LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Wednesday 31st October 2007

Anti-gay church fined $10.9m

Back in April Louis Theroux presented a documentary on the controversial Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church. For those who didn’t see it, it made very uncomfortable viewing. The following paragraph from the Wikipedia page sums up their beliefs very well: “The church bases its work around the belief expressed by its best known slogan and the address of its primary website, “God hates fags”, and expresses the opinion, based on its Biblical interpretation, that nearly every tragedy in the world is linked to homosexuality – specifically society’s increasing tolerance and acceptance of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people. It maintains that God ...

Credit card scam + warning about wireless home computer networks

A credit card scam with an unusual twist is operating in the our area. The criminal gets hold of someone's credit card details - possibly via a poorly secured wireless computer network. Next they contact a home catalogue company and order an item they already know is out of stock - this is enough to set up the home shopping account.They wait a few days and then order something valuable, and follow the delivery van on the expected day of delivery. If the cardholder is out the scammer pretends to be a helpful neighbour and offers to accept delivery - ...

Is it ok to label people as ethnic minorities?

My latest column for Asian Voice picks up on my experience at a recent Youth Question Time in Haringey: One of the Labour panellists was talking about ‘ethnic minorities’ and a young black boy (name of Justin I believe) shot up his hand and said he was fed up with being labelled; fed up with being always thought of as ethnic minority; felt it put him in a box. He wanted to be taken as him – as a person. You can read the full piece here.

Getting the State Off The Back of The Poorest

Further to my post about the importance of raising literacy and numeracy amongst the most disadvantaged in our society another aspect of British society that worries me, particularly as a former academic economist is the disproportionate burden of taxation on the poorest in our society. The last budget was a travesty in effectively redistributing the tax burden from the wealthiest in society to fall mostly on middle income Britain but also disproportionately on the poorest members of society. This shift in taxation burden was supposedly mitigated by the Working Tax Credit (WTC) but the WTC system is such a nightmare ...

Nothing to say about Nick or Chris

Having just looked through a number of other Lib Dem blogs, it appears that I am the only one who is not writing about the Lib Dem leadership contest. Is it just me or has it been a little dull so far ? in any case. i am thinking of getting a new banner made for this blog so that it is the "Official I don't care who wins and won't be writing about it" Blog.

Well done Ipswich Town. Now where is our money ?

Ipswich Town are today celebrating the announcement of a £44 million takeover which will see their £32m debt repaid and leave £12m for players. I wonder though if the creditors who received just 10p in the pound a matter of five years ago when Ipswich went in to voluntary administration will see any of this cash ? Local businesses, other football clubs, even voluntary organisations were left high and dry by Ipswich at the time and it is a real slap in the face for Ipswich to now say they will spend £12m on players.

Opinion: God help us

“In my business, asking people to risk their lives is part of the job, but doing so without giving them the chance to understand that there is a life after death is something of a betrayal … inspiration best comes from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ … the example of his life, the purpose [...]

Liberal Revolution

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David Hemmings to stand for Lib Dem leadership

From the East Anglian Daily Times: Now that David Laws, acting leader Vince Cable, and Julia Goldsworthy have all decided not to stand, and it would be highly surprising if Charles Kennedy attempted a comeback, the only other MP who may mount a challenge is backbencher David Hemmings.Unfortunately, Hemmings died in 2003, which may prove something of a handicap. Still, he was the coolest actor in Britain for a while in the 1960s, as well as being the original Miles in Britten's opera The Turn of the Screw as a boy. I suspect they were thinking of John Hemming, the ...

People's Veto and ID Cards

When I first heard of Chris Huhne's plan for a People's Veto my initial instinct was that he had gone absolutely mad. In this hysteria-filled media misinforming technological age, how on earth could you ensure the veracity of a petition against a piece of legislation to start with? We should surely place greater store on our Parliamentary democracy and seek to strengthen that rather than give credence to what looks on the face of it like populist pandering. You only have to look at what goes on the ballot in American elections to see how discriminatory, prejudiced laws are passed. ...

