LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Monday 25th February 2008

The Journey Towards my Political Self

For quite some time now I have begun to think more seriously as to where it is I am coming from, politically. I have become more and more political, modifying my thoughts through an eternal period of evolution. The core of my political ideology is that of a libertarian, this I know. It is the core of who I am, believing as I do in the cause of individual freedom and liberty. Believing as I do that everyone has the right to choose their own evolutionary path. The path of an individual is unique, and no one has the right, ...

The Great Tax Swindle (Dummies Edition)

Jock Coats points me to this video which is worth linking to: Take the trouble to watch it. Share This

I know, I know

so what do I know Firstly, I know I haven’t blogged in ages and I apologise; and Secondly, I know the following blog is so irrelevant to you all but I still wanted to share it with the world! so much so, that I’ve actually logged back onto my PC, prior to going to bed… So what’s it about…. Ryan (4 year old) has been making me chuckle (again)…. We (husband and I) are really really struggling to get Ryan reading - doesn’t matter what we do, it doesn’t work…. so husband came up with a new idea…. if Ryan ...

Organ donation

I’ve just registered as a potential organ donor on an NHS website. I’ve never minded in principle being a donor if I’m unfortunate enough to find myself in the position where I’m no longer using my organs, although by and large I’d rather hold onto both of everything I was born with two of… I’ve just assumed for the last umpty-ump years when I have been sexually active as a gay man that I wasn’t allowed to. Since I’m not allowed to donate blood, I was working on the assumption that they wouldn’t want me to donate anything more serious ...

Portillo on Thatcher disappoints

I was disappointed by Portillo on Thatcher. I started watching with a sense of anticipation that we'd get some incisive reminiscing and analysis from him and from his interviewees, largely fed by a Radio Five interview earlier in the day which made it sound a lot better than it actually turned out. First of all, there was a minor irritation that he talked about us all the time as if the Conservative Party represented all of Britain, which we know it doesn't largely because of Mrs T. At times I wondered if I was watching a party political broadcast. We ...

Politalks Episode 5: Rosy cheeks all round

Lee Griffin, my collaborative partner on Politalks, has done an admirable solo job with this week’s video, as I was unfortunately too drunk comatose busy to help out. He takes a look at this week’s government embarrassments (not just Alistair Darling) and much more besides: Share and enjoy! Full transcript is available on Lee’s site.

Llandudno 2008

There is something nice about returning to an old conference haunt after a few years away and Llandudno has to be one of the oldest for me. Last time we bought Welsh Conference here I promised our new conference chair that sunday morning would be a piece of cake and promptly got so drunk on the free post dinner shorts sponsored by S4C I didn't surface until just before midday to find out we had

The Jersey child abuse scandal

I still remember an article in the first ever issue of the New Statesman that I ever bought - it must have been in 1977 or even 1976.It was headed "John Bull's Other Islands" and dealt with the cliquey and undemocratic nature of local politics in the Channel Islands. And I remember it because it reminded me so much of Market Harborough in those days. (Prophetically so: we were to have our own child abuse scandal years later.)The poisonous nature of local politics in Jersey forms part of the background to the growing childcare scandal there. The dispute between Stuart ...

Guantanamo Bay guards: The "overlooked victims"

Sometimes you’ve got to laugh or you’ll cry and then go into a deep funk filled with moments of suicidal depression. These words of wisdom come from Professor John Smith, a retired US Air Force captain, who treated a former guard at the US’s notorious Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba (as reported by the [...]

Nick Clegg and the banana on a piece of string

Thanks to Liberal Democrat Voice for this, but it is so utterly bizarre and funny that I had to link to it as well. Look out for the man 31 seconds in.

Ricardos Law - The Great Tax Clawback Scam

Hat tip to US Georgist tax researcher "Taxpayer" who highlights that Fred Harrison has made a seven or so minute introduction/video advert for his book "Ricardo's Law: House Prices and the Great Tax Clawback Scam" If you want to understand a bit about just how unfair a tax system based on incomes is, have a watch, and hopefully buy the book - it goes into a lot more detail and will leave you I am sure convinced of the place of LVT.

