LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Sunday 16th March 2008

An innovation better than financial re-engineering and the internet

Ever walked down the street and had a cool thought that you wanted recorded Ever been a bit lost and wished you had multimap in your head Ever needed to translate a word but didn't have a dictionary to hand Ever wanted to have a sexy phone conversation, but you were on a crowded bus Ever needed to take a sensitive and urgent phone call but you weren't in the right setting Ever had that wacky, crazy desire for telepathy Then watch this video. This technology is going to be huge. It has so many applications and could massively enhance ...

Mad Men: health and safety porn for the disinfected noughties

I’ve just finished watching the third episode of Mad Men over on BBC Four. It hasn’t gripped me yet I have to say, but one thing that is starting to bug me is, well, the smokespoitation (a word I thought I’d made up but apparently haven’t). Yes it’s okay, I do get that everyone smoked in the 60s. Even in the office. Even pregnant women. That anti-smoking guy who hangs outside all the party conferences every year shouting at people must be doing his nut. But it isn’t just the smoking. In general, it is one big fetish fest for ...

Rubbing my hands with glee as I read of another attack on me by a Labour MP

I blogged a few weeks ago about how David Clelland, Labour MP for Tyne Bridge, was an avid reader of my blog but had shot himself in the foot by using his taxpayer funded website to reply to my posts and attack me (with the result that he had to abandon claims to the public purse to pay for his website so that he could continue to attack yours truly). Little David is clearly wanting to get his

The Kinks back at the Clissold Arms, just

You might remember that there was uproar when it was thought the new owners of the Clissold Arms on Fortis Green in my ward were going to completely sever links with the Kinks heritage of the pub. After lots of media coverage, petitions and pleas from Kinks fans, it seemed as if those fans were going to get what they wanted - the retention of the Kinks memorabilia in the pub. The Clissold Arms finally reopened recently and although I haven't been in myself yet, some of the Kinks fans who contacted me before have been back in touch. It ...

Colchester is spared another nightclub - phew

Today I was delivering Bob Russell MP's Annual Report in Colchester's historic Dutch Quarter, on the northern side of the hill where the town centre is. The Dutch Quarter is laid out as I guess towns used to be before they invented Urban Sprawl. It has narrow streets and alleys and everything you need within walking distance. When most of us can't afford to run a car any more we will appreciate places like this properly. Colchester is Bob's home town, and mine too. I learn good news - an appeal against refusal of planning permission for another town centre ...

The dark side of Scrabulous

I’ve been alerted to the fact that if you go over to the “join table” section of Scrabulous, you find an … interesting choice of gamers. Just looking now for example, I notice that “Andrew” is requesting a game with females only during which he is after “s e x y chat, prefer who have messenger and cam”. “Jamie” meanwhile is wanting a game with “any ladies wanting to play strip scrabble over 30..women only..please” while an anonymous person wants “G-A-Y GUYS (!!!!) in London (or at least UK) who want to chat too. I WILL DELETE THE GAME IF ...

Tony Travers on the London elections

{Brian Paddick - Serious about London} Have just finished doing The Westminster Hour for Radio 4. Caught a small part of the interview with Tony Travers (LSE expert on London government etc) on the London Mayor elections - and liked this bit! Brian Paddick, the Liberal Democrat who was a senior police officer in the Metropolitan Police, has actually fought an excellent campaign, probably the best of the three of the leading candidates.Hear, hear! You can back Brian on Facebook or sign up for news from his campaign on the website.

I hate cats - How did you get here

In my weekly look at how people get to this blog by using a search engine, I was delighted to see that I am not alone in my disliking of cats because at least one other person has found my blog this week whilst doing a Google search under the heading "I hate cats" , which linked to THIS story.

Religion, blind faith and lost beauty

I find John Grays critical review of the new atheists a little sweeping and weak. He rightly points to their lack of self-understanding and their little knowledge of religion and indeed science and liberalism. Thats the easy bit though. What the article lacks, although admittedly it would have become an essay, is a deeper understanding of what religion is; what faith is and why its coming

Do the test

Well - do try out this awareness test. (Thanks to Will Howells for spotting it).