Asking the people

It is difficult to go into things in any depth when my only access to the internet is via a limited blackberry but I was intriqued by one of the proposals in Chris Huhne's election manifesto published today. Unfortunately his suggestion that we might want to adopt the Swiss idea of a people's veto on unpopular legislation smacks a bit of finding something radical to say for the sake of it. It is not in my view a Liberal proposal. I am not somebody who is generally in favour of referendums. We live in a representative democracy in which the ...

Leeds Together for Peace Festival

Check out www.togetherforpeace.co.uk for more details but this is running in November. Its Council sponsered and my much missed former Green collegue Clare Nash played a role in developing it. Its ecclectic and artistic and with the treat of war with Iran looming well worth checking out if you are in the area.

Lib Dems by SMS

The party today relaunched its free SMS service to send urgent news direct to your mobile phone. The Twitter service was last used to send out information on election night, and has been quiet since. But today a new message arrived: Thanks for subscribing - we’re relaunching! We’ll send occasional party news, like TV spots, leadership poll news [...]

Spaced Out

Labour supporters sometimes accuse Liberal Democrats of being rather credulous paranoid sorts, who suspect that the malevolent state is either harvesting data on us all or keeping great big secrets. All of which is of course true. But I was interested to read in today’s Times that Labour voters are considerably more inclined to believe that governments keep secrets about little green men...

Happy Hallowe'en

A particularly happy Hallowe'en to the evil swine who nicked my husband's carefully carved pumpkin from our doorstep before I had even had the chance to take a photograph of his handiwork. He has been consoling himself this evening by looking at its doppelganger Otherwise it's been great fun. I do love Hallowe'en even though I know it's all over commercialised and American. I can't abide Trick or Treat - it's a dreadful, rude, disrespectful custom, but I do allow my daughter to do a bit of supervised guising. She and 9 of her friends went out en masse and ...

Digital TV problems ...

I've issued a news release today about my concerns over the initial preparations for the Digital TV switchover from analogue. Although there is some initial TV advertising by Digital UK it is not at all detailed and doesn't answer many of the basic questions people are asking about how they should prepare for the loss of analogue signals. The information thus far is patchy and confusing for elderly people in particular. Most people in the West End and others in parts of the southern end of Dundee and the Charleston area had been denied digital terrestrial services in advance of ...

Well done Nick Clegg!

I do find the "candidate A good/candidate B bad" stuff really pathetic. So, I'm going to break the mould and praise the candidate I am not backing! Nick Clegg has done a brilliant thing with his pledge to lead a campaign of civil disobedience against ID cards. This is precisely the sort of principled and uncompromising stand which we need to highlight the true liberalism of our party to the

Chris Huhne's "Liberal Revolution" manifesto

Chris Huhne has launched his manifesto here, entitled the "Liberal Revolution".

Royal Family "blackmail"

The Internet laughs at British injunctions. If you search for something like royal blackmail on Google News you will discover that the person involved has been named by a number of reputable foreign newspapers.

Euro and London mayoral ballot deadlines extended

Jonathan Davies, the party’s senior returning officer, has just posted the following message on LDV - it deserves flagging up: Because of the delays in the mail, we have extended the deadline for the return of ballot papers for both the euro and London mayoral selection to 12 noon on Friday 9th November. The freepost envelope [...]

Chris Huhne's manifesto published

You can find The Liberal Revolution on Huhne's campaign website.

Are you excited? I’m excited…

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Full Council

I abandoned my reviews of Full Council meetings in April. It seems they are the practical limits of political blogging. Its inevitable that in an 8 hour meeting you might find a decent opposition point or a duff one from your own side. However saying so on a blog can upset a lot of people. Somehow Hallowe'en seems an appropriate day to have a full council meeting as it was a "House of Horrors". The new time limits have reduced the length to a mere 6 hours. Despite this I only got to speak once with predictably some of the ...

Back in court

The court case for the Noise Abatement Order is finally having its days in court. We were listed for a three day hearing in front of a (the?) District Judge back in May. Courts are busy places, and the days allotted to us have finally ticked round. Yesterday was the first day, and the case made very slow progress. I arrived an hour after the listed time, and the lawyers weren’t yet in court - they’d been sent away by the judge to see if they could reach a compromise. After a fair bit of toing and froing and repeatedly ...

