Greenwich LibDems tonight hosted quite the most surreal quiz I have ever attended. Apart from the fact that we would have needed to stay around until after midnight to get through all the scheduled rounds, the questions themselves were quirky and obscure, with two leitmotifs: numbers and sex. Even if our brains were like spaghetti [...] 
I've been using Kilburn Park tube station on the Bakerloo Line quite a lot since I moved and the most striking things about it is the tiling and the colour. Having lived and worked in Stoke-on-Trent I have a very strong sense of admiration for the colours and types of glazing having seen something of the production methods and skill that went into this sort of process. There is also the control box at the platform join at the bottom of the escalators, but the colours of the tiling are really strong and vibrant. The control box is clearly of-a-type ...
What is Alex Harrowell on He has taken it upon himself to take me to task for calling Respect-cum-Conservative defector Ahmed Hussain a “socialist jihadist“, describing me as “offensive, stupid, illiberal and anti-democratic, not to mention libellous.” Well, I’ve been called worse. If I had been shooting a little less from the lip, I would have been more precise in my language and described Hussain as a socialist and an apologist for jihadism, but if this disagreement boiled down to pure semantics, it probably wouldn’t have got this far: the essential difference between a jihadist and one who makes excuses ...
So says the redoubtable Elspeth in this Sunday Times interview. And I, for one, am not going to argue with her. The interview also says Elspeth is pleased that Ming intends to stand at the next election.
David Heath’s threat to vote for a referendum on the EU Reform Treaty, risking expulsion from the frontbench team has certainly caused a stir on Lib Dem Blogs. Some have called for him to go, arguing that such a move would undermine Nick Clegg’s leadership, others defend his position, particularly in light of the precarious [...]
I have a confession to make. I did a very vain thing and searched for "Jonathan Calder" on Google Books. And I am glad I did, because I find that I have been quoted in Richard Jefferies and the Ecological Vision by Brian Morris. As is the way with Google Books, you can't see everything. But I assume that what Morris quotes is an article I published in the Richard Jefferies Society's journal. This was a shortened version of the Society's Birthday Lecture, which I gave at Aldbourne in Wiltshire in the mid 1990s. Previous lecturers have included Richard Church ...
Paul Linford has a terrific posting inspired by a Guardian article that asked various musicians to name the songs that, for them, define Englishness. His link to the article does not work and I cannot find it on the Guardian website. But never mind, because Paul lists 30 songs that define Englishness for him. And it is a terrific list, very much in line with my own tastes. If I were suggesting improvements I would want to include the Small Faces, Jethro Tull, Blur and, because I am going through a Steve Winwood thing at the moment, Traffic. A 1994 ...
Sharon Bowles, Liberal Democrat South East MEP, has come out in support of the insurance industry following the ABI’s warning that without tougher planning controls many future homes will be uninsurable. As one third of the Government’s plan for 3 million new homes by 2010 are to be built on floodplains Sharon Bowles said, “It is about time the UK Government stopped burying its head in the sand and listened to the warnings of both the insurance industry and the Environment Agency. After the horrendous floods last year, that left thousands homeless, it is blatantly clear that we mustn’t let ...
I have had complaints from residents (and from members of the River Crescent Residents' Association) about potholes on Riverside Drive near to the Botanics and I raised this with the City Council. I have now had the following feedback: An order was passed to Tayside Contracts on 6/02/08 to fill the potoles at this location.
Speaker finally sacks Derek Conway from his extra £13,000 a year job Someone likes Brian Paddick … and someone doesn’t like Ken Livingstone Government plans to centralise health services criticised And the conclusion I think many people will draw from this ConservativeHome graphic is probably the opposite of what it says (after all, if you have to produce a [...] 
When Harriett Harman was a minister in New Labour's first government after the 1997 election she was referred to as Harriett Harmthem due to her reign over a series of spiteful and harsh policies eminating from the Department of Social Security where she was the Minister. It is interesting to read her biog on wilipedia from this period which states "After Labour's victory in the 1997 general election, she became Secretary of State for Social Security and was given the task of reforming the Welfare State. However, she made little progress and fell out with her junior minister, Frank Field. ...
The party’s UK-wide spring conference is fast approaching the first weve ever held in a major city run by the Liberal Democrats, and, indeed, the first party conference ever held in Liverpool. The agenda is available on the party website and printed copies should be arriving during the coming week for those whove registered. The main [...]