I don't know what to make of this

Remember Mohammad Khatami Well he was Ahmadinejad's predecessor as President of Iran. He was and continues to be dubbed in the western media as a reformer. Quite what this means tends not to be fully explained. Simply, a lot of people got very excited when he was elected back in 1997, then got very disappointed when they discovered that he couldn't do much under the constitution, then dismayed when the major of Tehran won in 2005. The point of this little trip down memory lane, other than the fact that we've just had Parliamentary elections in Iran, is that I ...

Torture Hits Home

Read this torture special in Mother Jones and think about it. What can be done How can we lobby and pressure our elected and un-elected rulers to stop this abhorrent behaviour One article is on a reality game show called Solitary. The contestants are effectively tortured. They can leave at any point and the last man standing walks off with 50K (Dollars). This is clearly fucked up. Would you watch it In doing so you are boosting the viewing figures and incentivising a third series or an even more depraved show. But, in a disturbing way, it would be interesting ...

What do the Government know that we don't

Those few, those happy few, who follow my blog will have realised that it's something of an eclectic mix. Those of you who know me well will never be surprised. My eldest son, for reasons best known to the school system is currently doing textiles as part of the curriculum. This has taken over from the cooking he was doing before. Now this really worries me. Our local school is as normal as any school can be nowadays (I speak as a - non-practising - teacher) so presumably this is all part of the national curriculum. And that's what worries ...

Appeasing China

Just before he became Prime Minister, Gordon Brown published a book about courageous leaders in history. As last autumns dithering over whether to call an election or not demonstrated, if there is one attribute that Brown lacks, it is courage. Browns cowardice has now reached new levels. Asked to comment on the appalling events in Tibet, Brown said: "We are very concerned about what is happening in Tibet. We have asked for more information about what is going on and we will keep this matter under review." Who exactly is Brown asking for more information The Chinese With news reports ...

Taking the pulse in Somerton and Frome

We're back safe and sound from our Somerset sojourn. Both events went well, with the usual combination of interesting company and fantasic food - and a raffle. Our host in Holcombe was Councillor Claire Fleming who has settled in Somerset, having been born in Zambia and lived in South Africa. At one time she worked with HIV positive families in Soweto, and she has now turned her energies to a successful campaign to get social housing in her ward. In Langport today we were joined by Graham and Rita Watson, who live in the town. The post lunch political chat ...

Flock Together now supports Yahoo! Calendar

Following a request on the discussion board, Flock Together now supports Yahoo! Calendar events. Just click on the icon on any meeting or by-election page to add it to your online calendar. {Yahoo! Calendar image} FT still supports Outlook and Google Calendar events as well.

Developer gave secret donation to Ken Livingstone

The Sunday Times reports: Ken Livingstone received a secret donation from a property developer with a conviction for fraud after the London mayor championed the businessmans plan for a 46-storey skyscraper. Read more here.

And the winner of ....

'Dancing on Ice 2008' is available by clicking here.

Joe Jackson: It's Different for Girls

Another song from my university years at York. It gave Joe Jackson his biggest UK hit, reaching no. 5 in 1979. Jackson writes clever lyrics and is fluent in every musical style from jazz to classical. But his heyday was the New Wave years of the late 1970s, which means that he is inevitably compared to Elvis Costello as a songwriter. As almost anyone would, he comes off second best from the comparison.

A funny kind of love .....

is, I'm reliably informed, the title of Sian Lloyd's recently released autobiography. If this story in today's Mail on Sunday is anything to go by, a more apt title would have been; Heav'n hath no rage like love to hatred turn'd, Nor Hell a fury, like a woman scorn'd". It comes as no surprise to hear that Lembit is taking legal advice.

Delivering again...

A few days off delivery (my broken leg a few years ago healed but every now and then the ankle decides to play up - which it did this week. Feeling a bit better today so managed to deliver some leaflets for Cllr Elaine Allen, the hard working Lib Dem in St Michael's ward.