Nick Displays the Courage of Conviction

As nominations close today, the phony war is over, and the race is on. Have to say I was very impressed with Nick's position on opposing ID cards. If all of us who are opposed to these being introduced, take a stand, then Gordon Brown - the phony libertarian, will be faced with his very own poll tax revolt. Nick's position is clear: 'I am willing to do everything in my power to stop this intrusive, expensive and unnecessary imposition on the liberty of the British people' When was the last time we heard a politician tell us they were ...

When does someone's Halloween fun become anti social behaviour ?

I wrote last year about how much I dislike the obsessive greed of Halloween. Yes, you can argue that Christmas is a more greedy time, but at Christmas I receive gifts and I give them too unlike Halloween which seems to be about taking from strangers without the giving or the peace and goodwill to all men. There is though another element to Halloween which worries me greatly aside from the affect it has on young people, and that is the real feeling of menace on the streets and the fear it puts in to people. Outside my local Chinese ...

On Liberty, Online: It's a one horse race - only Nick Clegg can win in this Himalayan monastery

Before anybody asks - no, this isn't a staged stunt and the Clegg campaign team are as surprised about this as anyone. ;-) (See also: Director's Cut with added monks.)

Nick Clegg needs to leave his comfort zone

At last. Something from Nick Clegg to inspire us. The Guardian reports: Nick Clegg, the odds-on favourite to become Liberal Democrat leader, yesterday announced that he will break the law and refuse to provide details of his identity if the government presses ahead with plans to make ID cards compulsory.Drawing a parallel with resistance to the poll tax, he said he would also urge his fellow MPs and Lib Dem councils not to cooperate.It's not just that this is a striking, Liberal and correct: it is that it is something concrete. Until now the Clegg campaign has been conducted largely ...

Chris Huhnefesto

Huhne’s Manifesto weighs in at a whopping 7000 words, beating Nick Clegg’s 4000 word speed highlighting his vision. Plus, he’s published his manifesto sooner. I wonder if he’ll have a manifest launch tomorrow? And will Nick Clegg break the unwritten ‘don’t announce anything on a Friday’ rule again? But what does the document itself tell us about what’s on Chris’s mind? What’s the burning issues of the day for him? Well, it’s all about the way politicians work and operate, and making sure there’s a lot, lot more of them. He’s talking Party Funding, House of Lords, Proportional Representation and ...

Official - Clegg vs. Huhne

So it's confirmed - nominations have closed and the Lib Dem leadership contest is between Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne. Whoever wins, at least the name is easy to get on to a poster! The blogosphere seems to have had more to say about Chris Huhne recently rather than Nick Clegg but no doubt there will be a catching up. Both are trying to attract headlines. For instance, it seems to have been Chris

The environment and liberalism

Joe Otten recently summarised the various chapters of Reinventing the State: Social Liberalism for the 21st Century (aka. the Huhne Manifesto?). Joe has generally been sympathetic to the “Social Liberal” argument, though as a member of the Sheffield Hallam constituency party one should not take his views on any particular issue for granted. The focus of Joe’s attentions is liberal environmentalism, so the environment chapter in that book was bound to peak his interest. I’m not going to repeat Joe’s summary here, but I am going to raise three points that I made in response to his post. Firstly, too ...

The Darzi review

Lord Darzi has been a busy man. In three months he apparently visited and spoke to 1500 NHS staff in 17 organisations (it is not clear whether they had to listen or got to talk to him). Among other achievements he apparently met with 250 stakeholder groups. I decided to table a parliamentary question to ask which groups he met. The answer was fascinating. Unsurprisingly the number of groups

JNCC - Meeting

The JNCC or Joint negotiation and consultation committtee is where the the council meet the unions to discuss new policies and procedures and any changes to working conditions. The JNCC I attended last night deals with Health and Safety. The format is simple. Both sides have a pre-meeting to run through the agenda and agree a position and then we through the agenda together to try and reach agreement. For the most part its fairly uncontroversial stuff and for the Councillors on the committee its largely a spectator sport. Whilst we can ask questions and seek clarification there is little ...