The US Presidential election is still over half a year away, and while we are almost sure that Arizona Senator John McCain will be the nominee for the Republican Party; we will not likely know who his main opponent from the Democratic Party will be until after the North Carolina primary on May 6th. But with the results already so close there is the possibility that neither nominee will have the 2,025 delegates needed to win the nomination, and if after the results have been counted and delegates divided up on May 7th, then the Democratic Party will have no ...
David Heath MP appears to be cornered between a rock and a hard place. If he tows the party line he'll more than likely lose considerable votes, and in a seat where the Lib Dem majority is just 812, that could be just a few streets in a village. Surely there will be more that 800 voters who will switch to the tory girl with the strange name - 'whatshecalledagain' Miss Rees-Mogg (or Miss Moggy as I've started to call her) is a swish tory telegraph journo and has great anti-EU credentials to her name. She was editor of the ...
{Brian Blessed as Prince Voltan in Flash Gordon (1980)} Ming’s successor, the Emperor Barin, has demanded undying loyalty from Prince Vultan over his policy to block a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Two questions arise from this. Firstly, should Barin have Voltan executed Secondly, what does it say about iwantareferendum that they are targeting Heath anyway, regardless of his well-known views on the Reform Treaty The second one is easy to answer and it merely helps reinforce the point I’ve been making here for weeks. Iwantareferendum is of course a Tory front. Those people out there worried that the UK ...
When a 32-year-old single mum from south Bristol finds herself jailed for three weeks for failing to ensure one of her children goes to school. Now, this may surprise many bloggers, especially those amongst you who, following my earlier post on David Heath, accused me of being a ' despicable, horrible, corrupt, genocide supporting, fascist' . I actually agree with the Prison Reform Trust on this one - our prisons are being used too readily. People like this woman, shouldn't be sent to prison. They should be made to repay their debt to society through community service. After all, what ...
Labour's obsession with change for change's sake continues apace. Now they want to get rid of small medical practises and reaplace them with giant medical centres with lots of doctors. What labour don't understand is that outside of London, outside of large cities, indeed, outside of Labour held seats, there is a vast expanse of rural countryside with small villages often served very well by a small medical practise. In these cases people build up really good relationships with doctors and the other staff in the surgery and get first class treatment. The problem with Labour is that they see ...
Delivering our paper Focus newsletter relies on an army of volunteers who each deliver a small area. If YOU could help deliver in the Yate, Dodington or Chipping Sodbury areas please ring Paul on 01454 315851. We also have some questionnaires that need putting into envelopes - could you do some "stuffing" for us Please give Sheila a ring on 01454 662812. Thanks!
We reported on this clothing collection last October - they're back again. You can't tell from the leaflet who runs it - there's no mention of a charity or company name. To be fair, it doesn't claim to be for charity - that would be illegal. It's up to you, but remember that it's almost certainly a profit-making concern. We suggest not leaving anything out for their collection that our excellent local charity shops would accept.
On the R4 programme this morning it was said that his wife Samantha persuaded him that Section 28 was wrong. What on earth would he need her to do that for him Surely if he was a Liberal Conservative he should have realised that straight away 
Since the smoking ban there has been a very significant increase in the amount of cigarette butts thrown on the floor by irresponsible smokers in Bridgnorth. The Town Council work force have installed new cigarette / chewing gum bins to address this problem last year. Alas, when I asked about the bins not having a [...]
I've just received an email asking me to go to and be trained as an Obama for America Precinct Captain, and showing me where the nearest training sessions will be, all across Texas.* As you can see from the map, there's quite a few - all today and tomorrow. Obviously that's a very short-notice invitation - but I reckon it will work, because Obama does have enough momentum that people will wake up in the morning and decide that today they're going to go along to a training session . I'd also be very surprised if Obama's Texas operation hadn't ...
From my latest column for the Ham & High: The risk with keeping a public diary (as I do with my blog) is that it means your words are out there, in full public view and (thanks to search engines, caching and all that malarkey) even still there to be found if I hit delete on my own site.So when Brian Paddick, a former Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, put his name forward to be the Liberal Democrat candidate for London Mayor, I went through two immediate emotions.Firstly pleasure, because my experiences of dealing with him whilst he ...
