LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Thursday 4th October 2007

National Poetry Day (4): Free Burma

Today is National Poetry Day, for which the theme is Dreams. You can read my previous NPD posts for 2004, 2005 and 2006. With election preparations in full swing, I’ve not had much time to blog and have a growing backlog of posts to write (a backblog?). I’ve also only had a few minutes to spare to write my annual piece de resistance, which, as today is also International Bloggers’ Day for Burma, is on that subject - and quite short. How do you solve a problem like Myanmar? How can the West get real traction Against a long-lived autocracy? ...

Has Gordon Brown dropped a big hairy one?

I think the answer to that one must be a Big Yes: An ICM poll for the Guardian newspaper indicates the gap has narrowed to just one per cent compared to seven per cent a month ago. It follows two other surveys which suggest Labour’s lead has dropped to four and three percentage points. The word hubris springs to mind. What I don’t understand is why people put so much faith into opinion polls. Before Brown took over, all the signs were that he wasn’t going to do Labour any good at all. Labour got all excited and read way ...

Campbell backs fixed-term Parliaments

Speaking on the BBC’s Question Time programme, Liberal Democrat leader Ming Campbell said: “I don’t think it is any longer right that the Prime Minister should have the opportunity and right to determine when elections should be held. “What began as a tease has become an abuse of the political process. We shouldn’t have elections at the convenience of the PM, whose purpose is to advance the cause of a political party. It should be in the public interest. “Nothing that has happened in the past few weeks has been in the public interest.”

Lewisham Gateway Application passed

Just a quick note to say that I've just come back from the Strategic Planning Committee where - along with other local groups and residents and neighbouring Green Cllr Luxton - I spoke against the planning application for the Lewisham Gateway development. However, the Committee voted for it by 4 votes to 2.

Today's opinion polls make an early election less likely

Three opinion polls were published today, and all three show sharp falls in the Labour lead. The BBC has the figures. ICM/The Guardian 39% - Labour 38% - Conservatives 16% - Liberal Democrats YouGov/Channel 4 News 40% - Labour 36% - Conservatives 13% - Liberal Democrats Populus/The Times 39% - Labour 36% - Conservatives 15% - Liberal Democrats All of which, I think we can safely conclude, make an early election much less likely.

Pride of Merseyside

Well done Everton. To win 3-2 away from home in Europe is always a good result, and to go through 4-3 on aggregate after an abject home match in which Everton missed two penalties really was an achievement. Well done you blue boys !!!

New opinion polls show smaller Labour lead

Tomorrow's polls will make for tough reading in 10 Downing Street, but crucially they still all show a Labour lead in a week of almost wall to wall Tory press stories. An ICM poll for the Guardian showed Labour's lead slashed to just one point, down seven points from last month. Labour are on 39 percent with the Conservatives on 38. A Populus poll for the Times has Labour's lead tightening to three points, with Labour on 39 points and the Tories on 36. Whilst a YouGov poll for Channel 4 television shows Labour's lead slipping to four points from ...

Conference season done, sleeping starts

Got back from Blackpool last night, Conservative Party conference having finished three very tiring weeks of conferences - all of which had their own enjoyable moments inbetween the work. It was my first Tory conference and it was noticeably very different from Labour and Tory as soon as you walked around the exhibition area. Yes, there were many stands that you could see at any of the three - but I'm fairly sure, as just one example, that the British Fur Trade Association only have a stall at the Tories (fur is the 'natural, responsible choice', apparently). There were celebrities, ...

A renewed promise?

Labour's 2003 Assembly manifesto contained a pledge to make all schools in Wales fit for purpose by 2010. Unfortunately, they made this promise before they knew the full cost of the work required to achieve it. When Pricewaterhouse Coopers produced a report on behalf of the Welsh Local Government Association that identified a £749m gap between the resources required and the funding available, the Labour Government quietly dropped the commitment. That would have been the last we heard of it except that yesterday in Plenary, the new Education Minister, Jane Hutt, unwittingly ressurrected it: Kirsty Williams: In 2003, your manifesto ...

