The monks have gone, transported to northern prisons or shot dead, and “normalcy” has returned to the streets of Burma, in the word of the country’s United Nations ambassador. But is there more the international community, in particular its neighbour’s, could have done to force the hand of the military junta and bring democracy to [...] 
It's not the lederhosen (actually they're kinda cool) and neither is it the absurd accents (they too are kinda cool) but the thing that really pisses me off about the Germans/Austrians/Hungarians is their F#*king writers. Now I'm sure there's some great German literature out their, I have seen one or two examples of German poetry and found nothing wrong with it at all but lets face it, German does not translate well and I have had enough of trying to read through the sought of putrid rotten excuses for good reading which comes out of the books of Mannheim and ...
I guess we should be living in interesting times, but this long drawn out speculation on whether our Prime Minister will call a General Election, is frankly, well, not interesting to the majority of people in the UK. Its in danger of causing paralysis to government, both local and national. I genuinely believe that the majority of the population don't understand why we need a General Election, 2 years after the last one. Gordon Brown seems to be caught in a void. He's allowed the real possibility of an election to be hyped up, but following their party conference, the ...
When, many years ago, I invented the Bonkers' Home for Well-Behaved Orphans, I thought it was satire. Satire, in particular, of my own rather Dickensian take - favourable to philanthropy and suspicious of institutions - on social welfare. As I shall explain one day, many of my political views flow from reading Oliver Twist at too young an age. But I should have known better. Study this Catholic Encyclopedia and you will find: An interesting asylum in New York City is the Leake and Watts Asylum founded in 1831 to provide "a free home for well-behaved full orphans of respectable ...
So everyone is talking about it. A politician leaving his lector behind and talking by walking around the stage, feeling the wind between his ears. Only problem David, this has been done before. Remember this? But far more important, have you ever asked yourself: "Who says no one listens to what David Cameron has to say?" Well, Not me! The man is so cool, so mod and I am sure the youth of
I’m afraid Lib Dem Voice doesn’t have the access The Guardian does - they were able to ask three Tory shadow cabinet members, as well as two Tory parliamentary candidates, to enthuse just how orgasmically fantastic they thought Dave ‘look mum, no notes’ Cameron’s speech to the Tory conference was. A useful public service, I’m [...]
It all changes so, so quickly. Five months ago, David Cameron was riding high, following some pretty decent local election results. Tony Blair, New Labour’s election talisman was soon to depart, and be replaced by the ever-grumpy, and supposedly vote-haemmorhaging, Gordon Brown. And then Mr Brown took over, and confounded the Tories’ worst hopes. Though most people would be hard-pressed to
One reason, of course, is the Games will cost billions and the money has to come from somewhere. But there is a lot in what Tiffany Jenkins says in an article for Spiked. She says that over the last decade arts professionals have not argued for state funding on the basis of the arts' intrinsic qualities. Instead they have made an instrumental case, arguing that the arts will further whatever the fashionable government aim of the time is. For instance, a recent document from seven major arts organisations asks for government money because their work will improve participation, self-esteem, community ...
Voice is hearing on the grapevine from a friend of a friend of a friend, that the team who work on the Labour Party account at Saatchi And Saatchi have been pulling a whole load of all-nighters in a row this week. Apparently there is a new campaign about to be unleashed!
David Cameron's speech to his party's conference today would appear, watching it back on the BBC, to have been made without the aid of an autocue and bloody hell, doesn't it look better and sound better? Just by taking away the lectern it makes him appear friendlier, less authoritarian and more inclusive. The whole thing doesn't feel like a lecture, it doesn't feel like he is talking down to his
One of the things about working at the party conferences is that you often find yourself too busy to actually do the conference itself. So it was that I didn’t get a chance to visit the Conservative Party exhibition until Tuesday afternoon. I was therefore very surprised to find, almost as soon as I walked into the hall, a stand for Narconon, L. Ron Hubbard’s programme for drug rehabilitation. The stand also included programmes promoting Applied Scholastics, Hubbard’s education programme, Hubbard’s The Way to Happiness Foundation International and Criminon, Hubbard’s criminal rehabilitation programme. What was missing from this stand? Any ...
Let's give credit to the Tories. They have pulled off this week what many in the Labour Party thought impossible, and that was that they have appeared united, behind their leader, and can look forward to the General Election, whenever it may come, with some confidence. The substance of what the Tories had to say this week was not likely to set the pulse racing. Inheritance Tax excites the wealthy and natural Tory voters. I seem to recall either Lloyd George or Churchill claimed that the best time to tax someone is "when they have died" , but the Tories ...
