LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Monday 26th May 2008

Personal Carbon credits on the cards?

The Environmental Audit Committee has suggested that a personal carbon credit scheme would be more effective than a taxation scheme to reduce carbon emissions. The scheme, under which people would be given an annual carbon limit for fuel and energy use - which they could exceed by buying credits from those who use less, is similar in principle to the Kyoto Protocol where by countries can trade carbon credits. Committee chairman Tim Yeo said it found that personal carbon trading had "real potential to engage the population in the fight against climate change and to achieve significant emissions reductions in ...

The poorest always suffer most

The government is coming under mounting pressure from hauliers and its own MPs to change its mind on measures that threaten to raise the cost of driving. The government plan to increase fuel duty by 2 pence this autumn, to angry responses from road hauliers. Even Labour MPs agree that poorer motorists will suffer most from plans to increase road taxes on more polluting cars. I'm glad that Labour have finally realisede what has been bleedin' obvious to everyone else for a long time - if you make things more expensive, people with the least amount of money are going ...

Updated: Three hours of Boris!

Boris made his debut performance in City Hall last week. You can view him here. As I'm listening, Boris is being grilled on his many deputy mayor appointments, and the fact that he has delegated his planning powers to one of them. He is playing innocent and seems to think he is still responsible for planning even though the questioner has a document telling him he hasn't. Boris has also outlined in further detail how the law against alcohol on the tube and buses will be enforced. (To throw the bastards off, basically.) One wonders how many more people Boris ...

Two similar referendums Austria 1938-Burma 2008

This comparison is not as ridiculous as when Bob Shaw compared how the Catholic Church was trying to Influence the embryo bill to the enabling act of 1933. Voting ballot from 10 April 1938. The ballot text reads 'Do you agree with the reunification of Austria with the German Reich that was enacted on 13 March 1938, and do you vote for the party of our leader Adolf Hitler?;' the large circle is labeled 'Yes,' the smaller 'No.' Hitler ordered the invasion of Austria in March 1938. The Nazis did have a large presence in Austria already and there was ...

Forget 'Life After People', read Richard Jefferies

This evening Channel Four is showing a programme called Life After People. It asks: What would happen to planet Earth if the human race were to suddenly disappear forever? Would ecosystems thrive? What remnants of our industrialised world would survive? What would crumble fastest?From the ruins of ancient civilisations to present-day cities devastated by natural disasters, history gives us some clues to these questions.All very interesting even if it does reflect the anti-human strain you sometimes find in Green thinking. In Women in Love D. H. Lawrence was happy for his alter ego to imagine 'a beautiful clean thought, a ...

Class war and scepticism on Conservative Home

Euroscepticism is dead, that is at least according to Richard North on the EU Referendum blog. However, do not despair (or indeed break out the bubbly) say the posters on C0nservative Home. Sally Roberts says; 'Euroscepticism is not dead, its just waiting for the platform of government to re-emerge. Eventually the UK is going to have to decide whether to adopt the Euro or not.' Clearly the posters are waiting for David Cameron to perform the role of knight-in-shining armour. Donal Blaney puts it thus; ''hush now our little skeptics, all in good time, all in good time.' Littletwo also ...

Liberal Democrats in Bath have expressed their delight at the news that the hug...

Liberal Democrats in Bath have expressed their delight at the news that the huge public out-cry has led B&NES Council to review the unpopular extension of car-park hours. Commenting, Don Foster MP said: 'The decision to extend the hours of charging was completely crazy. It shows how out of touch our Conservative Council leaders are. The decision has hit hundreds of people, from...

Stephen Kearney's Henley campaign HQ opens

Over the bank holiday weekend, Simon Hughes visited Henley - site of the forthcoming Parliamentary by-election - to open the new campaign HQ for our candidate, Stephen Kearney: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgwaiplGbA8

Initiative to combat violent night time crime announced

A three month pilot to increase levels of policing in Bath city centre has been announced by Bath and North East Somerset Council and Avon and Somerset Police. The pilot is a joint initiative between the Council and Police co-ordinated through the Community Safety and Drugs Partnership and uses Home Office funding intended to achieve the local target of reducing violent crime in the...