Clegg has UKIP and the Tories on the run

In picking a fight over the Lisbon Treaty and by not backing the call for a referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU, the Tories and UKIP are quite obviously running scared. The Tory position speaks volumes on their position on the European issue - muddled and frankly opportunist. There were no referendums on the [...]

Hitler's ban on home education still stands in Germany

Dare to Know points us to a story from Saturday's Guardian. The newspaper reports that families are fleeing to the UK from Germany to escape a law introduced that could lead to their children being taken into care if educated at home: One father, who arrived in Britain with his wife and five children last month, has told The Observer that his family had no choice after being warned that their children would be taken into foster care unless they enrolled them at local schools. Another, who fled in October, said he believed the 70-year-old law was creating hundreds of ...

Visit from students and Weston in the same day

Visit from Students and delighted to come to the Mayors Parlour and learn about the history about the Parlour. Then later that day it was Weston-super-mare to represent Bath at The Royal Air Forces Association Concert Band Also a Reception to celebrate their 10th Anniversary &recognise 90th of the Founding of the RAF & 65th of the Formation of the RAFA

Just the person to review MP expenses.. not

Well thanks Nick Clegg for not sticking with the status quo, and really rocking the boat with your bold leadership on reforming parliament. I think it's great you're supporting somebody who claimed tens of thousands of quid for his wifes shopping... Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Visit to Bath City College

An early start a shock to the system picked up before 9am for the Chef V Chef Competition although I volunteered to go and see one of the cook off's the under 23's. They all had the same ingredients and they had to do two courses it was tense and quiet and there was concentration from all and they all worked very hard. The over 23's had same ingredients and they also had...

New LibDem Member

Today I have received my membership to the Liberal Democrats. I am 15 years old and live in Worcester. What interested me into politics, was that for me it's the place to make change in our World and that's what I'm passionate about. But why did I join the Liberal Democrats My parents are labour supporters themselves, so the Liberal Democrats must have something to win me over. The Liberal Democrats are different to the Conservative or to Labour, we stand out. We stand out in our environmental policies, by far we have to strongest most radical position on environment ...

Do the Tories really care about back benchers

If you were a font bench Tory MP, a former minister or someone who might make the national papers, you can be guaranteed a pretty decent turnout for your funeral. So it is a shame that so few Tory MP's bothered to turn up today to the funeral of Sir Ralph Howell, former Conservative MP for North Norfolk. According to my sources just one Tory MP turned up (Henry Bellingham) matching the presence of Norman Lamb (Lib Dem). Despite the fact that Sir Ralph Howell lived in Dereham (Mid Norfolk) and represented large parts of what will become the new ...

Breakneck speed up Victoria Street

I left it rather tight, leaving Cowley St tonight. I left briefcase, cameras etc in the office but took with me a reused carrier bag containing an envelope of press cuttings - sorting them is my job for tonight - 2 novels by Harry Turtledove and 2 empty cava bottles I need for champagne making.As I got to Victoria St, I realised that to get the 8.17pm train, I had to run at breakneck speed.

Nick Clegg needs to realise it's the sort of politics people are tired of

When you ask an ordinary typical person what turns them off about politicians, the answer that is heard time and time again is that they do not listen. The classic example is always the TV interview, be it on Newsnight with Jeremy Paxman or on Question Time, when a politician is asked a question, and the politician replies with the line "the real question is ..." and changes the terms of debate to an issue that they want to talk about and not the issue actually under discussion. Sadly, this is what the Lib Dems are doing at the moment ...

Update on Tait's Lane

Following my blog entry yesterday, I have now spoken today with a senior representative from Scottish Hydro Electric (SSE) who has advised me that, although investigations are continuing into the terrible incident on Friday, their initial investigations indicate a fault in electrical joints underground that caused a surge of voltage. He advised that the type of short circuit was very unusual and that there were no exposed wires. One of the major concerns residents are raising is the possible dangers to children and any other pedestrians and the Scottish Hydro Electric representative claimed that, because voltage dissipates differently in animals ...