Protestors............a threat to the state

Yesterday, with pals Sharon, Jim, Kerry and Jane, I joined the thousands in Trafalgar Square for the Stop the War march. We were reflecting that we didn't think we would still be here 5 years later, reminiscing about our local protests at the time the war started and our planned protest in the Commons that didn't quite go to plan and ended with Sharon being arrested. What really wound us up was being filmed by the police. We got a right cock and bull story from the officer we quizzed. He insisted they were filming the people behind us, who ...

New Web Site

Cherry and I now have a new web site. As well as our normal posts and links there are a number of other pages including information about local services. We are happy to add to this local directory. The new web address is www.combedown.mycouncillor.org.uk

Public concern over changes to Test Valley executive

Recent reports on Cllr Ian Carrs proposal to change the composition of the borough council executive have provoked an angry response from the electorate.I and many other councillors have since been contacted by residents, of all political allegiances, opposed not only to the plans but also to the way in which they have been brought forward. His plan is to remove minority party councillors from the executive to ensure council decision making is more business-like and transparent. Decisions will in future be taken by his supporters only. Whatever happened to debate and consensus He claims he wishes to avoid confrontational ...

Spurs still have 27 points to play for...

Haven't had much time to blog about Spurs recently - and that's at least partly as I haven't had that much time to watch them, either. After a Council meeting on Wednesday, got to watch the extra time and penalties of the game away at PSV Eindhoven. Obviously gutting to go out on penalties, and you can't help but think we should have done better in the home leg, but we seemed to put in a good performance away and can be proud of the team if not happy with the result. Today's match away at Man City was on ...

The Inspiral Carpets at Shepherd's Bush Empire

After my annual visit to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Natural History Museum - I really can't recommend it highly enough - on Saturday night I went to see the Inspiral Carpets at Shepherd's Bush Empire with a couple of mates. Just over a year since I first saw them live and they were just as great again - this time I'd got tickets for the downstairs standing bit though, which was good. A bit of a tribute to Tony Wilson too, which was nice. Plenty of moo-ing too. Thanks to Richard for these photos snapped ...

A handy tip for Thames Water

If you are going to send lots of your customers letters in March 2008, it's generally not a good idea if they are dated 3rd July 2007 and ask for an urgent reply by 23rd July 2007. Just a thought. Woof woof.

Facebook groups: why

I have been having a Facebook group dilemma. When I joined Facebook I signed up to quite a few of these. And as one builds up friends on the social networking site the tendency is for people to invite you to join a group they have formed or know about it. This is one aspect of social networking. And it can work very well. I noticed someone who works in PR, and who I repsect, had become a member of the PR and Communications Network. I joined. Subsequently, I have gone to several real events. It has been useful professionally ...

A cut above blogger: Alix Mortimer

There are many well written and interesting blogs. But there is one that has its own distinct voice with a take on the issues that is decidely liberal without hectoring. Normally, if I like a post I discuss it and provide a link. But, I simply want to encourage people to have a read of Alix Mortimer's blog.

Something for the Weekend: On and on and on

Dreary weather outside: check. Nice cup of tea and some biscuits: check. ABBA: The Definitive Collection on random shuffle: check. Then let’s rock and roll. Loading up on the Something for the Weekend DVD player today: Norman Baker gets musical; MPs bring the pork home; flippertygibbets; a couple of bears; and more!

Ten days and no blogging

Well 10 days have passed since my last blog posting, for various reasons. So here is a precis... 1. Went to Liverpool for conference. Had informal meetings Friday night. Formal meetings Saturday. Increasingly felt ill. Watched the England v Scotland rugby, which didn't help. Went to bed. Temperature. 25 out of 45 hours in Liverpool spent in bed. Was so ill Grace (a Scot) was unable to go to the

Day 2627: Please Do NOT Swear!

