LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Wednesday 28th November 2007

I second that emotion

Just about the first people I ran into on leaving the leadership hustings yesterday were Stephen Tall and Rob Fenwick (moving spirits of Lib Dem Voice past and present). They asked if I felt inspired. “Not really,” I said. “We have heard most of it already”. But this morning (rising early to catch a flight) I found that I did feel inspired after all. I won’t try to report on the proceedings in detail. Rob Knight has already done this for Manchester (scroll down the page). The three of us spent the rest of the evening in a pub that ...

The Best Money Can Buy

I've seen remarkably little of David Cameron lately, at a time when the government appears at its weakest. Mr Brown, in particular, must surely be finding the latest blow to his government's claims of credibility and competence quite a hard one to take. In the meantime, Vince Cable seems to be quite enjoying the job of Acting Leader. It's certainly a pleasure to watch him command PMQs each week in a way that his predecessor never could. Having seen Mr Cable speak in person twice, i can testify that his affability, knowledge and good humour are able to win over ...

The Weapon of Unarmed People

I was pleased to hear about Operation Last Chance to track down remaining Nazi war criminals, many of whom are in South America. The Jews of Argentina haven’t always had the easiest of times - how appalling to know that these wicked men still live amongst them.

Free Speech

It seems I cannot have an opinion about Chris Huhne unless its a favourable one. Following an earlier posting I received these two anonomous comments; "get with the program and wise up before you blacken our name any further with your thoughtless anti-Huhne comments" and my particular favourite "you're a talking tory!" How very strange! Whatever does he mean? But seriously, by all means comment anonomously if thats what you want, but do try and keep it sensible. Many Thanks

Livewire

When Tony Wilson said that Shaun Ryder was the greatest poet since Yeats, he was talking shit. And, when the Happy Mondays said “he’s gonna step on you again,” they were talking about “the man”. But they could have been talking about Vince Cable, who again stepped on the Prime Minister at today’s PMQs. The can be no questioning the fact that Vince Cable has been an outrageously good Acting Leader and Shadow Chancellor. I met him a couple of years ago when he came to deliver a speech to the business community in our constituency. Affable, gentle and sporting ...

Friends of Dundee Botanic Garden

Attended a packed meeting tonight of the Friends of Dundee Botanic Garden, taking place at St Andrew's Church Hall. It was very heartening to see the level of interest in the gardens and in securing a sustainable future for them. There is much work ahead for the Friends and other stakeholders but tonight's meeting was a very positive evening. You can read more about Friends of Dundee Botanic Garden by clicking on the headline above.

Another cheap publicity stunt?

I am of course referring to the announcement that “Lib Dem leadership hopeful Chris Huhne” has written to Met Police boss Sir Ian Blair asking him to investigate apparent "serious breaches" of party funding laws by Labour. Personally, I am somewhat sceptical as to the reasons behind Mr Huhne’s letter. Why? I can't help asking myself. Was it Chris’ place to do it? Isn't he our Environment Spokesman? Aren't such matters best left to the party leader? The last time I looked Vince Cable was acting leader, not Chris Huhne. So, on the surface I think this should be viewed ...

This one will run and run

In the furore surrounding the David Abrahams scandal (because that’s what it is) it’s difficult sometimes to see the wood for the trees particularly with the cast of characters that have sprung up in this situation. Two or three things though have stuck in my mind: 1. Did anyone else notice Martin Bell’s body language on Newsnight? It was [...]

Vince Cable plays a blinder..........

Go Vince:-) The Stalin to Mr Bean line must be one of the quotes of the year. I have a great deal of time for Vince Cable - another fully paid up member of the human race. He came to the Livingston By-Election, worked like an absolute Trojan for 2 days and was modest, helpful and very friendly. Note to new leader - please make sure that Vince continues to have a high public profile.

MP is now a Dad!

Many congratulations to our Member of Parliament, Edward Davey, and his wife Emily on the birth of a healthy baby boy this afternoon! Everything is fine, and they have named him John Alban Davey.

Vote Early, Vote Often.....