Civic reception for Local Health Service Users

I hosted a reception For local people that are trying to persuade somebody to listen and support them about the moving of gynae-cancer patients from Bath to Bristol. I heard a lot of their concerns and sympathise with what they are trying to do.

Post Office Closures Hit Bath

Whilst we received a reprieve in Twerton where both our post offices at Wedgewood Road & Twerton High Street survived the swinging closure programme of this Labour Government other areas were not so lucky. Post offices that the Government wants to consult about closing are Bathford Post Office, Bear Flat, Claremont, and Lower Weston. I am concerned about the...

Tuesday19th Visit to Parlour

We had a visit from the International Partners Group the parlour they were from different countries so they were absolutely delighted when they had a talk about the room and learnt a bit more history of Bath

Friday 15th visit to Hereford Town Hall

Executive Meeting of the Association of Charter Trustee Towns & Charter Town Councils. A very interesting meeting although I think they were a bit disappointed that some didn't come. These meetings take place in all different towns, we take it in turns every four months.

The mysterious case of Mr Clegg, a piece of string and a banana

Watch carefully 31 seconds in: http://www.youtube.com/watchv=LONA3Acc5js Hat tip: Little Man in a Toque

BritBlog Roundup 158

A roundup of all that is best in British blogging from the last week can be found at Redemption Blues.

A visit to Chapel Row Gallery 0n 14th Feburary

I visited the gallery at a Preview of Kumbu Kumbu Exhibition This was a Portrait of the Students and Staff of The Crane Academy Kitale Kenya photographed by David Partner including work by the Royal High School Art and Design Students. The pictures were being sold to raise money to send students out there to school hope they raised lots in there quest. A very interesting...

Clegg - Let the under-fifties have their say on Europe

Speaking this morning at the Liberal Democrats headquarters, Nick Clegg said: "Tomorrow we will be putting to Parliament our proposal for an in-out referendum on Britains future in the EU. "The debate over Britains future in Europe has been poisoned for too long by a Labour Party that refuses to make the case for it, and an opportunistic Tory Party that actively seeks to undermine it. "We need to draw the poison from that debate - to settle the matter one way or another. "So today I am inviting the Labour and Conservative parties to join with me in calling ...

Callum McCarthy should resign

We seem to be over-run by hopeless top dogs seeing the article by Duncan Borrowman about Callum McCarthy. To suggest that Vince Cable was `scaremongering` about NR hours before it head the headlines is either: a) bullying tactics to shore up his old boys network b) means that he is completely incompetent at the job We should emphasise that this is all part of an old [...]

Is Nick Clegg right to back the Speaker

The House of Commons Speaker, Michael Martin, has found himself in the full glare of unwelcome publicity this weekend, following allegations that he has misused his Parliamentary allowances: In the past two weeks it has emerged that some black cab trips made by Mr Martin’s wife to buy food were claimed on expenses, that allowances [...]

Sci-fi and space exploration blog back up...

Oola's sci-fi blog now has a new home at http://oolastuneshipeerie.blogspot.com/

Secondary consideration - The Return

In last Thursday's post, I talked about secondary legislation inspired () by the Grand Committee of the legislation creating new unitary councils in parts of England. Our committees are rather different from those in the Commons - or indeed anywhere else. We don't have formal membership of committees so anyone can pitch in during a session. Most committee work is done in the main chamber of the Lords (on the floor of the House as they say here) but the pressure of the legislative timetable means that we make increasing use of what is called Grand Committee, where the business ...

Thrilled to Bits :)

OMG was thrilled to discover my article on the Olympics was published in Le Monde today...just after we got a letter in the Independent on the same issue. Not, of course, in my own name, but still...Guess my journalistic talents are improving... Here is a copy of the text: in translation, natch "En confiant à la Chine l'organisation des Jeux olympiques de 2008 (8-24 août), l'espoir était grand, renforcé par les promesses des officiels du Parti communiste, que cet événement conduirait le pays vers plus d'ouverture, de liberté et de respect des droits de l'homme. Du reste, il s'agissait quasiment ...