David Cameron apparently made reference to a Facebook group called "Am I the only person to hate David Cameron", and claimed it had only 370 members. It is interesting to note that since he said that just a few hours ago, the membership of this group has more than doubled, and is shooting up by the hour. That's the Cameron effect in action.
This election fever has actually stopped me from blogging over the last few days. I don't have any inside knowledge, just a vague feeling that it won't happen. But I'm on my own, everyone down here is convinced and we're working towards a Monday or Tuesday announcement. I'm going along with the flow, nothing we're doing is wasted and it is focusing minds. So more leaflets tomorrow and a Friday planning meeting for the Postal Vote team. And several more days of feverish speculation.
I've been away in Washington for a month so there has been an absence of posts for quite a while. Whilst I was there I was persuaded towards giving Hillary Clinton more of a chance in the primaries as her much needed health care plan is by far the best among the top tier candidates and certainly better than Obama's but so far I am still backing Barack. Got Hope? www.barackobama.com 
In the nearly two years since this blog first became a regular feature I have, slightly to my surprise, put up 400 different entries. They cover a lot of ground, although I notice certain themes coming back quite consistently: the future of politics, the need for both economic and social Liberalism, the threats in the international system. Sometimes the entries are written on the run and doubtless many could benefit from tighter editing. I think I am finding a consistent voice for myself: sceptical, thoughtful -I hope- and increasingly committed to an integrated view of political freedom. I will be ...
Unison, the public sector union that represents 1.3m members, has a new advertising campaign that perfectly sums up its attitude and that of all unions. On one, there are two pictures. The lower one portrays a lioness resting its head on a small cub, with the phrase “Speaking one-to-one” because (says Unison) “When we’re helping or advising individual members, we prefer the more friendly… approach”. By comparison, Unision feels that “when we talk we need people to listen”, so the top picture, with the caption “Speaking for 1.3 million members”, shows a vicious, snarling lioness. The two images which Unison ...
Everywhere I go, people ask me if I think there is going to be a General Election. Funnily enough, I think the Prime Minister has still not finally decided. It is clear that everything is being prepared - Iraq statement on Monday, 'pre-Budget' statement on Tuesday - maybe with tax goodies to spike the opposition's guns - and then to the Palace on Tuesday evening. But one poor opinion poll at the weekend after the Tory conference could change all that. (Incidentally, talking of the Tory conference, I'm amazed at the gullibility of the BBC describing David Cameron's speech as ...
146...Well at least 146 in the House of Representatives, and another 35 in the United States Senate. President Bush is all but a lame duck at the moment, as the democrats and republicans begin their search to find his replacement, for an election that is still 13 months away. Bush’s status is a lame duck began in November of last year, when the congressional elections saw the Democrats sweep in to power in both houses of congress, and up until then (minus a few month period at the start of Bush’s first term where the Democrats had the majority in ...
As a good Liberal Democrat – and therefore the friend to all - let me begin by giving credit where due. Dave spoke well. His speechwriters set out the plan and he worked to it, occasionally getting a bit too wordy but fundamentally he did well. He was clearly well received by the party faithful and it seems even the unfortunate use of a mild swear word didn’t p*ss off the crowd too much. However, what he said should be the key and everything he said ticked all the usual Tory boxes. It doesn’t matter how much he jokes about ...
...but only posting it all afterwards. Because let's face it, nobody is going to come here for their coverage of David Cameron's speech (I hope they're not, anyway). Here is what I thought, in the order I thought it: 14:15 – They don’t seem very good at recognising where they’re meant to clap. 14:16 – Communism. Is that really the point any more? 14:17 – Women candidates; fair enough. 14:18
If there is a general election before December, it will be conducted on the electoral roll drawn up on the basis of October 2006 data. If you have moved in the last twelve months, you will need to re-register (a form is available from the ERO in Port Talbot civic centre) at least 11 days before any election. To reduce a last-minute log-jam of applications, people wishing to vote should re-register as soon as possible. It would be as well not to wait for Gordon Brown's announcement. If you are away from home (for instance, in college), you have the ...
{Similar view} Due to my brother flying off to Australia for 6 months, I now have a spare ticket for the Arsenal v Sunderland game this Sunday (12pm). If anyone wants to come with me the ticket is £40 and we’re sat in the Orange quad in the far back row of 28. (See left) Please email me at ryancullen at the domain of artesea.co.uk if you want it.
Now I must say, after about ten minutes of Dave’s speech, I was pretty impressed. Some very targeted and valid attacks on Brown and a big Tory love-in, presumably aimed at inspiring the Tory activists to spend the next few weeks knocking on doors. But I needn’t have worried. Give a prat like that a stage for an hour and soon enough the truth will out. Two things of note: - A nasty cheap-shot at the PCSO’s who attended the scene of a 10-year-old boy who was drowning. - A glowing endorsement of elected mayors so that local people “have ...