The Post Office is planning a series of closures across Haringey. The first I heard about was the one on Highgate High Street, as our Lib Dem by-election candidate Rachel Allison has launched a petition to fight the closure proposal. If you agree that the loss of the post office would be a big blow to Highgate, please sign Rachel's petition at: http://ourcampaign.org.uk/highgatepostoffice If you live in Highgate, you'll also be getting a paper copy of the petition to sign. But it's not just Highgate that's under threat locally. There are seven post offices across Haringey which will be in ...
I'm sure anyone who has been involved in political campaigns is well aware of what hard work it is. There are so many jobs to be done: press releases, leaflet writing, leaflet delivering (oh the pounding of pavements in the cold), interminable hours on the telephone, letter writing, database maintenance, canvassing, fundraising... the list goes on and on. And in a place like West Wales where the population is spread all over the place, and there aren't many willing people to be found to help, that work gets harder still as it is divided between very few committed and able ...
I have been reading the blogs on the David Heath situation with interest. To some a hero, to others a villian. Whilst I have read and inwardly digested the wise words of various of my esteemed fellow bloggers, my position remains the same. As a party we supported a referendum on the constitution. I know that many fellow Lib Dems thought we were foolish to do this to start with, however, we are where we are. To attempt to take the moral highground on this by arguing that the Treaty is not the Constitution shows a complete disconnect with the ...
The Daily Mail is reporting a feud between Osbourne and Cameron over tax. Cameron was apparently not entirely happy about Osbourne's non-doms announcement at the last conference and thought that Osbourne only got away with the whole stunt by the skin of his teeth. Peter Obourne writes: For the past few weeks have seen the emergence of a dangerous divergence of opinion between the shadow
A government adviser has said that getting smokers to pay £10 for a licence might reduce smoking levels by 70%. I'd love to hear pro-smoking campaigner Anthony Worral-Thompson's initial reaction to this. "Apopleptic" might describe it aptly. Would £10 even cover the administration costs of all that paperwork and policing retailers to abide by the licence rules
How to get yourself taken seriously in today's modern news-media dominated Britain, in which journalists are struggling to fill twenty four hours of airtime, seven days a week - form a think tank and put out any old nonsense, the more controversial the better. Admittedly, the Royal United Services Institute is not any old think-tank but, as the Guardian observes today, it is essentially a naval and military research institute which dates back to the colonial era. Its sudden interest in social cohesion is praiseworthy, but does it have the knowledge and the expertise to be deal with this subject ...
Commenting on todays remarks by Coroner Andrew Walker, accusing the Ministry of Defence of breaching soldiers' trust by sending them to Afghanistan without basic equipment, Liberal Democrat Shadow Defence Secretary, Nick Harvey said: These stinging comments sum up the way our armed forces have been consistently betrayed by the Government. For years soldiers have been left overstretched and under-equipped. How many more tragedies like this must there be before ministers stop rewarding bravery with incompetence
The Lib Dems’ latest London-wide leaflet promoting Brian Paddick’s campaign for the London mayoralty has just arrived. Want a sneak preview You can download a PDF version here.
Further to my entry yesterday advising of a one-day closure of the roadway in Glamis Drive, also from Monday - but for a rather longer period of 12-14 weeks, the footpath in Balgay Park that runs under the Hird Bridge will be closed.This is to allow for the much welcomed bridge restoration to take place. I'll be attending the Greater Balgay Stakeholders Meeting next Tuesday and we will undoubtedly receive an update on matters there.You can see some more Balgay Park photographs by clicking in the link above.
I've just seen The Vagina Monologues at Queen's, which was absolutely brilliant. It was side-splittingly funny in parts, and yet conveyed a serious and important message. Those in Cambridge should definitely try to catch the last show on Saturday 16th at 11pm. The Facebook event is here.
Valentine's Day I just LOVE new technology. For example Europe is getting ready to launch an exciting new SPACE TELESCOPE, called Herschel (named after the German born, British Astronomer who discovered Uranus), to work alongside the existing Hubble Telescope (named after the American astronomer who discovered galaxies beyond our own, and indeed that the Universe is EXPANDING). Working in the INFRARED (unlike Hubble which sees the same light that WE do) it is hoped that Herschel will be able to see out to the EDGE of the KNOWN UNIVERSE. Which actually means looking BACKWARDS IN TIME to the Big Bang. ... | < | February 2008 | > | ||||
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