Calls for DNA database growth are worrying

Two bits of news over the weekend - the first that a senior police officer has called for the DNA database to be widened to include eveyone, and the second that the Crown Prosecution Service has admitted it failed to run checks on 2,000 crime suspects for over a year. Both are worrying. The failure of the CPS to carry out these checks is yet another example of the public having been put at risk by the slapdash way that data is handled across Government departments. The Government is investing a huge amount of money and faith into the power of ...

Castro - no hero

James Schneider points me at Danny Finkelstein’s list of why Castro is no hero. I’ve also come across this which debunks many of the left’s apologies of Castro. Lastly, here’s an economist who’s recently been to Cuba. So, unless the program of the left is mass poverty, a rich elite abusing their power, the enslavement of minorities and [...]

Nick Clegg on Europe

Nick Clegg has a piece in today’s Guardian explaining his view on Europe: The debate about Europe has been a thorn in the side of British politics for decades. Now the wound has become infected. Europhile and Eurosceptic trading blows about the Lisbon treaty in grand rhetoric that obscures the facts. If you’re pro-European, as I [...]

Liechtenstolen

News that the German and British governments have been paying for information almost certainly illegally obtained in order to chase people who try to stash their money overseas should worry us all. Obviously in this case the amounts of money potentially liable for tax are quite large numerically, although small in proportion to the total tax take - though the fact that it is merely around one fifth of one per cent of the total UK tax take we're talking about should alter our opinion about people who try to beat the system when everyone else has to pay. But ...

Harperson makes another blunder. She should apologise

Harriet "all women are preferable to men" Harman, the embarrassing Deputy leader of the Labour Party, has declared Fidel Castro a "hero of the left". Well he's not. Danny Finkelstein gives ten very good reasons why hero worshiping Castro is very unpleasant.

Wikileaks is back up

Wikileaks, the confidential document provider that has played host to such things as the Northern Rock briefing paper for private investors (which, of course, the public are not allowed to see), was stripped of its normal URL by a judge in the US last week. Far from letting that deter it, the site is now [...]

Opinion: The academy model should underpin the next stage of education reform

The Labour and Conservative parties have both supported the academies programme as the key driver of educational reform. The Liberal Democrats, in contrast, have been more critical towards academies, ambivalent about their ability to select 10 per cent of pupils by aptitude and their status as a programme of central government rather than of local [...]

Cornwall's fire service

The full time night fire cover in Falmouth has been retained. This follows some additional funding which means that £1.1 million has been put into the fire service in Cornwall. Throughout Cornwall all the fire stations except those at Falmouth and Camborne, are run using retained firemen. The Chief Fire Officer is undertaking a complete review of the current situation. According to the Audit Commission death and injuries from fire are at their lowest level in England since the 1950's. House fires have shown a steady decline since 1985. Terrye Teverson & Julia Goldsworthy on marchTwo thirds of all fire ...

Article of the Day

If you haven't already read David Ignatius guesting in the Telegraph today. The article is an excellent account of the diplomatic possibilities facing the West vis-a-vis Iran through the lens of the Congress of Vienna (1814-15).

On Liberty, Online: Get your Wikileaks here

For those who like their freedom of speech served uncensored, Wikileaks is alive and well and living in Stockholm despite being stripped of its URL by freedom-hating lawyers. So I'm doing my bit to stymie the corporate censors by posting a nice link for Google to find. Here it is again: Wikileaks. It's currently in second place, so clearly this works... I highly recommend that you infuriate the litigants by reading something on there you otherwise wouldn't have read... Hat tip: Guido

Brown defends very, very good Speaker

Gordon Brown dealt the Speaker a severe blow today, expressing the opinion that “… Michael Martin has been a very, very good speaker.” Like a statement of full confidence in a beleaguered minister, this is a sure sign the Speaker is doomed.