In case anyone was wondering (or perhaps worrying), yes, I have already cast my ballot for Nick Clegg. I urge you all to do the same to give the Liberal Democrats that young, charismatic leader that Liberal Britain so badly needs. Far from playing dog whistle politics to the activists, Nick has been focused outwards on talking to the liberals of Britain who currently would like to support us but don't yet. As our leader, Nick Clegg will enable the Liberal Democrats to build a liberal coalition to strengthen civil liberties at home, challenge disadvantage and rebuild Britain's international reputation ...

The man who most deserves your vote is ...

Lessons in incompetence IV: force discipline is essential

In any multinational mission, it helps if there is a clear chain of command and all the national forces are singing from the same song-sheet. Sadly, that all too often fails to happen. UK and Canadian and Dutch troops in Southern Afghanistan have taken the brunt of the fighting their because other NATO nations refuse to deploy their forces to the South, to engage in peace enforcement or (in the case of the Germans) to leave their compounds after dark. One particular problem is when national contingents contact their home nations to seek clarification of (or over-ride) the orders of ...

The local take on David Abrahams

It was fascinating hearing the local TV news angle on David Abrahams here in the North West (a sojourn for me). The reporter had been talking to people who knew Abrahams. They told how he used to be a vigorous attendee of party meetings and used this leverage to try to fight his de-selection as Labour parliamentary candidate for Richmond. Stephen Pollard backs up this story in the Spectator,

No Shit Sherlock No. 985

The frequently infrequent No Shit Sherlock award makes a welcome return today. The lucky winner is Civitas, with their startling revelation that NHS care favours the middle class. I quote from the BBC News: Mr Seddon [author of the Civitas report] said this was partly attributable to the fact that middle classes were more assertive, articulate and confident in dealing with health professionals.

Radio Liberal England

The Wardman Wire has a recording of my interview about BritBlog Roundup 145 on BBC Five Live the other night. The three postings we discuss are: Jeffrey Archer's theatre reviewThe Islington Lib Dem ashesCharles Dickens' XI

BBC website reveals a breakthrough for the Lib Dems

For over two years the BBC's news coverage of politics both on air on on the internet has involved taking a press release from the Tories, and printing it almost verbatim. The number of headlines along the lines of "Cameron opposes War" or "Cameron condemns murder" or "Cameron's says being poor is not good", has been tedious in the extreme and kills the lie the Tories like to put around that the BBC is highly biased against them. So imagine my shock when I checked out the BBC website this evening. I clicked on to their political news and discovered ...

Lord Bonkers' Diary: The Cowley Street War Room

Wednesday That Brown fellow certainly kept us on our toes, didn’t he? All that speculation about an autumn poll had everyone rushing around. The last time I visited Cowley Street I found Rennard ensconced in his War Room, together with a cardboard cut-out of the late Jack Hawkins and a bevy of WAAFS pushing little model canvassers backwards and forwards across a tabletop map of Great Britain. Brown made work for me here in Rutland too. Every candidate wants to be pictured with a wife and a couple of pretty children, but not all have them to hand. For that ...

Vince plays John Smith to Brown's Major

There seems little doubt that the loss of those two discs was this Government's "Black Wednesday". It's all downhill from here. Gordon Brown is John Major without the underpants or the electoral mandate. Spare a thought for Tony Blair. It must be hard trying not to crack a rib when you are laughing so much. What we need here is someone to be John Smith to Brown's John Major. ("The reverse Midas

You know when you've been Blincoed

The Comment is Free profile of Nicholas Blincoe - author the other day of a distasteful attack on Chris Huhne - now reads: Nicholas Blincoe is an author, critic and screenwriter. He is a former advisor to Nick Clegg MP.I am pleased to hear it.

Whole Labour Party In Massive Heffalump Trap

So why should anyone care about the £600,000 of concealed donations from Labour donor David Abrahams? After all, if the guy had just been open about things the donation would have been quite legitimate. Isn't this just another Westminister village story of no interest to real people? Well not quite. Senior people in the Labour party have behaved either with stunning incompetence or with total disregard for the law and its consequences. The resignation of Labour's General Secretary was entirely warranted: he was responsible for knowing both wherre Labour's money came from and the laws about declaring it. Currently he ...