Towards the end of Cameron’s speech, the cameras cut out. Displayed on the screen were a couple of Blackpool donkeys. Could any image have been more appropriate? 
From his speech in Blackpool today: “This programme for government is real. It’s real and it’s realistic. It has to be.” Sometimes really lazy comedy just writes itself.
I am caught up in the general frenzy about the general election Gordo could be about to call: besides attending last weekend's special Federal Policy Committee meeting to draft a general election manifesto (my fourth, I think), just in case, I have two constituencies to look after. In one of them - Cities of London & Westminster - the electorate has in the past repeatedly delivered a mountain of Tory votes. The other constituency is Labour-held and with redrawn boundaries 75th on the list of Tory target seats. In both seats the legacy of England's greatest gerrymandering scandal, carried out ...
Party news release: As David Cameron prepares to speak at the party’s conference, father and daughter Councillors Gordon and Lynn Murray, who represent the neighbouring wards of Dalton South and Dalton North on Barrow Borough Council, are today leaving the Conservatives to become the first ever Liberal Democrat Councillors on Barrow Council. Councillor Lynn Murray said: “We are [...]
Update - All right, I realise telling bloggers to "shut up" was a stupid mistake on my part - red rag to a bull and all that. Sorry. I have changed the title. This initiative has been devised by a couple of German bloggers in support of the Free Burma campaign. It's an International Bloggers' Day for Burma tomorrow, Thursday October 4th. Bloggers who wish to show their solidarity with the
A feasibility study of ID cards. As the government’s going ahead with ID cards, it must have been positive, right? (well, assuming logic prevails in government…) So why has it been 1000 days since a Freedom of Information request was submitted for the so-called “gateway review” of the scheme? Spyblog and former Lib Dem Shadow Home Secretary Mark Oaten both asked for these documents - and our requests, complaints, appeals, yada yada have been handled together. So far the legal costs have been £60,000 but with a QC on board, expect them to spiral. And all this to cover up ...
For the second successive time a Welsh Liberal Democrat has won the ballot to introduce a private members' measure in the Assembly. Mike German will be seeking to change the law on school closures. The first and only other ballot was won by Jenny Randerson. She is currently steering through a measure on healthy food. There are rumours that a Welsh Liberal Democrats was a dead cert to win this second ballot. Surely it cannot be the case that only five AMs submitted a proposal for a measure and that they were all members of my group.
The junta in Burma (aka Myanmar) may have blacked out public internet access in the country in an attempt to prevent information about the military's violent crackdown on protesting monks from getting out, but the move is proving to be too little too late. Now Free-Burma.org has announced an International Bloggers' Day for Burma on October 4th. Bloggers who wish to show their solidarity with the peaceful protest are being asked to refrain from posting that day and instead display one of the Free Burma banners or images (such as the one at right) that have been created for the ...
Ross Anderson a security researcher a Cambridge Univerity’s Computer Lab certainly has a nack for coming up with good ways to describe security and privacy issues. He invented the term “programming Satan’s machine” to describe creating secure computer systems. He hits the right note again, describing the slow creep towards a surveillance state as being like [...]
All week the Torygraph has been running a series listing the top 100 people ‘on the right’ in British politics - it included two Lib Dem MPs as well as the Director of Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti. The list’s publication prompts the question: who would feature among the 100 most influential liberals in the UK? Clearly, [...]
For those gallant few pursuing selection for the European lists, we've entered something of a period of limbo. If a General Election is called, the process is suspended, and the work already done may or may not impact on the views of members. Worse still, it isn't exactly clear when the process would resume... So, how hard do you campaign? Saturday sees scheduled hustings in Bethnal Green (for
Liberal Democrat Voice has the lowdown on Gordon Brown's troops-out announcement. Apparently, all is not as it seems: First it was 2,000 British troops to be withdrawn from Iraq (the figure leaked to the BBC). Then it was 1,000 (the figure Gordon Brown told the TV cameras earlier today). Then it was 730 (after it turned out that 270 has already come home). Then it was 500 (after it came to light that 230 were due to come home anyway under plans announced in July). And then it was zero (after it turned out the other 500 are currently not ...
I have been advised by the City Council that, due to manhole replacement work, Milnbank Road will be closed to traffic (between Forest Park Road and Rosefield Street) next Monday (8th October) for one day only. Pedestrians will be able to use the pavements as normal. If you have any queries, you can contact the Planning & Transportation Department on 433168.