Free Burma!

10191 bloggers and web surfers are supporting International Bloggers' Day for Burma & there are 13162 "Free Burma" results on www.blogsearch.google.com http://www.free-burma.org/

So what would you do if you were Gordon?

100 days in power, and the toughest decision yet faces the Prime Minister: does he seek a mandate, or does he delay calling an election? A week ago, the decision looked a formality. Labour was riding high in the polls on the back of their ‘nobody mention the Blairs’ party conference, and a couple of [...]

eDemocracy cocktails

I'm on my way home from Paris on Eurostar. This will be my last chance to take the easy journey via Waterloo, though I suppose St Pancras will still be pretty convenient when it opens next month. I was speaking at the World eDemocracy Forum at Issy-Les-Moulineaux, which is a suburb of Paris. Rather bizarrely I bumped into the Mayor of Hounslow in full robes - the two boroughs are...

eDemocracy cocktails

I'm on my way home from Paris on Eurostar. This will be my last chance to take the easy journey via Waterloo, though I suppose St Pancras will still be pretty convenient when it opens next month. I was speaking at the World eDemocracy Forum at Issy-Les-Moulineaux, which is a suburb of Paris. Rather bizarrely I bumped into the Mayor of Hounslow in full robes - the two boroughs are...

One Last Recess Rock Show on 105.5fm

Tomorrow, Friday 5th October, for one night only (again), between 9pm to Midnight, I'm presenting the last of my Recess Rock Shows on Palm 105.5. If you live in the South Devon area you can tune in 10...

October West End Community Council Update

Click on the headline above to read my October Update to West End Community Council. Subjects covered include :School crossing patrol survey - Perth RoadAppeal DecisionsState of former Logie Secondary School siteThe Community Council next meets on Tuesday 9th October at 7pm in Logie St John's (Cross) Church Hall.

Which Tory didn’t like David Cameron’s speech?

Well, in today’s Telegraph photo of the end of Cameron’s speech there are lots of people clapping, lots of smiles, several people getting to their feet - and there’s one person sat there looking rather glum. Zac Goldsmith do you think?

Free Burma!

Free Burma! Petition Widget Name: (required) Email: Web: Country: UPDATE: I found this interesting little summation of the situation in Burma on the Real News website (which is well worth a quick poke around, btw). Today is, as anyone reading Lib Dem Blogs today will

Hi, have you heard about the crisis in Burma?

Thursday 4th October 2007 - Hi, have you heard about the crisis in Burma? Burma is ruled by one of the worst military dictatorships in the world. Last month Buddhist monks and nuns began marching and chanting prayers to call for democracy. The protests spread and hundreds of thousands of Burmese people joined in -- but they've been brutally attacked by the military regime. I just signed a

Chechnya photos: questions need answering

Some Polish MEPs claim that their exhibtion of photos from the Chechnya war has been censored at the European Parliament. The rights and wrongs of precisely who has 'censored' whom in this affair appear to be quite involved, but this news is a reminder of a conflict that is under-reported in the UK media. I can't remember when I last heard of a British politician getting actively involved. This is on our doorstep, and if MEPs won't get involved, who will? If elected as an MEP, and when campaigning as a candidate before I've been elected, I shall fight hard ...

1332 members, and counting. The Cameron effect works its magic

Yesterday David Cameron claimed that only 370 people had joined a group on Facebook which is for people that hate him. That number is now 1332 people. It makes his statement seem a little daft now and does prove the old adage of not tempting fate.

Rumours of a Tory poll bounce

There are rumours whizzing round the blogoshere of a Tory bounce in the polls. Ian Dale' blog (http://iaindale.blogspot.com/) talks of rumours of Channel 4's Yougov poll showing Labour's lead dropping to 3 points and the Guardian has a poll tomorrow showing a 3 point Tory lead. So just when we thought it was a done deal and the starting pistol was being loaded, are all election bets off? This

SHOCK NEWS: Returning Officer makes pragmatic decision in support of the campaign!