Lobbying Parliament on Palestine

Several members of the Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine (LDFP) went to the House of Common this afternoon to see Acting Leader Vince Cable, as part of a mass lobby of parliament on Palestine. (Lord) David Steel would have joined us, but was instead whisked off to be interviewed by Sky TV. However, several of Vince’s Twickenham constituents [...]

Binge drinking

If the government wants to crack down on binge drinking, why does it just look at raising duty on alcohol? This penalises the sensible social drinker because of the silliness of the few who consider it fun to get "wrecked" every weekend. Why don't we integrate the tax and justice system? That way, when police use their existing powers for being "drunk and disorderly" or causing a "breach of the peace", the person concerned could be ordered to pay emergency tax at 25% or 40% for 3 or 6 months. In that way it would reduce their disposable income and ...

When is a journalist breaking the law?

When they interview someone who has unknowingly broken the law? And they don't report on this in the item? Thelma received a letter from HM Revenue and Customs. It was an apology letter on the recent loss of data CDs. It listed a benefit number and National Insurance number. Of someone else. Thelma thought this was an absolute scoop and quickly contacted the local journo at the BBC. Except that she had broken the law. The letter had her address at the top of the letter. But someone elses name. As far as I know it is an offence to ...

Nicolas Blincoe demoted by Guardian

Nicolas Blincoe’s profile on Comment is Free used to describe him as a “volunteer advisor to Nick Clegg’s leadership campaign”. It now reads: Nicholas Blincoe is an author, critic and screenwriter. He is a former advisor to Nick Clegg MP. Share This

Change for the sake of change?

We have leadership contenders calling for England's "unfair" position within the United Kingdom to be addressed as part of a wider constitutional settlement. We have polls being conducted into whether we “Would like to see the Lib Dem Federal Spring Conference replaced by an English Conference?” I even saw one poll asking whether we should ditch 'Libby" the bird of Liberty. Whatever next a poll on polls? Aren't we in danger of having change for the sake of change? Am I the only one that thinks “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?". It certainly seems like I am.

Mr Brown’s Holiday

Given the various scandals and failures he has presided over recently, the country might be better off if Gordon Brown took a vacation. Inspired by Vince Cable’s question at PMQs, we wonder if that might turn out to be a farce too. With apologies to Rowan Atkinson…

What's in a Name?

Quite a lot apparently, if you are in the Sudan. A teddy bear innocently named Muhammed has cost British teacher Gillian Gibbons her freedom and potentially could mean an extremely severe corporal punishment and further incarceration. The worst thing she is guilty of is naivety. I don't believe for one second that she actually meant any disrespect to Islam, the Prophet Muhammed or anyone else. She repeated a simple activity that is loved in classes here all the time. It seems clear that the children she taught in the Sudan liked her too - and the little boy whose name ...

Vince Cable’s sharp elbows

See if you can spot the remarkable thing about this BBC News story: Discs ‘worth £1.5bn’ to criminals Two missing computer discs containing the personal details of 25 million people could be worth up to £1.5bn to criminals, say the Lib Dems. Acting leader Vincent Cable told MPs an “enormous amount” was still at stake, after discs containing the entire child benefit database got lost in transit. Ministers say there is no evidence they have been intercepted by criminals. But in a Tory-led debate on the issue shadow chancellor George Osborne asked if the “whole truth” had been told. Did ...

PMQs: Vince labels Gordon ‘Mr Bean’

What is there left to say? Another great PMQs’ performance from Vince has even got PoliticalBetting.com worrying that he’s setting the bar too high for whichever of Nick or Chris succeeds him as party leader. For the record, I think he (whoever he is) will do just fine. (As some political commentators seem to be [...]

An accident waiting to happen

Surely there should be no surprise at all about Labour’s latest breach of the rules on donating to political parties. After all, it’s an easy thing to do. You want to give money to a political party but don’t want to admit that you have done it, so what’s the obvious thing to [...]

The Spirit of Haida Gwaii - a reflection for this party?

Reading about the hustings at Friends House reminded me of the ‘Spirit of Haida Gwaii’. This is a famous statue by the Haida artist Bill Reid. It shows a canoe filled with the traditional characters of Haida mythology, crammed together uneasily in the same boat; cantankerous, argumentative, lively, sometimes uneasy at the company they keep, but in the same boat paddling more or less together. Is the canoe just marking time or is it going forwards into an adventurous future? The words ‘Haida Gwaii’ mean ‘Islands of the People’ in the language of the Haida First Nation of what is ...

