Both emails were sent out by the central party organisation, not the candidates' teams (see imprint below which was on both emails) I received them both, one minute after the other, in my main inbox. Apparently, according to the Toddster, Some ridiculously over-sensitive spam filters may have put Chris' in the filter file due its use of the appalling phrase "Dear friend". So in that sense, 
The Government’s plan to give Unions the power to expel members who belong to the BNP or any other political party has really thrown a brick into my moral gears. I said yesterday, “I don’t blog about issues” but in this case I honestly can’t work out whether I should support this or stand against it. Some of you may already know that I accidentally became a Trade Union rep when I stood to challenge the election-by-default of an unopposed BNP member who wanted the job. I didn’t campaign negatively against him - all I said was “His membership of ...
It's tradition, I hear you say. There is a reliable rule that holds that all ancient British traditions were invented in the last quarter of the 19th century. This one is of more recent vintage than that. Parliament's own website records: Following the death of Prince Albert in 1861 Queen Victoria attended the State Opening of Parliament less frequently, and when she did the Speech was delivered by the Lord Chancellor.
My doubts about the new Liberal Conspiracy site were reinforced by an article on the raising the school leaving age to 18 which the site published today. It was written by Mike Ion, the Labour candidate for Shrewsbury at the last election, and began: I struggle to understand why anyone on the Left of British politics could oppose Gordon Brown’s moves, mentioned in the Queen’s speech yesterday, to raise the education leaving age to 18.I think that tells us more about Mr Ion's lack of imagination than it does about the point at issue. I don't know if he is ...
The new St Pancras station look superb. Much criticism can be thrown at over budget, over schedule projects. But St Pancras is an example of how it should be done. The combination of the modern station with the Victorian building is stunningly striking. I have said before why Eurostar is the way to travel for me. Last time I was in the then near derelict St Pancras Station was for the filming of
The Rose of Kingston will open its doors, at last, in January and I'm going to be writing much more about its programme in a few days' time. But now I thought it worth pointing out that there are some fantastic job opportunities at the theatre - from bars manager to chief electrician. You'll find them all on the Rose website. Photo by Chris Pearsall
Maidstone and The Weald Conservative Association has started its selection for a new PPC. Iain has until 2pm on 14th November to get his application in. The Editor on Conservative Home has apparently tried to quell comments on Iain and Maidstone: Enough comments about Iain now thank you! Posted by: Editor | November 07, 2007 at 14:34
Via (as ever) the Daily Irrelevant: (click to enlarge)
Tonight the "Talking Together" roadshow came to North Road ward. As a vehicle for stakeholders to meet it was useful; as a vehicle for public engagement it was much less successful. Representatives from the police, PCT, Groundwork, Streetscene, Community Partnerships and public transport had set up display stalls in the hall. Local ward councillors, council officers (including the Chief
My criticism of Adrian Sanders’ economic argument against outsourcing should not be taken as unconditional support for outsourcing. In my mind, the liberal response to outsourcing is that if it can offer better value then it should be done, but if it doesn’t then it shouldn’t. Of course, the only way to tell is often experimentation, [...] 
Had a really good weekend, which finished with the Charlatans gig at Shepherd's Bush Empire last night. Well, I was at work Monday and Tuesday as well - just that with going to see Carter USM on Friday night and the Super Furry Animals on Saturday, last night was the end of that little run of gigs. Carter were great. But the sound system at Brixton Academy on Friday night had to be the worst I have ever heard at any gig. Was almost impossible to hear the singing over the backing. So it was a good night, but could ...
I only ask as I read on his site: `Please note that if you registered to support Chris’ leadership campaign in 2006, you will already be registered on this site and there is no need to do so again`. Er-herm - is it automatically certain that those that voted for Chris in an election under very different [...]
Just thought I should share this article... A Tesco employee was suspended this week after using a customer’s personal details to track her down on the Facebook website and send her a photo of himself wrapped in nothing but a towel. Argh. Nightmare.
I was hoping to break our losing streak at the pub quiz in the pub near my London housee. When I was last here for the quiz, 2 weeks ago, we came last. This time, we have got as far as the first round - the picture round. I know nothing about racing drivers and we have to name 10 of them. Looks as though the losing streak will continue. And to think, I stopped work on my next email newsletter to
I am having to use my own blog to comment on Tristan's musings because his blog has some odd registration system that requires me to jump through several hoops in order to comment. Ironically, he says in his blog that he has had to to respond to Adrian Sanders on his own blog because Adrian Sanders Myspace blog requires him to register. People in glass houses Tristan ! 
