LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Monday 11th February 2008

Rowan Williams: still clinging onto exceptionalism

Blink and you might miss it, but someone at the BBC has finally spotted the real problem with Williams’ speech and his repeated clarifications: He made that clear to the Synod, too: “…as the assumptions of our society become more secular…Christians and people of other faiths ought to be doing some reflecting together.” That of course lays him open to a quite proper charge by non-believers, that he is seeking to advance the interests of religion however it is defined. But that is quite separate from the criticism assailing him from within Anglicanism. The point which much of the media ...

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #51

Welcome to the 51st of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (3rd-9th February), together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed. Here we go, in descending order of popularity:

More All Blacks pics

Adrian at the All Blacks has posted more of my pictures of the Bees game on the club website. Do browse.

One small step for us one big thank you to Chris

Sunday Morning. Lovely weather. No strike that. Wonderful weather. A perfect time to reduce the height of the leaflets mountain. My daughter saw my glance at breakfast, read my mind and stated: I want to stay with Mummy. She-who-must-be-obeyed declared it would do the child good to be in the fresh air with her Dad. I promised here it was just leafleting as I know she gets even more board when I canvas. In any case Sunday mornings are not a good time for canvassing. I started cold-canvassing on the back of the current Focus leaflets and last week was ...

Is time travel the new porn

The Daily Mail’s Science Editor Michael Hanlon has a pop at the trend in physics towards ever more outlandish theories in the New Scientist this week: Fun yes, but is it harmless Scientists, and people like me who stick up for science, are happy to pour scorn on astrologers, homeopaths, UFO-nutters, crop-circlers and indeed the Adam-and-Eve brigade, who all happily believe in six impossible things before breakfast with no evidence at all. Show us the data, we say to these deluded souls. Where are your trials What about Occam’s razor - the principle that any explanation should be as simple ...

The live(s) of a jobbing snapper

Much of my work as a photographer involves versions on a theme. I specialise in working for political organisations either with a capital or a small p. So campaign events, conferences and individual candidate portfolios are nothing new for me. Each undoubtedly presents a challenge because I need to make sure my photos are never seen as being run of the mill, but I usually have a good idea of what will make the key image and I can position myself and advise my clients accordingly. So last week I was in Twickenham to take pictures of Brian Paddick with ...

Heather Mills - A self fulfilling prophecy

Watching the news today and the various spin put on the divorce hearing of Paul McCartney and Heather Mills, it is fascinating to hear "friends" of heather Mills making the arguments as to why she should have so much of Sir Paul's money. She apparently refused a substantial offer amounting to several tens of millions of pounds last year because "it was not enough money to provide for her security". Note that is not financial security, but personal security. This apparently relates to the fact that she is hounded by the press and abused in the street by ordinary members ...

Nick Clegg caught on camera - five times over

Playing around with various internet search tools for finding videos (verdict - none of them are that comprehensive) I found a few Nick Clegg pieces which haven’t previously been mentioned on this site and are worth a quick watch: Nick Clegg on the BBC, talking about the party’s new mental health proposals. Nick Clegg visits Islington, talking about [...]

Guantanamo - The shame of the USA

It's taken seven years and torture to get to the stage of charging just six of the 275 detainees at Guantanamo. And they will be tried by military tribunal. Is this not the most shameful episode in the history of the USA

Barnhill Quarry, supermarket and houses - new exhibition

The developers have worked up their proposals in more detail, and a further exhibition will be held at Chipping Sodbury Town Hall on Wednesday 27 and Thursday 28 February, from 3pm to 7.30pm. This will be a drop-in session - come any time when it's open.

Johann Hari says `Lets get liberal`

I found this one of the most moving articles I’ve read for ages - neatly juxtaposing the liberty of a section of the community against the liberty of the individual. The unspoken story is that some of the things Rowan Williams talked about are already happening! There was a R4 programme last night that detailed a Somali court that [...]

Naive DC

Currently passing the time by watching an episode of the series Tory! Tory! Tory!, a documentary about the rise of Thatcherite conservatives in the 70’s and 80’s, available on Veoh. Peter Clarke (PA to Keith Joseph) says this: “I think you could say that the young Keith Joseph was not unlike the young David Cameron, that they both thought, in a rather naive way, that the state, organised by gentlemen, could be benign force and it was only the experience of living in Mr Heath’s cabinet both as housing minister and then as social security secretary that inoculated him against ...