It is with some bewilderment that I must report that I've made a decision. Yes, I know, the concept is an unlikely one, but sometimes, outcome is better than uncertainty. So, without further ado, I would like to announce the Mark Valladares Memorial Decision... I've cancelled Saturday's European hustings in Eastleigh. There, I've said it. I've made a decision. I've made all of the arrangements

Statistics on Family Forms

Unsurprisingly, the latest statistics show cohabiting couples to be the UK's fastest growing family type. Although married couples are still the most common family form, accounting for 71% of UK families, the number of cohabiting couples increased by 65% between 1996 and 2006. This again highlights the need for a tailored legal response to the breakdown of cohabitation, such as that proposed by the Law Commission during the summer. This is especially true given that many more young people than older people are cohabiting, illustrating a trend away from marriage, or at least towards delaying marriage until later in life. ...

Gordon Brown has failed to deliver real change for Britain

Liberal Democrat Leader Ming Campbell launched an attack on Gordon Brown for failing to deliver real change for Britain in his first 100 days as Prime Minister. He said: “Mr Brown has been working hard to convince the British public that there has been real change in Number 10. “Yet he cannot escape the fact that as Chancellor he had unparalleled influence over government. He failed to raise green taxes to tackle climate change, supported and signed the cheques for the Iraq war and personally led a smash and grab raid on private pensions. “As Prime Minister Gordon Brown may ...

Seagulls

When I started on on my political career, all of 18 months ago, I knew as little about Seagulls as anyone else. But a month of knocking on doors in Boscawen made it plain to me that people and Gulls were not living together in harmony. Do something about the Gulls and we'll vote for you, they said. So I learnt about Gulls. They weigh a kilo, live 35 years, have no predators, they have 3 chicks a year, fly at up to 60mph and the population is growing at between 15% and 25% per year. They are moving into ...

God Alone Knows

This morning I hosted a "Kick Off" meeting at the Civic Hall for Headingley Churches Together. They are keen to engage a bit more with the Council and get involved in "Town Centre" issues. It's always refreshing to think for a while, just knuckle down with a pen, a flip chart and some problems. They are a lovely bunch of people and we covered loads of ground with a "To Do" list at the end which is gratifying. I always feel a little ambigious at the end of these type of things. The basic questions community groups always ask is ...

Bleep, bleep...bleep, bleep

I was at primary school when Sputnik was launched and tried to make a model of it in a class when we played with building blocks. A visiting teacher of patriotic disposition said, "Why don't you make a model of the new British invention - Zeta ?" I asked her what it was, what it did and what it looked like but she couldn't tell me. Much, much later I found out that it was a very premature

Royal Mail home-truths

Just had a good chuckle listening to Billy Hayes, the gen sec of the CWU. He said that he failed to understand why the Labour Government doesn’t have a view on the changes in the postal service nor the dispute that is currently unfolding. After all he says `the Government own the Post Office and the Royal Mail - if i were a shareholder in a company that was having these problems I’d want to give a view`. A- ha - the penny’s dropped! As ever Brown/Blair statism keeps at `arms length` those things that are controversial and of which ...

More hospital photo controversy

Last week we heard that a Labour minister had been photoshopped into a photo of a hospital opening. This week’s controversial hospital photo features Worthing and Southlands hospitals, threatened with downgrading, and the Conservative MPs pictured may end up wishing they’d been airbrushed out. All the info over at the BBC.

Teething problems

My colleague Tom Marshall in Belle Vale tells me about a problem that's affecting large numbers of his constituents. Recently people registered with a particular dental practice had letters saying they would have to go private. The dental practice was completely within its rights to do this.. as independent concerns these practices can decide whether they are NHS, private or a combination of both. The letters gave people virtually no notice. And what's more the PCT, which is supposed to oversee primary health care services here only found out about the letter through patient complaints (ie not from the dentist ...