John Pienaar on PMQ's - "It was Vince Cable who had the killer line"

Vince Cable again showed what a star he is by producing, as the BBC's political correspondent John Pienaar said on the Radio FiveLive "The Killer Line". It was also commented on that it would "Stick with Gordon Brown and will be difficult to shake off". The line was, of course, that Gordon Brown had gone "from Stalin to Mr Bean" in a matter of weeks. Well done Vince. I hope you will be helping our new leader with his PMQ's in future.

Pension fund and the arms trade

Stories in both the Daily Post and the Liverpool Echo today about the Merseyside Pension Fund's decision not to disinvest in companies involved in the arms trade. The pension fund covers staff at the five Merseyside councils, plus some other employers. Its administered by staff at Wirral Council on behalf of everyone else. Liverpool City Council recently said that the fund should not be investing in companies in the arms trade. There were also similar motions at Knowsley Council and St Helens. The Councillors taking the initiative (in Liverpool's case Cressington Lib Dem Richard Oglethorpe along with the green party ...

Drinking Alcohol in Pubs

These four articles are from the publicans trade magazine. Basically the police are starting to raid pubs looking for drunk people. This is not something the police want to do and is being driven by the Home Office. www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/news_detail.aspx?articleid=50988 www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/news_detail.aspx?articleid=51390 www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/news_detail.aspx?articleid=

Browning on Brown

One task more declined, one more foot-path untrod, One more devils'-triumph and sorrow for angels, One wrong more to man, one more insult to God! Life's night begins: let him never come back to us! There would be doubt, hesitation and pain, Forced praise on our part--the glimmer of twilight, Never glad confident morning again! The last lines of Robert Browning's poem, The Lost Leader have been widely quoted against politicians, especially since they were used so effectively against the declining Harold Macmillan during the Profumo scandal. It does not look good- the government seems accident prone and whereas Tony ...

Fitness for Office

I remember looking at the websites of elected officials who I wanted to lobby a few years ago. One Tory member's website said that 'if any members of my constituency wish to raise an issue with me, my wife and I go to Sainsbury's fortnightly'. I was not as dumbstruck as maybe I ought to have been- housing tenant's agreements by the fish counter! Council recycling bin collection by the deli! Equally, sometimes it is easy to get annoyed with parliamentarians who obsessively raise local concerns when they have the opportunity to talk to hundreds of thousands of people about ...

Miranda Grell Appeal: funding issues

Pink News reports that the Labour Party are no longer paying the no doubt considerable private costs of Miss Grell’s appeal (drawn to my attention by Andy Mayer). I have no doubt that someone with no recourse to significant personal wealth (which I assume Miss Grell not to have) would have had to consider very carefully whether she could afford to defend [...]

Results have been counted

Continuing on from where I left off yesterday I am pleased to announce the votes have been counted and I can now disclose the winner. So without further delay I can confirm that the winner of the Bad Sex in Fiction Award for the most awkward description of an intimate encounter is – drum roll please! "Norman Mailer, for his novel, The Castle in the Forest". (waits for applause to die down) Sadly, Norman Mailer was unable to collect the award personally - he died earlier in the month, aged 84. However, I am sure he won't mind if I ...

Miranda Grell: result due Friday

Everything stated below is a matter of public record. Miranda Grell’s appeal against her conviction for misbehaviour in Leyton during the 2006 local elections was due to start yesterday but didn’t due to illness afflicting counsel. The appeal thus started today and is expected to last for the remainder of this week.

Riverside Park clean up

The materials outside the Tatton have been reported to the owners I was at the river Mersey in Northenden yesterday with a friend and noticed how untidy the place was looking around the Tatton Arms. We took a few photos and reported everything to the authorities to get cleaned up. This Graffiti has been reported to the council It's a shame things get to such a state in such a beautiful area. It should be cleared up soon.

Helpful Developments

It is a coincidence that the day after my comments about rape the Government has made proposals to provide all juries with information packs on rape myths in an attempt to increase the conviction rate...