Beautiful North Norfolk on a beautiful day

What an absolute joy it was today to be back in North Norfolk. Having spent years trudging the streets of every town and village in the constituency, I am afraid I am a bit of a bore when it comes to pointing at houses and recounting stories about poster boards I got put up or people who told me to sod off (not very often), but with my wife and young son today it was a truly lovely day to be walking around Sheringham. Despite my giving up front line politics for a while, I still felt I ought o ...

The dignity of Rowan Williams

At the risk of sending Alex Wilcock into hypertwitch, I'd like to mention Thought for the day. Abdal Hakim Murad this morning elegantly summed up the row over Rowan Williams' lecture and interview: It is now clear to most that Dr Williams, far from recommending some kind of parallel law for Muslims, was pointing out that informal religious tribunals which already adjudicate on a limited number

How to lose friends and alienate people: a Labour masterclass

This is simply staggering. Apparently Caroline “veins of” Flint is due to make an announcement which was probably intended, among other aims, to ratchet her Overall Fluffiness Rating back up to “barbed-wire spitting psychopathic ice witch”. She will soon be announcing a shortlist of UK locations, some of which will be newly developed as “eco-towns”. The idea of these developments [...]

And that letterbox is where exactly

Out on Sunday for a lengthy delivery session. But if you go out when it's that foggy... it takes a lot longer!

Is the result in Maine the end of the road for Hillary

Whilst Barack Obama was having a good Saturday, winning a strong of Primaries across America, the Clinton camp hung on to the hope that they would have momentum again by wimming in Maine, where all the polls had Hillary Clinton in the lead. So the result in Main must have come as a terrible shock to the Clinton camp and the writing is surely on the wall now for her campaign. In Maine, Clinton polled 40% to Obama's 59%. Coupled with losing a campaign manager and having to lend her own campaign $5 million, this could be the end of ...

Religious courts

I've been shocked by the hysterical reaction to the Archbishop of Canterbury's thoughtful comments about recognising the work done by religious courts in this country. These appear to be community based systems for settling civic disputes. As I understand it the Orthodox Jews have had their own Beth Din courts in place for 100 years, and the Muslims already use Sharia courts to...

Anonymous comments

I am very grateful for any comments I receive but, in line with a number of other bloggers, I think it is unreasonable to post anonymous comments. I'm very happy to post any other comments, subjct to the usual standards of common sense and profanity.

The end of NATO

There is an interesting article in the LA Times which highlights the impotence and failings of NATO and points out that aside from Britain, the US and Canada, great swathes of NATO's members are lettin NATO fail in its mission in Afghanistan. The article points out that ; "U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates warns that NATO risks becoming a "two-tier" alliance, one tier consisting of members willing to carry their fair share of the load, the second tier consisting of free riders. His warning comes too late. The two-tier arrangement already exists, with the great majority of member ...

Value for money

Local government has undergone unprecedented change in recent years but nothing it seems compares to the changes that are currently under way at Bath & North East Somerset Council. Following "a recent Peer Review of Bath & North East Somerset Council it was thought a new modern logo was needed, in order to strengthen the Council's identity. The logo on the left is the old logo. Now, click on the link below and see if you can spot the difference http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/bathnes So, having seen the two, could you spot the difference To me it just looks like they removed the ...

Rowan Willams latest

Stephen Pollard writes on his Spectator blog: The best comment I've heard on the Rowan Williams affair is from a chap who just called in to Radio Five. After saying he was a proper Christian, unlike Rowan Williams, he said: "Jesus Christ will be turning in his grave."

Commons security - or lack of it

Having recently been to the Houses of Parliament a couple times, I have been amazed at the security arrangements. Fair enough - it is difficult to get in. You have to queue up for ages and go through an almighty series of friskings etc. And getting into the Commons public gallery requires a whole separate series of friskings and handover of "testicles, spectacles, wallet and watch" etc. Plus

Politalks: Episode 3

Continuing the Politalks series with Lee of the Program your own mind blog, this week we look interception, council-housing, super stuff and PMQs: Feel free to share and share alike, and for those who are interested, here’s the transcript: This week we learnt the police are a bunch of secret buggers… oh, and they carry out covert [...]