Tuesday: I will do my best to do my duty to Mr God and Mrs the Queen (namely to tell you that HE's not real and SHE deserves to retire quietly.) and to obey the Law (except the bit about I.D.iot cards, obviously); To help BLAME other people at all times (In particular the government, kids today, the foreigners, the BBC, the gay daddies for getting married, or just plain Political Correctness Gone Maaaaaaad!) ; To keep myself physically strong (subject to Health and Safety), mentally awake (subject to Unintelligent Design), and morally straight (you have GOT to be kidding). ...

A Grand Slam hangover

A fantastic day in Cardiff yesterday and a fantastic performance by the Welsh team. As a Welshman living in exile in England, the past twenty years have been barren years for our first XV. I have been to Twickenham on too many occasions to witness the ritual humiliation. So, winning our second Grand Slam in four years is an incredible turn around. Of course, there have been false dawns before winning the Triple Crown in 1994, securing 11 straight victories at the start of the Graham Henry era, and of course, winning the 2005 championship but there is a real ...

British Lions first XV

The British Lions go to South Africa next year. The end of the six nations is a always good time to review which players are in the mix. This would be my first team, if choosing a side to play next week: 15 Geordan Murphy (Ire) 14 Rob Kearney (Ire) 13 Shanklin (Wales) 12 Henson (Wales) 11 Shane Williams (Wales) 10 Hook (Wales) 9 Mike Philips (Wales) 1 Sheridan (Eng) 2 Flannery (Ire) 3 Gethin Jenkins (Wales) 4 Simon Shaw (Eng) 5 Alun Wyn Jones (Wales) 6 Haskell (Eng) 7 Martin Williams (Wales) 8 Ryan Jones (Wales) capt

McCain vs. McCain

Lets face facts: John McCain could win the White House in November. Latest polls show him at level pegging with either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.First though Senator McCain must decide which story he is going to tell people. There are at least two McCain narratives right now. One is about the maverick Republican senator who moved well outside his partys comfort zone on taxes, campaign finance reform, climate change, environmental regulation, stem cell research and immigration. As E.J. Dionne jr. argues, this has presented some liberals with a big dilemma. They might even for vote for him. Its also ...

Day 2626: New Seven Deadly Sins

Monday: Hello Pope-pickers and welcome to "Top of the Nots" with the all new Vatican Hit List. Der dahh dahh de de derrr At seven it's out with "Lust" and in with "Violation of fundamental rights of human nature": catchy title, crazy sin! Call me cynical but this just sounds like a scratch mix of the old tune "no to abortion, no to gay marriage" covered with a crude sample of fundamental rights to mean the exact opposite. Never mind freedom of the individual burn, baby, burn! At six it's a new entry for "Morally debatable experiments". Seems a bit ...

Listen to the Dalai Lama - a great man

The Dalai Lama is the wisest, most admirable human being I know of: truly a great man. I have read several of his works for lay readers. He teaches of the futility of greed and aggression, and of how to attain happiness through kindness and compassion for all sentient creatures. In one book he remembers the Tibet of his youth, its forested mountains inhabited by almost tame creatures, because they were not hunted. Then the Chinese invaded, bringing with them their creed of Communist materialism - as if mastery of the whole of mainland China were not enough. In 1959 ...

Birmingham St Patrick's Day Parade March 16 2008 photos

As yet I don't have any photos, but will find the links on the net and edit this entry. If anyone has any links that should be added please comment. As usual I played the guitar (which is why I don't have any photos), but the other musicians were not there this time and we (The Birmingham Tipperary County Association) were sandwiched between two pipe bands which made it impossible to sing (and

Criminals of the future Police call for childrens DNA to be stored

A senior policeman at Scotland Yard has suggested that the DNA of children as young as five could be stored on a database for future crime detection purposes, the Observer reports. Gary Pugh, the Yard’s director of forensic services who was recently appointed DNA spokesman of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: If we have a primary means of identifying [...]

Swearing is an Agent of Death!

Via {[info]} von_geisterhand (again): Penn and Teller's Bullshit has an episode on profanity (which really does contain lots of swearing) in which Penn Jilette and his silent partner give idiot pro-censorship types just enough rope to hang themselves. If you've got half an hour to spare this fine Sunday, have a skeg at this, (especially if you're the anonymous commenter from my last post who felt the need to censor him/herself on the word "bloody". Assuming you've found the font size setting on your browser, and can read this, anyway). Watch for the cute little doggie in part one. Part ...