Prestwich Arts College Governors 21 February 2008

Thursday night was the termly meeting of the Governors of Prestwich Arts College (formerly Prestwich High). This is one of the two local schools on which I represent you as a Governor. There were two particularly interesting issues to report on: Bury Review of Learning We had a presenation from Bury’s Assistant Director of Learning about a review that is planned for Bury’s schools about the “future of leaning”. This is of particular interest to Prestwich Arts College because of the horrific experience the school had to go through a couple of years ago with the then Labour administration of ...

Affordable Housing money plundered by Tory Council

Affordable Housing is a real issue in Warwick & Leamington. Even people with well paid jobs struggle to find somewhere to live. So you can imagine my disbelief when I find that the Tory Council have taken money set aside to assist affordable housing for two other projects. Now when The Right to Buy of Council homes by sitting tenants was introduced by Thatcher in 1980, the money raised from the sale of over 4000 homes in Warwick District was put in a reserve to help development costs for housing associations to enable them to provide affordable homes for local ...

Factbomb!

Political pressure during the 1991 Gulf War drove Massive Attack to temporarily re-brand as 'Massive'.

Beating Ashcroft at his own game

I have already commented on the donations by Betterworld Ltd to both the Lib Dems and Labour. It is unusual for a donor to assist more than one party and sometimes the rationale can be worrying (Bernie Ecclestone comes to mind). In this case however it seems there is a fair logic as reported in the Telegraph it is a philanthropic move by a progressively minded millionaire to counter the controversial funding by Michael Ashcroft. Ashcroft's donations have increasingly been made as 'Ground War' contributions to Tory constituency parties in Labour/Tory or Lib Dem/Tory marginals. These are not controlled by ...

Win mugs, win money

There are two chances to win, win, win still open: You have until February 29th to submit any WordPress plugins for the chance to win £200. Details here. Liberal Democrat Voice is offering one of our fantastic mugs in a prize draw for anyone who promotes the site in their local members and supporters newsletter. Copies of newsletters [...]

Is Melbreck Road L18...

the longest delivery street in a ward. No, I think that distinction goes to Damwood Road in Speke. But my aching feet are today telling me that Melbreck is very long indeed!

Drinking Responsibly

Both Labour and the Conservatives have been much exercised by the alleged culture of binge drinking in the UK. A report has suggested that the introduction of more relaxed opening hours for the sale of alcohol had not created a cafe culture, but had in fact increased crime. We are told that the UK is at the centre of an epidemic of binge drinking. Children are said to be out of their brains and out of control. David Cameron has suggested that adults who buy alcohol should be named and shamed with pictures. Frankly, after accusing the government of gimmicks, ...

She's lost control

Yesterday, Salena Zito of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review had this to say: Part of the reason Clinton is not winning is that her political narrative has been defined by everyone else. In a large sense, her "brand" is not her own. When an advertiser or strategist is selling something, whether a product or a candidate, brand is important. Think of it as a little index card in the brain that conjures up one or two images that define what or who a product or person is. The initial image of Hillary is not that she is not Barack Obama, but is ...

Enough with the beetroot!

I have a weekly delivery of organic vegetables from tne nice people at the Windmill Co operative on Smithdown Road. Its stuff that's in season and you know it's not covered in pesticides. It also saves me carrying heavy shopping. But there is a problem. Why on earth is there so much beetroot grown Every week for the last two months or so there has been one - or usually several - of these round purple things in the bag. I've made beetroot soup (not a great success), a load of salads with beetroot as the main ingredient, and beetroot ...

UAE Magnet for Migrants

The latest census figures for the UAE have been released, showing that nationals (i.e. Emiratis) now make up only 15 per cent of the population: 866,779 out of a total of 5.6 million. A full 75 per cent of the workforce is Asian, the majority of them Indians, who now make up over 40 per cent of [...]

Casinos, liberalism and localism

I'm in the process of catching up on Lib Dem blogs from the past week or so. I have spotted this from Adrian Sanders MP about casinos and cite it as another example of what I was going on about here about sticking to a consistent Liberal ethic. Now, I should say on the subject of casinos that my personal views are a bit puritanical. I rarely gamble and feel it preys on the vulnerable. Despite my usual libertarian impulses I am uncomfortable about TV adverts encouraging people to have a flutter on sporting events. So on this issue at ...