Maine!

Call me a Numpty if you will, but I am staggered that Obama has won in Maine. Maine! "Murder she wrote" was set there! It's cosy coast country where the Bushes have their retreat. 59 (Obama) to 41 (Hilary) ! In October 2007, Clinton was beating Obama in Maine by 47 to 10! There is something serious going on! Matthew Yglesias comments beautifully: My understanding, though, is that this

BritBlog Roundup 156

A rich selection balances on The Wardman Wire.

Paisley and McGuinness - play-acting then or now

I'm grateful to the Observer Review for alerting me to this photo of Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness sharing a sofa with the words "Home is the most important place in the world" behind them. You imagine that Martin McGuinness is about to say "Tea - Shall I be mother" The photo was taken at the opening of the Belfast Ikea. These cosy pictures of Paisley and McGuinness are commonplace now.

Is the non-dom tax issue rebounding on the Tories

Radio 4's PM reported tonight that there are complaints from non-domicilies that the proposed £30,000 flat tax on them will force many to leave the country. The traditional Tory line is that we shouldn't force such "wealth creators" out of the UK. Indeed, a senior Tory backbencher, Michael Fallon, has said as much on this topic. However, given that the Tories proposed a £25,000 tax they haven't

Where a lot of the stuff on eBay comes from....

It's John Pye & Son, auctioneers in Nottingham. They sell off unwanted nearly new items from electrical retailers for knock-down, sold-as-seen prices. Epson or HP printers at £1. DAB radios foir £5. Vacuum cleaners are three for £5 etc etc Guardian Money has the full SP on this. It is interesting what sells for a good price and what they can hardly give away: Dirt cheap category: Printers,

Jello of the Day

Jello interviewed by Jools Holland

Selling the family silver

It would appear in a last ditch attempt to bridge a £1.8m funding shortfall Sedgemoor District Council is to sell of the family silver. Amongst the items going under the hammer are; the councils car parks. Isnt that a rather disjointed and short-term approach to the problem Its always been my understanding that car parks were a guaranteed income for councils; it certainly seems to be the case here in Taunton Deane. Is it any wonder local traders are said to be up in arms As anyone in business will tell you; a successful business needs sufficient parking in their ...

I know Brummie accents are annoying, but the death penalty is too harsh a punishment

I hope Iain Dale is proposing the death penalty to traitors fighting for the Taliban and not for anyone with brummmie accents. Although, either of them (or both) might be a vote winner (only joking !)

A response, sort of, to Obama's MTV video

It's not just Obama who can be cool, or so shows this spoof video.

Where the outrage and the follow up

James Purnell and Michael Ancram have both been caught, here and here respectively, of acting in a less than totally ethical manner. Where is the outrage Who's following up on this Or are we just resigned to the fact that our politicians are a bunch of fiddlers who are doing the public out of cash, legally, but deliberately. Isn't this time for reform and a clear out

New Labour - Sick Britain

Just looking around the BBC wesbite today highlights the sick nature of our society at the moment. Giving you a quick tour of sickness affecting the country we have : 1) A group of children in Wales aged from 7 to 14 who stoned and kicked a baby lamb then drowned it in a trough. How proud their parents must be. 2) A group of youths, including two girls, in London who laughed as they chased and stabbed a 16 year old. 3) Three young thugs are finally sentenced for the senceless beating and Murder of Garry Newlove in Warrington. ...

UK Youth Parliament elections

The elections for Haringey's representatives to the UK Youth Parliament have just been held. Congratulations to Farinja Begum from Park View Academy, Adam Jogee from Highgate Wood and Sam Newton Fenner from Fortismere in my ward, who have been elected to represent the borough at the UK level. Adam (pictured) has also been elected co-leader of the Haringey Youth Council, along with Alisha Bartlett from Hornsey School. Apparently over 2000 people voted in the elections, which sounds a good number to me and is encouraging when people find it easy to say that young people aren't interested in politics or ...

