eventually.

I received a phone call from a resident a couple of nights ago. A street light near her house had not been working for a while, and despite a couple of calls to the Council, nothing had been done to sort it out. I said I’d get involved, and lo and behold, only hours after a Councillor had raised the issue, the light had been fixed. According to the resident, it took all of three minutes to do the job. Whilst I’m pleased to have been able to help, and happy that the light is fixed, once again I am disappointed ...

European Parliament adopts new position on natural disasters

The European Parliament yesterday adopted a common resolution on natural disasters. The resolution not only showed solidarity with Greek citizens affected by the terrible summer fires, but also British citizens affected by the flooding this summer.

Dudley local party re-organisation

Last night I went to Dudley to meet with some Liberal Democrats to discuss reorganising the local parties there. Last year most of the local parties in the West Midlands were re-organised due to the boundary review of Parliamentary constituencies, Dudley process has taken a little longer for various reasons on the ground.

London keeps moving

Yesterday I walked from Liverpool Street to Westminster for the Federal Policy Committee meeting. The meeting was less interesting than the journey. The vicinity of Liverpool Street was packed with walkers, many of whom obviously did not normally do much walking, as they were not very good at it. I chose a route via quiet back streets and gardens along the river, which was also the shortest route. On reaching the Palace of Westminster I found the security guys had been busy (again): now the road in front is closed to vehicle traffic by massive barriers. I walked through marvelling ...

Plants 6 - Ducks 0

Wandered into work today via the Burgess Park lake. Really pleased to see the reeds we planted are beginning to take hold. We put the plants in as part of a massive volunteering project we did with RBS and the local fishing group earlier in the year. I had been a bit nervous that the reeds might not survive the voracious appetites of the assorted wildfowl that inhabit the lake. The experts from the Trust for Urban Ecology who supervised the planting, had us build wire mesh cylinders to protect the fledgling plants. For a while, as soon as any ...

Best designed blog of the year: vote anyone else!

While I’m pleased to have it confirmed by the Blog of the Year shortlists that my contribution to the Lib Dem blogosphere has always been more about graphics than content, I’d politely ask you not to vote for this blog for best designed Lib Dem blog, as this template isn’t my work. It is the work of this chap, and if he didn’t encrypt adverts in to the bottom of his templates it would say so on the bottom of every page… I’ll be voting for Jonny Wright.

Best new Lib Dem Blog nomination

I see on Lib Dem Voice that I have been nominated for Best New Lib Dem Blog, and have added a little logo on the top of my sidebar. I am genuinely honoured, not in one of those Oscar winning moment sort of ways. My blog has been deliberately low brow, with just the occasional excursion into heavier subjects - even then I try to keep my postings short. I suppose my blogging style is much like my

Conference: we must continue to back full minimum wage for over-16s

The national minimum wage has been a success. It has lifted some of the lowest paid out of poverty. It has not destroyed jobs as some feared it would. But to receive the full minimum wage you have to be aged 21 or over. It is a disgrace that for up to five years of working life people can be paid less than the “minimum”. For some years, Liberal Democrats have called for the full minimum wage to protect eveyone in work regardless of their age. But this position is facing challenge at Conference. The “Freedom from Poverty” motion (to ...

We can all rest easy - David Miliband promises to restart his blog

David Miliband's blog has been idle for two months. But Miliband had promised it will restart soon. Heavy sigh. Chris Huhne revealed that it was costing £40K a year to run it. Presumably, the civil servants who were updating it for him, in his last department, are no longer at his disposal, so he is now looking for some unfortunate FCO mandarin to do his dirty work. The BBC describes the blog

Isn't it great when the Tories turn on themselves?

Iain Dale is erring more and more towards, presumably unconscious, self-parody. But I have to welcome his Letterman (US version) style "Top Ten reasons", which he's running on 18DS. Tonight he's running "Top 10 reasons the LibDems should ditch Ming". Should be interesting. I am glad the Tories want to us ditch Ming - this is quite a positive reason for tightly holding onto the man. Mind you, I

A Moment of Self-Congratulation

I've been shortlisted in this year's Blog of the Year Awards in the category "Most Humorous LibDem Blog". Whilst I've got little chance of winning, I do get to put this little button on my blog: Cheers to everyone who nominated me, you clearly have great taste.

The State is not your Friend

I saw this phrase somewhere recently. It is an interesting phrase. Obviously the state (or King) does provide certain services including protective services. However, it is quite clear that the state is not anyone's friend. It operates in the way in which it operates (partially by the rule of law, partially by direction of the executive and partially in the interests of the people operating

Blog the Year Awards: Shortlists announced

Once I’d heard that Best Liberal Democrat Blog to Feature a Fair Amount of Doctor Who Stuff* and Best Video Made in October 2006 Spoofing a Party Leader on a Liberal Democrat Blog weren’t going to be categories this year, I jumped at the chance to take part in the judging process for the Liberal Democrats’ Blog of the Year Awards. The shortlisting stage is now complete and you can see which blogs we’ve chosen on Liberal Democrat Voice. The winners will be announced at a ceremony on the Sunday evening of party conference in Brighton. *I was never going ...