Rail link bus - Romsey to WInchester

Gremlins are trying to prevent me from advertising the meeting to discuss the axing of this bus. Apologies if this info appears twice. There is a meeting on Thursday 1st November at the Abbey United Reformed Church Hall - starting at 8 30pm. The campaign has taken on an interesting turn as a regular user of this bus service is Matt O'Connor (of Fathers for Justice fame) when he visits his

Chris Huhne’s Anti-Establishment Edge

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Nominations close, and it’s official: Lib Dem leadership contest is two-horse race

Nominations for MPs wishing to succeed Ming Campbell as Liberal Democrat leader closed today at 4.00 pm. And, as expected, just two candidates - Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne - have thrown their hats into the ring. There’s good coverage on both the BBC and The Guardian websites. Channel 4 News has published a pretty facile [...]

Leadership Campaign

I was reading James Graham's blog and saw that Nick Clegg had promised that government should live up to the environmental principles that it wants to inculcate in us as citizens. All good stuff. But just out of curiosity, I wanted to see whether Nick Clegg's own campaign reflected this. Thankfully, on Nick's website it has a 'ClimateCare' button that declares that his is a carbon neutral campaign. Then I went to check Chris Huhne's website and it makes no reference about whether his campaign is. Now, I am a listed Clegg supporter, but can one of Huhne's please have ...

What would Chris Huhne do as Liberal Democrat leader?

So - we launched Chris Huhne's Manifesto for Leadership at noon today. It went really, really, well! And it was radical and called 'The Liberal Revolution' - which is exactly what is needed! Chris excelled at questions - and the media as ever were naughty. They seemed to want to trap Chris into saying things about Nick - derogatory things - but Chris neatly sidestepped. He was very gung ho responding to questions on his Trident position, on his People's Veto; on being marched off to prison for refusing to have an ID card and so on. Exciting stuff!

Good news for Haringey's schools

I notice that the Government has backed down from its dreadful proposal to take back 5% of school surpluses. A victory - led by David Laws, the Lib Dem schools spokesperson. Well done David!

It’s Chris vs Nick

Apologies for the lack of posts over the last couple of days, but I’ve had a bit of a bad back which has limited the time I can spend hunched over a keyboard, typing and searching for information. Still, it’s now official - there will be two candidates in the leadership election, Chris and Nick Clegg. With the campaign now properly on Chris has launched his manifesto for the campaign, The Liberal Revolution. You can download a copy here.

Huhne launches his ‘Liberal Revolution’ manifesto

Lib Dem leadership contender Chris Huhne today launched his manifesto under the heading ‘The Liberal Revolution’. You can read more on Chris’s website here. Here’s an extract from his foreword: Britain needs a radical party to change our society, not just run it. We need a party that will breathe trust and faith back into the [...]

Clegg- Tibet's Liberal Future!

This video was posted on Youtube and has to be the best endorsement video so far for either candidate. Awesome.

It's a no-brainer!

Well, nominations have closed and there are just two candidates. When deciding who has the necessary leadership skills, don't just listen to what they say, look at what they've done. Deciding whom to vote for is a no-brainer! When I asked what Nick Clegg offered that could compete with Chris Huhne's vastly greater experience of the wider world, I got no answer. So I am backing the candidate who didn't go into the public sector but instead chose to get out there and cope with the wider world - not looking at the water but swimming in it. And I ...

What's our Story?

One of the things that I'm enjoying most about this leadership content is the discussion, on blogs and elsewhere, about creating a Liberal Democrat vision for Britain and how important it is for our new leader to be able to do that. Every now and then there's a spurt of discussion on the blogosphere about what a narrative is; have we got one? If not, why not? Do we want one anyway? And, what's

Watching both candidates

Two candidates it is then - and clearly both have strong and compelling (and strongly Liberal) cases to make. It will be easier for me to keep in touch with what Chris Huhne is saying as I have decided to support him, and signed on for e-mail updates on his campaign. If I was a Nick Clegg supporter I could still get those updates as Chris' website offers the option of just signing on to get more information as it arises without making a declaration of support. However as far as I can see Nick's website only offers the option ...