Carter puts Iranian Nuclear Program into perspective

Ex-US President Jimmy Carter explained what a newly armed country faces saying, 'The US has more than 12,000 nuclear weapons; the Soviet Union (sic) has about the same; Great Britain and France have several hundred, and Israel has 150 or more.' This was following a question on US policy towards Iran. The reality is Iran wouldn't stand a chance. There is no need for warmongering talk towards Iran. And how can we expect Iran to not even dare to go on a Nuclear Program when we have so many warheads. An interesting point is about Israel, who have never confirmed ...

David Howarth on the end of New Labour

There is a characteristically incisive article by David Howarth (Lib Dem MP for Cambridge) on the Guardian's Comment is Free site: This is not the end of New Labour, but its culmination. It is the logical consequence of the driving principles of the New Labour project.

Greener gaming

Green consumer campaigns are often unfairly pigeonholed as being a bit hair shirt, about giving up popular amenities rather than buying smarter. So I was interested to see Greenpeace's campaign on games consoles. Instead of ignoring or condemning games machines, Greenpeace are working to get the big manufacturers to make them from safer, greener [...]

Congratulations!

Just a quick article to congratulate Cllr. Carla Butler on becoming Lewes District Council's youngest ever chair at the age of 26. Working with Carla on Newhaven Town Council, I know her to be a very hard working councillor and I am sure she will serve us all well. She has been a Newhaven Town Councillor since 2002 and was elected to the District Council in May 2007. During her time on both Councils, Carla has focused particularly on equality issues having served on the Access in Newhaven and Seaford Group, and Eastbourne and Lewes Victim and Witness Support. She ...

Alistair Carmichael's father the coastguard

I don't know if I will get the chance to use this in House Points, but I thought I would park the link here before I forgot where I saw it. Alistair Carmichael speaking in Westminster Hall last Wednesday: It is ... a matter of some family pride that my father was for many years a member of the auxiliary coastguard, which is now a volunteer coastguard, on Islay. He was an active and leading participant in many rescue operations off Islay and several cliff rescues throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

FIFA suspends Iraqi football team

CNN reports that footballs governing body, FIFA provisionally suspended the Iraqi national team from international football. The ban, which will last for one year, is due to a government decision to disband the sport's national organising association. A governmental decree last week dissolved the Iraqi National Olympic Committee and all national sport federations, including the football association. The government now has until Thursday to reverse its decree. If this does not happen then FIFA has said it will present the one-year suspension to the FIFA Congress meeting in Sydney, Australia on Friday. Controversy over the decree has pitted Iraqi Vice ...

A snap election in late June

Lately, a lot of people have been giving Gordon Brown advice. I doubt he is a regular reader of my blog but I ask myself, why should that stop me from making some suggestions? The advice has ranged from resigning now to working out some clear themes. Today in Open House, Chris Schuler suggests Brown should go for a general election in the autumn of 2009 at the very latest. I have always thought Brown would go for a sping 2009 election, whatever the conventional wisdon said about the economy or the polls. But now, if I were his adviser, ...

Personality vs Policy

Did anyone else manage to catch the Andrew Marr Show, on BBC1 yesterday? No? Shame, you missed a rather interesting interview between Andrew Marr and Health Secretary, Alan Johnson. In it Andrew Marr asked whether Gordon Brown was, in this twenty four seven media saturated age, up to the task of projecting himself in such a way that he could get Labour's message across. Mr Johnson's reply was most enlightening and, for me, showed that some politicians (Lib Dems included) still haven't faced up to reality yet. You see whilst Mr Johnson admitted that Mr Brown was not all "lights, ...

Internship in Cameron's office...anyone?

I can't believe what I've just read on the BBC website. The Tories want to send young unemployed people under the age of 21 off to a specialist employer for work related activities if they sign on for more than three months! Why am I against this? 1. It curbs any freedoms young people may have of finding themselves employment. 2. It encourages a slack attitude to jobhunting along with a view that things arrive on a plate if you lay about long enough. 3. 12 weeks is not long enough to find a job if you lack experience and/or ...

What are the lessons for the Liberal Democrats from May's elections?

That's the question I pose in a piece I've got on Liberal Democrat Voice today: To start, three pieces of promising news: in six of the last seven annual rounds of local elections, the number of Liberal Democrat councillors has gone up. Secondly, the change in our vote in Crewe & Nantwich was pretty much the same as in Dudley West, South East Staffordshire and Wirral South - the three big Labour gains from the Conservatives in the run-up to 1997 - a general election at which we then made huge gains in the numbers of MPs we had. Add ...