Rowan Williams and Sharia

We’ve been on a bit of a learning curve as a nation over the last few days, it seems to me. On Thursday the headlines screamed “Archbishop of Canterbury says Sharia Law in UK is unavoidable”. The immediate image this conjures up and was presumably meant to, by the headline-writers was of a thousand years of English Law being swept aside for gratuitous beheadings and cuttings off of hands: Magna Carta out, Abu Hamza in. It must be said that a second’s thought by anyone intelligent would have suggested that it was unlikely this was what the Archbishop of Canterbury ...

First bumble bee in garden

The incredibly mild weather has bought out the bumble bees. Encountered the first one in the garden today but there isn't much flowering at the moment for it. Check out what's springing up now in the garden at www.flickr.com/photos/ripplestone

Hoon will never kick out Frank Field

The Coffee House has reported that Hoon has threatened Kate Hoey and Frank Field with having the whip withdrawn for supporting a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Not even Hoon and Brown are that stupid. If Field has the whip withdrawn then Cameron would make the very clever move and offer him shadow work and pensions secretary. He wouldn't even have to take up the Tory whip. He could remain independent Labour and not be seen as stabbing his former colleagues in the back.

Colin Powell for Obama

Today Tim Hames suggested a Republican dream ticket of McCain-Petraeus. To counter that I like the idea of Obama-Powell. Powell doesn't seem to be ruling out supporting Obama in this interview.

Genesis Charity centre under threat

The Genesis Trust is a charity which has worked with disadvantaged people in Bath since 1990, providing soup runs and a lunch kitchen, training, life skills and reintegration into employment. The Trust has been renting the Old Labour Exchange in the city centre from the Council, and has found it an ideal location from which to run its workshop projects and furniture shop, together...

No Room To Breathe

I've lived outside the UK for three out of the last five years and every time I return I notice the change. Everything is monitored. Everyone is checked. Everything and everyone is part of a growing system of government control which has moved beyond traditional parameters of law, order, and welfare provision and into the private sphere from where it hopes to create or enforce the concept of the 'model citizen'. Increasingly, there is no more room to breathe in British society. No room to live according to different norms, to espouse different beliefs, or simply exist outside the ever-extending ...

Nick Cleggs half century: not out

Not my best ever article, but I’ve written about Clegg’s first 50 days over at Comment is Free. I’m delighted to see my Tory baiting has caused a reaction: All the signs are there to indicate that David Cameron is likely to have a poor 2008. Gordon Brown’s remarkable meltdown has not brought Cameron the sort of poll ratings that even Neil Kinnock could take for granted in the early 1990s. The success of last October is now a distant memory. Labour and the Tory headbangers have out-maneuvered him and forced him to bore for Britain on the Lisbon treaty; ...

How street names get their nomenclature :-)

One of the most frequent asks is where does the street name come from and for north west London the link with Kent and Africa is perhaps a little obscure. In simple terms here are four of the connections: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asmara http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menelek_II_of_Ethiopia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_Region http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skardu The Powell- Cotton family owned vast tracts of the land along the Edgware Road (now Kilburn High Road) and gradually started the process of cashing in on their land as demand for housing development grew. Most of the places were named after the Powell-Cotton links in Kent and their own estate of Quex Park or places in ...

Round and round the garden...

SO, in an interview on Sunday on the BBC, JON SOPEL asked Nickers: "We heard Peter Kellner there, talking about, you'll never do a deal to prop up a minority Tory administration at Westminster. Your comments to the Financial Times on Friday, seem to suggest that, providing the policies were right, you'd have no problem with that whatsoever." Nickers answered: "What I said and I'll say it again, is that if the Labour Party or the Conservative Party, miracle of miracles, turn into Liberal Democrats, promote the priorities we want for a complete re-invention of the political system, our political ...

Total Kant

I welcome my old friend Dan's entry to the world of blogging, with Regno de Fines, a Kantian take on contemporary issues. He has written a very thoughtful piece in defence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. I don't agree that there's much merit in using confessionalism to preserve culture - but as ever, he makes a good case.