In a touching display from the normally callous Tories, attendees gave Ian Duncan Smith a rousing ovation at their conference this week after he had spoken on social justice as the key challenge for them. There was clearly much affection for him in the conference hall but you have to wonder if this also betrays a certain sense of unease at the treatment meted out to him when he was ditched in favour of Michael Howard. With the benefit of hindsight it is clear that getting rid of IDS so unceremoniously did precisely nothing for the Tories and it has ...
The editorial in this morning's Western Mail talks a lot of sense about the Government's transport policy announcement that took place in Plenary yesterday. Although Ieuan Wyn Jones made all the right noises on sustainable transport, the details were sparse. There are matters that need to be welcomed including the use of European funds, the sustainable transport towns initiative, and the investment in railways and coaches, but there were also inconsistencies as well. As Kirsty Williams pointed out the Government remains preoccupied with road building, citing the planned schemes for the M4 and in Flintshire as evidence. The Western Mail ...
Hull City 1 Charlton Athletic 2. A game enlivened by some atrocious refereeing which at one stage had both sets of fans standing and chanting together ‘you’re not fit to referee’. As the generally dull first half wore on, Hull got on top and seemed to be unlucky to have a goal disallowed. After this incident, Charlton’s first goal and the two sendings off, the game started to be littered with crude tackles and inconsistent refereeing. Charlton dominated the midfield in the second half with Semedo, Zheng and especially Reid dominant. Iwelumo scored a breakaway goal as Hull sent their ...
List in the Daily Telegraph today of the 25 most influential right-wingers in Britain . At number 10 - it's Tony Blair.
It's been 40 years since "Home", "Light", and "Third" became Radio's 1,2,3 & 4. Radio 1 has been the most prominent in celebrating this birthday. Fitting, as it was the need for the BBC to change to accommodate itself to the growing power of popular music that was a major reason for the change. However, this has given them the excuse to invite 10 "Radio 1 Legends" to present an hour long show of
Jennifer Pariser (who is Sony BMG’s chief litigator) thinks she has found the perfect scape-goat for the continued decline of the recording industy - and funnily enough it’s the same scape-goat that music execs have always blamed ever since the days of “Home taping is killing music“: {200px-home_taping_is_killing_music.png} “It’s my personal belief that Sony BMG is half the size now as it was in 2000, … thanks to piracy… when people steal, when they take music without compensation, we are harmed.” An alternative explanation is that her company has declined because Sony BMG’s business model is no-longer relevant. We might ...
Liberal Democrat Leader Ming Campbell has called on Labour and the Conservatives to focus on the real issue facing our troops in Iraq, the timing of their withdrawal, not the timing of political announcements. He said: “It’s time both the Labour and Conservative parties stopped playing cynical political games over Iraq and took responsibility for their disastrous military action there. “It certainly hasn’t taken long for a Prime Minister billed as a statesman to show himself as just another short term political tactician once a general election is in the offing. “We mustn’t allow shallow posturing to obscure the real ...
Great news yesterday that an agreement has been reached to re-build my old school, and not have it re-locate to a part of Heaton Park. I was a pupil at King David Junior School until 1992, and even then the buildings were old. So 15 years on, my advanced mathematical skills tell me that they are likely to be 15 years older. The school (and especially the high school) has made tremendous strides since that time, and is now one of the top performing schools in Manchester. Subject to Executive Committee approval later this month, Manchester City Council is to ...
Justin McKeating’s article on the Usmanov censorship affair is a good read, because he highlights a simple fact apparently unknown to the sort of lawyers who specialize in making critical voices “Cease and Desist”. Freedom of speech is the one issue that unites just about every one of the world’s bloggers - and this incident has done a superb job of highlighting the inanity of British Libel laws, specifically the fact that any attempt to use them to silence internet speech will almost instantly result in the opposite of the desired effect. This is yet another example of the well ...
Having honed my scrutiny skills over recent months (today is the five month anniversary of my election…), today I became the scrutinised one as I attended an occupational health session in order to be approved as fit and proper for a new job I hope to start. In the end I achieved a tick in the “Not likely to keel over and die at the first sign of work” box, but only after an 8am probing that I am not to keen to repeat. I had never been to Occupational Health before, and was quite nervous that I would be ...
Thank you to Andy Hinton on "Wouldn't it be scarier to discover everything you believe is absolutely right?" for tagging me on my political influences. My delay in writing this is due to giving it a lot of consideration. I came up with a list of 80 influences and anti-influences. I then realised that I was including mere heroes and anti-heroes while ignoring the "elephant in the room". So, I'll
The list of the first 180 of the 2,500 post offices due to close within the next 15 months has been unveiled. They include: 45 in the East Yorkshire area; 58 in Kent; and 77 in the East Midlands. The full list can be downloaded here. The closures have been condemned by Lembit Öpik, Lib Dem shadow secretary of [...]