Fantastic Films festival full programme

The National Media Museum have finalised the programe for the 7th Fantastic Film Weekend and updated the website. They've also put up the rather nice artwork they commissioned for it, which the artist is justifiably pleased with, feel free to go congratulate him (after you've booked tickets, naturally). Oh, for those still thinking of visiting, my parents stayed at the Waterfront Lodge last week and gave it a seal of approval, bus from outside goes straight to the museum and it's got a lot of other attendees in it, while being just downt he road from us. Go on, y'know ...

Lessons from May's elections

To start, three pieces of promising news: in six of the last seven annual rounds of local elections, the number of Liberal Democrat councillors has gone up. Secondly, the change in our vote in Crewe & Nantwich was pretty much the same as in Dudley West, South East Staffordshire and Wirral South - the three [...]

Smoking - a step too far?

When Liverpool was trying to get smoking banned in public places and workplaces I was 100 percent in support. I was delighted when this actually became the law. It didn't conflict with Liberalism because this was about individuals not being forced to breathe in other people's smoke (secondary smoking). But whatever we think about smoking and whether or not people should smoke, the government's latest suggestions are going too far. Keeping cigarettes under the counter, and banning packs of ten,will do nothing to stop young people smoking. These measures would simply be an attack on an existing adult freedom that ...

Freedom of Expression in Turkey

There's an almighty stand-off between the Turkish government and the Courts at present, with various dark forces hiding behind the superficially innocuous mask of secularism in order to bring legal cases against the Prime Minister and other leading politicians. But the government cannot claim entirely to be the injured party, as Recep Tayyip Erdogan has still not [...]

Ham&High Overplays Opposition to Eco Report

The Ham&High recently claimed that opposition politicians had characterised the latest report from the Camden Sustainability Task Force - on Food, Water and Biodiversity - as "ridiculous". But no opposition politician has said that. The three Labour members on the Task Force - Cllrs Abraham, Robinson and Vincent - support it, as do the three Green members - Cllrs De Souza, Goodman and Oliver. Two Conservatives, Cllrs Davies and Greene, have previously railed against the mistaken idea that we are advocating vegetarianism, but they now understand that we're calling for less meat and dairy to be served in Camden Council's ...

Why the Cameron Tories aren't another New Labour

Is Labour finished for ten years? Are they out-manouevered, out-gunned and generally in a John Major-sized hole? Will David Cameron preside over a Tony Blair-style decade of political hegemony? No. This puts me on the other side of the argument from William Rees-Mogg. But if that alone isn't enough to convince you, here goes... There are important similarities between the two - not least a very unpopular government and a principal opposition capable of winning elections against it. Here are some differences. John Major was a nice man with a nasty party. He might have worn his underpants on the ...

Diversity training?

One interesting thing about the vast industry of social work is that the social workers seem to be extremely unaware of the cynical reaction with which their ideas are generally greeted. The latest -rather naive- initiative is the response to the news that prison officers are uneasy about dealing with Muslim prisoners. While, speak the diversity trainers, the prison officers 'need more diversity training'. The poor things literally do not understand the gales of laughter that this response evokes- and not only from the generally pretty hard boiled prison officers themselves. There is a role for trainers and those who ...

Peter Black makes Spassky sweat

Peter Black reports the result of his game against former world chess champion Boris Spassky: I actually lasted 23 moves before resigning in a lost position. It was fun.Very creditable. In 1970 - playing on top board in the USSR vs Rest of the World match - Spassky beat the Danish grandmaster Bent Larsen in 17 moves.