Cyprus goes Communist

After Castro many Communists may have begun to wonder where remained for their ideals (although Cuba has another Castro and there could be a whole debate about if Castro was a Communist of not but I digress), the answer is Cyprus.

Is it time that the .......

current legal time limit for an abortion was cut from 24 weeks to 20 weeks Despite the British Medical Association (BMA) and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists both saying that they do not believe there is a case for changing the time limits. David Cameron announced today that he favours a cut from 24 weeks to 20 weeks because; there is evidence that survival rates after early births are rising. So, is he right Should the legal time limit for abortion be cut from 24 weeks to 20 weeks I'm not so sure it should. Personally, I'm inclined ...

Give me Shelter

Has Ken Loach lost the plot I heard him on the Today programme this morning. Loach, famous for his radical left-wing views, is calling on people to stop giving money to Shelter, because of an industrial dispute among its employees. Shelter is a national charity but one in which I have a strong local interest. Shelter [...]

Habeas (the tiniest little bit of my) corpus

Hat tip to a wonderful post from South Africa about Britain's surveillance culture in which Chris Rodrigues reminds us that it was Nicolae Ceausescu who often pushed the surveillance state in totalitarian Romania with the now much overused saying that "if you've got nothing to hide you've got nothing to worry about". We hear it all the time in Britain whenever someone starts complaining about the "surveillance state", as if just not being a criminal makes it okay to have your movements tracked, your DNA held on file or your telephone tapped. And yet again, in the wake of the ...

Rye Management Plan Consultation Document - Cllr Trevor Snaith - February 2008

Response to the Rye Management Plan Consultation Document I have had a number of residents complain that the consultation document did not purport to be a management plan for the future, just a description of the area, with summary of current actions. This is useful as a base for consultation, but confusing to people who wish to comment. Holywell Mead Swimming Pool Concerns have been raised that Holywell Mead Swimming Pool is not seen as part of the Rye plan. It costs a considerable sum to keep it open three months or so of the year. The facility lies dormant ...

Dog of the Day - Buster Rosindell

Hello and welcome to Monday morning. Isnt it a nice day Ooh yes, nice day, bit chilly though, yeah its a bit chilly, I thought when I woke up ooh its a bit chilly, I dont wanna get out of bed!, but yeah it is a nice day though isnt it Yeah. Many profuse thanks to everyone who nominated me for LDVs Top of the Blogs. I am thanking everyone here, all of the nominators. Do not make the mistake of thinking that it was just Dominic Mathon and possibly my mum. This is a victory, Reader a victory for ...

Weekly catchup 18th-24th Feb

If you were reading last week, you’ll have seen we’ve decided to make life easier for our readers with a once-weekly post of all of the previous week’s highlights. For the best of LDV, just click the “Catchup” category. Guest writers this week included Lib Dem Shadow Defence Minister Nick Harvey MP writing about our overstretched [...]

He Must Have Read My Blog!

Was Lib Dem Leader Nick Clegg MP lurking around my blog the other day See blog 15 February. For this appears today in the Guardian newspaper: Ask the under-50s The British publ...

Attila the Hun...

Watched the interesting mini-film about Attila the Hun last night, if you missed it you can still find on the BBC Iplayer. (Rory McCann as a six foot six Attila) There was a lot of blood and thunder re-enactment but not much in the way of socio-political context other than that he really annoyed the Romans. I would have like to have seen a bit more about the rise of the Hun empire. Whenever I hear the name Attila, I am reminded of the poet Attila the Stockbroker, you can find his work at http://www.attilathestockbroker.com/

The punishment must fit the crime

It was entirely understandable for Arsene Wenger to say that Birmingham City defender Martin Taylor should never play football again following his shocking foul on Eduardo on Saturday. It was also right that Wenger should later withdraw his comments as ones which were made in the heat of the moment and didn't reflect his considered view. However bad Taylor's foul was (and it was truly appalling), he doesn't deserve to have his career ended by it. But it would be equally unjust for him just to be banned for three matches and then start playing again. If Paolo di Canio ...