Vale grab late equaliser as United squander lead

New loan striker, Dougie Freedman, making his first start for Leeds United, grabbed a brace of goals in the Potteries and Rui Marques got one but it was not enough in the end as bottom of the table Port Vale grabbed a late equaliser in the third minute of extra time. Over 3500 United fans, which made up almost half the Vale Park crowd, were celebrating at half-time when the team went in 2-0 ahead. Leeds should have had a penalty in the 38th minute but were awarded a corner instead. The corner, taken by Bradley Johnson, was converted by ...

Baxter Street - street lighting

During the past week, I was speaking with residents in Baxter Street about their street lighting concerns. There is - because of additional lighting that was installed when new housing was built on the south side - an imbalance of lighting columns, with fewer on the north side. A lamp standard on the south side was knocked over recently and this made the immediate area (and in particular on the north side opposite the damaged column) very dark indeed. Thankfully the lighting column has now been replaced and the wattage of the light has been increased, which will hopefully address ...

How the Government is forcing abused women to choose between further abuse or destitution

Brought to my attention is the plight of refugee women and illegal immigrants who are victims of domestic violence but who are trapped in abusive situations because benefits rules prevent them running away - a classic and tragic case of bureaucratic rules gone wrong. The situation is that these women who are vulnerable but whose immigration status does not 'allow' them the access that settled status does. They can't get access to emergency refuges or welfare and so are left with having no choice really other than to suffer abuse - or become totally destitute on the streets. Amnesty International ...

The financial crisis: who is to blame

Iain Dale blogged recently: A reader has alerted me to an article from the New York Post which seems to allege that the present credit crunch crisis is at least in part due to political correctness on behalf of US legislators. Read the full article HERE and make up your own mind. Here’s an excerpt… At the [...]

Kilburn music mystery solved...

So the music mystery is finally solved - thank you Janet Grauberg. The building at the bottom of West End Lane, where it meets Kilburn High Road, has four musical 'medallions' - details on the links above. I have reproduced the picture of the building here.I suggested that it might of been a music school, but in fact (and of course lessons might have taken place there) it was Philip's Music Shop - opposite what was Parr's Bank. Philip's moved here in 1891 and the shop closed in the 1930's. Amongst other services they hired out piano's, but are ...

Fuel poverty issue raised in the Scottish Parliament

Full marks to the Scottish Parliament - on Thursday it passed a Liberal Democrat motion urging a holistic approach to tackling fuel poverty - and all credit to Liberal Democrat Energy spokesperson Liam McArthur MSP who has championed the issue. As Liam McArthur has said, "Over 650,000 households in Scotland are considered fuel poor. The situation is serious and, without urgent action, likely to get still worse. I am delighted therefore that we have achieved consensus across the parliament. "Liberal Democrats will now look to the Scottish Government to take forward the proposals in our motion, particularly the one-stop-shop approach ...

'Labour support down to lowest since Michael Foot was Leader'

A wet Sunday, and I am preparing to lead a large group of activists who will be joining me on the campaign trail in Hackney a bit later on. I am also waiting for a man to come and look at my leaking roof, which has been dripping into my poor son's room for a few days. But this piece of news which was highlighted on this morning's Politics Show, has shed a bit of sunshine for those of us campaigning in Labour's fiefdoms. The Sunday Times leads on the YouGov poll which shows Labour's lead down to its lowest ...

Clive James on Privacy

Clive James expounded a great defence of privacy on Radio 4's A Point of View today. He says: "Most of us are capable of grasping that if everyone could suddenly read everyone else's thoughts then very few people would survive the subsequent massacre To live in society at all, we have to keep a reservoir of private thoughts, which, whether wisely or unwisely, we share only with intimates. This sharing of private thoughts is called private life You can still keep your thoughts to yourself - nobody has yet invented a machine that can get into your head and broadcast what ...