Not to be… (UPDATED)

The relevance of me posting this video may (or may not) become apparent later: Answer here. Share This

A University Challenge (For Nick And Chris)

Of course, amidst this week's flurry of blog posts (this is now my fourth day in a row, I'm not sure which of the seals I've opened, but it's definitely one of them!) I have unaccountably failed to explain the disappearance of certain information from my profile. I can therefore confirm that I have resigned from LDYS Executive and LDYS Policy Committee. I'm not going to go into detail at this

Nominations close in the Liberal Democrat Leadership Election

Nominations for the post of Leader of the the Liberal Democrats have now closed. There are just two candidates, they are in alphabetical order: Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne

Liberals Could Learn a Lot From Old Man Biden

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The Liberal Revolution - Chris Huhne's Manifesto for Leader

This is the preface to Chris Huhne's manifesto. The full manifesto can be found at: http://www.chris2win.org.uk/ The Liberal Revolution “The boldest measures are the safest” – Orde Wingate Preface Britain needs a radical party to change our society, not just run it. We need a party that will breathe trust and faith back into the political process by speaking honestly about the challenges we face, and the disillusion that so many of us feel. The task for Liberal Democrats is to revive our antiestablishment edge, and remember that we are the party that wants to change the system, not just ...

Painted into a corner

Via the Daily Irrelevant:

Free the bureaucrat?

I’m beginning to enjoy this leadership contest in a way that I hadn’t expected, in that the normal rush to the centre ground of the Party has been replaced by an almost exhibitionist desire by both candidates towards the radical cutting edge. First, that terribly clever Mr Huhne casting doubt on the efficacy of Trident, now that terribly enthusiastic (and no less bright) Mr Clegg announcing that

Let’s hear it for Evan

Over at the Daily Mail website (the things I read for Lib Dem Voice), Leo McKinstry has cobbled together an unpleasantly personal attack on Lib Dem MP, Evan Harris. The title gives away the prejudices of the author: ‘Meet Dr Death, the Lib Dem MP Evan Harris who backs embryo experiments, euthanasia and freer abortions’. [...]

Toryboy

Some of the newly elected Councillors are struggling with the idea of public service. One particular Toryboy is coming in for a bit of attention. Already shown a red card for accusing, at a public meeting, another Councillor of failing to declare an interest, he's still not got the hang of decent behaviour. We get passes to the City car park, for use on Council business only. Toryboy took to parking his car there all day, whilst he went to work, saving himself some £40 a week. Fair enough he did campaign on lowering car park charges, he just forgot ...

Gigbeth countdown - The gig-bugs have arrived!

Today I met Andrea and her colleagues from Gigbeth to fix a Gig-bug to the wall of the Nightingale Club. For those who haven’t driven down Digbeth/Deritend High Street in the last 24 hours, you may get a surprise when you do. Gigbugs of all shapes and sizes are crawling all over the Sanctuary, Custard Factory, The Rainbow, even the Coach Station! I don’t know the exact details, but I think they are the result of a proposal submitted to the Gigbeth team to include artwork in the festival. They’re certainly an eye-catching way of identifying the venues involved - ...

Why government intervention in the health service?

Contrary to what many people might think, I’m not going to advocate a complete laissez-faire system here, actually I’m not going to advocate any system. What I want to do is look at what is wanted from intervention in health care by liberals, hopefully to serve as a starting point for looking at what a [...]

I’m `coming out` for Clegg

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S/he who pays the piper?

I was glad to see that Nick Clegg was quick off the mark in condemning the breakdown of the all- party talks on funding. Nick is quoted as saying "Self-interest from Labour and the Tories has killed the possibility of getting proper limits on political funding. There should be strict limits on national and local spending year on year. A cap should apply to individuals, companies, lobby groups and unions. It is a disgrace that Brown and Cameron have put their party funding interests above ending the power of big money in our politics." As someone who has been an ...

Blow for Scot Gnats as only 23% back break up

As reported in virtually all Scottish media this morning, support for independence has fallen to a 10 year low of 23%. This must be a slap in the face for the gnats and their leader Eck. It also confirms that many people voted gnat in May as a way of giving the sitting Scottish Executive partner parties a slap and to tell us to buck our ideas up. The great news for us in the Scottish Lib Dems is that 55% of Scots favour our long held position of greater powers for the Scottish Parliament. Only 10% believe that the ...