My London Hustings Verdict

Having already made up my mind to vote for Clegg and posted my ballot paper, the risk in attending the London Hustings last night would have been to have witnessed an outstanding performance from Chris Huhne and realised I had made a terrible mistake. This did not happen. But my verdict was of very strong performances from both candidates. I thought that Clegg gave clearly the better set piece

"Ne Česká. Ne Česká. Pivo Prosím. PIVO. Ano, ano. Děkuju."

Main differences between Praha and the rest of the Česká Republika: Less people speak EnglishLess signs are in EnglishLess AmericansCheaper beer In order to discover these key facts it has been necessary to trek from Praha to Tábor, then to Jihlava, then to Znojmo, then to Brno. I am now in Brno. In an hour's time I will hopefully be on a train to Olomouc. You pronounce these places the following way: Tábor: t-uh-borJihlava: yi-h-l-uh-v-uh (with the 'i' like the 'i' in 'bit', but a tad more 'ee')Znojmo: zn-oy-mo (with the 'o' like the 'o' in 'hot', not like the ...

American View of the Clegg-Huhne Hustings

I went to the Clegg-Huhne hustings last night in London and took a guest for the benefit of her view. My guest is an American, doing a PhD at the LSE on the psychology of leadership, and doesn’t have pre-formed views of British politics but helped Sen. Bill Bradley’s campaign in 2000. I didn’t tell [...]

Checking In (again)

Just back from a couple of days in rather foggy Ljubljana. The car crash of the Brown government seems now to be spininng down the cliff with the flames about to burst from the petrol tank... what fun!

Chris calls for police probe into Abrahams’ donations

Chris Huhne has today told the BBC’s Daily Politics he had written to Metropolitan Police chief Sir Ian Blair asking him to look into the events and any breach of the law over donations given to Labour by property developer David Abrahams. Mr Abrahams gave £663,975 to Labour, but under four other people’s names. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has already said that was “unlawful” and said it must not be allowed to happen again.

Chris’ Campaign magazine now available on-line

Chris’ campaign magazine is now downloadable here.

Hustings: dis-establishment issue

A question was asked at last night’s party leadership hustings in London whether the candidates supported dis-establishment of the Church of England. I had to explain the context to my guest, an American, who was rather surprised that we constiutionally have an official state church. Both Nick and Chris answered correctly in favour os dis-establishment, the latter pointing out that [...]

Nailing the Michael Brown smear

Iain Dale has, yet again, raised the issue of the £2.4m donation to the Lib Dems from Michael Brown. According to Iain this shows the party hasn’t a leg to stand on when we demand that Labour and the Tories clean up their act. So it’s interesting to compare the arch-Tory blogger’s take with the [...]

Update on the 'Save our Back Gardens' campaign

The 'Save our Back Gardens' campaign is gaining momentum - and some results! The online petition is still running and everyone in South of the Borough will also get a paper version of the petition through their door in the next week or two.This week we heard that the planning application to demolish two semis and build eight houses in Somerset Ave had been turned down, following...

Annapolis: success or failure?

Away from the donor scandal encircling British politics, 49 countries and organisations are meeting in Maryland in an attempt to re-invigorate the Middle-East peace process. Opinion on the significance of the conference varies.David Ignatius of the Washington Post sees grounds for hope:For starters, the document commits the parties to begin negotiations on a peace treaty "resolving all outstanding issues, including all core issues without exception." The text unfortunately doesn't specify what these unmentionables are, but negotiators understand that it does mean the two deal-breakers: Jerusalem and the right of return of Palestinian refugees. The prayers of Israelis that they wouldn't have to ...

Grell ditched by Labour as appeal goes to court

Yesterday's Pink News reports that the Miranda Grell appeal is now underway at Snaresbrook Crown Court. Antony Hook has a good summary of the background of the judge. They also report the that Labour have withdrawn their previous offer of financial support for the appeal process. The reports cites that this follows 'legal advice', however some credit is no doubt due to those members of Labour who have been quietly campaigning within the party to stop the madness. I was pleased to see Chris Huhne use an expression I've used before in reports on his assault on the government at ...