Liberal Democrats challenge Labour and the Conservatives to support "in or out" referendum on Europe

I am today calling on local Labour and Conservatives to back the campaign for an "in or out" Euro referendum ahead of this week's vote in Parliament on the new European Treaty.

Let Cowley St cake eat cake

Well, it's my usual Monday morning blog from the train. So after a weekend of writing, printing and delivering Focuses, visiting constituents and hedge trimming on the allotment, what can I report For Cowley St colleagues I have great news! You will be eating cake! For the uninitiated, here's the story about what happened. In the new openplan office into which the Communications team was moved

Assembly Quiz Part Two

Another 20 questions from the quiz put together by John Jenkins from the BMA. Part one is here, answers are in the comments. 21. Who said: Im on a performance-related pay with the electorate 22. Which AM is a trained industrial fire-fighter 23. Which AM worked in an Elderly Mentally Infirm unit 24. Who was the first AM to give birth during her period of office 25. Who became a politician after observing the miners strike at first hand 26. When asked what he wanted to be when he was growing up, answered: Everything! Something different every couple of years. ...

Do you remember the

Nat-West Three They were the 3 men accused of conspiring with former Enron Corp Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow to defraud NatWest, of $19 million. Well, it seems they have finally got their just desserts. Or have they Having read this report, I'm not so sure that they have. Their sentences seem remarkably lenient to me, considering the large sums of money involved. Who said crime doesn't pay

Let battle commence

Labour's reaction to Nick Clegg's Welsh Conference speech at the weekend is actually quite heartening. It shows that they are worried by the threat that the Welsh Liberal Democrats pose to their strongholds around Wales. It also confirms that Nick's criticism of their record has hit home. The Liberal Democrat leader asked the question: What has 100 years of Labour dominance in Wales delivered Families are trapped in poverty. A boy born in Merthyr will die five years before a boy born in Ceredigion. He argued that Liberals were the original champions of devolution and the Welsh language and had ...

Un-eco eco-towns

A good article in Saturday’s Guardian by Tristram Hunt on the ‘un-eco eco-towns’: All too predictably, Britain’s leading developers are using the eco-town template to dust off long-rejected proposals and re-submit shoddy housing schemes. The potential loss of countryside around Micheldever is not the only problem with the proposed Eagle Star development. Despite the railway station, a large new eco-town equidistant between Andover, Winchester and Basingstoke will also be very bad for traffic. There’s a good briefing from the Dever Society on the issue here. My fears about Housing Minister Caroline Flint’s forthcoming decision on Micheldever are not just driven ...

Evan harries the invincible Cable

So I figured I would restart blogging with some feedback on what turned out to be an excellent South Central Regional Liberal Democrats' conference on Saturday here at Oxford Brookes University. Given that I see the place every day my motivation to get there in time for nine-thirty speeches on a Saturday morning was not great, and I actually arrived a few minutes into the first keynote speech by Evan Harris. Some in the party and elsewhere give Evan a hard time I hear, but I have a lot of time for him. I get the impression he works his ...

Work-blog balance

When you get a number of friends emailing to find out if you're okay because you haven't blogged for a couple of weeks it's maybe time to start paying the old thing some attention again. Although I do have a subscription to one of these blog stats packages and I keep an eye on it, I never seem to be getting as many hits as many younger blogs report in their early days. So I do often wonder if it's worth it all sometimes. But yesterday I was on the platform for a debate/discussion on the subject of "Planning to ...

Lessons from Rwanda VI: Account of the genocide

A while back I wrote several accounts based on Shake hands with the Devil: The failure of humanity in Rwanda, an account of the Rwandan genocide by Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire. For some reason I never got round to posting this final extract. In the previous five posts, I had only mentioned the horror in passing, partly because the true enormity of the horror was hard to describe. Instead I offer this extract as a microcosm. The following is the account that Colonel Isoa Tikoca, the Fijian Chief Military Observer, gave of the situation in Gisenyi, a border town on ...

Monday 25th February 2008

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