Urban Wind

I've always felt that urban environments weren't right for wind power, for three reasons: 1. Lots of small turbines would be ugly - even worse than the forest of TV aerials that we see now. 2. There often isn't much wind in town, especially when the towns are built in the shelter of hills, like Lewes is. 3. The wind direction changes all the time, which makes the turbines less efficient. Well, I've just seen an article describing a number of new designs that challenge these assumptions. Some vertical axis designs that look quite elegant, and are less sensitive to ...

Anti-choice Tories attack freedom of information

You’ve got to laugh. Ben Goldacre writes: In the case of this Minority Report on abortion, it’s a rollercoaster ride of pseudoscience and dubious data, signed by one Tory MP with the support of one other, and I highly recommend giving it a read. I’ve posted the PDF here, until it appears on the parliament website. If you want a good example of how spectacularly weak the evidence behind this “Minority Report” is, then you need look no further than the bit where they talk about, er, well, me, bafflingly. What Dorries and Spink are complaining about is that Goldacre ...

Delay, a bureaucrat’s best friend. Time for my twelve bore, I think.

One of the things about change is that it seems to be quite scary at first sight. Something might happen, after all, and this is the very point of a bureaucracy, i.e. to prevent scary things from happening. Following from my comments of yesterday, there appears to be increasing support for the notion that the endorsement rules require pruning – with an axe, especially for Regional list

Halloween and the Caledonianisation of British culture

Jonathan Calder bemoans the increased celebration of Halloween at the expense of bonfire night, something that he sees as an example of 'creeping Americanisation'. However, when I was growing up in north-east Scotland in the 1970s, Halloween was widely celebrated, as much as, if not more than, bonfire night. I remember that my grandmother, a Dundee Catholic, did not really agree that Guy Fawkes was such a baddy. My memory of Halloween being traditionall well-celebtrated in Scotland is supported by some of the postings in response to this article by the historian David Cannadine. I prefer to regard the rise ...

Looking backwards, looking forwards…

A year ago today my Grandpa died. I wrote about it in my old blog and as the last of the old generation passed away and we all moved up one, it cemented for me the fact that I wasn’t a kid any more. It’s odd how days can begin normally and then, because of what happens on them, stay with you forever. My dad’s generation had the day JFK died or John Lennon died. My generation had Diana and 9/11. I remember odd little things about those days that I’ll never forget. The types of everyday normality that go ...

They’re playing our tune…

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Rubbish tax is rubbish - maybe

The report in yesterdays Guardian stating that the Government has cleared up the rubbish tax confusion did not to my mind clear up the confusion In the article itself it seemed that there were two very different steers emerging depending on which line you read. On the one hand "a Defra document published on the official Whitehall website revealed that the climate change bill would allow local authorities to charge for waste in a bid to boost recycling" and on the other "paper versions given to reporters and MPs stated that the bill would only give local councils the power ...

A new design for Liberal Bureaucracy!

I have become increasingly aware that my ‘blog-standard’ design is being left behind by the efforts of my evermore inventive younger colleagues. So I thought that I’d try something new and, although I am self-taught, I’ve come up with this. This is a picture of me in a zorb, and whilst I freely acknowledge that it could be anyone in there, you’ll just have to take my word that it is actually me…

The connection between Spooks and Margaret Thatcher

It was far too easy for Will, as feared: Is it Angela Thorne? She played Thatcher in a couple of TV things (including Anyone for Denis?), and her son is Rupert Penry-Jones what plays Adam. Indeed it is. Is there no end to the knowledge of the Willster?!