Time To Go

That the banal and tedious ramblings of the Archbishop of Canterbury have dominated the news in the past few days is less a sign of his significance and more a sign of a lack of genuinely interesting news. The debate has been tiresomely stale, with politicians and figureheads for various faiths piling in alike to condemn the Archbishop's rather foolish remarks. All we need now is Richard Dawkins to pop up and tell us all why this is a perfect example of why religion is crap. If one good thing has come out of the whole solecism, it is that ...

How we can make Birmingham safer - public event on Tuesday 12 February 2008

The Birmingham Community Safety Partnership (BCSP) is holding its first ever public consultation event at 5pm on Tuesday 12 February 2008 in the Council House, Victoria Square, Birmingham. The event is an opportunity for members of the public to have their say about how to make Birmingham safer. The BCSP, which brings together the Council, Police and other partners, was originally asked to

Media need to get a sense of proportion

Question: You are a news editor. 1. Four days ago the Archbishop of Canterbury makes an academic speech to a room full of lawyers about the theoretical incorporation of some aspects of financial and marital Sharia law into English law. 2. Hundreds of category A prisoners (including Ian Huntley) could have their convictions quashed and be freed [...]

UN Security Council must discuss Burma again

The Burma Campaign UK today called on the United Nations Security Council to hold an emergency session to discuss the Burmese regime's defiance of Security Council and General Assembly demands. On Saturday 9 February the junta announced that it would hold a referendum on a new constitution in May, and general elections in 2010. However, the constitution enshrines military rule, giving 25 percent of the seats to the military, and also gives the military effective veto power over decisions made by Parliament. ³This is a move away from democracy, not towards it,² said Mark Farmaner, Director of the Burma Campaign ...

Law, morality and the Archbishop

I read Rowan Williams long pages of ambiguous woolliness and managed not to get too irritated. Hes right, of course, to say that as soon as you mention sharia most people (or the media) think it is repressive towards women and wedded to archaic and brutal physical punishments. No wonder it caused such a bang, which, I assume, was Rowans intention to diffuse or confuse tensions ahead of

Obamentum

Barack Obama had a good weekend, beating Hillary Clinton in Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington, Maine, and the US Virgin Islands. He also found time to defeat a Clinton (though Bill, rather than Hillary) in the race for the 'Best Spoken Word' Grammy, for the audiobook of his bestselling memoir 'The Audacity of Hope'. Although Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington were expected to fall into his camp, Maine is a North-Eastern and mainly white state which Clinton had hoped to win. She lost across the state. With five contests left in February, there is the very real possibility that Clinton may not win any of the post-Super Tuesday February ...

Is it time to revisit rules on lobbying Lords

Cameron is to capitulate over Lord Oakeshott’s private members’ bill aimed at ousting peers who are resident abroad for tax purposes. The clear target of the bill, Michael Ashcroft, who is currently running a Messagespace advertising campaign to push his two latest books, has this to say about his beloved Belize on his website: {Michael Ashcroft website screenshot} Belize - “if home is where the heart is, this is my home” Michael Ashcroft grew up in Belize after his father had been posted there by the Foreign Office. In 1982 he revisited the country and fell in love with its ...

Time to give Shetland back!

I see that our beloved Nats are supporting a bid to make Berwick upon Tweed part of Scotland once again. I take it that if this bid succeeds, they would have absolutely no objection to returning Orkney and Shetland to Norway, together with all appropriate oil revenues

Monday morning miscellany of stories

Nick Clegg has spoken out against moves to stop British Olympics athletes from speaking out over China’s human rights record, calling any such ban ”a real abdication of our moral responsibility” Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oakeshott is introducing a bill into the House of Lords to require all its members to be British taxpayers. This will increase the [...]

Responses to the Archbishop Do Not Look At the Facts On The Ground

Within 48 hours of the Archbishop making comments around religious inclusion and Shariah, there were press calls, comments and rabid responses for his resignation. This strain of fear is disproportionate and based on conjecture, myths and in some instances, xenophobia. But before I lay out these facts, there is something that I must clear up. The vast amount of Shariah Law covers financial elements, marriage and divorce and other codes for living life. It is not primarily around punishment. However, I for one as a Muslim and as a liberal to my very core, see Islam through the prism of ...