In his endorsement of Huhne Chris Clarke has laid out his reasons for supporting Huhne. All very simple, but in fact it's nasty, bitter and a real shame. Chris Clarke has let himself down. Once a senior figure in the ALDC world - now a bitter assassin. Readers will remember that Clarke was the first to call for Ming to resign. Sir Chris Clarke OBE says: "I've listened to the campaigns so far and my mind is now made up: "One candidate seems to want the Liberal Democrats to be another Tory party when most people in Britain don't want ...
I have been rather busy this week and have not been that diligent in checking my e-mails. I sat down this evening to go through all my e-mails from various e-mail accounts and was surprised to have received an e-mail from Nick Clegg on Monday, but not from Chris Huhne. So I sat down to write an e-mail to the Lib Dems asking if the party was giving preferential treatment to one candidate over another. Before I got more than two lines in to my e-mail, I realised I ought to read all my mail and check that I hadn't ...
I turned over from the football highlights last night in to what I at first thought was some sort of spoof TV programme. It seemed to involve an artist drawing and painting on a body of a very attractive and curvaceous woman was completely naked (and well trimmed if you get my drift), and then a rather odd foreign sounding "mad" professor hacking away at what appeared to be a dummy. To my horror, the dummy actually turned out to be a real corpse whilst the purpose of the completely naked woman seemed to be in order to provide some ...
The Republic has spoken: Alix Mortimer on Liberal Conspiracy. I had to link to it. I just did. Although, special warning for hypochondriacs, skip the bit about Lupus. EDIT: My brain today… sheesh. If you didn’t spot the earlier mistake, I’m not saying anything.
Yesterday, blessed with the gift of time, I was able to saunter round the statues in Parliament Square. In particular, I admired the two new additions. Nelson Mandela is actually on a very low plinth, compared to the other statues. This makes him seem very accessible. People in taxis admire him as they are stopped at the traffic lights. Stephen Tall blogged about the controversy over the Lloyd
Thank you to everyone who has filled in my johari window so far. Contrary to what some people have suggested, it's not just an internet meme or a sign of intense insecurity and paranoia.... I was in a training session on Friday which introduced the idea of a johari window, but without going into any detail. So I googled it and thought "hmmmm, it's a shame there wasn't an opportunity to do that as an exercise in the training session." Hence the online version, which has the advantage that it doesn't require you to actually be in the same room ...
News is that 100+ times as many barristers responded to a consultation about whether we should continue to wear wigs as responded to something about the governance of the Bar Council. The election to the Bar Council is also underway. I’m supporting Nick Alexander of my Chambers and Sir Geoffrey Nice QC who is one of my predecessors [...]
The True Yorkshire Calendar 2008 is on sale now. The calendar can be obtained postage free by sending a cheque for £4.00 (which includes postage), made out to the Yorkshire Ridings Society, to: Yorkshire Ridings Society39 Essex CloseREDCARYorkshireTS10 4BY
The funeral the Wolverhampton Ring Road Tramp will take place next week - and anyone who did not know him personally is being asked to stay away.
Darren Reynolds, writing on LibDemVoice: "According to the Office of National Statistics, every day about 1,400 people die in the UK. Of these, about 440 are from heart disease, 370 are from cancer and 260 are from diseases of the brain or stroke. Beyond that, there is death and great suffering caused by a huge range of other illnesses. Of the total number of deaths, precisely none are from
The Waltham Forest Guardian and Paul Walter report that the Labour party have decided to pay disgraced Councillor Miranda Grell's legal expenses for an appeal against conviction under electoral law for lying about her opponent Barry Smith during last year's Council elections. The amount could be as high as £30,000. It represents a boost to her apparently 'non-partisan' campaign 'justice for Leyton ward' set up to raise funds for her appeal. Bizarrely the Labour party has refused to comment on the reason for the decision. Nor have they made any comment on whether or not Ms. Grell is in the ...
Once again the bridesmaid rather than the bride as I don't come first in the British Computer Society MP Website awards. There were three categories - best design, best engagement and best accessibility - plus an overarching prize of prizes for the Best MP Website overall. Much to my surprise I was one of the two runner ups on the big one! So - not so bad. Congrats to the BCS for recognising that we MPs are using the medium and as the comment on my site said 'really trying' (in the best possible sense)! Adam Price won the overarching ...