Clegg/Huhne: NHS Strategy

One nice post about Mr. Clegg calls, I think, for a more measured one. So: John Dixon is quite right to ask questions about Clegg's views of the NHS. I am always pretty wary of people who say things like "You can have a free of charge health service, which is funded but not produced by the public sector", as an anonymous commenter has done under that post. Surely that is a recipe for private

Clegg Plans Civil Disobedience

Now this is why I think Nick Clegg represents a much more engaging prospect for leader than the alternative. And I don't say "the alternative" out of disrespect for Chris Huhne, by the way, so much as because the alternative could be any number of people and I would still think as much. The story is essentially this: Mr Clegg said last night: "If the legislation [to require people to provide

Leadership contender promises to break the law

Right, now it’s starting to get interesting! According to the Guardian Nick Clegg has declared that if we do all end up being required to carry ID cards around with us, he will personally break the law and refuse to do so. He compared it to the civil disobedience campaigns against the poll tax and other things – and of course it also is very reminiscent of the person he keeps talking about: Clarence Willcock, who ended Britain’s ID cards regime in the 1950s by refusing to carry one, with the words to the policeman “I don’t believe in that ...

SNP Vote not a Vote for Independence

The Scottish Centre for Social Research has announced findings that must be putting a dampener on things at SNP HQ. While they took 32.9% of the constiuency vote in May from a survey carried out by the SCSR only 23% of the respondents to their survey were in favour of an independent Scotland. So it would appear that somewhere about one third of the SNP vote must have come from unioinists. It

The Home Office can't count, part 94

“Mistakes made by the British Home Office” is key element of our remit, and sometimes it’s just too easy. Take Jacqui Smith. (Please.) As The Guardian reports: The home secretary, Jacqui Smith, apologised for underestimating immigration figures after it was revealed that the increase in foreign nationals working in the UK since 1997 was 1.1 million, 300,000 more than previously stated. Unfortunately, that still doesn’t agree with the Office of National Statistics, which puts the figure at 1.5 million. What’s the solution? Leave running the system to the Home Office (and, in the case of the Home Office, we use ...

Tracksy - any advice?

Some time ago I put the "tracksy" tracking system on the blog. I then didn't look at it for ages but at the time I thought it would be a useful way of seeing if anyone was actually looking at the thing. Anyway, I had a look the other day and the results are really quite interesting. Firstly, more people read the blog, or at least look at a page or two, than I had expected - and theres a lot less traffic at weekends, which I suppose means most people are at work when they are looking. I was ...

Political trivia question

What connects "Spooks" with Margaret Thatcher? I'll give a clue if needed but Will will probably get it without one. Answer in a bit.

A different leadership race

Across the pond, the race to be the democratic nomination for President last night sparked into life. The candidates have previously shied away from direct confrontation with the front-runner, Hillary Clinton, but last night they piled on in spectacular fashion.A particular point of contention was Clinton's support for 'Kyl-Lieberman', the Senate bill which, among other things, designated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organisation. Clinton argued that the bill pushed for more aggressive diplomacy to counter Iraq's nuclear ambitions. Her opponents disagreed, and used it to turn the debate to Clinton's vote in support of the Iraq war.John Edwards described it as "written literally by the neocons", ...

So-called Medical Tourism and the NHS

More NHS bashing from the Daily Mail on 'medical tourism', the numbers of Britons going abroad for hospital treatment, to Thailand and India for example. And not 'just' for cosmetic surgery but for vital treatments. More condemnations of our creaky system and the implication we should adopt another. But as this US blogger post points out the development of facilities serving Medical Tourism industry is driven by the huge numers fleeing the excruciating US healthcare system. Medical refugees rather than tourists. This is what is funding the hospitals in India and Thailand. UK patients are just piggybacking on the new ...

Blood on the walls Labour style

I can't say too much about this but those of you who have been following the story of the mad Labour leaflet delivered in my area and the demand by us that the misrepresentations and inaccuracies be withdrawn, will be interested in this.My house was visited yesterday by someone associated with one of those involved. David was at home to take the message. Basically, following my recorded delivery

Leadership Opinion Poll

The poll that has been running on www.colin-ross.org.uk has now closed, the results are below. A new Poll will be created later today with just the nominated candidates.

Liberal Democrat Acting Leader boycotts state visit by Saudi King

Acting Liberal Democrat Leader Vince Cable is boycotting the state visit of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Dr Cable has turned down an invite to a Buckingham Palace banquet in the King's honour, citing Saudi Arabia's poor human rights record, and the alleged corruption around the regime's arms deal with the British firm BAE.