Blog of the Year Awards 2007: The Shortlists

Nominations closed on Friday for the Liberal Democrats’ annual Blog of the Year Awards which we’re running in conjunction with Liberal Democrat Voice. The judges - myself from Cowley Street, blogging MP Lynne Featherstone, LibDem Blogs mastermind Ryan Cullen and last year’s winner and Liberal Democrat Voice commissioning editor Stephen Tall - have drawn up our [...]

Keeping the candidates honest?

I'm particularly proud of the innovative e-forum created for the European Parliamentary selections. As a repeat Returning Officer, I've gradually reduced the number of physical hustings from nine in 1998, to five in 2003, to four this year. To be blunt, they are incredibly ineffectual, with low turnouts for the most part, take up large amounts of Returning Officer and candidate time, cost

Data Security

California takes data security seriously, as this silicon.com report shows - why can't the UK Labour government?

'Ming you're useless. You've got to go'

That's the title of a Daniel Finkelstein piece in the Times today. He cares. He used to be in the SDP. Does a Finkelstein piece in the Times today net out to zero against a positive piece from D. Lawson in the Indie yesterday? The more the Finkelsteins of this world go on about Ming, the more I think they're daft. "He sounds and looks feeble and past it." I don't think he does. Lawson put it

Bel-end

As the trial opened in Minsk yesterday, of four officers in the Belarusian military accused of espionage, we are given a timely reminder of that least glamorous of dictatorships. Last year, LDYS ran a pretty energetic pro-democracy campaign to coincide with the country's elections. The demonstration we organised was successful because it involved the joint efforts of both Lib Dems and young nationals of Belarus, as well as its neighbours. There was nothing paternalistic about our calls for Lukashenko to hold elections which were free and fair; it was taken in the spirit of solidarity. It's also worth expressing how ...

Putting everyone's DNA on the police database - great idea!

I am not entirely convinced that the "silly season" died with the last dusk of August. This morning's Today was spiked with two obvious "muesli chokers". One wonders how long they had been lying in the editor's bottom drawer awaiting a "slow news day". Number one was a study in Sydney, Australia which showed that dogs being walked make birds scarper. Cue: Five thousand outraged text messages

Politician Drops Baby

Fantastically produced video from Shelter, directed by Armando Iannucci:

Forcing school meals

I seem to have raised the ire of Cllr Tim Kent by calling his proposal to force children to eat healthy school meals. There is so much wrong with this I don’t really know where to start. Firstly, in response to his blog post, I didn’t recognise any dig at Jamie Oliver and I certainly don’t care [...]

Putting the genie back in the bottle

We should be grateful to Lord Justice Sedley for one thing - re-igniting the debate about the national DNA database. His prescription, however, is completely wrong, and unjustifiable. He is right when he says that: ...the current database, which holds DNA from crime suspects and scenes, was "indefensible" because it was unfair and inconsistent. but we should be very wary of his suggested fix for that, that... ...whole population and every UK visitor should be added to the national DNA database. He is of course correct that the current situation is indefensible, Black men are more than twice as likely ...

Opinion: Why we should condemn the academic boycott of Israel

The University and College Union’s (UCU) proposed academic boycott of Israel has attracted opposition from many people who might usually be numbered among Israel’s harshest critics. The (Palestinian) President of Jerusalem’s Al Quds University is among those opposing the boycott, in a joint statement with the (Israeli) President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. [...]

Klaxons take Mercury prize

Congratulations to the Klaxons for picking up this year’s Mercury Music Prize. Worthy winners, although I am wondering if their second album will offer anything new, or are they going to be one-album wonders?

British withdrawal from Basra

Brendan O'Neill has a piece on the Spiked website which seems about right: The British troop withdrawal from Basra has both been hailed as a victory and described as a defeat...It’s neither. The withdrawal is better understood as a tightly-controlled PR stunt designed to make the British elite’s lack of political will for staying in Iraq look like something more meaningful. The movement of the last-remaining British troops from the centre of Basra to the outskirts of Basra doesn’t represent a break from Britain’s strategy in Iraq, in the form of a final victory or a crushing defeat. Rather, the ...

The Ming Thing

Here we go again. Yes, it’s The Leadership Question. Frankly, I haven’t got the energy, and I reckon I’m not alone. But Lib Dem Voice tries not to ignore media coverage of the Lib Dems simply because it’s tedious beyond belief. So here goes: * If you like Ming Campbell, he’s lauded by Dominic Lawson in [...]

This makes me want to cry

Hat tip to Recess Monkey for this Tory "Stand up, Speak up" video. Just in case you thought it was safe to go into the (blue) water..

Poll result: LDV readers say Yes to EU reform treaty referendum

We asked: Should the Liberal Democrats back demands for a referendum on the European Union reform treaty? You said: Yes - 54% (85) No - 37% (57) Don’t know yet - 9% (14) Total Votes : 156 This poll is now closed. A new poll will shortly go live inviting LDV readers to vote for one of the short-listed [...]

Fresh Start for Democracy

Dear Mr Khalid Mahmood MP,

Wednesday 5th September 2007

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