War, terrorism and crime. These are the headlines fronting Britain’s newspapers today, or on any day. If editors know how to sell newspapers, then death is their best sales representative. Whether it is war in Iraq, teenagers slaughtered or a missing toddler, the human instinct to learn from gossip and avoid danger is strong enough to [...]
As nice a design as it is, the London 2012 Stadium has already jumped in cost from £280m to £496m in just two years. You have to ask with the increased cost of steel for the building work, the shortage of builders in the UK and the history of projects like this going over budget, does anyone believe it will cost £496 million ?
Credit where it’s due - Nick (Clegg) gave his Home Affairs Queen's Speech some welly! I can't see how the Government has the balls to try and bring back an extension to detention without charge. There is no evidence to demand it. You know - I don't think there is a single MP in the House from any party who would not vote an extension if proper evidence was put before us demonstrating a genuine need. And some silly twit on the Labour benches when Nick was espousing this mouthed the word 'soft'. That is the type of rubbish that ...
Last night it was that time of the month again. The full Council meeting. It has to be one of the most pointless meetings that we have to endure. Firstly there are always more motions to debate than time allowed to debate them, so at the beginning of that part of the meeting the administration announces which motions it is going to take. The problem is that we do not know in advance what motions are going to be picked so we have to be prepared to speak on all of them. An utter waste of time which could be ...
Band of Horses are probably one of the best bands that you have never heard of.
Just sent another complaint to the BBC about anti Lib Dem bias vis a vis the `Grumpy guide to politicians` that was aired yesterday 11:15 BBC 2. It was basically a load of Labour stooge `celebrities` including Mariela Frostrup rubbishing the Lib Dems with the Conservatives represented by Steve Norris and Anne Widdecombe (say no more) but it’s [...]
Bored whilst filling in a medical questionnaire: Do you undertake any regular sport or exercise? If yes, what and how often: ... regular bouts of hilarity cause stomach muscles to seize up in pain. Think I'm being flippant? Well, you're probably right, but check this out.
Brett on Harry's Place says it all: The local Waltham Forest paper is reporting that the national Labour Party has agreed to fund Miranda Grell's appeal against her conviction after she smeared a rival as a paedophile. For more details, see my post from yesterday. The thing is, even what she admitted to doing - telling voters that her LibDem rival, Barry Smith, was gay and had a teenage Thai
Yesterday’s Queen’s Speech represented another nail in the coffin in of individual freedom and civil liberty in this country. The extension of detention without charge legislation, from the current 28 days to something more like 56, reared its ugly head once again as many suspected it would. It strikes me that the freedoms which our security forces are trying to defend through the prevention of terrorism are being insidiously undermined by the very instruments of that defence and that if we do not take a stand now then these freedoms will be lost irretrievably. And it is the Liberal Democrats ...
I was musing on the leadership election - it's fashionable to do this I'm told - and noticed Clegg getting stick for being supported by the great and the good. It seems he can't win on this type of critic - if he's supported by members then he can't command support, if he's supported by MPs then they are great and the good. I looked at his site and there they are - loads of ordinary footsoldier party members we have never heard of posting endorsements of why they are voting Clegg... I then perused the MPs etc category and ...
I don't really know much about Lord Drayson, he's probably horridly New Labour, but I do feel there is something rather dashing about someone who gives up a post in the Government so he can attempt to qualify for Le Mans. The BBC has more.
Postings have rather taken a secondary role just over the last few days not least because of a family bereavement, of which more, possibly, in the future. I was interested to read that the AA says 150,000 drivers a year are putting the wrong fuel in their car. This set me reminiscing. At the time diesel [...]
There’s some really good things going on at the moment amongst the LibDems. I think our resident bureaucrat expresses them very well. I think that whoever wins, they will take us forwards, defining liberalism for ourselves, not having the Tories or Labour define it. I may at times disagree with some of the conclusions of both [...]
In light of the recent furore regarding the dodgy fireworks container selling fireworks from the street, I have today written to the Chief Fire Officer for Greater Manchester asking whether he was aware that fire service licences had been issued. And if he was, I have asked whether he has any answers to resident concerns over these sales. I will give an update when I get a response. Rick
Last night I was invited to be the guest of the new Croma restaurant which has opened in The Radius building. And Tam and I enjoyed a lovely meal. In true A A Gill style, I forget what we had to start with exactly. Something to do with aubergines in my case. It was delicious though, I remember that. The pizzas and desserts were also up to the usual standard, but what really struck me was the decor of the place and the fact that it will definitely attract the types of people perhaps under-served in Prestwich until now. Funky seating ...