Just who was Jack Straw

Jack Straws Castle is situated at the highest point of the heath (highest point above sea level in London) and commands amazing views across London. It has been a coaching inn, a pub, recently and briefly a family and childrens restaurant and now has been converted into apartments. In World War II the pub was very badly damaged after being bombed by a landmine, and the present mock-castle style in fact just dates from 1962 or 1964. It is grade two listed however, the coaching inn dating from at least 1721 (when the old watering hole was re-built). Charles Dickens, ...

General Synod: how Williams should break the ice

There’s still time to give Rowan Williams some advice on how to spin himself out of the mess he’s created for himself at the General Synod today. My suggestion is that he should start with something like this: When I set out to write a speech about major religions operating their own quasi-legal systems, I didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition! Trust me; they’ll love it. Share This

DLT: Community Politics

Duncan Brack and Ed Randall, authors of the Dictionary of Liberal Thought, have kindly agreed to let us publish extracts on Lib Dem Voice. This month, Community Politics. The entire book is available on Amazon here and can also be bought at the Westminster Bookshop. Community Politics Community politics encompasses a restatement of the intellectual basis [...]

Nick Clegg and Economic Liberalism

Slowly, slowly we progress: Nick Clegg's speech on the economy, while I was away in Estonia, was reasonably trenchant, especially in claiming the mantle of Economic Liberalism. I think the stuff on the Banking system was very much to the point: "The truth is, the British banking industry is cosseted and closed. It is not truly competitive. For years its been almost impossible to get a new banking licence. New banks are usually just a subsidiary of existing banks. And the Northern Rock episode has demonstrated that its also nearly impossible to stop being a bank. The government and regulators ...

Olympics and the right to protest

Back in November I wrote about the importance of allowing protests around the Olympics: Glad to see that Chris Huhne has made it quite clear in a news release that when the show comes to town in the form of the Olympics, the right to peaceful protest must be upheld:The Olympics are a chance to put our values in the global showcase which is why the organisers should plan for and allow the right of peaceful protest, which is such an important part of our political tradition. It will not be on display at the Beijing Olympics.Diversity and freedom of ...

Atonement wins best film at the BAFTA's

Atonement, the wartime movie blockbuster, that had it's Dunkirk evacuation scenes made on Redcar seafront, won best film at last night's BAFTA film awards ceremony. The film, which had received 14 nominations, also won the award for Production Design.

Obama wins Maine too

Obama beat Clinton 59% to 40% in the Maine Caucus yesterday.

Pathway adjacent to Seymour Lodge

The Courier has, this morning, kindly covered the issue I have raised about the condition of the pathway from Shaftesbury Road to Perth Road, adjacent to Seymour Lodge. The pathway is well used by local people but is in poor condition. Towards the end of last year, a number of residents had approached me regarding the condition of the roadway and parking area here and I therefore contacted Tayside Police regarding it, as the Police own the adjacent Seymour Lodge property. The response from the Force Solicitor was as follows, I have had a look at our title and it ...

Frost and mist

It was just starting to get light this morning when I got up. It was only when we left the house that we found the place was frosted up. Sunniside is on top of a hill so as we drove out of the village and down Watergate Bank, we hit the mist that was filling the Tyne and Teams Valleys. When we went past the Dunston Rocket block on the A1, we could see the top half of the building hovering above

Who is bugging who

It seems that Labour's obsession with surveillance may come back to bite them if stories alleging that conversations between suspects and their lawyers in Woodhill Prison have been routinely bugged turn out to be true. The Guardian states that a legal precedent has established that the deliberate bugging of conversations with lawyers constitutes such an affront to the rule of law that trials should be halted and any convictions obtained overturned. They speculate that if the story stands up then this ruling, in the court of appeal in 2005, may mean that dozens of terrorist trials could be aborted and ...

Well done Nick

Just a quick one from me to say well done to Nick Clegg for having formulated a pretty bulletproof and sensible answer the The Hung Parliament Question on today's Politics Show. And, indeed, for a pretty sound and much less waffly interview in general. Either he just had a shaky start, or he's learnt pretty quickly to tone that tendency down. Either way, a good thing.

Monday 11th February 2008

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