The link is to a story in the Birmingham post. I will comment on this at a later stage.
Somehow, I managed to think the Tory conference finished tomorrow. When I was there last year as an observer it did finish on the Thursday. I did however leave on the Wednesday, a day early, simply because it was a dull gathering with nothing happening. They take no votes, debate no motions. It is really a gathering and rally of the Tory faithful. Seems as though they have taken a leaf out of my
This issue is gradually moving from the sidelines into the mainstream. That to some extent is inevitable. It is quite simple really: In a conflict between the laws of physics and the laws of economics physics wins every time. Perhaps I would say that with a degree in Physics. However, I am right.
Last night I went over to Birmingham Hall Green to help our General Election candidate Jerry Evans with his health survey. Jerry is survey every home in the constituency to see what people think of the health service locally and what changes they want.
The blogs and papers alike have pounced like hungry panthers upon photos (rather meanly) harvested from Facebook, showing some young Tory researchers messing around with burnt cork. That’s the trouble with Facebook, the lapses into unsavoury humour to which most of us are prone at some point, are captured and exposed to a wider audience, insensitive to the context. When I first saw the photo, I thought I recognised the young man in question, Lord Lyell’s assistant, and now it’s twigged. He was in the same hall as me in my first year at university; he always wore a woolly ...
Gordon Brown has a reputation for double counting, quadruple announcing and generally moving the egg-cups more than Paul Daniels. But this one takes the biscuit. When you peel the onion layers away, his "announcement" of a "troop withdrawal" of "2,000" troops turns out to actually refer to a troop withdrawal of zero troops. Brilliant.
I've belatedly noticed that I was tagged by Andy Hinton for my top five political influences. My excuse is that I was taking a couple of weeks off, as it turned out, to try to rewrite some of the code behind my blog, and that even now the auto-discovery off references to my blog isn't working on the live server. Mine probably won't be as unexpected as Andy's five, and unusually for me probably won't deserve the amount of explanation he gave to some of his, but here goes... After some considerable thought (yes!) number one goes to: Henry George, ...
The much-heralded statement by Ieuan Wyn Jones, minister for transport in the Labour-Nationalist coalition, turned oot to be a waste of air-space. There are to be future announcements about some road-schemes, but no guarantee that the A470 will be improved to take more traffic. As to rail, IWJ has fallen in line with the old Labour government: there is a perfectly good north-south air link, he said, and his officials would "look at" speeding up existing rail services.
They are even angry in Wales about the Labour decision to remove Yorkshire from Redcar and Cleveland Council's postal address. We were handed a copy of the following letter (also pictured) at a meeting in York tonight. It appeared in the Yorkshire Post on Monday 24th September: Crime against Yorkshire From: John Coduri Liantrisant Road Pontypridd, Mid Glamorgan South Wales "I am angry at the remark made by Councillors in Redcar and Cleveland who voted to delete "Yorkshire" from the Council's address. Hung, drawn and quartered would not assuage me or comfort me at this crime. And their weak excuse ...
The True Yorkshire Calendar 2008 is on sale now. The calendar can be obtained postage free by sending a cheque for £3.50, made out to the Yorkshire Ridings Society, to: Yorkshire Ridings Society 39 Essex Close REDCAR Yorkshire TS10 4BY
The BBC reports: A third independent school in England is to join the state sector as an academy, it has been announced.The Girls' Day School Trust said Birkenhead High School in Wirral was to make the change after consultation.It said Birkenhead would stay a girls' school, but "open up opportunities for more girls across a wide social band".This is a welcome development. As the local MP Frank Field says, this: "blurs the sharp division between private and public education in this country which has worked to the detriment of so many children."We owe the sharpness of this division to the ...
Mahmud Henry Rogers has created a Liberal Democrats Muslim Forum group on facebook to:
Wednesday: Ahead of his BIG SPEECH to the Conservatory Conference, Mr Balloon has granted me EXCLUSIVE access to his breakfast table in Madam Cholet's cosy B&B on the Blackpool seafront (though his shoes are staying at the de luxe Hotel Plus Richesse). MM: Mr Balloon, thank you for seeing me. Let's start with an easy one – what did you have for breakfast? Balloon: Well, we faced tough choices – Mr Gumboot was trying to get me to have a half a grapefruit, but Mr Deadwood wanted me to have the Full English. MM: But what did you choose? Balloon: ... | < | October 2007 | > | ||||
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