L is for Labour

Classic Harry Enfield during the Abrahamsgate scandal

"From Stalin to Mr Bean"

Gordon Brown is on the rack. And one of the reasons is that the Lib Dem acting leader Vince Cable is putting in such a barnstorming performance. He's turning out to the greatest leader we never had. He rejected a meeting with the Saudi king because of the horrendous human rights abuses committed by that state and because of the cancelled BAe corruption trial; he castigated the government mercilessly over Northern Rock in a way that Ming the Merciless would never have managed; and today he brought the house down at Prime Minister's Questions when he said that Gordon Brown ...

Swiss hand over records to US corruption inquiry

Whilst the UK Government decided to axe Britain’s investigation into corruption allegations arrising from the Al Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia, the Swiss are cooperating with the US’s own investigation: Swiss prosecutors have also agreed to hand over financial records linked to the Saudi Royal family, according to a report by the Guardian newspaper. A US source told the paper “The investigators are confident they can get what they need from Switzerland. That’s where all the BAE arrangements were made”. Read more in Arabian Business.

Great misconceptions of our time:

We have free trade - blatant nonsense. Even within the EU trade isn’t that free - I cannot bring in cigarettes and sell them? We have free markets in foo - I no of no area we have entirely free markets. True, in some areas we have freer markets - food supply is freer than broadcasting [...]

Yes to an English Conference

Well, the polls have closed and the 106 people who have voted on the question: Would you like to see the Lib Dem Federal Spring Conference replaced by an English Conference? Have voted by a margin of 63 votes to 43 for the change. Interestingly, elsewhere in a private forum Nick Clegg has said that he doesn't support it, partly because it would be "abandoning Scotland". In another private forum

When is a police station closure not a closure but an enhanced service?

So, the Asset Management Plan for the London Borough of Camden has been issued by the Metropolitan Police Authority. It's a genuine, open, transparent process in which local people will fully participate. Ok, ok I'm being a bit cynical but after a two and a half year battle to get some of this stuff into the public domain I think I can be a teeny weeny bit cynical... but it is all deadly serious. The first meeting to discuss this will be on Thursday at 7pm at Camden Town Hall - anyone can come along and see if the police ...

Supporting Nick Clegg

Having maintained this blog as a beacon of untopicality for some time now, I am going to mention the leadership election. I have so far resisted doing this. Although I have supported Nick from the beginning, I'm not the sort to present my conclusions at the beginning of a campaign and expect other people to follow them. It is better form to be undecided for the duration of a campaign, follow the

Chris Huhne is the one!

Well - you wouldn't expect me to say anything other - would you? Both Chris Huhne and Nick Clegg gave top performances at last night's London leadership hustings. Both too have clearly honed their performances since I last saw them at the beginning of the campaign at the RSA hustings. They have been through a schedule and a half and are in intense competition - and so it's a win-win for the party if they both come out of this contest even better and more effective at putting a case. Clearly we Lib Dems are going to be in good ...

"From Stalin to Mr Bean"

Brown under fire - responding to the latest crisis in Labour party donations, acting Lib-Dem leader Vince Cable MP has said the Prime Minister has transformed from "Stalin to Mr Bean" in a matter of weeks. The wheels of the Labour bus haven't just wobbled in recent weeks, but are smashing against the axles. The Northern Rock crisis, 25 million records being lost, a military ambush by former chiefs of defence and now dodgy donations. I sense there is added meaning to New Labour's mantra "things can only get better"; but after 10 years, will they? The Labour Party have ...

Minister knew of illegal immigrants working for police months before scandal broke

According to www.thisislondon.co.uk Liam Byrne the Immigration Minister and Labour MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill was warned illegal immigrants were working for the police, guarding sensitive Whitehall buildings, eight months before the scandal was made public.

Executive lifestyle.

Tonight I am presenting the report of the Alternative Service Delivery Working Group to Bury Council’s Executive. The Executive is the collective term for the Leader and the portfolio holders who effectively run Bury like the government runs the country. It also includes the other two political group leaders, including the Lib Dem leader Cllr Tim Pickstone. I am only involved for one item on the long agenda, and where precisely this item will be taken depends on the finishing times of another meeting involving another Councillor presenting with me. So I may be home early, or I may be home ...