Having a bit of time on my hands as I passed the Houses of Parliament yesterday, I nipped into the public gallery of the Commons for a while. I thought I would get to see some dry old chip from the Labour or Tory benches harping on about the Queen’s Speech. Indeed, as I mounted the stairs to the gallery, the annunicator showed the speaker as someone I would have to scratch my head to remember.
Adrian Sanders tells us economics is simple and then proceeds to express a complete economic fallacy. I’m replying here because he uses the interminable MySpace which requires me to do far too much work to post a comment. I don’t know where to begin, perhaps with the one part he gets right - The more money [...]
The financial turmoil after the sub-prime mess in the USA continues. Sombre question – are we going to be 'Piper Alpha' cursed? Piper Alpha was a North Sea oil rig that exploded in 1988 killing 167 people. After cleanup and compensation for victims the owners put in an insurance claim for £1 billion (one thousand million pounds). Because of re-insurance deals the result was a tide of claims across the insurance industry that finally totalled £16 billion. This wrecked Lloyds of London and caused the complete reorganisation of insurance in the City of London. Why is this relevant to today’s ...
Yesterday Chris did an in-depth interview with a group of Liberal Democrat bloggers (no, not including me!) about his leadership bid. There's been a flurry of posts as a result - and Mary Reid's write-up also includes links to them all. It looks like the bloggers managed to tease out some interesting answers (and no, I'm not of the control freak tendency where "interesting" = "best avoided" = "blunder"!) - so well worth a read.
Now available over here, in this week’s Realpolitik: The surprisingly short Queen’s speech leads to a surprisingly long discussion. ID Cards and whether MPs should refuse to carry them. Was Enoch right and are all Conservatives racists or do they just have legitimate concerns about immigration? Raising the education leaving age to 18. It’s treason to use a postage stamp upside down.
The BBC's ever informative economics correspondant, Evan Davis has written an interesting post on his blog about the economic impacts of immigration. While being careful not to take sides, he does a good job of slicing and dicing, the more ridiculous arguments of both sides of the debate. This is something that really needs to be done because the debate on immigration too often gets stuck on nonsensical arguments such as 'immigrants taking our jobs' that simply waste everybodies time.
Surprised this didnt seem to attract more blog comment so I thought I would redress the balance a bit. I knocked together the attached in an idle moment… Are you thinking what we are thinking?
Last night I attended a seminar over dinner with a group of Traders and Hedge Fund Managers. Over the course of the evening, various theories were discussed as to "what is happening in the global economy". The answers put forward were complicated but more or less uniformly bleak. The overnight gyrations of the dollar and the price of oil as the result of the Chinese openly talking about "diversifying" their currency holdings seems to reinforce the sense that we are not looking a a simple turn in the cycle. Put simply, the scale of the credit losses is now so ...
"Empowering people is a philosophy, not just an electioneering technique". So said Chris Huhne to me yesterday over a cup of tea. I've always been drawn to those gossipy interviews of media stars, in which the interviewer tells us more about themselves than about their subject. Much as I would enjoy doing that, I'd better explain that I had joined some other Lib Dem...
I never got around to bemoaning the government’s plans to make homophobic attacks a new “hate crime”. Ever since the idea of religious hatred was outlawed I’ve become increasingly sceptical of this new type of legislation; in most cases it does little more than add a little more public “tut-tutting” to something that is already a crime. In some cases (though in practice not often) it can interfere with freedom of speech and the right to criticise. In many more cases it creates a culture whereby people self-censor rather than risk opprobrium and possible legal action. And even where homophobia ...
That’s all we seem to be hearing about at the moment. First the County Council cut its subsidy to the evening and Sunday services of the No 5 bus. The new timetable with reduced services has been in effect since 1st November. Hampshire County Council has a problem with overspend on the Adult Services budget and the Environment Department had to find its share of savings – it was told to save
My attention has been drawn by Jonathan Calder to an article on the BBC website listing some of Britain's most ludicrous laws. It is worth repeating the top ten, if only for their novelty value. They have been voted for by a panel of 3,931 people set up by UK Gold and the percentages indicate how absurd that group found them. It is hoped that the Welsh Assembly does not add to them but I cannot say that with any confidence for the future. The UK's top 10 most ridiculous British laws were listed as: 1. It is illegal to ...