Tom Stoppard

Great article in the Sunday Times on the genius of Tom Stoppard with quotations such as: I want to demonstrate that I can make serious points by flinging a custard pie around the stage for a couple of hours. I write fiction because its a way of making statements I can disown and I write plays because dialogue is the most respectable way of contradicting myself. Early on in my career, I had an interview with Mr Charles Wintour, the editor of the Evening Standard. At one point, Mr Wintour asked me if I were interested in politics. Thinking all ...

Irish Night in Kilburn

My former neighbours in the Place Keym in Brussels yesterday tried to persuade me to say on for the weekend, as the whole square was going Irish in the run-up to St Patrick’s Day — an interesting reflection of the impact the Irish have had on the EU (and the EU on Ireland!). Though it [...]

Should Turkey Join the EU - What Tory MEPs think

I came across this link on ConservativeHome, and was interested by the range of views, given that its Tory policy to support Turkey's EU membership, once it meets a range of criteria. Also interesting to note some of the more reactionary comments from Tory supporters.

Targeting the children

I am more than happy to join other civil libertarians in condemning the latest half-baked idea to come out of Scotland Yard, namely that primary school children should be eligible for the DNA database if they exhibit behaviour indicating they may become criminals in later life. Liberty Director, Shami Chakrabarti, has denounced the plan to target youngsters: 'Whichever bright spark at Acpo thought this one up should go back to the business of policing or the pastime of science fiction novels,' she said. 'The British public is highly respectful of the police and open even to eccentric debate, but playing ...

Liverpool film smoking ban is ludicrous

Liverpool is, according to reports, the lung cancer capital of Britain. Not a nice statistics I am sure. But simply slapping an 18 certificate on any film depicting smoking is not going to sort that statistic out. Liverpool City Council are supporting moves by the group Smoke Free Liverpool to put an automatic 18 certificate on every film featuring images of smoking, even retrospectively, meaning that any film used in schools to support English literature (the likes of "To kill a Mockingbird", for example), would also be banned from schools. Modern films set in a contemporary setting will, of course, ...

Febregas' words may come back to haunt him

Rather petulantly, Arsenal footballer Cesc Fabregas has hinted that Martin Taylor deliberately intended to injure Arsenal footballer Eduardo a few weeks ago and claims the three match ban is not sufficient. This accusation may come back to haunt Febregas in the future. Arsenal are, for all their football skills, also a team not afraid to put the boot in, with recent incidents in the Manchester United game involving a waist high tackle from Eboue, an attempt hack a player from behind by Hoyte and a deliberate violent kick of a player off the ball from Gallas being three example. However, ...

Are you on the DNA database

Making the headlines in the Observer this morning is the story that DNA from children as young as five who have been identified as displaying criminal characteristics may be put on the DNA database. While this sounds ridiculous and like the plot of a dire American sci-fi film you realise this could easily happen with the previous gradual erosion of our civil liberties in recent years: Last week it emerged that the number of 10 to 18-year-olds placed on the DNA database after being arrested will have reached around 1.5 million this time next year. Since 2004 police have had ...

I want...

... this. That is all.

Probation, Natonal Offender Management services in trouble

Government claims that it is giving £40m more money to the Probation Service are totally misleading the Liberal Democrats said. A Ministry of Justice press release says that The National Probation Service is to receive £40 million of additional funding to provide more tough and effective community sentences. However, just six months ago the Government announced that probation service funding was to be cut by five per cent for each of the next three years. (The details can be found here. Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said: The Government is spinning this as additional support for the ...

No Moral Compass

One of the curious features of the sub-prime crisis is why no-one in authority seems to have spotted what was going on and stopped it before it got out of hand. After all, it doesn’t take a financial genius to realize that something is wrong when loans are made with complete disregard for ability to pay - hence the description of some borrowers as “NINJAs” (No Income, No Job, No Assets) - coupled with widespread evidence of predatory lending practices ranging from gross misrepresentation to illegal kickbacks. Whether the primary motivation is consumer protection or regulating the financial system the answer has ...

Sunday 16th March 2008

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