Six senior Labour figures should have known about David Abrahams in 2003

In May 2002 Charles Clarke (then chair of the Labour Party) announced the creation of a new six person committee to vet all Labour Party donations of more than £5,000 (source: BBC). The members were: Charles Clarke Lord Evans of Temple Guiting, chairman of Faber and Faber Margaret Prosser, deputy leader of the Transport and General Workers’ Union Lord Levy, the Labour [...]

London hustings - views from the blogs

Yesterday’s London leadership hustings has produced a fair few insta-reactions across the blogosphere - all judiciously fair-minded, too. (An outbreak of civility among the blogging community! - what’s happening to us? It’s almost as if we’ve come to the conclusion we have two excellent candidates for the leadership, either one of whom could do a [...]

Miranda Grell Appeal Today

Miranda Grell’s appeal against conviction is today in Court 7 at Snaresbrook Crown Court. It is a re-hearing of the evidence (all the witnesses have to come back) which is a normal mode of appeal from the Magistrates’ Court to the Crown Court. Snaresbrook has a number of judges who would be disqualified from hearing the case due [...]

Four men arrested over corruption allegations

Oh, it's football rather than politics.

Vince Cable shines at PMQs, again

Today Vince Cable pointed out how Gordon Brown had turned from “Stalin to Mr Bean” in a matter of weeks, bringing chaos where there had been order. Ouch!

Vince Cable - "Brown transformed from Stalin to Mr Bean!"

Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne have rightly both paid tribute to Vince Cables huge success in just a few short weeks, as Acting Leader. I've just heard him, once again, bring the House of Commons to a standstill at Prime Minister's Questions, with a very funny quip- that in a few months Gordon Brown has been transformed from Stalin to Mr Bean!- Referring to the chaos in his Government. Vince then followed this with a serious question, concerning the armed forces, asking if it was true that the PM is really not interested in ensuring they are properly equipped and ...

Hustings angst

I was perched up in the gallery for the hustings, the first one I've actually managed to go to, and was excited by the sheer competence of the speeches. But in the end, as someone said in the pub afterwards, Chris talked about the same issues in the usual language, but Nick talked about new issues in an inspiring way - and, heavens, we badly need that. It is true that there could have been more in the way of potential solutions, but at least Nick was framing the questions in exciting new ways. Then there were the questions and ...

Its at times like this I know I’m in the right party:

It is so good to see all the defense of free speech in relation to the Irving and Griffin invitation to speak at the Oxford Union all over LibDem blogs, including a very interesting description of what the event was actually like. This sort of defense of the rights of those we vehemently disagree with and [...]

Why I can't wait for us to end aid to developing countries

Traditionally every Shadow Secretary of International Development has issued the same rallying cry: give them more money. There is general agreement that the government should increase the amount of aid they give to the developing world. Let me say that I would like to be the first to buck that trend. I cannot wait for the day when we give absolutely nothing to developing countries in aid; after all, that will be the day when we finally achieve the development goals we have set ourselves over the last fifty years. The British government has, for decades now, been pumping resources ...

Herding limousines: a London hustings tale

Happily for the reader, others with better notes and more sense have already been blogging on the substance of last night’s London leadership hustings while I was busily engaged in eating a bowl of cous-cous and singing gently to myself. I am therefore free to kick back with a few disorderly observations. We’ve all done policy to [...]

New look!

As we are nearing the end of 2007, I have brightened up the blog today with a fresh look and new colour scheme - hope you like it!

Brill Place - a zero carbon exemplar

The planning brief for the Brill Place site behind the British Library is surely right to highlight the need for a mixed development, that is a combination of housing, public services and jobs for local people. An animal testing laboratory or 100% social housing, to name two of the options that have been proposed, would not, in my book, fit the bill. But there is a bigger possibility, one that answers both the planning brief (which was written under the previous Labour administration) and concern about climate change. We should use the site to build Camden's first zero carbon development, ...

The Abrahams money - who knew what when?

The David Abrahams donations story seems to get more intriguing every day. Quite clearly the law has been broken as the donations were done by proxies, but now it seems the proxies did not even know!