Supermarkets

The news this morning that the Competition Commission wants to reduce the power that a large supermarket may hold in a town is welcome. But I am puzzled about the references to local planning. At present when a planning application is considered we are not allowed to take the actual company into account only the category of retail eg whether it is for a restaurant. Are...

Labour backs down on raiding school budgets

The Government has thankfully backed down over plans to raid school budget reserves. As David Laws says “This daft idea should never have seen the light of day.” It was always hypocritical for Labour ministers on the one hand to talk about empowering schools and on the other try to take back delegated budgets when [...]

Saving the Tower

This coming Thursday is the big public meeting to discuss the Tower's future. The draft consultant's report on the future of the Tower Arts Centre has already been published at http://www.towerarts.co.uk/docs/tower1.pdf - the main conclusions will be presented at the meeting - so it's not essential to read it advance. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. and is open to the public. It's essential that as

Sign stealing

Does someone have a collection of parking signs in their attic? Back in March, I took up the case of residents whose estate parking spaces had been hijacked by non-permit holders, after the “residents parking” sign was stolen. The housing office replaced the sign. Last week, residents were back in touch - the sign [...]

Clegg v Huhne.........Facebook v Saga Zone?

............hmmm now there's a contest! I was amused to hear on Today this morning that Saga are intending to launch their own social networking site as many over 50's aren't comfortable with using Facebook. Interestingly I have noticed that I have a huge gap in my Facebook friends, lots of Lib Dems of all ages, but very few other friends who are "women (or men) of a certain age". Other than the few most other non Lib Dems are under 30. So maybe Saga is on to a winner..............

Cleggosaurus (thats his new name) wants to dismantle the NHS, whats your view?

(Please forgive the lack of eloquence in the following excerpt for I am still rather hung over from a combination of debating soc and Halloween last night) Out of all the differences between Huhney Monster and Cleggosaurus this is probably the most striking one policy wise. Huhney Monster is either relatively mainstream within the party with his views on the NHS or is just keeping them a secret while the Cleggosaurus quite openly wants to (*DIM DUM DAHHHHHH*) DISMANTLE THE NHS (shock horror!!!)... and replace it with a more European system (i.e. a better funded, partly private, publicly regulated one) ...

New school for Highbury Grove!

Last night the governing body of Highbury Grove secondary school (of which I am a member) gave its formal agreement to the building of completely new premises for the school, under the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. The school’s existing 1960s buildings are very much in need of replacement, and this means that by 2010 Highbury Grove’s pupils will have some amazing new facilities. The school has made a huge amount of progress academically in recent years (earlier this year being judged ‘good’ by Ofsted, a remarkable turnaround) - and it’s great that its facilities will be catching ...

King Athelstan - Cycle Shelter Grand Opening

King Athelstan School developed an good Travel Plan in March this year. Within their Travel Plan they set a target to increase the number of pupils, staff and parents cycling therefore contributing to an overall reduction in car use. Along with cyclist training and a cycle policy the school decided they needed somewhere secure and dry for bicycles to be left during the school day, they applied...

The Birmingham, Hodge Hill Liberal Democrats Constituency Dinner

The Birmingham, Hodge Hill Liberal Democrats Constituency Dinner will be on Sunday, November 18 th 2007 from 7.00pm at The Gables restaurant on Old Damson Lane (B92 9ED).

Day 2491: DOCTOR WHO: The Dalek Masterplan

Saturday: We return to Portsmouth to see Mr Nick Scovell and his Interalia Theatre present their follow-up to last year's "The Evil of the Daleks". GOOD NEWS! It was fantastic! BAD NEWS! It was their last ever Doctor Who production. Originally starring the ORIGINAL Dr Who, Mr Billy Hartnell, "The Daleks' Master Plan" is (beaten only by the fourteen-part "Trial of a Time Lord") the second-longest story in Doctor Who history at thirteen episodes if you count the unique one-off one-week "Mission to the Unknown", which acted as a kind of twenty-five-minute trailer, staring none of the usual TARDIS crew, ...

Wednesday 31st October 2007

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