Burma Campaign

http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/ The link to the Burma Campaign

The case for fixed-term parliaments - time to end this farce, Gordon…

The need for fixed-term parliaments has become ever more apparent as the game of feint and counterfeint has dominated political life over the past month. We all know that Gordon will go, we almost certainly know that it will be on 8 November, and yet the game goes on. As a qualified cynic, I thoroughly understand that the governing party wants to do everything in its power to ensure victory. I

Lib Dems Will Fix It

If ever there were a case for a fixed term parliament the uncertainties of the past few weeks must be it. For as long as people speculate over a possible date for an election neither Government nor Op...

Waiting for the latest polls

The conference season is over so we await the results of the opinion polls.The Today Programme's 'doomsday clock' on the date of the General election stands at 5 minutes to midnight. Blogger Guido Fawkes has a (limited) summary of what the pundits are saying in his 'Election fever' posting.The much quoted John Curtice appears in The Independent, in addition to the doomsday clock ('Brown needs not just a victory but a Tory rout'). There he maps out the clearest vision of the electoral arithmetic that Brown needs to juggle. The article should be required reading for anyone thinking of putting ...

New Agents Manual launched

The 2007 edition of the Agents Manual, updated with all the latest changes to election law, is available for members of the Agents and Organisers Association at: www.ldagents.org.uk Registering for the site is quick, easy, and (of course) free if you're in the Agents Association. Which if you need the manual, you really should be.

Show us the money

An interesting article in the Western Mail this morning in which Plaid Cymru's financial guru, Eurfyl ap Gwilym, argues that public spending cuts totalling more than £600m could be on the way to Wales if the UK Government ditches plans for big increases in England’s NHS budget. He may well be right, and certainly all the indications are that the Comprehensive Spending Review will be much tighter than before and not include the sort of increases seen previously. The thing is, though, that we knew all this before the Assembly elections and Plaid Cymru still costed their manifesto on unrealistic ...

Free Burma

My thoughts are with Aung San Suu Kyi who, 17 years after being duly elected as the rightful leader of Burma, is still under house arrest, and with her long-suffering people who have since 1962 been living an Orwellian nightmare, tyrannised by a bandit usurper regime that continues to plunder the nation's wealth and enjoy a luxury lifestyle while the people starve. The regime could not survive without support and protection from neighbouring governments, who have blocked UN action. Those governments have the blood of Burmese victims on their hands. Self-interest rules while the innocent and powerless suffer.

Shocking, but not Awesome

The Conservative Party has enjoyed the opportunity to (rightly) reproach the Prime Minister for his opportunistic and statistically dubious claim to be bringing lots of our boys home from Iraq in time for Christmas. How very evocative! And as Iain Dale put it, Brown “stooped” to playing the Iraq card in seeking to upstage Cameron this week. Happily, the Conservatives would never capitalise on matters as grave as Iraq, would they? In the long hot summer of 2003, when the invasion took place, the Tories merrily joined in New Labour’s bellicose frenzy, and utilised it to attack the Liberal Democrats ...

We need sound…

The Toyota Prius and similar ‘echo friendly’ cars that run on electric engines and possibly fuel cells in the future have a big problem - or at least a percieved problem anyway. You can’t hear the buggers coming - so if you’re walking along in a world of your own, not really concentrating on whats in front of you but relying on what you hear to guide you - you’re gonna get knocked over by a hybrid driver. Or even worse - if you’re blind and can’t see the cars coming at you - you won’t hear the Prius coming ...

Scrutinising Alternatives, and the last few days

Last night was the inaugural meeting of the Scrutiny sub-group analysing the Council’s proposals for alternative models of service delivery. At the moment we are still at the “invitation to tender” stage, which is right at the start of a process which will see a full options appraisal and may end up with that resulting in no action being taken. On the other hand, it may result in a major contract with a partner, so it’s important stuff. It was a good discussion last night and we all got to grips with the issues. There is a lot to talk ...