I'm in The Guardian talking about the dreaded scourge of vulture funds: Liberal Democrat shadow international development secretary Lynne Featherstone released figures she had requested from the World Bank about the extent to which British courts had been used by so-called "vulture" funds to sue poor countries. These showed £237m-worth of suits had gone through British courts despite Britain being a vocal supporter of greater aid for poor countries. "Gordon Brown talks at length about justice for Africa but instead his government should explore ways of creating an internationally binding system to ensure companies can't prey on heavily indebted developing ...
Last night I met again with Jean Murphy and supporters. In July last year, Jean’s 15-year old daughter Kayleigh died following an epileptic fit. Jean called 999, and while Kayleigh was suffering, three different ambulances were dispatched. The first did not have a paramedic on board - only paramedics can administer the particular anti-convulsant drug [...]
The leadership campaign must have begun: all party members have just received our first e-mails from the candidates, Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne. I remain a floating voter in this election: genuinely (because I can see the good qualities in each candidate) and deliberately (‘cos I can imagine the flak LDV would get if it [...]
I have no particular beef with this. However, it is interesting to note that one of the classic demonstrations of the effects of such policy on Ricardian land rents is the story of London Bridge tolls. Way back, when I don;t know, but since it is quoted by Churchill in 1909 I guess in the nineteenth century, London Bridge was a toll bridge. The least well off workers in the City of London mostly lived in poor Southwark and had to pay the tolls to get to and from work. The Southwark parish charities complained that they had to dispense ...
Now, I always regret the last post of the day, especially when I’m just about to go to bed, but fingers crossed I’ll be on safe territory here: I now have a Facebook profile and there’s a link on my blogroll. There.. did I defame anyone? Will anyone be upset by this? It seems okay but, seriously, in the morning I’m always thinking, “why did I write THAT??”
If you know me - could you please pop over to my Johari Window and click a few words for me?
I just can not find it within myself to understand the Liberal Democrat’s insane policy towards Europe. In supporting a referendum on membership of the Union we are risking the biggest policy disaster of a generation and playing into the hands of the lunatic elements of the far right. This policy is just stupid. As a [...]
What Enoch Powell got right does as much to undermine the arguments of his imitators as his mistakes. This summer, like much of the rest of Britain’s political class; I spent an awful lot of time pounding the pavements of Southall. The by-election that followed the tragic death of Piara Khabra could not have happened in a more interesting place. It did not take me long to realise that this corner of West London was far from ordinary. The local McDonalds sells Halal burgers, while the cinema appeared to show only Bollywood films and the pub by the station proudly ...
So, wedge issues. They’re great aren’t they? Or are they? Chris advocates them. He’s happily deployed them - Trident being an obvious one. The trick is this: Find an issue you can reduce to a simple yes/no answer. Ensure that emotion and metaphor are dominating people’s decision making processes. Prevent reasonable debate or compromise by making it a moral issue. You have to make the people who disagree with you seem immoral no matter what they say to defend themselves. They’re astonishingly effective. We had one handed to us on a plate in the form of Iraq and, really, because ...
The Solihull Liberal Democrats Annual Dinner will be on Saturday, November 24th 2007 from 7.15pm at the Ramada Hotel The Square, Solihull (B91 3RF) with Guest Speaker Charles Kennedy MP.
Liberal England highlights a post by Paul Hulbert from Sunday that points out that it’s 100 years since we first had women councillors. There was a 1907 Act of Parliament that allowed women to stand for election to County and Borough Councils, many years before women got the vote or could stand for Parliament. The first women were elected to local councils that November. There’s an interesting timeline of women’s history on the BBC’s Woman’s Hour website.
Tuesday: Both candidates for the Leadership of the Liberal Democrats have kindly agreed to an interview with a panel of Liberal Democrat diarists*. Today, first up was Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment and MP for Eastleigh, Mr Chris Huhney-Monster and naturally, as a TOP Liberal Democrat, I was there! Top Liberal Democrat... and friends {Posted by Picasa} The first thing that strikes about Mr Huhney-Monster is his enthusiasm and energy and keenness to get his message across. He is a MAN with a PLAN, big ambitions for the Liberal Democrats and a strategy to stop the other parties ... | < | November 2007 | > | ||||
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