Boris' first really stupid act

Thanks to Nich Starling for highlighting that Boris has cancelled a deal which gave cheap fuel for transport for London's poorest people. It was a deal with Venezula in return for which London provided advice on energy efficiency to Venezula. Deals like this have also been done by the cities of Boston and New York, and the state of Massachusetts. If it's good enough for Mayor Michael Bloomberg

Paddy likes eating fruit bat and has eaten After Eight mints with the paper still on

...all part of some fascinating revelations on Food and politicians in this week's Observer Food monthly. Nick Clegg is in there too, talking about his love of Mediterranean food. Also featured are Clare Short, Theresa May and David Blunkett. But it is Paddy who provides the most interesting culiniary information: 'I was sent off to fight in a little war in Borneo in the Sixties. I had to

Willie Whitelaw rises from the dead

...reincarnated in the form of Chris Grayling calling for Boot Camps for unemployed youngsters. He didn't actually say they need a 'short sharp shock' but as good as: Jobless youths will face employment 'boot camps' after just three months on the dole under new Tory benefit proposals, the party said. It's wonderful - real White Van Man stuff: Jobless youths will face employment 'boot camps'

Incommunicado

Having spent the last two days at the Hay Festival without a mobile phone signal I can completely sympathise with the point being made in this morning's Western Mail that phones in the UK should be enabled to "roam" between networks, automatically switching to the strongest signal. It was not that I was cut off from the outside world that irked, I could live with that, it was that I was unable to contact others at the festival to arrange to meet up and had to rely on chance meetings and pre-arranged venues. Still, at least it did not matter ...

So much has happened ...

... since I last had a blog. The Conservatives are spectacularly capitalising on a widespread protest vote against Labour, winning them their first by-election in over twenty years, the mayorship of London and delaying further the need to actually present any policies to the electorate. The trojan horse carries on it's journey towards uk domination without showing it's true colours in any shape or form. It's not Vote Blue, Go Green, instead Vote Blue, 'Go Brown!' seems to be the real sentiment amongst the electorate. Of course, understandably, the Conservatives are citing this as a true turn around to their ...

Sunday Walking

I love Cornwall ... here's why!

The Best Weekend ... (part2)

A wedding ... in fact the loveliest wedding I have ever been to (excepting my own of course). Kate, Colin and Ben got married at the Tubestation in Polzeath on Saturday. No, there has not been an amendment to Marriage Law in Cornwall allowing trio's to get wed ... just that 3 year old Ben was very much a part of the day and it was very much the wedding of their family. I was brought up Roman Catholic (lapsed since I should add) and this wedding ceremony was unlike any other I have ever attended ... Bride and Bridesmaids ...

The Best Weekend ... (part1)

... and still Monday off! It really has been a fab weekend, firstly the lack of the predicted bad weather was a bonus. The weekend began with the arrival of Nick Clegg MP in Cornwall. His trip was organised by the Cornwall Committee, of which I am now chair (since March) and in the main by Alex F which was not because of nepotistic tendancies, just that Alex had a fair bit of experience and our Cornwall Organiser has been away campaigning in by-elections. The trip went extraordinarily well and I know has been gratefully received by Lib Dems and ...

Back to Blogging

I had taken sometime out from blogging as I realised I was trying to find things to blog about rather than blogging about things I'd found. Also been reading bro-in-law's recent blogging so thought I'd get back on to it too. This will not be much to hubby's liking as we are in the middle of building an extension and I am already a bit over committed with various chairmanships and employment - but at least this won't cost him any money! ;)

A Week Really is A Long Time

So what has happened in the week I've been away from the Blogosphere. Well firstly it was revealed that the only candidate in the Crewe and Nantwich by election to warrent a mention in Debrett's wasn't the one accused of being a Toff but the candidate of the party doing the accusing. Yes for it was Tamsin Dunwoody the Labour candidate who appeared there. The result was then that Edward 'not a

Gavin Webb, and to a greater extent freedom of speech.

'The Liberal democrats exist to build and safeguard a free, fair and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no-one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity. We champion the freedom, dignity and well-being of individuals, we acknowledge and respect their right to freedom of conscience and their right to develop their talents in full.' (The constitution of the Liberal Democrats, The federal party, Preamble,P1) These are fine words for the party to commit to, sensible fair minded and above all liberal, with promise of defending and ...

Political dogma overtakes common sense

Which ever way you look at it, Boris Johnson's decision to let Londoners pay more for the fuel for buses is crazy. It's like cutting your nose off to spite your face. Update : I wrote the last bit late last night, but thought I'd add more now I am rested. The Tories, like any other political party in power, have never been afraid of taking advantage of countries generosity in the past. Would we turn down cheap oil from Saudi Arabia ? Would Boris Johnson complain about the poor without votes in middle east countries if they offered us ...

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Monday 26th May 2008

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