Forward to the Past

Some of you will know how much store I set by milkmen who still use and re-use glass bottles and who deliver on electric floats. Well here's a new blast from the past. My local shop, Pomona, now lets you bring a bottle and fill it up with olive oil from a barrel. What a great idea. So now we can re-use our olive oil bottle again and again. Sometimes the solutions of the past are the best ones for the future.

Charles Kennedy’s New Presidential Role

{charles-kennedy-2.jpg} Former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy has become the new President of the European Movement — a postion that has been in abeyance since the death of Sir Edward Heath. The European Movement is the leading pro-European campaigning organisation in the UK and will be actively involved in promoting the new EU Reform Treaty that is currently being finalised. In accepting the presidency, Charles commented, ‘I was delighted to be invited to take on this role and am grateful to colleagues from across the political spectrum for their confidence. Our task, quite simply, is to help breathe life and soul ...

Free Burma

We are making only one blog posting today in support of the Free Burma campaign. {Free Burma!} We send our best wishes and support to the people of Burma who are involved in a peaceful revolution.

Why are we going on about Iraq?

You would think that the decision to support the Americans in Iraq was past history. Blair, who either deceived us or made a genuine mistake, has now gone. The government maintains troops in Iraq as a reserve for the US, but that is a separate issue. We are told that the electors are bored with discussion of the rights and wrongs of the invasion (though it should be noted that Conservatives, like Glyn Davies still find it necessary to excuse themselves from being taken in by the "intelligence"). However, it now transpires that the US is considering air strikes against ...

Article on LibDemVoice

No really, I have, it's over here and it's on the prospects of an Indian intervention in Burma. Well, that's me done for the day.

Free Burma

{free_burma_05.gif} Free Burma Others have written far more capably and knowledgeably about Burma today than I can. But there’s always an enlightening medieval angle on any problem. The reason heritage actually bloody matters is not because it looks pretty but because anyone who is happy to mutilate history is generally no less rootless, self-serving and callous when it comes to human beings.

Free burma campaign

I would like to state my support for the campaign but I don't think that stopping blogging for a full day is the right mechanism for expressing opposition to a regime which wants to stop free speech. That said, I'll now struggle for something to post, I just know...But at least it will be my choice.

China needs to change its ways or face an Olympic boycott

Colin Ross will later tonight, in a speech to Shropshire Liberal Democrats, has called on China to change its ways or face an Olympic boycott.

Nigel Farage "David (Cameron), come and speak to us"

Nigel Farage this morning hinted clearly that UKIP would be prepared to speak to the Tories about a deal in certain seats if the Tories spoke to them about a referendum on the EU constitution and possibly, and let me stress that "possibly" on the future of the UK's membership of the EU. This is interesteding in that it says that UKIP might be prepared to do a deal. However, it might show also that UKIP are broke and have few candidates selected. Take your pick of the reasons why.

Free burma

The oppression of the masses in Burma has played heavily on my mind for the last few weeks. The inaction of countries in helping a nation (treating such events as "internal affairs") is frustrating to say the least and those who have faced death and violence to stand up for what we all believe in has shown me the sheer strength of human nature and the importance of democratic freedom. Burma has a nation of 56 million - this is not so far off the size of our own country, and I count myself as fortunate to be unable to ...

Sometimes there really is no conspiracy

The author list of Liberator magazine is a shifting cast of people mostly associated with the party, and the diversity of its contributors is one of the things that make it most interesting and valuable. But one person seems to have an article in almost every edition, and it’s always very interesting to see the sometimes awkward challenges that Simon Titley poses. In the conference edition, he takes a look at the party itself, and his headline is that party members should stop complaining about our leader. One of his key points is one I have made here - that ...

Have you got a ‘bird of freedom’ tattoo?

For reasons as yet unclear to The Voice, it appears the Liberal Democrat party is keen to discover if any LDV reader has, or knows of anyone who has, a tattoo of the party logo, the ‘bird of liberty’, somewhere upon their personage. I’m not sure the location of the tattoo matters. It may, of course, [...]

Election Now: in breach of Human Rights Act?