Harman in trouble

Has Harriet Harman been hung out to dry by the Prime Minister? The Guardian reports that Labour's deputy leader and party chairwoman, is clinging to the support of Downing Street after it emerged that her deputy leadership campaign took money from the woman who had acted six times as an unlawful conduit for funds secretly given to Labour by a businessman. Harman took £5,000 from Janet Kidd to pay off her campaign debts, and yesterday repaid the cash after she apologised to the cabinet for her error. However, not only has Gordon Brown made it known that he turned down ...

Youth Live - next edition underway

The young people who'll be writing and editing the next edition of Youth Live are meeting next week. There's already a great list of potential articles on a really wide range of subjects - from celebrity culture through to the death penalty and homelessness. Any other young people who want to get involved are more than welcome. If this applies to you, or you know someone who might want to start working with us, do get in touch. The best e mail is info@youthlive.co.uk.

Chairwoman Paula!

I've been elected as Chair of the Garston and Halewood Liberal Democrats - taking up the post in January next year. Lots to do - local elections, preparation for the General Election and so on. Looks like 2008 will be an even busier year for me.

Prestwich Local Area Partnership 27 November 2007

Last night was one of the meeting of Prestwich Local Area Partnership. This brings together your councillors, partner agencies like the police, NHS and fire service and a wide range of community representatives. At the meeting was actually agreed to co-opt four new community reps - Churches Together in Prestwich, the Prestwich Clough Centenery Group, the Prestwich Business Group and the Simister Village Community Association. The two main issues that the Partnership are currently working on dominated the meeting. On developing communities - where we are looking at working to improve some of the areas of our community that perhaps ...

Not candidates but leaders: The London leadership hustings

Tonight’s London hustings were excellent, and there is no doubt that the Liberal Democrats, no matter what their individual views, can rest assured that their next leader will take the party forward into a positive future. Having lured many bloggers to the pub, I’m hoping that at lest some of them will have taken the night off and not blogged yet, so I’ll get my comments in first. (Fat chance!). The more interesting part of the evening was undoubtedly the speeches; the answers to questions from the floor (and this blogger was cruelly ignored) were less (though still) edifying. Chris ...

EXCLUSIVE: London LibDem Leadership Hustings Report and my Voting Intentions

The final leadership hustings of the race took place last night (27th November) in London and here is my exclusive report, jotted down throughout the night: Arriving Arriving early, all us poor unfortunate undecideds were accosted by the various members of the opposing campaign teams and told why we were wrong to not to have chosen sooner, with leaflets, stickers and even DVDs shoved under our

Best Bar None Scheme Awards Ceremony

Winners Oceana Night Club and Druids Head Pub.. I'm very pleased that we are able to bring Best Bar None to Kingston Town Centre. The scheme will add to the range of excellent initiatives, designed by partners in 'Safer Kingston', which enhance the Town as one of the best places to visit . Many licenced premises work very hard to ensure their patrons and visitors and...

Save the old visible painted wall adverts!

There's quite a few old visible painted wall adverts round here in North West London and I'm taking pictures as I go - and it seemed worth sharing them. On the side of walls, usually in commercial shopping areas, there are quite a few old painted wall adverts that are still visible. Clearly fading, but not yet obscured, they are left to brave the elements. I noticed that one in West Hampstead had been cleaned away recently and also on the Finchley Road, but this nice old from from West Hampstead Mews has hung on... There's another really good one ...

London hustings: my verdict

Nick’s speech was far better than Chris’s - but more because it was a better written speech than anything else. In the long term you don’t really get prizes for having the best campaign speech writer. Nick took a long time to ‘warm up’ in the Q&A, but eventually got going. His answer on what to do aout the middle-east situation seemed to be that was was needed was muttering and waffle. Once he did get going though, he swung the night his way. So my view is Nick clearly won on speeches, and just pipped it on questions. These ...

Day 2520: Just Who ARE the Fascists Here?

Tuesday (again): This one's for Mr Jonny who reports LIVE, and thankfully still ALIVE, from the scene of the Oxford tussle. Almost all of the people going to the Oxford Union last night were going in order to refute, denounce and generally take a stand against the policies of the British Nasty Party and the stories of Mr Irving that deny the horror of the holocaust. Almost all of the people shouting and screaming and intimidating outside were trying to stop them from doing that. So you have to ask: which side were "Unite Against Fascism" actually on? What is ...

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Wednesday 28th November 2007

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