An election now could be in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 3 of the First Protocol (some additions to the Convention that were made in 1954) provides, ”The High Contracting Parties undertake to hold free elections at reasonable intervals by secret ballot, under conditions which will ensure the free expression of the opinion of the people in the choice of the legislature.” Iain Dale and others have pointed out that a lot of people will be disenfranchised because of the new electoral register not being in force yet. I’m tolf that the Electoral Commission has confirmed ...

Buddhism: a challenge for politicians

Ongoing political drama in Burma has had the incidental effect of putting more Buddhists on television at one time than at any other point in quite a few years. Buddhism was came to Britain in the twentieth century (whereas there is evidence of Bhuddhists in Germany at least fifty years before that). The first known Buddhist in this country is R J Jackson who lectured at Hyde Park Corner in 1905. But the person many people think was the first British Buddhist is Christmas Humphreys. Incredible man. He came from a very traditional establishment background but converted to Buddhism while a student at ...

Free Burma!

{Free Burma!} Okay, so I am an optimist. My head asks what a spontaneous action by five thousand or so bloggers could possibly achieve against a regime that is so clearly driven by powerlust or, if you are that way inclined, Evil that it will, seemingly without any qualms, take thousands of monks, devoted to a peaceful belief system, and imprison or torture or kill them. My heart on the other hand says that the superconnectivity of individuals enabled by the internet and globalized communications is part of a new world order in which those individuals can make their will ...

Policing Party Conferences

One final thing I have to say about the party conferences this year, and this is not a partisan point, is the state of policing at the various party conferences this year. At the Lib Dem conference, as usual, the police were almost non-existent. No great surprise there as the party is simply not a target. Indeed, even the Brighton & Hove Albion FC fans didn’t bother to show up this year and shout rude things about David Bellotti. In Bournemouth, the police surrounding Labour conference was a severe case of overkill but, as a leafletter, I have few complaints. ...

Tory MPs publicise their sexual fantasies

Blackpool’s racy atmosphere is perhaps a bit too much for some Conservative MPs, here. You often get the impression that a lot of Conservative MPs regard politics as a jolly or a lark and, in particular, things like hospital campaigns are token exercises that have to be suffered. When you have that outlook on your job it’s not surprising you do something as stupid as this.

Rock the Vote - a Tory front?

Amongst many of the things that was being handed out at Tory conference (including a flyer alleging that Shami Chakrabarti is “worse than Hitler, Himmler and Heydrich”), was a card promoting a new Rock the Vote website. A US-staple designed to encourage young people to vote, the first UK Rock the Vote emerged in the run up to the 1997 General Election. Leftwing dominated, it barely got off the ground. My recollection was that a promised national tour of major bands ended up consisting mainly of 808 State and the Shamen, both of which were passed their sell-by date by ...

Free Burma!

{Free Burma!}

Free Burma!

{shwedagon-pagoda.jpg} I have only been to Burma once, a long time ago. But the memory of that visit is still vivid, and I share the pain of all those in solidarity with the brave Burmese people standing up to the despicable military regime that has been in power since 1962, when General Ne Win let a coup d’état. I arrived in Rangoon seven years later, on my way back from Vietnam, where I had been a cub reporter for the ‘Manchester Evening News’. I was still a teenager and was travelling on a shoestring, and almost the only way to ...

European Movement UK on Facebook

The European Movement - UK and Young European Movement UK (JEF UK) have groups on Facebook.

National Poetry Day

Today is National Poetry Day, so here is one of my favourite poems. I also offered one in 2004, 2005 and 2006. One year I may choose a poem that does not involve death. An Arundel Tomb Side by side, their faces blurred, The earl and countess lie in stone, Their proper habits vaguely shown As jointed armour, stiffened pleat, And that faint hint of the absurd - The little dogs under their feet. Such plainness of the pre-baroque Hardly involves the eye, until It meets his left-hand gauntlet, still Clasped empty in the other; and One sees, with a ...

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Thursday 4th October 2007

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